Encyclopaedic Dictionary Robert Hunter Vol IV 1884 First Page of Text

Encyclopaedic Dictionary Robert Hunter Vol IV 1884 Title Page

Robert Hunter (1823–25 February 1897) was the lead editor of the '' Encyclopædic Dictionary'', which he produced in seven volumes between 1879 and 1888. In addition, he was an ordained minister and missionary for the Free Church of Scotland, and a notable geologist, becoming a Fellow of the

Geological Society The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

Life

Hunter was born in

Newburgh, Fife Newburgh is a royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, at the south shore of the Firth of Tay. The town has a population of 2,171 (in 2011),Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS101SC – Usually Resident Population, publ. by National Records of Scot ...

in 1823 to John Mackenzie Hunter of

Portpatrick Portpatrick is a village and civil parish in the historical county of Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located on the west coast of the Rhins of Galloway. The parish is about in length and in breadth, covering . History ...

Wigtownshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has f ...

, an excise officer, and Agnes Strickland of

Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and a civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 11,524, increasing at the 2011 census to 11,678. Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few mi ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. The family moved to 5 Littlejohn Street in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

while Robert was still young. He was educated at

Aberdeen Grammar School Aberdeen Grammar School is a state secondary school in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is one of thirteen secondary schools run by the Aberdeen City Council educational department. It is the oldest school in the city and one of the oldest grammar school ...

where he came first in the open exam for university bursaries and thus went to

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has acted as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. However, the building was constructed for and is on long- ...

at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

. He studied Latin, Greek, Mathematics and Natural Science, frequently coming first in the exams.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Robert Hunter
. Retrieved 19 February 2012"H.W.":
Obituary: The Rev. Robert Hunter, M.A., LL.D., F.G.S.
' Geological Magazine. August 1897. Volume 4. Issue 8. pp 382–384. Published online: 1 May 2009. . Around 1843 he studied Divinity for at least one year at

New College, Edinburgh New College is a historic building at the University of Edinburgh which houses the university's School of Divinity. It is one of the largest and most renowned centres for studies in Theology and Religious Studies in the United Kingdom. Student ...

. His first job was as a tutor in the Bermudas, spending his free time collecting corals; in 1845 he brought home the finest preserved specimens of

brain coral Brain coral is a common name given to various corals in the families Mussidae and Merulinidae, so called due to their generally spheroid shape and grooved surface which resembles a brain. Each head of coral is formed by a colony of genetically ...

that professor Sir

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owe ...

had ever seen. As a probationer Hunter taught at the Sunday School in the West Free Church in

Coatbridge Coatbridge ( sco, Cotbrig or Coatbrig, gd, Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as ...

. He left in November 1846, having been ordained as a minister in the Free Church of Scotland to work as a missionary in

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

in India, as an assistant to Rev Stephen Hislop. He arrived in

early in 1847. Both men were keen geologists, and on their missionary travels they both recorded the local

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s. Both of them wrote a number of geological papers, which were read in their absence at the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. In 1855 Hunter was forced by ill health to return to Britain. He wrote several articles for the ''British and Foreign Evangelical Review''. In 1863 he published his ''History of India''. Among his other activities, he ran services for the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Church of England at

Sewardstone Sewardstone is a hamlet and district of southern Waltham Abbey, in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England, lying between Epping Forest and the built-up areas of Waltham Abbey, Chingford and Enfield. It is 11.6 miles north-northeast of Centr ...

, and was children's minister of the church at the Victoria Docks which was built for him by the sugar magnate, James Duncan. In England, he was a member, though never a beneficed minister, of the

Presbyterian Church of England The Presbyterian Church of England was a late-19th century and 20th century Presbyterian denomination in England. The church's origins lay in the 1876 merger of the English congregations of the chiefly Scottish United Presbyterian Church with vario ...

. In 1882 Hunter built a house, Forest Retreat (now Forest Villa) on Staples Road, in the hilly part of

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

later called by some Little Cornwall. The house had views over

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

and the Roding Valley.Paul Luna. ''Dictionary Design''. 25 January 2011. On 23 February 1997, for the centenary of Hunter's death, Loughton Town Council placed a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

on the house with the inscription "The Rev. Robert Hunter (1823-1897) Lexicographer and Naturalist lived here". He died at the house in 1897. He is buried in the

City of London Cemetery The City of London Cemetery and Crematorium is a cemetery and crematorium in the east of London. It is owned and operated by the City of London Corporation. It is designated Grade I on the Historic England National Register of Historic Parks and ...

.London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer, by Hugh Meller & Brian Parsons

''The Encyclopædic Dictionary''

Hunter's best-known work is his ''Encyclopædic Dictionary''. This was the largest such dictionary in English, or indeed any language, at the time. Its page design is "a remarkable precursor of

Murray Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trust * D. & W. Murray Limited, an Australian who ...

's ''

OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

'' layout: bold lowercase is used for headwords, senses are divided using a ‘branching’ numbering system, and each sense within the hierarchy begins a new paragraph." Hunter's "colossal work" on the dictionary took up seventeen years of his life: seven years on his own, and then ten years working with the team of

Henry Scherren Henry James Wilson Scherren (10 February 1843 – 25 April 1911), usually known as Henry Scherren or in encyclopaedia articles as H. Sc. was the author of various books on natural history for adults and children, with notable illustrations inclu ...

and John Williams at Forest Retreat, Hunter's house in

, Essex. His interest in lexicography remained unsated as he went on to edit Cassell's 764 page Bible Dictionary.

Honours and distinctions

In 1868 Hunter became a Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS). In 1883 he was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree by Aberdeen University.

Family

Hunter's older brother John, born in Newburgh in 1821, worked as a journalist in Canada and founded the first building society in Halifax; his family finally moved to Canada in 1857, and he changed his name to Hunter-Duvar in 1861.

Bibliography

* Robert Hunter. ''The History of India; From the Earliest Ages to the Fall of the East India Company and the Proclamation of Queen Victoria in 1858''. T. Nelson and sons, 1863. * Robert Hunter,

, and John Williams. ''The Encyclopædic Dictionary''. 7 volumes n 14 Cassell & Company. London, Paris & New York. 1879-1888
Full text
* Robert Hunter. ''Cassell's concise Bible Dictionary or illustrated Bible Manual.'' Cassell & Company. 1893. Originally published as ''The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Manual.'' * Robert Hunter. ''History of the missions of the Free church of Scotland in India and Africa''. T. Nelson and sons, 1873. * Robert Hunter, William Hume Elliot, Christopher Charles Pond. ''The Life of Robert Hunter (1823-1897): Lexicographer Missionary, Geologist & Naturalist in Aberdeen, Nagpore, Victoria Docks, Sewardstone & Loughton''. Loughton & District Historical Society, 1997.

References

External links

Photograph of Blue Plaque on Hunter's house at Loughton

* Archive.org
''The Encyclopædic Dictionary'' (1884)
only vol. 7 is scanned
''The Encyclopædic Dictionary'' (1902)
with an identical extended subtitle. No author is attributed. Single-volumed. Published by Cassell. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Robert Presbyterian missionaries in India 1823 births 1897 deaths British geologists Fellows of the Geological Society of London People from Loughton Scottish encyclopedists Scottish lexicographers Scottish Presbyterian missionaries Alumni of the University of Aberdeen 19th-century Ministers of the Free Church of Scotland Missionary linguists 19th-century lexicographers