Ralph Hunt has variously been reported (erroneously) as a brother or son of the pioneer Thomas Hunt
of Westchester, NY; also as the same Ralph Hunt who appears in Virginia in 1635 (also untrue--a 1955
study which claims to have demonstrated that the two were the same produces evidence to the
contrary). Various dates are given for his birth (all incorrect) and statements are made purporting
to give the name of his wife (it remains unknown). He is assumed to have come from England (probably
true) but extensive contemporary research in early New York records and records in England by a
group of dedicated descendants in person and through professional genealogists in New York area and
England have failed to come up with any clue as to where he came from or who his ancestors were.
His grandson John Hunt (with brothers Samuel, Edward, Ralph--the four sons of the pioneer Ralph's
son John) were early settlers in Hopewell NJ, where they are mixed in with various uncles and
cousins with similar names. A pervasive  legend was started in the mid-1800s that the grandson John
Hunt (who married Margaret Moore 8 FEb 1714 at the Presby. Church of Newtown, LI, and settled in
Hopewell NJ) was not a descendant of Ralph Hunt and relative of many other Hunts of Hopewell, but a
son of John and Elizabeth (Chudleigh) Hunt of an armorial family of Hunts of Chudleigh, the son
presumed to have come briefly to Long Island, and then moved Hopewell, NJ where he was "the start
of the New Jersey Line of Hunts." This legend , questionable on its face, has been subject of
controversy for over 100 years and appears in numerous histories and genealogical works. It should
finally be laid to rest by the direct documentary evidence found through the wills (two of them) of
John's brother Samuel Hunt of Hopewell NJ which identify the John Hunt who married Margaret Moor(e)
as the son of John Hunt of LI and grandson of the pioneer Ralph Hunt. This is not to say that the
various errors discovered on Ralph Hunt will not continue to be perpetuated--they are found in
numerous published works through the mid 20th century; some lists of early Hunts who migrated from
England to America include John Hunt who m. Margaret Moore in the list; some professional
genealogists in England fed back answers to inquiries giving the same information: all springing
from the same fabricated legend."

"Sources of further information are cited below. "[The late Lewis D. Cook, then of Philadelphia, has
made the most thorough examination and documentation yet found on the descendants of Ralph Hunt,
work extending through the period 1940-1970 and culminating in an unpublished ms of 216 pages which
was left with the Pennsylvania Historical Society Library in Philadelphia. The present writer
(Mitchell Hunt) was sufficiently impressed with this document that microfilm copies were made and
distributed to other libraries (VT. Historical Society, CT STate Library, NEHGS in Boston, NY State
Library, and Library of Congress, and a few other places) where it would be available to researchers.
The present writer has continued to expand upon the work of COOK and assembled much more data,
especially on the families which were pioneers at Rowan Co., NC, and their wanderings from there.
For a brief review of the family of Ralph Hunt in relation to that of his neighbor,Thomas Hunt of
Westchester, see Mitchell J. Hunt, "An Evaluation of the Consuelo Furman Manuscript"...Dec. 1985,
copies of which were given the same distribution noted for the Cook manuscript above.]"
(but no name index-copies are now available with an index-just ask).  This completes the discourse
on Ralph Hunt and family of which Col.Jonathan Hunt was a descendant.