James Bennett Hunt

James Bennett Hunt (August 13, 1799 – August 15, 1857) was a nineteenth-century American lawyer, jurist, and Democratic politician who represented Michigan in the United States House of Representatives and held several important state and local offices. He was among the early public officials of Michigan during its transition from territory to statehood and played a role in the development of its legal and internal improvement systems.

Hunt was born on August 13, 1799, in Demerara, British Guiana (now Guyana), then a British colonial possession centered on sugar cultivation and Atlantic trade. In 1803 he moved with his father to the United States, settling in New York City. Growing up in New York during a period of rapid commercial and urban expansion, he pursued an academic course and prepared for a professional career in the law. He studied law in New York, was admitted to the bar in 1824, and commenced practice in New York City, where he built his early legal career in one of the nation’s principal commercial centers.

In 1836, as settlement and economic development accelerated in the Old Northwest, Hunt moved west to Pontiac, in Oakland County, Michigan. That same year he was appointed judge of the probate court, placing him in charge of matters relating to estates, guardianships, and related judicial business in a rapidly growing community. In March 1837, shortly after Michigan achieved statehood, he was appointed commissioner of internal improvement by Governor Stevens T. Mason. In that capacity he was associated with the early planning and oversight of public works and transportation projects intended to foster settlement and commerce in the new state. He also served as prosecuting attorney of Oakland County from 1841 to 1843, further consolidating his position in the Michigan legal community.

Hunt entered national politics as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1842 he was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth Congress and, following his initial term, was re-elected to the Twenty-ninth Congress. He served from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1847, and was the first person to represent Michigan’s newly created 3rd congressional district. His service in Congress coincided with debates over westward expansion, economic policy, and the Mexican–American War, during a period when Michigan’s representation in Washington was still relatively new and its interests were closely tied to land policy, infrastructure, and settlement.

After leaving Congress in 1847, Hunt continued in federal-related service within Michigan. In January 1848 he was appointed register of the land office at Sault Ste. Marie, a key post in administering the disposition of public lands in the northern part of the state. He served in that capacity until June 1849, overseeing records and transactions related to federal land sales and claims. Following this appointment, he returned to Pontiac, where he resumed his legal activities and held the office of circuit court commissioner of Oakland County, a judicial position that involved various quasi-judicial and administrative duties within the county court system.

In his later years, Hunt relocated to Washington, D.C., reflecting his continued connection to the federal government and national political life. He died there on August 15, 1857, just two days after his fifty-eighth birthday. His remains were returned to Michigan, and he was interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Pontiac, Oakland County, underscoring his long association with the community in which he had established his Michigan legal and political career.