John Hunter d.1761

John Hunter (1716 - 1761), was an Episcopalian Minister based in Dunrossness from 1734 - 1761, and Shetland author of Shetland Scandals, Laxo’s lines done into verse edited by Norman A. MacLeod, published by Thuleprint Ltd, Sandwick 1976. 22 pages, including an editor's preface and a small glossary. Paperback, cover illustration by Jenny Gunn.

The editor's preface tells us "There are three [MS] copies in the Shetland Library, and it is from these that the present text has been compiled".

With the establishment of Presbyterianism in 1688 the general populace were effectively denied further access to Episcopalism, however a few of the leading families in Shetland who had particular Episcopalism sympathies, and who could afford to do so, employed the services of a retained itinerant Episcopalian Minister to attend to their religious requirements. Hunter is believed to have been the last Episcopalian Minister employed in Shetland in this or any other capacity until the establishment of St Magnus Church in Lerwick in 1864.

Hunter is believed to have had a Manse at Symrigarth, Dunrossness but it is not known if anything of it remains today (the present dwellinghouse is understood to be from a later date). An Episcopalian Church, "St Barnaby's Chapel" from around the period is alluded to in some sources, and certain inferences tend to suggest it was also located somewhere in Dunrossness. However, in his book "History of the Episcopal Church in Orkney 1688 - 1882", published in 1883, the author Rev J. B. Craven states that it was located in Lerwick and the ruins could still be seen "just below" the, at the time of writing, current Episcopalian Manse.