On 1 August 1702 he married, at Durham Abbey, Elizabeth, one of the two daughters and coheiresses of John Elrington of Espersheales in the parish of Bywell, Northumberland.
A few years later he removed from Stockton to Durham, a place much more congenial to his social and antiquarian tastes.
He became a regular frequenter of the fine library of the dean and chapter, but there is a tradition that he was eventually refused access for spilling a bottle of ink over a valuable copy of Magna Charta.
To the success of his researches on Roman ground, the altars preserved in the Cathedral Library at Durham bear solid testimony; while his valuable local knowledge was of the highest use to Horsley in compiling his `Britannia Romana' (pp.
His publications were confined to an anonymous reissue, with considerable additions, of Davies's 'Rites and Monuments of the Church of Durham,' 12mo, 1733, four papers in the `Philosophical Transactions,' and `An Illustration of Mr. Daniel Neal's History of the Puritans, in the article of Peter Smart, A.M. ... from original papers, with remarks,' 8vo, 1736, also without his name.
Hunter's manuscript topographical collections in twenty-one closely written volumes in folio were after his death offered for sale by his executors.
Two volumes of transcripts from the chartularies of the church of Durham, written in an extremely neat hand, and a bundle of loose papers, were purchased by the dean and chapter of Durham for twelve guineas; but Thomas Randal, one of the executors, perceiving that the dean and chapter were likely to become the purchasers of the whole, for some reason stopped the sale of the remaining volumes.
The greater portion of Hunter's library was sold to John Richardson, bookseller, of Durham, for about 350l.