They were descended from Walter Hoyt (1616–1698), who was born in West Hatch, Somerset, England, and settled in the Connecticut Colony.

After graduating from Williams College, he returned to Pennsylvania, where from 1851 to 1853 he taught Mathematics at Wyoming Seminary.

He led it during the Peninsula Campaign and subsequent actions of the Army of the Potomac until January 1863, when the regiment was ordered to Charleston, South Carolina.

Hoyt led troops in a rare night attack on Fort Johnson, stealthily arriving in the darkness via boats.

In 1878, he won the governor's seat, the third consecutive Civil War general to hold the office.

Hoyt wrote two books: Controversy between Connecticut and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1879), about their competing colonial claims settled after the Revolutionary War; and Protection vs. Free Trade (New York, 1885).