[2] Hurd joined the navy on 1 September 1768, serving as an able seaman aboard HMS Cornwall, which was then under the command of Captain Molyneux Shuldham.

He served on the Newfoundland and North American stations between 1771 and 1774, part of the time aboard the armed vessel HMS Canceaux, under Lieutenant Henry Mowat.

Hurd passed his lieutenant's examination on 1 March 1775, and went on to serve aboard Lord Howe's flagship, HMS Eagle.

Being free of barnacles she was able to capture a great deal of enemy shipping and Hurd as Lieutenant gathered a large amount of prize money.

[3] Howe recommended Hurd for the post of surveyor-general of Cape Breton, to which he was appointed in 1785, but was dismissed the following year by lieutenant-governor Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres.

[4] To his wife he left "enslaved people on Grenada and Dominica that had been given and bequeathed to him by his 'worthy and respected friend' Samuel Proudfoot of Clapham Common".