Vere Hunt

He is chiefly remembered for founding the village of New Birmingham in County Tipperary, for his ill-advised purchase of the island of Lundy, and for his entertaining diary.

Hunt was created a baronet, in the Baronetage of Ireland, on 4[4][2] or 13[6] December 1784 and was appointed High Sheriff of County Limerick the same year.

[9] He was never a good man of business, as shown by his unwise purchase in 1802 of the island of Lundy, which attracted him because the owner was not liable to pay taxes.

The diary gives a valuable glimpse of social life in the Dublin of the early nineteenth century, and describes the fashionable taverns, eating houses and theatres.

[11][full citation needed] He had some of the normal tastes and prejudices of his class; for example, he was addicted to duelling, fighting his first duel at the age of eighteen.

On 4 June 1813 he was at an official reception at Dublin Castle, which he described in scathing terms as being attended by "pimps, parasites, hangers-on....spies, informers...alas poor Ireland".