[1] Hunter was a merchant, ship owner, and credit broker who had links in England, and married a wealthy woman from Bristol, the widow of a dyer.
[4] Around the year 1601, with the blessing of James VI of Scotland, Hunter sent a petition to Elizabeth I which gives some details of his activities and willingness to spy for England.
In 1588 he had sent his servant or employee, Patrick Morris, from St Lucar in Spain to London, with intelligence of the preparations and sailing dates of the Spanish Armada.
Hunter had visited Elizabeth at Whitehall Palace and had an audience with her in the presence of the Lord Admiral, Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham.
Hunter claimed that Elizabeth was glad he had not been beheaded by the Spanish and said she would rather have lost her own little finger and played worse on the virginals all her days.
[6] Another time, at Greenwich Palace, Hunter and the Scottish diplomat William Keith of Delny spoke to Elizabeth in the garden.
Hunter and Sir Thomas Erskine wrote to Harington that James had received the emblem lantern "exceeding kindly".
[17] Hunter replied to a metaphor of spinning and carding referring to Harington's wife, Mary Rogers, as a trope of domesticity.