Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (21 April 1809-18 July 1887)

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter was born to James Hunter (14 March 1774-February 1826) and Maria Garnett (22 July 1777-14 August 1811) at Mount Pleasant, near Loretto, Essex County, Virginia on 21 April 1809. He was tutored at home before graduating from University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia in 1828. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1830. A member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1834-1835, he was then elected to the state senate, and served 1835 to 1837. On 04 October 1836, he married Mary Evelina Dandridge (02 October 1817-May 1893).

Hunter was then elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served 04 March 1837 to 03 March 1843. From 1839 to 1841, he was Speaker of the House. He was defeated in the following term, but was again elected to serve 04 March 1845 to 03 March 1847. In 1846, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and retained the position until 28 March 1861, when he withdrew in support of secession. He was Chairman of the Senate's Public Buildings and Finance committees, and was also an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. President in 1860. Like James Chesnut, Jr. (18 January 1815-01 February 1885), the U.S. Senate expelled him in absentia on 11 July 1861.

During the war, he was a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress and briefly served on the Finance Committee, before being appointed Secretary of State on 25 July 1861. He resigned from the post on 01 February 1862, to serve as a senator for Virginia in the Confederate Congress, a position he held until the last days of the war. In the First Confederate Congress he served on the Finance and Foreign Affairs committees, and in the Second Confederate Congress he again reprised his role on the Finance Committee. In both Congresses, he often acted in the capacity of President Pro Tempore of the Senate in the absence of Vice-President Alexander Hamilton Stephens (11 February 1812-04 March 1883). On 03 February 1865, with Vice-President Stephens and Assistant Secretary of War John Archibald Campbell (24 June 1811-12 March 1889), Hunter was a member of the failed Hampton Roads Peace Conference.

After the fall of Richmond, he was arrested on 07 May 1865 and imprisoned with Campbell, James Alexander Seddon (13 July 1815-19 August 1880), and George Alfred Trenholm (25 February 1807-09 December 1876) at Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia. Following his release, he helped organize a conservative party that won control of the Virginia state government from the Radical Republicans in 1869. He served as State Treasurer of Virginia from 1874 to 1880 and was also collector for the port of Tappahannock, Essex County, Virginia. On 18 July 1887, he died at his estate Fonthill, near Lloyds, Essex County, Virginia. Hunter is buried at Elmwood, location of his family burial grounds, near Loretto, Essex County, Virginia.