Deciding against following his father into a career as a cutler, Sheffield-born Joseph Hunter chose to become ordained as a Unitarian Minister, eventually settling in Bath. Despite residing in Somerset, he remained passionate about his home county and wrote several significant works on Sheffield and wider South Yorkshire. Many of these works remain useful to historians today. This history of South Yorkshire, particularly Doncaster and its neighbourhood, was published in 1827. The history served to establish Hunter’s reputation as a noted authority on the county.