Jesse Hunt


Jesse Hunt was Mayor of Baltimore from 1832 to 1834. He resigned office following a banking crisis in which, as a director of the failed bank, he was personally implicated.
In 1834, the Bank of Maryland, of which Hunt was a director, experienced a liquidity crisis and collapsed. Months passed and creditors grew tired of waiting in vain for a settlement, and violence soon followed. On August 6, 1835, a mob gathered and broke the windows of the house of Reverdy Johnson one of the bank's directors. Jesse attempted to protect his colleague's home, but was unable to prevent the destruction of that and many other bank directors' homes, including - eventually - his own.
Hunt, having lost control of the city, resigned five days later, on August 11, 1835.