James Cunningham - Cunningham of Augusta County clean up issues

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:William_Cunningham_%2867%29

William 'Bloody Bill' Cunningham (1756 - 1787) is seen as son of unknown brother of our James. Hope not! Does anyone know?

From "Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871", by Joseph Addison Waddell:

William Cunningham, called "Bloody Bill" in South Carolina, is said to have been a second-cousin of Robert and Patrick. He is otherwise known as Major, or Colonel, William Cunningham, of the British army. Bancroft gives an account of an expedition he commanded in 1781, and the cruelties practised by him. (Vol. X, p. 458.) In Appleton's American Biography we find a sketch of a man of the same name. He was born in Dublin, and came to America in 1774. Gen. Gage appointed him provost-marshal of the army. In 1778 he had charge of the military prisons in Philadelphia, and later those in New York; and in both places was notorious for his cruelties. It is said that he literally starved to death 2,000 prisoners, and hung 250 without trial. At the close of the war he went to England, became very dissipated, and in 1791 was hanged for forgery. This man was probably the same as " Bloody Bill," as it is not likely that the same generation could produce two such men. It is a relief to find that the gallows claimed him at last.

https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/11354774?h=e63299

Writer Tells Of Origins Of Kerrs Creek Massacre Story

When delving into the mid-1700s, especially on the Virginia frontier, one becomes accustomed to unanswered questions. People were too busy trying to survive to keep records. So many times, the researcher must admit there’s just no way to resolve the unknown.

But in looking back to the Kerr’s Creek Massacre, more than one crucial question makes this a puzzle with numerous missing pieces.

Historians in the late 1800s and early 1900s, apparently the first time anyone thought to confine the legends to paper, couldn’t be certain of the dates of the two Indian raids.

Both the Rev. Samuel Brown (possibly the son of Mary Moore Brown who spent three years in captivity after her family was killed in Southwest Virginia) and Rockbridge County History author Oren Morton disagree.

Possible dates are Oct. 10, 1759, for the first raid and Sunday, July 17, 1763, for the second raid, or the 1763 date for the first raid and October 1764 or 1765 for the second raid, or even a third raid.

Comments

It's not possible that the Daugherty whose family was involved in the mid-18th century Indian raids on Kerrs Creek is the same Daugherty being commended by Stonewall Jackson a century later. Also, the VA Dept of Historic Resources who put up the most recent historical marker at the raids' site at Big Spring area, after extensive research--they sent me four pages of bibliography and research--concluded that the first raid was Oct. 1759 and the second was 17 July 1763.

So we have firmer death dates.

https://wc.rootsweb.com/trees/166151/I5302/james-cunningham/individual

Kerr�s Creek had two, possibly three raids by the Shawnee Indians, under Chief Cornstalk. Possible dates are Oct. 10, 1759, for the first raid and Sunday, July 17, 1763, for the second raid, or the 1763 date for the first raid and October 1764 or 1765 for the second raid, there was maybe even a third raid.

I will use the WeRelate child list, based on his will.

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:James_Cunningham_%2847%29

• W. Margaret Unknown (Est 1708 - 1763) m. Bef 1728

Children

1. Hugh Cunningham Bef 1728 - Bef 1772 . Married 1) unknown 2) Sarah McKee
2. Jacob Cunningham Abt 1732 - 1760. Married unknown.
3. Isaac Cunningham Abt 1735 - Bef 1760. Married Jane Bowen,
4. Elizabeth Cunningham Est 1737 -
5. Mary Cunningham Est 1739 - . Married 1) Hughs 2) Malcolm Allen
6. Moses Cunningham Abt 1743 - . Married Hannah McCampbell
7. Agnes Cunningham Bef 1752 - Aft 1809

WeRelate feels that George Daugherty was the husband of Agnes, due to his 1760 Will:

James Cunningham’s Will in 1760

http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Jacob_Cunningham_%285%29

Page 382.—16th January, 1760 (33d year of Reign). James Cunningham's will, of Colony and Dominion of Virginia—To wife Margaret; to son Moses, infant; to Hugh Cunningham, 1 shilling; to daughter Elizabeth, 1 shilling; to James Cunningham, son to son Jacob; to John Cunningham, son to son Isaac; to daughter Mary; to daughters, each and every of them, 1 shilling. Executors, wife and son Moses. Teste: Malcom Allen, Robt. Bowen, Lilly Bowen. Proved, 19th March, 1765, by Malcom Allen and Lilly Bowen. Margaret is dead. Moses qualifies, with Hugh Cunningham, Geo. Dougherty.

More about the Kerr’s Creek Massacres, really all this should go in a project.

http://www.bigstonegappublishing.net/THE%20KERR%20CREEK%20MASSACRES...

Historians like to divide history into manageable segments, to which they give names. It fact, the warfare between the Shawnee and the settlers in the Great Valley of Virginia smoldered along for another decade. Cornstalk again led the Shawnee attacks in 1768 that wiped out the settlements as the Big Levels, or present Lewisburg (current West Virginia). The settlements moved further to the southwest, and the Shawnee’s attacks followed this pattern. In 1774 the Shawnee, allied with the Mingo, and again under Chief Cornstalk, made a ‘do or die’ attempt to stop the settlement of western Virginia and of Kentucky. The Mingo attacked the settlements in the Valleys of the Clinch and Powell in Virginia, while the Shawnee attempted to clean out the New River Valley.

This was stone cold.

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Hugh_Cunningham_%283%29

House of Burgesses, 19 January 1764: A Petition of Hugh Cunningham, setting forth that on the 17th of July last [17 July 1763, 2nd Kerr's Creek Massacre] the Savages of an incursion met with his father and mother, and inhumanly murdered them, together with his Wife and Son, captivated [captured] his Daughter, and shot him in the breast, the bullet lodging in his shoulder; that the wound is still-open, and he labours in much main and anguish; they likewise rode away [with] his horses, shot down his cattle in the fields, burnt his House and Barn, and all his Corn, and left him destitute even of Bread and Clothing; and praying some Compensation for his Loffes [losses], was presented to the House and read; and the Question being put that the laid Petition be referred to a Committee. It passed in the Negative. Resolved, That the said Petition be rejected. [Source: The Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1619-1776, 1761-1765, pg. 215].

I’ve disconnected James as son of Alexander O Cunningham Supposedly he had two sons called James but I can’t find evidence. However, John Cunningham of Thorny Branch looks solid as his brother, so building in that family.

This child has issues (seems too old to be James daughter) but otherwise, the kids are looking great. Yay me.

Mary Allen

To be Clear - I don’t see how Rebecca Daugherty was his daughter, she’s too old. But affiliated & related. Her parents are said to be Margaret Graves & James Cunningham. If that’s true, they are a different couple.