Alexander O Cunningham

Alexander's sons were the progenitors of many of the early Cunningham families of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. All of these sons, except Joseph, came to British Colonial America in 1752. Alexander held a trusted position in the British government. He visited relatives in America immediately prior to the. Revolution. His son, John, had come earlier and stayed.

Children of Alexander Cunningham and his unknown first wife were:

• I. JAMES CUNNINGHAM, b. Abt. 1690, Ireland; d. Bet. January 16, 1761 - March 19, 1765, Augusta Co., VA.

Children of Alexander Cunningham and his second wife REBECCA BURNS were:

• II. JAMES CUNNINGHAM.
• III. JOHN CUNNINGHAM.
• IV. BENJAMIN CUNNINGHAM.
• V. MARY CUNNINGHAM.
• VI. RUTH CUNNINGHAM.
• VII. HUGH B. CUNNINGHAM, b. 1708, Dublin Ireland; d. 1789, Fairfax Co VA.
• VIII. ROBERT CUNNINGHAM, b. 1713; d. 1784, Washington CO. PA.
• IX. JOSEPH CUNNINGHAM, b. Bet. 1717 - 1721; d. 1789.
• X. DAVID CUNNINGHAM, b. 1721, Ireland; d. December 31, 1799, Dent's Run VA.

A note on the cause of the arrival of the Cunninghams in the New World...

800 years ago, the Crown of England conquered Ireland under King Henry II and annexed Wales in 1284.
In 1542 Henry VIII upgraded Ireland from a lordship to a full kingdom, and the Acts of Union in 1536 and 1543 permanently merged the two realms of England and Wales.
Henry VIII believed it to be treasonous for his Catholic subjects to have as equal a political allegiance to the pope as to himself, considering the Holy See had declared the pope an earthly 'temperal' sovereign in addition to being head of the Roman faith, making him therefore a foreign potentate, and, therefore, Henry expelled papal authority in his realms and established the independent Church of England with himself as the head. As such, any of his subjects that maintained an allegiance to a foreign sovereign (in this case, the pope) was deemed a traitor.
This did not go over well in staunch Roman Catholic Ireland, and for many decades as the British monarchs defended the Kingdom against the onslaught of European wars led by Catholic monarchs under the pope's bidding, Britain endured the constant threat of the Irish Catholics with a proverbial double-crossing dagger at England's back.
It was at the heart of this mess that Elizabeth I Queen of England/Wales & Ireland, who withstood multiple Catholic plots against her kingdom and against her very life, died with no heirs of her body, and her nearest Protestant cousin James Stewart King of Scots, son of the beheaded Mary Queen of Scots, then inherited Elizabeth's realms, making him not only James VI King of Scots but also James I King of England/Wales & Ireland.
A lot of ugliness ensued with continued rebellions and uprising in Ireland against English, and now also Scottish, rule, which was meant and countered with harsh reprisal. The Irish not only refused to relinquish submission to the papal sovereign, but they refused to acknowledge their actual British sovereign's rule, despite Ireland having been the property of the English Crown since the 1200s. So the king and his government established settlements in Ireland that became known as The Plantation of Ulster, with charters mostly to Scottish settlers from various Lowland clans and houses.

During this time one of the most royally favored clans was that of Clan Cunningham in Ayrshire, whose chiefs, the Lords Kilmaurs, held the Earldom of Glencairn since the 1400s. The clan was itself first established by King Malcolm, who bestowed the Thanedome of Cunninghame in the District of Cunninghame at the foot of Irving (the former Scottish capitol before it moved to Edinburgh) to a farmer named Malcolm mac Friskin as reward for having previously saved the life of the king when he was a prince escaping the troops of MacBeth who had murdered his father King Duncan. Malcolm mac Friskin's descendants became a powerful clan, taking up the name "Cunningham" from the thanedom. Throughout its long existence, Clan Cunningham formed several noble branches through the sons of the chiefs which attained the Earldom of Glencairn, marrying into the royal houses, and was greatly involved in political, religious and royal intrigue. Cunningham became one of only three clans permitted to use the Scottish Royal Unicorn in its arms. The 7th Earl had even carried the Sword of State at the coronation of King James VI & I.

One of the sons of the Earl of Glencairn, under commission of King James, led a branch of the Cunninghams from Scotland to become part of The Plantation of Ulster in what is now Northern Ireland, specifically in the region of Lifford where the towns of Manorcunningham and Newton Cunningham were established.

This was an effort by English kings to control the ‘Irish problem’ by stealing lands from the Irish Catholics and giving or selling the lands to Scottish Presbyterians and some English Anglicans. The English thought that the Scots and Irish would intermarry—which they did—and the Protestant Scots would keep the Irish Catholics docile to their overlords. It didn’t work out quite that way; many Irish converted to Christianity and many Scots converted to Romanism, and the main focus of the Irish protests against Britain became so diluted and confused by the late 20th century that they were no longer protesting over the same issues that their forefathers had. But it did lead to the evolution of the bravest and strongest fighting men and women, the Scots-Irish, many of whom would altogether forsake and abandon their Irish homeland and migrate to the New World, some of whom would fight in the American Revolution against the British, and become part of a fully realized Constitutional Republic. Those that stayed behind, both of the Irish and the Scots, unspeakable numbers perished in the Great Potato Famine and the economic collapse which drove multitudes to the Poor Houses.

Pockets of Chaos - Cunningham Connection This entry was posted on 22 February 2015, updated & expounded upon on 17 April 2023.

Hugh B. Cunningham was the son of 5a.Mary Rebeka Burns (1668-1749) and 5.Alexander Cunningham (b. 1653 or 1663 in Dublin, Ireland or Scotland; d. 1749 or 1747 in Ireland; married 1701 in Leinster, Ireland).
Alexander was the son of 6a.Rachel Bruce (1611-1651) and 6.David Cunningham (b. 1607 in Scotland; d. 1691 in Ireland; married 1651 in Leinster, Dublin, Ireland).
David and his family were evidently sent to Ireland to settle in the Ulster Plantation scheme of King James VI & I.
His parents were 7a.Nancy Mary Blessington (1570-1640) and 7.Joseph Cunningham (b. 1568 in Scotland; d. 1637 in Scotland or Ireland; married 1605 in Leinster, Dublin, Ireland).
Joseph’s parents were 8a.Sarah Wallace (1531-1631) and 8.John Cunningham (b. 1520 in Scotland; d. 1602 in Ireland; married in 1566 in Leinster).
John was the son of 9a.Mary Robinson (1503-1528) and 9.Alexander Cunningham (b. 1498 in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, Scotland; d. 1579 in Ireland or Scotland; married 1528 in Leinster).
So, the family connects to Kilmaurs, Ayrshire and the estates of the Earls of Glencairn, the traditional holdings of the Chief of Clan Cunningham.

References

• http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/washington/vitals/births/washbirth...