Sir William Cunynghame, 4th Baronet of Milncraig

Sir William Augustus Cunynghame

became 4th Baronet Cunynghame of Milncraig and Livingstone [est. 1702] on 10 Oct. 1767 as the only son and heir of his father David Cunynghame 3rd Baronet Cunynghame of Milncraig and Livingstone and mother Lady Mary Montgomerie the daughter of Alexander Montgomerie 9th Earl of Eglinton.

William was a Member of Parliament House of Commons [M.P. for Linlithgowshire] 1774-90;
Registered his Arms at the Office of the Lord Lyon on 14 February 1775;
Captain of the Duke of Buccleuch's South Fencible Regiment in 1778;
Clerk Comptroller of the Household in 1779;
Clerk Comptroller of the Board of Green Cloth on 16 January 1797;
Receiver-General of the Crown Rents (taxes) in 1806.

William married firstly on 21 October 1768 to Frances Myrton the only child that left issue of Sir Robert Myrton 2nd Baronet of Gogar of County Fife [est. 1701] by Mary Campbell the daughter of Lord Campbell of Skipness. Frances died 14 October 1771 at Livingstone.

William married secondly on 27 June 1785 at St. Marylebone to Mary Udney the only daughter and heir of the merchant Robert Udney of Aberdeen (Member of the Royal Society) by Mary Hougham the daughter and co-heir of Culpeper Hougham. She was living Aug. 1796.

William died 17 January 1828 in Savile Row of Piccadilly at a great age.
Will pr. Feb. 1828.

SOURCE: Complete baronetage; Cokayne, George E. (George Edward); 1904; Vol. IV; page 402

Other References

• The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964

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ConstituencyDatesLINLITHGOWSHIRE (WEST LOTHIAN)1774 - 1790Family and Education
b. 19 Apr. 1747, o. surv. s. of Lt.-Gen. Sir David Cunynghame, 3rd Bt., by Lady Mary Montgomerie, da. of Alexander, 9th Earl of Eglintoun [S]. educ. Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1766; Grand Tour. m. (1) 21 Oct. 1768, Frances (d. 14 Nov. 1771), da. and eventual h. of Sir Robert Myreton, 2nd Bt., of Gogar, Edinburghshire, 3s.; (2) 22 June 1785, Mary, da. and h. of Robert Udney of Udney, Aberdeen, 4s. 1da. suc. fa. 10 Oct. 1767.

Offices Held

Clerk comptroller of the Board of Green Cloth June 1779-Mar. 1782; receiver of the land tax in Scotland June 1806-Mar. 1807.

Biography Cunynghame’s father, a distinguished soldier, contested Linlithgowshire in 1761, and as early as 1764 announced his candidature against the Hopetoun interest at the next election.1 William was originally intended for the army, but having been refused a vacant commission in his father’s regiment, the 57th, apparently declined an unpaid ensigncy in the 33rd.2 On his father’s death in 1767 he went abroad, returning shortly before the 1768 election to support James Dundas in Linlithgowshire. To ‘void’ his vote, his opponents made search for his ‘birth brieve’ and fixed the election date for 16 Apr., three days before he came of age.3 Cunynghame’s objections were a major factor in the success of Dundas’s petition.

After the death of his wife in 1771 Cunynghame spent much time abroad, in Italy, Paris and Vienna,4 until the general election of 1774, when by agreement with the Hopetoun interest he was returned for Linlithgowshire.5 A wealthy young man of fashion, prone to ‘rattle’ of his ‘fabulous gallantries’, he was a close friend of his brother-in-law James Stuart and Lord Mountstuart,6 whose politics he followed. As a faithful, though inconspicuous, Government supporter, he was given a lucrative place in the King’s Household in June 1779, and made his first recorded speech in the debate of 22 June on doubling the militia.7 On 3 Dec., in the debate on Scotland’s defences, he denied the charges of his kinsman Lord George Gordon that Scotland was drained of men; and described from personal experience the ‘respectable state of preparation’ when Paul Jones was in the Firth of Forth.8

In the Parliament of 1780-4 no speech by him is recorded. He consistently voted with North to the end of his Administration; voted against Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783; and for Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783. In December, shortly before Pitt took office, Robinson counted him ‘contra’, but possibly ‘pro’ in a new Parliament:9

Sir William Cunynghame is at present warm in support of the Administration. If he comes in he may not be quite steady, though most probably will be so, because he leans to Lord Mountstuart and affects to go as that family does; but a word from Lord Hopetoun might set this right both now and in future. Nevertheless he remained against Pitt to the end of the Parliament, when Henry Dundas used all his influence without success to replace him in Linlithgowshire.10 In the debate of 30 Mar. 1786 on Marsham’s bill to disfranchise employees of the navy and ordnance boards, Cunynghame accused Dundas of having sent down dockyard placemen to ‘interfere against him’, an expedient which Dundas justified on party principles.11

Cunynghame, impervious to the ridicule of Pitt and Dundas, and even, on occasion, the admonitions of his friends, stood forth as the indefatigable champion of Scottish interests. Determined to ‘give a brain blow’ to the application of the coal tax in Scotland, he pressed a division on 1 July 1784; strongly supported the forfeited estates bill on 2 Aug. 1784; opposed, 4 Aug., on behalf of the Scots manufacturers, the new duties on cotton and linen, and was vehement against the window tax as oppressive to Scotland. In 1785 he campaigned in and outside the House against Pitt’s Irish propositions as ruinous to the Scottish linen industry, corn trade, and fisheries. Strongly opposed to the abortive plan for reducing the number of Scottish judges, he actively supported in 1786 the proposed augmentation of their salaries, and unsuccessfully moved an amendment for a further increase commensurate with the emoluments of English judges. He won great popularity in Scotland, and exasperated Pitt, by his vehement support of the Scots distilling interests in the measures of 1785, 1786 and 1788. He consistently voted against Administration.12

Defeated in 1790 by the Government-sponsored Hopetoun interest, he did not re-enter Parliament. He died 17 Jan. 1828.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790 Author: Edith Lady Haden-Guest Notes 1. Sir David Cunynghame to W. Mure, 9 Apr. 1764, Caldwell Pprs. ii (2), p. 244. 2. Barrington to Granby, 18 and 29 Sept. 1766, Rutland mss. 3. Loudoun’s corresp. with Ld. Cassillis and John Bell, Mar.-Apr. 1768, Loudoun mss. 4. See his letters to R. Murray Keith, Add. 35507, ff. 134, 222; also T. Heathcote to Keith, 5 Mar. 1774, ibid. f. 8. 5. Laprade, 8. 6. Boswell, Private Pprs. x. 163, 272-4; xi. 161, 254-5. 7. Fortescue, iv. 371. 8. Almon, xvi. 84-85. 9. Laprade, 103. 10. Dundas to Duke of Rutland, 13 Apr. 1784, HMC Rutland, iii. 88-89. 11. Debrett, xx. 45-46. 12. Stockdale, ii. 252-5, 263; iii. 368, 391, 447; iv. 310; v. 5-6, 7, 45-46, 49, 52, 217, 310; vi. 427; viii. 77-78, 153-4; xiii. 134, 183; xiv. 233; xv. 50.

SIR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS CUNNINGHAME OF LIVINGSTON Baronet

Evidence from the National Records of Scotland

23 January 1769: Instrument of Sasine under the hand of James Miller, clerk, of the diocese of St. Andrews, notary public, following upon the precept of sasine in a contract of marriage (dated 21 October 1768) between Sir William Augustus Cunynghame of Livingston, Baronet, and Mrs. Frances Myrton daughter and only child in life of Sir Robert Myrton of Gogar, Baronet, whereby Sir William bound and obliged himself to infeft his spouse in an annuity of £550 sterling (restricted to £350 in the event of there being an heir-male alive at the dissolution of the marriage by the death of Sir William, and to £450 if there is an heir female alive) furth of (1) the lands and barony of Livingstone and the temple lands of Newyear-field as described in No. GD86/815; (2) the lands of Nether Dechmont lying within the barony of Calderclear, regality of Dalkeith and sheriffdom of Edinburgh; (3) the town and lands of Wester Whitburn extending to a 50 shilling land as well property as superiority, (4) one-half of the lands and barony of Easter Whitburn and of the lands of Little Blackburn, in the parish of Whitburn and sheriffdom of Linlithgow; (4) the proportion of the lands of Little Blackburn purchased lately from the trustees of John Carmichael of Whitehill, with the mansionhouse and yards adjacent thereto (sometime possessed by the said John Carmichael and John Beugo yr. of Cowhill and afterwards by William Hamilton and others) and with liberty of casting and winning peats for the use of the tenants of said lands within the Moss of Meikle Blackburn lying in the parish of Whitburn, barony of Blackburn and sheriffdom of Linlithgow; and (5) the lands of Sir William in the sheriffdom of Ayr. Sasine given by Sir William ex propriis suis manibus, on 23 January 1769, to John Gray, his factor, as attorney for Mrs. Frances Myrton. Witnesses, James Hay, writer in Edinburgh, and William Daes, servant to Sir William. Sir William "in token of the verity of all and sundry the premisses" signs the instrument. National Records of Scotland, Sir William Fraser Charters, reference GD86/960

SIR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS CUNNINGHAME OF MILNCRAIG Baronet

Evidence from the National Records of Scotland

                   1

23 January 1769: Instrument of Sasine under the hand of James Miller, clerk, of the diocese of St. Andrews, notary public, following upon the precept of sasine in a contract of marriage (dated 21 October 1768) between Sir William Augustus Cunynghame of Livingston, Baronet, and Mrs. Frances Myrton daughter and only child in life of Sir Robert Myrton of Gogar, Baronet, whereby Sir William bound and obliged himself to infeft his spouse in an annuity of £550 sterling (restricted to £350 in the event of there being an heir-male alive at the dissolution of the marriage by the death of Sir William, and to £450 if there is an heir female alive) furth of (1) the lands and barony of Livingstone and the temple lands of Newyear-field as described in No. GD86/815; (2) the lands of Nether Dechmont lying within the barony of Calderclear, regality of Dalkeith and sheriffdom of Edinburgh; (3) the town and lands of Wester Whitburn extending to a 50 shilling land as well property as superiority, (4) one-half of the lands and barony of Easter Whitburn and of the lands of Little Blackburn, in the parish of Whitburn and sheriffdom of Linlithgow; (4) the proportion of the lands of Little Blackburn purchased lately from the trustees of John Carmichael of Whitehill, with the mansionhouse and yards adjacent thereto (sometime possessed by the said John Carmichael and John Beugo yr. of Cowhill and afterwards by William Hamilton and others) and with liberty of casting and winning peats for the use of the tenants of said lands within the Moss of Meikle Blackburn lying in the parish of Whitburn, barony of Blackburn and sheriffdom of Linlithgow; and (5) the lands of Sir William in the sheriffdom of Ayr. Sasine given by Sir William ex propriis suis manibus, on 23 January 1769, to John Gray, his factor, as attorney for Mrs. Frances Myrton. Witnesses, James Hay, writer in Edinburgh, and William Daes, servant to Sir William. Sir William "in token of the verity of all and sundry the premisses" signs the instrument. National Records of Scotland, Sir William Fraser Charters, reference GD86/960

                   2

1773-77: Disposition by Thomas Graham of Balgowan to Sir William Cunningham of Livingston, bt., in liferent, of lands of Dubheads and Mains of Coulgask. Instrument of Sasine following. Renunciation and Disposition by Sir William. National Records of Scotland, Papers of the Maxtone Graham Family of Cultoquhey, Perthshire, reference GD155/261

                   3

1811-12: Papers relating to submission between Sir William Cunninghame of Milncraig and Lady Cunninghame, v. Messrs. Winton and Morrison, builders in Edinburgh, relating to encorachments made on garden on north of Queen's Street in new extended royalty of Edinburgh. National Records of Scotland, Miscellaneous Papers, John Gray, Lord Advocate's Clerk, reference RH15/76/25

Genealogy

Stirnet: Cunningham 07

From Wikipedia: Sir William Cunynghame, 4th Baronet

Sir William Augustus Cunynghame of Livingstone, 4th Baronet of Milncraig (1747–1828) was a Scottish politician who sat in the House of Commons 51.499889, -0.124667 of Great Britain from 1774 to 1790.

Early life

Cunynghame was the only surviving son of Sir David Cunynghame, 3rd Baronet and his wife Lady Mary Montgomerie, daughter of Alexander Montgomerie, 9th Earl of Eglinton, and was born on 19 April 1747. He matriculated at Christ Church, St Aldate's, Oxford OX1 1DP 51.750199, -1.255853 on 6 December 1766. After he succeeded his father in the baronetcy on 10 October 1767, he undertook a Grand Tour. His first wife was Frances Myreton daughter of Sir Robert Myreton, 2nd Baronet whom he married on 21 October 1768. She died on 14 November 1771, and he went abroad for three years to Italy, Paris and Vienna.

Political career

At the 1774 general election Cunynghame was returned as Member of Parliament for Linlithgowshire with the agreement of the Hopetoun interest. In June 1779 he was appointed Clerk of the Green Cloth and held the post until March 1782. He was returned again as MP for Linlithgowshire in 1780 and 1784. He made a second marriage to Mary Udney, daughter of Robert Udney of Udney, Aberdeen on 22 June 1785. In parliament and outside he campaigned strongly for Scottish interests. He was defeated in the 1790 general election and did not re-enter Parliament

Later life and legacy

Cunynghame was receiver of the land tax in Scotland from June 1806 to March 1807. He died on 17 January 1828 and was succeeded by his son David. He had two other sons by his first wife and four sons and three daughters by his second wife.

From The History of the Linlithgow and Stirlingshire Hunt 1775-1910

From National Records of Scotland

23 January 1769: Instrument of Sasine under the hand of James Miller, clerk, of the diocese of St. Andrews, notary public, following upon the precept of sasine in a contract of marriage (dated 21 October 1768) between Sir William Augustus Cunynghame of Livingston, Baronet, and Mrs. Frances Myrton daughter and only child in life of Sir Robert Myrton of Gogar, Baronet, whereby Sir William bound and obliged himself to invest [infeft] his spouse in an annuity of £550 sterling (restricted to £350 in the event of there being an heir-male alive at the dissolution of the marriage by the death of Sir William, and to £450 if there is an heir female alive) furth of

1. the lands and barony of Livingstone and the temple lands of Newyear-field as described in No. GD86/815;
2. the lands of Nether Dechmont lying within the barony of Calderclear, regality of Dalkeith and sheriffdom of Edinburgh;
3. the town and lands of Wester Whitburn extending to a 50 shilling land as well property as superiority,
4. one-half of the lands and barony of Easter Whitburn and of the lands of Little Blackburn, in the parish of Whitburn and sheriffdom of Linlithgow; (4) the proportion of the lands of Little Blackburn purchased lately from the trustees of John Carmichael of Whitehill, with the mansionhouse and yards adjacent thereto (sometime possessed by the said John Carmichael and John Beugo younger, of Cowhill and afterwards by William Hamilton and others) and with liberty of casting and winning peats for the use of the tenants of said lands within the Moss of Meikle Blackburn lying in the parish of Whitburn, barony of Blackburn and sheriffdom of Linlithgow; and
5. the lands of Sir William in the sheriffdom of Ayr. Sasine given by Sir William ex propriis suis manibus, on 23 January 1769, to John Gray, his factor, as attorney for Mrs. Frances Myrton

Witnesses, James Hay, writer in Edinburgh, and William Daes, servant to Sir William. Sir William "in token of the verity of all and sundry the premisses" signs the instrument.

From British Newspaper Archive: Caledonian Mercury Saturday, 22 October 1768 Page 3 Edinburgh

Yesternight, Friday, 21 October 1768 was married at Gogar, Sir William Augustus Cunynghame of Livingstone, Baronet, to Miss Frances Myrton, daughter of Sir Robert Myrton of Gogar, Baronet. Castle Gogar, 180 Glasgow Road, Ingliston, Edinburgh EH12 9BQ 55.94306, -3.33833

From Scotland's People: Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms

Possible list of 3 children of William Augustus Cunynghame, Baronet, and Frances Myrton from first: 2 July 1769 David Cunynghame, Baronet to last: 19 November 1771 Francis Cunynghame

• 2 July 1769 birth or baptism of David Cunynghame, Baronet, son of William Augustus Cunynghame, Baronet and Frances Myrton [child 1], in the parish of Livingston
• 24 August 1769 birth or baptism of David Cunnigham, son of Sir William Cunnigham and and Frances Myreton [child 1], in the parish of Canongate
• 29 July 1770 birth or baptism of Robert Cunynghame, son of William Augustus Cunynghame, Baronet/ and Frances Myrton [child 2], in the parish of Livingston
• 19 November 1771 birth or baptism of Francis Cunynghame, (U) [son] of William Augustus Cunynghame, Baronet/ and Frances Myrton [child 3], in the parish of Livingston

From British Newspaper Archive: The Scots Magazine, April 1770 Page 25

[Page 24] Mungo Campbell's Trial, continued.

Monday, 26 February 1770. Mr Maclaurin, for the panel, ...

Whereupon Mr George Muir, principal clerk of court, being called upon by the court, and asked, "Whether what was set forth by Mr Maclaurin was the truth?" - he informed the court, that after he had made up a lift of assizers in the usual manner, to be laid before the judges for their consideration, he being [Page 25] then confined to the house by indisposition, Mr John Mackenzie, writer to the signet, agent for the prosecutors, happened to call upon him; and he having showed him the list for the jury he had made up, which then consisted of more than forty-five persons, Mr Mackenzie observing the names of Sir William Cunningham and Sir Robert Myreton among the jurymen, told him, he thought these improper persons to be in the list of jurymen, on account of their near connection with the Earl of Eglinton, the private prosecutor; Sir William Cunningham being nephew to the Earl of Eglinton, and Sir Robert Myreton father-in-law to Sir William. Whereupon he struck out the names of these two gentlemen.

From British Newspaper Archive: Morning Post Saturday, 19 January 1828 Page 3

Died, in Saville Row, on Thursday, 17 January 1828 [instant], Sir William Augustus Cunynghame, of Milncraig, Bart.

From Will of Sir William Augustus Cunynghame of Milncraig, Ayrshire | The National Archives

From View of the political state of Scotland in the last century - a confidential report on the political opinions, family connections, or personal circumstances of the 2662 county voters in 1788 edited by Sir Charles Elphinstone Adam Published 1887 Page 34

Ayrshire 147. Sir William Cuninghame of Livingstone.

Member for Linlithgowshire; but in this County will go with his uncle, Lord Eglinton, in support of Sir Adam Fergusson

[Page 117] Edinburgh or Midlothian 71. Sir William Augustus Cuninghame of Livingstone, Baronet. The Member for Linlithgowshire.