William Cunningham, 9th Earl of Glencairn
William Cunningham, 9th Earl of Glencairn (
The eldest son of William Cunningham, 8th Earl of Glencairn, on 21 July 1637 this William obtained a ratification from King Charles I of England, under the Royal Sign Manual, of the original Glencairn letters patent of 1488.
He was sworn a member of the Privy Council of Scotland and in 1641 was appointed a Commissioner of the Treasury.
Finlaystone House and estate in Inverclyde was the seat of the Earl of Glencairn and chief of clan Cunningham from 1405 to 1796.
Royalist
The Earl supported the Royalist cause of his King, and in 1643 joined with the
He was appointed
Glencairn then led
He was then arrested by
Restoration
He was one of the peers whom Monck called to the convention he summoned when he was about to march into England in 1659. It was at this convention that Glencairn called for Monck to declare for a free parliament.
Upon the
Glencairn was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow from 1660, and was one of the principal advisors of the re-establishment of Episcopacy in Scotland. He was not, however, opposed to Presbyterianism, and the subsequent bitter disputes between the two religious factions, and particularly against James Sharp, Archbishop of St Andrews,[1] greatly distressed him and affected his health.
The Earl died at Belton, East Lothian, on 30 May 1663, aged 54 years. According to some sources, he was buried with great pomp in the south-east aisle of
According to other sources,[according to whom?] he was/is not buried in St Giles Cathedral Edinburgh. It was not a burial Church but it does contain memorials of other celebrated Scots. In the old kirkyard, now a carpark, were buried John Knox and William Forbes.
Legend has it that his wife had his head removed and out of love kept it with her. She was buried in the Glencairn Aisle in Kilmaurs and the earls head was buried with her.
Family
Cunningham married Lady Ann Ogilvy, the daughter of James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Findlater, in 1637 and they produced four sons and four daughters.[3][4]
- William, who died at the age of eighteen[4]
- James, who married Lady Elizabeth Hamilton daughter of William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton, but pre-deceased his father[4]
- Alexander, who succeeded his father as Earl[4]
- John, who succeeded his brother Alexander as Earl[4]
- Jean, who married William Boyd, 1st Earl of Kilmarnock[4]
- Margaret, who married John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Bargany[4]
- Anne, who died unwed[4]
- Elizabeth, who married William Hamilton of Colestoun[4]
After his first wife died in 1661 from measles,[4] he then married Lady Margaret Montgomery, the daughter of Alexander Montgomerie, 6th Earl of Eglinton. She was widow of John Hay, 1st Earl of Tweeddale. They produced no children.[3][4]
See also
- Kilmaurs Place, a property of the 9th Earl of Glencairn.
References
This article incorporates material from a source in the public domain.[5]
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 119.
- ^ Johnston, George Harvey (1919). Heraldry of the Hamiltons with Notes on all the males of the Family – Descriptions of the Arms, Plates and Pedigrees. W. & A. K. Johnston Ltd.
- ^ a b Cowan, Samuel (1911). The Lord Chancellors of Scotland. Vol. 2. W. & A. K. Johnston Ltd.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Paul, James Balfour, ed. (1907). The Scots Peerage Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland. Vol. 4.
- ^ Anderson, William (1867). The Scottish Nation. Vol. II. Fullarton & Co. pp. 312–313.