William Cunninghame 14th of Craigends

William Cunninghame (sometimes given as Cuninghame) 14th Laird of Craigends, Renfrewshire, son of Alexander Cunninghame. Trustees (Alexander Pearson, William Houston and James Stirling, each of whom q.v.), almost certainly of William Cunninghame, were awarded the compensation for the Grandvale or Grand Vale estate in Westmoreland Jamaica. The family had owned land in Jamaica since the 1730s. In Britain Cunninghame formed the firm, Merry & Cunninghame, with James Merry (later MP for the Falkirk Burghs), which built the Glengarnock Steelworks in Ayrshire in 1843, as well as owning mines throughout Ayrshire and Renfrewshire and in the north of England, and having interests in steel and the railways.

He married Robina, daughter of A. Currie in 1831. Upon his death in 1852 he was succeeded by his son William, who employed the eminent Scottish architect, David Bryce to rebuild Craigends House in 1857. The house was demolished in 1971.

1. In 1832 William Cuninghame of Craigends was seeking to promote an Act of Parliament to exchange some of the entailed lands of Craigends for other land in the Houstoun barony.

T71/871 Westmoreland no. 453. Records of the Cuninghame family of Craigends Renfrewshire tie the family to the Grandvale estate 1736-1757, National Records of Scotland GB234/GD148.

Will of Sir James Campbell of Houstoun, PROB 11/674/380 . Extensive Cunninghame family genealogy at http://www.ourlocalhistory.co.uk/geneology3.html and http://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getperson.php?personID=I37507&tree=CC [both accessed 08/12/2016].

James Merry, http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSA00119

Craigends House, http://www.ourlocalhistory.co.uk/mansion2.html

1. Edinburgh Gazette 4041 14/02/1832 p.38

We are grateful to Sara Broadbent, Eric Graham and James Graham for their help compiling this entry.