CUNNINGHAM, ALEXANDER [SSNE 2115]

Surname

CUNNINGHAM, CUNINGHAM

First name

ALEXANDER

Title/rank

COLONEL

Nationality

SCOT

Region

KILBIRNIE, AYRSHIRE

Social status

OFFICER

Text source

Alexander Cunningham served first as lieutenant of a recruited company in Patrick Ruthven's [SSNE 3413] recruited regiment in 1629. It appears that he came under James Seaton's [SSNE 3476] command in 1630 still as a lieutenant in Seaton's recruited infantry regiment. In 1631 he was again lieutenant in Ruthven's regiment and by 1632 he was lieutenant captain in George Cunningham's [SSNE 2118] regiment. He transferred over to Robert Cunningham's [SSNE 2132] soon after where he became a lieutenant colonel by the end of 1632. This is probably the same Alexander Cunningham who was a military governor at Heilbad Heiligenstadt near Erfurt in Germay in 1634. He returned to Great Britain by 1636 and a letter dated Hampton Court 17 June described how his attempts at levying were dragging and informed Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna of Patrick Ruthven's employment by King Charles I as his lieutenant general in Scotland. He wrote again from London on 2 November that year made reference to his impoverishment due to paying his imprisonment (presumably in Germany) and requested that funds promised from Sweden should be made available to him. The letter also bemoans his difficulties in levying hitherto, although Charles I had just given his private permission for levies. He received permission from the Scottish Privy Council to recruit 400 men for his regiment on 30 June 1637. That year he received lands in Munster and Osnabruck which once belonged to an Imperial colonel by way of partial payment for his services. Between 1638-40 he took command of an infantry regiment with which he served as part of Torstensson's army group in 1642.

In the National Records of Scotland, a letter exists which mentions the late Colonel Alexander Cunningham, governor of a town in Sweden, though in all probability this was in Swedish Pomerania. It most likely refers to this man, and that is substantiated by reference to him as "umquhile" (or late) Colonel Alexander Cunningham of Pomerania in a court case referring to his son Robert [SSNE 7107] in 1649.  The case relates that Robert (aged 14 as proven by production of his father's bible) had been returned to Scotland for an education with his uncle Harry (Alexander's brother), but that Robert had been seized by men of the Laird of Kilburnie on his way home from the Grammar School of Leith. These men wanted the boy sent to Sweden. In the case it is also made clear that after his father's death, Robert had briefly been in the care of Colonel Hugh Hamilton [SSNE 2582] sometime "tutor testamenter to the boy". The outcome of the case is unclear but the parliament intervened and the case notes suggest the boy was murdered.

Sources:

R. Monro, His Expedition with a worthy Scots Regiment called Mac-Keyes (London, 1637), II, The List of the Scottish Officers in Chiefe; Swedish Riksarkiv, Axel Oxenstiernas brefvexling, E583; SRA, Det odelade kansliet Riksregistraturet, 196, ff.197-198. Letters of donation to Alexander Cunningham, 02 July 1638; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 2nd Series, IV, 1635-1638, p.458, 20 June 1637; Swedish Riksarkiv, P. Sondén, Militärachefer i svenska arméen och deras skrivelser; Otto Donner, A brief sketch of the Scottish families in Finland and Sweden (Helsingfors, 1884), p.41; Swedish Krigsarkiv, Muster Roll,1630/28,29,37; 1631/12,15-19; 1632/18-21; 1633/11-22; 1634/12-23; 1635/20-26, 29-31; 1636/18, 20; 1637/13; 1638/3, 24-27; 1639/13-21; 1640/14,17; An exemplar of his Muster Roll from 1638 (partly in Scots) can be found here: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0053366_00217

 

National Records of Scotland, GD82/221; Stair Society, Selected Judiciary Cases, 1624-1650 (3 vols., 1953-1974), III, pp.826-832; William Guthrie, The Later Thirty Years War (London, 2003 edition), p.149.

 

N.B. Possibly the same man as [SSNE 2114]

 

Dr Ed Furgol has identified another potential reference to the late Colonel Cunningham in the NRS.

See KSR MidCalder CH 2/266/1 211 13 February 1648

Service record

SWEDEN, PATRICK RUTHVEN

Arrived 1630-01-01, as LIEUTENANT

Departed 1630-06-30, as LIEUTENANT

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY

SWEDEN, JAMES SEATON

Arrived 1630-07-01, as LIEUTENANT

Departed 1631-12-31, as LIEUTENANT

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY

SWEDEN, GEORGE/ROBERT CUNNINGHAM

Arrived 1632-01-01, as LIEUTENANT

Departed 1637-12-31, as LIEUTENANT COLONEL

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY

SWEDEN, HEILBAD HEILIGENSTADT nr ERFURT

Arrived 1634-01-01, as GOVERNOR

Departed 1635-12-31, as GOVERNOR

Capacity GOVERNOR, purpose MILITARY

SWEDEN, ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM

Arrived 1638-01-01, as COLONEL + CHIEF

Departed 1640-12-31, as COLONEL + CHIEF

Capacity OFFICER [GOVERNOR?], purpose MILITARY

SWEDEN, POMERANIA (Pommern)

Arrived 1640-12-31, as COLONEL

Departed 1648-12-31

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY