WILLIAM

See also:

• CUNNINGHAM, ALEXANDER (c.1655-173o)
• CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN (1784-1842)
• WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM (1805-1861)

CUNNINGHAM (1805-1861)  , Scottish theologian and ecclesiastic, was born at Hamilton, in Lanarkshire, on the 2nd of October 1805, and educated at the university of Edinburgh . He was licensed to preach in 1828, and in 183o was ordained to a collegiate charge in Greenock, where he remained for three years . In 1834 he was transferred to the' charge of Trinity College parish, Edinburgh . His removal coincided with the commencement of the period known in Scottish ecclesiastical history as the Ten Years' Conflict, in which he was destined to take a leading share . In the stormy discussions and controversies which preceded the Disruption the weight and force of his intellect, the keenness of his logic, and his firm grasp of principle made him one of the most powerful advocates of the cause of spiritual independence; and he has been generally recognized as one of three to whom mainly the existence of the Free Church is due, the others being Chalmers and Candlish . On the formation of the Free Church in 1843.Cunningham was appointed professor of church history and divinity in the New College, Edinburgh, of which he became principal in 1847 in succession to Thomas Chalmers . His career was very successful, his controversial sympathies combined with his evident desire to be rigidly impartial qualifying him to be an interesting delineator of the more stirring periods of church history, and a skilful disentanglerof the knotty points in theological polemics . In 1859 he was appointed moderator of the General Assembly . He had received the degree of D.D. from the university of Princeton in 1842 . He died on the 14th of December 1861 . He was one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance . A theological lectureship at the New College, Edinburgh, was endowed in 1862, to be known as the Cunningham lectureship .

A

Life of Cunningham, by Rainy and Mackenzie, appeared in 1871 . CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM (1849- ), English economist, was born at Edinburgh on the 29th of December 1849 . Educated at Edinburgh Academy and University and Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated 1st class in the Moral Science tripos in 1873, and in the same year took holy orders . He was university lecturer in history from 1884 to 1891, in which year he was appointed professor of economics at King's College, London, a post which he held until 1897 . He was lecturer in economic history at Harvard University (1899), and Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge (1885) . He became vicar of Great St Mary's, Cam-bridge, in 1887, and was made a fellow of the British Academy . In 1996 he was appointed archdeacon of Ely . Dr Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages (189o; 4th ed., 19o5) and Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times (1882; 3rd ed., 1903) are the standard works of reference on the industrial history of England . He also wrote The Use and Abuse of Money (1891); Alien Immigration (1897); Western Civilization in its Economic Aspect in Ancient Times (1898), and in Modern Times (1900), and The Rise and Decline of Free Trade (19o5) . Dr Cunningham's eminence as an economic historian gave special importance to his attitude as one of the leading supporters of Mr Chamberlain from 1903 onwards in criticizing the English free-trade policy and advocating tariff reform .