Person:Patrick Cunningham (7)

Advisory on Patrick Cunningham

There was another Patrick Cunningham in Augusta County that married Mary Ann Tweedy, that some researchers have confused with this Patrick.

Will of Patrick Cunningham

Laurens County, South Carolina, Will Book A-1, Page 153:

Will of Patrick Cunningham. 22 October 1796. legatees: Wife, Ann, ann; 3 sons: John, William, and Robert Cunningham; Robert to be schooled; lands on Saluda and Reedy river. Executors: John and William Cunningham. Witnesses: Lewis Graves; Memucan Walker; Sarah Clary.

Early Land Acquisition in Augusta County, VA

Acquisition of Land from Chalkley's:

• Page 602.--17th May, 1764. John Cunningham and Margret to Patrick Cunningham, his son, £20, 230 acres on Thorny Branch; corner William Cunningham's land. Teste: Daniel Kidd, John King, George Anderson. Delivered: Edward Erwin, Jr., May, 1767.

Disposition of Land from Chalkley's:

• Page 498.--19th August, 1766. Patrick Cunningham to Edward Erwin, £80, 230 acres on Thorney Branch; corner William Cunningham's land. Delivered: Edward Erwin, Jr., May, 1767.

Records of Patrick Cunningham in Augusta County, VA

From Chalkley’s Augusta County Records:

• Page 446.--Edwin Erwin ( ) to Errowmous Dike, 230 acres patented to John Cunningham 12th May, 1769, and by him conveyed to his son Patrick. Teste: John McKemy, Jr.. John Hogshead, Edward Erwin.

Information on Patrick Cunningham

From "Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871", by Joseph Addison Waddel:

Patrick Cunningham also entered the British service during the Revolutionary war, and became a Colonel ; but seems not to have incurred the odinm his brother Robert did. His son Robert was a captain in the Mexican war. Capt. Robert's son John was prominent in law, politics and journalism, and his daughter Pamela was the organizer and first Regent of the Ladies' Mt. Vernon Association.

From Ancestry.com post:

The Cunningham family, struggling for religious freedom, immigrated from Scotland about 1681, settling in Virginia and Pennsylvania. In 1769 Patrick and Robert Cunningham (born in the Colony of Penna.) arrived in South Carolina. Robert settled at the Indian Island Ford area on Saluda River as his main plantation, yet he had large land holdings elsewhere. They were a family of great influence in the back country.4

The Cunningham men were four brothers: John who was a planter, David who was a deputy surveyor, Robert who was the first magistrate of Ninety-Six District and Patrick who was deputy surveyor of the General Province of South Carolina.4 These men were loyal to the English Crown. There was also their cousin William Cunningham who in 1775 at the age of 19 years became a follower of the Whig Party. There was also an Andrew Cunningham of the Ninety Six District in the Province of South Carolina. He was a Loyalist but I do not know if he was any relation to these other Cunningham men.

Robert Cunningham was the first proprietor of the Indian Island Ford Ferry, granted in 1770. However he lost the franchise when the Revolutionary War broke out because of his loyalty to the Crown. Lord Campbell, Governor of South Carolina, promised the Cunningham men rewards and commendations for their loyalties.5

On July 17, 1775, Robert and Patrick Cunningham (Tory Officers) seized a large amount of ammunition at Ninety Six. They jailed Major Mayson on the charge of having stolen the ammunition from the King's Fort. (Major, then Colonel, Mayson was given Robert Cunningham's plantation and Ferry Rights when war was declared and Tory properties were confiscated)

Patrick Cunningham settled in South Carolina, by permission, and was elected to the Legislature. He resigned because his position was made unpleasant. After his daughter, Pamela, died on March 15, 1795 (her clothing caught fire as her large skirts were placed too close to the fireplace) in Charleston, Patrick Cunningham moved his family back to his Plantation "Rosemont" in Laurens, situated between the Reedy and Saluda Rivers. An estimate of his losses due to war was 3450 Pounds Sterling. Patrick Cunningham died October 25, 1796 at his plantation. He was 53 years old when he died.

William Cunningham, his son, died December 15, 1798 at 24 years of age.

His wife, Ann, died from fever in Charleston on September 17, 1799.

Patrick's son, Col. John Cunningham, died January 30, 1817 at 45 years of age.

Another son of Patrick, Robert Cunningham (Oct. 8, 1786 - July 7, 1859) was married to Louisa Bird

(Feb. 19, 1794 - Oct. 6, 1873), daughter of Col. William Bird. A grandson to Patrick and son of Robert and Louisa, William Patrick Cunningham died September 27, 1815 at 7 months of age.

Patrick's grand daughter, Pamela Cunningham, was the woman who initiated the restoration of Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. Her portrait is at the South Carolina State Capitol and Laurens Co., SC. Library.

"Rosemont", the Cunningham Plantation, located in Laurens Co. SC. at the juncture of the Saluda and Reedy Rivers, burned down 1930. There is a picture of the Plantation House at Laurens Co. SC. Library, as it appeared in the late 1920's, just before it's destruction by fire.