Biography
James Cunningham (b. 1738, d. about 1785)
James Cunningham (Generation 1 — Cunningham Family)[2] was born in 1738 in Ulster, Northern Ireland, married Arabella Goode about 1760, and in 1769 emigrated with her and four children to Virginia via the port of Philadelphia.
They settled in northwestern Virginia in the area of Dunmore in Rockingham County[3] — moved later to Shanandoah County, Virginia. Arabella's brother
Henry Goode was a neighbor in northwest Virginia. In 1777 James received a deed for 275 acres in Dunmore County. Part of this land was sold in 1783 by James and Arabella.[4]
James was an active member of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Ulster and these family devotions continued at the Church in Shenandoah, where James died about 1785. There are records in Shanandoah County that suggest James Cunnyngham saw "military service" during the American Revolution.
1762 - James married Arabella Goode about 1760-62 in Ulster, Ireland; she was born about 1740-41 and died August 26, 1798 in Jefferson County, Tennessee.
1763 - Arabella Cunningham, their 1st child, was born May 18, 1763 in Ulster, Ireland; she died June 28, 1839 in Roane County, Tennessee, buried in Martel Methodist Church Cemetery, Roane, Tennessee.
The French and Indian War, (the Great War for the Empire) between Great Britain and France in North America that had began in 1754, was concluded in 1763 with the British gaining control of French Canada and Acadia, containing 80,000 residents. King George III then issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which included in its provisions the "reservation of all lands west of the Appalachian Mountains" to its American Indian populations.
1765 - William Henry Cunningham, their 2nd child, was born July 3, 1765 in Ulster, Ireland; died February 11, 1845 in Niota, McMinn County, Tennessee.
1767 - James Cunningham, their 3rd child, was born 1767 in Ulster, Ireland; died November 25, 1845 in Beans Creek community, Coffee County, Tennessee.
1768 - George Cunningham, their 4th child, was born 1768 in Ulster, Ireland; killed by Indians October 1793 in Jefferson County, Tennessee.
1769 - Arabella and James Cunningham immigrated with their children from Ulster, Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1769, and settled in the area of Dunmore, Rockingham County, in northwestern Virginia.
1770 - one or two more children were born about 1770-71 in Rockingham County, Virginia, Charlotte Cunnyngham and perhaps John Cunningham (no record has been found).
1784 - Arabella Cunningham (1st child of James Cunningham and Arabella Goode) married Rev. John Winton in Woodstock, Shenandoah County, Virginia in 1784 (1st son of William T. Winton and Elizabeth McClellan). John was born November 8, 1761 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and died August 2, 1846 in Roane County, Tennessee.[5]
1785 - James Cunningham, born 1738, died in Shenandoah County, Virginia.
1786 - Shortly after the death of her husband, Arabella Cunningham moved West with her children and other families to a section of the French Broad River known as Taylor's Bend, a few miles above Dandridge, Tennessee. The Pine Chapel Methodist Church was erected on the south side of the river some seven or eight miles east of Dandridge, (see map). Church historians praised her as well as her daughters and one son who became Methodist leaders. [6]
1789 - By 1789 John and Arabella (Cunningham) Winton had also moved their family from the Shenandoah Valley; to Roane County, Tennessee, north-west of Taylor's Bend.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cunningham-974
