previously, October 1660, made chancellor of the university of Glasgow (Baillie, iii. 452). On the restoration of episcopacy he escorted Fairfoul, the new bishop, to Glasgow; he appears even at this time to have been on terms of affection with Baillie, who terms him ‘my noble kind scholar,’ and to have taken an active interest in the welfare of the college (ib. iii. 487). In 1662 he acted with Middleton, the commissioner, in the billeting plot, by which it was sought to oust Lauderdale from the secretaryship, and generally opposed the latter's policy and interests (Lauderdale Papers, Camden Soc. i. p. 166). His general moderation in church matters (Burnet, Hist. own Time, Clarendon Press, i. 278) brought about a quarrel with Sharp, who in 1663 complained of his remissness at court (ib. i. 375), and in January 1664 obtained letters to the privy council from Charles II, giving the primate precedence in the council over the lord chancellor. The vexation caused by this slight brought on his death at Belton in Haddingtonshire, 30 May 1664. He was buried in the south-east aisle of St. Giles, Edinburgh, on 28 July, his funeral sermon being preached by Burnet, the archbishop of Glasgow. He married Lady A. Ogilvie, second daughter of James, first earl of Findlater.
[Authorities cited above.]
CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM, D.D. (1805–1861), church leader and theological writer, was born in 1805 at Hamilton, Lanarkshire, where his father was a merchant. The father dying very early, the family removed to Dunse (now Duns), co. Berwick, where Cunningham received his early education. At the university of Edinburgh he was distinguished for scholarship, purity and honesty of character, and general ability, and for the part he took in the societies (especially the Diagnostic) and the other active work of the university. While in his undergraduate course he was greatly impressed by the preaching of the Rev. Dr. Gordon, and accepted very earnestly his lifelong views of evangelical truth. During his vacations he devoured books with extraordinary avidity, a list of books read during six vacations amounting to 520, besides pamphlets and magazines.
Having gone through the theological curriculum, he became a licentiate in 1828, and in 1830 was ordained as assistant-minister of the Middle Church, Greenock. His singular ability as a controversialist debater soon became apparent. In 1833, in the general assembly, he supported the motion of Dr. Chalmers, on the subject of the ‘call’ in the appointment of ministers, in a speech of two hours' length, which made a great impression. The lord provost of Edinburgh, being a member of the assembly, determined, after hearing the speech, to get Cunningham brought to Edinburgh on the first vacancy. This happened next year, when Cunningham became minister of Trinity College Church. Here, however, he was not very successful, partly, perhaps, owing to the extent to which he got involved in ecclesiastical controversy.
In 1839 he published a reply to a very elaborate pamphlet of Mr. Hope, dean of the Faculty of Advocates, on the collision then begun between the civil courts and the church, taking the side of the church in opposition to the dean, and defending it with much fulness of learning, force of logic, and mastery of facts. In 1840 he wrote a ‘Defence of the Rights of the Christian People,’ in opposition to Dr. Robertson of Ellon. A not less famous controversial pamphlet was his reply to Sir William Hamilton's ‘Be not Schismatics, be not Martyrs, by Mistake.’ In all his controversial speeches and writings he was very outspoken, and sometimes used such severity of language as led many to form an unfavourable view of his character. In 1841, in the general assembly, he seconded the motion of Dr. Chalmers for the deposition of the Strathbogie ministers. In all the deliberations and proceedings of what was called the ‘non-intrusion’ party Cunningham occupied a prominent place, delivering many speeches, both in church courts and popular meetings, which were marked by a combination of qualities unknown in any other leader. The peculiar character of his speaking was described by Hugh Miller in the following terms on occasion of a speech in 1840: ‘Mr. Cunningham opened the debate in a speech of tremendous power. The elements were various—a clear logic, at once severely nice and popular; an unhesitating readiness of language, select and forcible, and well fitted to express every minute shade of meaning, but plain and devoid of figure; above all, an extent of erudition and an acquaintance with church history that, in every instance in which the arguments turned on a matter of fact, seemed to render opposition hopeless. But what gave peculiar emphasis to the whole was what we shall venture to call the propelling power of the mind—that animal energy which seems to act the part of the moving mind in the mechanism of intellect, which gives force to action and depth to the tones of the voice, and impresses a hearer with the idea of immense momentum.’
The general assembly of the Free church in 1843 appointed Cunningham to one of the chairs of theology in the New College; but before beginning work he was commissioned
