Son of Elizabeth and James Cunningham married Nancy Elizabeth Carr 24 Dec 1795 Charlottesville, Albemarle, VA
*From the Biography of William Cunningham, by Rev.John Cunningham, son of Andrew Cunningham*
William Cunningham was born in a coast town
of Bonnie, Scotland in 1776(correct date is now known to be 1765). He was the youngest of three children, two boys and one girl. The oldest son died in early childhood, leaving William and his sister at home. His sister married in Scotland and soon afterward they moved to the USA. They settled on the James River in Albemarle County, in Old Virginia, in 1785.
*From the Cunningham Family, by Bertie Gingles*
In 1791 at the age of 15, William slipped aboard a vessel bound for America reaching Chesapeake Bay, Virginia about six months later. In 1794, after serving in the Army, he returned to tailoring, the trade he had learned in Scotland. In 1795 he married Nancy Carr, the daughter of Gideon and Ann Carr of Virginia. While coming from Virginia through the Cumberland Gap, their last child was born. In 1818 after realizing they had little opportunity to expand their family farming operation in Virginia, they moved to Kentucky to settle in the Trigg Furnace section of Trigg County which was still part of Christian County. Here they established a mill and began to cultivate corn and tobacco. William Cunningham took time to serve in public addairs. He was an officer in the first Trigg County election, served on circuit court, and was a road commissioner. He was instrumental in opening the first highway in western Trigg County. William died in 1823 leaving his wife and eleven children. His grave at the Cunningham Cemetery is marked by a twelve foot monument erected by descendants in 1936 honoring his family. It contains the names, birth dates, and spouces of each of the children.
William's eleven children: John, Gideon, William, Malinda, Andrew, Dabney, Mickens, James, Alexander, Robert and Nancy (they begat eighty-eight children).Since so many of these children had the same given name, a nickname was used to identify the respective family. John's family lived near the river and so were called "The Duck Cunninghams". William's decendants were called "The Buck Cunninghams". Dabney's descendants were called "The Dab Cunninghams". "Tank" identified James's decendants. Since Robert's decendants like to swim and fish in the river, they were nicknamed the "Rats". These nicknames were still being used in the county as late as the 1950's.