Author: Cunningham, Peter
Biography:
CUNNINGHAM, Peter (1746?-1805: ODNB)
What little is known about his early life comes from autobiographical details in letters printed by John Nichols and the reminiscences of Ebenezer Rhodes. He may or may not have been the Peter Cunningham baptised on 24 Nov. 1746 at St. Leonard’s, Deal, Kent, the son of James Cunningham and Elizabeth Stone, who had married in the same church the previous year. His father is said to have been a naval officer but he chose not to follow him into the military and may have undergone a conversion experience. He was ordained deacon (1772) and priest (1773), qualifying as “literate” but without a university degree. He was curate of Aldmondbury, near Huddersfield, Yorkshire (1773-5), and then became curate to Rev. Thomas Seward, father of Anna Seward (q.v.) at Eyam, Derbyshire (1775-91), where most of his poems were written. He was respected by his parishioners, particularly for his efforts in education, and Rhodes records that his farewell sermon was much admired and a number of manuscript copies made (53-4). He was recorded as perpetual curate at Derwent (1789-1805) but appears not to have served there after 1791 when he was appointed chaplain to the English Factory in Smyrna, the ancient Greek city on the Turkish coast (now Izmir), a post he possibly gained through the patronage of Lord Rodney whose victory over the French in 1782 he had celebrated in Britannia’s Naval Triumph (1783). For reasons unknown he was dismissed in 1797 and returned to England. Ebenezer Rhodes described his return, “desolate, unknown, without friends or money . . . travelling on foot through Germany” (54). Eventually he gained the curacy of St. Peter’s, Chertsey, Surrey, possibly through the influence of the Devonshire family whom he had earlier celebrated in Chatsworth or The Genius of England’s Prophecy (1783). At Chertsey he wrote his loco-descriptive poem, St. Anne’s Hill (1800). He died on 24 June 1805 at Chertsey, after attending the annual dinner of the Chertsey Friendly Society, and was buried in his church. He does not appear to have married. (ODNB 12 Mar. 2024; CCEd 12 Mar. 2024; Nichols, Illustrations [1831], 6: 47-67; GM July 1805, 683; Ebenezer Rhodes, Peak Scenery [1824], 47-56) AA