Author: Cunyngham, Alexander
Biography:
CUNYNGHAM, Alexander (1737-82: History of the County of Ayr)
He was the son of Richard Cunyngham (minister of Symington, Ayrshire, until his death in 1760) and Ann (Murray) Cunyngham. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and ordained in 1761. He never married. He was accused of leaving his parish for Edinburgh in 1762 and being drunk and disorderly; although the prosecution was withdrawn, this experience may have been the source for his book A Satire Written in Prison at Glasgow (Glasgow, 1782). His other publications are A Sermon Preached on Occasion of the Death of the Late Alexander, Earl of Eglintoune (Glasgow, 1769) and A Dissertation against inflicting Public Penance for Fornication (Glasgow, 1781). A note on the title page of the BL copy of his poems gives the year of his death as 1783. (James Paterson, History of the County of Ayr [1852] 2.120; Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae [1920] 3.74)