Albert Cunningham Explained

Albert Cunningham
Birth Place:Ireland
Death Place:County Sligo, Ireland
Death Date:5 September 1691
Allegiance:Williamites
Rank:Colonel
Commands:Cunningham's Dragoons
Battles:Williamite War in Ireland

Colonel Sir Albert Cunningham (died 5 September 1691) was an Anglo-Irish military officer who fought in the Williamite War in Ireland. He was one of the twenty-seven children of Alexander Cunningham, Dean of Raphoe, who emigrated to Ireland from Scotland, and Marian Murray, daughter of John Murray of Broughton, Edinburgh.[1] He married Margaret Leslie, daughter of Henry Leslie, Bishop of Meath, and Jane Swinton, and had one son, Henry.[2]

Cunningham became Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance in Ireland in 1660.[3] He stood down from that role in 1687 and went on to raise Cunningham's Dragoons in 1689.[4] He fought on the side of Prince William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690 and the Siege of Limerick in August 1691.[5] He was murdered by an Irish Catholic soldier while being held as a prisoner of war[6] near Collooney in County Sligo on 5 September 1691.[7]

A portrait of Cunningham is at Springhill House.[8]

Notes and References

  1. Mosley, Charles, editor Burke's Peerage 107th edition Wilmington, Delaware 2003 Vol.1 p.879
  2. Burke's Peerage Vol.1 p.879
  3. Book: Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 6 August 2016.
  4. Web site: The Inniskillings (6th Dragoons) . Regiments.org . 6 August 2016 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20080118141244/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/cav/D06Innis.htm . 18 January 2008 .
  5. Book: Cannon, Richard. Historical Record of the Sixth, Or Inniskilling Regiment of Dragoons. Albert Cunningham siege of limerick.. 25. Parker, Furnivall and Parker. 1847.
  6. Web site: 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. 6 August 2016.
  7. Book: Cannon, Richard. Historical Record of the Sixth, Or Inniskilling Regiment of Dragoons. Albert Cunningham siege of limerick.. 30. Parker, Furnivall and Parker. 1847.
  8. Web site: Lieutenant-General Sir Albert Conyngham (d.1691) | Art UK. artuk.org.