Sources for CUNNINGHAM family history 

This list gives the sources for the history of the Cunningham family prior to about 1600, used for the construction of these pages:

• Archaeological and Historical Collections Relating to the County of Renfrew, Paisley, 1890, pp 160-161

This gives the details of the Cunningham - Montgomery feud.

• Sir James Balfour Paul, The Scots peerage : founded on Wood's edition of Sir Robert Douglas's peerage of Scotland..., vol IV pp 222–234

This is one of the major works on Scottish genealogy, but it deals only with the peerage lines and their ancestry. It is the major source for the earliest generations of the family.

• Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry [Burke's Landed Gentry], 15th edition, London, 1937, p 537 [Cuninghame of Craigends]

This work is not always reliable, especially in the earliest generations. It the best available published source for most of the Craigends line. It has also been used to trace the marriages of some of the Cunningham daughters.

• Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the peerage, baronetage and knightage [Burke's Peerage], 105th edition, London, 1970, pp 706–707 [Fairlie-Cuninghame of Robertland]

Burke's is not always reliable for the time period covered here, but the later material is usually quite good. It has been used for some of the early Craigends generations. It has also been used to trace the marriages of some of the Cunningham daughters.

• Sir Bernard Burke, A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited and extinct peerages of the British Empire [Burke's Extinct Peerage], London, 1962, pp 150–151 [Cunynghame - Lord Kilmaurs, and Earl of Glencairn]

Another work with some reliability problems, especially in the earliest generations (which differ from those given in Scots Peerage); it is more reliable for the later Glencairn generations and most of the data on the younger children of that line is drawn from here.

• G E Cokayne, The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, revised edition by Vicary Gibbs, London, 1910-1959, vol V pp 669–676 [Glencairn]

This work is the most reliable source for British peerage families, but it only deals with the heirs of each generation. It also does not extend back more than a generation before the title was granted, and so has little information on early generations.

• Robert Cunyngham, Genologie of the Right Honorable the Earl of Glencairn’s Family, manuscript, 1740, printed in Roberdeau Buchanan, Roberdeau Genealogy, Washington, 1876 [original held by Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA; thanks to John Ravilious for making this importance source available]

This gives an outline genealogy of the earliest generations of the family (which differs in many respects from that found in other secondary works), and includes good genealogies of the Glencairn, Craigends, Ashinyards and Glengarnock branches of the family down to 1740.

• Rev. James Dodds, D.D. (ed.), The Diary and General Expenditure Book of William Cunningham of Craigends, kept chiefly from 1673 to 1680, Edinburgh: University Press, by T. and A. Constable, for the Scottish History Society, 1887 [thanks again to John Ravilious for making this available]

The introduction to this book contains a genealogy drawn up by the antiquary Robert Mylne, mostly relating to the Craigends and Cunninghamhead lines of the family. It is the main source for the Cunninghamhead line.

• Rev. Robert D. MacKenzie, B.D., Kilbarchan: A Parish History, Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1902 [thanks to Jim Campbell for making this available]

A history of the parish in Renfrewshire in which Craigends is located; contains a history and genealogy of the family of Cuninghame of Craigends.

• See also Jim Campbell's web pages on Craigends House and the Cuninghame of Craigends genealogy.

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Some other more general sources for medieval genealogy.  

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Created: 6 February 2000
Last modified: 2 February 2002

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