William Boyd Cuninghame (1840 - 1919)

Born 9 Oct 1840 in Molle's Mains, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Marion Harriet Paterson — married 8 Aug 1867 in Moorabool, Victoria, Australia

Descendants

Died 30 Aug 1919 at age 78 in Middleton, Annapolis, Nova Scotia, Canada

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Biography

WILLIAM BOYD CUNINGHAME (Cuninghame-23)

BIRTH. 9 Oct 1840, Molle's Mains, New South Wales, Australia

BIRTH. NSW BDM Birth Reg: #1248/1840 V18401248 24A: CUNNINGHAME WILLIAM B, Father: BOYD A, Mother: MARY

BIRTH (Oct 1840). On the 9th instant, the lady of Boyd Alexander Cunninghame, Esq., Molle's Mains, of a son.

MARRIAGE. 8 Aug 1867, Marion Harriet Paterson, daughter of Alexander Paterson & ??

MARRIAGE (Aug 1867). CUNINGHAME - PATERSON - On the 8th inst., at Borhoneyghurk, by the Venerable the Archdeacon Stretch, William Boyd Cuninghame, eldest son of the late Boyd Alexander Cuninghame, Esq., of The Fulton, Gipps Land, to Marion Harriet, daughter of the late Alexander Paterson, Esq.

Children:

(1) Mary Isabel Cuninghame, b. 1868 Sale, Victoria, Australia

(2) Frances Marion Cuninghame, b. ?? Sale, Victoria, Australia

(3) Boyd Alexander Cuninghame, b. 19 Jul 1871, d. 16 Mar 1917, m. Elsie Burrell, daughter of BIRTH. Vic BDM Birth Reg: #?? Boyd Alexander Cunninghame, Father: William Boyd Cunninghame, Mother: Paterson Marion Harriett Cunninghame

CUNINGHAME, BOYD ALEXANDER

Birth: Jul. 19, 1871, Sale, Victoria, Australia

Death: Mar. 16, 1917, Congo, Republic of the

Age: 46

Rank:

Major

Regiment/Service:Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 5th Bn. attd. Northern Rhodesia Rifles

Grave Reference: Cemetery: LUBUMBASHI CEMETERY

Lubumbashi, Katanga, Congo, Democratic Republic of

Additional Information: Son of William Boyd Cuninghame and Marion Harriett Cuninghame (nee Paterson); husband of Elsie Cuninghame (nee Burrell, now Lady Baker, of Ranston, Blandford, Dorset). Served in the South African War. (Mentioned in Despatches.).

Ref: Find A Grave: Memorial #122609154 and http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/418400/CUNINGHAME,%20BOYD%20ALEXANDER

(1874). ARRIVED HOBSON'S BAY. November 10.—Northumberland. s.s., 2,178 tons, H.H. Shinner, from London September 21, Plymouth September 23 Passengers—saloon: Mr and Mrs W. Boyd Cunningham, family (two) and two servants, Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918) 18 Nov 1874, p2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/88236183

(4) William Cecil Cunningham, b. ??, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

(5) Charles Lennox Cunninghame, b. 1877, Sale, Victoria, Australia

(6) Alan Rhodes Cunningham, b. 1879, Sale, Victoria, Australia

(1869). INSOLVENCY. MELBOURNE. Friday night. Mr. William Boyd Cuninghame, late of Strathfieldsaye, and of the Fulton, Sale, Gippsland, squatter and land owner, is insolvent. Liabilities, L15,000 ; assets, L4,000; deficiency, L11,000

(1869). The resignation of Mr. Colin Campbell, of his appointment as an honorary correspondent of the Central Board for the Protection of the Aborigines, is gazetted, as well as the resignation of Mr William Boyd Cuningham of the office, of justice of the peace for the Sale General Sessions District. Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 - 1926) 23 Nov 1869, p2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/150435581

(1870). We notice an announcement in the Argus to the effect that "William Boyd Cuninghame, of Sale, Gippsland, in the Colony of Victoria, squatter and farmer, intends to apply to the Chief Commissioner of Insolvent Estates for the said Colony, on Friday, the 8th day of April next, that a certificate of discharge under the Act of Council in such case made and provided be granted to him." Gippsland Times (Vic. : 1861 - 1954) 5 Mar 1870, p2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/61345011

(1872). SUPREME COURT. Friday, 30th August. In Chambers. (Before Mr. Justice Barry.) His Honor delivered the following judgment : —

HUTCHINS V. CUNINGHAME AND WIFE —

A rule nisi was obtained to set aside an order of a judge, in chambers, dismissing a summons taken out to attach eighty shares in the Long Tunnel Gold Mining Company, standing in the names of Donald M'Leod, Alexander Littlejohn Pearson, and Henry Foster, in trust for the defendant, Marian Henrietta Cuninghame, and asking that the dividends payable thereon and the produce thereof should, in the meantime, stand charged with the payment of the sum of £2305 10s. 9d., and interest, being the amount for which judgment had been recovered in an action in this court against the defendants.

The facts as disclosed by the affidavits are as follow : — The defendants were married on 8th August, 1867, and previous to the marriage a deed of settlement, which contained a covenant against anticipation, was executed by the husband, whereby certain lands were conveyed to the trustees above named, to secure £5000 in trust for Mrs. Cuninghame, the co-defendant, his wife. The trustees were empowered to sell these lands, and to invest in certain securities the proceeds of the sale, subject to the trusts of the original settlements. Some portion of the lands were sold, and with £1000 of the purchase money shares in the Long Tunnel Company were purchased.

In the month of July, 1371, an action was brought against the defendants upon a bill of exchange for £2281, accepted jointly by them in June, 1870, and judgment was signed on the 31st of the same month against both. The estate of the husband William Boyd Cuninghame was sequestrated for the benefit of bis creditors on the 21st of September, and on 12th September, 1871, the application to attach the shares standing in the name of the trustees for his wife was made.

As regards the portion of the act which immediately affects the present question, the object is remedial — that is, to relieve married women from the disabilities caused by coverture, not by retrospective legislation to deprive those married before the 1st of January, 1871, of the benefit of the ante nuptial settlement. It distinguishes between those disabilities which affect women married before and after the coming into operation of the act, and provides for the condition of each class. ln this respect it is an enabling act. It enlarges the capacity to hold and alienate real estate, and gives power to acquire and dispose of personal property independent of any control of the husband.

While in the enjoyment if such privileges thus bestowed, a married woman is to be regarded as if she had continued unmarried. The act does not impair the position of one married before 1871. She is not deprived of the benefit which accrued to her by the antecedent settlement. The 18th section appears to us to apply to a woman who may, after 1st January, 1871, acquire property to her separate use while under coverture — whether married before or after that date is immaterial — in which case her liability for all purposes of remedy against her, for breach of contract by her, or wrong or injury indicted by her, attaches to such property. But if, as here, the settlement was made before January, 1871, and the liability incurred by the wife after that date, the contract on which such settlement is based remains intact, and the property vested in the trustees of the settlement cannot be rendered available under the summary process of attachment. The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) 31 Aug 1872, p6 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/199375076

(Sep. 1881). Evidence was yesterday taken before the Chief Justice, in the Equity Court, in the suit of Cunningham and others v. Platt. It was an action brought by Mary Cunningham and her two sons, Alexander and Boyd Alexander Cunningham, infants, against Peter Platt, William Edward Power, John Cobain and Richard Gibbs (registrar of titles), to test the owner ship of an allotment of land at Sale, which was part of 5000 acres owned by Alexander Cunningham, who now resides in Scotland. The allotment in question adjoined a similar allotment, upon which was erected a house and several outbuildings, where the plaintiffs now reside.

In December, 1865, Alexander Cunningham gave by Scotch deed of arrangement his lands to one of the plaintiffs, Mary Cunningham, who now seeks to claim the adjoining allotment, on account of an error in the description of the eastern boundary of the land. The arguments in the cose were adjourned sine die. The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) 1 Sep 1881, p2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/201982611

(Nov 1881). SITTINGS IN EQUITY. (Before his Honour Mr. Justice Williams.) FRIDAY, NOV. 4. CUNNINGHAM V. PLATT.

Mr. A'Beckett and Mr. Topp for the plaintiffs. Mr. Lawes and Mr. Worthington for the defendant.

This was a suit instituted by Mary Cunningham and two of her sons to have a declaration that he was entitled to a portion of the Fulton estate in Gipps Land, known as lot 99.

His HONOUR in giving judgment, said this was a suit brought by the plaintiff, Mary Cunningham and two of her sons against the defendant, Peter Platt, for the purpose of having the defendant, Peter Platt, declared a trustee for the plaintiffs of a certain piece of land known as allotment 99, and which allotment formed portion of an estate known as the Fulton estate, situated in Gipps Land.

The facts and dates, so far as they were material to the point to be decided, were as follows -

Alexander Cunningham, a brother[-in-law] of the plaintiff, was the owner of the Fulton estate, and by a deed of settlement executed by him in Scotland on the 4th December,1865, gave to his nephew, William Boyd Cunningham, a son of the plaintiff, the whole of that estate, with the exception of "the dwelling house and offices and whole buildings connected therewith upon the Fulton," and also the field or portion of ground on which these stand, consisting of about 100 acres, bounded by Phillip Harris M'Ardells property on the west, by the public road from the township of Sale to the township of Maffra on the north, by the Government reserve lands and town common on the east, and by Flooden Creek on the south," and this excepted portion of the estate Alexander Cunningham, by the settlement gave to the plaintiff Mary during her life, and after her death to the other two plaintiffs, her children, and his nephews.

Alexander Cunningham had never been in this colony, and when preparing and executing the settlement all the information in regard to the Fulton estate as to acreage, description, and boundaries was furnished to him by, and taken by him from William Boyd Cunningham, who was then in Scotland on a visit to his uncle, the settler.

The greater portion of the Fulton estate was on the north side of the road from Sale to Maffra, the only portion of the Fulton estate to the south of that road was part of Allotment 100 and Allotment 99. Allotment 100 had been bought by the settler in 1854, and Allotment 99 in 1859 Thus in 1868, when the settlement was prepared and executed, the settler had been for many years the owner of both Allotment 100 and Allotment 99, and Wm Boyd Cuningham, who was with the settler in 1865, when the settlement was prepared and executed, and who supplied the settler with all the information as to metes and bounds, knew perfectly well the boundaries of Allotment 100 and Allotment 99, and the boundaries of the other portions of the Fulton estate.

Wm. Boyd Cuningham subsequently became insolvent, and then through the official assignee of his eatate sold and conveyed his interest under the settlement in the Fulton estate to Wm Edward Power, who mortgaged to the defendant, Platt.

For some years before the date of the settlement, and even since that date, allotment 100 south of the road, and allotment 99 have been continuously used and enjoyed as one block by the plaintiff, and there has been no division fence between them. The plaintiffs, in the fifth paragraph of their bill, allege that the excepted land comprised the whole of allotment 99, and that part of allotment 100 south of the road, that the two allotments were used as one block, and enclosed with one fence, and that the description of that land by metes and bounds, as contained in the settlement, was an accurate description of the whole of the land included within that one fence, and that the area of the land so included was 164 acres.

The defendant, Peter Platt, in paragraph 5 of his answer, admitted that the description in the settlement was an accurate description by metes and bounds of the part of allotment 100 south of the road, and of allotment 99. If no fence divided allotment 99 from that portion of allotment 100 he (Mr Justice Williams) found as a fact that no fence at the date of the settlement or since, or for some time previously to the settlement divided allotment 99 from the said portion of allotment 100.

The question to be decided on the above admission, and the facts as rated, was whether the plaintiffs are entitled to allotment 100 south of the road and allotment 99, or only to allotment 100 south of the road and not to allotment 99.

The plaintiff contended that she Is entitled to both, and that though the settlement was erroneous, and gave her less than she claimed, yet the description by metes and bounds, which was admitted by the defendant in his answer not only to be correct, but to include the two allotments, gave her both, that the description by metes and bounds should prevail, and that the description by acreage was mere falsa demonstratio, and, therefore, non nocet.

The plaintiff also claimed that as the answer and the evidence disclosed a latent ambiguity, the surrounding circumstances of the case might be referred to for the purpose of ascertaining what land the settler intended to except in Mary Cunningham's favour. He was clearly of opinion, without any doubt whatever, that the contention of the plaintiff was the correct one.

The case was so clear to his mind that he thought it unnecessary to elaborate his judgment, but he stated that where there was any conflict of evidence, or any material fact between W. B. Cunningham and the plaintiff and her other witnesses, he unhesitatingly discredited W B Cunningham. He made a decree in favour of the plaintiffs, with costs against the defendant. The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) 9 No 1881, p9 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/11523468

(1899). THE LONG TUNNEL MINE. A RETROSPECT. THE GENERAL MANAGER'S RETIREMENT.

The annals of Victorian gold mining do not furnish another such phenomenal record of prosperity as that enjoyed by the Long Tunnel gold mine, Walhalla. Mr. Ramsay Thomson, general manager since 1867, has, after 32 years' able and arduous service, laid down the reins of office, owing to continued ill-health, and his duties have temporarily devolved on Mr. R. E. Dawson, the secretary to the company for the last ten years. Mr. Thomson, however, retains the post of consulting engineer.

At this stage in the career of the company the time seems opportune for brief review of the work done at the mine. With Mr. Thomson's advent a progressive policy was entered upon. Shares then stood at £5, and, after the 100th dividend had been declared, the quotation was £189 per share — top price. The first dividend was declared on 7th November, I860, and the 100th on 7th September, 1878, when, as a memento of the event, the board presented Mr. Thomson with a handsome service of silver plate.

The board first appointed comprised Mr. Wm. Pearson, Messrs. E. J. and J. B. Firebrace, Wm. Gardner and W. B. Cunninghame. With the exception of Mr. Gardner (who is at present on a visit to England) none of the others are now living.

Gold was first struck on 4th February. 1868, at a depth of 140 feet, from the level of the chamber, and the first crushing, took place on 30th December, 1868. The returns from that period up to 6th January, 1899, furnish phenomenal figures. The stone crushed totalled 509,412 tons, yielding 669.477 oz. gold, of a total value of £2,315,700; 270 dividends have been paid, amounting to £509 5s. per share, or a total of £1,222,200. The general average of gold per ton throughout has been 1 oz. 6 dwt. 0.82 gr. Since the reef was struck at the 52 feet level on the outcrop of the old Walhalla company the lode has been most consistent, and almost unbroken. A depth of 2062 feet has now been attained. The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) 20 Feb 1899, p9 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/189682789

DEATH. 1919 ^[1] Middleton, Nova Scotia, Canada^[2][3]

Sources

1. ↑ 20 Feb 1899 is the date of the LONG TUNNEL MINE article which states that all members, with the exception of Gardner, of the first board - which included William Boyd Cuninghame - are no longer alive. The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954) 20 Feb 1899, p9 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/189682789
2. ↑ Canada Nova Scotia Death certificate 1919 District No. Six Municipality of the County of Annapolis p507 No.1377: "Cunningham William B - male 78y single[sic] - d. Aug 30th 1919 Middleton - b. England[sic] - chronic nephritis & catarah - buried. Pine Grove, Middleton"
3. ↑ Commissary Clerk of Edinburgh under the Sheriff Courts Act, 1876. Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories: "CUNINGHAME, William Boyd, formerly of The Pavilion, Ardrossan, thereafter residing at Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, late of Kelmarsh Farm, Middleton, Nova Scotia, died 30 August 1919, at Middleston aforesaid, testate. Confirmation granted at Edinburgh, 10 June [1920] to Boyd Alexander Cuninghame, Kelmarsh Farm aforesaid, his brother, Executor nominated in Will or Deed and Codicil, dated 28 January 1918 and 6 March 1919, and recorded in Court Books of Commissariat of Edinburgh, 9 June 1920. Value of Estate £397 16s 7d. Eik granted 22 June to above Executor. Value of Additional Estate, £700."

• Birth Notice: The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser (NSW : 1838 - 1841) 13 Oct 1940, p3 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/32185794

• Marriage Notice: The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) 12 Aug 1867, p4 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/5774875

• Insolvency: Gippsland Times (Vic. : 1861 - 1954) 9 Oct 1869, p2 http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/61344084