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Hugh Cunningham (1760 - 1824)

Hugh Cunningham
Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvaniamap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married 15 Sep 1774 in Rowan, North Carolinamap
Husband of — married 10 Feb 1780 in Rowan County, North Carolinamap
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 64 in Rowan, North Carolina, United States of Americamap
Profile last modified | Created 15 Jul 2014
This page has been accessed 1,644 times.

Contents

Biography

1776 Project
Hugh Cunningham served with North Carolina Militia during the American Revolution.

Conjecture: There are multiple people by the name of Hugh Cunningham. There are contemporary families of Cunningham in Pennsylvania and North Carolina using similar names. This Profiles deals with a Hugh Cunningham that lived much of his life in North Carolina, participated in the Revolutionary War and died in North Carolina. Some of the detail of his life is derived from the Pension Application submitted by his wife, Mary Kent, in 1844. This Application included a copy of their Marriage Certificate. [1]

Facts Identified from the Application

The Application was submitted, by Mary Kent (as Mary Cunningham), on 3 August 1844 to an acting justice of the peace (a Simon Bird) in Greene County, Missouri. Mary was clearly alive at this point. It was submitted in order to obtain the widows pension benefit of the 3rd Section of the act of Congress approved the 4th of July 1836. In it she states:

  • She was formerly Mary Kent and was, at the time of the application, 80 years old (which implies a birth year of 1764).
  • She is the widow of Hugh Cunningham and that he was "a soldier in the War of the Revolution [and] that he entered the service of the United States on the 1st of April 1780 as a volunteer for three months, from Rowan County, North Carolina, under Captain Joseph M. Cunningham, Major Lopp and Colonel Craig".
  • She provides detail of his service, of note; His first tour of duty was from 1 April 1780 and was for three months and returned home; after a short period he was recalled for service which lasted 2 months, with the same officers, after which he returned home; he was recalled on 1 September 1780 and continued almost constantly in service until January 1782; he was at the Battle of Cowpens under Captain Cunningham, Major Lopp and Colonel Craig and General Morgan; he was at "a small skirmish under Major Merrill who made an attack upon Colonel Tarleton on the Adkin [sic, Yadkin] River at a place called the old Trading Ford and here [Major] Merrill was taken by the Tories and hung"; and he was discharged from service, by General Davidson, but the discharge paper had been lost.
  • She stated "that she was married to the said Hugh Cunningham, by the name of Mary Kent, in Rowan County, North Carolina about the 1st of March 1780 [a copy of the original marriage license, copied in the source, states the 10th day of February 1780] and that said Cunningham died in Rowan County, North Carolina on the 20th of September 1824 that she has never married again but is now and continues to be a widow."
  • She signed with her mark (an X) suggested she could not write nor likely read.

Marriages

Hugh married Mary Kent on 10 Feb 1780.[2][3][4]

The same source (Marriages of Rowan County, North Carolina) provides that a Hugh Cunningham married Elizabeth Smith, on 15 September 1774, at Rowan County.[5] It has been assumed that Elizabeth must have died prior to 1780.

Death

Hugh Cunningham died, in Rowan County, North Carolina, on 20th of September 1824.[6] He left a Will, dated 1817.[7] His Will names:

  • Daughters: Elizabeth, Mariam, Susanna and Nancy, all named as Cunningham, and are, presumably, daughters of Mary Kent. They are not married in 1817.
  • Daughters; Mary Yarbrough, Ruth Pinkerton, Martha More, Jani Huffman, Alse Howard.
  • Sons: Josiah, Noah, Hugh. Another son, John, is also mentioned in the Will but his benefit is half of the former named, implying he was not a son of Mary Kent.
  • Hugh Cunningham is the major beneficiary, implying he was the eldest of the sons by Mary Kent.

Family

Although no original source records have been found, to date, for the births of the children, the Will suggests that Hugh had the following children, that survived until 1817.

With Elizabeth Smith:

  • Mary Cunningham, m. Yarbrough,
  • Ruth Cunningham, m. Pinkerton,
  • Martha Cunningham, m More,
  • Jani Cunningham, m. Huffman,
  • Alse Cunningham, m. Howard, and
  • John Cunningham.

With Mary Kent:

  • Elizabeth Cunningham,
  • Mariam Cunningham,
  • Susanna Cunningham,
  • Nancy Cunningham,
  • Josiah Cunningham,
  • Noah Cunningham, and
  • Hugh Cunningham, likely the eldest son by Mary Kent.



Sources

  1. Pension application of Hugh Cunningham W9820; transcribed by Will Graves, submitted by Mary Kent. A copy can be located at this site.
  2. Marriages of Rowan County, North Carolina, 1753-1868, page 97
  3. Widows Pension Records-Photostat in possession of Jon P Czarowitz and noted at this site.
  4. Family Search Site; Marriage of Cunningham and Kent
  5. Family Search record of Hugh Cunningham and Elizabeth Smith
  6. Pension application of Hugh Cunningham W9820; transcribed by Will Graves, submitted by Mary Kent. A copy can be located at this site.
  7. Will Book G Rowan County North Carolina (Elizabeth Maxwell Steele Chapter, DAR, Salisbury, NC, 1970), Page 292. Photostat in possession of Jon P Czarowitz Citing Will book G, pages 486-488.
  • Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 15 Mar 2018), "Record of CUNNINGHAM, HUGH", Ancestor # A028626.
  • Marriages of Rowan County, North Carolina, 1753-1868, page 97; Publication available at Google Books, by Brent H Holcomb Genealogical Pu Co, Inc ; Baltimore, MD 1981
  • "North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979 ," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XFSV-888 ), Hugh Cunningham and Mary Kent, 10 Feb 1780; citing Rowan, North Carolina, United States, p. , Office of Archives and History, Division of Archives and Records. State Archive of North Carolina and various county Register of Deeds; FHL microfilm 500,949.




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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Hugh by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Hugh:

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.



Comments: 6

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Was Hugh Cunningham married prior to his marriage to Elizabeth Smith? If Martha Cunningham Moore was his daughter either her birth date is in error or her mother was a first? wife of Hugh Cunningham.
posted by Linda Hope
If you believe the 1860 birth then Hugh would have married at age 14 to Elizabeth Smith in North Carolina.
posted by Jon Czarowitz
A merge has been completed for the duplicate Hugh Cunninghams however this profile has some questionable birth dates. For example, Hugh Cunningham was born 1760 but his oldest child Alse Cunningham was born 1764.
Cunningham-5520 and Cunningham-3309 appear to represent the same person because: Both married Elizabeth Smith and both married Mary Kent.

However there is no way that he married Elizabeth Smith with birth date of 1760. It has been disproven that he was son of Joseph Sr of PA. Marriage to Elizabeth was 15 Sep 1774. She was born in abt 1754 - 1756 to have been marrying age. 3 Hugh's were in PA and all 3 served in REV WAR and received pensions there and never left PA. The 1754 birth date has been the agreed upon conclusion of date without further proof available.

posted by Jon Czarowitz
If the birth date was 1760 then he would have been 14 on 1774 which is not logical. A more reasonable date of 1754 was selected.

This made him and Elizabeth 20 at the marriage date of 1774-09-15.

posted by Jon Czarowitz
Hugh married Elizabeth Smith on 1774-09-15 in Rowan County, NC. She died prior to 1780-02-10. She bore he following children:

Alse Cunningham Howard; Mary Cunningham; Martha Cunningham; John Cunningham; and Ruth Cunningham. The remaining 13 children were from the marriage to Mary Kent on 1780-02-10. Both marriages were from the Rowan County Marriage Book. .

posted by Jon Czarowitz