CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM (1805-1861), Scottish theo logian and ecclesiastic, was born at Hamilton, Lanarkshire, on Oct. 2, 1805, and educated at the University of Edinburgh. In 1834 he received the charge of Trinity college parish, Edinburgh. In the stormy discussions which preceded the Disruption, he was a powerful advocate of the cause of the Free Church. On its formation in 1843 Cunningham was appointed professor of Church history and divinity in the New college, Edinburgh, of which he became principal in 1847 in succession to Thomas Chalmers. In 1859 he was appointed moderator of the General Assembly. He died on Dec. 14, 1861. He was one of the found ers of the Evangelical Alliance. The Cunningham theological lectureship at the New College, Edinburgh, was endowed in 1862.
See Rainy and Mackenzie, Life of Cunningham (1871) .