William Cuninghame

William Cunninghame was a Scottish tobacco merchant who made a fortune in tobacco during the American War of Independence.

His first visit to America occurred in 1746 while he was working as an apprentice in the firm of Cochrane, Murdoch & Company. His professional rise was darting – in 1750 he became a manager, in 1752 he took the supreme charge of all the company’s settlements in Virginia, and in 1762 he returned to Glasgow as principal partner and manager in the Cochrane concern. By the early 1770s, the company which was named William Cuninghame & Company was among the city's five largest importers. Cuninghame also owned a share in Maryland tobacco enterprises and had considerable industrial investments in Glasgow.

During the American War of Independence he was able to sell supplies of tobacco for a high price thanks to the wise accumulation of supplies in peacetime. He made a fortune that way.

Cunninghame was retired from business in 1780 when he was not yet fifty years old and devoted himself to land acquisition and building projects. The most famous is his celebrated Queen Street mansion, which is today an integral part of the Gallery of Modern Art.

In 1778 he invested a large sum of many for the acquisition of the landed estate of Lainshaw, in Ayrshire, and the following year he completed his rise to the wealthy landed gentry by registering his family coat-of-arms at the office of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh.