Hugh Bruce Cunningham

Who was Hugh Bruce Cunningham?

The Revd Hugh Bruce Cunningham was a colourful but ruthless Scottish dominie or minister who was excommunicated by order of the Pope for heresy and for "inflicting great slaughter in battle". He and his son, Roderick, both refused knighthoods from King George III. He may have been one of the first people to decline a British honour.

According to legend, Cunningham was the direct descendant of a Norwegian Thane or King of great power and influence whose descendants sailed across the North Sea to Scotland in the 16th century. However, it is almost certain he was really the descendant of Alexander Cunningham, 1st Earl of Glencairn, and a close relative of The Rt Revd Gabriel Cunningham, Moderator of the Church of Scotland a few decades before his birth. His father was The Revd Donald Cunningham, a ruthlessly strict dominie or minister and his wife Isobel Gordon. Hugh was "of a fiery disposition", as ruthless as his father, and "if wronged would soundly thrash his foe then forgive him". He married Helen Bruce.