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213. John Cunningham, Sr. (Married Isabelle (Mary) ? (214) before 1753. [Note there is confusion in his wife's name. The document Buffalo Presbyterian Church and Cemetery Greensboro, North Carolina compiled by Raymond Dufau Donnell, March 1996 p. 72 states his wife was Mary. History of Buffalo Presbyterian Church and her People, Greensboro, N.C. by Rev. S. M. Rankin page 23 states that his wife's name was Mary. But, “Guilford County Pioneers: The Cunningham Family” by Donald R. Simpson, published in The Guilford Genealogist, Vol. 27, No. 4 Fall 2000, Issue No. 91, pgs 204-210 states that John's will refers to her as Isabelle.]

Born: ? of Unknown father (425) and Unknown mother (426)

Died: 1762; His will was made on 8 March 1762 and probated in July 1762. He is buried at Buffalo Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Greensboro, North Carolina. The document Buffalo Presbyterian Church and Cemetery Greensboro, North Carolina compiled by Raymond Dufau Donnell, March 1996 p. 71 explains that for some church members, grave markers no longer exist. Specific sites are no longer known. Burials were in the center section, at the old section of the cemetery. Page 72 states "Cunningham, John Sr. Husband of Mary. Nottingham Company pioneer."]

 

[His siblings, if any, are unknown]. There was a James Cunningham who came to Guilford, North Carolina from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and who had children of about the same age as John. But it is unknown whether or not he was related to John. (Source: “Guilford County Pioneers: The Cunningham Family” by Donald R. Simpson, published in The Guilford Genealogist, Vol. 27, No. 4 Fall 2000, Issue No. 91, pgs 204-210.

Miscellaneous:

He secured his section of 640 acres on the Reedy Fork, near what is the Hardie Mill.

John is listed as a member of the Nottingham Colony that settled in Guilford County, North Carolina. The following is quoted from History of Buffalo Presbyterian Church and her People, Greensboro, N.C. by Rev. S. M. Rankin pgs 14 & 15 about the Nottingham Colony:

"This community was first settled by members of the Nottingham Colony, a company organized and formed in the bounds of the old Nottingham Presbyterian Church at Rising Sun, Md. That church was in Lancaster County, Pa. , when our ancestors left there, and until the line between Maryland and Pennsylvania was changed in 1767.

The Nottingham Company sent out agents and had surveyed and secured rights from Earl Granville to thirty-three plots or sections of six hundred and forty acres to the section, ‘lying and being on the waters of North Buffalo and Reedy Fork Creeks.’ That this company could secure so large a tract of land, 21,120 acres, in a body shows there were no settlers in this community before this colony came. The fact that there were thirty-three plots laid out for the company would suggest that there were thirty-three families in the company, and there may have been. However, all did not take their plots, and others secured more than one plot. Others, who were perhaps members of the company and not prepared to come with the colony, came a little later and located on their sections in the bounds of the colony. There must have been about nineteen families in the company that actually located here.

Earl Granville did not sell the land outright to them, but retained an interest in it. The contract was more like a perpetual lease. They paid only a nominal sum to bind the trade, and after that they were to pay an annual rent of three shillings per hundred acres; and they were required to make improvements on the land. The rent was to be paid in two equal semi-annual installments, one ‘on the day of the feast of the annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,‘ and the other ‘on the day of the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel.’ These days must have been in the spring and fall, for other deeds called for the payment on the 25th of March and the 29th of September. All the deeds did not have the rent and other conditions specified, but they must have been in the first contract, which is not on record, and well understood, for in no case was the cash payment more than a few shillings. Some of the grants specified that ‘if the rent is unpaid and behind six months, then the contract is void and of none effect.’ Other grants specified that the owners were to have ‘the privilege of hunting, hawking, fishing and fowling.’

The exact date of the coming of this colony cannot now be established. Dr. Caruthers relates that about the time Dr. Caldwell began to study for the ministry, or soon thereafter, this company was being organized and making arrangements to come to North Carolina, and that they made a tentative agreement with him that when he obtained license to preach he would come and be their pastor. This does not fix the exact date of their coming. Dr. Caldwell decided to study for the ministry in the latter part of 1750. It may have been 1751 when this agreement was made. They may have come here in 1752 and failed to get their grants of land until 1753. However, all things considered, it appears to the writer that they did not come until the summer of 1753. The deeds are all dated December, 1753. After they had decided to come and the company organized it would have required some time for them to collect all the necessary equipment and provisions to set up housekeeping and to begin farming in a wilderness.

Some came bringing large families with them, others were newly married couples seeking to establish new homes in a new place, and some were young men trying to find a suitable location before getting married. Some were the children of the first settlers in Pennsylvania, and some were new immigrants from Ireland who were not permitted to buy land in Pennsylvania.'"

Page 22 of History of Buffalo Presbyterian Church and her People, Greensboro, N.C. by Rev. S. M. Rankin, lists the members of the Nottingham Colony: “James Barr, Thomas Beals, George Black, John Blair, John Cummings, John Cunningham [213], Robert Donnell [probably 209's uncle], Thomas Donnell [probably 209's uncle] , Hugh Foster, John McClintock [possibly 212's father], James McQuiston, Robert McQuiston, Thomas McQuiston, Adam Mitchell (429), Robert Mitchell, John Nicks, Robert Rankin, Samuel Scott and Andrew Wilson.”

According to History of Buffalo Presbyterian Church and her People, Greensboro, N.C. by Rev. S. M. Rankin page 23, “John Cuningham secured his section of 640 acres on the Reedy Fork, near what is now the Hardie Mill. His wife was Mary, and their children were Jean, James, Joseph, Jeremiah, William, Hugh, John Jr. (107), Mary, and perhaps others.”

But, according to “Guilford County Pioneers: The Cunningham Family” by Donald R. Simpson, published in The Guilford Genealogist, Vol. 27, No. 4 Fall 2000, Issue No. 91, pgs 204-210, much of this paragraph from Rankin’s book is in question. According to Simpson’s article, John Sr. made a will on 8 March, 1762, that was probated at Rowan County Court in July 1762 (Original Wills of Rowan County, N.C., in the N.C. State archive). In it he left his property to this wife, Isabelle Cunningham, and his daughters, Margaret and Jane, except for his wearing apparel, which he left to George Finley. He also stated that “it is my will and desire that if my wife, Isabell, should now be with child by me, and it should be a son, I also give him all my lands and tenements with a fourth part of my moveable estate, and if should be a daughter, to have the one fourth part of all my goods, chattels, lands and tenements.” "As Executors, he named his wife, Isabell, Thomas Donnell and William Denny, and the will was witnessed by Robert Erving, Francis Tharp and Adam Beard." [Note: Simpson states that the only documented children of John Sr. and Isabelle are Jane, Margaret, and John Jr. (#107). Jane is probably Jean.]

"At the Rowan Court of 13 July, 1763, it was ordered that Thomas Donnell, William Denny, Hugh Brawley & George Hamilton 'do lay off and value according to law one acre of land belonging to the orphans of John Cunningham on the South Fork of Haw River, unto John Boyd, Junr., to build a public grist mill thereon & make return thereof to our next court.' John Boyd's Mill was located on Reedy Fork [i.e. South Fork] of Haw River just west of George Finley's Mill and near the present bridge for U.S. Hwy. 29. This land, from which the Boyd Mill tract was taken, continued to be held by John Cunningham, Jr. In 1785, he sold part of it to Samuel Thompson by deed which gives the bounds as including "John Cunningham's line through Boud's [=Boyd's ] old mill pond." [Note: The above passage refers to John Sr.'s children as orphans, which means that his wife died prior to 13 July 1763. She may have died in childbirth with John Cunningham, Jr. who was born in 1763. John Sr. died before John Jr. was born. It is not known who raised John and his siblings.]

In Guilford County, North Carolina Land Grants 1778-1934, by Elizabeth "Pat" Shaw Bailey, 2001, John Cunningham's property is referred to numerous times after his death. [Note: John Sr. died in 1762, but the land continued to be held by his son John Cunningham Jr.]. Page 7 states that David Brown was granted 40 acres (Entry date: 16 May 1815 Location: "wtrs Reedy Fork/Haw River- Cunningham - John Milloway". ) Page 42 states that Edward Loney was granted 300 acres (Entry date 18 Nov. 1778) Location: head Cunningham Branch of Reedy Fork - Thomas Blair. Page 48 states that John McKibbin was granted 160 acres (Entry date: 20 Feb. 1779) Location: "South side Haw River at Cunninghams line". Page 58 states that Isaac Relph? (Ralph) was granted 50 acres (Entry date: 8 Feb. 1798) Location: "wtrs Haw Rvr - Geo Nelson-Cunningham-Loney-Person." Page 69 states that Robert Thompson was granted two parcels of land. The first was 100 acres (Entry date: 30 Sept. 1789) Location: "waters Reedy Fork - begin at John Cunningham's corner." The second was 130 acres (Entry date: 21 July 1794) Location: "wtrs Reedy Fork - John Cuningham -Robt Thompson decd." Page 75 states that Andrew Willson was granted 311 acres (Entry date: 1 Apr. 1779) Location: "on the Haw River - Cunningham line-Widow Wilson."

 

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