David Cunningham of Auchenharvie
David Cunningham of Auchenharvie (died 1659) was a Scottish landowner and royal courtier who managed money for Charles I from London, while owning Auchenharvie Castle in Scotland.
He was part of a circle around Sir Adam Newton, who lived near Greenwich. After Henry Frederick’s death, Newton and Cunningham kept collecting incomes from Wales and the Duchy to fund Prince Charles’s household. When Charles became king, this income continued as a separate source for his royal household. In 1618 Cunningham even paid the wages of court musicians.
Cunningham wrote many letters to his Scottish cousin, also named David Cunningham, giving advice about estate business and family matters. He discussed taking Newton’s son on an educational trip to France. When Adam Newton died in 1629, Cunningham and Peter Newton served as executors to rebuild St Luke’s Church at Charlton, and Cunningham’s arms are carved on its pulpit.
As king Charles I’s revenue manager for Wales and the Duchy, Cunningham handled various payments, such as £100 in 1633 for keeping horses. Some of his accounts survive in major archives and include wages for artists and armourers, payments for a royal barber, park improvements, and old debts from the funeral of James I.
The master mason Nicholas Stone called Cunningham a “great good friend” and helped him fund monuments, including those for Adam Newton’s relatives. Cunningham also dealt with business matters for Newton’s daughters and their husbands. In 1629 he injured himself playing football and around the same time was ordered to supervise building work at Berkhamsted Place.
He bought clothes in London for his cousin to wear in the coronation visit of Charles I in 1633 and urged frugality, though he recognized the importance of appearances during such a grand event. He helped educate Scottish aristocrats and was involved in arranging trips to London for young nobles.
In 1636 he accompanied the court to Oxford and described a masque that symbolically reconciled Catholics and Protestants. He may have helped build a house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, later known as Lindsey House, which he sold in 1641. The house is linked to the designers Inigo Jones and Nicolas Stone.
Cunningham continued to manage royal education and expenses, paying wages for the royal children in 1639 and buying books in 1641 for the Prince and the Duke of York. He also acted as a supervisor of wills and was entrusted with special funds for Scotland.
By the 1640s he was one of the large landowners in Ayrshire. After the Royalist defeat at Worcester in 1651, he was imprisoned in Chester Castle. He died in 1659 and was buried at Charlton, where he had helped restore the church.
In his will he listed debt owed to him at about £30,000 and debts he owed at about £6,000. A later dispute over his estate led to multiple administrations being granted and contested years after his death.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 03:35 (CET).