Clan Chief

Clan Chief

We continually embark on new activities, programs, and projects. Some of our previous competed tasks include the granite monument to our last Clan Chief and 15th Earl of Glencairn, John Cunningham, which we commissioned, placed and dedicated on November 25, 2003 in Edinburgh. Today our Clan Chief is Sir John Christopher Foggo Montgomery Cuninghame, Baronet of Corsehill. After centuries with no Clan Chief the decision to appoint a chief was finally decided on the 17th of September 2014 by Lord Lyon Sellar.

Clan Cunningham, through CCG and CCSA, has recently made impressive strides in increasing the public’s awareness of the legacy of Clan Cunningham. This has mainly been through attendance at various Scottish Highland Games, and advertising books that highlight the key roles Clan Cunningham has often made in shaping Scottish history. See, for example, the must-read ground-breaking research in Scotland & Shakespeares Third Prophecy, which was published by our High Commissioner Dr. Derek Cunningham.

Since then we have discovered that the Clan Cunningham coat of arms is linked to the death of Pope-elect Robert Cunningham de Somercotes, who died in the year 1241. This new data now confirms the first appearance of the Clan Coat of arms, which was an undivided Bishop Pall Y was after the events of Prince Malcolm, and our original coat of arms is not derived from the act of hiding Malcolm under a pile of hay. It was only later, perhaps after the 16th century, that the Shakefork Y first appeared.

However, despite this substantial change to Clan history, the surviving data does still suggest our early ancestors did play a role in the events surrounding Macbeth and Prince Malcolm’s rescue and his subsequent journey to Craven in Yorkshire.

Today, we continue to make our presence known by joining in friendship and common cause with Cunninghams from our own neighborhoods, to the land of our ancestors, and those to which they travelled, fought, loved and died. All that we do at Clan Cunningham Global is designed to serve, preserve, discover, restore, document, protect and share our rich ancient history and Clan heritage. Clan Cunningham Global distributes our informative and entertaining quarterly newsletter, packed with  original in-depth research to current members around the world.

In addition to the establishment of our own historical and genealogical libraries, CCG has chosen the Ellen Payne Odom Genealogical Library in Moultrie, Georgia to act as a repository for those materials meticulously collected over the years. The Odom Library is recognized as a leading repository for Scottish clan organizations across America and contains the genealogy and history of over one hundred clans.

CCG also presented the current owners of Finlaystone with the Glencairn Arms which resides there, thanks to their generosity, as an historical marker at Finlaystone House in Langbank, Scotland. Finlaystone Country Estate was the home of the Earls of Glencairn and the Clan Cunningham Chiefs for over 400 years and is currently owned and inhabited by George MacMillan, Chief of Clan MacMillan and is open to the public.