Robert Cuninghame, 1st Baron Rossmore

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Robert Cuninghame, 1st Baron Rossmore (born April 18, 1726 , † August 6, 1801 ) was a British army officer and politician.

Life

Robert Cuninghame was the eldest son of David Cuninghame. He attended Edinburgh University and originally studied law. In September 1745, however, he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and joined the Edinburgh Volunteers to defend Edinburgh against the advancing Jacobite army . In 1746 he took part in the Battle of Culloden . In the further course of his military career, he served in various regiments. On May 29, 1754 he married Elizabeth Murray, daughter of Irish MP John Murray, and consequently settled in Ireland. The marriage remained childless. In 1757 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and then in 1762 to colonel . Cuninghame was governor of Charles Fort at Kinsale from 1770 . In 1772 he was promoted to major-general , in 1777 to lieutenant-general and finally in 1793 to general . As such, he held the post of Commander-in-Chief, Ireland , the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in Ireland from 1793 to 1796 .

In addition to his military career, Cuninghame was an ambitious politician. He was a member of the Irish House of Commons from 1751 to 1796 , was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1782 and sat from 1788 to 1789 for the constituency of East Grinstead in the British House of Commons . The latter was originally represented by his brother James . However, he died in 1788. On October 19, 1796 he was raised to Baron Rossmore in the Peerage of Ireland and thus a member of the Irish House of Lords . When the Irish Parliament was dissolved by the Act of Union 1800 , he was elected as the Irish Representative Peer in the British House of Lords . Since he had no children and his brother had already died in 1788, Warner William Westenra succeeded him as second Baron Rossmore due to a special inheritance regulation, which in this case took into account the nephews of his wife Elizabeth .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b R. Thorne (ed.): Entry on Warner William Westenra in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820 (1986)
predecessor Office successor
New title created Baron Rossmore
1796-1801 		Warner William Westenra
personal data
SURNAME Cuninghame, Robert, 1st Baron Rossmore
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cuninghame, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Army officer and politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1726
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1801