William Cunninghame

William Cunninghame of Lainshaw (1731–1799) was a Scottish merchant and leading Tobacco Lord who headed one of the major Glasgow syndicates that came to dominate the transatlantic tobacco trade. Most of the tobacco shipped from North American slave plantations was sold to France. He later also made a further fortune stockpiling tobacco bought at keen prices shortly before the American Revolution, assuming that Great Britain would not be able to retain control over her rebellious colonies, and then selling at high prices. Cunninghame's (much altered and expanded) neo-classical house on Glasgow's Queen Street today houses the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art.

Early life Cunninghame was born in 1715 in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, into a prosperous merchant family. He was a blood relative of Andrew Cochrane of Brighouse (1693–1777), who was one of Glasgow's most respected Lord Provosts. Family ties were of great importance in helping to build Cunninghame's growing fortune. Cunninghame, like the other Glasgow merchants, extended credit to the growers enabling them to buy goods from the company store before their tobacco was sold at market. However, many growers found themselves deeply in debt and thereby forced to accept low prices for their crop. Cunninghame was known to offer prices as much as 10% below market value to distressed growers.

American Revolution Cunninghame made an even greater fortune from the tobacco scarcity caused by the American War of Independence.

Like many wealthy Glasgow merchants, Cunninghame used some of his profits to buy a country estate.

Legacy Today Cunninghame's neo classical palace on Glasgow's Queen Street houses the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art.