Cunningham Memorial

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A sandstone memorial in a Classical style comprising a tall pedestal of square section with moulded cornice and inscribed panels, standing on a large moulded base, and surmounted by an ornamentally treated stone vase.

The stonework bears the traces of reddish pink paint. Each face of the pedestal has an inscribed panel, as follows.

South face: “This monument is dedicated to the memory of Samuel Cunningham Esq. as a testimony of the affection of his surviving relatives and a tribute of the gratitude and esteem of the people of this parish.”

East face: “He was born at Crookedstone in this parish where he spent the early part of a blameless life. He acquired a knowledge of business in the town of Belfast, which he afterwards successfully and honourably pursued for some years in the West Indies. Being desirous to revisit his native country he was returning home on the Portland Packet when she was attacked by a French privateer and in which engagement he was killed on the 18th October 1796 in the 28th year of his age, whilst bravely assisting the ship’s company to maintain their liberty and the honour of the British flag. His mortal remains are interred in the Island of Montserrat near which the action was fought.”

North face: “With a degree of prudence unusual at so early an age and prophetic of the melancholy catastrophe which terminated his life he settled his worldly affairs before he left St Vincent. Providence had largely blessed his endeavours and he did not prove an unfaithful steward. He remembered the country that gave him birth: ‘And the poor that shall never cease out of the land’. Among other charitable donations he bequeathed one hundred pounds to the Poor-House of Belfast; also two hundred pounds, British, to the poor of this parish, from which, a handsome annual sum is secured to them in landed property for ever.”

West face: “The memory of the just is blessed. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; they rest from their labours and their works do follow them. He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord. Frail man! His days are as the grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth for the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more. But we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle, were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For this corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality. As it is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The memorial is enclosed by plain iron railings with larger chamfered corner posts surmounted by fluted finials; posts to north west and south-west corners missing, but all finials intact. Ground area within railings is concrete.

SETTING: The memorial stands in a grassed area within the churchyard of Killead Presbyterian church, just to the north of the church itself, and is easily visible from the public roads.

Historical information

Erected in 1796 to the memory of Samuel Cunningham who was killed in 1796 at the age of 28 while returning home from the West Indies. His remains are interred on the island of Montserrat.
Cunningham was born at Crookedstone in the parish of Killead and had bequeathed a sum of £200 to the poor of the parish, £100 of which was used by his friends to build this monument, a circumstance which gave rise to some later criticism.

References – Primary Sources
1. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 35: Parishes of County Antrim XIII, 1833, 1835, 1838 (Belfast, 1996), pp 12, 20, 39, 44, 46.
2. S. Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), p 134.
Secondary Sources
1. W.D. Weir and H. Campbell, Presbyterianism in Killead 1630-1980 (1980), pp 28-9, and 32.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a well proportioned late 18th century memorial in a plain Classical style of some local interest which enjoys a pleasant setting in a rural churchyard. It has group value with the Church (HB20/14/008A) and railings (HB20/14/008B).