Waddell Cunningham
CUNNINGHAM, WADDELL (1729–1797), MERCHANT AND POLITICIAN
Waddell Cunningham (1729 - 1797) was wealthy merchant and civic leader in late eighteenth-century Belfast, Ireland, who, both in his business ventures and political interventions, was opposed by the nascent democratic spirit of his time. He cut a liberal figure as a patron of the Belfast Charitable Society and its Poor House; as a commander of the Volunteer patriot militia; and as a subscriber to the costs of erecting Belfast's first Catholic chapel.