| Authorised form of name | Cuming; Sir; Alexander (c 1690 - 1775) |
| Other forms of surname | Cumming |
| Dates | c 1690 - 1775 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Edinburgh |
| Date of birth | 18 December 1691 |
| Place of death | Charterhouse hospital, London |
| Date of death | 20 August 1775 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
The church of East Barnet, Hertfordshire |
| Activity | Education:
Middle Temple (admitted 1716)
Career:
Captain in the Earl of Mar's Regiment of Foot (1703-1713); called to the Scottish Bar (1714); in the secret service of the Crown (1718-1721); rumoured to have been a Captain in the Russian Army; went to America to visit the Cherokee Mountains because of a dream of his wife's (1729); made a Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1730); returned to England with five Cherokee chiefs, whom he presented to George II (1730); signed a peace treaty with the Cherokees on behalf of the British nation; Captain of an Independent Company in Jamaica (1734); accused of defrauding settlers while in South Carolina, he lost all his money and was imprisoned for debt in the Fleet Prison (1737-1765); his plans for settling 300,000 Jewish families in the Cherokee Mountains, for paying off the National Debt and for relieving the American colonies of taxation came to nothing; a Poor Brother of the Charterhouse (1766-death)
|
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 30/06/1720 |
| Relationships | Son of Sir Alexander Cuming, Bart, of Culter, Aberdeenshire, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Alexander Swinton; succeeded his father as 2nd Bart; married Amy, daughter of Lancelot Whitehall, Commissioner of the Customs for Scotland |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; MT; Dalton
Notes:
Birth date given as 18 December 1691 in his manuscript autobiography at British Library, BL Add. MS 39855
Proposed by John Theophilus Desaguliers. Ejected for non-payment of arrears (Journal Book 9 Jun 1757). Alternative spelling of name from DNB. Buried 28 Aug 1775 - his death date has been extrapolated from that. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/306074487 |
| Code | NA8401 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| MS/390/188 | Bond of Alexander Cuming to the Treasurer of the Royal Society | 7 July 1720 |