According to the tradition of this Cunningham family, it dates its principal accession of fortune from the days of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland. When that prince was flying from the emissaries of the usurper Macbeth, who, having murdered his father, Duncan, sought to kill him also, he was so hotly pressed, that he was obliged to take refuge in the barn of Malcolm, son of Friskin, the ancestor of the Cunninghams, who on being informed by the prince of his danger, bade him at once place himself under some straw which lay in the barn, and to which he commenced making additions from another heap with a pitching fork, continually calling out to the companion who assisted him in his labor, 'Over, fork over'. To the pursuers, who asked whether he had seen anything of the prince, he replied in the negative. At a later period, when Malcolm Canmore had overcome and slain Macbeth, the grateful prince bestowed on his preserver the Thanedom of Cunninghame, with permission to take the name of Cunningham, and to assume for arms a shakefork, with the moto, 'Over, fork over.' A sixth great-grandfather of mine was Barnett Cunningham Jr. He was born in Ireland and descended from Scotland. I can travel further to a first cousin thirty-two times removed, Mac Bethad mac Findlaích (MacBeth), King of Scots (named above), and his grandfather, my thirty-second great grandfather, Malcolm II "The Destroyer" King of Scots. Although I am linked to Cunninghams/Cuninghames/Conynghames of Scotland several different ways, any path through Barnett is blocked currently. I do not yet know his ancestry. This is why I found the passage above incredibly intriguing. I am on the hunt for more information about my direct Cunninghams, their history in Scotland, and from whom they descend.
