John Cunningham (; – 9 December 1651) was a Scottish nobleman, explorer,
Dano-Norwegian naval captain, and
Governor of Finnmark.
Biography
In 1605, Cunningham became captain of the 60-ton Danish naval ship . Along with the 70-ton and the 20-ton , the ships were directed by the Danish King,
Christian IV
Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years and 330 days is the longest in Scandinavian history.
A member of the H ...
, to re-establish contact with the
Norse settlements in Greenland
Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a Medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries.
Norse may also refer to:
Culture and religion
* Nors ...
, the first of
three annual expeditions sent between 1605 and 1607. Cunningham served as the chief commander, following the piloting of
James Hall and commanding
Godske Lindenov in the ''Løven'' and
John Knight in the ''Katten''.
During the Lindenov expedition of 1606, Cunningham served as the captain of the ''Løven'' under Lindenov's command. In 1615, Cunningham was among the commanders aboard the naval expedition under
Gabriel Kruse sent to
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...
to demand tolls from foreign whalers. There, Cunningham encountered
Robert Fotherby,
Thomas Edge
Thomas Edge (1587/88 – 29 December 1624) was an English merchant, whaler, and sealer who worked for the Muscovy Company in the first quarter of the 17th century. The son of Ellis Edge, Thomas Edge was born in the parish of Blackburn in Lancas ...
, and
Adriaen Block
Adriaen Courtsen Block (c. 1567 – 27 April 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four voyages ...
. The following year, he captained the ''Gabriel'' as part of the naval expedition under Jørgen Daa sent to rid the coasts of Norway, the
Faeroes, and Iceland of illegal whalers and pirates.
In 1619, Cunningham was made
Governor of Finnmark in the far north, a post he retained until his death in 1651. There, he presided over 52 witch trials, nine of which afflicted the
Sami population.
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, John
17th-century explorers
17th-century Scottish people
1570s births
1651 deaths
17th-century Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy officers
British explorers of the Arctic
Scottish explorers
Year of birth uncertain