Involved in the murder of the Earl of Eglinton in 1585, Cunningham spent some time in exile at the royal court of Denmark, and the Danish government wrote to James VI of Scotland to reconcile him with Eglinton's heirs.
Several early settlers, impressed by the Eglinton Tournament hosted by the 13th Earl, named the hamlet developing at Yonge Street and the wagon trail between the third and fourth concessions after the Earl.
James Earl Jones | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Earl | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Earl of Derby | Earl Warren | Earl of Pembroke | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Warwick | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Earl of Shrewsbury | William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham | Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester | Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick | Earl of Leicester | John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon | Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex | Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester | Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Devon | Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig | My Name Is Earl | Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon | Earl Scruggs | Earl of March | Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe | John Russell, 1st Earl Russell |
He had at least 2,000 horse from Yorkshire and Lancashire, deployed in nine divisions, and 600 musketeers, with three regiments of Scots horse, numbering about 1,000 and commanded by the Earl of Eglinton, to his rear.
It was named by Sir John Ross in honor of the Earl of Eglinton.
Some academics, following the Scottish antiquarian George Neilson (1858–1923), have identified him with a Scottish knight, Hugh of Eglinton, and advanced his authorship of several significant pieces of alliterative verse.
Of his two daughters, Elizabeth married General Robert Montgomery, fifth son of Alexander, 6th Earl of Eglinton, and Anne died unmarried.
Lady Susanna Montgomerie, wife of the 9th Earl of Eglinton, was a renowned society beauty and her husband built for her at Kidsneuk a copy of the Hameau de la Reine 'cottage orné' that Marie Antoinette had famously possessed at Versailles.
# Margaret Scott (died 5 October 1651) married first James Ross, 6th Lord Ross; married second Sir Alexander Seton of Foulstruther, later Montgomerie, 6th Earl of Eglinton