These papers include official service documents, there is a log, 1796 to 1798, and a manuscript account of the Nore Mutiny. There is also a transcript of this made by Mr Granville Proby in the 1940s. The loose papers consist of correspondence received between 1799 and 1832 from, among others, William, Duke of Clarence, when Lord High Admiral, Earl St. Vincent (q.v.), Sir Evan Nepean (q.v.), Lord Spencer (1758-1834), Sir William Cornwallis (q.v.), the Hon. Charles Philip Yorke (q.v.), Sir John Barrow (1764-1848) and the 2nd Viscount Melville (q.v.). There is also material relating to Cunningham's period at Chatham.

Administrative / biographical background
Cunningham entered the Navy from the merchant service in 1775 and served in the West Indies throughout the American War. He was made lieutenant in 1782 and commanded the Admiral Barrington brig in that year. In 1788 he went to the East Indies and in 1790 was made commander of the Ariel. He became a captain in 1793 and went to the Mediterranean, returning with Lord Hood's (q.v.) despatches. His next appointment was in 1796 to the Clyde which was refitting at the Nore at the outbreak of the mutiny: he acted decisively and after seventeen days managed to bring his ship safely away. He was appointed, in 1803, a Commissioner of Victualling and, in 1806, Commissioner of Deptford and Woolwich dockyards. In 1823 he went to Chatham dockyard and retired with the rank of rear-admiral in 1829. In this year he published A Narrative of... the Mutiny at the Nore (Chatham, 1829). Cunningham’s second wife was Beatrice Cunningham (1771-1826), daughter of Charles Proby, Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard, and sister of Elisabeth Tchitchagoff.