CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM

born Dec. 29, 1849, Edinburgh, Scot. died June 10, 1919, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng. British economist and churchman who was largely responsible for establishing economic history as a scholastic discipline in British universities. Cunningham was ordained in the Church of England in 1873 and became vicar of Great St. Mary's, Cambridge (1887), and archdeacon of Ely (1906). Meanwhile, from 1891 to 1897, he was professor of economics at King's College, London. His The Growth of English Industry and Commerce (1882; later expanded to 3 vol.), one of the first systematic economic histories of England, became a standard reference work.