John Cunningham (1729-1773)

The Dublin-born actor John Cunningham spent most of his acting life performing in northern Britain with Edinburgh-based companies managed by James Love and West Digges in the 1750s and from about 1761 with the Durham company managed by Thomas Bates.

Allan’s Illustrated Edition of Tyneside Songs and Readings stated his “name and fame will for ever be identified with Newcastle” where he is buried. Although now forgotten, this Irish actor was the nation’s leading pastoral poet at mid-century. In the rare instances that his verse has been commented upon by modern critics, Cunningham’s focus upon idealised shepherds and maidens has tended to be dismissed as formulaic and ephemeral. However, if one bears in mind that his friend, the antiquarian, Joseph Ritson, reminded readers of his English Songs that Cunningham was writing for “country theatres” and also that, as an Irish Catholic actor, he was one of the most marginalised of cultural producers in the period, the poet’s verse begins to take on a more nuanced and even political hue.