We will condense all that we have to say of this man, whose cruelty
and wickedness are almost inconceivable, into one chapter, and have
done with the dreadful subject. As far as we have been able to learn,
the facts about his life are the following.

William Cunningham was an Irishman, born in Dublin Barracks in
1738. His father was a trumpeter in the Blue Dragoons. When he was
sixteen he became an assistant to the riding-master of the troop. In
1761 he was made a sergeant of dragoons, but peace having been
proclaimed the following year, the company to which he belonged was
disbanded. He afterwards commenced the business of a scaw-banker,
which means that he went about the country enticing mechanics and
rustics to ship to America, on promise of having their fortunes made
in that country; and then by artful practices, produced their
indentures as servants, in consequence of which on their arrival in
America they were sold, or at least obliged to serve a term of years
to pay for their passage. This business, no doubt, proved a fit
apprenticeship for the career of villainy before him.

About the year 1774 he appears to have embarked from Newry in the ship
Needham for New York, with some indentured servants he had kidnapped
in Ireland. He is said to have treated these poor creatures so
cruelly on the passage that they were set free by the authorities in
New York upon their arrival.

When Cunningham first appeared in New York he offered himself as a
horse-breaker, and insinuated himself into the favor of the British
officers by blatant toryism. He soon became obnoxious to the Whigs of