William Cunninghame

William Cunningham}} William Cunninghame of Lainshaw (1731–1799) was a Scottish merchant and leading Tobacco Lord who headed one of the major Glasgow syndicates that came to dominate the transatlantic tobacco trade. Most of the tobacco shipped from North American slave plantations was sold to France. He later also made a further fortune stockpiling tobacco bought at keen prices shortly before the American Revolution, assuming that Great Britain would not be able to retain control over her rebellious colonies, and then selling at high prices. Cunninghame's (much altered and expanded) neo-classical house on Glasgow's Queen Street today houses the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art. Provided by Wikipedia