Alexander Cuming
Early life
Early life
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[150px\|thumb\|Coat of Arms of Alexander Cuming](/wiki/File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Alexander_Cuming.svg "Coat of Arms of Alexander Cuming.svg")
Cuming was born (according to his manuscript autobiography) in Edinburgh on 18 December 1691\. He was the only son of [Sir Alexander Cuming](/wiki/Sir_Alexander_Cumming%2C_1st_Baronet "Sir Alexander Cumming, 1st Baronet"), M.P. (c.1670–1725\), the first baronet of [Culter](/wiki/Peterculter "Peterculter"), Aberdeenshire, by his first wife, Elizabeth; she was the second daughter of the second wife of Sir [Alexander Swinton](/wiki/Alexander_Swinton "Alexander Swinton"), a Scottish judge. (He had several sisters and a half\-brother, James Cuming of Breda, by his father's second wife)

In 1714 he was called to the Scottish bar, and also held a captain's commission in the Russian army. From his manuscripts, it seems that Cuming was induced to quit the legal profession by a pension of £300 a year being granted to him by the government at Christmas 1718, and that it was discontinued at Christmas 1721 at the instance, he suggests, of Sir [Robert Walpole](/wiki/Robert_Walpole "Robert Walpole"), who bore a grudge against his father for opposing him in parliament. It is more probable that he was found to be of a too flighty disposition to fulfil the services expected of him.


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