[2][3][4] Their company quickly expanded abroad, and within one year of its foundation, Cunningham was already in Seville, where in 1855, he proposed and promoted the creation of a Protestant cemetery for the British colony, which was approved by popular subscription and then built on land donated by the businessman Carlos Pickman.
In addition to the JCYC of Cunningham, several other British companies established themselves in Seville during the 19th century, such as the metallurgical foundry of Portilla Hermanos y White owned by the White brothers (Thomas and Isaiah), the Compañía de Agua de los Ingleses directed by Charles Arthur Friend, and the Irish-born Cádiz native William MacPherson, a key figure of the Industrial Revolution in the city; this figures, among others, were the core of the first British colony of Seville.
[9] In 1864, together with the Portilla brothers and José María Ibarra, he formed the Sociedad Industrial Sevillana, a company to refine sugar, and in the following year, he imported 20 agricultural machines.
On 1 October 1870, both Cunningham and the Portilla, White y Cia appear among the founding shareholders of the Compañía del Ferrocarril de Mérida a Sevilla.
[5] Throughout its history, the MacAndrews fleet had two different ships named "Juan Cunningham", with the first being an iron screw steamer built in 1871 and registered in Seville in 1872,[4][10] while the second was launched in October 1883.