William Cunningham FBA (29 December 1849 – 10 June 1919) was a Scottish economic historian and Anglican priest.

[11] He was university lecturer in history from 1884 to 1891, in which year he was appointed Tooke Professor of Economy and Statistics at King's College, London, a post which he held until 1897.

[13] He became vicar of Great St Mary's, Cambridge, in 1887, and was a founding fellow of the British Academy.

[16] Cunningham's eminence as an economic historian gave special importance to his support of Joseph Chamberlain from 1903 onwards in criticizing the English free-trade policies and advocating tariff reform.

He was a critic of the nascent neoclassical economics, particularly as propounded by his colleague, Alfred Marshall, and the Cambridge school.