Biography of JAMES ALEXANDER
ALEXANDER, James, lawyer, born in Scotland about 1690; died in New York, 2
April 1756. His American career began in 1715, when he was obliged to leave
England on account of his active partisanship with the pretender in his vain
attempt to seize the English crown. He became the first official recorder of
the town of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in 1718, but, having served as an officer
of engineers in Scotland, he was appointed surveyor-general of New York and
New Jersey. In his intervals of leisure he studied law and became eminent at
the colonial bar. He was a constant contributor, with Chief Justice Morris,
to the "New York Weekly Journal," established in 1733. In 1735 he was
temporarily disbarred because he served as counsel for Peter Zenger, a popular
printer of that day, who was accused of sedition, but he was reinstated on a
change of administration two years later. He held many public offices, served
for several years in the colonial legislature and council, and was Attorney
General in 1721-1723, and Secretary of the Province of New York. He acquired
large wealth, and was among the staunchest of the pre-revolutionary friends of
civil liberty. In company with Franklin and others, he founded the American
Philosophical Society. His son William was the "Lord Stirling" of
revolutionary fame. In 1756 a ministerial project threatening the rights of
the colony was proposed, and, when it came up for consideration at Albany,
Alexander undertook the journey from New York to oppose the measure,
although he was suffering from severe illness. His death resulted from the
fatigue and exposure then incident to the trip.
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