Background
James Alexander was born on May 27, 1691 in Muthill in Perthshire, Scotland. He was the son of David Alexander и Elizabeth Sinclair, and descendant of the Earls of Stirling.
James Alexander was born on May 27, 1691 in Muthill in Perthshire, Scotland. He was the son of David Alexander и Elizabeth Sinclair, and descendant of the Earls of Stirling.
Alexander was trained as an engineer officer, receiving a good education in mathematics and kindred sciences, in which he early showed a proficiency.
Alexander served with some distinction in the forces of the Old Pretender during the Rebellion of 1715. Upon the defeat of this cause, with the consequent peril to its supporters, he fled to America. Just as he had not hesitated to support the exiled Stuarts against one regarded as an usurper, so in this country he did not fail to attack autocratic power. It is thought that he received the patronage of some influential figure, possibly John, Duke of Argyle, the hereditary friend of his family. This is borne out by the fact that he continually received the favors of the colonial representatives of the House of Brunswick, although he frequently was numbered among its opponents.
Owing to his mathematical ability and experience he was appointed, November 7, 1715, surveyor-general of the Province of New Jersey, and later of New York. In 1718 he became recorder of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where he had taken up his residence. He engaged at this time in the study of law and was admitted to the provincial bar of New Jersey in 1723. In 1718 he was also appointed deputy-secretary of New York. In March of the following year he was made a commissioner to run the boundary between New York and New Jersey.
In 1721 he became a member of the Council of New York, and a member of the Council of New Jersey in 1723. In the latter year he also became attorney-general of New Jersey. In 1725 he made a motion in the Council of New Jersey for legal reform which shows him to have been clear-sighted as to incumbrances which impeded and thwarted justice and as to the necessity for a change. In this motion he set forth the great delays to practitioners of law in demurrers, special pleadings, and special verdicts. Due to them the practise was then managed in such a way that it was commonly two years before any judgment could be had. He was ordered to prepare a bill remedying such delay, but nothing seems to have come of it.
In 1727 he resigned as attorney-general of New Jersey. He declared that he remembered only once having taken fees from the acquitted, as was the practise of his predecessors, and offered to return any money thus received. In this he showed a higher conception of his duty and the requirements of his office than that which was held by most of his contemporaries. In 1732 Gov. Cosby asked for his removal from the Council of New York and after much correspondence succeeded in securing it. In his letters to the Lords of Trade and to the Duke of Newcastle he spoke of Alexander as the only one who had caused him any uneasiness, and stated that he thought he was unworthy to serve His Majesty. Lady Cosby is said to have expressed the wish that Alexander might be done away with, he had opposed the Governor so constantly. Mr. Clarke, President of the Council, accused him of being near treason in working the people up to the pitch of rebellion.
In 1735 he was removed from the Council of New Jersey. Alexander obtained his greatest prominence in the case of Peter Zenger. This man, printer and publisher, "whose paper was the vehicle of invective and satire against the governor and his adherents, " was charged with libel and with inviting sedition. Copies of his paper were ordered to be burned by the common hangman, but the magistrates of the quarter would not suffer the order to be entered. Nevertheless, Zenger was thrown into jail. William Smith and Alexander volunteered to serve as his counsel. They secured a writ of habeas corpus, and argued against his reincarceration. Zenger swore that he was not worth more than forty pounds above his exemptions for raiment and tools, yet bail was exacted in penalty of 800 pounds. The grand jury refused to indict; the attorney-general, however, proceeded by information against him. Zenger's counsel took exception to the judges' commissions, wherefore the latter declared Smith and Alexander to be in contempt, and struck their names from the roll of attorneys. Mr. Hamilton of Philadelphia was secured to represent their client, and obtained a verdict for Zenger. Later Smith and Alexander were permitted to present their brief and argue the matter of their exceptions before a committee on grievances. They were given no relief, and it was not until two years later that they were reinstated as members of the bar.
With the change of administration on the death of Cosby, Alexander was recalled to the Council of New York, and was considered as still a member of the Council of New Jersey. About this time he removed to New York. In the succeeding years he continued to be active in the councils but his practise absorbed most of his energy. In 1756 there was proposed a ministerial scheme oppressive to the colonists. Although he was suffering from gout at the time, Alexander hurried to Albany to oppose it. There he experienced a paroxysm of his disease, contracted a cold, and died April 2, 1756.
Alexander was a Whig in politics; still, as a good Scotsman, he formed Jacobite connections while still in Scotland.
Alexander was an original member of the American Philosophical Society.
In America Alexander married Maria Spratt, a widow of a prosperous merchant named Provost, and had by her five children. His wife had continued her first husband's business after his death with much success, and her second marriage did nothing to interfere with it. Their only son, William Alexander, later known as Lord Stirling, became a prominent general in the American Revolutionary War.
