ALEXANDER, James A Scotchman; an officer of engineers in the service of the Pretender. He removed to New York in 1715 for political motives, and soon afterward he received an appoint ment in the office of the Secretary of the Province and was appointed Surveyor-General of New York and New Jersey. In 1720 he was called to the Council under Gov. Burnet's administration; while there he studied law, in which profession he is said to have attained great eminence. In 1726 he married the widow of David Provoost, a wealthy Dutch merchant and exMayor of New York. He died in 1756.
His children were
- William (afterwards Lord Stirling);
- Mary, married to Peter Van Burgh Livingston;
- Elizabeth, married to John Stevens;
- Catherine, married to Walter Rutherford, and
- Sussannah, married to John Reed.
His wife, who outlived him, left to her eldest son John Provoost ~5,000, and large sums of money and furniture and jewels, to her other children. Her son William Alexander, Lord Stirling, was one of the bravest generals of the Revolution.
