William Alexander (292)

William Alexander (25 December 1726–15 January 1783) was a military officer during the Revolutionary War and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1770. Born to a wealthy and prominent family in New York City, William’s world revolved around social capital and status. He married Sarah Livingston in 1748, the daughter of an influential New York family. He believed that he was the rightful heir to the Scottish earldom of Stirling, and, while living in Britain during the 1750s, he spent an enormous amount of money attempting to prove it. Though the crown never accepted the claim officially, he went by the title “Lord Stirling” for the rest of his life. His parents shaped and aided his early career. As a young man, he began work as a clerk for his mother, a merchant, and eventually became her partner. His father was surveyor-general of New York and New Jersey, and William inherited this position upon his father’s death in 1756. In the run up to the American Revolutionary War, William seemed sympathetic to the British, but when fighting broke out he quickly announced his support for the patriot cause and became a colonel in the New Jersey militia. His military career included some crushing defeats and some notable acts of heroism, and he steadily rose through the ranks to become a major-general. He fought alongside George Washington at the battles of White Plains and Trenton and was briefly taken prisoner after the Battle of Long Island. In 1781, he was posted in Albany in anticipation of a possible attack at nearby Saratoga, but the area remained quiet and free from fighting. He died of gout in 1783 and was buried in Albany. (DNB, ANB)