Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/949

Rh short annual visits. In 1614 Alexander was appointed to the English office of master of requests, and in July of the following year to a seat on the Scottish privy council. In 1621 he received from James I. enormous grants of land in America embracing the districts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Gasp è é Peninsula, accompanied by a charter appointing him hereditary lieutenant of the new colony. This territory was afterwards increased on paper, so as to include a great part of Canada. Alexander proceeded to recruit emigrants for his &ldquo;New Scotland,&rdquo; but the terms he offered were so meagre that he failed to attract any except the lowest class. These were despatched in two vessels chartered for the purpose, and in 1625 he published an Encouragement to Colonies in which he vainly painted in glowing colours the natural advantages of the new territory. The enterprise was further discredited by the institution of an order of baronets of Nova Scotia, who were to receive grants of land, each 6 sq. m. in extent, in the colony for a consideration of &pound;150. An attempt made by the French to make good their footing in the colony was frustrated (1627) by Captain Kertch, and Alexander's son and namesake made two expeditions to Nova Scotia. But Alexander found the colony a constant drain on his resources, and was unable to obtain from the treasury, in spite of royal support, &pound;6000 which he demanded as compensation for his losses. He received, however, a grant of 1000 acres in Armagh. He was the king's secretary for Scotland from 1626 till his death, and in 1630 was created Viscount Stirling and Lord Alexander of Tullibody. In the same year he was appointed master of requests for Scotland, and in 1631 an extraordinary judge of the Court of Session. Meanwhile French influence had gained ground in America. In 1631 Charles sent instructions to Alexander to abandon Port Royale, and in the following year, by a treaty signed at St Germain-en-Laye, the whole of the territory of Nova Scotia was ceded to the French. Alexander continued to receive substantial marks of the royal favour. In 1631 he obtained a patent granting him the privilege of printing a translation of the Psalms, of which James I. was declared to be the author. There is reason to believe that in this unfortunate collection, which the Scottish and English churches refused to encourage, Alexander included some of his own work. He had been commanded by James to submit translations, when James was carrying out his long entertained wish to supplant the popular version of Sternhold and Hopkins; but these the royal critic had not preferred to his own. It has been assumed from the scanty evidence that when Alexander was entrusted with the editing and publishing of the Psalms by Charles I. he had introduced some of his own work. In 1633 he was advanced to the rank of earl, with the additional title of Viscount Canada, and in 1639 he became earl of Dovan. His affairs were still embarrassed and he had begun to build Argyll House at Stirling. In 1623 he received the right of a royalty on the copper coinage of Scotland, but this proved unproductive. He therefore secured for his fourth son the office of general of the Mint, and proceeded to issue small copper coins, known as &ldquo;turners,&rdquo; which were put into circulation as equivalent to two farthings, although they were of the same weight as the old farthings. These coins were unpopular, and were reduced to their real value by the privy council in 1639. Alexander died in debt on the 12th of February 1640, at his London house in Covent Garden.

He was succeeded in the title by his grandson William, who died a few months later, and then by his son Henry (d. 1644), who became the 3rd earl. When Henry's grandson Henry, the 5th earl (1664-1739), died, the earldom became dormant, and in 1759 it was claimed by William Alexander (see below). In 1825 the earldom was claimed by Alexander Humphreys-Alexander, who asserted that his mother was a daughter of the first earl. The charter of 1639, however, on which his title rested, was declared in 1839 to be a forgery. See W. Turnbull, Stirling Peerage Claim (1839).

(A. B. G.; G. G. S.)

STIRLING, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, (titular) (1726-1783), American soldier, was born in New York City. He was the son of James Alexander (1690-1756), at one time surveyor-general of New York and New Jersey, a noted colonial lawyer who was disbarred for a year for his conduct of the defence in the famous trial of John Peter Zenger. William served first as commissary and then as aide-de-camp to Governor William Shirley at the beginning of the French and Indian War, and in 1756 he accompanied Shirley to England, where he was persuaded to claim the earldom of Stirling (see above). In 1759 an Edinburgh jury declared him to be the nearest heir to the last earl of Stirling, and in 1761 he returned to America and assumed the title, although the House of Lords in 1762 forbade him to use it until he had proved his legal right. Soon after his return to America he settled at Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and became a member of the New Jersey Provincial Council and surveyor-general of the colony. Warmly espousing the colonial cause at the outbreak of the War of Independence, he was appointed in November 1775 colonel of the first regiment of continental troops raised in New Jersey, and in the following January distinguished himself by the capture of an armed British transport in New York Bay. In March he became brigadier-general, and for some time was in command at New York and supervised the fortification of the city and harbour. At the battle of Long Island he was taken prisoner, but was soon afterward exchanged, and in February 1777 became a major-general. He participated in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown, and especially