William Alexander was born 1576 in Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. He died 1640.
William Alexander of Menstrie, in Logie, county Clackmannan, Scotland, was the only son and heir of Alexander Alexander and his wife Marion, the daughter of Gilbert Graham of Gartavertane in Mentieth. After the death of his father, he was brought up in Stirling by a granduncle who was a merchant there.
He was born about 1576 and educated at the Stirling Grammar School, Glasgow University and on the continent at Leyden. He accompanied the 7th Earl of Argyll in a tour of Europe where he acquired some French and Italian. In his early days, William Alexander was an intimate of Alexander Hume and later formed a close friendship with Drummond of Hawthornden. He had literary aspirations and published A Short Discourse on the Gowrie Conspiracy in 1600. This was followed by four tragedies: Croesus, Darius, The Alexandrean and Julius Caesar, 1603-07, bound up as The Monarchicke Tragedies in 1604 and 1607. His poems, "A Paraenesis to the Prince" and "Aurora" appeared in 1604, and of his later works the best-known is the lengthy "Doomesday" (1614).
King James VI commissioned William Alexander to translate the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek/Aramaic New Testament into English. Their work is known today as the "King James Version" of the Bible. In 1627 he was granted the privilege, for 21 years, of imprinting The Psalms of King David, translated into metre by his late Majesty James I, though mostly by William himself. A revised version of much of his work was issued as Recreations with the Muses in 1637.
From the Earl of Argyll, William Alexander had a charter of the lands and Barony of Menstrie in 1605, having nine years earlier been invested by him of the 'five pund' land of the Mains of Menstrie. This association with powerful Lord of Argyll and his poetical and other talents brought him into great favor at Court, where he became Gentleman of the Privy Chamber Extraordinary to Prince Henry by 1607, and he was soon knighted. He had originally joined the court of James VI in Edinburgh as tutor to Prince Henry, and was one of a number of poets whom the King surrounded himself with, known as the Castalian Band. In March 1613 he, with two others, was granted the right of working the silver mine at Hilderston, county Linlithgow. By King James I of England, he was made Master of Requests in 1614 and attended Parliament as such until his death. He became Burgess of Edinburgh in 1617, and Lord of the Articles in 1621. In that year he was given by charter a grant of the whole territory of Nova Scotia for the purpose of colonization and was appointed hereditary Lieutenant General thereof by land and by sea. In November 1624 he was empowered by King James to divide that land into 100 tracts, later increased to 150, and to sell each, together with the rank of Baronet. He was abroad on the King's special service in 1624-5 when he attended the great jubilee in Rome.
From King Charles I he obtained a renewed grant, or novodamus, of the barony of Nova Scotia and, in February 1627, a charter of the lordship of Canada, all ratified by the Scots Parliament in 1630 and 1633. He was also granted the Admiralty jurisdiction of Nova Scotia in 1627 and certain lands of Largs, county Ayr in 1629, where the town was erected into a free burgh of barony as a trading port for his lands in the new world. Sir William was made Secretary of State for Scotland in 1625 and Principal Secretary from 1627 until his death, as well as Commissioner for Surrenders and Teinds, and for the discovery of Papists. He was also a member of the Scots Council of War, Commissioner of the Exchequer and Councillor of the Association for the Fishing. In September 1630 William was created Viscount of Stirling and Lord Alexander of Tullibody, and subsequently on the coronation in Scotland of Charles I in June 1633, Earl of Stirling, Viscount of Canada, and Lord Alexander of Tullibody, each title to be inheritable by his heirs male of the name of Alexander. In 1631 he was made Commissioner to superintend the coining of copper farthings, as well as penny and twopenny pieces called 'turners.' He became a Councillor for New England in 1633 and Commissioner for Foreign Plantations the next year. He was Joint Master of the Minerals (with his son John) in 1635. He accompanied the king to the north in the First Bishops' War and signed the Treaty of Berwick in 1639, and received a grant out of the rent paid by the beaver makers. In 1601 he had married Janet, daughter of Sir William Erskine, the Commendator of the Bishopric of Glasgow and known as the Parson of Campsie.
The fortunes of Lord and Lady Stirling began to decline in 1632, when the English made peace with the French and surrendered to them, under the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, the whole of Nova Scotia and Canada, the grant to William notwithstanding. Nevertheless, Lord Stirling continued to allocate both lands and Baronetcies in Nova Scotia until 1638, making over to his many creditors the moneys 'to be procured' from this source. Back in 1631 the Exchequer had given him a note for £10,000 for the satisfaction of his losses in New Scotland, but neither this money nor the proceeds of the sales of lands and titles was ever paid. The Earl Stirling died penniless in February 1639 at his house in Covent Garden and was buried 12 April 1640 in Bowie's Aisle, Stirling Church.
Lord Stirling's biographer, T. H. McGrail, says "Sir William Alexander adventured bravely, served faithfully, and lived his life intensely. If all his tremendous designs accomplished little or nothing, if the story of each of his enterprises is a record of eventual defeat, it is because he was rendered impotent by the hiatus between conception and execution, between the dream and the reality.
In Victoria Park (Halifax, Nova Scotia), a cairn succinctly states Sir William's accomplishments:
He married Janet Erskine. She was born about 1580. She was the daughter of William Erskine and Joanna.
Their children were:
John Alexander (born in Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, Scotland)
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