William Alexander—educated, ambitious, and proficient in mathematics…

William Alexander—educated, ambitious, and proficient in mathematics and astronomy—had joined his mother, Mary Alexander, in a successful business and, in 1747, married Sarah Livingston, the daughter of Philip Livingston (1686-1749) and sister of Governor William Livingston.

The couple have two daughters and one son William.

One of his daughters, Mary Alexander, will marry a wealthy merchant named Robert Watts of New York; another daughter Catherine will become the wife of Congressman William Duer.

The title Earl of Stirling had become dormant or extinct upon the death of Henry Alexander, 5th Earl of Stirling.

William's father, James Alexander, who had fled from Scotland in 1716 after participating in the Jacobite rising, had not sought the title.

Upon his father's death, William had lain claim to the title and filed suit.

His relationship to the 5th Earl is not through heirs of the body, but through heir male collateral, thus, he is not entitled to a title inherited only by the male line descendants of the first earl.

However, the inheritance by proximity of blood had been questioned.

It had been settled in his favor, by a unanimous vote of a jury of twelve in a Scottish court in 1759, and William had claimed the disputed title of Earl of Stirling.

It is not clear if the case went to court because of an unfavorable answer from the Lord Lyon King of Arms concerning the peerage.

Legal opinion was that this was a "Scottish heir" problem so the title right had been solved.

This might have been unopposed, as indisputable peerage, except there was a catch.

The two sponsors, Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, and John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, had encouraged William Alexander through representatives to seek the title.

The goal is vast land holdings in America that the holder of the title is to enjoy.

The sponsors were to receive money and land if William were to be successful.

With this in mind, William had decided to petition the House of Lords.

A friend and professional agent in Scotland, Andrew Stuart, had written and advised William not to petition the House of Lords; Stuart feels that the right of indisputable peerage demands that William just claim the titles as others had done.

His opinion is that others lay similar claims to titles so he would not be opposed.

It is possible William did not want to commit a crime, or be found out, and if the House of Lords advanced his claim it would be forever legal.

One problem was that to prove his claim in court, two old men had been called upon to testify that William did in fact descend from the first Earl through his uncle named John Alexander.

This might have been persuasive in a Scottish court but might be considered dubious in England.

Alexander had inherited a large fortune from his father.

He dabbles in mining and agriculture and lives a life filled with the trappings befitting a Scottish Lord.

This is an expensive lifestyle and he had eventually gone into debt to finance it.

He began building his grand estate in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township, New Jersey and upon its completion, sold his home in New York and moves there.

George Washington is a guest here on several occasions during the revolution and will give away Alexander's daughter at her wedding.

In 1767, the Royal Society of Arts had awarded Alexander a gold medal for accepting the society's challenge to establish viticulture and wine making in the North American colonies by cultivating twenty-one hundred grape (V. vinifera) vines on his New Jersey estate.

When the American Revolutionary War began, Stirling had been made a colonel in the New Jersey colonial militia.

Because he is wealthy, he has outfitted the militia at his own expense and is willing to spend his own money in support of the Patriot cause.

He distinguishes himself early by leading a group of volunteers in the capture of an armed British naval transport.

The Second Continental Congress appoints him brigadier general in the Continental Army in March 1776.