[1] But in 1714–15, he joined the uprising in support of James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, and fled to America in 1715 when it failed.

[1] Alexander owned six slaves over the course of his life, all of whom worked as domestic servants in his Broad Street mansion.

In 1621 King James I granted Stirling a royal charter appointing him mayor of a vast territory which was enlarged into a lordship and barony of Nova Scotia (meaning New Scotland); the area is now known as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and parts of the northern United States.

He fled Britain as a young man, after his role in a failed Jacobite plot to put James “the Old Pretender” on the British throne.

James Alexander also owned large tracts of land in today's Basking Ridge area of New Jersey, which he later willed to his son.

[7] Alexander and William Smith served as Zenger's attorneys until both were disbarred after they challenged the commissions of the judges hearing the case.

Alexander became a vocal proponent of the emerging Whig political views, and engaged in various civic efforts as well.

He was an founding member of the American Philosophical Society,[1] established in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin and others, including Francis Hopkinson, John Bartram, Philip Syng, Jr.[10][11] On June 5, 1721, Alexander married the wealthy widow Mary Spratt Provoost (1693–1760).

[2] Mary was the widow of Samuel Provoost (d. 1719), the younger brother of David Proovost, the 24th mayor of New York City, with whom she had three children.

Together, James and Mary had seven children:[14] In 1756, while on a trip to Albany to confer with other Whig leaders, he suffered a flare up of his gout which led to a deterioration of his health.