For others with similar names, see: William Alexander (disambiguation).
Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling (c.1570–1640) was a Scotsman who was an early developer of British colonization of Nova Scotia. He was a courtier in Scotland before its throne was joined with that of England to create the United Kingdom. After unification King James I granted him land in America; the area now know as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and part of the northern United States.
Alexander was an active promoter of his New Scotland and brought many British settlers to the maritimes. He was appointed Secretary of State for Scotland in 1626 and held that office for the rest of his life. In 1630, King Charles rewarded his service be making him the Earl of Stirling.
Lord Stirling’s efforts at colonization were less successful, at least from a monetary standpoint. He spent his fortune, and when the maritimes were returned to France in 1632, it was lost. He spent his later years with limited means, and died in London on September 12, 1640.
The old paths of imitation were not forsaken, but the spirit of adaptation showed to higher advantage in the work of a few writers who, for the time, withheld their efforts from the press.
Chief among these was the courtly Scottish poet, SirWilliamAlexander, afterwards earl of Stirling, who deferred the publication of his sonneteering experiment—“the first fancies of his youth”—till 1604.
Greville emulated the example of Sir Philip Sidney; but the imagery often associates itself, more closely than was suffered by Sidney’s aims, with the anacreontic vein of the Greek anthologists and of the French sonneteers.
SirWilliamAlexander, as a man of influence with King James, was persuaded to second a design which promised to establish his personal dignity and advance his interest.
July 1625, by a charter dated at Oatlands, confirmed SirWilliamAlexander, and his heirs, in the office of lieutenant of Nova Scotia, with all the prerogatives with which he had been so lavishly invested by King James, and the right of creating an order of baronets of Nova Scotia.
In 1626, SirWilliamAlexander was appointed principal secretary for Scotland.
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