Alexander.Robert.1767-1841.Woodford.BIOS Robert Alexander 1767 - February 1841 Woodford County KyArchives Biography Author: The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky, J. M. Armstrong & Company, 1878 Hon. Robert Alexander, second son of William Alexander and his wife, Miss Aitcheson, of Airdrie House, was born in 1767, near Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was also a native of Edinburgh, where many of his ancestors had lived, and, early in the seventeenth century one of them had held the dignity of Lord- Provost of that city. His wife belonged to a family of considerable wealth and distinction in Lanark and Renfrew Shires in the west of Scotland. Of their two sons and six daughters, only three were ever married and none of them are probably living now. After the death of his first wife, he came to the United States and was here married to Miss Laport, and from this marriage one son, Charles, and two daughters, still survive. He died, in 1817, at the age of ninety, at Woodburn, the residence of his son in Woodford County, Kentucky. His oldest son, Sir William Alexander, by his first marriage, was a lawyer of very high standing; was elevated to the bench as one of the barons of the Court of Exchequer, and, for distinguished services, received the honor of knighthood. He lived in celibacy and died at London in 1842 at the age of eighty-two. Robert Alexander was educated at the University of Edinburgh; while young, went to France, where he spent several years; there met Dr. Franklin, and, for some time, acted as his private secretary; came to this country between 1785 and 1790, after his father's settlement here; and in the spring of 1791, bought the estate called Woodburn in Woodford County, Kentucky, of the heirs of Gen. Hugh Mercer, who had obtained it, as a military grant, from the State of Virginia. This great estate then contained twenty-seven hundred acres of the celebrated Blue Grass land. It was afterward reduced greatly by sales from it, but was finally increased to its present size, three thousand acres. He was a member of "The Kentucky River Company," the first company chartered in the State for the improvement of rivers, and was one of the three commissioners for the corporation in Woodford County. When the first Bank of Kentucky was chartered in 1807, he was made its President and one of its Board of Directors. He was appointed to survey and fix the western portion of the boundary line between Kentucky and Tennessee, lying between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, and found that those who had run the eastern part of the line had made a mistake, by which Kentucky had been deprived of considerable territory. In 1795, he was elected to the State Senate; was re-elected, and served two or more terms with distinction in that body. He was one of the most thoroughly educated men of his day to be met with in the West, but was fond of a quiet life and made little display. He was somewhat less than six feet in height, very squarely built, naturally muscular, but not fleshy, and weighed one hundred and sixty or seventy pounds. He died in Frankfort in February 1841 from hurts received in a fall. Mr. Alexander was married when about forty-seven years of age to the daughter of Daniel Weisiger of Frankfort, Kentucky. They had five children, three of whom are now living: Lucy, the wife of J. B. Waller of Chicago; Alexander John (see sketch); and Mary, the wife of H. C. Deedes of London, England. William, their son, died in childhood, and Robert Aitcheson was the late proprietor of Woodburn. (See sketch of Robert Aitcheson Alexander.) Submitted by: Sandi Gorin http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00002.html#0000404 Additional Comments: I have no connection and no further information. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/