Archibald Alexander, 1772-1851
Archibald Alexander was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on April 17, 1772." At age ten, Alexander attended the academy of Rev. William Graham at the Timber Ridge meetinghouse in Lexington, now known as Washington and Lee University. At the age of seventeen he turned his attention to the study of divinity, and was licensed to preach in 1791, ordained in 1794 and served as an itinerant pastor in Charlotte and Prince Edward counties.
In 1796 he became president of Hampden Sydney College, Virginia, but in 1801 resigned, and visited New York and New England. During his tour he meet the Rev. Dr. Waddel, and married his daughter Janetta. Immediately after, he resumed his presidency in Virginia where his son, William Cowper, was born in Virginia in 1806. He soon retired, and in 1807 became pastor of the Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. His son, Joseph Addison, clergyman, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 24, 1809. On the organization of the theological seminary at Princeton in 1812, Dr. Alexander was unanimously chosen as the leading professor. He was always busy, and from 1829 to 1850 scarcely a number of the "Princeton Review" appeared without an article from his pen.
Archibald Alexander died in Princeton, on October 22, 1851. He left six sons, of whom three became ministers, and one daughter.
James Waddel Alexander
His eldest son, James Waddel Alexander, was born in Virginia, 1804; He received his academica training at Philadelphia, graduated at Princeton in 1820, and studied theology in Princeton seminary. In 1824 he was appointed a tutor, and during the same year he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, New Jersey. He presided over a number of churches in Virginia, including pastor of the first Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey. James Waddel Alexander wrote the life of his father, and edited his posthumous works. He died in Virginia on July 31, 1859.
William Cowper Alexander
His son William Cowper Alexander, born in 1806, was graduated from Princeton in 1824. He was admitted to the bar in 1827, and soon gained a reputation for legal knowledge and eloquence and took part in political affairs. For several years he was president of the New Jersey state senate. He was nominated for governor, and lacked but a few votes of election. After being a member of the peace congress of 1861, over which he was frequently called to preside, he withdrew from polities and devoted himself entirely to the business of insurance, having been elected president of the Equitable Life Insurance Company when it was organized in 1859, a position he held until his death in New York City, August 1874.
Joseph Addison Alexander
His son, Joseph Addison Alexander, was born in Philadelphia in 1809, and graduated from Princeton, with first honors in 1826. From 1830 to 1833 he was adjunct professor of ancient languages at Princeton, after which he spent some time abroad studying languages. In 1838 he was made professor of oriental literature in Princeton Theological Seminary, and in 1852 was transferred to the chair of biblical and ecclesiastical history, which he held until his death in 1860.
Archibald Alexander, Jr.
Samuel Davies Alexander
Henry M. Alexander
Lawyer, New York City
Janetta Alexander