June 29, 2021

James "the Weaver" Alexander was said to be part of the Alexander family which was nicknamed the "Infamous Nine", or the "Seven Brothers and Two Sisters". Much of the documentation for the "Infamous Nine" conflicts. It is even possible that some parts of their traditional family story were fictional.

His dates of birth and death are not certain. He and his nephew shared the same name. Each one married a lady named Mary Steele. He appears to have had no legal will, whereas his nephew James, who was James "The Carpenter/Farmer" Alexander with memorial ID 52984806, did have a will, and passed away in 1717, at the age of 32.

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ARRIVAL IN AMERICA AROUND THE YEAR 1670

A traditional story went as follows:

"The "Infamous Nine" came over with their father, William. William's father, John... , migrated to Virginia with some of his children in 1659. They apparently decided that Maryland was a better place and migrated there from Virginia about the same time that William and the nine arrived in 1670. Thus, a father was reunited with a son, siblings were reunited, and some of the younger nieces and nephews met their aunts and uncles for the first time."

The paragraph above is credited to the Historical Society of Cecil County. However no printed version of this story has been found yet online, with an author or date identified for it. The quoted text above was submitted by Richard L. Brown to the online Electric Scotland website:
http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/minibios/a
/alexander_hezekiah.htm

There is no evidence to back up this traditional family story. Y-DNA evidence is said to show there was no connection between James Benjamin Alexander and a different Alexander family led by Captain John Alexander (1605-1677), which settled on the Caledon Plantation near the Potomac River in Virginia. Captain John Alexander has memorial page 68337795.

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HIS FIRST HOME AT THE MANOKIN SITE IN SOMERSET COUNTY, MD

In a different account, James Benjamin Alexander arrived in Maryland around the year 1670, as a young man, when he was about 18 years old. He was said to have traveled to America on a ship of about 180 passengers, who were all from the Laggan Presbytery. The Laggan Presbytery was made up of members of Presbyterian Church of Scotland, who lived within the nine counties of the Ulster Plantation of Northern Ireland. The River Lagan was located on a floodplain in County Antrim and County Down of the Ulster Plantation.

In this account, the ship full of colonists from the Laggan Presbytery might have made their first landing on Manhattan Island, NY in late summer. By September of 1670, the ship named "Welcome" was reported to have dropped anchor in the Delaware River. The Delaware River was used to access a town called New Castle, DE at the head of the Christiana River, and also a few other towns which were located further inland in PA.

See this well researched article for more information about the "Welcome".
Source: "Genealogical Department The Six Alexanders Who Signed the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. A Genealogy Compiled by Descendants Under the Direction of Mrs. Benjamin W. Ingram", Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, Volume: 86, Number: 5, March 1952, pages 311-315.
https://services.dar.org/members/magazine_archive/download/?file=DARMAG_1952_03.pdf

The "Infamous Nine" appear to have finally debarked and settled farther down the coastline, at a deserted Indian village called Manokin Village, in Somerset County, Maryland. James Benjamin Alexander's grandfather and a few other family members met them there in MD. It seems plausible that their entire Alexander family was re-united at Manokin Village in Maryland by the late autumn of 1670. A William Alexander purchased a cattle brand in November of 1670, and assumedly that would mean he also acquired the cattle herd which had already been branded with it. Even though his group of immigrants arrived rather late in the year, it would not have mattered much, if the site had already been set up and prepped for the winter. Otherwise, the pioneers would have spent their first winter in Maryland in a chilly tent, instead of a warm log cabin.

What is consistent about all of the stories for his James Benjamin Alexander's father, named William Alexander, Sr./I, is that wherever the perspective of the story occurs, his father is always elsewhere. For example, in the stories from Northern Ireland, his father is either deceased or he has already left for America. In the stories from America, his father is coming over on the ship from Northern Ireland with his wife and children, but none of the family has ever been in America before. Wherever the perspective of the story takes place -- wherever you are -- James "the Weaver's" father is not there -- he is always somewhere else.

The "Infamous Nine" family were said to have considered settling farther to the south in Norfolk County, VA where there was already a sizable colony of Protestants. The drawback to this site was that it was near the Great Dismal Swamp, which meant that the terrain posed health concerns for the colonists. They decided instead to settle at a deserted Indian village called Manokin in the colony of Maryland, where all of the native American Indian residents had died in a smallpox epidemic. "Manokin" is an Indian name pronounced as "Muh-NO-kin".

Another benefit to the Manokin site was that the Maryland colony offered more religious tolerance for Presbyterians, than the Virginia colony. Perhaps that angle was the deciding factor, as to why the "Seven Brothers and Two Sisters" family chose to settle at the Manokin Village in Maryland.

Manokin Village was a good site, with river access leading out to the Chesapeake Bay, and from there to the Atlantic Ocean. The settlement was located near the heads of the Manokin and Wiccomico Rivers, which led to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The site was later renamed as the Manokin Hundred. A "Hundred" referred to a settlement with enough land and resources for about one hundred households.

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HIS SECOND HOME AT THE NEW MUNSTER SITE IN CECIL COUNTY, MD

James "the Weaver" Alexander's parents, two sisters, and brother named William appear to have remained in Somerset County, MD. However the rest of the family -- James "the Weaver" Alexander, his wife, his in-laws, and his remaining brothers appear to have moved northward to New Munster Manor in Cecil County, MD sometime between the years 1700 and 1706. New Munster Manor was about halfway between Baltimore, MD and Philadelphia, PA, on the border between MD and PA.

New Munster Manor was located at the northernmost tip of the Chesapeake Bay River, in the far northeastern corner of Cecil County, MD. The Alexander brothers rented their farm land at New Munster first, in the traditional manner of England, where all farm land was subleased from the aristocratic class by farmers.

Later on Cecil County changed its community structure from a system of manor houses, to a system called hundreds, where one settlement area called a "hundred" would contain enough homesteads for about a hundred families. Each new immigrant could usually obtain about 50 acres of land under a headright system, if he or she could afford to pay the filing fees for the land, or talk the government into waiving the filing fees. Land was fairly inexpensive to own -- it was the initial filing fees and the annual taxes that were often difficult for the colonists to pay. Sometimes cash poor colonists could obtain headright acreage at no charge from the government, in exchange for settling outside of towns, and providing the outer perimeter area with protection from Indian attacks.

Around 1714 the Alexander brothers obtained outright ownership of the land they had been tenant farmers on for several years in Cecil County, MD. This had to have been a unique milestone in the family history, for so many members of the Alexander family to have become landowners. Such a thing would have been unheard of in Great Britain, where the King owned all of the land and designated it for the use of royal aristocrats, who then leased it out to the middle and lower classes, in what was called the manor house system.

The New Munster Manor tract was supposed to be part of MD, but due to a mistake in the land survey, some of it was later found to extend across the border into PA by as much as a mile in some places. See the first map attached to this memorial page, which comes from a book entitled "History of Cecil County, Maryland". New Munster Manor had a river going through the middle of it called the Big Elk River, which extended from MD on up into PA. From the map, it looks like the New Munster Manor site could either be approached from the west via the Chesapeake Bay which led into the Big Elk River in MD, or it could be approached from the east via the Atlantic Ocean which led into the Head of Christiana River in DE.

James "the Weaver" Alexander's farm was in Cecil County, MD. See the attached photo of the map, for his farm's location within the southeastern quadrant of New Munster Manor. Although he lived in Maryland, he attended the Head of Christiana Presbyterian church which was located to the east, in nearby New Castle County, DE. Both he and his father-in-law were Elders at this church, so it is likely that their graves were placed in the churchyard cemetery, unless their graves were placed on family farms instead.

Cecil County, MD became a major mercantile center for the East Coast. There was a cottage industry for woven cloth. Ships could pick up cargoes of woven cloth by sailing into the Delaware River to stop at New Castle, New Castle County, DE, and then continue up the river into Bucks County, PA. The cloth could be sold either in Europe, or elsewhere in America. The colonial settlers in America saved quite a bit of money by purchasing their woven cloth locally, instead of importing it from Great Britain.

New Castle County in DE might have been named after Newcastle, England:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_upon_Tyne

Originally the Cecil County, MD area that James "the Weaver" lived in was called the "County of Ireland", MD. The county name was later changed to Cecil County. His farm site was close to the area that was first called New Munster, then New Minster, then the Milford Hundred, and later still the North Milford Hundred.

The Munster Plantation of 1586 was the first plantation in Ireland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantations_of_Ireland#Munster_Plantation_.281586_onwards.29

Munster was the name of the southernmost province in Ireland. The three other provinces were named Ulster, Connacht, and Leinster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Ireland

There was also a town in Germany called Munster, which was the home of a religious movement called the Anabaptists. They believed that adults should make their own decisions as to when they should ask to be baptized into the church, and that babies should not automatically be baptized within a few days of birth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabaptists

MASON-DIXON LINE

The original boundary survey for Cecil County, MD was not measured correctly. Later on some northern portions of Cecil County were found to extend as much as a few miles northward into the neighboring state of PA. The boundary dispute between MD and PA and DE was finally resolved by a survey called the Mason-Dixon line, conducted from 1763 to 1769. To the north of the Mason-Dixon line, the economy ran mostly on the labor of skilled workers who worked in factories, and mines, and the shipping industry -- to the south, the climate was warm enough for the economy to be based more on agriculture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason%E2%80%93Dixon_line

The Mason-Dixon line was within a few miles of James "the Weaver" Alexander's farm. It cut through the middle of the New Munster Manor property, as seen on the attached map which was drawn in 1800. A river ran through New Munster Manor, called the Big Elk River, which continued from MD northward up into PA.

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HIS NEPHEW NAMED JAMES "THE CARPENTER" BENJAMIN ALEXANDER

On a sidenote, James "the Weaver" Benjamin Alexander (1652-1740) had a nephew named after him. His nephew who was known as James "the Carpenter" Benjamin Alexander (1685-1717) has memorial page #52984806. His nephew was the son of his brother Samuel Alexander and his sister-in-law Mary (Taylor) Alexander. His nephew married Mary (Steele) Alexander (1689-1718), who was said to be the daughter of James Steele. In contrast, the James "the Weaver" of this memorial page married Mary Alexander (Steele) Alexander (1650-1714), who was the daughter of John Steele.

See page 226 for more info on James "the Carpenter" Alexander (1685-1717) here:
http://interactive.ancestry.com/48376/PAFamiliesII-001402-212?backurl=http%3a%2f%2ftrees.ancestry.com%2ftree%2f44720743
%2fperson%2f6950482415&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnToTree#?
imageId=PAFamiliesII-001406-216

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RESEARCH DIFFICULTIES

The section above pretty much sums up the main problem with tracing anyone in the Alexander family -- more than one person used the same name -- as in the case of there being both an uncle and his nephew, who shared the same name of James Benjamin Alexander.

Another common problem begins with the phrase, "There was a border dispute...", and indeed there was a border dispute between MD and DE and PA, when James "the Weaver" Benjamin Alexander lived there in the late 1600's and early 1700's.

There are lots of other issues that arise, and cause problems with research. The geographical names of places, and their location in counties, cities, and states in America, have changed quite a bit over time. The Alexander families tended to move to new wilderness areas, and to lose track of where their old family cemeteries were located. Many of the first immigrants to America were buried on family farms, not in cemeteries. Unfortunately, more than one Alexander cemetery was moved, in order to make way for a new construction project like a ship canal or a hotel complex. Even if a colonial era cemetery survived, the inscriptions on the stone or wooden markers usually faded away from the weather, over hundreds of years.

Aside from all of the various difficulties listed above, it's fairly simple to find anyone in the Alexander family through their church records, wills, and real estate transactions. Of course, nothing could be done about it if there was a fire -- and indeed, as it turns out... there was a fire which destroyed all of the church records for the Manokin and Wicomico Presbyterian Churches in Somerset County, MD prior to about 1757.

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CHILDREN

James "the Weaver" Alexander (1652-unknown) lived in the Manokin Hundred, Somerset County, MD until about 1700, when he moved northward to nearby New Munster, Cecil County, MD. Therefore it is likely that all of his children were born in the Manokin Hundred. James "the Weaver" Alexander was one of seven sons. His children are listed below, as seven sons and one daughter, however this list has no guarantee of being correct:

James Alexander (1675-1780);

David Alexander (1680-1749), father of Ezekial Alexander of Mecklenburg County, NC;

Arthur Alexander (1682-unknown);

John Alexander (1686-1733);

Francis Alexander (1688-1775);

Mary (Alexander) Miller (1693-1773), married Isaac Robert Miller (1690-before 1793) in MD, and around 1751 they moved down to Tyger Creek, Anson County, NC (later Berkeley County, SC, and now in Spartanburg County, SC);

Moses James Alexander (1693-1762), father of three children who moved from Cecil County, MD down to Mecklenburg County, NC who were named Mary (Alexander) Miller (1719-1773), Zebulon Alexander (1720-1784), and Moses James Alexander, Jr. (1725-1779) who was the Sheriff of Mecklenburg County, NC and a Lt. Col. in the county militia;

Joseph Alexander (1700-1769).

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THREE QUOTES FROM ROOTSWEB SITE

There is an article on RootsWeb.com with ID: I3417, with a great deal of information on James "the Weaver" Alexander.

This article seems to reference several different gentlemen named James Alexander, and therefore some of the information can be a little bit complicated to decipher. The weblink source for all three items quoted below is the same, and is located here:
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=david%5Fhughey&id=I3417

Three brief quotes from the article are cited below:

1) A James Alexander left a will in 1717. This does not appear to be the will for James "the Weaver" Alexander, but rather appears to be for his nephew James "the Carpenter" Alexander. The will was described as follows:
"Wills NC 1717
Book C
V.1
p. 103
July 12 1717
New Castle De.
James Alexander left a Will filed in New Castle Co., DE names wife Mary, Father in law John Steele, yeoman of New Castle Co DE., brother Francis Alexander, weaver of Cecil Co. MD and sons Moses, Joseph, John and Francis."
Source of above quote: RootsWeb.com with ID: I3417

Also see more will information here:
https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/d/u/t/Michael-Dutton-VA/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0701.html

2) A James Alexander served as an Elder beginning in 1715, at the Head of Christiana Church. His father-in-law John Steele served as an elder at the same church in 1711, and also leased about two acres for the church grounds.

"The Presbyterian Historical Society has John Garner as the first recorded elder of the Head of Christiana Church in 1707, followed by John Steele in 1711, James Alexander beginning in 1715...."
Source: RootsWeb.com with ID: I3417

A Presbyterian Elder was responsible for the most important church issues, including the financial affairs of the church, and the coordination of a search and selection procedure for a minister. Therefore the James Alexander mentioned in item 2 above who served as an Elder, was more likely to be James "the Weaver" Alexander (1652-unknown) at about age 63 in 1715, rather than his nephew James "the Carpenter" Alexander (1685-1717) who would only have been about 30 years old in 1715. Their backgrounds and wills need to be cross compared again someday, to be sure the dates mentioned are correct.

The text of a Delaware roadside marker for the church, can be seen at this link.
https://archives.delaware.gov/historical-markers-map/head-of-christiana-presbyterian-church/

The church has a website.
https://hocpc.org/about/history/

3) "Alex Notebooks
pg 6
"James Alexander, weaver died in New Munster area of Cecil Co. after 1740
MD Heraldic Families pg 64"
Source: RootsWeb.com with ID: I3417

The source for each of the three items cited above is located online.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=david%5Fhughey&id=I3417

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THE HEAD OF CHRISTIANA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Because James "the Weaver" and his father-in-law named John Steele were thought to have been founding members and Elders in the Head of Christiana Presbyterian Church, some general information about the church and New Castle Presbytery is included below.

"The first Presbyterian services in this area were conducted by Rev. John Wilson in 1706. Then pastor of New Castle Presbyterian Church, Rev. Wilson came every other Sunday to minister to the many residents of this area who had immigrated from Scotland and Ireland. In 1708, a modest log structure was erected on land owned by John Steele. The first installed pastor was Rev. George Gillespie, a native of Scotland, who arrived in 1713 and served until his death in 1760. During his tenure the log building was replaced by a brick structure which served the congregation until it was destroyed by fire in 1858. Within one year, the present church was built, and while alterations have been made, the basic structure remains intact."
Source of quotation: http://hocpc.org/about/history/

Historic Marker Text:
http://archives.delaware.gov/markers/ncc/NC-115.shtml

SIX CHURCH ELDERS FROM THREE STATES - ME, DE, AND PA
When the church was founded, it seemed to have only one Elder at a time. As the church grew in size, a total of six Elders were split among the three areas: two from Cecil County, Maryland; two from New Castle County, Delaware; and two from Chester County, PA.
http://www.cecilhistory.org/virtuallibrary/churches.pdf

NEW CASTLE PRESBYTERY
This web page link from the New Castle Presbytery has a great deal of historical background information, which is relevant to the Head of Christiana Presbyterian Church and the Alexander family too:
http://ncpresbytery.wpengine.com/?page_id=62

PRESBYTERIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
http://www.history.pcusa.org//collections

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HIS ARRIVAL IN AMERICA AND HIS BROTHER JOHN

Where there is anyone in America named James Alexander, there is often a brother for him named John. This might be a traditional naming pattern taken from the Bible -- where two brothers named James and John worked for a former carpenter from Galilee. They were nicknamed the "Boanerges" in Greek, which translates to the "Sons of Thunder" in English.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostle_%28Christian%29#The_twelve_apostles

Although James "the Weaver" was said to have arrived in 1670 with his siblings who were known as the "Infamous Nine", there is no record of anyone named James "the Weaver" Alexander in MD in land records or otherwise until 1678, when a James "the Weaver" Alexander appeared in 1678 on ship records for a ship called the "St. George". This is hard to explain. In 1670 James "the Weaver" would have been about 18 years old, which would have been too young to marry. By 1678 he would have been about 27 years old, and that would be a good age for a young man in colonial America to marry and settle down.

One plausible explanation is that James "the Weaver" was working on a ship, going back and forth between America and Ulster, in order to help transport Presbyterian colonists -- but then in 1678, he finally decided to settle down in MD. On the other hand, perhaps this was an entirely different James "the Weaver" Alexander, who was transported into Somerset County, MD in 1678. A person who paid for his own ship voyage to America, back around 1678, was eligible to file for a free land grant under his own name -- in contrast, someone who "was transported" to America, would have his free land grant go to whomever paid for the price of the trip.

Also, a John Alexander was transported into Somerset County, MD in the following year of 1679.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=david%5Fhughey&id=I3417

There was a minor court case in MD, concerning a John Alexander in MD, and whether or not he was eligible to file for a land grant under his own name -- so his brother James Alexander testified in court on his behalf. The "Infamous Nine" siblings appear to have been the only Alexander family in MD in the late 1600's, to have included two brothers named James and John, so this court case might have involved them.

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DEATH

There is no verified date of death for James "the Weaver" Alexander. No headstone has been found for him yet, either. However, since he was an Elder at the nearby Head of Christiana Presbyterian Church, then it is likely that he was interred at the matching churchyard cemetery, which was created on his father-in-law's land.

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FAMILY DESCENDANTS AND NAMES

Beginning around 1751, James "the Weaver" had quite a few descendants who moved from the general area of Cecil County, MD, to a site much farther southwest, down in Anson County of the Carolina Colony. In 2014, the same area has two big cities which are close to each other: one city called Spartanburg, Spartanburg County SC, and another city called Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, NC. Many of his brothers and sisters had children and grandchildren who moved down to the same general area, as well.

The colonists in NC/SC used many of the same names from old locations in MD/DE/PA for their new counties and cities down in NC/SC. Thus there was a Chester County, PA and a Chester County, NC -- a York County, PA and a York County, SC. James "the Weaver" Alexander's descendants used a similar traditional naming pattern when they named their children -- and the same first names repeated in the family for his descendants, for hundreds of years.

They didn't know it yet, back when James "the Weaver" Alexander passed away, but all of his family's descendants from MD and NC were going to do an excellent job of cooperating with one other, during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). About a hundred years later, his family's descendants were going to do an equally excellent job of fighting against each other, in the Civil War.

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If James "the Weaver" Alexander passed on around 1740, then he would have lived to have been about 88 years old.

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RIP