Mary (Spratt) Alexander (abt. 1693 - 1760)

Born about 1693 in New York County, New York Colony [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Samuel Provoost — married about 1712 in New York County, New York Colony

Wife of James Alexander — married 5 Jan 1720 in New York County, New York Colony

Descendants

Died 18 Apr 1760 at about age 67 in New York County, New York Colony

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Biography

Excerpts from June Kennedy's monograph:

Born April 17, 1693 to John and Maria (DePeyster) Schrick Spratt at New York City, the third child and younger of two daughters, her parents were a Scotch Covenanter merchant/New York alderman and the daughter of Dutch goldsmiths and merchants.

She was seven years old when her mother died in 1700 and became the charge of her maternal grandmother. At the age of 17, the young woman married Samuel Provoost, a thriving merchant and younger brother of her mother's third husband, on October 15, 1711. Upon his death in 1719, she assumed control of the business and also reared sons John (b. 1714) and David (b. 1715). Daughter Maria (b. 1712) died in infancy.

The Widow Provoost attracted the carriage trade by having a flagstone walk, the first in New York City, and forerunner of municipal curbing, built before her business establishment. She had a row of offices built in front of her house, directly on the street, affording her the opportunity to tend to her family and her counting house. Scarcely a ship came into port from Holland, England, the Mediterranean, West Indies or the Spanish Main that did not bring to her large consignments of goods.

At a social gathering of the New York Dutch-English elite, James Alexander of Perth Amboy and New York City, the distinguished lawyer, politician, statesman and surveyor, met, wooed and married the Widow Provoost on January 5, 1721.

Alexander provided offices for her husband, who later built an imposing brick mansion with a broad staircase, wide central hall, stately doorway, surrounded by a large yard, at the corners of Broad and Beaver Streets (67-69 Broad Street), New York City, where the Provoost sons, and five Alexander children were raised. They included son William Alexander (b. 1725), later to become Lord Stirling, and daughters Mary (b. 1721), Elizabeth (b. 1726), Catharine (b. 1727) and Susannah (b. 1737), who all married socially prominent men. Alexander children who died from smallpox were James (b. 1723-d. 1731) and Anna (b. 1731-d. 1746).

She died 18 April, 1760, and was interred with her husband in the family vault in Trinity Churchyard.

Sources

• Memorials of the Earl of Stirling and the House of Alexander, by the Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D., Glasgow, Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1877. Vol. I, p. 281.

• Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, Volume 1. Francis Bazley Lee, Lewis historical Publishing Company, 1910. Page 192

• Some "Colonial Dames" of Royal Descent: Pedigrees Showing the Lineal Descent from Kings of Some Members of the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America, and of the Order of the Crown, Document: soft copy in my files. Abbrev: Colonial Dames; Compiler: Charles Henry Browning; Publication: Genealogical Publishing Co, Baltimore, MD, 1969; Page: Pedigree III

MARY ALEXANDER, 1693-1760 Colonial Merchant and Mother of William Alexander, Lord Stirling. June 0. Kennedy, 1987. Written for The Women's Project of New Jersey Inc. Out of the Garden: Lives of New Jersey Women