Sir William Alexander - Halifax, NS, Canada
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 44° 38.396 W 063° 34.764
20T E 454049 N 4943116
A monument honoring Scottish poet, colonizer, and baron of Nova Scotia, Sir William Alexander is located at the south end of Victoria Park in Halifax Nova Scotia.
Waymark Code: WMX14R
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Date Posted: 11/11/2017
Views: 3
A cairn made of stones taken from the ancestral home of Sir William Alexander contains a bronze plaque which is inscribed:
SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER
WRITER,
STATESMAN, COLONIZER
HIS EFFORTS TO CREATE A NEW
SCOTLAND IN THE NEW WORLD
LED TO THE ROYAL CHARTER OF
NOVA SCOTIA, 1621
ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT 1622-3
THE CREATING OF THE ORDER
OF KNIGHT BARONETS OF
NOVA SCOTIA 1624-5
THE COAT-OF-ARMS OF
NOVA SCOTIA, 1626
AND THE OCCUPATION OF
PORT ROYAL
BY SCOTTISH SETTLERS, 1629-32
THIS MEMORIAL CONTAINS STONES
FROM MENSTRIE CASTLE
SIR WILLIAM'S ANCESTRAL HOME.
ERECTED BY
THE NORTH BRITISH SOCIETY
OF HALIFAX 1957.
Before he became involved in politics, Sir William Alexander was a highly regarded 17th century Scottish poet. He was born around 1567 in Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, Scotland and became the 1st Earl of Stirling. He published his first work Aurora in 1604. In the same year his tragedies Croesus, Darius, The Alexandrean, and Julius Caesar - were published together as The Monarchick Tragedies. Alexanders most famous work about the end of the world was Doomes-day. It was first published in four books in 1614. A collected edition of his works was published in 1637 under the title Recreations with the Muses.
In 1621, King James I granted William a royal charter appointing him mayor of a vast territory which was enlarged into a lordship and barony of Nova Scotia (New Scotland); the area now known as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and part of the northern United States. The creation of Baronets of Nova Scotia was used to settle the plantation of the new province.
He was appointed Secretary for Scotland in 1626 and held that office for the rest of his life.