ril, 1776, he was appointed Paymaster of the
Fourth Regiment of North Carolina Continentals--Thomas Polk, Colonel,
James Thackston, Lieut. Colonel, and William Davidson, Major. He was
the treasurer of "Liberty Hall Academy" (formerly "Queen's Museum")
during its existence. He died on the 16th of July, 1801, and lies
buried in the graveyard of Sugar Creek Church, of which he had long
been an active and worthy member. The inscription on his tombstone
reads thus:

"In memory of Hezekiah Alexander,
Who departed this life July 16th, 1801,
Aged 73 years."

_John McKnitt Alexander_, of Scotch-Irish ancestors, was born in
Pennsylvania, near the Maryland line, in 1733. He served as an
apprentice to the trade of tailor, and when his apprenticeship
expired, at the age of twenty-one, he emigrated to North Carolina,
joining his kinsmen and countrymen in seeking an abode in the
beautiful champaign between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers--the land of
the deer and the buffalo; of "wild pea-vines" and cane-brakes, and of
peaceful prosperity. In 1759 he married Jane Bain, of the same race,
from Pennsylvania, and settled in Hopewell congregation. Prospered in
his business, he soon became wealthy and an extensive landholder, and
rising in the estimation of his fellow-citizens, was promoted to the
magistracy and the Eldership of the Presbyterian Church. He was a
member of the Provincial Assembly in 1772, and one of the Delegates to
the Convention which met at Hillsboro, on the 21st of August, 1775.

He was also a member of the Provincial Congress, which met at Halifax
on the 4th of April, 1776, with John Phifer and Robert Irwin as
colleagues. In 1777, he was elected the first Senator from Mecklenburg
county, under the new Constitution. He was an active participator in
the Convention of the 19th and 20th of May, 1775, and preserved for a
long time, the records, as being its principal secretary, and the
proper custodian of its papers. He gave copies of its important and
ever-memorable proceedings to Gen. William R. Davie, Dr. Hugh
Williamson, then _professing_ to write a history of North Carolina,
and others. Unfortunately, the original was destroyed in 1800, when
the house of Mr. Alexander was burned, but Gen. Davie's copy has been
preserved. He was one of the Trustees of the "College of Queen's
Museum," the name of which was afterward changed to "Liberty Hall." He
was for many years, a ruling Elder of the Presbyterian