John McKnitt Alexander was the younger brother of Hezekiah (from the last post), and was the last child of James Robert (The Yeoman) Alexander and Margaret McKnitt. He was named after Margaret’s brother, a lawyer.
He married Jane Bain (also spelled Bane or Bean) and they had five children. He had moved from Cecil County, Maryland (or sometimes stated Pennsylvania since it is very close) with his brother Hezekiah and sister Jemima in 1754.
“His name is so conspicuous in the history of his country, that it is necessary to speak more at length of him and his family than many others of equal virtue, but who did not appear at the front so prominently in the stirring times of the last quarter of the Eighteenth Century. John McKnitt Alexander was born and reared in Pennsylvania, dating his birth in 1733, he was 21 years old when he came to Mecklenburg in 1754. He had learned the tailor’s trade while a minor, and followed this avocation for a number of years, taking cattle and hides in exchange for work, which he would carry to Philadelphia to find a market. There he would purchase broadcloth and other fine material to make into suits for the more wealthy class of his customers. He was also a surveyor, and it is more than probable that he surveyed the greater part of all the lands of the early settlers.
During one of his trips to Pennsylvania, in 1759, he married Jane Bain. He had built a home on what was afterwards known as the Statesville road, nine miles northwest of Charlotte. His house was the general rendezvous for the intelligent and patriotic for many miles in all directions. It was here the patriots were accustomed to meet and consider the condition of the country for months before the political climax was reached.
After much deliberate thought these patriotic pioneers agreed to meet in Charlotte as the most central point and give expression to their deliberations, where, on the 20th of May, 1775, the just celebrated Declaration of Independence was promulgated amid the shouts and huzzas of a populace fully prepared to indorse it with their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Mr. Alexander being the Secretary of the Convention, was the custodian of all the documents and papers, including the ever memorable original draft of the Mecklenburg declaration, which was destroyed by the burning of his house in the year 1800.
Biographical sketches of the early settlers of the Hopewell Section…J.B. Alexander
(Many of his original minutes from the Convention also burned, making it more difficult to assess the authenticity of the Declarations)
An article from the Charlotte Observer dated May 20, 1775 says:
‘The secretary of the militia meeting has been John McKnitt Alexander, whose beautiful plantation home “Alexandriana” has been the scene of many a political meeting on the state of the colonies and the county these past few years.
“J. McKnitt” as he often styles himself is one of the most influential citizens of Mecklenburg. Six feet tall with high forehead and flashing black eyes – he addresses every gathering in a calm and deliberate but exceedingly earnest and emphatic manner”…. Alexander began earning his living as a tailor, but has been active, increasingly, in land sales and in surveying. He is one of the largest land owners in the county and is an elder in Hopewell Presbyterian Church.”
Of the possible 28 signers of the Mecklenburg Declarations, six were members of the Alexander family: John Mcknitt, Hezekiah, Adam, Abraham, Charles and Ezra. Here is a story about another of the signers:
Duncan Ochiltree was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. Although Duncan Ochiltree was credited as being one of the original signers, his name was removed from all subsequent accounts of documents because he became a traitor by becoming a Quartermaster for the British. He owned a mercantile store as well as land, but he knew his fellow citizens would punish him for his change of heart and political leanings. According to Alexander, he begged John McKnitt Alexander to spare his life and protect him, after the British Army left the Charlotte area. John promised him protection while he was in his own home, but he advised him to leave the area immediately. Ochiltree reportedly fled to Wilmington and later moved to Florida. John McKnitt Alexander told his slaves, Cato and Ruth, to burn the stockyard and barn rather than give food and provisions to Ochiltree for the British. When this event he feared happened, Cato and Ruth did burn the building and year’s worth of farm work to ashes.
MeckDec Day (May 20) is still marked in North Carolina.
How to celebrate MeckDec Day — the best holiday in Charlotte — this weekend
Charlotte Observer 10/19/2016 (update)
An interesting aside to the story of the Alexanders in Mecklenburg County lies with their tangential association with the Regulators – the story of which was detailed in Benjamin Merrill’s post.
Here is an excerpt from: History of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlottte, from 1740-1903 by D.A. Tomkins, 1903
“A number of Mecklenburg men were in the ranks of the Regulators, but as they had no organization among themselves, it is not possible to estimate their number. Mecklenburg people recognized the justice of the cause for which the Regulators shed their blood, but they did not deem it prudent to make open resistance to authority at that time. The Phifers, Alexanders, Polks and other prominent citizens were not the kind of men who strike without carefully considering the consequences, but from May 17, 1771, independence of thought steadily developed into independence of action. The young men were not so conservative as their fathers, and they did not hesitate to express sympathy for the men who were struggling against oppression. Col. Moses Alexander was commissary for General Waddell, and while his wagons, laden with powder, were passing through the county, they were captured and the powder was destroyed by nine boys who have since been known as “The Black Boys of Mecklenburg.” They blacked their faces and disguised themselves as Indians before attacking the wagons, and from this they gained their name. These boys were afterwards noble soldiers in the Revolution.”
This interpretation makes it seem as though the Alexanders and other prominent citizens of Mecklenburg County realized that the Regulators were fighting a just cause against the British and General Tryon, but at the same time wanted to stay somewhat out of it as the harsh regulations and taxes hadn’t hit them yet as Mecklenburg was a newer county. It is interesting to note that Moses Alexander (the son of John McKnitt Alexander) was commissary for General Waddell, the British general who was sidetracked by Benjamin Merrill earlier.
Hezekiah Alexander was one of eleven children of James Robert (The Yeoman) Alexander and Margaret McKnitt. He was married to Mary Ann Sample (1734-1805) and they had eleven children. He was the 5th great uncle of Reba’s father, Frank Newland.
He was born in Cecil County, Maryland, (at the very top and east of Maryland) where his grandfather had emigrated from Ulster, Ireland. He later moved to Mecklenburg, North Carolina, four miles east of where the city of Charlotte was founded. Their house was built in 1764 and is still standing.
On May 20, 1775 he was one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which declares independence from England and predates the 1776 Declaration of Independence. There is some controversy about this document as it was not published until 1819, because it was apparently destroyed in a fire and recreated by John McKnitt Alexander (Hezekiah’s brother) and published. Many scholars no longer consider it authentic. Thomas Jefferson was adamant that it was not, as some of its phrasing echoed his own writing in the Declaration of Independence. John Adams initially supported its authenticity as he bore some resentment towards Jefferson for all the credit he received from authoring the Declaration, and ribbed him in a letter, implying that he may have borrowed some of the Mecklenburg turns of phrases. This incensed Jefferson and his strongly worded response convinced John Adams that the Mecklenburg Declaration was not authentic. This document had been a source of pride for North Carolina and they were in an uproar over this disrespect as they saw it.
Though the Declaration may not be authentic, the Mecklenburg Resolves are real. Written on May 31, 1775, they are not a declaration of independence but rather a set of resolves rejecting the laws of Parliament. Some feel that the controversy over the Declarations is pointless, as the Resolves themselves are quite a bold statement of the desire for independence.
A sad counterpoint to the desire for freedom and independence is the fact that Hezekiah and other men of the time denied freedom and independence to the people that they enslaved.
When speaking of the validity of the Declaration, historian Dan L. Morrill said, “Ultimately, it is a matter of faith, not proof. You believe it or you don’t believe it.” North Carolina chooses to believe it, as the state symbol and flag both continue to bear the date May 20, 1775 – the creation of their state’s alleged contribution to the movement toward American independence.
Here is an opposing opinion from William Henry Hoyt: Historians have generally concluded, however, that the document as it is now known is at best a later reconstruction drawing heavily on the language of the 4 July 1776 Declaration of Independence (PTJ, 1:429–33). A meeting in Mecklenburg County had indeed passed resolves suspending British rule on 31 May 1775, and the text above was composed by an unknown author basing his work on brief notes on those resolves written from memory in 1800 by John McKnitt Alexander.
The passage of twenty-five years likely explains the metamorphosis from what were probably more reserved resolutions into a so-called “declaration of independence” (William Henry Hoyt, The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence: A Study of Evidence Showing that the Alleged Early Declaration of Independence by Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on May 20th, 1775, is Spurious [1907]).
Here is an excerpt from J.B. Alexander’s book, “Reminiscences of the last sixty years ” about Hezekiah:
“I do not suppose of all the signers of the (Mecklenburg) Declaration of Independence, there was one superior in ability, or was more determined in severing the relations with the mother country than Hezekiah Alexander. He considered well the the course they were about to take; if the Colonies should not fall into the same line of thought with Mecklenburg country, their doom was sealed, and each one of them would pay for the crime of treason.”
History records the name of Hezekiah Alexander as an administrator and councilor. He held the post as Magistrate from the first appointed one in the county and historians have said “He was one of the most clear headed Magistrates in the County before the Revolutionary War and following the Declaration of Independence was named one of the members of the State Councul [sic] of Safety. In the Revolutionary War he was the paymaster for the 4th Regiment of North Carollina Troops, then became 1st lieutenant in 1777, and retired June 1st, 1778.
Mini biographies of Scots and Scots Descendants
Here is an excerpt from “The History of Mecklenburg County, by J.B. Alexander:
(Hezekiah’s) old house has a great cavern of a cellar where tradition says Mrs. Hezekiah Alexander used to store the rich products of the farm, many jars of honey being part of their contents. Just in front of the cellar door is, or used to be, a large flat stone; and upon this stone the British soldiers broke all the jars of honey which they could not carry away with them. They would not leave anything for the old rebel and his family. There is a beautiful spring near the house with a stone arch built over it, a stone spring house for dairy purposes, whose size indicates that milk, butter and cheese must have been so abundant as to require considerable room.
One of the unusual proofs of Hezekiah’s love of religious freedom was a carving of a fish on his house, the secret symbol, which Presbyterians used in Scotland and Ireland to signify allegiance to the Presbyterian faith.
… Tradition states that the two daughters of Hezekiah Alexander were very beautiful women. Mrs. Captain Cook, who was deputed by the town to entertain Gen. Washington when he was the town’s guest in 1791, was considered a good judge of female beauty, having seen much of the world and she said she had never seen any beauties who equaled these two Misses Alexander. One of them married Charley Polk and met a very tragic fate. Her husband was cleaning his gun in her room (where she was sitting with her child in her arms), when it went off and killed her. He subsequently announced his intention of marrying his beautiful sister-in-law but her brothers objected very decidedly, and his own brothers also interfered to prevent the marriage, and he had to give it up.
It was necessary at times for Mary Alexander to hide her sons in the weeds to prevent them from being kidnapped by the British soldiers and used as hostages.
From the day when maurading [sic] Indians, killed the settlers; to the day when Tory neighbors informed the enemy where supplies could be obtained by foraging; to the days when the British Soldiers burned homes and confiscated personal belongings, Hezekiah Alexander remained calm and led the people of his community toward a just peace.
Duke City Roots 