David Alexander

Brief Life History of David

When David Alexander was born on 29 August 1875, in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, his father, David Alexander, was 29 and his mother, Elizabeth Maitland, was 35.

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Family Time Line

David Alexander
1846–
Elizabeth Maitland
1841–
Susannah Alexander
1871–
John Alexander
1878–
Elizabeth Alexander
1879–
Alexander Alexander
1873–
David Alexander
1875–

Sources (1)

  • David Alexander, "Scotland, Civil Registration, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891"

World Events (3)

1878 · Collapse of the City of Glasgow Bank.

Because of a discovery of a £7,000 deficit, City of Glasgow Bank halted operations from November to December 1877. After 10 months after reopening, the bank’s directors announced the bank, itself, had filed bankruptcy. The closure showed a net liability of over £6 million. The bank was so successful with telling people that it wasn’t in error, that the Bank's shares were selling for more than double of what they were actually worth. The bank’s directors were arrested and tried at the High Court. All were found guilty and sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Many Glasgow businesses failed as a result of the bankruptcy and shareholders were called to replenish the bank's losses. One shareholder argued that he had become a shareholder unknowing the fraudulent actions of the bank. Wide effects of the collapse have been seen in limited growth in liability and extensive problems with temporary banking liquidity.

1884

Art Nouveau Period (Art and Antiques).

1908

London, United Kingdom hosts Summer Olympic Games.

Name Meaning

Scottish, English, German, and Dutch: from the personal name Alexander, classical Greek Alexandros, which probably originally meant ‘repulser of men (i.e. of the enemy)’, from alexein ‘to repel’ + andros, genitive of anēr ‘man’. Its popularity in the Middle Ages was due mainly to the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC ) - or rather to the hero of the mythical versions of his exploits that gained currency in the so-called Alexander Romances. The name was also borne by various early Christian saints, including a patriarch of Alexandria (c. 250–326 AD ), whose main achievement was condemning the Arian heresy. The Gaelic form of the personal name is Alasdair, which has given rise to a number of Scottish and Irish patronymics, for example McAllister . Alexander is a common personal name in Scotland, often representing an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name. In North America, the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates from other languages, e.g. Spanish Alejandro , Italian Alessandro , Arabic or Assyrian/Chaldean Iskandar and Iskander , and their derivatives, e.g. Greek patronymic Alexandropoulos.

Jewish: from the adopted personal name Alexander (see 1 above) or shortened from the eastern Ashkenazic (originally Slavic) patronymics Aleksandrovich or Alexandrowicz.

History: A number of Scotch-Irish families of this name landed at New York in the early 18th century. By 1746, six of them were established in NC. Others came in through Philadelphia, for example Archibald Alexander, who came from Londonderry in northern Ireland in 1736 and established himself in VA. — The Revolutionary general William Alexander (1726–83) was always known as ‘Lord Sterling’ to his compatriots, although his claim to the title was denied by the College of Arms in London. His father, James Alexander, was a Jacobite who had fled to New York after the failure of the Jacobite rising in 1715. The claim to the title arose in connection with their ancestor Sir William Alexander, a courtier and poet at the court of King James VI of Scotland (James I of England), who created him Earl of Stirling in 1633.

Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.

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