{{Short description|American merchant and public official in Colonial New York}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = | office = President of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York | term_start = 1764 | term_end = 1766 | predecessor = William Alexander | successor = Walter Rutherfurd | birth_date = {{birth date|1716|08|13}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, British America | death_date = {{dda|1774|12|12|1716|08|13}} | death_place = Flushing, New York, U.S. | parents = Cadwallader Colden<br>Alice Chrystie Colden | spouse = {{marriage|Elizabeth Nicolls<br>||1774|reason=died}} | children = | relations = }} '''Alexander Colden''' (August 13, 1716 – December 12, 1774)<ref>"Genealogical Notes of the Colden Family," by Edwin R Purple (1873), from The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, with additions. Online at https://archive.org/details/genealogicalnote1873purp</ref><ref>New York Gazette, and Weekly Mercury, 19 Dec 1774 (New York, New York), p. 3. Alexander Colden death notice.</ref> was an American merchant and public official in Colonial New York who was the son of Cadwallader Colden.<ref name="Taylor1911">{{cite book |last1=Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York |title=Roster of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York with Biographical Data |date=1911 |publisher=D. Taylor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-yYt1LrbG0oC&pg=PA1 |accessdate=26 July 2019 |language=en|author1-link=Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York }}</ref>
==Early life== Colden was born on August 13, 1716, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in what was then a part of British America. He was the eldest son of Dr. Cadwallader Colden (1688–1776) and Alice (née Chrystie) Colden.<ref name="Purple1873">{{cite book |last1=Purple |first1=Edwin Ruthven |title=Genealogical Notes of the Colden Family in America |date=1873 |publisher=Priv. print. |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/genealogicalnote00purp |accessdate=31 July 2019}}</ref> Among his siblings were Elizabeth Alice Colden (wife of Peter DeLancey, a son of merchant Stephen DeLancey and brother of Gov. James DeLancey); Cadwallader Colden Jr.; Jane Colden, the first female botanist working in America;<ref>{{cite journal|title= What Jane Knew: A Woman Botanist in the Eighteenth Century|first=Sara Stidstone |last=Gronim| journal=Journal of Women's History|volume =19|issue= 3|year=2007|pages=33–59|doi=10.1353/jowh.2007.0058|s2cid=144291310 }}</ref> Alice Colden (wife of Col. Isaac Willet);<ref name="Purple1873"/> and David Colden (who married Ann Alice Willett). His father was the 31st, 33rd, and 35th Colonial Governor of New York.<ref name="Purple1873"/>
His paternal grandparents were the Rev. Alexander Colden and Janet (née Hughes) Colden.<ref name="Purple1873"/>
==Career== In 1737, he was appointed Ranger of Ulster County, which included Coldenham. There, he ran a country store that sold general merchandise.<ref name="Morrison1906"/>
In 1751, he was appointed Joint Surveyor General of the Province of New York with his father, and succeeded him in that office from 1761 to 1762. At that point he moved from Newburgh, New York, to New York City, where he served as Postmaster of New York City for a number of years.<ref name="Purple1873"/>
Colden was one of the founders and an original member of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York, serving as president from 1764 to 1766.<ref name="Morrison1906">{{cite book |last1=Morrison |first1=George Austin |title=History of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York, 1756-1906 |date=1906 |publisher=Saint Andrew's Society of the State of NY |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/historysaintand00morrgoog/page/n7 |accessdate=26 July 2019}}</ref>
==Personal life== Colden was married to Elizabeth Nicolls (1720–1774), the second daughter of Richard Nicholls and Margaret Tudor. Together, Alexander and Elizabeth were the parents of:
* Richard Nicolls Colden (1745–1777), who married Henrietta Maria Bethune (b. 1745). After his death, his widow married Richard Berryman.<ref name="Purple1873"/> * Cadwallader Colden, who died in childhood.<ref name="Morrison1906"/> * John Colden, who was lost at sea.<ref name="Morrison1906"/> * Alice Colden, who married Col. Archibald Hamilton (1728–1795), son of Alexander Hamilton of Ballencrieff.<ref name="O'Callaghan1861">{{cite book |last1=O'Callaghan |first1=Edmund Bailey |title=Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York |date=1861 |publisher=Weed, Parsons, printers |page=259 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tS5TAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA259 |accessdate=31 July 2019 |language=en}}</ref> * Margaret Colden ({{Circa|1748}}–1789), who married Major John Antill, son of Hon. Edward Antill of New Jersey. * Elizabeth Colden, who married Col. Anthony Farrington, 1st Baronet of the Royal Arsenal in 1766. * Jane Colden (1755–1827), who married Major John Antill after the death of her elder sister Margaret.<ref name="Morrison1906"/>
Colden died in 1774, at Spring Hill in Flushing, New York.<ref name="Morrison1906"/>
===Descendants=== Through his son Richard, he was a grandfather of Alexander Colden and Cadwallader R. Colden, editor of the U.S. ''Sporting Magazine'' from 1835 to 1836.<ref name="livingstonmanor">{{cite web |title=The Colden Family of Early America |url=http://livingstonmanor.net/coldenweb/coldendescendentsjanuary2011.pdf |website=livingstonmanor.net |accessdate=26 July 2019 |page=25 |date=2011}}</ref>
Through his daughter Alice, he was the grandfather of Mary Elizabeth Jane Douglas Hamilton, wife of Francis Napier (grandson of Francis Napier, 6th Lord Napier) and mother of historian Mark Napier.<ref name="Cave1838">{{cite book |last1=Cave |first1=Edward |last2=Nichols |first2=John |title=The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, for the Year ... |date=1838 |publisher=Edw. Cave, 1736-[1868] |page=102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZeoIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA102 |accessdate=31 July 2019 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Colden, Alexander}} Category:1716 births Category:1774 deaths Category:Merchants from the Province of New York Category:18th-century American merchants Category:Postmasters of New York City Category:Presidents of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York