William Alexander (1726-1783), also known as Lord Stirling, was born and raised in New York City. The son of Scottish-born James Alexander, an East Jersey Proprietor and Surveyor-General and Attorney General of New York and New Jersey, and Mary Spratt Provoost Alexander, a successful merchant and real estate entrepreneur, William grew up among the wealthy elite of New York City. At the age of 21 he married Sarah Livingston, daughter of Philip Livingston, 2nd Lord of Livingston Manor, and sister of future New Jersey Governor William Livingston, further cementing his elevated social position in the American colonies.

Following his father’s death in 1756, he traveled to England to attend to family business matters and while there sought to establish his claim as the rightful male heir to the title of Earl of Stirling. The Scottish courts decided in his favor in 1759, but the claim was denied three years later by the English Parliament’s House of Lords. William Alexander nevertheless chose to adopt the title Lord Stirling and it is this moniker by which he is best known in America. He spent almost five years in England, living a fashionable and expensive existence in London. While he was abroad, William’s mother died in 1760 and in the following year he finally returned home to take up a sizeable inheritance and numerous properties in New York and New Jersey.

William Alexander by John Wollasten, c.1750

Following the outbreak of hostilities in New Jersey later in 1776, Stirling wholeheartedly embraced the American Revolutionary movement and was only intermittently in residence at his Basking Ridge estate. He was appointed a brigadier general in the Continental Army in March 1776 and went on to serve with distinction at many of the best-known conflicts of the war in the Middle Atlantic. Taken prisoner by the British at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, he was released in a prisoner exchange and went on to lead Continental Army troops in the Battles of Trenton, Short Hills, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. He endured the rigors of winter encampments at Valley Forge in 1777-78 and Middlebrook in 1778-79 and commanded troops in the northern theater throughout much of the Revolutionary War. He died in Albany on January 15, 1783 while still in military service.

Lord Stirling had grand plans for his return to America, hoping to take over his father’s governmental offices and re-establish himself as a prominent figure in colonial society. One of his goals was to create a country seat for himself befitting his new-found lordly status. He was accompanied on his return transatlantic trip by the newly appointed Royal Governor of New Jersey, Josiah Hardy, and by an ambitious Scottish-born carpenter/builder, John Edward Pryor. Upon their arrival in the colonies, Stirling introduced Pryor to his fellow East Jersey Proprietors which led to Pryor being retained in October 1761 to design and build a mansion for the new governor in Perth Amboy (the structure known today as The Proprietary House). Within a matter of weeks, Stirling commissioned Pryor to construct another mansion, this time for himself on several hundred acres of land he had inherited from his father on the banks of the Passaic River in the recently chartered Bernards Township. So begins the story of Lord Stirling Manor, or what was known at the time as simply “The Buildings” – perhaps an acknowledgement of the grandiosity of what was being erected on Stirling’s behalf in the relative wilderness of the Somerset Hills.

The Buildings Needlepoint by Katharine Wright, 1784. This needlepoint sampler was likely a broad interpretation of the site's true appearance, meant only to practice embroidery skills and mark the occasion of Katharine's visit to the property. No other images of "The Buildings" are known.

1923 Montgomery-Ward Kit House, as seen today.

Stirling, being one of Washington's closest advisors, devised a warning system composed of large (20ft x 20ft) wooden beacons spanning mountains from New York state to the Watchung Mountain range in Somerset County's own Washington Valley Park. These beacons were set on fire by local farmers designated to keep watch for other lit beacons, to notify the region that the British troops were advancing.

Somerset County's inaugural field school in 2025 was attended by undergraduate and graduate students from Monmouth University, as well as students from other higher education institutions in New Jersey. Overseen by Dr. Richard Veit (Monmouth University) and Hunter Research Staff, this field school offered students practical training in a prime 18th century archaeological site.

From May through June (2026), Somerset County welcomes Monmouth University students to return to the site to learn alongside professional archaeologists from Hunter Research in an in-depth field school program. From planning to excavating, documenting, and processing, students will uncover material culture from the pre-contact period through the 20th century - lending clues to the lives of those who inhabited the estate throughout its history.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Lord Stirling Manor site was excavated by the late Dr. Alan Cooper of the Morristown Beard School with his students and colleagues. Dr. Cooper's work has influenced countless academic theses and fueled a continuing interest in the site. Dr. Cooper's legacy lives on in the expansive archaeological artifact collection from his excavations.

Dr. Alan Cooper (center) excavates the courtyard area with students.

Hunter Research, Inc.

Dr. Richard Hunter   President, Principal Archaeologist, Ph.D., RPA

Jim Lee   Vice President, Principal Archaeologist, M.A., RPA

Josh Butchko   Principal Investigator/Laboratory Director, M.A., RPA

Monmouth University

Dr. Richard Veit   Provost and Senior VP for Academic Affairs

Dr. Adam Heinrich   Associate Professor of Anthropology