Alexander was born in 1699 or 1700 in the family home at Ballylawn, county Donegal, as the second son of William Stewart and his wife. His father had raised a Williamite troop of horse in the run-up to the siege of Londonderry and was therefore known as Colonel William Stewart. Alexander's grandfather and great-grandfather are not known by name, but he was a great-grandson of John Stewart who built the castle of Stewart's Court on Ballylawn Manor. Alexander's mother, whose first name is unknown, was a daughter of William Stewart of Fort Stewart, near Ramelton, County Donegal. The Stewart family background was Scots-Irish and Presbyterian. He appears below as the younger of two brothers:
Thomas, inherited Ballylawn and pursued a military career but died childless in 1740; and
Alexander.
Alexander, as a younger son, went into commerce with an apprenticeship at Belfast and became a successful merchant in the Baltic trade. He also became an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Rosemary Street, Belfast.
Marriage and children
Alexander Stewart married on 30 June 1737 in Dublin a cousin, Mary Cowan, daughter of John Cowan, alderman of Londonderry and his wife Anne Stewart, daughter of Alexander Stewart of Ballylawn, and sister of the former Governor of Bombay, Robert Cowan, who had died on 21 February 1737 in London. Alexander and Mary Stewart had seven children:
In 1740 his elder brother Thomas died and Alexander inherited the Ballylawn estate. However, there are two townlands called Ballylawn in county Donegal: one on the shores of Lough Swilly near Manorcunningham, and another on a hillside above Lough Foyle near Moville on the Inishowen peninsula. According to Bew Ballylawn near Moville was the place.
Cowan inheritance
He then acquired the rights to Robert Cowan's substantial estate. Being now rich, Alexander Stewart retired from business in 1743, and used the money from the Cowan inheritance to become a substantial landowner in County Down by buying estates at Comber and Newtownards in 1744.
Around 1750 Alexander Stewart rebuilt a house called Mount Pleasant on his estate near Newtownards and renamed it Mount Stewart. In 1780 Stewart commissioned the Temple of the Winds at Mount Stewart from James "Athenian" Stuart. This is an octagonal neo-classical building that was completed by his son Robert after his death. , commissioned by Alexander Stewart In 1755 he was left the property of William Bruce, the Dublin bookseller from Killyleagh, which he divided between Bruce's relations.
In politics
In 1759 the member of the Parliament of Ireland for the city of Londonderry, William Scott, was raised to the bench. Initially William Hamilton was elected to succeed him, but the election was declared void. Alexander Stewart was returned in his place in April 1760, but he was also declared not duly elected. Eventually Hamilton represented the constituency from May 1760 until his death later that year. Stewart was not elected again to Parliament, but many of his sons and grandsons were.
