STIRLING, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, titular EARL OF (1726-1783), American soldier, was born in New York city. He served first as commissary and then as aide-de-camp to Governor William Shirley at the beginning of the French and Indian War, and in 1756 he accompanied Shirley to England, where he prose cuted his claim to the earldom of Stirling. In 1759 an Edinburgh jury declared him to be the nearest heir to the last earl of Stirling, and in 1761 he returned to America and assumed the title of Lord Stirling by which he was afterwards known in America. He became a member of the New Jersey provincial council and surveyor general of the colony. In 1775 he sided with the patriot cause and was appointed colonel of a regiment in New Jersey. In March he became brigadier-general, and for a time was in command at New York, and supervised the fortification of the city and harbour. At the battle of Long Island he was taken prisoner, but was soon afterwards exchanged, and in Feb. 1777
became a major-general. He participated in the battles of ,Tren ton, Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown, and especially dis tinguished himself at Monmouth. He took an active part in ex posing the Conway Cabal, presided over the court-martial of General Charles Lee, and enjoyed the confidence of Washington to an unusual degree. In Oct. 1781 he took command of the northern department at Albany to check an expected invasion from Canada. He died at Albany on Jan. 15, 1783. He was a member of the board of governors of King's college (now Columbia uni versity) and was devoted to the study of mathematics and astronomy.