James Waddel Alexander, D. D., eldest son of Dr. Archibald Alexander, bora in Louisa county, Va., March 13, 1804, died at the Red Sweet Springs, Va., July 31, 1859. He graduated at the college of New Jersey in 1820, was appointed a tutor there in 1824, resigned in the following year, was settled as pastor of a congregation in Charlotte county, Va., and in 1828 accepted a call to Trenton, N. J. In 1830 he resigned that charge and became editor of "The Presbyterian," a religious newspaper published in Philadelphia, whence he was called in 1833 to the professorship of rhetoric and belles-lettres in the college of New Jersey. In 1844 he accepted the pastoral charge of the Duane street church in New York. In 1849 he was appointed professor of ecclesiastical history and church government in the theological seminary at Princeton, where he remained till 1851, when he was chosen pastor of the Fifth avenue church in New York, which station he held till his death. His published works include " Consolation, in Discourses on Select Topics, addressed to the Suffering People of God"; "Thoughts on Family Worship "; " Plain Words to a Young Communicant"; " Thoughts on Preaching"; a series of essays entitled "The American Mechanic and Workingman"; "Discourses on Christian Faith and Practice"; a biography of Dr. Archibald Alexander; and numerous contributions to the "Biblical Repertory" and "Princeton Review," as well as to the publications of the American tract society.

The Rev. John Hall, D. D., edited in 1800 "Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander," with notes (2 vols. 12mo).