James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon

James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon (1730 – 22 March 1802) was an Irish landlord, merchant, politician and peer of the realm. The second son of Alderman Nathaniel Alexander of Derry, he was the effective founder of the Caledon family, and certainly the founder of its fortune.

Alexander began his career in India when he arrived at Fort St George, Madras, in 1752, at the age of twenty-three, and became a factor there. He was also employed under the Accountant for Madras, and in 1754 became Sub-Accountant and Book-Keeper of Deposits from the Mayor's Courts. He was Sheriff of Madras in 1754 and again in 1757. In the latter year he became Junior Merchant at Madras. In 1759, he was appointed Third in Council at Vizagapatam; in 1760, Senior Merchant and Third in Council at Masulipatam; and in 1762 Eleventh in Council at Fort St George, Civil and Military Paymaster, and Military Storekeeper.

He returned to Britain in 1763 only to return to India in 1766, having been appointed to Fort William, Calcutta, as Sixth Member of the Bengal Council, Import Warehouse Keeper, Custom Master and Mint Master. In a letter of introduction to someone in Madras, through which he passed in January 1767, he was described (significantly) as 'Coja Alexander' - coja meaning a wealthy merchant: '... I make no doubt you have given him every kind of curry that ever was invented at Madras. He deserves it; he deserves a great fortune, for he has a noble spirit...' In 1769, he became Fifth Member of Council, Collector General, Accountant and Custom Master, and in 1770, Third Member of Council, Chief of Patna and Chief of the Council of Revenue for Bihar. He was listed among the Nawab of Arcot's creditors in 1771. In that year he was promoted Second Member of Council and appointed Chief of the Council of Revenue at Murshidabad. He left India in 1772.

James Alexander's career, in India and in the East India Company's civil service, is of particular significance in the context of his native Ireland, since it was an unusual career for a contemporary or near-contemporary Irishman to pursue. It is also significant even in the wider context of the British in India. Dr P.J. Marshall has written: "[Among the great fortunes which were amassed in Bengal before the end of the 1760s] ... were [those] made by Francis Sykes, Thomas Rumbold and James Alexander, who had all taken a rich harvest out of the early revenue administration, Sykes as Resident at Murshidabad, Rumbold at Patna, and Alexander at both. ... Alexander, one of the relatively few Irishmen in the Bengal civil service, believed that he was worth about £150,000 when he left Bengal in 1772. He acquired nearly 9,000 acres (36 km²) in Ulster, from which he hoped to derive an annual income of some £7,000, and became the 1st Lord Caledon. ...'.

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