Alexander Kerr - William R. Williams, the contributor of this list is a possible descendant of Alexander Kerr. The following is a letter which sets forth information regarding his research.

I have been trying for several years to confirm some commonly accepted information regarding Alexander Kerr, Jacobite prisoner captured at Preston in 1715; convicted at Chester of high treason; accepted "transport" rather than hanging until not dead etc.; was taken onboard the ship Elizabeth and Anne, Master, Edward Trafford at Liverpool and was signed for "By his Majestys's Lieutenant Governor & Commander in Chief of this Dominion" at York, Virginia, January 14, 1716. Alexander was the son of Archibald Kerr of Graden. Alexander was trained as a silversmith before his capture and became a nabob of Williamsburg owning a house across the street from the Capital building. Alexander bought the house from the estate of a fellow prisoner transported on the same voyage of the Elizabeth and Anne, Dr. John Brown, a surgeon from Coldstream.

Alexander and his brother Henry were sons of Archibald Ker(r) of Graden and Helenor St. Clair, daughter of Sir James St. Clair of Roslin. The boys' father died when they were still young children. Their mother raised them as Roman Catholics. Henry, the eldest, may or may not have participated in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. However, Henry was not captured as a Jacobite until the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion near Forfar, Scotland. Henry pleaded he was taken as an officer of the Spanish Army, which he was and had been for 23 years. Henry was sentenced to "transport" and died a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Spanish Army at San Lucar, Spain on 22 December 1751.

It is alleged by several genealogists in the U. S. and Scotland that Alexander Kerr of Williamsburg, Virginia married Martha Elizabeth Rice, date and place unknown. The marriage produced three children, Alexander Kerr, m. Elizabeth Rice; John Kerr, m. Elizabeth Henderson and William Kerr. I know John Kerr to be my ancestor and that his wife's name was Elizabeth Henderson and so on. I cannot confirm Alexander Kerr as the father of my John Kerr.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has spent considerable time and money researching the lives of the owners of houses in colonial Williamsburg. Alexander Kerr is one of the persons they have researched. It is the opinion of the Colonial Williamsburg Research Library that Alexander Kerr never married and had no children.