Stirling, William Alexander, 1st earl

Stirling, William Alexander, 1st earl of

(born c. 1576, Menstrie, Clackmannan, Scot.—died Feb. 12, 1640, London, Eng.) Scottish poet and colonizer of Canada. He was a member of the court of James I, where he wrote his sonnet sequence Aurora (1604). In 1621 he obtained a grant for territory in North America that he named New Scotland (Nova Scotia), despite French claims to part of the land. He offered baronetcies to Scotsmen who would sponsor settlers, but the region was not colonized until his son established a settlement at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal). Alexander was compelled to surrender the territory under the Treaty of Susa (1629), which ended an Anglo-French conflict. Scottish settlers were ordered to withdraw by 1631.