Ashton Alexander

Artist: Philip Thomas Coke Tilyard; Oil on canvas

Ashton Alexander was born near Arlington, VA in 1772, where his family owned large tracts of land, and the town of Alexandria was named for them.  He was privately educated and then studied medicine as a student of Dr. Philip Thomas, of Frederick, MD and then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his degree in 1795. He first settled in North Carolina and then came to Baltimore in 1796.

He was a founder of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland and its first secretary (1799-1801); then he was treasurer (1801-1803) and the last surviving charter member.

Additionally, he was Commissioner of Health in Baltimore from 1804-05 and again in 1812; Attending Physician, Baltimore General Dispensary, 1801-03; Consulting Physician, Baltimore Hospital, 1812; President District Medical and Chirurgical Society, 1819-20; Provost, University of Maryland, 1837-50.

He was married, first to Catherine Thomas, a daughter of Dr. Philip Thomas, and fathered eight children, only three of whom survived to adulthood, and all of whom died before he did. In his later years, he was married to Miss Sarah Roger Merryman.

Dr. Alexander is described as being “a self-possessed and courteous man, neat in his dress which included knee and shoe buckles and gold-headed cane.” He died of pneumonia in Baltimore in February, 1855, in his eighty-third year.

Portrait by Philip Tilyard in June 1827. Curiously, there are two nearly identical portraits in our possession, and it’s not currently known which portrait is the original. Additionally, there’s only one portrait listed in the Sotheby’s 2002 appraisal.