ALEXANDER, D.D. was the son of James Webster, minister of the Tolbooth church in Edinburgh, and born in that city about the year 1777. He was only 13 years of age at the death of his father, and of course could derive little from parental instruction or example. He studied at the university of Edinburgh the several branches of learning with great approbation, particularly Webster, particularly those connected with the mathematics, for which he discovered an early predilection. He afterwards attended the lectures of the professor of divinity, and in the year 1733 he was ordained minister of the parish of Culross, and in June 1737, he was admitted to be one of the ministers of the Tolbooth church of Edinburgh. His eloquence was noble and manly, his piety conspicuous, and the discharge of his pastoral duties faithful and laborious. To these qualities he added an enlightened zeal for the external interests of the church, a jealousy of corruption, a hatred of false politics and tyrannical measures, which sometimes exposed him to calumny from the guilty, but secured him the esteem of all who could value independence of soul and integrity of heart.

The prosperity of fortune which placed Mr Webster in the church of his father, and restored him to the polished society of his native city, was not confined to these favours. Eleven days after his settlement in Edinburgh, he obtained the hand of Mary Erskine, a young lady of considerable fortune, and nearly related to the noble family of Dundonald. The genius of Mr Webster now began to unfold itself. Family connections extended his acquaintance with the nobility. Edinburgh then possessed a number of men, both in civil and ecclesiastical stations, who have saved or adorned their country. With these he was soon to cooperate in defending the protestant interests from the arms and artifices of rebellion.

In the year 1733, five or six ministers seceded from the church, and being anxious to draw away as many as possible from the communion which they had renounced, they invited down to Scotland in 1741, Mr George Whitefield, a young preacher of great piety and extraordinary pulpit talents. On his way to Dunfermline, he was met and entertained at Edinburgh by Mr Webster and some of his brethren. From them he learned the state of church parties in Scotland; and though he kept his promise of preaching first in Fife, he declined connecting himself with any particular sect. Disappointed of his influence and assistance, the Seceders ascribed the effects of his preaching to sorcery and the devil, while Mr Webster, in a pamphlet which he published on the occasion, attributed them to the influence of the Holy Spirit, an opinion regarded by the Seceders as unfeachable wickedness.

In the year 1745, Mr Webster remained in the city when it was taken by the rebels, and employed his universal popularity and vigorous eloquence in retaining the minds of the people in the interests of the house of Hanover. His exertions in this were not overlooked by most of the spirited gentlemen who acted in quelling the rebellion. He became an intimate friend of Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Lord Milton, and others.

He preferred to the latest period of his career, that activity both of mind and body, which distinguished him in the prime of life, obtaining at last his frequent with and prayer, an easy and peaceful death, after a very short indisposition, on the 25th of January 1784. His remains were deposited in the Greyfriars churchyard; and it is not a little remarkable that neither private friendship nor public generosity has yet come forward to testify its regard for two of the most eminent characters of the church of Scotland. The ashes of Webster and Blair repose in the same cemetery, undistinguished from the less illustrious dead. No monumental stone marks the place of their dust.

Nature endowed Dr Webster with strong faculties, which were afterwards improved by a considerable share of erudition. He was master in the knowledge of the world and of human nature; his address was engaging; his wit strong as his mind; his convivial powers, as they are called, enchanting. He had a constitutional strength against intoxication, which made it dangerous in most men to attempt bringing him into such a state. His character as a minister was popular in the extreme. His voice was harmonious, and his figure noble. To the poor he was a father and a friend, a liberal patron to poor students. In his person he was tall, and of a thin and meagre habit. His features were strongly marked, and the conformity of the whole indicated genius and independence.

To him the widows of the clergy are indebted for the establishment of the celebrated Scheme, the plan of which he matured in his mind soon after he was appointed a minister of the Tolbooth church. By it the widows of ministers are entitled to the annual sum of 10, 15, 20, or 25 pounds, according as the clergy pay into the fund yearly, 2l. 12s. 6d.—3l. 18s. 9d.—5l. 5s. or 6l. 11s. 3d., or to their children in sums of 100—150—200—or 250l, in favour of which an act of parliament was obtained in terms of a petition (17 Geo. II.) with liberty to employ the surplus of the annual payments and expenses in loans of 30l. each among the contributors, and to put out the remainder at interest, on proper security. A second act was procured in the 22nd year of the same reign (1748) granting liberty to raise the capital to 80,000l, including the sums lent to contributors. The fund is conceived to commence from the 25th March 1744. This was followed by another act in the year 1770, discontinuing the loan granted to contributors, and granting liberty to raise the capital to 100,000l.; and the whole economy of the institution was then fixed and determined, a report of the state of the fund being ordered to be made annually to the General Assembly by the trustees, which was to be afterwards printed. The success of the scheme has been complete.