Alexander Martin was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey in about 1740. A resident of Salisbury, North Carolina, he established himself as a lawyer and became a judge in the Salisbury Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1774. During the Revolution he served as a colonel in the 2nd North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line and resigned his commission after the Battle of Germantown in 1777. He then served in the North Carolina State Senate from 1778 to 1782. He was the Governor of North Carolina from 1782 to 1785 and from 1789 to 1792. He died in Rockingham County, North Carolina on November 2, 1807.