The Baronetcy of Nova Scotia

'...it is not to be omitted, that through the Swintons Sir Walter Scott could trace himself to William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, the poet and dramatist...'

The above text is from "Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott", by John Gibson Lockhart.  In addition to being a poet and dramatist, William Alexander was a colonizer, receiving, on September 29, 1621, a charter to colonize the Baronetcy of Nova Scotia (from Rampant Scotland).

Alexander's territory, granted to him by King James I of England, stretched through New Brunswick into what is now part of the United States.  An attempt to establish a colony called Port Royal effectively bankrupted Alexander by 1632. 

In 1636, under the regime of Charles I, Alexander was made Earl of Stirling.  Charles also gave him rights to Long Island (now part of New York), from the Plymouth Colony.