James Alexander's career, in India and in the East India Company's civil service, is of particular significance in the context of his native Ireland, since it was an unusual career for a contemporary or near-contemporary Irishman to pursue. It is also significant even in the wider context of the British in India. Dr P.J. Marshall has written: "the great fortunes which were amassed in Bengal before the end of the 1760s ... were made by Francis Sykes, Thomas Rumbold and James Alexander, who had all taken a rich harvest out of the early revenue administration, Sykes as Resident at Murshidabad, Rumbold at Patna, and Alexander at both. ... Alexander, one of the relatively few Irishmen in the Bengal civil service, believed that he was worth about £150,000 when he left Bengal in 1772. He acquired nearly 9,000 acres (36 km²) in Ulster, from which he hoped to derive an annual income of some £7,000, and became the 1st Lord Caledon. ...'.