Thomas Outlaw, Patriot Ancestor of W. Scott Campbell, was the first son of Edward Outlaw III and great-grandson of Edward Outlaw who migrated to the Colonies in the late 1600s, Alexander was born, probably, in Bertie County North Carolina in 1738, but spent at least 40 years as a resident of Duplin County, NC in which still stands the "Outlaw Bridge". He married Penelope Smith in 1766 and, when the Revolutionary War came, Alexander was a Captain in the Duplin Militia and served under Colonel James Kenan in expeditions against the Tories. Later he was a recruiting officer and quartermaster of the Tenth Regiment. Later, he moved to Washington County in Southwest Virginia where he served as a militia officer and fought with Colonel Campbell's men at Kings Mountain.
In 1783 he moved to the Washington District, then Western North Carolina and now part of Tennessee, and took up residence in Greene County. In 1796 he represented Jefferson County in the Constitutional Convention for the establishment of the State of Tennessee. He represented Jefferson County in the first General Assembly (State Legislature) and in 1799 was elected to the State Senate and was made Speaker. It is also noteworthy that he was a representative for the short-lived Caswell County in the Legislature of the State of Franklin.
Alexander had four daughters and one son. The daughters were married to four well known men of that time, to wit: Judge Joseph Anderson, Judge David Campbell, Joseph Hamilton and Paul McDermott.
Alexander died in October 1825 in Cahaba, the Capitol of the Alabama Territory where he resided with his daughter Elizabeth Outlaw Campbell.