American Founding Father and politician (1723?1790)
William Livingston
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In office
August 31, 1776 ? July 25, 1790
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Preceded by
| William Franklin
as Royal Governor
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Succeeded by
| Elisha Lawrence
Acting Governor
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In office
1759?1761
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Preceded by
| Robert Livingston
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Succeeded by
| Peter R. Livingston
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Born
| (
1723-11-30
)
November 30, 1723
Albany
,
Province of New York
,
British America
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Died
| July 25, 1790
(1790-07-25)
(aged 66)
Elizabeth, New Jersey
, U.S.
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Resting place
| Green-Wood Cemetery
,
Brooklyn
, New York City
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Political party
| Federalist
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Spouse
|
Susannah French
(
m.
1745; died 1789)
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Children
| 13, including
Sarah
,
Brockholst
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Parent(s)
| Philip Livingston
Catherine Van Brugh
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Relatives
| See
Livingston family
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Alma mater
| Yale College
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Signature
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William Livingston
(November 30, 1723 – July 25, 1790) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the first
governor of New Jersey
(1776?1790) during the
American Revolutionary War
. As a New Jersey representative in the
Continental Congress
, he signed the
Continental Association
and the
United States Constitution
. He is considered one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States
and a Founding Father of New Jersey.
[1]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Livingston was born in
Albany
in the
Province of New York
on November 30, 1723. He was the son of
Philip Livingston
(1686?1749), the 2nd Lord of
Livingston Manor
, and Catherine Van Brugh, the only child of
Albany mayor
Pieter Van Brugh
. His older siblings included
Robert Livingston
(1708?1790), 3rd Lord of Livingston Manor,
Peter Van Brugh Livingston
(1710?1792),
New York State Treasurer
, and
Philip Livingston
(1716?1778), a member of the
New York State Senate
.
[2]
Livingston received his early education from local schools and tutors. At age 13, he was sent to live for a year and prepare for college with the Anglican missionary catechist and
Yale College
graduate Henry Barclay who lived among the
Iroquois
in the
Mohawk Valley
at
Fort Hunter
.
[3]
Livingston enrolled at Yale in 1737 and graduated in 1741. He went on to New York City, where he studied law and became a law clerk for the eminent lawyer
James Alexander
. He left Alexander's office in the spring of 1746 before finishing his apprenticeship because of a disagreement
[4]
and joined the office of
William Smith Sr
.
[5]
Career in New York
[
edit
]
He became a lawyer in 1748
[4]
and began his practice in
New York City
. In 1752, he founded a weekly journal, the
Independent Reflector
, along with fellow Presbyterian lawyers
William Smith Jr.
, the son of his law teacher, and
John Morin Scott
. The three were called by contemporaries "The Triumvirate".
[6]
The
Reflector
was New York's first serial non-newspaper publication and the only one being published in British North America at the time. It was used as a platform by the political upstate Presbyterian land-owning "country faction" led by Livingston for challenging the powerful downstate Anglican and Dutch Reformed merchant or "popular faction" led by Chief Justice
James De Lancey
. Most notably the Triumvirate attacked the founding of
King's College
as a conspiracy by Anglicans to install a bishop in America, including his former tutor Rev. Henry Barclay, rector of
Trinity Church
, and his former law teacher James Alexander.
Publication of the
Reflector
ceased with the fifty-second issue in late 1753 after political pressure was brought to bear upon its printer,
James Parker
,
[5]
but Livingston and his allies continued to attack the college over the next year with columns in newspapers.
[7]
By raising divisive issues, he managed to divert half the funds raised by a state lottery for the college to fund the construction of a new jail and a detention house for sailors from diseased ships. King's College was defiantly opened despite Livingston's efforts by
President Rev. Samuel Johnson
in July 1754 and granted a charter by the king on October 31, 1754.
[8]
Though he failed to close the college, no bishop arrived as predicted.
Livingston remained politically active and was elected to the
American Philosophical Society
in 1768 and served one term in the
New York General Assembly
until his political allies lost power in 1769 and was replaced by his nephew, Peter Robert Livingston, the eldest surviving son of his brother Robert.
[9]
[5]
Career in New Jersey
[
edit
]
In 1772, he moved to
Elizabethtown
in the colonial-era
Province of New Jersey
, where he rented a house in town. A young
Alexander Hamilton
lived with Livingston for at least the winter while he attended Francis Barber's grammar school.
[10]
[11]
Livingston started construction of a large country home to house his growing family. The house, known as
Liberty Hall
, still stands.
[5]
After attaining considerable influence among the local
patriots
, Livingston was elected to serve as one of New Jersey's delegates to the
Continental Congress
in
Philadelphia
, where he served from July 1774 to June 1776. New Jersey's Provincial Congress declined to reappoint him to the
Second Continental Congress
, however, since he did not favor immediate independence, so he was not a signatory to the
Declaration of Independence
that was unanimously adopted on July 4, 1776. William Livingston's older brother,
Philip Livingston
, who remained as a strong member of the New York delegation, did become one of the only 56 signers.
Meanwhile, the New Jersey Provincial Congress, instead, offered William Livingston, command of its state's militia, an offer he declined. So when William Livingston returned to New Jersey from Philadelphia that summer of 1776, he relied on his previous commission (of October 1775) as a
brigadier general
of the
New Jersey Militia
.
In August 1776, he was elected Governor of New Jersey.
[5]
Between 1776 and 1779, the family was located in
Parsippany
for safety. Liberty Hall was frequently visited by British troops or naval forces since there was a substantial reward for Livingston's capture. One attempt to kidnap him took place in mid-June 1779. False information about Livingston visiting his second home in Parsippany resulted in a raid by
Loyalists
and their subsequent capture. The Loyalist mayor of New York City, and a distant cousin through the
Schuyler family
,
David Mathews
, was suspected by being behind the attempted capture of Livingston.
[12]
The family returned to Liberty Hall in 1779 to begin restoring their looted home. He was elected a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1782.
[13]
Later years
[
edit
]
Livingston joined the New Jersey Delegation to the
1787 Constitutional Convention
in
Philadelphia
and was one of the signers of the
U.S. Constitution
.
[5]
He was appointed United States Minister to the
Netherlands
in 1788 by the
U.S. Congress
, but turned down the opportunity. He continued to be reelected
governor of New Jersey
each year until his death in 1790.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Livingston married Susannah French (1723?1789) in
New Jersey
in 1745. She was the daughter of landowner Philip French III and Susanna (
nee
Brockholst) French.
[14]
Her paternal grandparents were
Phillip French
, the 27th
mayor of New York City
, and Annetje (nee Philipse) French (the daughter of
Frederick Philipse
). Her maternal grandparents were Susanna Maria Brockholst and
Anthony Brockholst
, an acting
governor of colonial New York
under Sir
Edmund Andros
.
[14]
[15]
They had 13 children, including:
[16]
[2]
[17]
- Livingston (1746?1746), a son who died in infancy.
[17]
- Livingston (1747?1747), a son who died in infancy.
[17]
- Susannah Livingston (1748?1840), who married
John Cleves Symmes
(1742?1814) in 1780 and became the stepmother-in-law of President
William Henry Harrison
.
[17]
- Catherine Livingston (1751?1813), who married Matthew Ridley (1746?1789), and later, her cousin John Livingston (1750?1822), son of Robert Livingston.
[17]
- Mary Livingston (born 1753), who married James Linn in May 1771.
[17]
- William Livingston Jr. (1754?1817), who married Mary Lennington.
[17]
- Philip Van Brugh Livingston (born 1755), who died unmarried.
[17]
- Sarah Van Brugh Livingston
(1756?1802), who married
John Jay
(1745?1829).
- Henry Brockholst Livingston
(1757?1823), an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
who married 3 times.
[17]
- Judith Livingston (1758?1843), who married John W. Watkins, an attorney.
[18]
[17]
- Philip French Livingston (born 1760), who drowned in the
Hackensack River
.
[17]
- John Lawrence Livingston (1762?1781), who died at sea aboard the
USS
Saratoga
.
[17]
- Elizabeth Clarkson Livingston (1764?1765), who died young.
[17]
Descendants
[
edit
]
Livingston's daughter, Sarah, was born in 1756 and was educated at home in penmanship, English grammar, the Bible, and classic literature. At a time when women were usually relegated to the kitchen, she was brought up to be politically aware, even serving at times as her father's secretary.
[19]
Sarah, at the age of 17, married
John Jay
. Sarah accompanied Jay to Spain and then Paris, where he, along with
John Adams
,
Benjamin Franklin
, and
Henry Laurens
, negotiated the
Treaty of Paris
in 1783. She is credited with writing the celebratory Treaty of Paris dinner toast. When Sarah and John returned to New York, Jay was appointed
U.S. Foreign Secretary
, and her Parisian training came in handy, as she and her husband established the custom of weekly dinners for the diplomatic corps and other guests in the U.S. capital city of New York. Sarah served in her hospitality role as the wife of the first
Chief Justice of the United States
and First Lady of New York.
Among the other prominent descendants of William Livingston were Julia Kean, wife of
United States Secretary of State
and
New York Governor
Hamilton Fish
, a descendant of
Peter Stuyvesant
, the last Dutch
Director-General of New Amsterdam
;
Thomas Kean
, the 48th Governor of New Jersey and the grand-nephew of Hamilton Fish,
Edwin Brockholst Livingston
, a historian,
Henry Brockholst Ledyard
,
mayor of Detroit
.
[20]
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
Livingston died on July 25, 1790, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was originally buried at Trinity Church in
Manhattan
, but on May 7, 1844, was reinterred at
Green-Wood Cemetery
in
Brooklyn
.
In 1747, Livingston wrote and published a long pastoral poem entitled, "Philosophic Solitude, or the Choice of a Rural Life". One of the first successful original poems written by an American colonist, it was anthologized numerous times into the 19th century. In 1754, Livingston also played a key role in founding the
New York Society Library
, which is still in existence over a quarter of a millennium later. Livingston also authored a commentary upon the government of England in comparison to the United States Constitution, titled 'Examen du Gouvernement
d’Angleterre compare aux Constitutions des Etats-Unis', which was cited approvingly by Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes in his pamphlet 'What Is the Third Estate?'.
Livingston, New Jersey
in
Essex County, New Jersey
,
[21]
Governor Livingston High School
in
Berkeley Heights, New Jersey
, and the
Livingston campus
at
Rutgers University
were each named in his honor.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Founding Fathers of New Jersey"
.
archives.gov
.
National Archives and Records Administration
. Retrieved
March 6,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1910).
The Livingstons of Livingston Manor: Being the History of that Branch of the Scottish House of Callendar which Settled in the English Province of New York During the Reign of Charles the Second; and Also Including an Account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The Nephew," a Settler in the Same Province and His Principal Descendants
. New York: The Knickerbocker Press
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch,
Biographical sketches of the graduates of Yale College: with annals of the college
, Holt, 1885, Volume 1, pp. 503?504
- ^
a
b
Dexter, p. 682
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Wright, Jr., Robert K. & MacGregor Jr., Morris J. "William Livingston".
Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution
. Washington, DC: United States Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 71-25. Archived from
the original
on November 13, 2019
. Retrieved
June 10,
2010
.
- ^
Lustig, Mary Lou,
Privilege and Prerogative: New York's Provincial Elite, 1710?1776
, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1995, p. 83
- ^
McCaughey, Robert A.,
Stand, Columbia : a history of Columbia University in the city of New York, 1754?2004
, Columbia University Press, 2003, pp. 18?19
- ^
McCaughey, pp. 21?22
- ^
Bell, Whitfield J., and Charles Greifenstein, Jr. Patriot-Improvers: Biographical Sketches of Members of the American Philosophical Society. 3 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1997, 3:476?480.
- ^
Hamilton John C.,
The Life of Alexander Hamilton
, D. Appleton, 1840, Volume 1, p. 8; Hamilton John C., History of the Republic, D. Appleton & Company, 1857, Volume 1, p. 46
- ^
"Where Did Alexander Hamilton Live While Attending Grammar School in Elizabethtown, New Jersey? ? Discovering Hamilton"
.
Discovering Hamilton
. January 22, 2018
. Retrieved
January 30,
2018
.
- ^
McBurney, Christian. Abductions in the American Revolution, 2016, p. 74
- ^
"Book of Members, 1780?2010: Chapter L"
(PDF)
. American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. Retrieved
July 28,
2014
.
- ^
a
b
"Susannah French Livingston"
.
womenhistoryblog.com
. History of American Women. January 30, 2009
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
Hoffman, Samuel Verplanck (1903).
Collections of The New-York Historical Society for the Year 1902 | Publication Fund Series
. New York: Printed for the Society. p. 91
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
"America's Founding Fathers ? Delegates to the Constitutional Convention: New Jersey"
. U.S. National Archives & Records Administration.
Archived
from the original on June 6, 2016.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Reynolds, Cuyler (1914).
Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation
. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp.
1335
?1336
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
Rapelje, George (1834).
A Narrative of Excursions, Voyages, and Travels, Performed at Different Periods in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa
. Published by the author. p.
12
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
About Sarah Livingston Jay
. Accessed October 13, 2014.
- ^
Society, Chicago Medical (1922).
History of medicine and surgery and physicians and surgeons of Chicago, endorsed by and published under the supervision of the council of the Chicago Medical Society
. The Biographical Publishing Corporation
. Retrieved
April 26,
2017
.
- ^
About Livingston
Archived
July 27, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
. Accessed March 9, 2007.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Gigantino II, James J.
William Livingston's American Revolution.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.
ISBN
978-0812250640
- Klein, Milton. "The American Whig: William Livingston of New York" (PhD dissertation, Columbia University;?ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, ?1954.?0008699).
- Published by Garland, 1990.
- Klein, Milton M. "The Rise of the New York Bar: The Legal Career of William Livingston."
William and Mary Quarterly
(1958): 334?358.
online
- Mulder, John M. "William Livingston: Propagandist Against Episcopacy." Journal of Presbyterian History (1962-1985) 54.1 (1976): 83-104
online
External links
[
edit
]
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