Livingston Family of New York
Livingston Family of New York
LIVINGSTON FAMILY OF NEW YORK. The founder of the family in America was the son of a vigorous Scottish minister, John Livingston, who in 1663 took his family to Rotterdam. Here young Robert Livingston became as fluent in Dutch as he was in English, and when he appeared in Albany in 1674, the year the colony of New York passed from Dutch to English control, he quickly became a success in that hybrid society. His marriage in 1679 to Alida Schuyler, widow of Nicholas Van Rensselaer and sister of Peter Schuyler, brought him social connections with two of the most important families in the province. He established the 160,000-acre manor of Livingston on the east side of the Hudson below Albany (in the present counties of Dutchess and Columbia), and left it to his son Philip. His younger son, Robert, received 13,000 acres at an estate called Clermont. These two sons and their descendants built on the fame and fortune of their father to become a dominant force in New York and beyond.
SEE ALSO Livingston, Abraham; Livingston, Henry Beekman; Livingston, Henry Brockholst; Livingston, James; Livingston, Philip; Livingston, Richard; Livingston, Robert R.; Livingston, William; Schuyler Family of New York; Van Rensselaer Family of New York.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clarkson, Thomas S. A Biographical History of Clermont, or Livingston Manor, Before and During the War for Independence. Clermont, New York, 1869.
Dangerfield, George. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York, 1746–1813. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1960.
Gordon, Patricia J. "The Livingstons of New York, 1675–1860: Kinship and Class." Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1959.
Kierner, Cynthia A. Traders and Gentlefolk: The Livingstons of New York, 1675–1790. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Klein, Milton M. "The American Whig: William Livingston of New York." Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1954.
Livingston, Edwin B. The Livingstons of Livingston Manor. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1910.
Prince, Carl E., et al., eds. The Papers of William Livingston. 5 vols. Trenton, N.J.: New Jersey Historical Commission; and New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press for the New Jersey Historical Commission, 1979–1988.
revised by Harold E. Selesky