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The Lords of Livingston
Manor
Philip
Livingston’s line - the Lords of the Manor
As
a consequence of his older brother Johannes’ early and childless death and
following the principle of primogeniture, Philip
Livingston (1686-1749) inherited Livingston
Manor and the title of Manor Lord upon his father’s death in 1728. Philip
was well prepared for these functions, having assisted his father in the
management of the estate as well as in his function of Town Clerk of Albany and
Secretary of Indian Affairs, offices he held from 1721 up to his death.
In
the early years of the 18th century an undeveloped property like
Livingston Manor would not permit a family to retire as country squires. Trading
was the best way to prosper and trading the Livingstons did. The fur trade had
long dominated Albany’s economy, but with time as the native population of
beavers also receded in upstate New York, other products had to be developed to
sustain economic growth and prosperity. With their vast land tracts and abundant
water resources at their disposal, the Livingstons were well placed to recognize
the importance of grain as a commodity New York could export. Grain and other
foodstuffs was first exported to the English West Indies, a trade which
generated the merchants funds to pay for their imports of manufactured goods
from England. Grain gained even more importance in American trade as the
colonies’ merchants started to seek new markets, which unlike the fur trade
was not subject to restrictions by the Crown.
Philip
Livingston started his mercantile career at the age of 23 after an
apprenticeship with one of his Schuyler uncles in Albany enabled him to
thoroughly learn the trade. Later, using influence conferred to him by his
offices and his parental connections, he enhanced his position until he became a
mercantile factor in his own right, trading furs with New York merchants such as
Stephen DeLancey and Henry Cuyler. Robert Livingston built two gristmills on the
Manor and Philip Livingston soon acted as his father’s agent buying grain in
the Hudson valley and selling flour in New York or later overseas. Philip often
assisted the Manor Lord in the collection of rents and thus was well prepared to
succeed him, upon his death in 1728, being the next in line after his older
brother Johannes Livingston died childless.
Under
Philip’s leadership as Lord of the Manor, the Livingston family enterprise
became the foremost integrated mercantile, agricultural and even industrial
concern of the now English colony of New York. Philip Livingston greatly
increased the production capacity of Livingston Manor by attracting numerous
tenants and further developing his mercantile activities. He first used his
younger brother Robert as an agent in New York City. He then had his sons
trained for the mercantile profession, sending them into apprenticeship with his
merchant friends and correspondents in New York, London and Jamaica. Of his six
sons, only the youngest William Livingston would not become a merchant. Instead
he would become New York’s most successful lawyer and first governor of the
State of New Jersey. In 1743, Philip
Livingston established one of the first iron foundries in America, called
Ancram, the name of a village in Scotland where the Livingstons once lived, and
developed iron mining on the manor land and in Salisbury Ct. Ancram was a risky
venture due to its remoteness and the lack of transportation routes in these
times. It needed considerable financial means, vast areas of forest properties,
iron ore and water. The Livingstons had all of this in ample supply. It would
payoff handsome in the many years it granted the Livingstons a virtual monopoly
in the province. Philip Livingston also owned ships and participated with his
sons in lucrative privateering and triangular trade operations. Thus a key
component of the Livingston business strategy was vertical integration,
developing the resources of his vast land tracts and moving his sons as agents
close to the markets for his products or supplies.
With
his six successful sons in strategic locations, one of the largest land holdings
in upstate New York and profitable industrial ventures, Philip Livingston was
one of the most successful of America’s capitalists.
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Philip
Livingston married Catrina Van Brugh, the
daughter of long time mayor of Albany Peter Van Brugh, and they had 11
children. His six sons distinguished themselves in their profession as
merchants and lawyers or in various other ways, as politicians, public
servants and philanthropists.
Robert
Livingston (1708-1790),
the eldest son, succeeded as 3rd and last Lord of the Manor. He married
Maria Thong and had 13 children. Robert inherited Livingston Manor and
his father’s position as head of the family business. He continued to
rely on his brothers as business agents for Livingston Manor,
particularly on Peter
Van Brugh Livingston in New York. Robert Livingston 3rd
(lord) expected his sons to take their uncle’s place as business
agents and had them educated accordingly. His eldest son Philip Robert
Livingston (1733-1756) died young of kidney trouble. His second son Peter
Robert Livingston (1737-1794) married a distant cousin
Margaret Livingston (great daughter of a nephew of Robert “the
Nephew” Livingston) and they had 10 children. In a strange succession
of events in the Livingston family history, Peter Robert Livingston’s
elder brother died before their father and thus again a second son was
in line for succession as 4th Lord of the Manor.
Yet
it would come otherwise Unlike his grandfather and his father, Peter
Robert Livingston had similar traits of irresponsibility that already
appeared in the characters of his grand-uncles Johannes and Gilbert
Livingston earlier. In search of easy money, Peter Robert Livingston
took speculative risks most merchants avoided and his illegal ventures
caused him irreversible financial losses. His younger brothers Walter
Livingston (1740-1797), Robert
Cambridge Livingston (1742-1794), John Livingston (1750-1822) and
Henry Livingston (1753-1823) proved more reliable as Livingston
Manor’s business agents. As a result, Robert Livingston 3rd
broke the family tradition of leaving the estate to his eldest son and
shared Livingston Manor among his five sons. Peter Robert Livingston’s
share was further restricted by trust obligations in favor of his eldest
son. As a result of Robert Livingston 3rd’s will and the deaths of
three of his sons only a few years after him, Livingston Manor was
already divided in numerous parts by the year 1800.
The
main heirs in the fifth generation of the main line Livingstons were
Robert Thong Livingston (1759-1813), Peter Robert Livingston’s eldest
son and Henry Walter Livingston (1768-1810), Walter Livingston’s
eldest son. Other heirs included the minor children of Robert Cambridge
Livingston and the two youngest sons of Robert Livingston 3rd who were
still alive, John and Henry Livingston. As in earlier generations, the
daughters of Robert Livingston and Maria Thong also inherited, but
smaller shares of the estate, generally in form of sizeable dowries at
the time of their marriage. By marriage, these daughters did equally
well. Mary Livingston (1738-1821) married James Duane, a prominent New
York attorney; Catharine Livingston (1744-1832) married John Patterson
and Alida Livingston (1747-1791) married Valentine Gardiner.
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Peter
Van Brugh Livingston (1710-1793), Philip Livingston and Catrina Van
Brugh’s second son was a prominent merchant in New York, a Whig and
strong opponent of the Stamp Act and other British taxation. He was
president of the first provincial congress and one of the original
trustees of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). His privateering
ventures during the French and Indian war made brought him a large
fortune. Peter Van Brugh Livingston married Mary Alexander, a sister of
Lord Stirling, and they had 15 children. None of them distinguished
himself in a particular manner, though some made good marital alliances.
Philip Peter Livingston (1740-1810) married Cornelia Van Horne. He was a
Tory, went to England in 1775 but later returned to the US and settled
on a farm he called Livingston House in Dobbs Ferry. Catharina
Livingston (b.1743) married Nicholas Bayard jr, a New York City merchant
of a distinguished Huguenot family who settled in New York in the 17th
century and allied itself to such prominent dynasties as the Stuyvesants
and the Jays. The Bayards were already linked to the Livingstons through
the marriage of Alida Vetch (b.1701), the first Lord of the Manor’s
granddaughter to Stephen Bayard (1700-1757) in 1724. Susannah Livingston
(b.1757) married John Kean a forebear of Hamilton Fish Kean, a
successful broker in the 20th century.
Philip
Livingston (1716-1778), the fourth son was another merchant, alderman of
the City of New York, a member of the Continental Congress, New York
State senator and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Philip
Livingston was also one of the founders of the New York Society Library
in 1754, of the Chamber of Commerce in 1770 and one of the governors of
the New York Hospital. He married Christina Ten Broeck, the daughter of
Colonel Dirck Ten Broeck, and they had 9 children. Because of his
political engagement and his numerous philanthropies, Philip
“the Signer” Livingston is remembered as one of the most
distinguished Livingstons in the family’s over 300 years history in
America. His line further produced a series of dynastic marriages, among
whose the one in 1764 of his daughter Catherine Livingston (1745-1810)
with Stephen
Van Rensselaer II, the 7th patroon of huge
Rensselaerswyck, was certainly the most significant. Finally, the two
foremost families of New York were united in their main lines. (Earlier
unions between the Livingston’s and Van Rensselaer’s were either
childless or concerning secondary lines of the two families).
William
Livingston (1723-1790), the youngest son of Philip Livingston and
Catrina Van Brugh, was one of New York’s leading lawyers and a member
of the First and Second Continental Congresses. He fought actively in
the American Revolution and was elected the first governor of New Jersey
in 1776, an office he held for life. William Livingston married Susannah
French and they had 13 children. In 1774, his daughter Sarah Van Brugh
Livingston (1756-1802) married John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the
United States, in what was then qualified as a royal wedding in New
York. Sarah (Livingston) Jay became New York’s foremost social hostess
and the guest lists of her dinners defined New York’s high society in
the end of the 18th century. William’s son Henry Brockholst Livingston
(1757-1823) was a lawyer and strong supporter of Thomas Jefferson
breaking the Schuyler-Livingston tradition of supporting the
Federalists. In 1802 he became a judge of the New York supreme court and
in 1806, by appointment of Thomas Jefferson, Associate Justice of the US
Supreme Court.
Other
children of Philip
Livingston and Catrina Van Brugh distinguished
themselves mainly through the marital alliances they made. Another son,
John Livingston (1714-1786), also a merchant in New York, married
Catherine De Peyster; as to the three daughters, Sarah (1725-1805)
married William Alexander Lord Stirling, Alida (1728-1790) first married
Henry Hansen, then Colonel Martin Hoffman, and Catherine (b.1733)
married John L. Lawrence, Alderman of New York.
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ELLA: The Edgewood Lakes Landowners Association
