William Livingston
BIRTH
Nov 30, 1723
Albany, New York
DEATH
July 25, 1790
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Delegate to the Constitutional Convention (NJ)
1787
FAMILY
##
Livingston, William
(1723-1790)
William Livingston 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.
2
SISTER
Eliza Livingston Livingston
SISTER
Catherine Louisa Livingston
(1815-?)
BROTHER
Peter A. Jay
(1776-1843)
BROTHER
Jasper Hall Livingston
(?-1900)
SISTER
Susan Livingston
(1796-1864)
WIFE
Susanna French
(1723-1789)
Susannah Symmes
(1643-1681)
Catherine Livingston
(1796-1856)
Sarah Livingston Jay
(1756-1802)
Henry Brockholst Livingston
(1757-1823)
Places | Image | Address | GPS | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberty Hall Museum | 1003 Morris Ave, Union, NJ 07083 | MUSEUM | ||
Philip Livingston Birthplace Marker | 10 N Pearl St, Albany, NY 12207 | MARKER |
DIED:
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Jul 25, 1790
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. 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 and joined the office of William Smith Sr.
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.
Livingston started construction of a large country home to house his growing family. The house, known as Liberty Hall, still stands. 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.