Everything about William Livingston totally explained
William Livingston (
November 30,
1723 –
July 25,
1790) served as the
Governor of New Jersey (1776–1790) during the
American Revolution and was a signer of the
United States Constitution.
Livingston was the son of
Philip Livingston and was born in
Albany. He was raised by his grandmother until the age of 14. He graduated from
Yale University in 1741 and then studied
law. He was admitted to the bar in 1748 and began his practice in New York. He moved to
Elizabethtown,
New Jersey in 1772, where he built a large country home to house his growing family. The house, known as
Liberty Hall, still stands today.
The home became a center of activity, in part due to its proximity to Francis Barber's academy and visits from young men. (
Alexander Hamilton, a boarder at the academy, was a frequent early visitor.) Three of Livingston's daughters — Sarah, Susan, and Catherine — came to be known as 'the three graces'. The height of social activity during this era was the wedding, at Liberty Hall, in April 1774 of Sarah to a young New York lawyer,
John Jay.
Livingston was a member of the
Continental Congress from July 1774 to June 1776. In October 1775, he was commissioned a
brigadier general of the New Jersey
Militia and served until August 1776 when he was elected Governor of New Jersey — holding the office until his death in 1790. For much of the time 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. The family returned in 1779 to begin restoring their looted home.
Livingston married Susanna French in 1742. They had 13 children. Livingston's daughter, Susannah, married
John Cleves Symmes in 1780 and became the stepmother-in-law of
President William Henry Harrison. Another descendant of William Livingston was Julia Kean, wife of
United States Secretary of State and
New York Governor Hamilton Fish.
Livingston was a delegate to the
1787 Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and one of the signers of the
Constitution.
Livingston died in
Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was originally buried in
Trinity Church, New York, but was reinterred at
Green-Wood Cemetery,
Brooklyn in
1846.
Because he was the first Revolutionary governor, he's often cited as the first governor of New Jersey.
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