:Robert R. Livingston

Livingston was the eldest son of Judge Robert Livingston (1718–1775) and Margaret ({{nee}} Beekman) Livingston, uniting two wealthy Hudson River Valley families. He had three brothers and five sisters, all of whom wed and made their homes on the Hudson River near the family seat at Clermont Manor. Among his siblings were his younger brother, Edward Livingston (1764-1836), who also served as U.S. Minister to France and Secretary of State, his sister Gertrude Livingston (1757–1833), who married Governor Morgan Lewis (1754–1844), sister Janet Livingston (d. 1824), who married Richard Montgomery (1738–1775), sister Alida Livingston (1761–1822), who married John Armstrong, Jr. (1758–1843) (who succeeded him as U.S. Minister to France), and sister Joanna Livingston (1759–1827), who married Peter R. Livingston (1766–1847).{{cite book|last1=Livingston|first1=Edwin Brockholst|title=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|date=1910|publisher=Knickerbocker Press|url=https://archive.org/details/livingstonslivi00unkngoog|access-date=August 10, 2017}}

His paternal grandparents were Robert Livingston (1688–1775) of Clermont and Margaret Howarden (1693–1758). His great-grandparents were Robert Livingston the Elder (1654–1728) and Alida (née Schuyler) Van Rensselaer Livingston, daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler (1628–1683). His grand-uncle was Philip Livingston (1686–1749), the 2nd Lord of Livingston Manor.{{cite web|title=Livingston, Robert R. (1718–1775), [The Petition of Michael Theyser of the City of New York, Innkeeper]|url=http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collections/a1da4f5c-59dc-4562-a51a-105372828510|website=www.gilderlehrman.org|publisher=The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History|access-date=September 11, 2016}} Livingston, a member of a large and prominent family, was known for continually quarreling with his relatives.{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/george-dangerfield-2/chancellor-robert-r-livingston-of-new-york/ |title=Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York |first=George |last=Dangerfield |magazine=Kirkus Reviews |date=1960-11-16 |access-date=2022-05-09}}

Livingston graduated from King's College{{Efn|King's College was renamed Columbia College of Columbia University following the American Revolution in 1784.}} in June 1765 and was admitted to the bar in 1773.{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/review/pdfs/hvrr_4pt1_brandt.pdf |title=Robert R. Livingston, Jr.: The Reluctant Revolutionary |first=Clare |last=Brandt |magazine=The Hudson Valley Regional Review |volume=4 |number=1 |page=9 |date=March 1987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140211212323/http://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/review/pdfs/hvrr_4pt1_brandt.pdf |archive-date=2014-02-11 |url-status=dead |access-date=2022-05-09}}{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict06johnuoft/page/460/mode/1up |title=The Biographical Dictionary of America |volume=VI |editor1-first=Rossiter |editor1-last=Johnson |editor2-first=John Howard |editor2-last=Brown |publisher=American Biographical Society |location=Boston |page= |year=1906 |access-date=2022-05-09 |via=Internet Archive}}

In October 1773, Livingston was appointed recorder of New York City but soon thereafter identified himself with the anti-colonial Whig Party and was replaced a few months later by John Watts, Jr.

On July 30, 1777, Livingston became the first chancellor of New York, which was then the highest judicial officer in the state. Concurrently, he served from 1781 to 1783 as the first United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation. Livingston administered the presidential oath of office to George Washington at his first inauguration on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City, which was then the nation's capital.

In 1789, Livingston joined the Jeffersonian Republicans (later known as the Democratic-Republicans), forming an uneasy alliance with his previous rival George Clinton and Aaron Burr, then a political newcomer.[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404703928.html Robert R. Livingston], Encyclopedia of World Biography. Livingston opposed the Jay Treaty and other initiatives of the Federalist Party, founded and led by his former colleagues Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. He ran for governor of New York as a Democratic-Republican, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent governor John Jay in the 1798 election.{{Cite book |url={{GBurl|id=VPI0HGC-mbgC|p=83}} |title=World of the Founders: New York Communities in the Federal Period |last1=Schechter |first1=Stephen L. |last2=Tripp |first2=Wendell Edward |date=1990 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780945660026}}

After serving as chancellor for almost 24 years, Livingston left office on June 30, 1801. During that period, he became nationally known by his title alone as "The Chancellor", and even after leaving office, he was respectfully addressed as Chancellor Livingston for the remainder of his life.

File:Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull.jpg stands at the center of John Trumbull's 1817 painting Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson is depicted presenting the draft Declaration to Congress with Benjamin Franklin at his side. Behind them are, from left to right, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Livingston.]]

File:Louisiana Purchase 1953 Issue-3c.jpg]]

On June 11, 1776, Livingston was appointed to a committee of the Second Continental Congress, known as the Committee of Five, which was given the task of drafting the Declaration of Independence. After establishing a general outline for the document, the committee decided that Jefferson would write the first draft.{{cite book |last1=Boyd |first1=Julian Parks |last2=Gawalt |first2=Gerard W. |title=The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text |url={{GBurl|id=fAkaAQAAIAAJ}} |year=1999 |publisher=Library of Congress |isbn=978-0-8444-0980-1 |page=22 }} The committee reviewed Jefferson's draft, making extensive changes,{{cite web |title=Jefferson's 'original Rough draught' of the Declaration of Independence |website=Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents |date=4 July 1995 |publisher=Library of Congress |editor-last=Boyd |editor-first=Julian P. |url=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502011211/http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html |archive-date=2019-05-02 }} before presenting Jefferson's revised draft to Congress on June 28, 1776. Before he could sign the final version of the Declaration, Livingston was recalled by his state. However, he sent his cousin, Philip Livingston, to sign the document in his place. Another cousin, William Livingston, would go on to sign the United States Constitution.

Following Thomas Jefferson's election as President of the United States, once Jefferson became president on March 4, 1801, he appointed Livingston U.S. minister to France. Serving from 1801 to 1804, Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchase. After the signing of the Louisiana Purchase agreement in 1803, Livingston made this memorable statement:

We have lived long but this is the noblest work of our whole lives ... The United States takes rank this day among the first powers of the world.[http://www.crt.state.la.us/tourism/capitol/capitol.htm The Louisiana State Capitol Building] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201182355/http://www.crt.state.la.us/tourism/capitol/capitol.htm |date=December 1, 2007 }}

During his time as U.S. minister to France, Livingston met Robert Fulton, with whom he developed the first viable steamboat, the North River Steamboat, whose home port was at the Livingston family home of Clermont Manor in the town of Clermont, New York. On her maiden voyage, she left New York City with him as a passenger, stopped briefly at Clermont Manor, and continued to Albany up the Hudson River, completing in just under 60 hours a journey that had previously taken nearly a week by sloop sailboat. In 1811, Fulton and Livingston became members of the Erie Canal Commission.

Livingston was a Freemason, and in 1784, he was appointed the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, retaining this title until 1801. The Grand Lodge's library in Manhattan bears his name. The Bible Livingston used to administer the oath of office to President Washington is owned by St. John's Lodge No. 1 and is still used today when the Grand Master is sworn in, and, by request, when a President of the United States is sworn in.

On July 4, 1786, he was part of the second group elected as honorary members of the New York Society of the Cincinnati, along with Chief Justice Richard Morris, Judge James Duane, Continental Congressman William Duer, and Justice John Sloss Hobart.{{cite book|last1=Schuyler|first1=John|title=Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati : formed by the officers of the American Army of the Revolution, 1783, with extracts, from the proceedings of its general meetings and from the transactions of the New York State Society|date=1886|publisher=Printed for the Society by D. Taylor|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/societycincinnati00schurich/|access-date=December 1, 2017}}

File:Mrs. Robert R. Livingston - Gilbert Stuart.png

On September 9, 1770, Livingston married Mary Stevens (1751–1814), the daughter of Continental Congressman John Stevens and sister of the inventor John Stevens III.{{cite book|title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. XI|date=1880|publisher=New York Genealogical and Biographical Society|location=New York City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EtMUAAAAYAAJ|access-date=December 1, 2017}} Following their marriage, he built a home south of Clermont, called Belvedere, which was burned to the ground along with Clermont in 1777 by the British Army under General John Burgoyne. In 1794, he built a new home called New Clermont, which was subsequently renamed Arryl House, a phonetic spelling of his initials "RRL", which was deemed "the most commodious home in America" and contained a library of four thousand volumes.{{cite web|last1=Yasinsac|first1=Rob|title=Arryl House|url=https://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/columbia/arryl.html|website=www.hudsonvalleyruins.org|access-date=December 1, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331074939/http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/columbia/arryl.html|archive-date=March 31, 2017|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web |title=Clermont State Historic Site: Imagining Arryl House: Piecing Together an Architectural Masterpiece|url=http://clermontstatehistoricsite.blogspot.com/2013/10/imagining-arry-house-piecing-together.html|access-date=December 1, 2017 |date=October 25, 2013}} Together, Robert and Mary were the parents of:

• Elizabeth Stevens Livingston (1780–1829), who married Lt. Governor Edward Philip Livingston (1779–1843), the grandson of Philip Livingston, on November 20, 1799.
• Margaret Maria Livingston (1783–1818), who married Robert L. Livingston (1775–1843), the son of Walter Livingston and Cornelia Schuyler, on July 10, 1799.

Livingston died a natural death aged 66 on February 26, 1813, and was buried in the Clermont Livingston vault at St. Paul's Church in Tivoli, New York.

Through his eldest daughter Elizabeth he was the grandfather of four:

• Margaret Livingston (1808–1874), who married David Augustus Clarkson (1793–1850){{Cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2cf64qhtyngC&pg=RA3-PA61 |title=The Descendants of James Alexander |first=Elizabeth Clarkson |last=Jay |journal=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record |volume=XII |number=2 |page=61 |date=April 1881 |access-date=2022-05-09 |via=Google Books}}
• Elizabeth Livingston (1813–1896), who married Edward Hunter Ludlow (1810–1884){{cite news|title=Death of Edward H. Ludlow.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52835831/obituary-for-edward-h-ludlow-aged-75/ |access-date=2022-05-09 |work=The New York Times |page=2 |date=28 November 1884 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Clermont Livingston (1817–1895), who married Cornelia Livingston (1824–1851)
• Robert Edward Livingston (1820–1889), who married Susan Maria Clarkson de Peyster (1823–1910){{cite news |title=G. Livingston Dies; Long an Architect; Practitioner Here for 50 Years Included Hayden Planetarium, Oregon Capitol in His Work|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/06/04/archives/g-livingston-dies-long-an-architect-practitioner-here-for-50-years.html|access-date=June 6, 2017|work=The New York Times |page=26 |date=June 4, 1951 |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news|title=Mrs. Susan de Peyster Livingston|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/101497467/mrs-susan-de-puyster-livingston/ |access-date=2022-05-09 |work=The New York Times |page=11 |date=February 11, 1910 |via=Newspapers.com}}

• Livingston County, Kentucky,{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Lewis|title=History of Kentucky|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F5FQAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA478|year=1877|page=478|publisher=Library Reprints, Incorporated |isbn=9780722249208}} and Livingston County, New York, are named for him.
• A statue of Livingston by Erastus Dow Palmer was commissioned by the state of New York and placed in the National Statuary Hall collection of the U.S. Capitol building, according to the tradition of each state selecting two individuals from the state to be so honored.
• Livingston is included on the Jefferson Memorial pediment sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman, which honors the Committee of Five.
• The Robert Livingston high-rise building at 85 Livingston St. in Brooklyn is named for him.
• The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York is named in his honor, and is house at Masonic Hall in New York City.{{Cite web |title=Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library – Collecting, Studying, and Preserving Masonic Heritage |url=https://nymasoniclibrary.org/ |access-date=2024-02-10 |language=en-US}}

• Livingston family

{{Notelist}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• Alexander, D. S. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42889893.pdf "Robert R. Livingston, The Author of the Louisiana Purchase."] Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association 6 (1906): 100–114.
• Bonham, Jr., Milledge L. "Robert R. Livingston". [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106006332446;view=1up;seq=145 in Samuel Flagg Bemis, ed. The American Secretaries of State and their diplomacy V.1 (1928) pp. 115–192.]
• Brandt, Clare. An American Aristocracy: The Livingstons (Doubleday Books, 1986).
• Brecher. Frank W. Negotiating the Louisiana Purchase: Robert Livingston's Mission to France, 1801–1804 (McFarland, 2006)
• Dangerfield, George. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York, 1746–1813 (1960)
• [https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/george-dangerfield-2/chancellor-robert-r-livingston-of-new-york/ online review]; also [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20089426?seq=1 another review]
• De Peyster, Frederic. "A Biographical Sketch of Robert R. Livingston" (NY Historical Society, October 3, 1876) [https://books.google.com/books?id=cVAsAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Robert+R.+Livingston%22&pg=PA3 online]

• Livingston, Robert R. The Original Letters of Robert R, Livingston, 1801–1803 ed. by Edward A. Parsons (1953).

{{Commons category}}

{{Congbio|L000372}}

• [http://www.nymasoniclibrary.org/ The Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library of New York]
• [http://www.risksandrewards.org.uk/invest/proposal_10.html Louisiana Purchase Risks and Rewards page]

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