Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/780

Another son of Philip, Philip, signer of the Dec- laration of Independence; b. in Albany, N. Y., 15 Jan., 1716; d. in York, Pa., 12 June, 1778, was graduated at Yale in 1737, and in 1746 was re- ferred to as one of the fifteen persons in the colony that possessed a collegiate education. After gradu- ation he engaged in business suc- cessfully as an im- ?orter in New ork city, and Sir Charles Hardy said of him in 1755 that " among the considerable mer- chants in this city no one is more es- teemed for energy, promptness, hon- esty, and public spirit, than Philip Livingston." He was elected one of the seven aldermen of New York in

September, 1754,

and held that office with the approbation of his constituents continuously for nine years. He was also returned to the provincial assembly as member from New York city, and so continued by re-election until its dissolution in January, 1769. During his legis- lative career he identified himself with the rising opposition to the arbitrary measures of the mother country and was active in the conduct of public business. He was one of the committee of corre- spondence with Edmund Burke, then the agent for the colony in England, and the great knowledge of colonial affairs that was shown by Mr. Burke in the house of commons was derived from this source. In September, 1764, he drew up a spirited address to Lieut.-Gov. Cadwallader Colden, in which the bold- est language was employed to express the hopes of the colonists for freedom from taxation, and he was a delegate to the stamp-act congress in October, 1 765. He was chosen speaker of the provincial assembly at the last session that he attended, and declined a re-election from the city, but was returned for his brother's manor of Livingston, and took his seat in April. A month later he was unseated by the Tory majority on the plea that he was a non-resi- dent. . Mr. Livingston was chosen a member of the first Continental congress which met in Philadel- phia in September, 1774, and continued a member of that body until his death. At the first conven- tion he was appointed one of the committee to pre- pare an address to the people of Great Britain, and later was one of the New York delegates that signed the Declaration of Independence. Mean- while he was also active in local affairs, holding the office of president of the provincial congress in April, 1775, and in February, 1776, he was again chosen a member of the general assembly. It was at his house on Brooklyn heights that Washington held the council of war in August, 1776, that de- cided on the retreat from Long Island. This man- sion, shown in the illustration on this page, was situated on what is now Hicks street, a little to the south of Joralemon. It was on the highest point of the property, which included about forty acres, and commanded a magnificent view of New York harbor. The house itself was elegantly fin- ished, containing exquisitely carved Italian marble mantels, and was magnificently furnished. Dur- ing the Revolutionary war the British took posses- sion of the building and converted it into a navai hospital. The property soon went to decay, and the old mansion was ultimately destroyed by fire. In May, 1777, he was chosen a state senator, and in September he attended the first meeting of the first legislature of the state of New York. He was then elected one of the first delegates to congress under the new confederation. Mr. Livingston was active in the movements tending to develop the interests of New York city. He was one of the founders of the New York society library in 1754 and of the Chamber of commerce in 1770, one of the first gov- ernors of the New York hospital, chartered in 1771, and one of the earliest advocates of the establish- ment of Kings (now Columbia) college. In 1746 he aided in founding the professorship of divinity that bears his name in Yale, and was one of the contributors to the building of the first Methodist church in the United States. — Another son of Philip, William, governor of New Jersey, b. in Albany, N. Y., 30 Nov., 1723 ; d. in Elizabethtown, N. J., 25 July, 1790, was the protege of his maternal grandmother, Sarah Van Brugh, with whom his boyhood days were spent. Before he was fourteen years old he lived an entire year among the Mohawk Indians, under the care of an English missionary. He was graduated at Yale in 1741, at the head of his class, and then began the study of law in the office of James Alexander, completing his course under William Smith. In October, 1748, he was admitted to the bar, and soon became one of the leaders in his profession, acquiring the name of the Presbyterian lawyer. He was

elected to the provincial legislature from his brother's

manor of Livingston, and served for three years, meanwhile also continuing his practice. In 1760 he purchased property near Elizabethtown, N. J., and there erected a country-seat which is celebrated as ""Liberty Hall," and in May, 1772, having reduced his professional practice, he removed to that place with his family. It was of this residence, shown in the illustration on page 743, that his daughter Susan said, "We are going into cloister seclusion," as she bade adieu to her city friends, but " the toilsome and muddy way from New York was kept well trodden by brilliant and ever welcome guests," who came, to pay their addresses to the four young ladies. Among their visitors was John Jay, who in 1774 married Miss Sarah V. B. Livingston from this mansion, and to it came also Alexander Hamilton, a boy from the West Indies, with letters to Gov. Livingston from Dr. Hugh Knox. It had an eventful history during the Revolutionary war, and more than once attempts were made to burn it. The stairs still show the cuts that were left by the angry Hessians when they were baffled in their attempts to capture its owner. After the war its graceful hospitalities were renewed, and here in May, 1789, Mrs. Washington was entertained over