WILLIAM LIVINGSTON
Nov 30 1723 - July 25 1790
First Governor of New Jersey
Of all John Livingston`s descendants in the New World, William stood out as the one showing all the qualities of his Scottish great grandfather. Born of a Dutch mother, he was brought up in the Dutch Reformed Church whose ministers refused to conduct services in English. William resented this, and although thoroughly conversant in the language of his mother, and returned to the Presbyterian faith of his ancestors.
He was born in Albany, New York, the fifth son of Philip, the Second Lord of the manor, and Catherine Van Brugh but spent most of his life with his maternal grandmother. He would boast that he had no English blood in him; only a mixture of Scottish and Dutch.
As a young man, he spent some time with the Mohawks as an aide to a missionary. Great rivalry existed between both French Canadian and English in the mission field. Livingston once jokingly told of the French claiming that Christ was born in France and crucified in London, whereas the British told of him being born in England and crucified in Paris.
Graduating from Yale in 1741, he was head of his class. This had nothing to do with his proficient studies, this honour was based on him being a member of a prominent family and the high esteem it was held in. After his graduation he went to New York where he studied law and a year later married Susanna French.
The marriage produced thirteen children. "As many children as there are states in the Union," he would boast.
In 1759 he was elected to the New York Legislature, a post he held for two years but his longing was for a rural lifestyle. To this end he bought eighty acres of land in Elizabethtown, New Jersey in 1760 and to this he added a further forty acres a few years later. He planted pears, plums and apples. However, he did not move there until 1772 and lived in the village while he had built Liberty Hall that he and his family moved into in 1773.
Tall and thin, he was described in his youth as the `whipping post.` A plain man, he never wore a wig, and was described as plain and genteel. His own description of himself was, "a long nosed, long chinned, ugly looking fellow."
Later on when the Independence campaign flared into open conflict, the British, in an appeal for his capture, put a price on his head. They went as far as saying they would be satisfied they had got their man even if only his ears and nose were brought in.
His strongly held conviction against slavery was openly expressed in 1776 in a letter by him, yet it was not until 1787 that he set his own two slaves free.
New Jersey`s delegation to Philadelphia for the officiasl signing of the Declaration of Independence was delayed in arriving but were then allowed to append their names.
There had been a question over William Livingston`s willingness to commit the state for he felt suspicious of the French involvement. The alliance with them against the British ought to have been secured with a firmness of resolve that independance was what it stood for.
Discarding one colonial overlord and not to be replaced by another should have been the stipulation for such an alliance.
Realising that "...the die was cast`," he added, " We must make the best of everything. Whoever draws his sword against his prince must fling away the scabbard. We have crossed the Rubicon. We cannot recede nor should I wish we could."
So William pledged himself for the fight ahead and was soon appointed Brigadier General of the New Jersey Militia despite his ignorance of military affairs.
This appointment irked him no end. He once wrote, "I can assure you I never was more sensible of my own `nothingness` in military affairs. My ancient corporeal fabric is almost tottering under the fatigue I have lately undergone; constantly rising at two o`clock in the morning to examine our lines which are very extensive, till daybreak, and from that time perpetually till eleven o`clock giving orders, sending despatches and doing the proper business of quartermasters, colonels, commissaries, and I know not what."
This appointment lasted less than three months for on the 31st August, 1776 he was elected Governor of new Jersey.
Twice his home of Liberty Hall was attacked by the British with the intention of capturing him. Twice he was forewarned and eluded them.
On one occasion he was warned, "........nine fellows crossed over from Staten Island to Amboy for the purpose of taking you off......they are without arms and dressed like countrymen.....and are most certainly lurking about until an opportunity offers to execute their hellish plan."
Governor Livingston wrote in reply, "They are as great blockheads as they are rascals for taking so much pain and running such risk to assassinate an old fellow whose place might instantly be supplied by a successor of greater ability and greater energy."
He was a proflic writer, often using pseudonyms in his articles for the newspapers, yet his writing was so indecipherable; George Washington would sometimes have to enlist his aides in reading his despatches from him.
"....they would rather cut my throat for writing than for fighting," he once declared of the British.
Livingston continued in the service of his adopted state, New Jersey after independence but on the death of his wife on the 17th July, 1789, his own health waned. He complained of chest pains in June the following year and died a month later on the 25th July.
