WILLIAM LIVINGSTON,, was born 30 November 1723 in Albany, New York. He was
graduated from Yale college, A.B., 1741, A.M., 1744; studied law in the office
of James Alexander, 1741-1746, and was admitted to the bar, 14 October 1748.
In 1745 he married Susanhah French, a daughter of Philip French, of New
Brunswick, and granddaughter of Major Anthony Brockhalls, formerly governor of
New York. He established the Independent Reflector in New York in 1752. He
was a commissioner in 1754 to adjust the boundary line between New York and
Massachusetts, and subsequently between New York and New Jersey. With the
assistance of his brother, Philip Livingston, his brother-in-law, William
Alexander, and a few others, he established the New York Society library in
1754. He was a member of the provincial assembly from Livingston manor,
1759-1761. He published articles in the Weekly Post Boy denouncing the stamp
act. In 1780 he purchased a farm at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, to which he
removed in 1772. On 11 June 1774, he was appointed to represent Essex county
in a committee of correspondence to select delegates for election to the first
Continental Congress, 23 July 1774. He was a delegate from New Jersey to the
Continental Congress, 1774-1776, and served on many important committees. He
was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the New Jersey militia with the rank of
Brigadier-General in June, I776; was Governor of New Jersey, 1776-1790, and
was nominated in January, 1785, one of the commissioners to superintend the
construction of the Federal buildings, but declined the honor as he did that
of United States Minister Plenipotentiary to the Hague, 23 June 1785, owing to
his advanced age. It was largely through his efforts that the legislature of
New Jersey passed the act forbidding the importation of slaves, 2 March 1786.
In 1787 he was a delegate to the Philadelphia convention that framed the U.S.
Constitution, and he signed the instrument 17 September 1787. He was a member
of the American Philosophical society, and of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Yale college
in 1788. He published, in conjunction with William Smith, Jr., A Digest of
the Laws of New York, 1691-1792 (2 vols., 1752-62.) He is the author of:
Philosophic Solitude, or the Choice of a Rural Life (1747); A Review
of the Military Operations in North America (1757); Observations on
Government (1787). He died 25 July 1790 at "Liberty Hall," Elizabethtown,
New Jersey.
The Twentieth Century Biographical
Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume VI. 460.
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