An American Aristocracy: The Livingston Family

by Clare Brandt

A Livingston descendant once called the Hudson Valley, Livingston Valley, and with good reason. The original 1686 Royal patent of 160,000 acres on the east side of New York's Hudson River to Scottish merchant Robert Livingston grew within two generations to nearly one million acres and included vast portions of the Catskill Mountains as well. Intermarriages with other wealthy and influential Hudson Valley families, the Roosevelts, Delanos, Van Rensselaers, Schuylers, Astors, and Beekmans, to name a few created a dynasty and a landed aristocracy on the banks of the new republic s most important river an irony embedded at the core of the American experiment. At one time forty Livingston mansions lined the east shore, and the family s reach into NYS and American politics, economics, and social scene was profound and enduring. Their influence on early American politics was pervasive, with Livingstons on the Provincial Assembly, as members of the Continental Congress, on the committee to draft a Declaration of Independence, as first Chancellor of New York State and co-drafter with John Jay of the state s Constitution, justice of the NYS Supreme Court, Minister to France the list goes on. And, of course, there was the patron of Robert Fulton who brought a revolution to commerce with the world s first steamship, known as the Clermont after the Livingston estate in Columbia County that is now a State Historic Site Text includes a map of the Hudson Valley showing Livingston family land holdings, and a family genealogy from 1654 to 1964.

297 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1986

Reviews

[Evelina Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a teenager, I was a docent at Staatsburgh, Ruth and Ogden Mills’ Home in the Hudson Valley... a beautiful beaux are mansion that is one of the many Livingston properties along the east bank of the Hudson River. I remember seeing this book in the gift shop and my mentor always reminded me to read it when I had a chance. Twenty years later I’ve finally read it and I loved it! What a fascinating biography of the Livingston family and its many offshoots. I adored the historical references and the personal anecdotes from the family papers.... I need to stop in to see Marilyn at Staatsburgh once more before she retires... she fed my love of all things guilted in my hometown area :)

[Grizel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and well written documentary, which can be best described as a slice of American history seen through the eyes of one particular family. This book starts with the first Livingstons to arrive in New York state at the end of the seventeenth century, where they were granted vast tracts of land which they held under a quasi-feudal system of land tenure which allowed them, among other things, to set up their own civil and criminal courts. The family did well though not exceptionally as Lords-of-the-Manor throughout the eighteenth century, made some moderate political contributions during the Revolution, but went into decline after that.
I had no idea that early colonial America still practiced a system of land tenure as archaic as the lordship-of-the-manor (called, I believe, patroonship under the Dutch)and found this account of it very informative. Tenant farmers could never hope to own their own farms, because the Lord of the Manor was granted the land in perpetuity, so the Livingstons and families like them had trouble getting tenants to farm their land (they all preferred to go to other states, which did not practice this system)or in getting the tenants they had to pay the rent. So even in the early days, lords of the manor seemed to have had more airs than money.
The story of the Livingstons during the Revolutionary era is also quite interesting, providing a glimpse into just how American families were split along loyalist and revolutionary lines. After the Revolution, and especially after the rent riots of the 1830s, the family seems to have entered a period of steep decline: Brandt describes it evocatively as `downward mobility' which makes it sound faintly Darwinian. And it's an accurate description: the Livingstons, unable to adapt to the new environment which no longer recognized their claims to aristocracy, slowly dwindled into poverty and obcurity.
Overall, one of the best family histories I've read.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really, my rating is 3.5 because of the subject matter, which is interesting to me as an east bank resident of the Hudson Valley. The writing was not good and made this confusing family with its geneological interconnections even more confusing. Indeed, a dear friend is a Livingston decendant and I have a professional connection with one of the estates that was discussed at length. As such, I was disappointed with the confusing way the family was described and discussed from just before the Civil War and onward. I know the book is 30 years old, and the author was trying to protect the privacy of the current members of the family, yet the discussion of the Livingstons after WWII is difficult to follow. The author has a thesis and the metaphors are stretched way too thin.

That said, the family tree on the endpaper should have been more detailed. It would have been more helpful to the reader. Also a map with the estates marked should have been included.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Hudson Valley and New York State. Just be prepared to have a pencil handy so you can keep track of the branches of family and homes.