Robert Robert Livingston, also called The Judge (August 1718 – December 9, 1775), was a prominent colonial American politician, and a leading Whig in New York in the years leading up to the American Revolution.
Contents
Early life
Robert R. Livingston was born in August 1718 at Clermont Manor in what was then the Province of New York, a part of British America. He was the only child of Robert Livingston (1688–1775), known as "Robert of Clermont" and Margaret Howarden (1693–1758). His mother was the daughter of a wealthy English merchant in New York and granddaughter of Captain Isaac Bedlow, a Huguenot after whom Bedloe's Island is named.
His paternal grandparents were Robert Livingston the Elder (1654–1728) and Alida (née Schuyler) Van Rensselaer Livingston (1656–1727), daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler (1628–1683) and widow of Nicholas Van Rensselaer. His uncle was Philip Livingston (1686–1749), the second Lord of Livingston Manor. His great-grandfather was Reverend John Livingston, a Church of Scotland minister who died in exile in 1673.
Career
Livingston, known as 'Judge Livingston' to distinguish him from his eponymous father and other prominent Livingstons, was a member of the New York Provincial Assembly from 1759 to 1768. He served as judge of the admiralty court from 1760 to 1763. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, and, in 1775, a member of the Committee of One Hundred, which briefly governed New York City.