William Livingston 1777-1781 William Livingston was born in Albany, New York, on November 1723. He was the son of Philip Livingston, the second lord of Livingston Manor, and Catherine Van Brugh of New York. He spent his childhood with his grandmother in Albany and then moved with an English missionary to live with the Mohawk Indians. Livingston graduated from Yale University in 1741 at the head of his class and went on to study law. Soon afterwards he began to practice law in New York. He was counsel for the defendants in a dispute between the proprietors of East Jersey and settlers in that region. In 1747 Livingston married Susannah French from New Brunswick, NJ, in a Dutch church even though he was a major Presbyterian reformer. With his wife he had thirteen children, but several died as young children.

Livingston published a lengthy poem entitled "Philosophic Solitude" which was reprinted several times and published his essays in the Independent Reflector in the style of the English Whig pamphleteers. On April 13, 1772, Livingston moved to New Jersey, where he purchased 120 acres near Elizabethtown. He built a house called "Liberty Hall." He withdrew from the New York political scene and decided to devote himself to the quiet enjoyment of his family, friends, and books at Elizabethtown. However, he was appointed to the First and Second Continental Congresses. Livingston was made a brigadier general and took command in the New Jersey militia in June 1776 and served with General George Washington in the Continental Army. After the New Jersey's first constitution was ratified, he was elected governor by the New Jersey Legislature. He returned home and was sworn into office in August. During his tenure as governor, New Jersey was a major battleground of the war and Livingston became a close associate of George Washington. Under the state constitution, the governor had little power, but Livingston introduced issues to the legislature that became laws. In March 1777, he received an increase in executive powers to call out the militia and enforce harsher penalties for military delinquents. He pressed the legislature to create a mixed executive body to meet civil or military emergencies, civil disorder, and loyalist threats. On March 15 it created the New Jersey Council of Safety with Livingston as its president. The last two years of Livingston's life were difficult. The first federal election that he supervised resulted in a dispute over the closing of the polls. In 1789 his wife died and his depression was showing over the loss of his partner for over forty years. He accepted the position of delegate to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, but age and ill health kept him from contributing to the fullest. On July 25, 1790, in his fourteenth term as governor of New Jersey Livingston died in Elizabethtown. His personal conduct and ability to realize power of his office has been rarely matched.