James Livingston

James Livingston was born in March 1747. He was the son of Albany natives John and Catharina Ten Broeck Livingston. His family lived in New York City, Montreal, and occasionally in Albany.

His wife was Elizabeth Simpson of Montreal. The marriage produced nine children but only one was christened in Albany where John Livingston was baptized in May 1777.

He probably lived in Canada from the end of the Seven Years War until just before the outbreak of the War for Independence when the Livingstons fell back to family property in the upper Hudson Valley.

James Livingston was an officer in the Revolutionary army - colonel of a Continental regiment raised in Canada and serving throughout New York.

In 1779, he was identified as the owner of a piece of property in Albany's third ward.

After the war, he settled in the Mohawk Valley. In 1790, his large family was listed on the census for Caughnawaga in newly created Montgomery County. He served in the New York State Assembly and was a member of the Board of Regents. He received considerable acreage by virtue of his military service.

James Livingston died in November 1832 at the age of eighty-five. Although technically within the criteria for inclusion among the people of colonial Albany, most of his long and distinguished life was like that of other members of his famous family - an early Albany boy who made good - but elsewhere!

Sources: The life of James Livingston is CAP biography number 8605. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. Online biography.