Walter Livingston

He was a delegate to the Provincial Convention held in New York in April and May 1775, and a member of the First New York Provincial Congress from May to November 1775. He served as Commissary of Stores and Provisions for the Department of New York from July 17, 1775, until September 7, 1776, when he resigned. He was Deputy Commissary General of the Northern Department in 1775 and 1776.^[1]

In 1777, he was appointed a county judge for Albany County. He was a member of the first two state assemblies from 1777 to 1779, and the eighth from 1784 to 1785, as one of ten representatives elected on a county-wide general ticket. He was elected by his fellow representatives to be the inaugural Speaker of the Assembly, also from 1777 to 1779. In 1784, he was a member of the New York and Massachusetts Boundary Commission. He was a member of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York from 1784 to 1787.^[1]

He was a member from New York of the Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785. In 1785, he was appointed Commissioner of the United States Treasury.^[1]

In 1774, Walter built a Georgian mansion, on a 500-acre estate called Teviotdale in Linlithgo, New York.

He married Cornelia Schuyler (1746–1822), daughter of Pieter P. Schuyler (1723–1753) and Gertrude Schuyler (1724–1813), his cousin. Cornelia was the granddaughter of Pieter Schuyler (1657–1724), the first mayor of Albany. Their children include:

• Henry Walter Livingston (1768–1810), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, who married Mary Allen in 1796.
• Maria Livingston (1770–1828), who married Philip Henry Livingston (1770–1831) in 1788^[2]
• Peter Schuyler Livingston (1772–1809), who married Eliza Barclay (1776–1817), the daughter of Thomas Henry Barclay
• Robert L. Livingston (1775–1843), who married Margaret Maria Livingston (1783–1818), the daughter of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston
• Gertrude Livingston (1778–1864), who married William Cutting (1773–1820).
• Harriet Livingston (1783–1826), who married Robert Fulton (1765–1815) in 1808.

He was buried at Trinity Churchyard in New York. His home at Linlithgo in Columbia County, New York, known as Teviotdale, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.^[3]

Robert Linlithgow Livingston Jr. (b. 1943), a Republican U.S. Representative from Louisiana that was the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee from 1995 to 1999, is Walter Livingston's great-great-great-great-grandson.^[4]

Through his daughter Gertrude, he was the grandfather of Fulton Cutting (1816–1875), who married Elise Justine Bayard (1823–1852) and were the parents of William Bayard Cutting (1850–1912) and Robert Fulton Cutting (1852–1934).^[5]

Notes

Sources

• United States Congress. "Walter Livingston (id: L000373)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Political Graveyard
• Livingston family tree
• Ancestry of Bob Livingston