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Robert Livingston

Albany merchant and colonial officer, first lord of Livingston Manor, who drew and sealed the articles of the Kidd privateering venture and stood security for it.

Born13 December 1654, AncrumDied1 October 1728, Livingston ManorAlso writtenRobert Livingston Esqr. (the Kidd articles, 7 February 1695/6); Robert Livingston the Elder (biographies); Robert Livingstone (a Scots spelling of the name; SSNE 7132)

Robert Livingston is in this Archive for a document he drew up, not a deck he stood on. The Kidd articles of 7 February 1695/6 name him Robert Livingston Esqr.: Albany merchant, colonial officer, first lord of Livingston Manor, the man who put money and paper behind the venture of 1695 and 1696. The venture is told in the Captain Kidd Collection. What follows is the backer.1

From Ancrum to Albany

He was born on 13 December 1654 at Ancrum, near Jedburgh in Roxburghshire. His father's banishment took the family to Rotterdam in 1663, and he grew up there fluent in Dutch, the piece of equipment he carried into Albany.2

He married Alida Schuyler, widow of Nicholas van Rensselaer, at Albany on 9 July 1679. Governor Dongan granted him the manorial patent in July 1686, and George I confirmed the manor by royal charter in 1715. The estate is put at 125,000 to 160,000 acres, the patent at the 22nd or the 26th of that July. He was Albany town clerk from 1686 and Secretary for Indian Affairs from 1695 until his death, though the finding aid to his papers dates that secretaryship 1696 to 1710.3,4,5

The London errand

He went to London in 1695 to collect a debt: the Crown owed him for provisioning troops, and the account he put in that August came to about 3,719 pounds. He also meant to prefer charges against Governor Benjamin Fletcher, who had suspended him. Bellomont restored him, and the Council of Trade approved his appointment to the New York Council on 28 October 1698.6,7

His part in the venture

The two errands crossed. In London in October 1695 Livingston brought Kidd to Bellomont, drew the articles of agreement and sealed them on the tenth, Livingston and Kidd of the one part and Richard, Earl of Bellomont, of the other. The four Whig lords usually named with the venture, Somers, Russell, Shrewsbury and Romney, are not in the deed. It names three men. A separate instrument of 7 February 1695/6 sold a third of Livingston's shares and a third of Kidd's to an investor, Richard Blackham, repayable by 25 March 1697 unless the ship were lost or Kidd died.8,9

He also stood security, posting a bond for the venture and keeping the articles in his own hands. Kidd, a defendant petitioning the Speaker of the House of Commons, named him the projector, promoter and chief manager of the design, and asked that he be examined and confronted. That petition is of April 1701, and a calendar has folded it into the petition of 12 May, which does not name Livingston.10,11

News of Kidd's arrival at Boston reached Albany in early July 1699, and Livingston came down for his paper. He demanded up his bond and the articles he had sealed for Kidd's expedition, and did it in a peremptory manner; Bellomont reported the exchange to the Board of Trade on 8 July. The earl refused, and had Kidd arrested. Livingston went home unprosecuted.12

What he was never charged with

He was never criminally charged with anything, piratical or otherwise. Everything done to him was administrative or civil: suspension from office, removal from the excise, an order to account, a threatened sequestration of the estate. The attacks on his victualling and his handling of public money were an audit war, run by the Leislerian faction and afterwards by Nanfan's, and no embezzlement was ever proven. Two suspensions get run together into one: Fletcher's, in the mid-1690s, undone by Bellomont, and Nanfan's of 20 April 1702, undone under Cornbury.13,14

His own position never moved: the government owed him, for sums advanced on the venture and for the subsistence of the militia and the troops, and he crossed the Atlantic to say so. No one accused him of receiving or trafficking pirate goods; his trade was the Albany fur and provisioning business, and in 1690 he took a stake in the slave ship Margriet.15,16

The bond then vanishes. Kidd was convicted and executed in 1701, and nothing followed on Livingston's security: no move by the Crown, no suit against him as surety, no release from it.17

Speaker, and the wrong year

He sat in the New York Assembly for Albany from 1709 to 1714 and for Livingston Manor from 1716, was elected Speaker in 1718, and retired in 1725. He died on 1 October 1728 at Livingston Manor and was buried in the family vault. A stubborn minority of accounts kills him in April 1725 instead, among them a footnote in Jameson's 1923 collection giving his dates as 1654 to 1725. Two men and one year have run together: his nephew Robert Livingston the Younger did die in April 1725, and the first lord left office that year.18,19,20

The papers

The bulk of him survives. The Gilder Lehrman collection GLC03107, catalogued as letters and documents of the Livingston-Redmond family of New York, runs to 5,445 items across 1637 to 1850, holds his correspondence, accounts and instruments, and much of it is Dutch, the letters between Livingston and Alida among them. The Roosevelt Library holding carries a series of translations. Anyone working on him needs the language before the archive.21,22

Two items in it matter, and one is not there. The Kidd instrument survives as GLC03107.00239, the articles of 7 February 1695/6, reciting the principal articles of 10 October 1695; a full transcript is published. The bond does not survive, or has not been found. The one record titled a financial bond to Robert Livingston, GLC03107.01809, is an unrelated debt bond of 18 October 1727 binding one John Chissim to him.23

One honest limit. Apart from that transcript, not a single Livingston manuscript was read for this record: the archive above is mapped from finding aids and catalogue entries, which is a map of the papers and not the papers. There is no picture at the head of this page for a related reason: a portrait of him circulates, but its artist, date, medium and owner could not be established.24,25

What the evidence does not settle

Birth date

  • His birth date rests on genealogies, not parish registers

Kidd venture security

  • What became of the security posted for the Kidd venture is unknown

Portrait

  • The portrait's artist, date, medium and owner are all unestablished

Date of death

  • A minority of accounts gives April 1725, which belongs to his nephew

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. Robert Livingston the Elder, first lord of Livingston Manor, was the Albany merchant and colonial officer who backed the Kidd privateering venture of 1695 and 1696, and his period legal name form is Robert Livingston Esqr., as he is named in the articles of 7 February 1695/6. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Articles of agreement: A secret agreement between pirate hunters, 1696 (articles of agreement, Livingston-Kidd-Bellomont-Blackham), GLC03107.00239
  2. He was born on 13 December 1654 at Ancrum, near Jedburgh in Roxburghshire, and on his father's banishment the family removed to Rotterdam in 1663, where he grew up fluent in Dutch. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Genealogies and biographical reference: Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Livingston; Robert Livingston, 1st Lord of Livingston Manor, and Alida Schuyler; LIVINGSTONE, ROBERT [SSNE 7132]
  3. He married Alida Schuyler, widow of Nicholas van Rensselaer, at Albany on 9 July 1679; the marriage and the year are secure, the day rests on the genealogies and no church record has been read for it. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Family genealogy: Robert Livingston, 1st Lord of Livingston Manor, and Alida Schuyler; Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Livingston
  4. Governor Dongan granted him the manorial patent that made him first lord of Livingston Manor in July 1686, the day given as either the 22nd or the 26th by different genealogies and the acreage put at anything from about 125,000 to 160,000 acres, and George I confirmed the manor by royal charter in 1715. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Family genealogy: Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Livingston; Robert Livingston The Elder (1654-1728) 1st Lord of Livingston Manor
  5. He was Albany town clerk from 1686 and Secretary for Indian Affairs from 1695 until his death, though the finding aid to his own papers dates the formal secretaryship 1696 to 1710. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Archive finding aid: Robert Livingston papers finding aid, ARMS 1974.018; Robert Livingston the Elder
  6. Unpaid Crown accounts, his August 1695 account for provisioning troops totalling about 3,719 pounds, drove his 1695 voyage to London, where he also sought to prefer charges against Governor Benjamin Fletcher. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Regional history and biography: Pirates, Prostitution and the Livingston Family; Robert Livingston (county history biography), Columbia County history
  7. Governor Benjamin Fletcher suspended Livingston from his offices in the mid-1690s and he was restored under Bellomont, whose appointment of him to the New York Council the Council of Trade approved on 28 October 1698. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol 16 (1697-1698), no. 945 (TNA Board of Trade, New York, 53, pp. 47-51)
  8. In London in October 1695 Livingston introduced Kidd to Bellomont, drew up the articles of agreement for the privateering venture and sealed them on 10 October, Livingston and Kidd of the one part and Richard, Earl of Bellomont, of the other; the four Whig lords named in the syndicate, Somers, Russell, Shrewsbury and Romney, do not appear in the articles themselves. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Articles of agreement: A secret agreement between pirate hunters, 1696 (articles of agreement, Livingston-Kidd-Bellomont-Blackham), GLC03107.00239; Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Case of William Kidd)
  9. By a separate agreement of 7 February 1695/6 Livingston and Kidd each sold a third of their shares in the venture to the investor Richard Blackham, repayable by 25 March 1697 barring loss at sea or Kidd's death. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Articles of agreement: A secret agreement between pirate hunters, 1696 (articles of agreement, Livingston-Kidd-Bellomont-Blackham), GLC03107.00239
  10. Livingston posted a performance bond for the Kidd venture and kept the articles in his own custody. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Published primary documents: Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents (Case of William Kidd); A secret agreement between pirate hunters, 1696, GLC03107.00239
  11. Petitioning the Speaker of the House of Commons, William Kidd named Livingston the projector, promoter and chief manager of the design and asked that he be examined and confronted; the petition's date is unresolved, Jameson placing it in April 1701 and warning that a calendar has conflated it with the petition of 12 May 1701, which does not name Livingston. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Published primary documents: Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents, document 87, petition of William Kidd to the Speaker of the House of Commons
  12. At Boston in early July 1699, on news of Kidd's arrival, Livingston came down from Albany and in a peremptory manner demanded up his bond and the articles he had sealed for Kidd's expedition, as Bellomont reported to the Board of Trade on 8 July 1699; Bellomont refused, had Kidd arrested, and Livingston himself escaped prosecution. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Published primary documents: Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents, document 77, Lord Bellomont to the Board of Trade, Boston, 8 July 1699 (PRO C.O. 5:860, no. 62); Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol 17 (1699), no. 680
  13. Livingston was never criminally charged, indicted or tried for any act, piratical or otherwise: every sanction against him was administrative or civil, being suspension from office, removal from the excise, a statutory order to account and a threatened sequestration of his estate. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 19, 1701, September 1701, 22-25 (items 880-881); Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents, documents 77 and 87
  14. The victualling and public-money attacks on Livingston were a Leislerian and Nanfan factional audit war in which no embezzlement was ever proven, and two distinct suspensions are commonly conflated: Fletcher's in the mid-1690s, undone by Bellomont, and Nanfan's of 20 April 1702, undone under Cornbury. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Calendared state papers and county history: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 19, 1701, September 1701, 22-25 (items 880-881); History of Columbia County, New York (biography of Robert Livingston)
  15. Livingston consistently maintained that the New York government owed him money, for sums he had advanced for the venture and for the subsistence of the militia and troops, and he crossed to London to seek redress. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Regional and family histories: Pirates, Prostitution and the Livingston Family; History of Columbia County, New York (biography of Robert Livingston); Descendants of the Schuyler Family of New York
  16. No allegation that Livingston received or trafficked pirate goods was found in the sources read, his documented commerce being the Albany fur and provisioning trade and an investment in the slave ship Margriet in 1690; on that particular charge the record examined leaves him unaccused. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Published primary documents: Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents, document 77 and the Case of William Kidd headnotes
  17. The fate of Livingston's venture bond after Kidd's conviction and execution in 1701 is unknown: no evidence was found of the Crown enforcing it, suing him as surety, or discharging him, and the state papers and Exchequer records have not been searched on the point. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Published primary documents: Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period: Illustrative Documents, document 77, Lord Bellomont to the Board of Trade, Boston, 8 July 1699 (PRO C.O. 5:860, no. 62)
  18. Livingston sat in the New York Assembly for Albany from 1709 to 1714 and for Livingston Manor from 1716, was elected Speaker in 1718 and retired from office in 1725; a footnote in Jameson's 1923 collection erroneously gives his dates as 1654 to 1725. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Archive finding aid: Robert Livingston papers, biographical and historical note, ARMS 1974.018; Robert Livingston (biography)
  19. He died on 1 October 1728 at Livingston Manor and was buried in the family vault there, a minority tradition giving April 1725 instead. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Family genealogy: Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Livingston; Robert Livingston and the Politics of Colonial New York, 1654-1728 (ISBN 9780807838631)
  20. The minority April 1725 death date is most plausibly a conflation with his nephew Robert Livingston the Younger, who did die in April 1725, reinforced by the first lord's own retirement from office in that year. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Biographical reference: Robert Livingston the Younger; Robert Livingston, 1st Lord of Livingston Manor, and Alida Schuyler
  21. The largest surviving original body of Robert Livingston the Elder's manuscripts is the Gilder Lehrman collection GLC03107, catalogued as letters and documents of the Livingston-Redmond family of New York, 1637-1850, comprising 5,445 items and holding his correspondence, accounts and instruments. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Archive finding aid: Letters and documents of the Livingston-Redmond family of New York (decimalized), GLC03107
  22. A substantial part of GLC03107 is Dutch-language family correspondence, including letters between Livingston and Alida Schuyler Livingston, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library holding carries a dedicated series of Dutch translations. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Archive finding aids: Letters and documents of the Livingston-Redmond family of New York (decimalized), GLC03107; Livingston Family Papers in Dutch, 1680-1726 (van der Linde translations)
  23. The surviving Kidd-venture instrument in the Livingston corpus is GLC03107.00239, the articles of 7 February 1695/6 among Livingston, Kidd and Richard Blackham, which recite the principal articles of 10 October 1695 and are published in full transcript; the venture bond itself was not located, and the one Gilder Lehrman record titled a financial bond to Robert Livingston, GLC03107.01809, is an unrelated debt bond of 18 October 1727 binding John Chissim to him. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Manuscript catalogue records: A secret agreement between pirate hunters, 1696 (Livingston-Kidd-Blackham articles), GLC03107.00239; Financial bond to Robert Livingston, GLC03107.01809
  24. No Livingston manuscript image or manuscript-level transcription was read for this record except the GLC03107.00239 transcript of the Kidd articles; the rest of the manuscript core is mapped from finding aids, catalogue records and a documentary-history index rather than from the documents themselves. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Archive finding aids: Letters and documents of the Livingston-Redmond family of New York (decimalized), GLC03107; Historical Materials in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library; Robert Livingston papers, ARMS 1974.018
  25. A portrait of Robert Livingston (1654-1728) survives and circulates, but its artist, date, medium and current owning repository could not be established. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Portrait: Portrait of Robert Livingston (1654-1728), File:Robert Livingston (1654-1728).jpg