Philip Livingston
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Philip Livingston (January 15, 1716–June 12, 1778), was an American merchant and statesman from New York City. He was a delegate for New York to the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1778, and signed the Declaration of Independence.
He was born in Albany, New York into the prominent Livinston family. His grandfather, who had immigrated to New York and controlled the large grant called Livingston Manor, was known as Robert, 1st Lord of the Manor. His father, also named Philip was the 2nd Lord of the Manor. This Philip was, however, his fourth son, and thus could not inherit.
Philip attended and graduated from Yale College in 1737. He then settled in New York City and pursued a mercantile career. He became prominent as a merchant, and was elected Alderman in 1754. He was reelected to that office each year until 1763. Also in 1754, he went as a delegate to the Albany Congress. There, he joined delegates from several other colonies to negotiate with Indians and discuss common plans for dealing with the French and Indian War. They also developed a Plan of Union for the Colonies which was, however, rejected by King George.
Livingston became an active promoter of efforts to raise and fund troops for the war, and in 1759 was elected to the colony's House of Representatives. He would hold that office until 1769, serving as Speaker in 1768. In October of 1765, he attended the Stamp Act Congress, which produced the first formal protest to the crown as a prelude to the American Revolution. Philip became strongly alligned with the radical block in that Congress. He joined New York's Committee of Correspondence to continue communicaton with leaders in the other colonies.
When New York established a rebel government in 1775, he was the President of the Provinial Convention. They also selected him as one of their delegates to the Continental Congress that year. In the Congress, he strongly supported separation from Great Britain and in 1776 joined other delegates in the Declaration of Independence.
After the adoption of the new New York State Constitution, he was elected to the state Senate in 1777, while continuing in the national congress. He died suddenly while attending the sixth session of Congress in York, Pennsylvania and is buried in the Prospect Hill Cemetery there. Livingston was a Presbyterian, a Mason, and an original promoter of King's College, which became Columbia University.
External link
- biographic sketch at U.S. Congress website (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000369)