LIVINGSTON, William [1723-1790] -- American lawyer, government official

He was born in Albany, N.Y., Nov. 30, 1723; son of Philip and Catharine (Van Brugh) Livingston. He was graduated from Yale college, A.B., 1741, A.M., 1744; studied law in the office of James Alexander, 1741-46, and was admitted to the bar, Oct. 14, 1748. He was married in 1745 to Susanhah, daughter of Philip French, of New Brunswick, and granddaughter of Maj. Anthony Brockhalls, formerly governor of New York.

He established the Independent Reflector in New York in 1752. He was a commissioner in 1754 to adjust the boundary line between New York and Massachusetts, and subsequently between New York and New Jersey. With the assistance of his brother, Philip Livingston, his brother-in-law, William Alexander, and a few others, he established the New York Society library in 1754.

He was a member of the provincial assembly from Livingston manor, 1759-61. He published articles in the Weekly Post Boy denouncing the stamp act. In 1780 he purchased a farm at Elizabethtown, N.J., to which he removed in 1772. On June 11, 1774, he was appointed to represent Essex county in a committee of correspondence to select delegates for election to the first Continental congress, July 23, 1774. He was a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental congress, 1774-76, and served on many important committees. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the New Jersey militia with the rank of brigadier-general in June, I776; was governor of New Jersey, 1776-90, and was nominated in January, 1785, one of the commissioners to superintend the construction of the Federal buildings, but declined the honor as he did that of U.S. minister plenipotentiary to the Hague, June 23, 1785, owing to his advanced age.

It was largely through his efforts that the legislature of New Jersey passed the act forbidding the importation of slaves, March 2, 1786.

In 1787 he was a delegate to the Philadelphia convention that framed the U.S. constitution, and he signed the instrument Sept. 17, 1787. He was a member of the American Philosophical society, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Yale college in 1788.

He published, in conjunction with William Smith, Jr., "A Digest of the Laws of New York, 1691-1792" (2 vols., 1752-62). He is the author of: "Philosophic Solitude, or the Choice of a Rural Life" (1747); "A Review of the Military Operations in North America" (1757); "Observations on Government" (1787).

He died at "Liberty Hall," Elizabethtown, N.J., July 25, 1790.