Representative Robert Le Roy Livingston

Robert Le Roy Livingston (October 10, 1778 – April 14, 1836) was a United States representative from New York and a member of the Federalist Party who served two terms in Congress during a formative period in the early republic. He was born on October 10, 1778, in Claverack, Columbia County, New York, to John Livingston (1749–1822) and Mary Ann Le Roy (1759–1797), the daughter of Jacob Le Roy and Cornelia Rutgers. His parents were of Scottish and French Huguenot descent, and both the Livingston and Le Roy families had been established in the New York colony for generations. His paternal grandfather was Robert Livingston (1708–1790), the third and final Lord of Livingston Manor and a long-serving member of the colonial and early state assembly for the manor from 1737 to 1790, placing Robert Le Roy Livingston within one of New York’s most prominent landed and political families.

Livingston grew up in a large and well-connected household. After his mother’s death in 1797, his father married Catherine (Livingston) Ridley, his first cousin, the daughter of William Livingston, a signer of the Constitution and governor of New Jersey, and the widow of Matthew Ridley. His siblings included Cornelia Livingston (b. 1776), who married Nicholas G. Rutgers; Jacob Livingston (b. 1780), who first married Catherine Adriana de Peyster, a granddaughter of Abraham de Peyster, and later Levantia White; John G. Livingston (b. 1782), who died unmarried after being killed in a duel; Daniel Livingston (b. 1786), who married Eliza Oothout; Philip Henry Livingston (b. 1787); Anthony Rutgers Livingston (b. 1789), who married Anna Hoffman, daughter of Martin Hoffman and Beulah Murray; Henry Livingston (b. 1791), who married Ann Eliza Van Ness; and Herman Livingston (1793–1872), who married Sarah Lawrence Hallett (1795–1868) and inherited the family home from their father. This extensive network of kinship tied Livingston to many of the leading mercantile, legal, and political families of New York and New Jersey.

Livingston received a private education consistent with his family’s status and later attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), from which he graduated. His education prepared him for both military and public service at a time when the new nation was consolidating its institutions and political parties were taking shape. The combination of elite schooling and powerful family connections positioned him to enter national affairs at a relatively young age.

His early public career began in the military. On January 14, 1799, during the period of heightened tensions with France known as the Quasi-War, Livingston was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Twelfth United States Infantry. He served in this capacity until June 15, 1800, when he was honorably discharged. This brief but formative military experience introduced him to federal service and national defense issues that would later intersect with his legislative work and his subsequent return to the Army during the War of 1812.

As a member of the Federalist Party representing New York, Livingston entered national politics at a time of intense partisan conflict between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. He was elected as a Federalist to the Eleventh and Twelfth United States Congresses, serving from March 4, 1809, until May 6, 1812, when he resigned his seat. During these two terms in office, he contributed to the legislative process in a Congress preoccupied with trade restrictions, maritime rights, and the mounting tensions with Great Britain that culminated in the War of 1812. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, and he participated in the democratic process by representing the interests of his New York constituents while aligning with the Federalist emphasis on strong national institutions and commercial interests.

With the outbreak of the War of 1812, Livingston left Congress to return to military service. On May 29, 1812, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Twenty-third United States Infantry. In this capacity, he served during the early phase of the conflict, a time when the United States was attempting to organize and expand its regular forces to meet British and Canadian opposition along the northern frontier. He remained in the Army until February 1, 1813, when he resigned his commission. His decision to leave Congress for active military duty reflected both personal commitment and the broader pattern of Federalist and Republican leaders who took up arms during the war, despite partisan divisions over the conflict itself.

In his personal life, Livingston married Anna Maria Digges (1792–1865), the daughter of George Digges (1742–1792) and Catherine Brent (1768–1835), thereby linking the Livingston family to the long-established Digges and Brent families with roots in the Chesapeake region. Together they had seven children: Robert L. Livingston (b. 1812), who died unmarried; Eliza C. Livingston (1814–1888), who married Andrew Pierce; Cornelia Livingston, who married Abraham Pierce; John L. Livingston (1816–1849), who married Margaret Lockwood; William Le Roy Livingston; Edward Livingston (1824–1872), who married Caroline Ann Van Rensselaer (1823–1896), daughter of Robert Hendrick Van Rensselaer (1779–1835) and Anna Ten Broeck (1783–1861); and Norah Carroll Livingston (1830–1896), who married Ignatius Fenwick Young (1825–1892). Through these marriages, the Livingston line continued to intersect with other influential New York and Mid-Atlantic families, reinforcing the family’s social and regional prominence.

Robert Le Roy Livingston died on April 14, 1836. His death brought to a close the life of a figure who, though not among the most nationally prominent of the Livingston clan, nonetheless embodied the role of the early American political and military elite. As a Federalist congressman from New York and an officer in both the Quasi-War era Army and the War of 1812, he participated in the shaping of the young republic’s political and military institutions while maintaining the extensive familial and social networks characteristic of his distinguished lineage.