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Robert Livingston (1654-1728): Businessman of Colonial New York

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Lawrence H. Leder  and
Vincent P. Carosso
Lawrence H. Leder
Affiliation:
Research Associate, Sleepy Hollow Restorations, Irvington, New York
Vincent P. Carosso
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History at New York University
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Abstract

Robert Livingston's career provides the first opportunity to consider in detail the emergence of an early New York businessman. Trained in business in Rotterdam, he brought to the New World the experience, knowledge, and techniques of one of the most advanced commercial centers of his day. On the Albany frontier he applied the Old World's business methods to advantage and gradually emerged as a dominant figure in colonial New York. His records and business correspondence leave no doubt that Livingston belonged to that class of businessmen often referred to as sedentary or resident merchants, though he did not employ as many agents and partners as his later, more mature counterparts. Neither did he engage in as many ventures or perform as many functions as the Browns, Hancocks, and other late eighteenth-century merchants, nor did he create an impressive business organization at home or abroad as was customary among certain European contemporaries. Still, as a wholesaler and retailer, importer and exporter, shipowner and land speculator, Livingston was an early New York practitioner of diversified business functions and investments. His extensive land dealings, no doubt motivated in part by the social prestige attached to real estate, were undertaken primarily as a source of credit and revenue. Livingston Manor was operated as a business enterprise: some of it was cultivated on Livingston's behalf, parts were leased to tenants who provided for the Lord of the Manor not only rents but a steady market for the goods he obtained in overseas trading ventures, and other sections were devoted to various manufacturing enterprises. Livingston's political life was an integral and necessary part of his business ventures, which reflected at all points the total instability of most colonial institutions. From the details of Livingstons many-sided commercial life emerges a rare picture of an embryonic business society in which the means were sorely taxed to achieve the ends conceived by ambitious men.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 1956 , pp. 18 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1956

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References

1 The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1955Google Scholar). See the review of this work in Business History Review, XXIX (Sept., 1955), 279–81Google Scholar.

2 The major studies of New York merchants have been done by Harrington, Virginia D., “The Colonial Merchants' Ledger”; Flick, Alexander C., ed., History of the State of New York (10 vols.; New York, 1932-1937), II, 331–74Google Scholar; The New York Merchant on the Eve of the Revolution (New York, 1935Google Scholar). Both pertain to the late eighteenth century. Philip L. White's forthcoming Beekman Mercantile Papers, 1746-1799, will deal with the same period.

3 The Livingston-Redmond Mss., Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (Hyde Park, New York), have been made available through the courtesy of Mrs. William H. Osborn, their owner, and Mr. Herman Kahn, Director of the Library. Though used previously in appraising activities in which Livingston was interested, they have never been used to examine Livingston's own career. See, for example, Knittle, Walter A., The Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration: A British Government Redemptioner Project to Manufacture Naval Stores (Philadelphia, 1936Google Scholar); and Mason, Bernard, “Some Aspects of the New York Revolt of 1689,” New York History, XXX (April, 1949), 165–80Google Scholar.

The only detailed studies of Livingston's career are: Krout, John A., “Behind the Coat of Arms: A Phase of Prestige in Colonial New York,” New York History, XVI (Jan., 1935), 45–52Google Scholar; and Livingston, Edwin B., The Livingstons of Livingston Manor (New York, 1910Google Scholar). Since neither of these authors consulted the Livingston-Redmond Mss., there is no inkling in either work of the extent of Livingston's mercantile activities.

4 Livingston, op. cit., 54; Houston, Thomas, ed., A Brief Historical Relation of the Life of Mr. John Livingstone, Minister of the Gospel … Written by Himself (Edinburgh, 1848), 12Google Scholar.

5 Livingston, op. cit., 50.

6 Blok, Petrus J., History of the People of The Netherlands (translated by Bierstadt, Oscar A. and Putnam, Ruth, 5 vols.; New York, 1898-1912), IV, 246Google Scholar.

7 Russell married Janet Livingstone and Miller married Barbara Livingstone. Though no record of the dates of these marriages apparently exists, Janet was twenty-six and Barbara was twenty in 1669. Thus one, if not both, may well have been married by this time. Livingston, op. cit., 52-53.

8 Livingston's untitled account book, 1670, Livingston-Redmond Mss. (hereafter cited as: L-R Mss.). The heading, translated from the Dutch, is as follows: “Praise God in the month of January in the year 1670 in Rotterdam. Cash-debit in capital of me, Robert Livingston … which I carry over here, as well as my goods, debts, and others, forming together the state of my capital, with which I intend to continue the business and intend from now on to place everything in good order in the manner of Italian bookkeeping, for which the Lord may please give me His blessing.”

9 “Anno 1673 Aprile 28 day. A Journal of our good intended voyage,” L-R Mss. Since the journal ended abruptly before the landing was recorded, we can only assume that the ship arrived in Charlestown by the end of the summer of 1673. Livingston did not remain long in Massachusetts, because he is recorded as having purchased a lot in Albany in March, 1674/5. Melius, Wheeler B. and Burnap, Frank H., comps., Index to the Public Record of the County of Albany, State of New York 1630-1894: Grantees (12 vols.; Albany, 1908-1911), VII, 4,588Google Scholar.

10 Hull to Livingston, Jan. 30, 1678/9 (Boston), L-R Mss. Other examples of this delinquency are found in the letters of John Palmer to Livingston, Oct. 10, 1677 (New York City) and March 16, 1681/2 (Staten Island), L-R Mss.

11 Hull to Livingston, March 31, 1675, John Hull's Letterbook, 1670-1685 (Mss. in American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts).

12 Buffinton, Arthur H., “New England and the Western Fur Trade, 1629-1675,” Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, XVIII (1917), 177, 183–87Google Scholar; James, Bartlett B. and Jameson, J. Franklin, eds., Journal of Jasper Danckaerts 1679-1680 (New York, 1913), 235Google Scholar fn. Under the Pynchon-Cooper agreement, the former was to supply £300 to £400 worth of goods the first year and £500 to £600 worth every year thereafter, while the latter was to make returns to Boston. In addition, Cooper was to receive a house in Albany, £10 salary the first year and £20 every succeeding year. All profits from the trade were to be divided equally. Pynchon Account Books (6 vols.; Mss. in the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts), V, Part 2, 476-77.

13 James and Jameson, op. cit., 217; Buffinton, Arthur H., “The Policy of Albany and English Westward Expansion,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, VIII (March, 1922), 330Google Scholar.

14 The Cooper-Pynchon partnership was about to be disrupted by the action of the New York government. Cooper had written to Pynchon on Feb. 14, 1677/8, relating the story of the treatment received by some New Englanders who were attempting to regain their wives and children who had been taken captive by the Indians. Cooper deprecated the lack of aid offered by the Albany authorities. When that letter was intercepted, it was viewed as “a Schandallizing of this Gouverment,” and Cooper was ordered to leave Albany by the spring of 1679. This was probably an aspect of the handlaers' hostility towards outsiders. Cooper to Andros, c. Oct., 1678, New York Colonial Mss. (103 vols.; New York State Library, Albany, New York), XXVIII, 28. New York Council Minutes, Oct. 23, 1678, ibid., 27a-27d.

15 Cooper to Livingston, Oct. 2, 1678 (Albany); Holyoke to Livingston, Oct. 3, 1678 (Albany), L-R Mss.

16 Van Laer, Arnold J. F., ed., Minutes of the Court of Albany, Rensselaerswyck and Schenectady, 1668-1685 (3 vols.; Albany, 1926-1932), II, 348–49Google Scholar.

17 Holyoke to Livingston, May 8, 1679 (Boston), L-R Mss.

18 Van Laer, op. cit., II, 189-90, 218-19.

19 An Albany friend advised Livingston: “Ye report of yor extravagances at york & yor putting In for oyr mens places is lyk to purchase you no reputation.” William Shaw to Livingston, Oct. 8, 1678 (Albany), L-R Mss.

20 On several occasions he was forced to apply to the mayor's court to compel his debtors to make good on their contracts. Van Laer, op. cit., II, 175-76, 230-31, 240; III, 20-21, 33-34.

21 For a sketch of his career, see Leder, Lawrence H., “The Unorthodox Domine: Nicholas Van Rensselaer,” New York History, XXXV (April, 1954), 166–76Google Scholar.

22 William Shaw to Livingston, Oct. 8, 1678 (Albany); De Lavall to Livingston, Aug. 22, 1679 (Esopus), L-R Mss.

23 Nissenson, Samuel G., The Patroon's Domain (New York, 1937), 293Google Scholar. This is the standard work on the development of Rensselaerswyck in the seventeenth century.

24 The three intrafamily debts were: 1,908 florins to Philip Pieterse Schuyler, Livingston's father-in-law; 172 florins to Peter Schuyler, Livingston's brother-in-law, and a 10 per cent commission of 344 florins to Livingston himself for administration of the estate. Van Laer, op. cit., III, 48-56.

25 Nissenson, op. cit., 293-95.

26 Ibid., 293-95, 302, 302 fn. Dongan issued a quietus to Livingston on Sept. 1, 1685, which completely absolved him from all future claims by Nicholas' creditors. L-R Mss.

27 Fernow, Bethold, ed., Documents Relating to the History and Settlement of the Towns along the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers (with the exception of Albany), from 1630-1684 (Albany, 1881), 546Google Scholar; Mark, Irving, Agrarian Conflicts in Colonial New York, 1711-1775 (New York, 1940), 32, 32Google Scholar fn.

28 Graham to Livingston, April 7, 1679 (New York City), L-R Mss.

29 Robert Livingston's account current with Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Oct. 7, 1678-April 26, 1681; Van Cortlandt's account of sales for Livingston in Barbados, Jan., 1680/1; Van Cortlandt's account of sales for Livingston on the pink New York, 1684 (Amsterdam), L-R Mss.

30 Robert Livingston's account with Arent Van Dyck and Robert Stanford, 1683 (Barbados); Robert Livingston's account of sales, 1687 (Amsterdam), L-R Mss.

31 “Memorandum of Robt. Livingston's Case with Jacob harwood,” c. Nov., 1695 (hereafter cited as: Livingston Memo, 1695), L-R Mss.

32 Williamson, Arthur S., “Credit Relations Between Colonial and English Merchants in the Eighteenth Century” (unpublished doctoral dissertation, State University of Iowa, 1927), 60Google Scholar.

33 Livingston Memo, 1695, L-R Mss.

34 Blackall to Livingston, Jan. 1, 1686/7 (London), L-R Mss.

35 Livingston Memo, 1695; Invoice of Harwood's shipment to Livingston, March 19, 1686/7, L-R Mss.

36 Livingston Memo, 1695, L-R Mss. The “good Trade” that was expected refers to the famous Macgregorie expedition to the Ottawa Indians that was being planned at the time. See the series of indentures of the participants in the expedition in Leder, Lawrence H., ed., The Livingston Indian Records 1660-1723 (Harrisburg, 1956), 106–7Google Scholar.

37 Harwood's shipments on his own risk were received by Livingston as follows: £260 in Nov., 1687, £585 in July, 1688, and £189 in Nov., 1688. “Account of Sales of Mr. Jacob harwood's goods,” Sept. 5, 1694; Livingston Memo, 1695, L-R Mss.

38 Mortgage, May 1, 1689, Miscellaneous Mss. Staten Island, The New-York Historical Society. Livingston Memo, 1695, L-R Mss. Dongan to King, Sept. 30, 1685, Great Britain, Public Record Office, Calendar of State Papers Colonial Series America and West Indies (40 vols.; London, 1860-1939), XII, no. 387Google Scholar. (Hereafter cited as: Cal. State Papers.) The total indebtedness of the colony's government during Dongan's administration was £6,400. Edward Randolph to John Povey, Oct. 3, 1688, Toppan, Robert N. and Goodrick, Alfred T. S., eds., Edward Randolph, including His Letters and Official Papers from the New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies in America (7 vols.; Boston, 1898-1909), VI, 267Google Scholar.

39 Livingston Memo, 1695, L-R Mss.

40 Livingston's account with Richard Meriwether (acting for Harwood), Aug., 1695 (London); Livingston's account with Harwood, Sept., 1695, L-R Mss.

41 Leder, Lawrence H., “Robert Livingston's Voyage to England, 1695,” New York History, XXXVI (Jan., 1955), 16–19Google Scholar.

42 “Rek vant Ship de Margriet,” 1690; Accounts of the Orange, 1694, L-R Mss.

43 “An Account of money Disbursed by Robt. Livingston for ye Materialls and workmanship of three new vessels,” Oct. 12, 1694, L-R Mss.

44 Campbell to Livingston, April 9, 1694, L-R Mss.

45 “freight List of ye Brigatin Roberdt,” Dec. 3, 1694; Robert Livingston, Peter Schuyler, Brandt Schuyler, and Philip French, Jr., to John Blackall, Dec. 3, 1694 (New York City), L-R Mss.

46 “Memorandum of what I am to doe before I goe off ye 21 Octob 1694” (fragment); Memorandum, Nov. 14, 1695, L-R Mss. The Mary made another voyage, this time to Carolina in 1695, and carried £60, 3s, 9d worth of textiles and other haberdashery. It was probably sent out by Alida Livingston. Invoice of goods, Sept. 19, 1695 (Albany), L-R Mss.

47 “Memorandum of what I am to doe before I goe off ye 21 Octob 1694,” (fragment); Memorandum, Nov. 14, 1694, L-R Mss.

48 Andrew Hamilton to John and Bruniss Brakes, Nov. 6, 1694; Abraham de Peyster to Samuel de Peyster at Rouen, Dec. 8, 1694, L-R Mss.

49 See Livingston's instructions to his nephew appended to the accounts of the Albany excise for March 25-Oct. 11, 1694, L-R Mss.

50 For a full recital of the events of this exciting voyage, based upon Livingston's own journal, see Leder, “Robert Livingston's Voyage,” op. cit., 16-38.

51 See the following bills in the L-R Mss.: Michael Russell, Jury 28, 1695; Joseph Brooksbunk, Aug. 8, 1695; Luke Forster (with whom Livingston lodged in London), Sept. 16, 1695; Roger Lillington, Oct. 9, 1695; John Baker, Oct., 1695; Richard Gilbert and Company, Oct. 11, 1695; John Pyke, Oct. 12, 1695; Jeremy Gough and Company, Oct. 21, 1695; John Robert and Company, Dec. 28, 1695; Michael Russell, Jan. 15, 1695/6; John Cutts, Jan. 16, 1695/6; and Joseph Collins, Feb. 8, 1695/6. Livingston's literary tastes were classical, for among the books he purchased were copies of Machiavelli, Plutarch, Livy, and Tacitus, as well as the Gentleman's Calling, the Evening's Conference, the Lively Oracles, and the State of England. Bill from Edward Poole, Feb. 7, 1695/6, L-R Mss.

52 Leder, “Robert Livingston's Voyage,” op. cit., 31-34; New York Council Minutes, Sept. 15, 1696 (Mss. in the New York State Library), VII, 217; Report of a Committee of the New York Council on Livingston's petition for payment, Sept. 10, 1696, New York Colonial Mss., XL, 195.

53 Invoice of goods in the William and Mary, Oct. 13, 1696; Invoice of goods from Hackshaw, Sept. 3, 1697, L-R Mss.

54 “Account of Expences for ye building of My house at N: Yorke [April 3-July 7] 1697,” L-R Mss. See also the amusing letter written by Miles Forster to Livingston and addressed “Landlord,” Feb. 6, 1699/1700, L-R Mss. Forster, Livingston's unhappy tenant, complained “I cannot afford to give 60£ a year for a house to Sleep in, and especially for One that is not yet made intirely habetable.” The floor was “not made Tyte.” “The Well offers nothing but Salt water,” and there was “not a Chimney peice in the house.”

55 Van Laer, Arnold J. F., ed., The Correspondence of Maria Van Rensselaer, 1669-1689 (Albany, 1935), 24Google Scholar fn.

56 Accounts between Livingston and Van Schaick, Aug. 29, 1697-June 26, 1698; Sept. 10, 1697-May 12, 1699; Feb. 20, 1699/1700, L-R Mss.

57 “Gen11 Account of Victualling … pmo May 1698 to pmo Nov. 1700,” L-R Mss.

58 Livingston's memorial to Bellomont, Aug. 25, 1698, L-R Mss.

59 Bellomont to Lords of Trade, Oct. 17, 1700 (New York), Cal. State Papers, XVIII, no. 845.

60 New York Council Minutes, March 5, 1700/1 (Mss. in the New York State Library), VIII, 211.

61 “Account of what Rt Livingston owes by Bond with Intrest & without,” Sept., 1702, L-R Mss.

62 “Account of Money Receivd of ye Late E: of Bellomont,” May, 1702, L-R Mss.

63 For an estimate of the administration of one of New York's worst governors, see Spencer, Charles W., “The Cornbury Legend,” Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, XIII (1914), 309–20Google Scholar.

64 Livingston to Lords Commissioners of Trade, July 9, 1703 (Clovelly, Devon), L-R Mss.

65 Invoices of goods, March 30 and July 12, 1704; Livingston's notes made in 1706 on “Copy of the Certificate for the Arrears due to the Officers Victuallers & Clothes … June 29: 1704” (hereafter cited as: Livingston's notes, 1706), L-R Mss.

66 Invoices of goods, March 31, April 26, and April 30, 1705; Livingston's notes, 1706, L-R Mss.

67 Invoice, Jan. 15, 1705/6, L-R Mss.

68 Royal Warrant, Dec. 12, 1705; Invoice, Feb. 14, 1705/6, L-R Mss.

69 Leder, “Robert Livingston's Voyage,” op. cit., 27.

70 William Livingston to Robert Livingston, Sept. 9, 1699 (Edinburgh), L-R Mss.

71 Janet Livingston Miller to Robert Livingston, n.d. (Edinburgh), received in New York on Oct. 9, 1700, L-R Mss.

72 William Livingston, Jr., commented: “As to what goods are contained in these Invoyces I make no doubt but what you will dispose of them to ye best accot In your poure & as to ye Returnes I leave that Intirely to your own Conduct I being very well assured of your friendship & good Inclinations.” Invoice of goods, March 15, 1705/6; Invoice of goods, April 13, 1706, L-R Mss.

73 William Livingston wrote to his brother in New York, Sept. 9, 1699 (L-R Mss.): “if you have a Sun yt inclyns to be a schollar I wish ye sent him to be educat here.” Livingston took up this offer in the winter of 1699, sending Robert, Jr., to his brother, James Livingston. The latter reported “I think it not strange that his Mother was loath to part with him for he appears to be a very pleasant child and will be fitt for anything.” James Livingston to Robert Livingston, Jan. 4, 1699/1700 (Edinburgh), L-R Mss.

74 Warrant of Thomas Snelling, Sheriff of Kent County, May 6, 1706, L-R Mss.

75 Leder, “Robert Livingston's Voyage,” op. cit., 33-34; Robert Livingston to William Livingston, May 9, 1706 (Gravesend), L-R Mss.

76 Robert Livingston to Captain Patience of the Unity, May 11, 1706 (London); Sir Richard Blackham's release, May 10, 1706, L-R Mss.

77 Invoices, Feb. 28, 1706/7 and Dec. 10, 1707, L-R Mss.

78 Journal of the Votes and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Colony of New York… 1691 … 1765 (2 vols.; New York, 1764-1766), I, 239Google Scholar. (Hereafter cited as Assembly Journal.)

79 Ibid., 136, 242-43.

80 Waller, George M., “Samuel Vetch and the Glorious Enterprise,” The New-York Historical Society Quarterly, XXXIV (April, 1950), 101–23Google Scholar. Waller, George M., “New York's Role in Queen Anne's War, 1702-1713,” New York History, XXX (Jan., 1952), 40–53Google Scholar.

81 For Livingston's role, see “Journall of ye Negotiation of K: V: Renselaer & Rt Livingston Sending Spys to Canada,” May, 1709; Leder, Livingston Indian Records, op. cit., 203-6.

82 Assembly Journal, op. cit., I, 270.

83 Knittle, op. cit., 132-34.

84 Ibid., 140-56.

85 Ibid., 156.

86 Hunter's contract with Livingston, Nov. 13, 1710. O'Callaghan, Edmund B., ed., The Documentary History of the State of New York (4 vols.; Albany, 1849-1850), III, 653–55Google Scholar.

87 “Ships' beer” was a low-grade brew. Account between Livingston and Hunter, May 26, 1714. New York Colonial Mss., LIX, 36.

88 Gilbert Livingston to Robert Livingston, July 17, 1712 (Kingston); Philip Livingston to Robert Livingston, June 13, 1712 (Albany); Robert Livingston, Jr., to Robert Livingston, March 28, 1713 (New York City), L-R Mss.

89 Indenture between Evert Pells, shipwright, and Livingston, June 8, 1710, L-R Mss.

90 Account between Livingston and Hunter, May 26, 1714. New York Colonial Mss., LIX, 36.

91 John Livingston advised his father: “as for yr demands on ye Palentines acct bleve itt is ye Best way to Depend only upon Govr Hunter yu having agreed with him for to Supley them and he by his agreement is become yr paymaster.” John Livingston to Robert Livingston, Feb. 15, 1713/4 (New London), L-R Mss.

92 Livingston's petition to Hunter, c. Nov., 1713; Hunter's patent to Livingston, Oct. 1, 1715. O'Callaghan, op. cit., III, 685-86, 697. The surveyor's map of Oct. 20, 1714, is to be found in O'Callaghan, opposite 690.

93 Knittle, op. cit., 189.

94 Borland to Livingston, Feb. 23, 1712/3 and April 13, 1713, L-R Mss.

95 Inventory, March 4, 1712/3, L-R Mss.

96 The posts in ye Journell Summ'd up … to See plainly how much is Sold upon Trust monthly,” L-R Mss.

97 Lists of debtors, Jan. 26, 1715/6 and March 5, 1717/8; List of Palatine debtors, March 1, 1717/8, L-R Mss.

98 List of Palatine debtors, Dec. 26, 1718; “Debts due by Palatines Living … in the Manr,” Jan. 1, 1720/1 and Feb. 1, 1721/2, L-R Mss.

99 Jay to Livingston, April 9, 1711; de Lancey to Livingston, Feb. 14, 1710/1 and May 18, 1711, L-R Mss.

100 Vetch to Livingston, Aug. 25, 1716 (London), L-R Mss. This debt was eventually cleared through the efforts of the Attorney General of New York, David Jamison, whom Douglas appointed as his agent. Jamison was also a close friend of Livingston, so that the matter was probably settled amicably. Jamison to Livingston, Dec. 25, 1716, L-R Mss.

101 “I was Exceedingly Rejoyed when I heard yt ye assembly had allowed ye £1484: — Am glad ye did not want my uncle Cuyler vote, and that he & kip &a are defeated, I hope ye assembly will find out Easy ways & means to pay ye Sums allowd.” Philip Livingston to Robert Livingston, Oct. 25, 1717 (Albany), L-R Mss.

102 Bailyn, passim.

103 Labaree, Leonard W., Conservatism in Early American History (New York, 1948), 3, 16–18Google Scholar.

104 Livingston to [Governor Burnet], Nov. 17, 1724, The New-York Historical Society, Collections for the Year 1934 (New York, 1937), 176–77Google Scholar.