Getting to Know the Signers ~ One by One

Philip Livingston (1716-1778)

Philip Livingston (1686-1749)
Sarah Livingston  (Lady Stirling) (1726-1783)
Lady Mary Alexander (- 1820)
Robert Watts (1743-1814)
John Watts, Sr. (1715-1789)
Susanna Watts (1750-1823)
John Watts Kearny (1778-1850)
Philip John Kearny (1806-1841)
John Watts Kearny (1835-1903)
Warren Kearny (1870-1947)
Ellen Lee Sloo Kearny (1901-1942)
Alfred Adair Watters, Jr. and Warren Kearny Watters

The first of our family signers of the Declaration of Independence is Philip Livingston from New York. Philip and his brother William were ardent patriots, with Phillip signing the Declaration of Independence and his brother, William, the US Constitution.

Born in Albany, New York to a prosperous family, his family estate consisted of over 150,000 acres. Philip graduated from Yale University in 1737 and in 1740 he married Christina Ten Broeck, daughter of the mayor of Albany. Becoming a merchant in New York City, he took an active part in civic affairs. He helped build the New York Chamber of Commerce, the New York Hospital, and the New York Society Library. He also helped establish Columbia University in New York City and Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Livingston became an active promoter of efforts to raise and fund troops for the war, and in 1759 was elected to the  Province of New York assembly, serving as Speaker in 1768. In October 1765, he attended the Stamp Act Congress, which produced the first formal protest to the crown as a prelude to the American Revolution. When New York established the New York Provincial Congress in 1775, he was the President. He was selected as one of their delegates to the Continental Congress that year. A strong supporter of separation from Great Britain, in 1776 he joined other delegates in the Declaration of Independence.

After the adoption of the new New York State Constitution, he was appointed to the New York State Senate in 1777, while continuing to sit in the Continental Congress. He died suddenly while attending the sixth session of Congress in York, Pennsylvania. A Presbyterian and a Mason, he is buried in the Prospect Hill Cemetery in York.

Information borrowed from Find-A -Grave and Wikipedia.