Person

Philip Livingston (1716-1778)

Identifier

NJS-PER-00016

Given Name

Philip

Family Name

Livingston

Birth Date

15 January 1716

Death Date

12 June 1778

Sex

Male

Biographical Description

Philip Livingston (1716-1778) was a charter trustee of Queen's College and a slave trader. He came from a wealthy landowning family in upstate New York and moved to New York City to operate the family's mercantile business, which was started by his father Philip Livingston (1686-1749). He invested heavily in slave-trading voyages to Africa and owned several plantations in the Caribbean as part of a vast international mercantile operation that revolved around the exploitation of Africans. These activities made him one of the richest men in 18th-century New York.

A signer of the Declaration of Independence, he held a variety of government roles representing the state of New York, including member of the Provincial Assembly (1759-1769), and state senator in 1777. He married Christina Ten Broeck in 1740. They had nine children, of whom daughter Sarah (1752-1814) would marry her cousin and future Queen's College President, the Rev. John Henry Livingston, in 1775.

Place of Origin

Albany, NY

Place of Significance

Albany, NY

New York, NY

Occupation

Slave Trade

Banking, Insurance, and Commerce

Landowning

Government

Organization

Rutgers University

Relationship to Rutgers

Trustee (Founding 1766-1778)

Same As

Philip Livingston (Wikidata)

Philip Livingston (Wikipedia)

LIVINGSTON, Philip 1716 – 1778 (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress)