Livingston, Robert R. (redirected from Robert Livingston)

Livingston, Robert R., 1654–1728, American colonist and statesman

Livingston, Robert R., 1654–1728: see under Livingston, family.

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Livingston, Robert R., 1718–75, American statesman and jurist

Livingston, Robert R. 1718–75: see under Livingston, family.

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Livingston, Robert R., 1746–1813, American jurist, statesman, and diplomat

Livingston, Robert R. 1746–1813: see under Livingston, family.

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Livingston, Robert R.

Robert R. Livingston, portrait by Charles Willson Peale, c. 1782; in Independence National …

(credit: Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia)

(born Nov. 27, 1746, New York, N.Y.—died Feb. 26, 1813, Clermont, N.Y.) U.S. lawyer and diplomat. He served in the Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. As New York state's first chancellor (1777–1801), he administered the oath of office to Pres. George Washington (1789). From 1781 to 1783 he was U.S. secretary of foreign affairs. As minister to France from 1801 to 1804, he helped effect the Louisiana Purchase. In partnership with Robert Fulton, he later received a steamboat monopoly for New York waters; the first vessel to operate on the Hudson River (1807) was named the Clermont, after his ancestral home.

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Livingston, Robert R. (1746–1813) lawyer, diplomat; born in New York City. He practiced law before entering the Continental Congress (1775–76, 1779–81, 1784–85). He was the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs (1781–83), and as ambassador to France (1801–04), he scored a diplomatic coup by seizing the opportunity to make the Louisiana Purchase agreement with France. As chancellor of New York (1777–1801), he played a major role in state affairs, helping to write its constitution and getting its support for the new federal constitution. He also subsidized Robert Fulton's experiments that led to the successful voyage of the steamboat Clermont.