Levinus Clarkson (1740-1798)

He was born in New York City. His father died when he was ten and he lived with his brother, David, until he was twenty-one (1761) and travelled to Europe that same year. He returned to New York the following year where he was a member of the Chamber of Commerce. He acquired property in Flatbush but being a strong Whig he fled his house on the approach of the British. It was badly used by the Hessians and although he was allowed to return shortly after he instead relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where he established himself as a commissions merchant in 1772. After three years, he returned north and lived for many years at New Brunswick, New Jersey, in a house on what would later become known as Livingston Avenue. In 1763, he married Mary Van Horne, one of five sisters "all handsome and well bred". They had ten children.