Robert Livingston of Clermont (1688-1775)

He was born at "Elm Tree Corner" in Albany, New York, in the house inherited by his mother through her first marriage. At age-11, he was fluent in English and Dutch when he was sent to Scotland to be educated at the Latin School in Leith and the Royal High School, Edinburgh. He then went to London and studied law at the Inner Temple. He returned to America in 1713 and established himself as a lawyer at Albany before becoming a merchant in New York City. He abandoned that profession to help his brother, Philip, in the management of the Manor of Livingston. When his father died in 1728, he inherited 13,000-acres on which he built Clermont Manor. He added to this land - notably in and around the Catskill Mountains - so that by the time he died in 1775, he had accrued an estate of some 500,000-acres. He married his wife, Margaret, at New York City in 1717 and they had just one child, Robert, Judge Livingston.