John Henry Livingston

John Henry Livingston (July 8, 1848 – January 27, 1927)

Early life and education

Livingston was born on July 8, 1848, at Oakhill in Columbia County, New York. He was the only son of Clermont Livingston (1817–1895) and Cornelia Livingston (1824–1851), who were third cousins. After his mother's death a short time after his birth, his father remarried to neighbor Mary Colden (née Swartout) Livingston. who was the eldest daughter of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston.

Livingston's father inherited Clermont Manor after the elder Livingston's death in 1843. His grandfather's second wife, the former Mary Crooke Broom, remarried to Judge Charles Herman Ruggles.

Among his many cousins was Thomas Streatfeild Clarkson, namesake of Clarkson University, Mary Livingston Ludlow, the mother of Anna (née Hall) Roosevelt and grandmother of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. He was a first cousin of Catharine Goodhue Livingston, Robert Robert Livingston, Edward De Peyster Livingston, and prominent architect Goodhue Livingston.

Livingston was educated at home by a Danish tutor, Clermont Manor was left to his twenty-two year old daughter Katherine, reportedly due to his father's dislike of John Henry's second wife Emily, who died in 1894. Livingston eventually bought Clermont from his daughter, reportedly for $1.

Livingston served as President of the Colonial Lords of Manors in America and was an officer of the Society of the Cincinnati. He was also a member of the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the St. Nicholas Society, the University Club and The Apawamis Club in Rye, New York.

After Catherine's death from complications from childbirth on April 19, 1873, he married Emily Evans on October 30, 1880. Emily was the daughter of William E. Evans and niece of Mrs. Gouverneur Ogden, in Philadelphia.

Emily died "very suddenly" on April 7, 1894, and Livingston married for the third and final time to Alice Delafield Clarkson (1872–1964), the daughter of Howard Clarkson, Esq., on November 9, 1906 at 58 West 37th Street in New York City. Together, they were the parents of two daughters:

Honoria Alice Livingston (1909–2000), who married Reginald "Rex" McVitty in 1931. Janet Gloria Livingston (1910–1972), (Janet is sometimes listed as "Janet Cornelia Livingston" rather than Janet Gloria Livingston.)

Livingston died of influenza-related illnesses at "The Bandbox", his winter residence in Aiken, South Carolina on January 27, 1927.

Descendants Through his eldest daughter, he was the grandfather of five, including Theodore Livingston Timpson (1901–1965), Katharine Livingston Timpson (1903–1993), Robert Clermont Livingston Timpson (1908–1988), who married Louise Campbell, Duchess of Argyll in 1954, and was ousted from the New York Stock Exchange in 1963, J. Alistar Livingston Timpson (1915–1997), and H. Rosamund Livingston Timpson (1915–2004).