William Livingston

William Livingston was the revolutionary Governor of New Jersey from 1776 to 1790. He was a lawyer from New York who moved to Elizabethtown, New Jersey in 1772. He had built a large country home to house his growing family, which still exists and is known as Liberty Hall.

The home became a center of activity, partly caused by visits from young men, and its proximity to Francis Barber's academy. One frequent early visitor was a boarder from that school named Alexander Hamilton. His oldest daughters (Sarah, Susannah, and Kity) were all lovely, and came to be known as the three graces. The height of social activity during this era was the wedding, at Liberty Hall, in April 1774 of Sarah to a young New York lawyer, John Jay.

For much of the time between 1776 and 1779 the family located in Parsippany for safety. Liberty Hall was frequently visited by British troops or naval forces, since there was a substantial reward for Livingston's capture. The family returned in 1779 to begin restoring their looted home.

His second daughter, Susannah, married John Cleves Symmes in 1780.