The Demise of the Calendar Livingstons

[Canadian Livingstone]

As our Argyll MacLeas began an apparent, full scale change of their clan name to Livingstone sometime between 1750 and 1775, it is sad to note that the aristocratic Lowland Livingstons of Callendar were at their lowest point in Scottish history.

[Andrew Lancaster4]

However, a branch of the lowland aristocrats thrived in America, after spending time in the Netherlands and then moving to New Amsterdam (New York). One of them signed the Declaration of Independence. A recent descendent almost became speaker of the house a few years ago. I believe we have one in the DNA project. Concerning 1715 and 1745, I might just add that my own clan MacLea ancestors at that time appear to have been the Livages of Glamis, under the Earl of Strathmore. One of them is reported (in the Tealing birth register, where his son had to be baptised in his in-laws parish without the father present) as being imprisoned for a while at Stirling as a result of Sherrifmuir. Several are recorded as having carried arms in 1745. Best Regards Andrew

[Canadian Livingstone]

Andrew, Regarding my previous posting, I should have stated James Livingston 4th Earl of Callendar and 5th Earl of Linlithgow. Sorry about that. He eventually ended up in Rome where he died in April 1723 without sons. I think some correspondence survives from his period in Rome, that I think I photocopied at one time or another. Perhaps it will turn up when I finish going through my Livingstone binder. Interesting that you mentioned these American Livingstons. I have been meaning to explore further their connection to the Lowland Livingstons at some point. I am somewhat familiar with the New York State Livingstons whose family were granted land in Dutchess County, NY in the 1600's. They were wealthy landlords of Livingston Manor and later as you mentioned major American political figures emerged from this family. There politics at the time of the American Revolution were such that they felt it in their best interests to support the cause of Revolution against Great BRitain. My Clink ancestor Johann Georg Klinck, a few years arriving arriving in Pennsylvania from Wuerttemburg, Germany in the late 1750's settled in Dutchess County in what was then the British Province of New York. Indeed these New York State Livingstons are connected to the lowland Livingstons of Callendar. James Livingston the 4th Earl of Callendar and Robert Livingstone who settled in the Province of New York in 1673 apparently both share an ancestral connection with one of the earlier Earls of Callendar. One family however was Jacobite and Episcopalian exiled in 1715 for opposing the Hanovers, the other Nonconformist exiled after the restoration of Charles ll. RObert Livingstone b.1654 Ancrum, Roxburghshire, Scotland, came to America in 1673 and was eventually granted land in Dutchess County in the PRovince of New York from Governor Thomas Dugan in 1686. Subsequently George l bestowed upon Livingstone a Royal charter and he became the First Lord of Livingston Manor. Robert had gone to Rotterdam,Holland as a young boy with his father John Livingstone (1603-1672) a Presbyterian minister who was banished from Scotland in 1663, shortly after the restoration of Charles ll.