This page follows the primary line of descent from the Livingston family patriarch in Scotland through the Lords of Livingston Manor and the Oak Hill branch, ending with Edmund Livingston in the twentieth century.
The story is less a single straight line of fame than a chain of stewardship: exile, land, manor lordship, Oak Hill, and finally the modern family connection to Livingston State Forest.
The Line at a Glance
| Gen. | Name | Years | Key Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Livingstone | 1603-1672 | Family patriarch; Scottish minister |
| 2 | Robert Livingston the Elder | 1654-1728 | 1st Lord of Livingston Manor |
| 3 | Philip Livingston | 1686-1749 | 2nd Lord of Livingston Manor |
| 4 | Robert Livingston | 1708-1790 | 3rd Lord of Livingston Manor |
| 5 | John Livingston | 1749-1822 | Of Oak Hill, Greendale |
| 6 | Herman Livingston | 1793-1872 | Landowner, Oak Hill estate |
| 7 | Herman Thong Livingston | 1827-1899 | Landowner, Oak Hill estate |
| 8 | Herman Thong Livingston | 1856-1936 | Yale Class of 1879; oil field owner |
| 9 | Edmund Pendleton Livingston | 1889-1972 | Yale student; World War I registrant |
| 10 | Edmund Livingston | b. 1923 | Geological engineer, British Columbia government |
Generations 1-4: Exile to Manor
John Livingstone was born at Monyabroch in 1603 and became a Presbyterian minister. Banished after the Restoration, he died in exile at Rotterdam in 1672. His son Robert grew up in the Dutch Republic, a crucial fact: Dutch language and customs gave him an unusual advantage in colonial Albany.
Robert Livingston the Elder crossed the Atlantic in the 1670s, married Alida Schuyler Van Rensselaer, and secured the 1686 Livingston Manor patent. His son Philip became the second Lord of the Manor, and Philip's son Robert became the third and final Lord.
Generations 5-8: Oak Hill and the Thong Name
John Livingston, son of the 3rd Lord, settled at Oak Hill in Greendale, Columbia County. From him the line passed through Herman Livingston and two successive men named Herman Thong Livingston.
The Thong middle name comes from Maria Thong, first wife of Robert Livingston, the 3rd Lord. It resurfaced as a family marker in the Oak Hill branch and stayed with the line into the nineteenth century.
Generations 9-10: Edmunds in a Wider World
Edmund Pendleton Livingston, born in 1889, attended Yale and registered for military service in 1917. He married Kathleen Imelda O'Connor in Manhattan in 1923 and settled in Westchester County.
Their son Edmund Livingston, born in New York in 1923, earned a master's degree in geology from Cornell and moved to British Columbia, where he worked as a geological engineer and groundwater hydrology specialist for the provincial government.
Key Themes
Land and continuity
Oak Hill passed through the male line from John Livingston through at least Herman Thong Livingston, anchoring this branch to the Hudson Valley for more than a century.
Education
Yale shaped Generations 8 and 9. Edmund broke the pattern by attending Cornell, where he met the woman who became his wife.
Westward migration
After nearly three centuries rooted in New York, Edmund relocated to British Columbia, marking the family's first permanent move outside the eastern United States.