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The definition of presbyterian is expanded in this biography to include other denominations that are Calvinistic in theology, ruled by elders, and ordered by connectionalism. Presbyterian means most basically rule by elders and Presbyterian Churches are associated with the Calvinism developed by John Knox in Scotland. There are other denominations that follow Calvin’s teaching that have been finessed in their own historical-theological contexts by important individuals. In the case of the Reformed Dutch the consistory is similar to a session; a classis is like a presbytery; and the synod includes the classes. John H. Livingston’s life and ministry were served in what was known at the time as the Reformed Dutch Church. Other churches that can be included in the more generic category of “presbyterian” include the French (Huguenot) as well as the German and Swiss Reformed.
John Henry Livingston was a fourth-generation descendant of John Livingston who was a Presbyterian from Scotland that moved to Rotterdam in 1633 to escape persecution. John remained in Holland for the rest of his life dying August 9, 1672. John’s son Robert joined other Christians seeking freedom and new opportunities in the American colonies by settling in New York. John Henry was born May 30, 1746 at Poughkeepsie, New York, to Henry (Robert’s son) and Sussanah Storm (Conklin) Livingston. His early education was accomplished with Rev. Chauncey Graham for about two years, then his father hired a private tutor to guide him for another two years. For about a year he studied with Rev. Nathaniel Taylor at his school in New Mildord, Connecticut before entering Yale College in 1758 with the freshman class at the age of twelve. Some subjects of the curriculum were particularly difficult for him due to deficiencies in his preparatory work, but this did not keep him from persevering and graduating with honors in July 1762. Livingston them returned to Poughkeepsie to study law with Bartholomew Crannel until the end of 1764. However due to health problems he did not complete his studies. The illness he experienced raised concern about his salvation. Through various influences including direction by pastors he came to believe the Gospel.
When his health improved, he did not return to studying for the bar but instead prepared for the ministry of the gospel. Responding to the advice of a minister John went to Holland for theological studies. He was just shy of his twentieth birthday when he set sail for Europe, May 12, 1766, to arrive in Amsterdam on June 20. With letters of introduction opening the way, he entered the University of Utrecht and completed divinity studies in June 1769. He was examined by the Classis of Amsterdam, became a candidate, and was then licensed. The licensure was timely because he was soon invited to become the minister of the Reformed Dutch Church in New York City. Before leaving Holland the University of Utrecht granted him the Doctor of Divinity, then he was ordained by the Classis of Amsterdam before setting sail for New York to arrive in September 1770. Livingston began immediately his pastoral service by taking on the challenge of resolving a split within the church. The division was resolved in 1772 when he brought together the two parties, the conferentie Dutch, who wanted to maintain their ethnic distinctions and connection to the Classis of Amsterdam, and the coetus who wanted to organize an American classis.
Dr. Livingston was settled into his pastorate with a few years of experience under his belt when in October 1775, he married Sarah, the daughter of the merchant and patriot Philip Livingston who would sign the Declaration of Independence the next year. The wedding took place in Kingston where Philip had moved the family because it was likely the British would invade New York. He lived with his wife’s family and went to New York to preach as he had opportunity until September 1776 when the British forces occupied New York. The hostilities and presence of the British led to Livingston accepting an invitation from the consistory of the Dutch congregation in Albany to minister there until he felt he could return to New York. He continued in Albany for three years before he moved his family from the severe climate south to his wife’s family’s manor in the summer of 1779. The Livingstons then moved to Poughkeepsie while he preached as stated supply in the local Dutch Church until he returned to New York when the British left in 1783. Livingston was the only one of four ministers that had served churches in New York before the war who was able to return and resume his labors after independence was achieved.
The end of the colonies and the beginning of the United States impressed upon the Dutch the need for a theological education program in America. At the recommendation of church leaders back in Holland, Dr. Livingston was proposed as the ideal candidate to teach theology which led to his unanimous election to the professorship in October, 1784. He was inducted on May 19, 1785, and his lecture delivered in Latin was titled, “The Truth of the Christian Religion.” The addition of teaching theology to his already heavy load of responsibilities in the New York church affected his health. With the hope that summers in rural Flatbush on Long Island would reinvigorate his health, he moved there for a few years during the spring, summer, and fall, but returned to the city for winter. During this time, an assistant minister was hired by the church to help lighten Livingston’s load.
Dr. Livingston was not only pastor of a congregation and a professor of theology, but he was also an active churchman. In 1787, he was appointed the chairman of a committee to select Psalms for the use of the Church in public worship. As the Reformed Dutch Church grew and spread its ministry in the new nation, the leaders recognized the need for a constitution containing instruction for governing the church; Livingston worked diligently on the committee that drafted these standards.
The Reformed Dutch Church Synod in 1794 wanted Livingston’s pastoral duties reduced so he could dedicate more time to teaching theology. To help the Synod, his congregation called a minister to assist and relieve him of some of the shepherding responsibilities. The Livingstons moved to Bedford, a village about two miles from Brooklyn, so he could open a theological seminary. Buth shortly after starting the seminary faced problems resulting in closing the seminary and Livingston returning to the city. Subsequently, the Synod, in 1804, reappointed Livingston as professor and had him teach theology in New York until a more suitable situation could be located. The educational institutions among the descendants of the Reformed Dutch today owe their existence to Livingston and other fathers of the faith who persevered patiently and worked through a variety of problems developing theological and general education for their ministerial candidates, collegians, and children.
At the time of the establishment of Queen’s College in New Brunswick there was a conference of its trustees and the Synod which produced an agreement that Livingston’s teaching of theology should take place on the college property. As soon as the necessary funds were secured in October 1810, he was transferred to New Brunswick to fill the dual office of seminary professor and president of the college. Livingston continued in his two-fold position for the remainder of his life. Upwards of one hundred and twenty young men enjoyed the benefit of his teaching for their theological preparation.
In 1816, Livingston published A Dissertation on the Marriage of a Man with His Sister-in-Law, which was written at the request of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church. The issue had been raised at the Synod’s recent meeting because a lower judicatory brought to the General Synod a case of a man married in such a union. Livingston’s book developed his view that “a matrimonial connection with a sister in law, whether the wife of a deceased brother, or the sister of a deceased wife, which last is here more particularly the object of inquiry, is proved to be incestuous…[and] gross incest of the highest grade….” (p. 6). In the Presbyterian Church such marriages had been adjudicated on the basis of a sentence at the end of the Westminster Confession, 24:4, that provided the interpretive principle for discerning when marriages of affinity were incestuous; in the Dutch Church, which did not have a marriage article in its Confession of Faith as revised in 1613 and 1619, Livingston developed his case primarily with the Law of God as expressed in Leviticus 18:16. Livingston also appealed to decency, the interpretations of theologians and documents of the past including not only Dutch, but Lutheran, Roman Catholic, the Church Fathers, Calvin, and others to make his case.
On January 19, 1825, John Henry Livingston went to bed at the usual time without complaint, but in the morning he was found dead to this world. His funeral service was conducted by Philip Milledoler, D.D., who was one of the pastors of the Collegiate Church in New York. Several commemorative discourses were preached by his former colleagues including John Dewitt, Sr., D.D., Professor of Biblical Criticism, Church History, and Pastoral Theology at New Brunswick, as well as the Reverends N. J. Marselus of Greenwich and C. C. Cuyler of Poughkeepsie. Mrs. Livingston had died in December 1814, and she and her husband had one child, Henry A. Livingston, who survived his father many years and was at one time a member of the Senate of the State of New York.
John Henry Livingston was to the Reformed Dutch Church as John Witherspoon was to the Presbyterian Church. Both Witherspoon and Livingston were important influences for the constitutional documents of their respective churches. Witherspoon’s presidency of the College of New Jersey is paralleled by Livingston’s work with both what became New Brunswick Seminary and Rutgers University. Both men were pastors and popular preachers as well. However, Witherspoon’s involvement in politics and the Revolution were not reflected in the life of Livingston. Also, each man had ancestors in Scotland thus giving both the Dutch Reformed and American Presbyterians a common bond through Scottish Presbyterianism.
Some of Dr. Livingston’s publications include–An Inaugural Oration in Latin, 1785; A Sermon before the New York Missionary Society, 1799, and another one in 1804; An Address at the Commencement in Queen’s College, 1810; An Address to the Reformed German Churches in the United States, 1819; The Psalms and Hymns, with the Catechism, Confession of Faith, and Liturgy of the Reformed Dutch Church in North America, Selected at the Request of the General Synod, New York: D. Smith, 1819; and the full citation for the book mentioned in this Presbyterians of the Past biography is, A Dissertation on the Marriage of a Man with his Sister-in-law, New Brunswick: Deare & Myer, 1816, 179 pages. The publications listed as well as others are available on the Log College Press at “John Henry Livingston, 1746-1825.”
Barry Waugh
Notes—The header from the New York Public Library Digital Collection is titled, “Western View of Poughkeepsie New York,” 1825. The information about Livingston as well as his portrait are from Alexander Gunn, Memoirs of the Rev. John H. Livingston, D.D.S.T.P., Prepared in Compliance with a Request of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church in North America, New York: Rutgers Press, 1829; other information is from W.B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit; or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations, vol. 9, New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1869, pp. 52–56.
