Robert R. Livingston
Robert R. Livingston Jr.
Steamboats of the Hudson River
The Early Years: 1807 - 1824
Commercial steamboating on the Hudson River began with Robert Fulton´s Steamboat successful run from New York to Albany on August 14th, 1807. Robert R. Livingston, Jr. was Robert Fultonīs partner in the steamboat business.
Livingston was a member of that extraordinary generation of American statesmen that included, among others, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, George Washington, and John Jay. Robert Livingston was a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence and was sent to France by Thomas Jefferson to negotiate the purchase of the Louisiana Territory.
Invention, Robert R. Livingston liked to proclaim, is "my hobby horse." A founding member and president of the New York Society for the Promotion of Arts, Agriculture and Manufactures, he held U.S. Patents for a means of diminishing the friction of spindles on millstones and for manufacturing paper from river weed.
Unfortunately, Livingston was talented in neither the theory nor the practice of mechanics. His inventions did not work. Still, he possessed the vision and compulsive drive that is common to innovators. He was willing to risk some money and, vital in his case, through his position as Chancellor of New York State and his family connections, he had a thorough knowledge of the law and far-reaching political influence.
In addition, he was accustomed to using other men as implementors. These endowments when applied to steam navigation—the project that held him literally enthralled from 1798 until his death in 1813—would serve him well.
Claiming he could build a steamboat that would do eight miles an hour, Livingston persuaded the New York State Legislature to give him the exclusive privilege of "navigating all boats that might be propelled by steam, on all waters within the territory or jurisdiction of the State, for the term of twenty years." Humorously referred to as "the hot water bill," the act contained the proviso that he must construct a boat capable of traveling between New York City and Albany at an average speed of four miles an hour.
Shortly after Livingston arrived in Paris, he met Robert Fulton. The energetic and multifaceted Fulton, he quickly recognized, had far greater mechanical ability than either Stevens or Roosevelt and, equally attractive, the entrepreneurial genius to make steam navigation pay. Fulton had not yet applied himself to steamboating, but he was well acquainted with the myriad problems it presented, and they fascinated him. Livingston signed a document that made Fulton his equal partner for the duration of the New York monopoly. Livingston was to put up the seed money. If the boat succeeded, Fulton would be paid "reasonable expenses" for supervision. Fulton took the greater risk, for if the boat failed he would pay half the costs with interest in two years, thus losing his time and labor as well as his share of the initial investment.
Obtaining this monopoly was the most crucial action Livingston took to promote his steamboat enterprise. The legal underpinning of his steamboat empire gave him control of the heavily traveled and lucrative route between New York City and Albany. The act also allowed Fulton and Livingston to seize any steamboat that operated without their license, and to collect a penalty for every trip made.
Robert R. Livingston: Enthusiastic Inventor, Prudent Entrepreneur
A complete description of Robert R. Livingston's role as Robert Fulton's partner for building a steamboat.
From the Symposium sponsored by the Friends of Clermont, Bard College/Hudson Valley Studies Program, and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, & Historic Preservation, Taconic Region, June 6-7, 1986Robert R. Livingston Statue
From the National Statuary Hall CollectionThe Livingston Family
From the Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001
Clermont State Historic Site
Clermont was the Hudson River seat of the politically and socially prominent Livingston family of New York for more than 230 years. The Clermont estate was established in 1728 when Robert Livingston, Jr. (1688 - 1775) inherited a tract of 13,000 acres along the Hudson River from his father Robert Livingston (1654 - 1728), first Lord of Livingston Manor. Robert of Clermont's only child, Robert R. Livingston (1718 - 1775), added to the family's land holdings when he married Margaret Beekman heir to immense tracts of land in Dutchess and Ulster counties, in the 1740s.
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Clermont's second owner was known to his contemporaries as Judge of the Admiralty Court and Judge of the Supreme Court of the Province of New York. Judge and Margaret Beekman Livingston's eldest son, Robert R. Livingston, Jr. (1746-1813), was Clermont's most notable resident. A member of the Committee of Five responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence, he also served as the first United States Minister of Foreign Affairs (Secretary of State) and, as Chancellor of the State of New York, he gave the oath of office to George Washington as first President of the United States. Chancellor Livingston concluded his public career as Thomas Jefferson's Minister to France between 1801 and 1804.
While in Paris, he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and entered into a partnership with Robert Fulton, a Pennsylvania born painter and inventor, who shared Livingston's fascination with steam navigation. Their creation which they called the North River is known to history as the Clermont Their steamboat embarked on its maiden voyage between New York City and Albany in 1807, setting off a transportation revolution in the United States.
Visiting Clermont