He was proposed in 1830 for Governor of New York, but his candidacy was questioned by some opponents in the Democratic-Republican Party on the grounds that he had been born on the island of Jamaica. As a naturalized citizen of New York, Livingston was eligible to run, but his foreign birth was used to prevent his nomination. Instead Enos T. Throop, who had succeeded to the governorship when Martin Van Buren became United States Secretary of State, was nominated for a full term as governor, and Livingston was nominated for lieutenant governor. Throop and Livingston won, and Livingston served from 1831 to 1832. He was again a presidential elector in 1832.
Return to NY Senate
He was again a member of the State Senate in 1838 and 1839. He resigned his seat on October 9, 1839.
Personal life
On November 20, 1799, he married Elizabeth Stevens Livingston, the eldest daughter of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston. Their children included:
Clermont Livingston, who married Cornelia Livingston, daughter of Herman Livingston.
Robert Edward Livingston, who married Susan Maria Clarkson de Peyster, sister of Frederic James de Peyster.
Mary Livingson, who married Levinus Clarkson, a first cousin of David A. Clarkson, in 1849.
After the death of his wife in 1829, and while he was Lt. Governor of New York, Livingston happened to look in the gallery of the Senate Chamber in Albany, where he saw Mary Crooke Broom seated, and was struck by her beauty. She was "reckoned the most beautiful girl in all this region." They married in 1832. She was the eldest child and daughter of William Broom and Ann Crooke Barber. Livingston died in Clermont on November 3, 1843. He was buried at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in Poughkeepsie, New York. Upon his death, he left Clermont Manor to his son Clermont. After his death, his second wife remarried to Judge Charles Herman Ruggles.
Descendants
Through his eldest daughter, Margaret, Livingston was the grandfather of Thomas Streatfeild Clarkson, namesake of Clarkson University. Through his second daughter, Elizabeth, he was the grandfather of Mary Livingston Ludlow, who was the mother of Anna Roosevelt and grandmother of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Livingston's great-great-granddaughter who married her distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Through his eldest son, Clermont, he was the grandfather of John Henry Livingston, who married Catherine Livingston Hamersley the sister of J. Hooker Hamersley and the daughter of John W. and Catherine Livingston Hamersley and granddaughter of Hon. James Hooker, in 1871, with whom he had one child. After her death, he married Emily Evans, the daughter of William E. Evans and niece of Mrs. Gouverneur Ogden, in 1880. Also through his son Clermont, he was the grandfather of Mary Livingston, who married Col. Frederic de Peyster, a son of Maj. Gen. John Watts de Peyster, in 1874, with whom he had two children. Through his youngest child, Robert, he was the grandfather of Catharine Goodhue Livingston, Robert Robert Livingston, who married Mary Tailer Edward De Peyster Livingston, and Goodhue Livingston, who married Louisa Robb.
