Livingston was born on May 30, 1746 near Poughkeepsie, New York in what was then the Province of New York in British America. He was a son of Dr. Henry Livingston and Susannah Storm Livingston. His siblings included Continental Congressman Gilbert Livingston, author Henry Livingston Jr., and Alida Woolsey. His maternal grandparents were Capt. John Conklin and Annetje Conklin. His paternal grandparents were Lt. Col. Hubertus "Gilbert" Livingston, himself the son of Robert Livingston the Elder, 1st Lord of Livingston Manor, and Cornelia Livingston, a granddaughter of Wilhelmus Beekman, Mayor of New York, and niece of Gerardus Beekman. Livingston graduated from Yale College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1762. In 1762, he matriculated at the University of Utrecht. and on May 16, 1770, he earned a Doctor of Theology at the same university. The title description of his thesis was: Specimen theologicum inaugurale exhibens observationes de foederis Sinaitici natura ex ejus fine demonstrata. Qod summo deo annuente, Ex Auctoritate Rectoris Magnifici, Meinardi Tydeman,... Publico offert examini Johannes H. Livingston A.L.M. V.D.M. Neo-Eboracensis. – Trajecti Ad Rhenum : Joannis Broedelet.
Career
Livingston was ordained into the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church by the Classis of Amsterdam in 1770. Subsequent to his return from the Netherlands, Livingston served as a pastor to the Reformed Church in New York City. He became a leading figure in the church and negotiated the peaceful reunifications of its two opposing factions. When Queen's College offered Livingston the presidency as early as 1807, he initially declined. However, the Trustees continued to offer, and Livingston accepted the post in 1810. He was also a professor of theology. Queen's College fell into financial trouble and was forced to close its doors in 1816. Livingston continued teaching at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and continued to lobby and fundraise for the reopening of Queen's College. This was gained ten months after his death in 1825.
On November 26, 1775, Livingston married his second cousin, Sarah Livingston, a daughter of Philip Livingston, a Continental Congressman and signor of the Declaration of Independence, and Christina Livingston, sister of Albany Mayor Abraham Ten Broeck. Their only child was a son:
Through his only child Henry, he was the grandfather of eighteen grandchildren, including Christina Ten Broeck Livingston, Cornelia Beekman Livingston, Henry Philip Livingston, Frederica Charlotte Kendrick, Henrietta Ulrica Livingston, Sarah Hoff, Eliza H. Livingston, JohnAlexander Livingston, Louisa Matilda James, Robert Sayers Livingston, Jane Murray Crosby and Augustus Linlithgow Livingston.
