A Foreign Shore.

Robert Livingston was born on 13 December 1654 in Roxburghshire, Scotland, to John Livingston, a Presbyterian minister, and Janet Fleming, the daughter of an Edinburgh merchant. When Robert was nine years old, the Livingston family migrated to Rotterdam, Netherlands, where they could practice their faith. Robert lived with other Scottish refugees among the Dutch community. In 1673, one year after his father died, nineteen-year-old Robert sailed for New England. It was his intention to travel to the New York frontier, a region that Dutch settlers and fur traders controlled. By the time he arrived in the village of Albany in 1674, the Treaty of Westminster had awarded New Netherland to the British.

Marriage.

Equally fluent in English and Dutch, Robert Livingston made a place for himself among the Dutch settlers. A shrewd fur trader and knowledgeable frontiersman, Livingston served as town clerk...