The Beginning

The Sons of Liberty was a secret organization that had its start in 1765 to protest and nullify the Stamp Act. They took their name from Isaac Barre's speech opposing that act in the House of Commons. Barre had closed his speech with a reference to the colonists as " . . . these sons of liberty". During the course of the Revolution they assumed many different names, but whether they called themselves " committees of safety" , or "true-born Whigs" , they were the radicals who led the colonies into open revolt against the British Colonial Government, the Crown, and Parliament.

WILLIAM LIVINGSTON (1723-1790), American political leader, was born at Albany , New York , probably on the 30th of November 1723. He was the son of Philip Livingston (1686-1749), and grandson of Robert Livingston (1654-1725), who was born at Ancrum , Scotland , emigrated to America about 1673, and received grants (beginning in 1686) to "Livingston Manor " (a tract of land on the Hudson , comprising the greater part of what are now Dutchess and Columbia counties). He served in the New York legislature (1759-1760), but his political influence was long exerted chiefly through pamphlets and newspaper articles. The Livingston family then led the Dissenters, who later became Whigs.

He was chosen first governor of the state of New Jersey in 1776, and was regularly re-elected until his death in 1790. Loyal to American interests and devoted to General Washington , he was one of the most useful of the state executives during the War of Independence. While governor he was a frequent contributor to the New Jersey Gazette, and in this way he greatly aided the American cause during the war by his denunciation of the enemy and appeals to the patriotism of his countrymen. He was a delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, and supported the New Jersey small-state plan.

His brother, Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710-1792), was a prominent merchant and a Whig political leader in New York. He was one of the founders of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University ), was a member of the New York Council for some years before the War of Independence, a member and president of the First Provincial Congress of New York (1775), and a member of the Second Provincial Congress (1775-1776).

Another brother, Philip Livingston (1716-1778), was also prominent as a leader of the New York Whigs or Patriots. He was a member of the New York Assembly in 1759-1769, a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, a member of the Continental Congress from 1774 until his death and as such a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and in1777-1778 was a member of the first state senate .