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Part Taken by Women in American History


quite an impression abroad. This daughter married Thomas Mann Randolph, of Virginia, who attained to a dignified station in the general government. The daughters of Henry White were greatly admired, their family holding a high position among the loyalists before the Revolutionary War. One of these daughters became Dowager Lady Hayes, and the widow of Peter Jay Monroe.

Another family prominent in the early history of America was the Livingston family, of New York. The original grant of land given to Robert Livingston bears the date of July 22, 1686, and comprised from 120,000 to 150,000 acres on the Hudson River. Philip Livingston, who succeeded to the estate, was born in 1686. He married Catherine Van Brugh, daughter of Peter Van Brugh, of Albany, an old Dutch family. One of her ancestors was Carl Van Brugge, Lieutenant-Governor under Peter Stuyvesant. Philip Livingston was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. William Livingston, Governor of New York, was born in 1723, and married Susannah French, of New Brunswick, in 1745, Governor Livingston's political principles were so decidedly republican that he declined to give to his country-seat at Elizabethtown any name more aristocratic than "Liberty Hall." The family of Governor Livingston was a large one. Several daughters and two sons were born to them. One daughter married John Cleve Symmes, another married Mathew Ridley, of Baltimore, another married John W. Watkins, and the last married James Linn. The sister of Governor Livingston, Sarah Livingston, on April 28th, 1774, in her eighteenth year, married John Jay, a young lawyer. Mr. Jay rapidly rose in prominence from the position of Secretary to the Royal Commission for settling the boundary between New York and New Jersey to a member of the New York Provincial Congress and of the Committee of Safety. His constant absence during this trying period of our