Author: clermontstatehistoricsite
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The Chancellor’s Dessert Service: Pots de Crème
Dartes Freres, Pots de Crème set, ca. 1804, porcelain and gold enamel. Clermont State Historic Site. According to the Livingston family lore, “Chancellor Livingston’s Dinner Set,” which includes approximately 60 pieces, was brought back by the Chancellor from Paris, France around 1805 at the end of his diplomatic tenure as the Minister to France. Select…
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Lafayette’s Visit to Clermont
When President James Monroe invited the Marquis de Lafayette to visit America in 1824, he hoped a visit by the last major general of the American Revolution would spark patriotism in the American people. Lafayette saw it as a break from France, a break from the legislature, and a break from King Charles X, who…
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Strange No One Considered Water Until It Grew Scarce
By Rex McVitty July 14, 1965 It is a strange paradox that one does not begin to miss any particular thing until suddenly, it is in short supply. Take water for instance, stuff that came down in bucketsful when you were planning a picnic or some other form of outdoor activity. Water that you could…
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The Strange Case of Trevor McVitty
Alright true crime fans, deep from the annals of the extended Livingston family, we have one for you to puzzle over. Reginald (Rex) Leopold Moore McVitty, born in August of 1899 in Bantry, married Honoria Livingston of Clermont. His parent were Rev. William Presley McVitty, a methodist minister who seems to have spent quite…
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Forced To Serve
The system of slavery was so deeply ingrained in colonial American culture that when white officers joined the Continental Army they brought along a valet. This was a delicate way of saying that they were bringing an enslaved man to war, for no pay, to take care of them and sometimes even put them in…
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Kilsby: An Enslaved Man Who Set Himself Free
We don’t know how many people the Livingstons enslaved at Clermont. We will probably never know. We have snapshots of certain times, wills, census records, doctors’ visits but these don’t tell us about the people who were here in between those times. People who were forced to be here in between the snapshots, so it…
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The Hessian Patriot
On April 20, 1818, an old man stood outside City Hall in Hudson having just arrived from Germantown. He was 76 years old, and he was there to apply for a pension for his service to the United States during the Revolutionary War. Like thousands of other veterans around the country he was waiting for…
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McVitty Takes His Irish Friend To See Historic Williamsburg
As site staff have been swamped with program work of late, we turn once again to our guest correspondent Rex McVitty to update our blog This article originally appeared in the Sarasota Journal on Thursday, August 22, 1963 Last week, we went traveling south again. This time we headed south to the Eastern Shore of…
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Remembrances of a Founder: Robert R. Livingston in Popular Memory
If you haven’t been to Clermont yet this season you have missed out on our gallery exhibit “Remembrances of a Founder: Robert R. Livingston in Popular Memory.” This exhibit explores the way Livingston has been remembered in recent memory rather than how he lived. The founding generation knew that they would be remembered for…
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If Flora Doesn’t Get You, Fauna Probably Will
Thursday October 17, 1968 Rex McVitty Here at Sylvan Cottage by the Hudson River in New York, in the fall of the year my thought turn to self-protection. There are two enourmous black walnut trees, one on each side of the path from our porch to the drive and at this time of the year,…
Clermont State Historic Site 