Category: Uncategorized
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Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding Clermont in the Revolutionary War
The burning and subsequent rebuilding of Clermont is a pivotal moment in the site\’s history and earned Margaret Beekman Livingston the love of every successive generation. Building a house is never simple though, especially not in the middle of a war… In October of 1777, Margaret Beekman Livingston was facing a second dismal winter at…
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The Chancellor\'s "Ride"
Reading historic documents can involve a little bit of detective work. The writers and receivers were accustomed to terms and slang that have fallen out of use today, and looking those up can enhance the meaning–even when it seems a trivial side trip. This was the case when I was perusing fifty years of Livingston…
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SilverWhere?: Place Settings in History
Forks and knives and spoons–oh my!! From the first time I saw the movie \”Pretty Woman,\” I knew that a formally-set table was something intimidating. You use what, when? In the movie, there\’s something in there about counting tines on the forks, and then the tutor in the scene breaks down and advises Julia Roberts…
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The Separation: The Sorrowful Tale of Nancy Shippen, part 6
The morning dawned when Nancy Shippen Livingston was to leave with her daughter for Clermont. On July 7, 1783 she and her mother shared a good cry before she could bring herself to dress and ride out. Her parents and brother accompanied the traveling party a little ways before the time came at last to…
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Finding the Old Lady: Margaret Beekman Livingston
I\’ve got Peggy on my mind. One of the quirks of being a historian is that you feel like you get to know people who have been dead for a few hundred years. Margaret Beekman Livingston was Peggy to her close friends and family, and that is how I\’ve come to feel about her. Now…
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Archival Treasures: Wedding Remarks
I was scanning through some old research files and was thrilled to come across the transcript of a document written by Margaret Beekman Livingston in 1798. I have been researching \”Peggy\” for a talk in March and have found precious little written by this driving force of Clermont life. The remarks were written for Margaret…
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"The Cries of my Baby": the Sorrowful Tale of Nancy Shippen, Part 5
May 28–I was wake\’d this Morning at five o\’clock with the cries of my baby… I jum\’p up–frighten\’d half to death–run to mammas room where the child was, & found it almost in fits with pain. In the middle of an intensly emotional debate about custody of her only daughter, young Nancy Shippen faced one…
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The Mother: The Sorrowful Tale of Nancy Shippen, Part 4
For a full month Nancy Shippen Livingston\’s return to her parents\’ home in Philadelphia freed her to attend to parenting her little daughter Peggy. The warm April air carried hope as the lilacs and weeping cherry trees began bloom. So what was motherhood like for Nancy? Like most elite women, Nancy hired a nursemaid–Besty–for her…
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Back on Track
As some of our followers may have noticed, we\’ve been awfully silent for the past few months–two months to be exact. Well, as the primary blogger for Clermont, I have to appologize! Just when the story of Nancy Shippen Livingston was building to a crescendo with the birth of her daughter, I was sidetracked by…
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The Young Wife: The Sorrowful Tale of Nancy Shippen, Part 3
The Shippen family had much to celebrate on New Year\’s Day in 1782. In the 18th century, New Year\’s Day was celebrated with social events, dancing, dinners, and gifts, often overshadowing the smaller, more religious holiday of Christmas (quite the reverse of today). Their only daughter Nancy could not take part in these social events.…
Clermont State Historic Site 