See FEUDAL TENURES.
LIVINGSTON MANOR, The.
Robert Livingston, "secretary of Albany," son of a Scotch
clergyman, began to acquire a landed estate, by purchases from
the Indians, soon after his arrival in America, which was
about 1674. "The Mohegan tribes on the east side of the Hudson
had become reduced to a few old Indians and squaws, who were
ready to sell the lands of which they claimed the ownership.
Livingston's position as clerk of Indian affairs gave him
exceptional opportunities to select and to purchase the best
lands in desirable localities. … In 1702, Lord Bellomont
[then governor of New York] writes, 'I am told Livingston has
on his great grant of 16 miles long and 24 broad, but four or
five cottages, occupied by men too poor to be farmers, but are
his vassals.' After the close of the war [Queen Anne's War],
Livingston made more rapid progress in his improvements. He
erected flour and timber mills, and a new manor-house." In
1715 Livingston obtained from Governor Hunter a confirmatory
patent, under an exact and careful survey of his estate.
"Although it does not give the number of acres, the survey
computes the area of the manor to contain 160,240 acres. It
was now believed to be secure against any attack. … Philip,
the second proprietor, was not disturbed as to title or
limits. He was a merchant, and resided in New York, spending
his summers at the Manor House. … His son, Robert, succeeded
him as the third proprietor, but he had hardly come into
possession before he began to be harassed by his eastern
neighbors, the people of Massachusetts. … Massachusetts, by
her charter, claimed the lands lying west of her eastern
boundary to the Pacific Ocean. She had long sought to make
settlements within the province of New York. Now as her
population increased she pushed them westward, and gradually
encroached on lands within the limits of a sister province. In
April, 1752, Livingston wrote to Governor Clinton, and entered
complaint against the trespassers from Massachusetts. A long
correspondence between the governors of the two provinces
followed, but settled nothing. The trouble continued," for a
number of years, and frequent riots were incident to it, in
which several men were killed. At length, "the boundary
between New York and Massachusetts was finally settled, and
the claimants ceased their annoyance. … The Revolution was
approaching. The public mind was occupied with politics. …
Land titles ceased to be topics of discussion. The proprietors
of the old manor, and all bearing their name, with a few
unimportant exceptions, took a decided stand in favor of
independence. During the war that followed, and for some years
after its close, their title and possession of their broad
acres were undisputed. But in 1795 another effort was made to
dispossess them. The old methods of riots and arrests were
abandoned. The title was now attacked by the tenants, incited
and encouraged by the envious and disaffected. A petition,
numerously signed by the tenants of the manor, was sent to the
Legislature. … The committee to which the petition was
referred reported adversely, and this was approved by the
House on March 23, 1795. … After the failure of 1795 to
break the title, there was a season of comparative quiet
continued for nearly forty years. Then a combination was
formed by the tenants of the old manorial estates, including
those of large landed proprietors in other parts of the State,
termed 'anti-renters.' It was a civil association with a
military organization. It was their purpose to resist the
payment of rents. The tenants of the Van Rensselaer and the
Livingston Manors, being the most numerous, were the
projectors and leaders, giving laws and directions. …
Landlords and officers were intimidated by bands disguised as
Indians, and some property was destroyed. The anti-renters
carried their grievances into politics, throwing their votes
for the party which would give them the most favorable
legislation. In 1844, they petitioned the Legislature to set
aside as defective the Van Rensselaer title, and put the
tenants in legal possession of the farms they occupied. The
petition was referred to the Judiciary Committee of the
Assembly, the late Judge William Allen being chairman.
Anti-renters of known ability were on the committee, and a
favorable report was anticipated. But after a long and
thorough investigation of the title … the committee
unanimously reported against the prayer of the petition. This
put an end to the combination, and to the anti-rent war,
although resistance to the collection of rents in isolated
cases, with bloodshed and loss of life, is still [1885]
continued. The landlords, however, particularly the
Livingstons, were tired of the strife. They adopted measures
of compromise, selling to their tenants the lands they
occupied at reduced valuations. Only small portions of the old
manor now remain in the hands of Robert Livingston's
descendants."
_G. W. Schuyler,
Colonial New York,
volume I, pages 243-285._
ALSO IN:
_E. P. Cheyney,
Anti-Rent Agitations in New York
(University of Pennsylvania Pubs.)._
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LIVONIA: 12th-13th Centuries.
First introduction of Commerce and Christianity.
"Till the year A. D. 1158 … Livonia was well-nigh utterly
unknown to the rest of Europe. Some traders of Bremen then
visited it, and formed several settlements along the coast.
These commercial relations with their western neighbours first
opened up the country to missionary enterprise, and in the
year A. D. 1186 one of the merchant-ships of Bremen brought to
the mouth of the Düna a venerable canon named Meinhard."
Meinhard died in 1196, having accomplished little. He was
succeeded by a Cistercian abbot named Berthold, who, being
driven away by the obstinate pagans, returned wrathfully in
1198, with a crusading army, which Pope Innocent III. had
commissioned him to lead against them. This was the beginning
of a long and merciless crusading warfare waged against the
Livonians, or Lieflanders, and against their Prussian and
other Sclavonic neighbors, until all were forced to submit to
the religious rites of their conquerors and to call themselves
Christians. For the furthering of this crusade, Berthold's
successor, Albert von Apeldern, of Bremen (who founded the
town of Riga), "instituted, in the year A. D. 1201, with the
concurrence of the emperor Otho IV. and the approbation of the
Pope, the knightly 'Order of the Sword,' and placed it under
the special protection of the Virgin Mary. The members of this
order bound themselves by solemn vows to hear mass frequently,
to abstain from marriage, to lead a sober and chaste life, and
to fight against the heathen. In return for these services
they were to have and to enjoy whatever lands they might wrest
with their swords from their pagan adversaries. … Albert von
Apeldern made Riga the starting-point of his operations.
Thence, aided by Waldemar II. king of Denmark, he directed the
arms of his crusaders against Esthonia, and the neighbouring
countries of Semgallen and Courland. On these war-wasted
districts he succeeded in imposing a nominal form of
Christianity." The Order of the Sword was subsequently united
with the Teutonic Order, which turned its crusading energies
from the Moslems of the Holy Land to the heathendom of the
Baltic.
_G. F. Maclear,
Apostles of Mediæval Europe,
chapters 15-16._
ALSO IN:
_A. Rambaud,
History of Russia,
volume 1, chapter 9._
See, also
PRUSSIA: 13TH CENTURY.