Henry Beekman Livingston
| Henry Livingston, Jr. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
October 13, 1748 Poughkeepsie, New York |
| Died | February 29, 1828 (aged 79) |
| Spouse(s) |
Sarah Welles (m. 1774–83) Jane Patterson (m. 1793–1828) |
| Parent(s) |
Henry Livingston, Sr. Susannah Conklin |
Henry Livingston, Jr. (October 13, 1748 - February 29, 1828) has been proposed as being the uncredited author of the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", more popularly known (after its first line) as "The Night Before Christmas." Credit for the poem was taken in 1837 by Clement Clarke Moore, a Bible scholar in New York City, nine years after Livingston's death. It wasn't until another twenty years that the Livingston family knew of Moore's claim, and it wasn't until 1900 that they went public with their claim. Since then, the question has been repeatedly raised and argued by experts on both sides.
Livingston was born on October 13, 1748, in Poughkeepsie, New York, to Henry Livingston, Sr. and Susannah Conklin.
In 1774, Livingston married Sarah Welles, the daughter of the Reverend Noah Welles, the minister of the Stamford, Connecticut Congregational Church. Their daughter Catherine was born shortly before Livingston joined the army on a six months' enlistment. In 1776, their son Henry Welles Livingston was born; the child was fatally burned at the age of fourteen months and, when another son was born, he was given the same name, according to the common practice of necronyms. Livingston farmed. Sarah died in 1783, and the children were boarded out. During this period Livingston began writing poetry.
Over the next ten years, Livingston was occupied with poetry and drawings for his friends and family, some of which ended up in the pages of New York Magazine and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Although he signed his drawings, his poetry was usually anonymous or signed simply "R".
Ten years to the day after Sarah's death, Livingston remarried. Jane Patterson, at 24, was 21 years younger than her husband. Their first baby arrived nine months after the wedding. After that, the couple bore seven more children. It was for this second family that Henry Livingston is believed by some to have written the famous poem known as "A Visit from St. Nicholas" or "The Night Before Christmas".
This famous Christmas poem first appeared in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823. There seems to be no question that the poem came out of the home of Clement Moore, and the person giving the poem to the newspaper, without Moore's knowledge, certainly believed the poem had been written by Moore. However, several of Livingston's children remembered their father reading that very same poem to them fifteen years earlier.
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