The children and grandchildren of Robert Livingston played important roles in the political, social and economic life of the colony of New York. Members of the family were involved in establishing a number of institutions including the New York Hospital and the New York Chamber of Commerce. The Livingston’s also made a major contribution to the period leading up to and including the American Revolution.

John Livingston was born on 21 June 1603 in Monyabroch, an old name for Kilsyth, a parish midway between Glasgow and Stirling.

Just a few months earlier, King James VI of Scotland succeeded his cousin Queen Elizabeth I and became king of England and Ireland. This was an era of great change in Scotland

Livingston was the first Protestant minister to live in Killinchy and following his arrival he began to organise his congregation along presbyterian lines. Looking back on this period many years later,he wrote that they had ‘public worship free of any inventions of men’. Elders (providing spiritual oversight) and deacons (responsible for financial matters) were chosen from among the people. He was not popular with the Bishop of Down, Robert Echlin, who was also Scottish, but had a strong supporter in Lord Claneboye

The Protestant Reformation transformed religious practice across much of northern Europe. In a major change, the Lord’s Supper or Communion replaced the celebration of Mass and so the interiors of churches also changed. Instead of a stone altar, wooden tables were provided in many early seventeenth-century churches in Ulster, around which worshippers sat for Communion services.