SOURCE URL: https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.henrylivingston.com/xmas/witnesses/bl-dec6-1886.htm   [page path reconstructed from the site's relative links]
DOCUMENT: Benson J. Lossing to Cornelia Griswold Goodrich, 6 Dec. 1886 (Thomas Collection).
PROVENANCE OF THIS TEXT: henrylivingston.com transcription of the manuscript (Thomas Collection, now New-York Historical Society, unless stated).
VERIFICATION STATUS: [S] SECOND-HAND transcription (not checked against the original)
RETRIEVED: 2026-09-14
NOTES: Live site henrylivingston.com fails TLS in this environment; page fetched from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine (2024 capture) and converted HTML->text; site navigation lines removed. The site (Mary S. Van Deusen, Livingston descendant) transcribes manuscripts of the Thomas Collection / New-York Historical Society; transcriptions are SECOND-HAND and have not been checked against the manuscripts.
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From Benson Lossing to Cornelia Griswold Goodrich, Dec 6, 1886
Transcription
The Ridge,
Dover Plains, Duchess Co., N. Y.
Dec. 6, 1886.
Dear Miss Goodrich:
Assuming that Gilbert Livingston of Poughkeepsie was your grandfather, I send you the
enclosed autograph of your grandmother, Catharine Livingston, his wife.  Also an
autograph of Henry Livingston, for many years the clerk of Duchess County, who, I suppose
to have been the father of Gilbert Livingston, and the
author of the poem
.
Will you kindly inform me, at your leisure, whether I am right in this assumption?
Your family record can settle the question.  The late Smith Thompson was a son-in-law
of Gilbert Livingston
[and a son-in-law of Major Henry, having
married Major Henry's 1st cousin and his daughter.]
 I mean the Judge of the
U.S. Court and Secty of the Navy under President Monroe.
As to the drawing of the old Livingston stone house on the Locust Grove Estate, please
allow me, at some time in the future, to make a copy of it.  In your letter to me,
you speak of Arthur Breese.  I enclose also, for your acceptance, a letter written by him,
to Henry Livingston, your great-grandfather?  Was he a brother of Sidney Breese?
[Arthur Breese was the father of Sidney Breese, U.S. Senator and
chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court.]
Will you kindly give me, from your family record, the date of the birth and death of
your grandfather and great-grandfather.
Catharine Street, in Poughkeepsie, running north from the Morgan House was named for
Catharine Livingston, who owned the land in that region.  She had a pasture lot there.  But
perhaps I can carry pepper to Ceylon by mentioning these matters.
[wrong Catharine Livingston among thousands of Catharine
Livingstons]
With our kind regards to your mother and sister, I remain
Your sincere friend
Benson J. Lossing.
Miss C.G. Goodrich
Manuscript
Thomas Collection