SOURCE URL: https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.henrylivingston.com/xmas/witnesses/mgm-mar3-1917.htm   [page path reconstructed from the site's relative links]
DOCUMENT: Mary Goodrich Montgomery to Dr. William S. Thomas, 3 March 1917 (Thomas Collection): the governess story as told by her grandmother Catherine Walker Griswold (1798-1886), granddaughter of Henry Livingston via Catharine Livingston Breese (d. 1808): Christmas-morning breakfast reading; copy "in his own hand"; the guest "went directly to the home of Mr. Clement C. Moore, where she filled the position of Governess"; "Canadian or an English woman"; "one of the Southern states". (Site appends its own "Southern Moore connection" note.)
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 Mary Goodrich Montgomery to William Sturges Thomas, Mar 3, 1917
Transcription
Dr. William S. Thomas
240 West 71st Street
New York
My dear Cousin.
The little incident connected with the first reading of the "Visit of St. Nicholas" was related to me by my grandmother, Catherine Walker Griswold, who was a daughter of Catherine  Breese, the eldest daughter of Henry Livingston. As I recollect her story, there was a young lady spending the Christmas holidays with the family at "Locust Grove" on Christmas morning. Mr. Livingston came into the dining room, where his family and their guests were just sitting down to breakfast. He held the manuscript in his hand, and said that it was a Christmas poem he had written for them. He then sat down at table, unfolded the manuscript, and read aloud to them "The Visit of St. Nicholas"
All were delighted with the verses, and the guest, in particular, was so much impressed by them that she begged Mr. Livingston to let her have a copy of the poem. He consented, and  made a copy in his own hand which he gave to her.
On leaving Locust Grove, when her visit came to an end, this young lady went directly to the home of Mr. Clement C. Moore, where she filled the position of Governess to his children.
The above is all that I remember positively as having been told me by my grandmother.
There are two further details which I think were a part of the story, although I am not so sure of my recollection of them as of the above main facts.
One is that the young lady was either a Canadian or an English woman (I am inclined to think the former) and that other is that, on leaving Locust Grove, she went to join
Mr. Moore's family in one of the Southern states
.
I heard this spoken of by Mrs. Griswold after I had reached years of discretion (20 years).
[About 1870, based on Mary's birthdate about 1850]
   She spent the latter years of her life at my father's home at Poughkeepsie, where she died in 1881.
Yours sincerely,
                  Mary W. Montgomery
                  59 West 53d st.
                  March 3rd 1917 New York
A Southern Moore Connection with the Livingstons:
Henry Livingston lived very near the home of his first cousin Judith Newcomb Livingston, who was married to
John Moore.  Moore was the brother of Rev. Thomas Lambert Moore, who was married to Clement Moore's aunt, Judith Moore.
John and Judith had a daughter Lydia Hubbard Moore, who was married to Rev. William Henry Hart.  Lydia and William's
children were all born in Richmond Hill, Virginia between 1816 and 1829.  Their eldest child, Frances Livingston Hart,
married Rev. Clement Moore Butler, the brother of the Harriet Butler of Troy NY
who took the poem from Moore's home to be published in the Troy Sentinel
.
Manuscript
Thomas Collection