Anne Home Livingston
Anne Home Livingston, often referred to as Nancy, was born into a distinguished colonial family in Philadelphia. She received a comprehensive education typical of affluent young women of her time, focusing on languages, dance, music, and literature. In 1781, she entered a secret romance with Albert Otto, a diplomatic secretary, but was ultimately coerced by her father into marrying Colonel Henry Livingston, a man known for his libertine lifestyle and infidelity. After giving birth to her daughter, Peggy, Livingston discovered her husband's intentions to bring his illegitimate children into their home, prompting her to leave him and return to her family.
During her separation, she began writing a diary, which served as a personal outlet for her thoughts and feelings rather than a public memoir. The challenges she faced as a wronged wife weighed heavily on her, and she often expressed her longing for a happier life through fictional narratives in her writings. Although she later encountered Otto again, her husband's refusal to grant a divorce unless she relinquished parental rights to Peggy led her to prioritize her daughter's well-being. In her later years, Livingston became increasingly reclusive and devoted herself to her faith, producing a collection of poems inspired by the New Testament. She passed away in 1841, leaving a legacy marked by personal struggles and artistic expression.
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Anne Home Livingston
Writer
- Born: February 24, 1763
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: August 23, 1841
Biography
Anne Home Livingston was born into a prominent colonial family in Philadelphia. Called Nancy, she attended Mistress Rogers’s Boarding Schools for Young Ladies in Trenton, New Jersey, where she was educated in the fashion that well-to-do young ladies of her time were educated: in languages, dance, sewing, music, and literature. A gracious and lovely young woman, many of the men who visited her father (Dr. William Shippen III) also ventured to pay court to her.
After a secret romance in 1781 with diplomatic secretary Albert Otto, Anne accepted his proposal of marriage. Her father blocked the marriage, however, and instead insisted that she accept the proposal of the wealthy Colonel Henry Livingston. Anne capitulated, only to learn soon after her marriage that Livingston was a notorious libertine and was the father of several illegitimate children. Moreover, he came to suspect her of possessing similar traits, and often flew into jealous rages, accusing her of infidelity.
Livingston worked to make her marriage successful, and at nineteen years of age gave birth to a daughter, Peggy, in 1783. Before long, however, she learned from her sympathetic mother-in- law that Livingston planned to bring his illegitimate children home as well to be raised with Peggy, and she decided to leave her husband with her daughter. She moved back home with her family and at this time began her diary.
Livingston’s diary was not written to be read as a journal intended for public consumption; rather, it was a place for her to record her most secret thoughts and feelings in addition to providing a record or her everyday activities and actions. The injustice of the scorn that required her, as a wronged wife, to retire from society, while her philandering husband remained at large, haunted her. At times, her diary became a kind of love story, wherein she created fictional names for people from her life (such as “Leander” for Otto) and wistfully hoped for a happy ending to her life, but such was not to be.
A few years after her separation from her husband, she again met Otto, who had been married and widowed during the same time period; he was also now a count. Livingston sought divorce, but was denied it by her husband unless she renounced all parental rights to Peggy. Livingston chose to stay with her daughter and Otto returned to France alone.
As Livingston grew older, she retired from society more and more (at the behest of her father and her own perception of how she was treated as a separated wife). She and her daughter lived for some years with her sick mother and then later alone. Livingston grew more and more religious as she grew older, finding peace in the Gospels that she could not find in life. She wrote one collection of poems based on the New Testament, titled Sacred Records, that she paid to have privately published. She remained a recluse the rest of her life and died in 1841.