There are many other buildings and several localities of special interest to those who love the mild anticjuities of our brand-new country -- the Academy, founded in 1774, in which De Witt Clinton and Thomas De Witt, Edward Livingston, Stephen Van Rensselaer, and Abram Van Vechten received their early education; the stone Court House, built in 1S18 upon the site of a much older one; and the First Dutch Church, organised August, 1659, by Rev. Harmanus Blom, sent from Holland as a candidate, and ordained by the Classis of Amsterdam, 1660. The fac-similes of signatures of the fifteen successors of Blom, carefully gathered l)y the venerable Dr. Hoes, and shown me at the close of our pleasant evening conversation, are sufficient guarantee that, from the first, Esopus -- Wiltwyck -- Kingston has been in the care of that blessed people "whose God is the Lord." William Beekman, from whom have sprung all who bear that respected name in the annals of New York, was Sheriff of Kingston up to the departure of Governor Lovelace from the colony, when he returned to New York. His son Henry lived in Kingston, where he became Judge of Ulster County and a member of

46o The Hudson River

the Pro\4ncial Legislature. His daughter was the wife of Robert R. Livingston, and the mother of the distinguished chancellor of that name, as well as of Janet, the wife of General Montgomery. The old Senate House was at one time occupied by Chancellor Livingston and by General Armstrong, the " boy hero of the Revolution," who was afterwards United States Senator and Secretary of War. Governor Clinton married Cornelia Tappen of Kingston, and their son was educated there. John Jay sat as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York during the first term of that court at Kingston.