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. Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh, a member of the Colonial Assembly, was a familiar character in Kingston, and on one occasion entertained Mrs. Washington, with Governor and Mrs. Clinton, at his home in Rosendale. He was a descendant of the i)roprietor of the great Hardenbergh Patent. The list of w^ell-knovvn men who have been associated with the history of this old town is a long and honourable one. Memorable in the annals of the Hudson, the destruction ofKingston b>' fire occurred in the eventful year 1777. It was after the reduction of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, or the one occasion upon which the British forces penetrated the gateway of the Highlands into the upper river. The cJicvcaii-dc-jrisc and other obstructions had been removed, the American shipping had gone up in a magnificent conflagration, and the way seemed at last open for the ships and sol-

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diers of George III. to take possession of the region above West Point, either to ereate a diversion in favour of Burgoyne, then face to face with Gates near Saratoga, or to co-operate with him according to agreement. Sir Henry Chnton did not proceed in person fc>-with the expedition up the ri\'er, but left the command to General Vaughan and Sir James Wallace, who were accompanied bv a considerable number of troops, with a squadron of the lighter vessels of war.