Thomas Livingstone, 1st Viscount Teviot

Black Mount, Lanarkshire near the Livingstone home of Newbigging

Thomas Livingstone was born in the Dutch Republic in 1651; his father, also Sir Thomas Livingstone (died July 1673), came from Newbigging in Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1635, he joined a Scots regiment in Dutch service and later married Gertrat Edmond, daughter of another expatriate Scot; they had two sons, Thomas (1651-1711) and Alexander (1657-1718).[1]

Livingstone married Macktellina Walrave de Nimmeguen (died 1729); they had no children and were living apart by 1703 when she successfully sued him for alimony.[2] Their relationship was not a happy one; Livingstone accused her of poisoning him but she was acquitted. He left the bulk of his estate to his younger brother and the title of Viscount Teviot became extinct on his death.

Hugh Mackay (1640-1692), Commander in Scotland 1689-1690 and a long-time colleague in the Scots Brigade

As a result of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, many in both Scotland and England strongly opposed standing armies.[3] Those seeking a military career often served in foreign armies and formed a small and tight-knit group of professionals. During the 1689-1692 campaign in Scotland, Livingstone's former Scots Brigade colleagues included his commander, Hugh Mackay, and his opponents Alexander Cannon, Thomas Buchan and Viscount Dundee.[4]

Livingstone's father was an officer in one of three Scottish regiments in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, a mercenary formation whose origins went back to 1586. He and his brother Alexander were junior officers in the same unit and when the elder Livingstone died in 1673, Thomas inherited his position. The Brigade fought throughout the 1672-1678 Franco-Dutch War, including Cassel in 1677, where Thomas was wounded and Saint-Denis in 1678, just before the war ended.[5]

The 1678 Treaties of Nijmegen were widely viewed as a pause and the Brigade's regiments kept on a war-footing; in 1684, Livingstone was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of Balfour's Regiment. When William III invaded England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, the Brigade went with him. James II went into exile after his army deserted him and Livingstone replaced Lord Charles Murray as Colonel of one of the dragoon regiments; its existing Lieutenant-Colonel was his relative William Livingston (sic), Viscount Kilsyth.[6] As Livingstone's Regiment of Dragoons, they joined Mackay in Scotland in April 1689 during the First Jacobite Rising. They were employed securing the roads between Inverness and Stirling and so were not present at the Jacobite victory of Killiecrankie in July.

Despite this setback, Mackay and Livingstone gradually gained control; in 1690, they led separate forces in a co-ordinated campaign that ended in Livingstone's victory at Cromdale in May. They appear to have written to each other in Dutch, probably a precaution against interception by the Jacobites.[7] Livingstone took over from Mackay in Scotland on 10 November 1690 and appointed to the Privy Council of Scotland.[8]

Modern Cromdale, scene of Livingstone's victory over a Jacobite force in May 1690

The next 18 months were spent reducing Jacobite strongholds in the Highlands and policing actions, one being the February 1692 Massacre of Glencoe. There was little sympathy for the MacDonalds, although 19th century biographers often tried to exonerate their subjects from any responsibility. [9] In a letter to Lord Hamilton, Livingstone commented; 'It's not that anyone thinks the thieving tribe did not deserve to be destroyed but that it should have been done by those quartered amongst them makes a great noise.'[10] The 1693 Commission focused on whether orders had been exceeded, rather than their legality and Livingstone was cleared in their report of 10 July 1695.[11]

Livingstone remained in Scotland for most of the 1688-1697 Nine Years' War; in 1691, a group of Jacobite prisoners on Bass Rock overpowered their guards and were only subdued in 1694, while a Scottish rising was part of the proposed invasion of England in 1692. However, by 1696, it was clear the war was coming to an end, with James allegedly telling his confessor that 'God does not want to restore me.'[12]

In December 1696, Livingstone was made Viscount Teviot and Lord Livingstone of Peebles, although 'Peebles' was already claimed and he later changed it to 'Hyndford' as a result. He was promoted Major General and took over a Brigade in the Netherlands, shortly before the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697. [13]

Although he was automatically promoted Lieutenant-General in 1703, this marked the end of his active service. He sold his Colonelcy in 1704 to Lord John Hay, which may have been connected with the Court ruling in favour of his ex-wife. He purchased lands in East Lothian and based on surviving correspondence, was an associate and neighbour of Sir William Bennett, who served in his regiment from 1690-1696. From 1693-1707, Bennett was Commissioner for Roxburgh in the Scottish Parliament and manager for the Duke of Roxburghe, a primary sponsor of the 1707 Acts of Union.[14]

Alexander Livingstone

Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abbey, his brother paying for an ornate memorial located near the choir or quire.[15]

He published an account of Cromdale in May 1690 based on his despatch to Mackay entitled A true and real account of the defeat of General Buchan, and Brigadeer Cannon, their High-land army, at the battel of Crombdell; upon the 1st of May; 1690. Conform to a letter, sent by Sir Thomas Livingston collonel to a regiment of dragoons to Major General Mackay, giving a particular account of the said defeat; with a list of the officers taken at the said battel, and at the castle of Lethen-Dee.

He also wrote a drill guide Exercise of the Foot, with the evolution according to the words of command etc etc; his entry in the Scottish Peerage describes this as 'a scarce work.'

• Almack, Edward (1908). The History of the Second Dragoons Royal Scots Greys. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1120890207.
• Brown, Mungo (ed), Court of Session (1826). Supplement to the Dictionary of the decisions of the Court of Session, Volume 4. Arkose Press. ISBN 978-1343609839.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
• Chichester, HM (2004). Thomas Livingstone, Viscount Teviot. Oxford DNB Online. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16810.
• Childs, John (1987). The British Army of William III, 1689-1702. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0719025525.
• Childs, John (1984). "The British Brigade in France 1672-1678". History. 69 (227).
• Ede-Borrett, Stephen (2011). "Casualties in the Anglo-Dutch Brigade at St Denis, 1678". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. 81 (237).
• Mackay, John (1836). Life of Lieut.-Gen. Hugh Mackay of Scoury: Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Scotland, 1689 and 1690. Forgotten Books. ISBN 978-1333263539.
• Mann, Alistair (2014). James VII: Duke and King of Scots. 1800: John Donald Short Run Press. ISBN 978-1904607908.CS1 maint: location (link)
• Paul, Sir James Balfour (1911). The Scots Peerage; Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom. David Douglas.
• Preeble, John (1973). Glencoe: The Story of the Massacre. Penguin. ISBN 978-0140028973.
• Wilkinson, David. Bennett, William (d. 1729), of Grubbet, Roxburgh. History of Parliament Online.

• Brown, KM. "Address by the parliament to the king touching the murder of the Glencoe-men". The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707.
• "Thomas Livingstone, Viscount Teviot". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
• Joby, Christopher. "Dutch in the Scottish Highlands". History of Dutch. Retrieved 7 July 2018.