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Joanna Livingston married her second cousin. Gen. Van Cortlandt was an ardent patriot and made unusual sacrifices for his country. From 1768 he represented the Manor in the Colonial Assembly and in the later Council of Safety and of the Second, Third, and Fourth Provincial Congresses. In 1777, he was President of the Convention which framed the first constitution of the state under which he became the first Lieutenant Governor and George Clinton, Governor. He served in that office for seventeen years, declining re-election in 1795.
During the Revolution his Manor House, inherited from his father, was the object of Tory attacks and he and his family were obliged to seek safety in Dutchess County, the stronghold of his kinsmen, the Beekmans. In November 1783, he entered New York City with Gen. Washington after its evaculation by the British and he was an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati. The inscription on his tombstone reads: "He was a Patriot of the First Order; zealous to the last for liberties of his Country" (Harold D. Eberlein, Manors and historic homes of the Hudson Valley, 1924, pp. 121-25).
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