A Visit from St. Nicholas
was present at the time and who sent the copy to the Troy Sentinel, supposed him to be the author and so informed Editor Holley when that gentleman questioned her about it. In this way, the belief that Dr. Moore was the author might have started without any complicity on his part.
But Mrs. Montgomery's story is vitiated by the fact that in 1805, when Mr. Livingston supposedly wrote the poem, Dr. Moore was only twenty-six years old, unmarried, without children, and consequently in no need of a governess. Nor were there any children at "Chelsea Farm," Dr. Moore having been an only child. His first child was not born until 1815. Various attempts have been made to explain away this discrepancy, but with no great success. However, there is another letter written in 1879 by Henry Livingston's daughter Eliza, who married Judge Smith Thompson of the New York Supreme Court. Here it is:
Dear Annie:
Your letter has just been received and I hasten to tell you all I know about the poem "Night before Christmas."
It was supposed and believed in our family to be Father's and I well remember our astonishment when we saw it claimed as Clement C. Moore's many years after my Father's decease, which took place more than forty years ago.
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