Editing Robert Fulton (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Mrs. Robert Fulton (Harriet Livingston, 1785-1826) by Robert Fulton, c. 1810-1815, watercolor on ivory, from the New-York Historical Society - 1924 7.jpg|thumb|Fulton's portrait of Harriet Livingston]]
Prior to his marriage in 1808, Robert Fulton had a variety of [[homosexual]] and [[polyamorous]] relationships.<ref name="c-span.org">https://www.c-span.org/video/?166459-1/the-fire-genius# {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref> Famous among them was a [[ménage à trois]] with noted philanthropist couple Ruth and [[Joel Barlow]] while living in Paris with them for six years.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://notorc.blogspot.com/2012/03/short-tragic-life-of-robert-fulton-2.html | title=Postscripts: The Short, Tragic Life of Robert Fulton, 2: Gone Too Soon }}</ref> Letters between them reveal a sexual relationship among all three, including notes from American Revolutionary and patriot [[Joel Barlow]] requesting in [[baby-talk]] language for him "to have a wonderful summer of sexual pleasure with his wife" while he was away, and, importantly, that "he must not let...his beautiful body be deranged, and if he does anything wrong, he'll come and cut off his penis."<ref name="c-span.org"/> After he left Paris, he lived for two years at the castle of [[William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon]], a known homosexual, although there is no confirmed [[Letter (message)|epistolary]] evidence of an explicit sexual relationship between them<ref name="c-span.org"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Griffin |first=Gabriele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ybtkoNXz7XUC |title=Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing |date=2004-06-16 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-40221-4 |language=en}}</ref>

On January 8, 1808, Fulton married [[Harriet Livingston Fulton|Harriet Livingston]] (1783–1826), the daughter of [[Walter Livingston]] and niece of [[Robert R. Livingston]], prominent men in the [[Hudson River]] area, whose family dated to the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial era]].<ref name=Reynolds1911>{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Cuyler |title=Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: A Record of Achievements of the People of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys in New York State, Included Within the Present Counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Washington, Saratoga, Montgomery, Fulton, Schenectady, Columbia and Greene |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_b4k-AAAAYAAJ |year=1911 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_b4k-AAAAYAAJ/page/n370 302]–303}}</ref><ref name=Lancaster1909>{{cite book |title=Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PP47AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA227 |year=1909 |pages=227–228}}</ref>  During his marriage, he proposed a foursome with himself, his wife, and Ruth and [[Joel Barlow]] in Washington, DC, but Harriet rejected the offer.<ref name="c-span.org"/> Harriet, who was nineteen years his junior, was well educated and was an accomplished amateur painter and musician.<ref name="Philip2003"/>  Together, they had four children:<ref name="LCHS1909">{{cite book |title=Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society: January 8, 1909. Vol. XIII No. 1 |date=1909 |publisher=Lancaster County Historical Society |page=227 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PP47AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA227 |access-date=8 November 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

* Robert Barlow Fulton (1808–1841), who died unmarried.<ref name="LCHS1909"/>
* Julia Fulton (1810–1848), who married lawyer Charles Blight of [[Philadelphia]].<ref name="LCHS1909"/>
* Cornelia Livingston Fulton (1812–1893), who married lawyer Edward Charles Crary (1806–1848) in 1831.<ref name=Lancaster1909/>
* Mary Livingston Fulton (1813–1861), who married Robert Morris Ludlow (1812–1894), parents of [[R. Fulton Ludlow|Robert Fulton Ludlow]].<ref name=Reynolds1911/>

Fulton died in 1815 in New York City from [[tuberculosis]] (then known as "consumption"). He had been walking home on the frozen Hudson River when one of his friends, [[Thomas Addis Emmet]], fell through the ice. In rescuing his friend, Fulton got soaked with icy water. He is believed to have contracted [[pneumonia]]. When he got home, his sickness worsened. He was diagnosed with consumption and died at 49 years old. After his death, his widow remarried to Charles Augustus Dale on November 26, 1816.

He is buried in the [[Trinity Church Cemetery]] for [[Trinity Church (Manhattan)|Trinity Church (Episcopal)]] at [[Wall Street]] in New York City, near other notable Americans such as former [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury]], [[Alexander Hamilton]] and [[Albert Gallatin]]. His descendants include [[Cory Lidle]], a former [[Major League Baseball]] pitcher.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2621860|title=Lidle dies after plane crashes into NYC high-rise|work=ESPN.com|date=11 October 2006}}</ref>