He served as Commissary of Stores and Provisions for the Department of New York from July 17, 1775, until September 7, 1776, when he resigned.

He was a member of the first two state assemblies from 1777 to 1779, and the eighth from 1784–85, as one of ten representatives elected on a county-wide general ticket.

[1] In 1774, Walter built a Georgian mansion, on a 500-acre estate called Teviotdale in Linlithgo, New York.

His home at Linlithgo in Columbia County, New York, known as Teviotdale, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

1943), a Republican U.S. Representative from Louisiana that was the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee from 1995 to 1999, is Walter Livingston's great-great-great-great-grandson.