Peter Augustus Jay (January 24, 1776 – February 20, 1843) was a prominent New York lawyer, politician and the eldest son of Founding Father and first United States Chief Justice

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...

Early life

Peter Augustus Jay was born at

Liberty Hall Liberty Hall ( ga, Halla na Saoirse), in Dublin, Ireland, is the headquarters of the Services, Industrial, Professional, and Technical Union (SIPTU). Designed by Desmond Rea O'Kelly, it was completed in 1965. It was for a time the tallest b ...

", on January 24, 1776, at the home of his maternal grandparents' in

Elizabethtown, New Jersey Elizabeth Township, also called Elizabethtown, was a township that existed in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, from 1664 until 1855. The area was initially part of the Elizabethtown Tract, purchased from the Lenape on October 28, 16 ...

. Peter was one of six children born to

and Sarah Van Brugh ( née Livingston) Jay, and one of two boys (brother

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

was born in 1789) with four sisters: Susan (born and died in 1780); Maria (b. 1782), Ann (b. 1783) and Sarah Louisa (b. 1792). Jay's paternal grandparents were Peter Jay, who was born in New York City in 1704 and became a wealthy trader in furs, wheat, timber, and other commodities, and Mary Van Cortlandt, who had married in 1728. Mary's father was

Jacobus Van Cortlandt Jacobus van Cortlandt (1658–1739) was a wealthy Dutch-born American merchant, slave owner, and politician who served as the 30th and 33rd Mayor of New York City from 1710 to 1711 and again from 1719 to 1720. Early life Jacobus Van Cortland ...

who was twice mayor of New York City. His mother was the eldest daughter of 13 children born to

New Jersey Governor The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...

William Livingston William Livingston (November 30, 1723July 25, 1790) was an American politician who served as the first governor of New Jersey (1776–1790) during the American Revolutionary War. As a New Jersey representative in the Continental Congress, he sig ...

(1723–1790). His aunt, Susannah Livingston, was married to

John Cleves Symmes John Cleves Symmes (July 21, 1742February 26, 1814) was a delegate to the Continental Congress from New Jersey, and later a pioneer in the Northwest Territory. He was also the father-in-law of President William Henry Harrison and, thereby, th ...

. His grandfather, William, was the son of

Philip Livingston Philip Livingston (January 15, 1716 – June 12, 1778) was an American merchant and statesman from New York City. He represented New York at the October 1774 First Continental Congress, where he favored imposing economic sanctions upon Great B ...

, himself the son of Robert Livingston the Elder and Alida Schulyer van Rensselaer.Kierner, Cynthia A., ''Traders and Gentlefolk: The Livingstons of New York, 1675–1790'', Cornell University Press, 1992
/ref> Following in the footsteps of his father, who graduated from the colonial-era King's College, Peter graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1794.

Career

Following his graduation in 1794, Jay acted as private secretary to his father in London for the

Jay Treaty The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted ...

. The young Jay studied law and established a practice in New York City with his cousin

Peter Jay Munro Peter Jay Munro (January 10, 1767 – September 22, 1833) was an American lawyer and Federalist politician from New York. Early life Munro was born on January 10, 1767, in Rye in the Province of New York in what was then British America. He wa ...

, carrying on a family tradition of public service. As a Federalist, he was a member from New York City of the New York State Assembly in the

39th New York State Legislature The 39th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 30 to April 17, 1816, during the ninth year of Daniel D. Tompkins's governorship, in Albany. Background Under the pr ...

, during which time he was active in arranging the financing for the construction of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

. He ran many times for Congress, but was always defeated by the

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

candidates. From 1819 to 1821, he was

Recorder of New York City The Recorder of New York City was a municipal officer of New York City from 1683 until 1907. He was at times a judge of the Court of General Sessions, the Court of Special Sessions, and the New York Court of Common Pleas; Vice-President of the Boar ...

. He was a delegate from Westchester Co. to the

New York State Constitutional Convention The Constitution of the State of New York establishes the structure of the government of the State of New York, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of New York. Like most state constitutions in the United States, New York's constituti ...

of 1821. For a time he was also a Westchester County Judge.

Philanthropy and Affiliations

In 1814, Jay and his father were both elected members of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...

. Together with financier

Thomas Eddy Thomas Eddy (September 5, 1758 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - September 16, 1827 New York City) was an American merchant, banker, philanthropist and politician from New York. Early life He was the son of Irish Quaker immigrants who had come to Ame ...

, Peter Augustus Jay also helped organize and found New York's earliest savings bank, the now defunct

New York Bank for Savings The New York Savings Bank is a historic bank building in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1896 by Robert Henderson Robertson with George Provot, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2000. The ...

in 1816 (thereby contributing to the establishment of the New York State savings bank system). In 1828, he helped found the New York Law Institute, which today is the oldest law library in New York City. Jay was President of New York Hospital (1827–1833), Chairman of the Board of Trustees, King's College and President of the

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

(1840–1842). In 1832, he was honored with a Doctor of Laws from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

for his "talents and virtues", and from Columbia, in 1835. Jay shared his father's commitment to social justice and actively pursued greater rights for African Americans. In his commitment to reform, he served as President of the New-York Manumission Society in 1816 and President of the New York Public School Society which was anti-slavery and concerned with greater humanitarianism towards the poor. Jay is best known for giving a speech in 1821 at the

as a delegate arguing that the right to vote should be extended to free African Americans. "Peter Augustus Jay, one of a minority of advocates of universal manhood suffrage, insisted that the idea that black people were naturally inferior had long been 'completely refuted and universally exploded.'" Despite his impassioned argument, Jay's motion for extending suffrage was overruled.

Personal life

On July 29, 1807, he married Mary Rutherfurd Clarkson (1786–1838), a daughter of General Matthew Clarkson and Mary (née Rutherfurd) Clarkson. Her uncle was U.S. Senator

John Rutherfurd John Rutherfurd (September 20, 1760February 23, 1840) was an American politician and land surveyor. He represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1791 to 1798. Early life John Rutherfurd was born on September 20, 1760 in New York C ...

and her paternal grandfather was

Walter Rutherfurd Walter Rutherfurd (December 29, 1723 – January 10, 1804) was a Scottish-American soldier and merchant who served as the president of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York. Early life Rutherfurd was born on December 29, 1723, in Ed ...

. Together, they had eight children, including: * John Clarkson Jay (1808–1891), who married Laura Prime (1812–1888) and was a physician and noted conchologist. * Mary Rutherfurd Jay (1810–1835), who married Frederick Prime in 1829. * Sarah Jay (1811–1846), who married William Dawson in 1836. * Catherine Helena Jay (1815–1889), who married Henry Augustus DuBois (1808–1884) in 1835. * Anna Maria Jay (1819–1902), who married Henry Evelyn Pierrepont (1808–1888) in 1841. * Peter Augustus Jay (1821–1855), who married Josephine Pearson (1829–1852) in 1848. * Elizabeth Clarkson Jay (1823–1895). * Susan Matilda Jay (1827–1910), who married Matthew Clarkson (1823–1913), the eldest son of David Clarkson (president of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

), in 1852. His wife died in Madeira, an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

in the north

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, southwest of Portugal, on December 24, 1838. Peter Augustus Jay died in New York City on February 20, 1843. His descendants have gone on to become educators, lawyers, diplomats and civic advocates. They include

Mary Rutherfurd Jay Mary Rutherfurd Jay (1872–1953) was one of America's earliest landscape architects and an advocate of horticultural education and careers for women."Mary Rutherfurd Jay – Garden Architect" Exhibit Catalog, Jay Heritage Center, 2015 The gr ...

Pierre Jay Pierre Jay (May 4, 1870 – November 24, 1949) was the first chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Early life Jay was born on May 4, 1870 in Warwick, New York. He was the son of Rev. Peter Augustus Jay (1841–1875), a protestant ...

, and

Jay Pierrepont Moffat Jay Pierrepont Moffat (January 7, 1896 – January 25, 1943) was an American diplomat, historian and statesman who, between 1917 and 1943, served the State Department in a variety of posts, including that of United States Ambassador to Canad ...

Jay Estate

Peter Augustus legally received the

Jay Estate The Jay Estate is a 23-acre park and historic site in Rye, New York, with the 1838 Peter Augustus Jay House at its center. It is the keystone of the Boston Post Road Historic District, a National Historic Landmark District (NHL) created in 1993 ...

in Rye from his father in 1822 though original account records show that he and his wife Mary were handling household expenses as for the Rye estate as early as 1814. Under his father's aegis, Peter Augustus installed European styled stone ha-has on the property and planted elm trees. His father John Jay died in 1829. In 1836, Peter Augustus contracted with a builder, Edwin Bishop, to take down the failing farmhouse that had been barraged by the British during the Revolutionary War. Reusing structural elements from "The Locusts" where his father grew up as a boy, Peter Augustus Jay helped create the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

mansion that stands there today. Unfortunately his wife Mary would not live to see the house completed, as she died in Madeira on December 24, 1838. After Jay's death in 1843, the Rye house passed to his eldest son, John Clarkson Jay.Wells p. 42 The

is a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

within the

Boston Post Road Historic District (Rye, New York) The Boston Post Road Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District in Rye, New York, and is composed of five distinct and adjacent properties. Within this landmarked area are three architecturally significant, pre-Civil War mansio ...

as well as a

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Trust fo ...

Project; NHL designation is the highest recognition conferred by the US government for a historic site—out of more than 80,000 places on the National Register, only about 2,430 are NHLs. The Jay mansion is currently being preserved and restored by the non-profit organization, the

Jay Heritage Center The Jay Heritage Center (JHC) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization incorporated in 1990 and chartered by the New York State Board of Regents to act as stewards of the 23-acre Jay Estate, the National Historic Landmark home of American Foun ...

, for use as an educational center with programs in American history. In November 2008, it became the first NHL structure in

Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

and the oldest NHL in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

to be fitted with a geothermal heating and cooling system. Peter Augustus Jay and John Jay's leadership roles in the abolition of slavery are regularly examined in a program at the Jay Heritage Center called "Striving for Freedom". It is because of this legacy of social justice that the Jay site was added to the Westchester County African American Heritage Trail in 2004.

References

;General sources * Jay, John
Memorials of Peter A. Jay
1905. G.J. Thieme * Kelby, Robert Hendre
The New York Historical Society 1804–1904
1905. Published for the Society * Wells, Laura Jay
The Jay Family of La Rochelle and New York
1938. Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America * Lamb, Mrs. Martha J. and Harrison, Mrs. Burton "The History of the City of New York, Its Origin, Rise and Progress" 1877. A.S. Barnes * Cutler, William W. "Status, Values and the Education of the Poor: The Trustees of the New York Public School Society, 1805-1853" American Quarterly, Vol.24, No.1, (Mar.,1972) pp 69–85. The Johns Hopkins University Press

External links

Official Site-Jay Heritage Center
*
The Papers of John Jay
An image database and indexing tool comprising some 13,000 documents scanned chiefly from photocopies of original documents from the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York and approximately 90 other institutions.
Official Site-Save America's Treasures

The New York Law InstituteThe Amiable Children of John and Sarah Livingston Jay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jay, Peter Augustus John Jay 1776 births 1843 deaths American abolitionists American people of Dutch descent American lawyers Columbia College (New York) alumni Livingston family U.S. Route 1 People from Rye, New York New York City Recorders Members of the New York State Assembly Members of the American Antiquarian Society New York (state) Federalists Members of the New York Manumission Society Schuyler family Jay family