The essays below discuss John Jay, his accomplishments, and his family, and will introduce you to the rich history associated with John Jay Homestead. Keep coming back: more material will be added as new essays are put online.
THE JAYS AND RELIGION
A
Talk Given For the 200th Anniversary of the Construction of St.
Matthew's Episcopal Church in Bedford, New York
John
Jay's religious background was entirely Protestant. Jay's ancestry was three-quarters Dutch, but the part that
had the greatest impact on whom he became was French Huguenot. The bloody French religious wars of the
sixteenth century had been brought to a tense close with Henri IV's issuance of
the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which decreed toleration for France's Calvinist
minority. Louis XIV's revocation
of the Edict in 1685 resulted in a new wave of oppression of the Protestants,
which included the Jays...
THE ‘AMIABLE’ CHILDREN OF JOHN AND SARAH LIVINGSTON JAY
Sarah Jay wrote her husband [Oct. 1801]: “I have been rendered very happy by the company of our dear children . . . I often, I shd. say daily, bless God for giving us such amiable Children. May they long be preserved a blessing to us & to the community.” Who were these ‘amiable’ children, and what were they like?
The happy marriage of John and Sarah Jay produced six children: Peter Augustus, born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1776; Susan, born and died in Madrid after only a few weeks of life, in 1780; Maria, born in Madrid in 1782; Ann, born in Paris in 1783, William and Sarah Louisa, born in NYC in 1789 and 1792 respectively...
Imagine being in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, as the delegates of the Second Continental Congress gathered! So much had happened in recent months: the British Parliament had declared Massachusetts in a state of rebellion; Patrick Henry had delivered his stirring “Give me Liberty” speech; Paul Revere had taken his famous ride; and, on April 19, the Battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought, ending in the British retreat to Boston. The “extreme Urgency of the Business” (as William Livingston put it) saw the return of many of the members of the First Congress, men who had traveled many days over dusty, rutted roads to attend, leaving the comforts of home, staying in flea-ridden boarding houses unless they were lucky enough to be invited to stay with friends. Among the returnees were John and Samuel Adams, Richard H. Lee, John Dickinson, George Washington, and John Jay. New to the Congress was a man recently returned from England where he had resided many years, at first highly lauded, but more recently humiliated: Benjamin Franklin. While in England, his efforts on behalf of the American colonies had yielded only disappointment and failure. Now nearly 70, Franklin had lost his favorable view of the Mother Country....
The
Western world is in upheaval. A
fledgling nation, far from the centers of world power, is torn by
conflict. Its economy is a
shambles, its currencies devalued.
Its government is new, largely untried, and widely expected to
fail. It is utterly dependent upon
constant infusions of cash and military support from a distant allied
superpower, whose public rhetoric supports the principles the embattled country
has declared it represents, but whose actual aim is to bring the new nation
into its political orbit. The
war-torn country is coveted as a gateway to the vast, substantially untapped
natural resources of its region—resources that are seen as important to its
ally’s economic health and military strength...
Sarah Van Brugh Livingston was born in 1756 to Susannah French Livingston and William Livingston, patriot and first governor of the State of New Jersey. She was educated at home in penmanship, English grammar, the Bible, and classic literature. Sarah grew into a graceful and capable young woman. At a time when women were usually relegated to the kitchen, she was brought up to be politically aware, even serving at times as her father’s secretary.
William Livingston moved his family to a new home, Liberty Hall, in Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, in 1772. Sarah’s beauty, gaiety, and intelligence attracted many suitors. She chose John Jay, an upcoming young lawyer, and married him at Liberty Hall on April 28, 1774. Despite the difference in their ages—he was 29, she was 18—this was a love-match; Sarah’s brother later wrote, “Mr. & Mrs. Jay can be unhappy no where. They love each other too well …” The couple’s hopes for a peaceful life together were almost immediately shattered by developments that led to the American Revolution...
JOHN JAY'S ACCOUNT OF HIS ANCESTORS' EXPERIENCE AS HUGUENOTS
The essay, written by John
Jay for the information of his adult children, tells the story of the Jay
family’s oppression as Protestants in France, following the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes by King Louis XIV in 1685. Jay wrote the essay in an undetermined year, while living at
Bedford. Unfortunately, he never
completed it: he finished the
story of his great-grandfather, Pierre Jay, and of his grandfather, Augustus
Jay, but left off at the birth of his father, Peter Jay. Nevertheless, the major aspects of the
tale, as related to the family’s persecution and flight from France, are
recorded. What is missing is the
story of the family’s early life in New York.
The Jays’ persecution for their
religious convictions had a powerful formative effect on John Jay throughout
his life. His grandfather, whose
story forms the main part of this narrative, died when John was five, and he
probably retained memories of the family patriarch. The knowledge of how his ancestors had suffered informed
Jay’s sense of public responsibility, and was near the center of his efforts to
make the United States a place of freedom.
Jay’s son, William, was his first
biographer, and William, recognizing the importance of this story, made the
following extracts from his father’s essay the opening pages of The Life of
John Jay. As William wrote, “This narrative was evidently intended
only for the information and instruction of his children, and contains much
that would not be generally interesting. A few extracts, however, from this
paper, while they serve as an introduction to an account of the writer himself,
will assist in illustrating his character.”
Allan
Weinreb John Jay Homestead State Historic Site