About John Jay

Fr. Tobias Haller in the comments section on an earlier post suggested that John Jay would feel comfortable in today's pecusa. This short essay from the John Jay Institute indicates otherwise and I reprint it here for your edification. ed.

John Jay

John Jay (1745-1829) was arguably the most religious, social, and political conservative of the principal founders of the American Republic. His most notable public achievements include: membership in the First and Second Continental Congresses, Chief Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, President of the Continental Congress, Minister to Spain, Peace Negotiator for the Treaty of Paris, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, collaborative author with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison of the Federalist, Chief Justice of the United States, special diplomatic Envoy to Great Britain, Governor of New York, President of the New York Manumission Society, and President of the American Bible Society.

John Jay Resources


John Jay Biography

John Jay: An American Wilberforce?

John Jay's Charge to the Grand Jury of Ulster County (1777) and Charge to the Grand Juries (1790)

John Jay Papers Project: Columbia Univ.

John Jay Homestead

The Federalist Papers

John Jay's faith pilgrimage began at his baptism into the Church of England at Trinity Church in New York within a week of his birth, but the formative influences of his Christian faith and devotion were active many years prior to this event in the stories of his ancestors. The Jay family was of devout French Huguenot heritage and fled from religious persecution in France. England and later the British Colony of New York provided a haven for the Jay family's faith and fortune. Jay's parents, Peter Jay and Mary Van Cortlandt were pious Calvinists of Huguenot-Anglican and Dutch Reformed traditions respectively. They raised their son as a serious Bible-believing and Prayer Book reading Christian. Jay's personal faith was affirmed and directed at the Anglican King's College, New York under the spiritual and academic direction of Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson.

In 1774 Jay married Sarah Livingston, daughter of the Presbyterian and American patriot, William Livingston of Liberty Hall in Elizabeth Town, New Jersey. Their marriage was a happy one and produced six children. Plagued with illness Sarah died in 1802. Not only did Jay survive the death of his wife by 27 years, he also survived the untimely death of two of his daughters.

Jay's social and political pilgrimage was informed by the high Whig politics of his merchant father and grandfather and reinforced by his collegiate studies at King's. During this time he determined his calling to the profession of Law. Later as an apprentice of Benjamin Kissam, Esq., Jay learned the Law and the concept of ordered liberty through directed reading of the English jurist Sir Edward Coke's Institutes and a clerkship in America's burgeoning seaport of New York. When a young lawyer of 29 years he was selected as a New York representative to the First Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia in September, 1774. There he respectfully challenged the famed Virginia orator Patrick Henry in his effort to press for American independence from Great Britain. Jay's conservative and political moderation called for rapprochement with the King and Parliament. Winning the argument Jay was commissioned by Congress to draft "An Address to the People of Great Britain." The address took a firm stance toward the Mother Country but with a conciliatory tone. By 1776, however, and in the failure of rapprochement Jay supported the Declaration of Independence.

From 1774 until his retirement in 1801 Jay remained in continuous government service as a principal patriot and American founding father. His public service included being a member of the New York Committee of Correspondence, 1774; Delegate to the Continental Congresses, 1774-76; Member of the New York State Constitutional Convention and First Chief Justice of the State of New York, 1777; Delegate and elected President of the Continental Congress, 1778-79; Minister to Spain, 1779-82; Peace Commissioner, 1782-83; Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 1784-88; first Chief Justice of the United States, 1789-95; Envoy Extraordinary to Great Britain, 1794-95; and Governor of New York, 1795-1801. Additionally Jay substantially contributed to the ratification of the 1787 U.S. Constitution by his Federalist essays (in collaboration with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison) and his published "Address to the People of the State of New York" in 1788.

Throughout his public career and in retirement Jay was active in numerable works of Christian philanthropy. He was an active lay leader in the reconstitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Jay served on the vestry of Trinity Church in New York. Motivated by his faith he became a leading advocate of manumission and the abolition of the slave trade. A personal friend of England's parliamentarian and social reformer William Wilberforce they collaborated on trans-Atlantic efforts to suppress and end the slave trade. With Hamilton, Philip Schuyler, and others Jay founded and organized the New York Manumission Society. As its first president he was successful in lobbying for legislation to introduce gradual abolition. When serving as Governor of New York Jay signed "An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery" in 1799 effectively ending the institution with a generation. Jay crowned his retirement years as president of the American Bible Society, an organization that continues to this day in distributing "the Scriptures far and near, without note or comment."

In 1829 Jay was laid to rest in the peace of Christ at the family ancestral home in Rye, Westchester County, New York.