Who was John Jay? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Died At Age: 83

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Sarah Livingston

siblings: James Jay

children: Peter A. Jay, William Jay

Diplomats Chief Justices

Died on: May 17, 1829

place of death: Bedford, New York, United States

Ancestry: Dutch American

Grouping of People: Abolitionists

Cause of Death: Palsy

U.S. State: New Yorkers

Founder/Co-Founder: African Free School

More Facts

education: Columbia University

Recommended For You

Recommended Lists:

Childhood & Early Life

John Jay was born on December 12, 1745, in New York City, New York, British America, to Peter Jay and Mary Van Cortlandt as one of their ten children. His father was a wealthy trader of furs, wheat, timber, and other commodities.

After being educated by his mother at home until he was about eight years old, he was sent to New Rochelle to study under Anglican priest Pierre Stoupe. He returned home after three years and continued his education under his mother and George Murray.

He joined King’s College in 1760 and met many people during this period who would greatly influence his thinking. He grew deeply interested in politics and became a staunch Whig. He graduated with the highest honors in 1764.

He proceeded to study law under Benjamin Kissam, a prominent lawyer and politician and completed his legal studies in 1768 following which he was admitted to the bar of New York.

Continue Reading Below

Recommended Lists:

American Leaders

Sagittarius Leaders

American Diplomats

American Lawyers & Judges

Major Work

John Jay is best known for being one of the signers of the Treaty of Paris which was signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783. The Treaty marked the end of the American Revolutionary War. Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and John Adams were the other signers of the treaty representing America.

Recommended Lists:

American Political Leaders

Sagittarius Men

Awards & Achievements

Jay was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814.

Personal Life & Legacy

John Jay married Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, eldest daughter of the New Jersey Governor William Livingston and his wife, in 1774. The couple had several children.

In addition to his wife and family, Jay also took care of his ill and disabled siblings after the death of their father.

He died on May 17, 1829, in Bedford, New York, U.S. after suffering from palsy, probably caused by a stroke. He was 83.

Career

A qualified lawyer, he went on to establish his own legal practice in 1771. During the 1770s he became a member of the New York Committee of Correspondence and eventually became its secretary.

In September 1774, he attended the First Continental Congress as a delegate. Even though he believed that the British tax measures were wrong and thought Americans were morally and legally justified in resisting them, he was not in support of separation of the Americas from Britain.

When the American Revolution broke out, Jay played an active role in suppressing the Loyalists and eventually came to accept that the Americas’ struggle for independence from the British colonial rule was inevitable. He was tirelessly involved in the revolutionary cause and gained a name for himself as an ardent patriot.

The United States of America achieved independence from British colonial rule in 1776. Following the independence he drafted the Constitution of New York, 1777, and served on the committee to detect and defeat conspiracies, which monitored British Actions.

Even though he had once been a slave holder himself, he adopted an anti-slavery approach later on. He became actively involved in the anti-slavery movement after 1777 and founded the New York Manumission Society in 1785 to promote the abolition of the slavery of African descendants within the state of New York.

In May 1777, the New York's Provincial Congress elected Jay the Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature, a position he held for two years. He was appointed Minister to Spain in 1779.

In this position, he was made responsible for getting financial aid, commercial treaties and recognition of American independence from Spain. However, the royal court of Spain refused to officially receive Jay as the Minister of the United States as it refused to recognize American Independence. Frustrated, he left Spain in May 1782.

He then travelled to Paris to participate in the negotiations to end the American Revolutionary War. Benjamin Franklin was also among the negotiators. The negotiations culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September 1783.

Upon returning to America, he served as the second Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1784 to 1789. President George Washington appointed Jay as the Chief Justice of the United States in 1789. As the Chief Justice, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1790.

In 1792, Jay ran for the governor of New York as a Federalist candidate but was defeated by Democratic-Republican George Clinton.

In 1794, Washington sent John Jay to negotiate a treaty with Great Britain, in order to resolve outstanding issues between the two countries. This resulted in the Jay Treaty which proved to be extremely controversial but was nonetheless approved of by the Washington administration.

He returned to America in 1795 and discovered that he had been elected the new Governor of New York in his absence. He served two terms as the governor and dealt with issues related to judicial reform, penal reform and the abolition of slavery before retiring from public life in 1801.

John Jay Biography