Peter Augustus Jay | |
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| Recorder of New York City | |
| In office April 6, 1819 – March 6, 1821 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Riker |
| Succeeded by | Richard Riker |
| Member of theNew York State Assembly fromNew York Co. | |
| In office July 1, 1815 – June 30, 1816 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Peter Augustus Jay (1776-01-24)January 24, 1776 |
| Died | February 20, 1843(1843-02-20) (aged 67) New York City, U.S. |
| Party | Federalist |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Parent(s) | John Jay Sarah Van Brugh Livingston |
| Relatives | William Jay (brother) William Livingston (grandfather) Augustus Jay (grandson) |
| Alma mater | Columbia College |
Peter Augustus Jay (January 24, 1776 – February 20, 1843) was a prominent New York lawyer, politician and the eldest son of Founding Father and firstUnited States Chief JusticeJohn Jay.
Peter Augustus Jay was born atLiberty Hall on January 24, 1776, at the home of his maternal grandparents' inElizabethtown, New Jersey. Peter was one of six children born toJohn Jay and Sarah Van Brugh (née Livingston) Jay, and one of two boys (brotherWilliam 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.[1] Mary's father wasJacobus Van Cortlandt who was twicemayor of New York City.[2]
His mother was the eldest daughter of 13 children born toNew Jersey GovernorWilliam Livingston (1723–1790).[3] His aunt, Susannah Livingston, was married toJohn Cleves Symmes. His grandfather, William, was the son ofPhilip Livingston, himself the son ofRobert Livingston the Elder andAlida Schulyer van Rensselaer.[4]
Following in the footsteps of his father, who graduated from the colonial-era King's College, Peter graduated fromColumbia University in 1794.[5]
Following his graduation in 1794, Jay acted as private secretary to his father in London for theJay Treaty.[6] The young Jay studied law and established a practice in New York City with his cousinPeter Jay Munro, carrying on a family tradition of public service.
As aFederalist, he was a member from New York City of theNew York State Assembly in the39th New York State Legislature, during which time he was active in arranging the financing for the construction of theErie Canal. He ran many times for Congress, but was always defeated by theDemocratic-Republican candidates. From 1819 to 1821, he wasRecorder of New York City. He was a delegate from Westchester Co. to theNew York State Constitutional Convention of 1821. For a time he was also a Westchester County Judge.[7]
In 1814, Jay and his father were both elected members of theAmerican Antiquarian Society.[8]Together with financierThomas Eddy, Peter Augustus Jay also helped organize and found New York's earliest savings bank, the now defunctNew York Bank for Savings in 1816 (thereby contributing to the establishment of the New York State savings bank system).[9] In 1828, he helped found theNew 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 theNew-York Historical Society (1840–1842).[10]
In 1832, he was honored with a Doctor of Laws fromHarvard University for his "talents and virtues",[5] and from Columbia, in 1835.[11]
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 theNew-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.[12]Jay is best known for giving a speech in 1821 at theNew York State Constitutional Convention 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.'"[13] Despite his impassioned argument, Jay's motion for extending suffrage was overruled.[14]
On July 29, 1807, he married Mary Rutherfurd Clarkson (1786–1838), a daughter of GeneralMatthew Clarkson and Mary (née Rutherfurd) Clarkson.[15] Her uncle wasU.S. SenatorJohn Rutherfurd and her paternal grandfather wasWalter Rutherfurd.[16] Together, they had eight children, including:[11]
His wife died inMadeira, anarchipelago in the northAtlantic Ocean, southwest of Portugal, on December 24, 1838. Peter Augustus Jay died in New York City on February 20, 1843.[11]
His descendants have gone on to become educators, lawyers, diplomats and civic advocates. They includeMary Rutherfurd Jay,Pierre Jay, andJay Pierrepont Moffat andJohn Jay Pierrepont.
Peter Augustus legally received theJay Estate 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 theGreek Revival 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.[25]
TheJay Estate is aNational Historic Landmark within theBoston Post Road Historic District (Rye, New York) as well as aSave America's Treasures 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, theJay Heritage Center, for use as an educational center with programs in American history. In November 2008, it became the first NHL structure inWestchester County and the oldest NHL inNew York State to be fitted with a geothermal heating and cooling system.
Peter Augustus Jay and John Jay's leadership roles in theabolition 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.
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| Preceded by | Recorder of New York City 1819–1821 | Succeeded by |
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