JOHN JAY, STATESMAN AND JURIST 245 



other respects they behaved as it was iuteuded they 

 should. Such a situation was intolerable, and Mr. Jay 

 lost no time in relieving his family from it. He found 

 means to withdraw them, together with some articles of 

 furniture, secretly from the house, and succeeded in 

 putting them on board a A^essel which he had engaged 

 for the purpose. They fortunately set sail without being 

 discovered, and were safely landed at Plymouth in Eng- 

 land. He thought it advisable to remain behind, doubt- 

 less with the design to save what he could from the 

 wreck of his fortune. It was not long before the absence 

 of his family excited attention and produced investiga- 

 tion. After some time he was arrested and committed to 

 prison. Being closely connected with some influential 

 Eoman Catholics, he was, by their interposition and good 

 offices, set at liberty. He was fortunate enough to escape 

 to England in one of his own vessels that arrived from 

 Spain. As soon as his departure was known, his estate 

 was seized, and no part of it afterwards came to the use 

 of either himself or his family. He died in England. Augustus jay 

 His son Augustus, after many adventures, settled in New 

 York in 1686, where he married Anna Maria Bayard, 

 descendant of the Protestant professor of theology at 

 Paris, who had left his country on account of his religion, 

 like so many others, and made his home in Holland. 

 Through his wife's relatives, the Bayards and Stuyve- 

 sants (Peter Stiiyvesant's wife being a Huguenot), and 

 his brother-in-law, Stephen Peloquiu, a merchant of 

 Bristol, England, Augustus Jay soon formed a profitable 

 business connection. His son became partner in his 

 firm ; and in 1740 his name appears as alderman, while 

 the family became allied with the manorial families of 

 Van Cortlandt, Phillipse, and Livingston. 



II 



From his father, Peter Jay, who was a typical New 

 York merchant of the time, a gentleman of opulence. 



