200 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



gees was enrolled by the former to assist in driving from Ireland his 

 catholic competitor for the throne. Into this regiment Isaac entered, 

 impelled by the ardor of youth, and no doubt not a little by the recol- 

 lection of the many insults and injuries he and his family had received 

 at the hands of those who professed the Romish religion. He sealed 

 his conviction of the justice of his own cause with his blood, and died 

 not long after the battle of the Boyne, from the effects of wounds re- 

 ceived in that engagement. 



In the year 1692, Augustus, while pursuing his commercial avoca- 

 tions, started on a voyage from New York to Hamburg ; on the passage 

 the vessel was captured by a French privateer, and carried into St. Ma- 

 loes. He, with other prisoners, was confined, not very closely as it ap- 

 pears by subsequent events, in a fortress about fifteen miles from , that 

 place. While there, news arrived of the battle of La Hogue, and the 

 prisoners were ordered into closer confinement. They, in some way, re- 

 ceived news of this order ; and determined, before it was put in force, to 

 effect their escape. Accordingly, on the evening that was to precede their 

 imprisonment, Augustus and some of his companions succeeded in scaling 

 the wall and dropping into the ditch. Whether his friends were 

 stunned by the fall, or re-captured, he had no means of ascertaining. He 

 himself, however, got out of the ditch, took the road and arrived at Ro- 

 chelle. Here he was secreted and protected by his aunt, until she found 

 means to send him to the isle of Aux Rhe, whence he got passage to 

 Denmark. On hir. way home he passed through Holland, performed 

 his business there, and then crossed over to England, where he saw his 

 father and sister for the first time since their separation so many years 

 before. There was one drawback to their joy, one cause of grief; the 

 mother who had gone through so many trials with them, was no more. 

 The calls of business soon separated this happy party, and Augustus took 

 a last farewell, and returnned to his business in America. 



A few years after his return he married Anna Maria, daughter of Mr. 

 Balthazar Bayard. She, like himself, was descended from a family who 

 had suffered from religious persecution. Her great grand-father was a 

 Frenchman, a Protestant professor of theology in one of the colleges at 

 Paris, who was forced either to give up his religion or leave his country, 

 during the reign of Louis XIII. He chose the latter alternative, and 

 fled to Holland, whence his grand-son emigrated to this country. 



By this marriage, Augustus Jay found himself surrounded by a num- 

 erous and influential Dutch connection. In the colony of New York, 

 the descendants of the Dutch were the most numerous class of the pop- 

 ulation ; and they were remarkable for the liberal manner in which they 



