THE TOWN OF RYE. 201 



befriended and assisted their countrymen, or those connected with them. 



Soon after his marriage, finding himself in comfortable and respect- 

 able circumstances, Mr. Jay sent out for his father and sister : but the 

 father felt that his declining years would not permit such a voyage, and 

 the sister would on no account leave him. Augustus Jay went on for 

 many years increasing his wealth and influence ; and, after having had 

 three children, all of whom were daughters, he was at last made happy 

 by the birth of a son in the year 1704. This son, the father of John Jay, 

 he named Peter. No other children were born ; and Peter, therefore, at 

 his father's death, which did not take place until he had reached the 

 age of eighty-four, found himself sole bearer of the name of Jay. 



Peter Jay, like his father and grand-father, was a merchant and fol- 

 lowed his business with such success, that at the age of forty he was able 

 to retire and live on the proceeds of his industry. At the age of twenty- 

 four, he married Mary van Cortlandt. This lady was the daughter of 

 Jacobus van Cortlandt of the Lower Yonckers, by his wife Eva Philipse, 

 daughter of the Hon. Frederick Philipse, lord of the manor of Philips- 

 burgh. Through this lady, the Jays subsequently became possessed of 

 the Bedford estates. 



Peter Jay, Esq., by his wife Mary van Cortlandt, had ten children. 



Their eighth child, John Jay, was born on the 12th of December, 

 1745, the same year that his father purchased the Rye estate. 3 At the 

 age of eight years, John Jay was sent to a grammar school at New Ro- 

 chelle ; his instructor being the Rev. Pierre Stouppe, minister of the 

 French Episcopal church. " Here he continued for three years, and 

 was then placed by his father under the care of a private tutor, who pre- 

 pared him for college. The one selected was King's, now Columbia 

 College, an institution that boasts of many celebrated men among its 

 alumni." 



" In his fourth collegiate year he decided upon the law as his future 

 profession. 6 At the commencement held at St. George's chapel, May, 

 1764, General Gage and his Majesty's council, &c, being present, Rich- 

 ard Harrison, seventeen years of age, delivered the salutatory oration ; 

 John Jay, a dissertation on the blessings of peace." Upon this occasion 

 he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts. 



The annexed sketch of Mr. Jay's subsequent life is from Blake's Bi- 

 ographical Dictionary. 



" John Jay, LL. D., first Chief Justice of the United States under 

 the constitution of 1789, graduated at King's (now Columbia) College, 



a Here John Jay spent his boyhood. 



b Compiled and abridged f:om the life of John Jay by Henry B. Renwick, 



