# John Jay *American statesman, diplomat and first Chief Justice of the United States* John Jay (December 23, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was a Founding Father of the United States who signed the Treaty of Paris and served the new nation as a diplomat and statesman.[^1] He was the first Chief Justice of the United States, from 1789 to 1795, and then the second [[governor]] of New York, from 1795 to 1801.[^1] For much of the 1780s he led the country's foreign policy. After the Constitution was ratified in 1788, he became a leading figure in the Federalist Party.[^1] Jay's family were wealthy merchants and New York City officeholders of French Huguenot and Dutch descent.[^1] Trained as a lawyer, he joined the New York Committee of Correspondence, which organized opposition to British measures including the Intolerable Acts.[^1] He sat in both Continental Congresses and presided over the second. He was ambassador to Spain from 1779 to 1782 and helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris. He then served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation and as interim first secretary of state.[^1] As governor, Jay secured passage of gradual emancipation legislation; the 1800 census nonetheless records him as the owner of five slaves.[^1] He co-wrote *The Federalist Papers*, and in 1794, while still Chief Justice, he negotiated the Jay Treaty with Britain.[^1] ## Birth and family background Jay was born in New York City on December 23, 1745 (December 12 under the Julian calendar). Three months later the family moved to Rye, New York.[^2] Two of his father's children contracted smallpox in an epidemic and were left totally blind. After the epidemic, his father, Peter Jay (1704–1782), retired from business. Peter had grown wealthy trading furs, wheat, timber and other goods.[^2] The family descended from Huguenots who fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Jay's paternal grandfather, Auguste Jay, went first to Charleston, South Carolina, and then to New York, where he built a merchant business.[^2] His mother, Mary Van Cortlandt (1705–1777), was of Dutch ancestry. She married Peter Jay in 1728 in the Dutch Church. Of their ten children, seven lived to adulthood.[^2] Her father, Jacobus Van Cortlandt, sat in the New York Assembly and was twice elected mayor of New York City.[^2] ## Education Jay's mother taught him at home in Rye until he was eight. He was then sent to New Rochelle to study under the Anglican priest Pierre Stoupe. In 1756 he returned to lessons at home.[^3] At 14, in 1760, he entered King's College (later Columbia College), where Robert Livingston became his closest friend.[^3] After graduating in 1764 he clerked for the lawyer Benjamin Kissam. He was promoted to Master of Arts in 1767.[^3] ### Entrance into law and politics Jay was admitted to the New York bar in 1768 and opened his own law office in 1771.[^3] In 1774 he joined the New York Committee of Correspondence and became its secretary, his first public role in the revolution.[^3] As a delegate to the First Continental Congress that year, he sided with those seeking conciliation with Parliament.[^3] ## Marriage and family On April 28, 1774, Jay married Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, eldest daughter of New Jersey Governor William Livingston. She was seventeen and he was twenty-eight.[^4] They had six children: Peter Augustus, Susan, Maria, Ann, William and Sarah Louisa.[^4] Sarah went with Jay to Spain and later joined him in Paris. There the family lived with Benjamin Franklin at Passy.[^4] Jay's father died while Jay was a diplomat in Paris. Jay then took responsibility for his brother Peter and sister Anna, both blinded by smallpox, and for his brother Augustus.[^4] ## Personal views ### Slavery The Jay family took part in the slave trade as investors, traders and slaveholders.[^5] The New York Slavery Records Index lists Jay's father and paternal grandfather as investors in at least 11 slave ships. Those ships brought more than 120 enslaved people to New York between 1717 and 1733.[^5] Over his lifetime Jay himself purchased, owned, rented out and manumitted at least 17 slaves. He is not known to have owned or invested in any slave ship.[^5] In 1783 Abigail, a woman Jay enslaved, attempted to escape in Paris. She was found and imprisoned, and she died soon afterward of illness. Jay suggested that she be left in prison for some time.[^5] Jay was a founder of the New York Manumission Society. Even so, the 1790 and 1800 U.S. censuses each record him as owning five slaves. By the 1810 census he had freed all but one.[^5] He did not advocate immediate emancipation. Instead he kept purchasing enslaved people and freed them once he judged that their labor had "afforded a reasonable retribution."[^5] In 1774 he drafted the *Address to the People of Great Britain*, which compared American slavery with unpopular British policies.[^5] In an 1819 letter opposing Missouri's admission as a slave state, he wrote that slavery "ought not to be introduced nor permitted in any of the new states."[^6] ## During the American Revolution Jay at first favored rapprochement with Britain and helped write the Olive Branch Petition.[^7] As war came, he backed the revolution and the Declaration of Independence and became an ardent separatist.[^7] After the First Continental Congress ended in 1774, he served on New York City's Committee of Sixty. There he sought to enforce the Congress's nonimportation agreement.[^7] In 1775 the New York Provincial Congress named him commander of the Second Regiment of the New York City militia.[^7] As a member of the third New York Provincial Congress, Jay drafted the Constitution of New York, 1777. Those duties kept him from voting on or signing the Declaration of Independence.[^7] He served for several months on the New York Committee to Detect and Defeat Conspiracies, which monitored Loyalist activity.[^7] On May 8, 1777, the Provincial Congress elected him Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature, a post he held for two years.[^7] The Continental Congress elected him its President three days after he became a delegate.[^7] ## As a diplomat ### Minister to Spain Jay was appointed Minister to Spain on September 27, 1779. His charge was to obtain financial aid, commercial treaties and recognition of American independence.[^8] The Spanish court refused to receive him officially, and Spain withheld recognition of independence until 1783.[^8] Jay nonetheless obtained a $170,000 loan to the United States government, which the Count of Aranda delivered to him. He left Spain on May 20, 1782.[^8] ### Peace Commissioner Jay arrived in Paris on June 23, 1782.[^8] In July 1782 the Earl of Shelburne offered the Americans independence. Jay turned the offer down because it did not recognize American independence during the negotiations, and his objection stalled the talks until the fall.[^8] Under the final treaty, Britain acknowledged American independence, granted Newfoundland fishing rights and agreed to withdraw its troops. In return, the United States agreed to stop seizing Loyalist property and to honor private debts.[^8] Many border regions remained in dispute, and many provisions went unenforced. John Adams said Jay had been "of more importance than any of the rest of us."[^8] ## The Federalist Papers, 1788 Jay concluded that his responsibilities exceeded his authority under the Articles of Confederation. He joined Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in pressing for a stronger government.[^9] He did not attend the Constitutional Convention.[^9] Under the shared pseudonym "Publius," the three published *The Federalist Papers*, a series of eighty-five essays. Jay wrote five of them.[^9][^1] ## The Jay Court In September 1789 Jay declined George Washington's offer of the post of Secretary of State. He accepted the office of Chief Justice of the United States instead, which Washington called "the keystone of our political fabric."[^10] Washington nominated him on September 24, 1789, the day he signed the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Senate confirmed Jay unanimously on September 26, and Washington signed and sealed his commission that day.[^10] Jay took the oath of office on October 19, 1789.[^10] Washington also nominated [[John Rutledge]], [[William Cushing]], Robert Harrison, [[James Wilson (Founding Father)]] and [[John Blair Jr.]] as associate judges. Harrison declined, and [[James Iredell]] filled the last seat.[^10] Jay later served alongside [[Thomas Johnson (judge)]], who succeeded Rutledge, and [[William Paterson (judge)]], who succeeded Johnson.[^10] He rode the Eastern Circuit from spring 1790 to spring 1792 and the Middle Circuit from spring 1793 to spring 1794. In 1790 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[^10] In six years the Court decided four cases.[^1] ## 1792 campaign for Governor of New York Jay ran for governor of New York in 1792 as the Federalist candidate and lost to Democratic-Republican George Clinton.[^11] Jay received more votes than Clinton. However, the returns of Otsego, Tioga and Clinton counties were disqualified on technical grounds, leaving Clinton with a slight plurality.[^11] The state constitution required that ballots be delivered to the secretary of state by the [[sheriff]] or his deputy. In Otsego County, the sheriff's term had expired, so the office was legally vacant.[^11] ## Jay Treaty By 1794 Britain and the United States were close to war.[^12] Britain had not evacuated eight forts in the Northwest Territory. From 1793 British authorities seized almost 300 American merchant ships trading with the French West Indies.[^12] Washington sent Jay to Great Britain as a special envoy, and Jay remained Chief Justice. Hamilton wrote Jay's instructions for the negotiations.[^12] The resulting treaty reached Philadelphia in March 1795.[^12] Under its terms, Britain withdrew from the Northwest Territory forts and granted the United States "most favored nation" status. U.S. merchants received restricted access to the British West Indies.[^12] The treaty left American grievances over neutral shipping rights and impressment unresolved, and the Democratic-Republicans denounced it.[^12][^1] ## Governor of New York Jay was elected governor of New York in May 1795, while he was still in Britain. He ran as a Federalist and succeeded George Clinton.[^13] He resigned from the Supreme Court on June 29, 1795, and was governor until 1801.[^13] Hamilton proposed that he gerrymander New York for the 1796 presidential election. Jay marked the letter "Proposing a measure for party purposes which it would not become me to adopt" and filed it without replying.[^13] President John Adams renominated Jay to the Supreme Court, and the Senate confirmed him. Jay declined. He cited his poor health and the Court's lack of "the energy, weight and dignity which are essential to its affording due support to the national government."[^13] Adams then nominated [[John Marshall]] as Chief Justice.[^13] Jay won five electoral votes in the 1796 presidential election. In 1800 he received one vote, cast to prevent a tie between the two main Federalist candidates.[^13] ## Retirement from politics In 1801 Jay declined both the Federalist renomination for governor and a Senate-confirmed nomination to return as Chief Justice. He retired to farm in Westchester County, New York.[^6] His wife died soon after his retirement.[^6] In 1814 he and his son Peter Augustus Jay were elected members of the American Antiquarian Society.[^6] ## Death On the night of May 14, 1829, Jay was stricken with palsy, probably from a stroke. He died in Bedford, New York, on May 17.[^14] At his death he was the last surviving President of the Continental Congress and the last surviving delegate to the First Continental Congress.[^14] He had chosen burial in Rye. In 1807 he had moved the remains of his wife and his colonial ancestors there from the family vault in the Bowery, establishing a private cemetery.[^14] The Jay Cemetery is part of the Boston Post Road Historic District. It is maintained by Jay's descendants and closed to the public.[^14] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia, *John Jay* (lead section; revision 1379421236, retrieved 2026-10-26) — summary of Jay's offices, the Jay Court's caseload, his Federalist essays, the Jay Treaty, and his 1800 slaveholding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^2]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "Birth and family background" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth, move to Rye, Huguenot and Dutch ancestry, parents and siblings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^3]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "Education" and "Entrance into law and politics" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — schooling, King's College, clerkship, bar admission, Committee of Correspondence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^4]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "Marriage and family" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — marriage, children, residence at Passy, family obligations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^5]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "Personal views — Slavery" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — family slave-ship investment, Jay's slaveholding and manumissions, census records, Abigail, the 1774 Address. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^6]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "Retirement from politics" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — 1801 declinations, retirement to Westchester County, 1819 Missouri letter, 1814 American Antiquarian Society election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^7]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "During the American Revolution" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — Olive Branch Petition, Committee of Sixty, militia command, 1777 New York constitution, state chief justiceship, presidency of Congress. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^8]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "As a diplomat" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — mission to Spain, the $170,000 loan, Paris peace negotiations and treaty terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^9]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "The Federalist Papers, 1788" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — advocacy of a stronger government and authorship as "Publius." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^10]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "The Jay Court" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — nomination, confirmation, oath, fellow justices and circuit duties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^11]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "1792 campaign for Governor of New York" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — defeat by George Clinton and the disqualified county returns. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^12]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "Jay Treaty" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — background, negotiation, terms and reception of the treaty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^13]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "Governor of New York" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — election, Court resignation, Hamilton letter, declined renomination, electoral votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay [^14]: Wikipedia, *John Jay*, "Death" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — final illness, death in Bedford, burial and the Jay Cemetery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay