Peter Augustus Jay

Peter Augustus Jay (January 24, 1776 – February 20, 1843) was the eldest son of Founding Father and first United States Chief Justice, John Jay. Peter was one of 6 children born to John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay, and one of two boys (brother William was born in 1789) with four sisters: Susan (born and died in 1780); Maria (b. 1782), Ann (b. 1783) and Sarah Louisa (b. 1792).

Peter Augustus Jay was born at "Liberty Hall," in 1776, at the home of his grandparents', the Livingstons, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Like his father, he graduated from King's College, the precursor of Columbia University. Notably following his graduation in 1794, Peter Augustus acted as private secretary to his father in London for the Jay Treaty. The young Jay studied law and established a practice in New York City with his cousin Peter Jay Munro, carrying on a family tradition of public service. He married Mary Rutherfurd Clarkson, daughter of General Matthew Clarkson, in 1807 and they had 8 children.

From 1812 to 1817, Peter Augustus Jay helped found the Bank for Savings (thereby contributing to the establishment of the New York State savings bank system). In 1814, Jay and his father were both elected members of the American Antiquarian Society. As a Federalist, he was a member from New York City of the New York State Assembly in 1816, during which time he was active in arranging the financing for the construction of the Erie Canal. He ran many times for Congress, but was always defeated by the Democratic-Republican candidates. From 1819 to 1821, he was Recorder of New York City. He was a delegate from Westchester Co. to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1821. He helped found the New York Law Institute in 1828, 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 the New York Historical Society (1840–1842). For a time he was also a Westchester County Judge.

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