USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 53
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NOTE L.
AUGUSTUS JAY, the first of the Jay family who settled in America, was the son of M. Pierre Jay, a wealthy gentleman of the Protestant city of La Rochelle.
The family of Jay in France is one of great antiquity, and their name occurs frequently in the French annals. It furnished seve. al Presidents of the Parliament of Paris, and branches of it
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were Seigneurs of Boisequin, Montovineau and Château Garmier, in Poictou. From Poictou the family of Pierre Jay had removed to Rochelle, where he married the daughter of M. François.
On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the succeeding persecution and exile of the Hu- guenots, M. Pierre Jay, in 1686, secretly sent his family to England, excepting his son Augustus, then absent on an exploring expedition to Africa, and after being himself arrested and imprisoned for some time in the Tour de la Lanterne, he succeeded in following them, leaving a large estate, which was immediately confiscated. He lived and died at - Plymouth, having lost a son from wounds received in the Battle of the Boyne, 1690, where he fought as a volunteer for the Pro- testant King William, and leaving a daughter, who had married Mr. Peloquim, the Mayor of Bristol.
Augustus Jay, the son of Pierre, on returning to Rochelle, and finding his family exiled, aban- doned France for America, sailing from the Isle of Rhe to Charleston, where the Huguenots had founded a colony, and coming thence to New York. Here Augustus received from William III., in whose service li's brother had died, letters of denization under the great seal of England, and prosecuted his business as a merchant successfully, until it was interrupted by the war between France and England. On two successive voyages his vessel was captured by privatee s, and liim- self some time detained as a prisoner. On the last occasion he was carried to France, and made his escape, and at no little risk visited his aunt at Rochelle, and escaped without being discovered. From France he went to Denmark, and from there to England to visit his father. On landing in England he was arrested as a spy in the service of France, but his father's representation procured his immediate release, and a passport from the Secretary of State.
Returning to New York, he married, 28th October, 1697, Anna Maria, the daughter of Bal- thazar Bayard, whose ancestors had left France for Holland on account of their religion, and whose family was one of the most leading and influential in the colony. The mother of Anna Maria was a daughter of Govert Lockerman, then at the head of the Dutch merchants. Another daughter, Ann, had married Oliver Stephen Van Cortlandt, the Secretary of Gov. Kieft.
Augustus took an interest in the affairs of the city, but bore little part in the politics of the day, which offered no attraction to gentlemen of position. The rivalry between the Dutch and English, subsequently mollified by intermarriages, was then in its height, and Lord Bellamont, in his first speech to the Assembly in 1698, remarked, that " he found a divided people and an empty trea- sury."
The name of Augustus occurs frequently in the city records, and some lots bought by him in 1712, on the northwest corner of Broad and Stone streets, are still held in the family. Here he erected a large two-story dwelling-house, with a front of Holland brick, with a courtyard paved with Bris- tol stones, and there he resided until his death, in 1730.
Augustus left three daughters-Judith, who married Cornelius Van Horne; Maria, who married Pierre Valette; Frances, who married Frederick Van Cortlandt -- and one son.
Peter Jay, born at New York 3d Nov., 1704, and educated in England under the charge of his uncle, Mr. Peloguin. Soon after his return to New York in 1728, he married Mary, the daughter of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, the proprietor of the Van Cortlandt Patent in Westchester, of which the Jay estate at Bedford was a part.
He early retired from active life to his farm at Rye, Westchester County, from which he was driven during the Revolution, and died at Poughkeepsie, New York, 17th April, 1782. He had ten children, among them Eve, who married Henry Munro (the father of the late Peter Jay Munro), Sir James Jay, eminent as a physician, and John Jay.
John Jay was born in the city of New York in 1745. He graduated at King's College in 1764, and, four years afterward, was admitted to the bar. Few played a more conspicuous part in the revo- lution which followed, or aided more in attaining the ultimate result. A delegate to the Continental Congress of 1774, from his pen proceeded the eloquent address presented by that body to the people of Great Britain, which still wins the admiration of every reader. In 1776, he was chosen President of Cong ess. Resigning this position for the service of his native State, when the city had fallen a p ey to the British and the provincial Congress was driven about from place to place through the dange: ous region along the shores of the Hudson, he won a reputation as the head of the well-known Committee of Safety, which watched over the neutral ground, infested by the Skinners and Cow Boys. In 1777, he was a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of New York, and the first draft of that instrument proceeded from his pen. On the organization of the govern- ment in the following year, he received the appointment of Chief Justice of the State. In 1779, lie was dispatched as Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain, where he remained until 1782, vainly endeavor- ing to effect a treaty of alliance. when he was transferred to England as one of the Commissioners to negotiate a peace ; and it was chiefly through his efforts that the intrigue to substitute a twenty- years' truce for a full acknowledgment of independence, which had nearly entrapped Franklin, was foiled, and a definitive treaty obtained, whereby England surrendered all claims to her former
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colonies. This done, he returned to the United States, and assumed the charge of foreign affairs, which he continued to administer until the adoption of the present Constitution in 1789, when he was appointed by Washington first Chief Justice of the United States. In 1784, he was again dispatched as Envoy Extraordinary to Great Britain, where he negotiated the treaty henceforth known by his name. In 1795, before his return, he was elected governor of his native State, an office which he filled until 1801, when, declining a reelection, he withdrew from public affairs, and passed the remainder of his days in study and retirement ; dying in 1829, at the age of eighty-four. Few men contributed more both by word and deed to our independence, and New York may justly be proud of her patriot citizen, John Jay, the Revolutionary statesman.
JOHN JAY married 28th April, 1774, Sarah Van Burgh, daughter of Governor Wm. Livingston of New Jersey. Her portrait and a brief sketch of this lady may be found in Griswold's Republican Court. She died 28th May, 1802. Their children were-PETER AUGUSTUS, born 24th January, 1776, an eminent lawyer and at one time recorder of New York; married Mary, daughter of General Matthew Clarkson, and died in 1844, having had eight children, of whom the eldest son, Dr. John Clarkson Jay, well known as a conchologist, resides upon the Rye estate. He married Laura, daughter of Nathaniel Prime, and has, among other children, Peter and John Clarkson. The other children were Peter Augustus, who married Josephine Pearson, and died, leaving one son, Augustus ; Mary, who married Frederick Prime; Sarah, who married Wm. Dawson; Catharine Helen, who married Henry Augustus Du Bois ; Anna Maria, who married Henry E. Pierrepont; Elizabeth Clarkson, and Susan Matilda, who married Matthew Clarkson. MARIA, born at Madrid, 1782, married Goldsboro' Banyer. ANN JAY, born at Passy, France, August 13th, 1783. These two sisters, of whom a memorial was published by Prof. McVickar, died at New York within a few days of each other in November, 1856. WILLIAM JAY, born 16th June, 1789. First judge of Westchester County, known as an author and philanthropist ; married Augusta, daughter of John McVickar, Esquire, died October 14th, 1858. His children were, Anna, who married Rev. L. P. W. Valch ; Maria, who married John F. Butterworth ; Louisa, who married Dr. Alexander M. Bruen ; Eliza, who married Henry Edward Pellew, Esq., of England, and Augusta, and one son. JOHN JAY, who succeeded to the estate at Bedford, and married Eleanor, daughter of Hickson W. Field, Esq., and has children-Eleanor, Augusta, Mary and Anna, and one son, William Jay.
NOTE M.
THE American ancestor of the well-known De Lancey family was Stephen De Lancey, a native of Caen, in Normandy. Being a Protestant, he fled from the persecutions of Louis XIV. to New York, together with his sister and her husband, Mr. Barbarie. He brought some property with him and occasionally received aid from his mother who remained in Normandy. He was esteemed by his fellow citizens as a sensible and upright man, and an active, skillful and successful merchant.
Stephen De Lancey married a daughter of Stephanus Van Cortlandt of the Cortlandt Manor, by whom he had four sons, James, Oliver, Peter, and John, the latter of whom died young and unmar- ried ; and two daughters, Susannah and Anne.
James was educated at the University of Cambridge. His talents were of a superior order, and his manners were popular and convivial ; he was moral, but not religious. The ascendency which he derived from his intellect and education rendered his example contagious, and his brothers imbibed it as well as many others. He was for many years chosen Trustee of the colony, an office which he filled with general approbation. He was also a member of the council, and was several times called to act as lieutenant-governor. His political and personal influence exceeded that of any other man in the colony. He married a daughter of Caleb Heathcote, and left three sons and four daughters. Of these, James possessed some talent, but was far inferior to his father. He inherited valuable estates, which were confiscated after the Revolution on account of his adherence to the royalist party. He afterward died in England. Stephen, the second son, to whom his father had given a good estate in the manor of Cortlandt, was weak, though not vicious, and died unmarried. John, the third son, was educated in England at Harrow, and at the military school at Greenwich. He entered the British army, and after serving for some years, threw up his commission as captain and returned to his grandfather Heathcote's estate at Mamaroneck, where he died in 1828, leaving three sons and four daughters. Of these, Thomas, the eldest, died a judge of Westchester County, Edward Heathcote, the second, is the present bishop of Western New York, and Edward Floyd, the
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youngest, died in early manhood. His eldest daughter, Anne Charlotte, married John Loudon McAdam of road-making memory ; and Susan Augusta, the second, married J. Fenimore Cooper the American novelist. Mary, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey, became the wife of William Walton of New York ; Anne married the Hon. Thomas Jones, of Fort Neck, and Susannah died unmarried.
Oliver, the second son of Stephen De Lancey, had but an imperfect education. His talents were nearly equal to those of his brother James, and his knowledge of human nature and skill in apply- ing it were rarely exceeded, but his disposition was overbearing and his temper irascible. He took an active part with the British during the Revolutionary struggle, in requital for which, his estates were confiscated by government upon the restoration of peace. He married a daughter of Moses Frank, a merchant of New York, and died in England, leaving two sons, Stephen ard Oliver, and four daughters, one of whom married Col. John Cruger, and another Sir William Draper. Stephen, the eldest son of Oliver De Lancey, was educated at Eaton, and bred a lawyer in New York. He married a daughter of Rev. Dr. Barclay, and died in New Hampshire, leaving several children, among the rest, Sir William DeLancey, who fell at the battle of Waterloo. Oliver, the second son, became an officer in the British army.
Peter, the third son of Stephen De Lancey, had good natural talents, and was frank and liberal; but illiterate and coarse in his tastes and habits. He married a daughter of Cadwallader Colden, by whom he had six sons and five daughters. Of these, Stephen married and removed to Canada ; Peter fell in a duel in England ; John married a lady of the Wickham family, who died leaving him one daughter, who subsequently became the wife of Judge Yates ; Samuel commanded a regiment of Tory refugees in the Revolutionary war ; Oliver was for some time in the British navy, but finally returned to America, and Warren became a farmer in Dutchess County. His eldest daughter, Ann, remained unmarried ; Alice married Ralph Izard, of South Carolina; Elizabeth died unmar- ried ; Susan married Col. Thomas Barclay ; and Jane married John Watts.
The eldest daughter of the first Stephen DeLancey married Captain, afterwards Sir Peter Warren, and the second married John Watts, a member of the Governor's council.
NOTE N.
O THE BETRAYED INHABITANTS OF THE CITY AND COLONY OF NEW YORK.
MY DEAR FELLOW-CITIZENS AND COUNTRYMEN,
In a Day when the Minions of Tyranny and Despotism in the Mother Country, and the Colonies, are indefatigable in laying every Snare that their malevolent and corrupt Hearts can suggest, to enslave a free people; when this unfortunate Country has been striving under many Disadvantages for three Years past, to preserve their Freedom; which to an Englishman is as dear as his life,-when the Merchants of this City and the Capital towns on the Continent, have nobly and cheerfully sacrificed their private Interests to the publick Good, rather than to promote the Designs of the Enemies of our happy Constitution ; it might justly be expected, that in this day of Constitutional Light, the Representatives of this Colony, would not be so hardy, nor so lost to all sense of Duty to their Constituents (especially after the laudable Example of the Colonies of Mas- sachusetts Bay and South Carolina, before them) as to betray the Trust committed to them. This they have done, in passing the Vote to give the Troops a Thousand Pounds out of any Monies that may be in the Treasury and another Thousand out of the Money that may be issued to be put out on Loan, which the Colony will be obliged to make good ; whether the Bill for that Purpose does or does not obtain the Royal Assent. And that they have betrayed the Liberties of the People, will appear from the following Consideration, to wit : That the Ministry are waiting to see, whether the Colonies, in their distressed Circumstances, will divide on any of the grand Points, which they are united in, and contending for, with the Mother Country ; by which they may carry their De- signs against the Colonies, and keep in the Administration. For if this should not take place, the Acts must be repealed; which will be a Reflection on their Conduct, and will bring the Reproach and Clamour of the Nation on them for the loss of Trade to the Empire, which their Mal-conduct has occasioned.
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Our granting Money to the Troops, it is implicitly acknowledging the Authority that enacted the Revenue Acts, and their being obligatory on us. As these Acts were enacted for the express Purpose of taking Money out of our Pockets, without our Consent ; and to provide for the Defending and Support of Government in America ; which Revenue we say by our Grant of Money, is not suf- ficient for the Purpose aforesaid ; therefore, we supply the Deficiency.
This was the Point of View in which these Acts were considered in the Massachusetts and South Carolina Assemblies, and to prevent that dangerous Construction, refuted it. On this important Point we have differed with these spirited Colonies, and do implicitly approve of all the tyrannical conduct of the Ministry to the Bostonians, and by Implication censure their laudable and patriotic Denial. For if they did right (which every sensible American thinks they did) in refusing to pay the Billeting Money, surely we have done wrong, very wrong, in giving it. But our Assembly says, they do their Duty, in granting the Money to the Troops ; consequently the Massachusetts Assembly did not do theirs, in not obeying the Ministerial Mandates. If this is not a division in this grand Point, I know not what it is : and I doubt not but the Ministry will let us know it to our cost ; for it will furnish them with arguments and fresh Courage. Is this a grateful Retaliation to that brave and sensible People, for the spirited and early notice they took of the Suspending Act ? No, it is base Ingratitude, and betraying the Common Cause of Liberty.
To what other influence than the deserting the American Cause, can the Ministry attribute so pusillanimous a Conduct, as this of the Assembly ? So repugnant and subversive of all the means we have used, and opposition that has been made by this and the other Colonies, to the tyrannical Conduct of the British Parliament ! To no other. Can there be a more ridiculous Farce to impose on the People, than for the Assembly to vote their Thanks to be given to the Merchants, for enter- ing into an Agreement not to Import Goods from Britain, until the Revenue Acts should be repealed while they at the same Time counteract it by countenancing British Acts, and complying with Ministerial Requisitions, incompatible with our Freedom ? Surely there can not.
And what makes the Assembly's granting this Money the more grievous, is, that it goes to the Support of the Troops kept here, not to protect, but to enslave us. Has not the truth of this Re- mark been lately exemplified in the audacious, domineering and inhuman Maj. Pullaine, who ordered a guard to protect a sordid Miscreant, that transgressed the laudable Non Importation Agreement of the Merchants, in order to break that, which is the only means left them, under God, to baffie the Designs of their Enemies, to enslave this Continent. This Consideration alone ought to be sufficient to induce a free People, not to grant the Troops any Supply whatsoever, if we had no dispute with the Mother Country, that made it necessary not to concede anything that might destroy our Freedom ; Reasons of Economy and good Policy suggest that we ought not to grant the Troops Money.
Whoever is the least acquainted with the English History, must know that Grants frequently made to the Crown, are not to be refused, but with some Degree of Danger of disturbing the Re- pose of the Kingdom or Colony. This evinces the expediency of our stopping these Grants now, while we are embroiled with the Mother Country ; so that we may not, after the Grand Controversy is settled, have a new Bone of Contention about the Billeting Money ; which must be the Case if we do not put an End to it at this time : For the Colony, in its impoverished State, cannot support a charge which amounts to near as much per Annum, as all the other expenses of the Government besides."
Hence it follows, that the Assembly have not been attentive to the Liberties of the Continent ; nor to the Property of the good People of this Colony in particular. We must therefore attribute this Sacrifice of the public Interest to some corrupt Source. This is very manifest in the Guilt and Confession that covered the faces of the perfidious Abettors of this Measure, when the House was in Debate on the Subject Mr. Colden knows, from the Nature of Things, that he cannot have the least Prospect to be in Administration again ; and therefore, that he may make Hay while the Sun shines, and get a full Salary from the Assembly, flatters the ignorant Members of it, with the Coll- sideration of the Success of a Bill, to emit a Paper Currency, when he and his artful Coadjutors must know, that it is only a Snare to impose on the Simple; for it will obtain the Royal Assent. But while he is solicitous to obtain his Salary, he must attend to his Posterity. And as some of his children hold offices under the Government, if he did not procure an obedience to its Requisitions, or do his Duty, in case the Assembly refused the Billeting Money, by dissolving them, his Children might be in danger of losing their offices. If he dissolved the Assembly, they would not give him his Salary.
The Delancy Family knowing the Ascendency they have in the present House of Assembly, and how useful that influence will be to manage a new Governor, have left no Stone unturned to pre- vent a Dissolution. The Assembly, conscious to themselves, of having trampled on the Liberties of the People, and fearing their just resentments on such an event, are equally careful to preserve
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their Seats, expecting that if they can do it at this critical Juncture, as it is imagined the grand Controversy will be settled this Winter, they will serve for Seven Years ; in which Time they hope the People will forget the present injuries done to them. To secure these several Objects, the Delancy Family, like true Politicians, although they were to all Appearance, at mortal Odds with Mr. Colden, and represented him in all Companies, as an Enemy to his Country ; yet a Coalition is low formed, in order to secure to them the Sovereign Lordship of this Colony : The effect of which, has given Birth to the Abominable Vote, by which the Liberties of the People are betrayed. In short, they have brought Matters to such a Pass, that all the Checks resulting from the Form of our happy Constitution, are destroyed. The Assembly might as well invite the Council, to save the trouble of Formalities, to take their Seats in the House of Assembly, and place the Lieutenant Governor in the Speaker's Chair, and then there would be no Waste of Time in going from House co House, and his Honour would have the Pleasure to see how zealous his former enemies are in promoting his Interests to serve themselves. Is this a State to be rested in when our all is at Stake. No, my Countrymen, Rouse ! imitate the noble Example of the Friends of Liberty in Eng- land, who rather than be enslaved, contend for their right with the K-g, Lords and Commons. And will you suffer your Liberties to be torn from you by your own Representatives ? Tell it not in Boston; publish it not in the Streets of Charleston ! You have means yet left to preserve a Unanimity with the brave Bostonians and Carolinians, and to prevent the Accomplishment of the Designs of Tyrants. The House was so nearly divided on the Subject of granting Money in the Way the Vote passed, that one would have prevented it; you have therefore a respectable Minority. What I advise to be done, is, to assemble in the Fields on Monday next, where your Sense ought to be taken on this important Point ; notwithstanding the impudence of Mr. Jauncey, in decla:ing in the House, that he had consulted his Constituents, and that they were for giving money. After this is done, go in a Body to your Members, and insist on their joining with the Minority to oppose the Bill ; if they dare refuse your just Requisition,-appoint a Committee, to draw up the State of the whole Matter, and send it to the Speakers of the several Houses of Assembly on the Continent, and to the Friends of our Cause in England, and publish it in the News Papers, that the whole World may know your Sentiments on this Matter in the only Way your Circumstances will admit. And I am confident it will spirit the Friends of our Cause, and chagrin our Enemies. Let the Notification to call on the People, be so expressed, that whoever absents himself, will be considered as agreeing to what shall be done by such as shall meet .- And that you may succeed, is the unfeigned Desire of
NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 1769.
A SON OF LIBERTY.
NOTE O.
FROM recent discoveries, the Belvidere Club House appears to have been built by the Club after the Revolution.
NOTE P.
For the following copy of the original contract between Henry Hudson and the Amsterdam Chamber, together with an abstract of the instructions for the voyage, transcribed from an unpub- lished history of the Company, published at its request by P. Van Dam, counsel for the Company from 1652 to 1706, we are indebted to the valuable brochure, "Henry Hudson in Holland," recently published by the Hon. Henry C. Murphy, United States Minister at the Hague. The con- tract exists entire, the instructions in abstract only, that portion of them only being given relating to the proposed route of the expedition, and from these it would seem that the discovery of the island of Manhattan and the Hudson River, by the bold and persistent navigator, was the result
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of direct disobedience to the commands of his more cautious employers. The contract made by the Amsterdam Chamber alone and signed by two directors in its behalf, was concurred in by the whole Company before the sailing of the expedition. In consequence of Hudson's ignorance of the Dutch language, the instrument was executed on his part with the aid of Jodocus Hondius as interpreter :
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