Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 53

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650

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For a short time he was assistant surgeon in the Emory Hospital, Washington, D. C., but in 1865 returned to New York and became associated with Dr. Peaslee, and has held notable professional offices and appointments, being president of the New York County Medical Association, and has been professionally connected with the Demilt Dispensary, the Woman's Hospital, New York Skin and Cancer Hospital, Orphans' Home and the Asylum of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is ex-president of the New York Obstetrical Society and is a member of many national and international medical bodies. Dr. Janvrin has also written a large number of papers on professional topics, many of which have commanded international attention.

In 1881, Dr. Janvrin married Laura L. La Wall, daughter of the late Cyrus La Wall, of Easton, Pa. Mrs. Janvrin's grandfather was an officer in the Revolution, as were two ancestors on her mother's side, Colonel Robert Scott, of Pennsylvania, and John Schureman, of New Jersey. Dr. and Mrs. Janvrin have two children, Edmund Randolph Peaslee Janvrin and Marguerite La Wall Janvrin. Their residence is 191 Madison Avenue. Dr. Janvrin is a member of the Union League Club, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Loyal Legion and the Grand Army of the Republic.

The Janvrin arms are: Azure, a chevron argent between two bezants or. in chief and a fleur-de-lys of the second in base, surmounted by an escutcheon quarterly, first; the arms as above, the chevron charged with a crescent gules; second; argent, three escallops gules; third; gules a mullet argent, on a chief of the second an arm erect couped at elbow, vested azure, cuffed argent, hand gules; fourth; argent on a chief sable three griffins' heads erased argent. Crest; a griffin's head couped between the wings or. Motto, Labor ipse voluptas.

318

JOHN CLARKSON JAY, M. D.

W HEN Chief Justice John Jay went abroad in 1794 to negotiate "Jay's Treaty," he was accompanied by his eldest son, Peter Augustus Jay, as his private secretary. The son was born in Elizabethtown, N. J., January 24th, 1776, and graduated from Columbia College in 1794. His ancestry and connections are given in the sketch pertaining to Colonel William Jay, who is descended from a younger branch. The main line of the family is transmitted from Augustus Jay and Chief Justice John Jay through Peter Augustus Jay, who became a lawyer and achieved high rank at the New York bar. In 1816, he was a member of the Assembly, held the office of Recorder of New York City in 1819, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1827. Columbia College selected him as a trustee in 1812-17, and again in 1823-43, and part of the time he was chairman of the board. The New York Historical Society made him its president for three years, 1840-43. Harvard College gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1831, and Columbia conferred the same honor in 1835. He was a man of great learning and an accomplished jurist. When in the Assembly he had the honor, with his brother William, of introducing the first bill for the abolishment of slavery in New York. His wife, Mary Rutherfurd Clarkson, who married Peter A. Jay in 1807, was a daughter of General Matthew Clarkson, 1759-1825, the patriot of the Revolution, and a great-granddaughter of the first Matthew Clarkson, who was secretary of the Province for thirteen years. She was also a granddaughter of Abraham de Peyster.

The father of the present Doctor Jay was the first Doctor John Clarkson Jay, the eldest of their family of eight children. Born in 1808 and graduated from Columbia College in 1827 and the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1831, he was a successful practitioner and an accomplished scientist. He devoted much time to the study of conchology and became an expert on that subject, writing many essays and several books upon it. His valuable collection was purchased after his death by Catherine L. Wolfe and presented to the American Museum of Natural History, where it is kept intact as the Jay collection. Doctor Jay was one of the founders of the Lyceum of Natural History, afterwards the National Academy of Science, and was its treasurer from 1836 to 1843. He was also one of the founders of the New York Yacht Club, of which he was the first secretary. His wife was Laura Prime, daughter of Nathaniel Prime, the famous New York merchant, descended from Mark Prime, who came from England to Massachusetts about 1638.

Dr. John Clarkson Jay of the present generation was their youngest son. He was educated at the Dudley Collegiate Institute, Northampton, Mass., Charlier's French school in New York, the Columbia College Grammar School, Columbia College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating from the latter in 1865. During the Civil War, he served in the Seventy-First Regiment, New York State Militia, and was also Acting-Assistant Surgeon at the United States Army hospitals in Washington and New Orleans. After the war he studied in Vienna and Prague, and, returning, began the practice of his profession in New York. From 1869 to 1871, he was attending physician to the New York Dispensary, from 1880 to 1892, was attending physician to the out-patient department of the New York Hospital, was one of the founders of the New York Free Dispensary for sick children, and since 1892 has been an examiner of lunacy in the State of New York.

Doctor Jay is a member of the Medical Society of the City and that of the County of New York, the Physicians' Mutual Aid Association, the City Club, the Century Association, the Union League Club and the Sons of the Revolution. He has translated several important medical works from the French and German.

The wife of Doctor Jay, whom he married in 1872, was Harriette Arnold Vinton, daughter of Major-General David H. Vinton, U. S. A. The residence of Doctor and Mrs. Jay is at 54 West Forty-seventh Street. They have two children, Edith Van Cortlandt Jay and John Clarkson Jay, Jr., who is a student at St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H.

319

WILLIAM JAY

P IERRE JAY, a wealthy Protestant merchant of La Rochelle, France, was the ancestor of a family which, for two hundred years, has been the accepted representative of the Huguenots in America, and which has furnished men of the highest eminence to their adopted country. At the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, Pierre Jay and his family escaped to England. One of his sons, Augustus Jay, born in 1665, was absent on a voyage to the African Coast, and returned to France in ignorance of the blow which had fallen on his coreligionists. He, however, made his way to New York in the same year and established himself there. His wealth, education and personal presence made Augustus Jay a man of mark, and his position was further raised by his marriage, in 1697, to Anne Maria Bayard, daughter of Balthazer Bayard and his wife, Maria Lockermans, a grandniece of Governor Stuyvesant. He died in New York in 1751. His son Peter, born in 1704, bought in 1745 a large estate near Rye, in Westchester County, and married Mary Van Cortlandt, daughter of Jacobus Van Cortlandt and Eve Philipse, the family thus from the very commencement allying itself with the most prominent representatives of social importance and culture in the city.

The eighth child of this marriage was the celebrated John Jay. Born in 1745, he was graduated at Kings (now Columbia) College in 1764, and was called to the bar in 1768. In 1774, he married Sarah Livingston, daughter of Governor William Livingston, of New Jersey. In the struggle with the mother country, he took part from the first, being a delegate to the Continental Congress of 1774 and that of 1775. While a member of the latter, he was elected to the New York Provincial Congress and drafted the first constitution of the State. In 1778, he was president of Congress; in 1780 became Minister to Spain, and in 1782 was one of the Commissioners who negotiated the peace between the United States and Great Britain. He cooperated with Hamilton and Madison in the authorship of The Federalist, and on the adoption of the Constitution, in 1789, was appointed the first Chief Justice of the United States in 1794. While still Chief Justice, he was Envoy to England, and completed his political career by service as Governor of New York from 1798 to 1801, resigning the Chief Justiceship to become Governor. The remainder of his life, till his death, in 1829, was passed at the mansion he had built, Bedford House, Katonah, N. Y., an estate inherited from his Van Cortlandt ancestors. This house is still inhabited by his descendants and belongs to Colonel William Jay.

Judge William Jay, his second son, 1789-1858, was a graduate of Yale in 1807 and became a prominent jurist and philanthropist. He was a judge of Westchester County from 1818 to 1835, was one of the earliest and most active opponents of slavery, and by his writings contributed greatly to making that question one of public conscience. He married Augusta, daughter of John McVicker, whose family had long been prominent in the metropolis.

The late Honorable John Jay, the only son of this alliance, was born in 1817, and followed his father's example in his hostility to slavery, and his advocacy of philanthropic causes. He was United States Minister to Austria from 1869 to 1875, and took an active part in promoting reform of the civil service. He married Eleanor Kingsland Field, daughter of Hickson W. Field, and died in 1894, his career having been one of devotion to duty as a citizen and Christian.

Colonel William Jay, his only son, was born in 1841, entered the United States Army, served throughout the Rebellion, being on the staff of General George B. Meade, the Commander of the Army of the Potomac, and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet. Resigning from the army, he was called to the bar and is in active practice in New York. Colonel Jay married Lucy Oelrichs, daughter of Henry Oelrichs, a leading New York merchant. He is a vestryman of Trinity Church, a position which he is the fifth in line of his family to occupy, his ancestor, Augustus Jay, having been one of the early members of the vestry. One prominent sport owes much of its prestige in New York to Colonel Jay's efforts. He was one of the first members of the Coaching Club and was its president from 1876 to 1896.

320

FREDERICK BEACH JENNINGS

F ROM Joshua Jennings, the American pioneer, have sprung many families, which have been prominent and influential in the State of Connecticut, where their common ancestor originally settled, and in other parts of the United States. Joshua Jennings was born in England about 1620 and came to this country when he was nearly twenty-five years of age. Settling first in Hartford, he afterwards removed to Fairfield, where he died in 1674. In each of the five successive generations from Joshua Jennings to Mr. Frederick Beach Jennings came an Isaac Jennings. The Isaac Jennings of the second American generation was born in 1663 and died in 1746. The next Isaac Jennings was born in 1692, and the third Isaac Jennings, 1743-1819, was a prosperous farmer and manufacturer of Fairfield. During the War of the Revolution, he served as a Lieutenant. His wife was Abigail Gould, 1754-1795, daughter of Colonel Abraham Gould, of Fairfield, and descended from Major Nathan Gould or Gold, one of the early settlers of Connecticut.

Isaac Jennings, the grandfather of Mr. Frederick Beach Jennings, was born in Fairfield in 1788, was a resident of Derby, Conn., and afterwards of Oberlin, O., where he died in 1874. Educated as a physician, he received the degree of M. D. and engaged in practice at Derby. He was best known as a writer upon medical and allied subjects, especially regarding hygiene. His published works included Medical Reform, The Philosophy of Human Life, The Tree of Life and Orthopathy. The wife of Dr. Isaac Jennings was Anne Beach, daughter of Eliakim Beach, of Trumbull, Conn.

The Reverend Isaac Jennings, son of Dr. Isaac Jennings, was the father of Mr. Frederick Beach Jennings. He was born in Fairfield in 1816, but removed to Derby with his parents in 1822. Graduated from Yale College in 1837, he taught school in Washington, Conn., and then had charge of the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven for one year. While teaching in New Haven he studied theology and afterwards attended the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass., from which institution he was graduated in 1842. Settled at first over the Second Congregational Church of Akron, O., in 1843, he became pastor of the First Church in Stamford, Conn., in 1847, and pastor of the First Church of Christ in Bennington, Vt., in 1853. He traveled in Europe in 1859 and wrote much for publication, his principal work being a book entitled Memorials of a Century. His wife, whom he married in Mansfield, O., in 1847, was Sophia Day, daughter of Matthias Day.

Mr. Frederick Beach Jennings was born in Bennington, Vt., in 1853. Prepared for college in the local academy, he went to Williams College, from which institution he was graduated in 1872 and of which he subsequently became a trustee. Taking up the study of law in the Dane Law School of Harvard University, he was graduated therefrom with the degree of LL. B. in 1874, and the following year was graduated from the Law School of New York University with the same degree, taking at his graduation first prize for the best essay. The same year he was admitted to practice and established the firm of Jennings & Russell, and is now a member of the firm of Stetson, Tracy, Jennings & Russell. He is the counsel of the Erie Railroad Company, as well as of various other railroads and corporations. He is also interested in business enterprises and is an officer and member of the board of directors of various corporations, including several railroad companies, a bank and other financial and business organizations.

In 1880, Mr. Jennings married Laura Hall Park, daughter of the Honorable Trenor W. Park, of North Bennington, Vt., and granddaughter of former Governor Hiland Hall, of Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Jennings have four children, Percy Hall, Elizabeth, Frederic B., Jr., and Edward Phelps Jennings. The city residence of the family is at 86 Park Avenue, and their summer home is Fairview, North Bennington, Vt. Mr. Jennings is a member of the University, Metropolitan, Union League, A K E, New York Athletic, University Athletic, Racquet and City clubs, the Century Association, the Country Club of Westchester County, the Downtown Association, the Williams College Alumni Association, the New England Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is also a member and one of the executive committee of the Bar Association.

321

WALTER JENNINGS

OSHUA JENNINGS, who emigrated to this country from England, about 1645, and settled in Hartford; Isaac Jennings, of Hartford ; Isaac Jennings, of Fairfield ; and Lieutenant Isaac Jennings, of Fairfield, were the ancestors in the first four American generations of the Jennings family. In the fifth generation, Captain Abraham Gould Jennings, the grandfather of Mr. Walter Jennings, was born in Fairfield, in 1781. Early in life he went to sea, and finally had command of large ships sailing between New York and Europe, being thus engaged until after the War of 1812. Subsequently he was in the trade with China, and after 1835, owned, among other mercantile interests, a large share in a line of vessels sailing between New York and Charleston, S. C.

The mother of Abraham Gould Jennings, whom his father, Isaac Jennings, married in 1770, was Abigail Gould, the daughter of Colonel Abraham Gould, who was killed by the British at the Battle of Ridgefield, in 1777. The Gould, or Gold, family descended from Nathan Gold, who came from St. Edmundsbury, England, to Fairfield, Conn., in 1675. He was educated and wealthy, and took a prominent position in the Colony, being one of the petitioners for the charter of Connecticut, in 1674, and an assistant and member of the Governor's Council, in 1657-94. His son, Nathan Gould, Jr., was town clerk of Fairfield, in 1684-1706, town clerk and Deputy- Governor, 1706-24, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in 1712. His wife was a daughter of Lieutenant-Governor John Talcott, of Connecticut, and his grandson, Colonel Abraham Gould, was the fifth son of Samuel Gould. The wife of Colonel Abraham Gould and mother of Abigail (Gould) Jennings was Elizabeth Burr, daughter of Captain John Burr. The wife of Captain Abraham Gould Jennings, whom he married in Fairfield, in 1807, was Anna Burr. She was the daughter of Peter Burr, one of the largest landholders in Fairfield. The first American ancestor of Anna (Burr) Jennings was Jehu Burr, 1600-1672, one of the early settlers of Fairfield, in 1644. He came to this country with Governor John Winthrop, in 1630, settling first in Roxbury, Mass., but in 1636, was one of the founders of Agawam, now Springfield, Mass. After taking up his residence in Connec- ticut, he was a representative to the General Court, from the town of Fairfield.

Oliver Burr Jennings, the father of Mr. Walter Jennings, was the son of Captain Abraham (Gould) Jennings and his wife, Anna Burr. He was born in Fairfield, in 1825, received an academic education, and began business life in Bridgeport, Conn. He remained there for several years, and came to New York City, in 1843. In 1849, he was among the pioneers who went to California, and there entered into mercantile business, becoming senior member of the firm of Jennings & Brewster. In 1865, he returned to New York and was associated with the Messrs. Rockefeller and others in the petroleum business, being one of the directors of the Standard Oil Company. His summer home was an estate in his native town, Fairfield, Conn. His wife was Esther Judson Goodsell, daughter of David Judson Goodsell, of Tiffin, O. When he died, in 1893, he left five children : Annie Burr, Walter, Helen Goodsell, the wife of Dr. Walter B. James ; Emma Brewster, who married Hugh D. Auchincloss, and Oliver Gould Jennings. Mrs. Oliver B. Jennings and her eldest daughter reside in the old family home in Park Avenue.

Mr. Walter Jennings, the eldest son of Oliver Burr Jennings, was born in San Francisco, in 1858. Prepared for college at Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Conn., he was graduated from Yale University in the class of 1880, and from Columbia College Law School, in 1882, being admitted to the bar in the same year. He has since been mainly occupied with the care of the family property, although he is also actively identified with the Standard Oil Company. In 1891, Mr. Jennings married Jean Pollock Brown, and they have one son, Oliver Burr Jennings. Mr. Jennings belongs to the Metropolitan, University, University Athletic, New York Yacht, and St. Andrews Golf clubs, the Country Club, of Westchester County, the Downtown Association, the Yale Alumni Association, and the New England Society. His home is in East Forty-first Street, near Fifth Avenue, and his country residence is at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island.

322

WILLIAM TRAVERS JEROME

T HE name of Jerome, as well as the family which bears it, is of French origin, but it was for many centuries established in the Isle of Wight, England. Many wills and conveyances bearing the signatures of its members who resided in that part of England are preserved in the public records of the County of Hampshire, and in the archives of the Bishopric of Winchester, among them being a will dated 1503, which was executed by one Henricus Jerome de Wallop. Representatives of the name were also found among the early settlers of the New England Colonies. The grandfather of Mr. William Travers Jerome was Isaac Jerome, who was born at Stockbridge, Mass. He removed to New York State early in the present century, becoming a prominent and influential citizen of the central portion of the State. He married Aurora Murray, born at Ballston, N. Y., who was a member of a family possessing a dis- tinguished Revolutionary record. Her father, Reuben Murray, was a Lieutenant in the New York State service during the contest, while another ancestor, Major Lebbens Ball, served throughout the Revolutionary War in one of the regiments of the Massachusetts Line in the Continental service. He was a descendant of Francis Ball, who came to New England in the infancy of the Colonies and settled at Springfield, Mass., in 1644.

Lawrence Roscoe Jerome, father of Mr. William Travers Jerome, was born of this parentage at Pompey, N. Y. Becoming a successful man of business at an early age, he made New York City his home some time prior to the beginning of the Civil War, and was for many years one of the foremost figures in both the financial and social circles of the metropolis. He pursued the profession of a banker and broker with talent and success, and was long identified with Wall Street affairs, ,and interested in some of the largest enterprises of his day. Possessing exceptional personal qualities and geniality of character, he was one.of the natural leaders of a group of famous club men and wits whose reputation has never been equaled in New York. The name borne by his son, the subject of this article, commemorates the warm personal and business friendship which existed between Lawrence R. Jerome and the celebrated William Riggin Travers, the noted financier, sportsman and man of the world. Lawrence R. Jerome was also a prominent patron of sport, and was associated with his equally well-known brother, the late Leonard Jerome, with William R. Travers, the elder August Belmont, and others of similar prominence in the creation of Jerome Park, and in the formation of the American Jockey Club, the organization which first gave character and standing to the American turf, and attracted the interest and support of the wealth and fashion of New York to the sport. He took a leading part in yachting and other higher forms of amusements, and ranked as a power in the most select club circles. The daughter of his brother Leonard, Jennie Jerome, married the late Lord Randolph Churchill, the English statesman, who was brother of the late and uncle of the present Duke of Marlborough. Lady Randolph Churchill has been one of the most prominent American women who married Englishmen of rank. Lawrence R. Jerome married Katharine Hall, of Palmyra, N. Y.

Mr. William Travers Jerome was born in New York City in 1859. He was educated at schools in this city, and at Loney, Switzerland, and was graduated with degree of A. M. from Amherst College. He then entered the Law School of Columbia College, and was graduated LL. B. from that institution in 1884. He was admitted to the bar of New York, and has since pursued the practice of his profession with success. For three years Mr. Jerome served as Assistant District Attorney of New York County, and was engaged, both officially and as an advocate, in many of the most famous trials which have occupied the courts in recent years. His political and legal ability made him a prominent actor in the proceedings by which the corruption of the city departments was exposed in 1894, and soon afterwards he was elected to the bench of one of the city's tribunals. In 1888, Mr. Jerome married Lavinia Howe, of Elizabeth, N. J. They have one son, William Travers Jerome, Jr. Mr. Jerome is a member of the Union, City and Nineteenth Century clubs.

323

JAMES RILEY JESUP

B ROOM HALL, near Sheffield, England, was the seat of the family to which Edward Jesup, the pioneer of the American branch, belonged. He was one of the founders of Stamford, Conn., but moved to Westchester County, N. Y. Among the records at Albany is an Indian deed for a tract of land purchased by Edward Jesup and another in 1664. Edward Jesup, his son, 1663-1732, was born at West Farms, N. Y., but became a freeman of Fairfield, Conn., and about 1720 moved to Stamford. He married Elizabeth Hyde, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Harvey) Hyde. The third Edward Jesup, 1697-1750, born at Fairfield, was a Captain of militia and married Sarah Blackback. Ebenezer Jesup, 1739-1812, their son, graduated from Yale in 1760, became a physician, and was a surgeon in the Revolutionary Army. By his first wife, Eleanor Andrews, he was the father of Ebenezer Jesup, second of the name, 1767-1851. The latter was a merchant in Saugatuck, Conn., and from 1832 to 1837 was president of the Bridgeport Bank. He was also a director of the Fairfield County Bank in Norwalk, and a Major in the Revolution. In 1790, he married Sarah Wright, daughter of Obadiah Wright and Sarah Adams, of Norwalk. The father of Obadiah Wright was Dennis Wright, who was one of the first settlers of Oyster Bay, Long Island.

William Henry Jesup, grandfather of Mr. James R. Jesup, was the son of the second Ebenezer Jesup. He was born in Saugatuck, now Westport, Conn., in 1791. Educated in Lebanon, now Goshen, New London County, at an early age he became associated with his father in business. Removing to New York before he had reached middle age, he successfully engaged in business in Wall Street. His first wife was Charity Burr Sherwood, daughter of the Honorable Samuel B. Sherwood, of Saugatuck, Conn. She was born in 1794 and died in 1816. His second wife, the grandmother of Mr. James R. Jessup, was Mary Hannah Riley, whom he married in 1818. She was the daughter of Appleton Riley and Mary Griswold, of Goshen, Conn. Her father was the son of John Riley and Lucy Case. The wife of the Honorable Horatio Seymour, United States Senator from Vermont in 1821, was a cousin of Appleton Riley.

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Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 53

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: New York, The Historical company Number of Pages: 650

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650