USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume III > Part 12
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the agitations that foreboded the shock of the Revolution, and almost exactly one year before the battle of Lexington. She was then not quite eighteen years old, while Mr. Jay was twenty-eight. Up to this time he had held no public office, excepting that of secretary to the royal commission for settling the boundary between New-York and New Jersey. But now, before the honeymoon was complete, in May, 1774, Jay was called to take part in the first movements of the Revo- lution. His public duties as member of the New-York provincial congress, of the New-York committee of safety, and of the Conti- nental Congress, kept him constantly separated from his young wife. But finally a post of honor, yet of difficulty and danger, was given him, which enabled the youthful pair to be more constantly together, although far distant from friends and country, and which at the same time was to furnish Mrs. Jay with excellent opportunities for training to successfully occupy the position of first lady in the land during the decade following the declaration of peace.
On October 10, 1779, Mr. Jay, having been appointed minister to Spain, sailed in the congressional frigate, the Confederacy, accom- panied by Mrs. Jay, by her brother, Colonel Brockholst Livingston, afterward a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, as his private secretary, and by Mr. William Carmichael, a member of Con- gress, as his public secretary. After a rather quiet life in Spain came a residence of several years at or in the vicinity of Paris, while her husband was engaged with Franklin and Adams in negotiating the peace which confirmed American independence. Did space or scope here permit, we should be tempted to blend with this sketch something more than a mere glance at the historic memories of the period connected with the peace negotiations, in which Mrs. Jay was almost a participant, from her intimate association with the nego- tiators, who frequently met at her apartments. There is no page certainly in our foreign diplomacy to which the intelligent American reader will ever recur with more national pride and interest than that which records the progress and result of these negotiations. Mean- while, the scenes and the society amid which Mrs. Jay lived for nearly two years presented a brilliant contrast to the trials and hardships to which she had been subjected by the war at home, as well as to her more retired life during their residence at Madrid. As Mr. Jay de- clined to accept the courtesies of the Spanish court except as the minister of an independent nation, and as Spain would not recognize him as such, it is probable that Mrs. Jay never appeared at the royal assemblies. At Paris everything was different. History has made us familiar with the Paris of that period, so interesting as presenting the last pictures of the pride and splendor that were still unconscious of the impending revolution.
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Marie Antoinette, now in her twenty-ninth year, but four years the senior of Mrs. Jay, still justified by her grace and beauty the enthusi- astic encomiums of her contemporaries. Mrs. Jay wrote of her : "She is so handsome, and her manners are so engaging, that almost forget- ful of Republican principles, I was ready, while in her presence, to declare her born to be a queen." The fantasies of fashion, says a court historian, revealed the spirit of France as capricious and change- able. The queen and her intimate friends, especially the Comtesse Diane de Polignac and the Mar- quise de Vaudrienne, changed the mode day by day. The women wore the hair most fantastically raised in a pyramid, and this high edifice was crowned with flowers, as if it were a garden. It is both apt and important, in this connec- tion, to get a view of the Parisian mode from Mrs. Jay's own hand: "At present the prevailing fash- ions are very decent and very plain; the gowns most worn are the robes à l'Anglaise, which are exactly like the Italian habits that were in fashion in America when I left it; the Sultana is also à la mode, but it is not expected that it will long remain so. Every lady makes them of slight silk. There is so great a variety of hats, caps, cuffs, that it is impossible to de- scribe them. I forgot that the robe à l'Anglaise, if trimmed either with the same or gauze, is dress; but if untrimmed must be worn with an apron and is undress."
remain very truly yours n . King 1
The two circles of society where Mrs. Jay was entirely at home in Paris were those which were to be found in the hotels of La Fayette and Franklin. Among the first to congratulate her on her arrival there were the Marquis and Marquise. If the circle she met at the Hotel de Noailles was marked by its aristocracy of rank, that which surrounded the venerable philosopher at Passy was no less celebrated for happily blending the choicest and the most opposite elements of the world of learning, wit, and fashion. Among the more intimate 1 Mra. King was the only daughter of John the grace of her manners; her mind, too, was highly cultivated, and she was among those who adorned American society. EDITOR. Alsop, a prominent New-York merchant. She was remarkable for her beauty, gentleness, and
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friends of Franklin were Turgot, the Abbe Raynal, Rochefoucauld, Cabanis, Le Roy, Mably, Mirabeau, D'Holbach, Marmontel, Neckar, Malesherbes, Watelet, and Mesdames. de Genlis, Denis, Helvetius, Brillon, and La Reillard. Thus among men and women of wit, wis- dom, and beauty, amid the smiles of royalty and the ceremonious conventionalities of the court and courtly circles, Mrs. Jay was being prepared at the capital of the world of fashion for her prominent part in the capital of the nascent republic. On July 24, 1784, after an absence of more than four years and a half, she arrived in New-York with her husband and children. Before their arrival Jay had already been appointed secretary for foreign affairs. As was stated on a preceding page, there be- ing then no president of the United States, and the secre- tary having charge of the whole foreign correspondence, as well as of that between the general and the State governments, his position has been well described LIBERTY HALL, BIRTHPLACE OF MRS. JOHN JAY. by some one as "unquestion- ably the most prominent and responsible civil office under the Confederation." The entertaining of the foreign ministers, officers of government, members of Congress, and persons of distinction, was an important incident, and Mrs. Jay's domestic duties assumed something of an official character. But her long residence near European courts, and her recent association with the brilliant circles of the French capital, assisted her to fill with ease the place she was now to occupy, and to perform its graceful duties in a manner becoming the dignity of the republic, to whose fortunes she had been so devoted.
The house which was thus made the center of the social world in New-York deserves a moment's attention. The home of the Jays for one or two generations had been in Westchester County. At the age of forty the father of John Jay, having already acquired a com- petency in mercantile pursuits, retired from business and from New- York to settle in comfort at a country house and farm at Rye. Jay's mother was a Van Cortlandt, through whom the estate at Bedford fell into his possession. At Rye he was born and brought up. On his marriage the occupations and duties to which the troubled times called him, as has been noted, prevented the youthful pair from estab- lishing a home of their own. Mrs. Jay, during the almost continuous separation from her husband, passed the greater part of the time at the residence of her father, the governor, at Liberty Hall, Elizabeth-
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town, New Jersey. But occasional visits were made also to her hus- band's parents at Rye, in Westchester County, New-York. There was no opportunity for setting up a permanent establishment until the return from Europe in 1784, when Jay's official duties required his presence in New-York city. He then built or rented a house in Broadway, which in the directory for 1789 is marked No. 133; but it is somewhat difficult to identify the exact location, since there was then no regularity about the numbers of houses. "Thus No. 33 was at one of the corners of Cortlandt Street; No. 29 was near Maiden Lane ; and No. 58 was nearly opposite to it; No. 62 was at the corner of Liberty Street; No. 76 was nearly opposite the City Tavern, which was between the pres- ent numbers 113 and 119; and No. 85 was nearly opposite to Trinity Church. Odd and even numbers were given to houses without regard to the side of the street upon which they stood, and in some cases two houses bore the same number."' The present febmeston 2 location of No. 133 Broadway, if there were such a number,3 should be between Cedar and Liberty streets, then respectively known as Little Queen and Crown streets. The only Jay house in Broadway which I know of was of granite-I think a double house with plain exterior on the east side of Broadway, below Wall street, which by Jay's will (he died in 1829) was left to his son Peter Augustus Jay, who sold it. The purchaser erected upon the premises three or four stores, which were used for the storage of government supplies.
The names that are preserved in so interesting a manner upon Mrs. Jay's lists fall naturally into groups, and are to be studied to the best advantage as thus arranged. The bar of New-York shall be noticed first. It gave to the salons of the day an array of names never since surpassed in our juridical history: James Duane, Richard Harrison, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Morgan Lewis, Robert Troup, Robert R. Livingston, Egbert Benson, John Watts, Gouverneur Morris, Richard Varick, John Lansing, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, and
. 1 Thomas E. V. Smith, " New-York City in 1789." Rotterdam. He was the father of Robert Living- 2 John Livingston, a Scottish Presbyterian di- ston, founder of the American family. The vig- nette is from a painting in the possession of Mrs. Robert Ralston Crosby of New-York. a daughter of Col. Henry Livingston of Po'keepsie. EDITOR.
vine, was a member of the General Assemblies, and in 1650, one of the commissioners from the Church of Scotland to Charles II., then at Breda. Banished in 1663 for non-conformity, he died at
3 The number next to 119 in Broadway is 135.
.
.
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James Kent. At various times they appeared under the hospitable roof of the Jays, and in turn met at the tables of other dignitaries of their own or other professions; and it will be proper to take a more particular glance at each of those named in the group above. James Duane was at this time fifty-six years old, and in the full vigor of his powers. He had been mayor of the city since 1784, a position which he yielded in the year 1789 to his colleague in the profession, Richard Varick, now city recorder. His wife was a daughter of Colonel Robert Livingston. He had been diligent in the cause of the republic, but withal conservative in his temperament, of exactly the position in all the Revolutionary movements that John Jay, his frequent host, occu- pied throughout. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress when it first met, and remained a member of it all through its ex- istence. He was elected a member of the senate of the State for the terms 1782 to 1785, and again in 1789 to 1790. He was appointed United States judge for the district of New-York in 1789, serving till 1794, and in 1797 he died. His residence was at No. 17 Nassau street, and therefore within a short distance of Mr. Jay's. His presence lent dignity to every gathering of celebrity of that day, either as mayor, United States judge, or State senator, which honors were all upon him in the year 1789, and some of them in 1788, the period to which the list has reference. Richard Harrison was not quite forty years of age when he was wont to meet his friends at Secretary Jay's table, and he remained a prominent figure in the government, which was then yet to be initiated, until far into the present century. He was made auditor of the treasury by Washington in 1791, held that posi- tion until 1836, and died in Washington in July, 1841, at the age of ninety-one. He owned an estate in New-York which was then far from the heart of the city, but which can be roughly described as corresponding to-day to the block between Eighth and Ninth avenues and Thirtieth and Thirty-first streets. His residence in 1789 was at 11 Queen (or Pearl) street, above Hanover Square. In the profession of the law he greatly distinguished himself, and on the strength of that distinction he was invited to prominent houses in 1788 and 1789, as his official life had not then begun.
The two names that next claim attention naturally fill one with a mingled sensation of pleased and painful surprise-pleased to observe that these two brilliant minds could meet together in friendship and brighten a gay company with their undoubted talents; painful because of that future fatal day, which was mercifully veiled from their view, but which posterity can never forget when their names are mentioned. They were the leading lawyers of their day, often opposed, sometimes united, on cases; but with a generous rivalry between them, we may be sure. It was not on professional grounds that antagonism arose.
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It was the baneful influence of politics, and the lines that finally divided them had not yet begun to be drawn, or not very distinctly at least, when they met in Jay's drawing-rooms, for the federal gov- ernment had then not yet started upon its career. We are concerned, therefore, with their social qualities just here. Burr's were eminent : his engaging manners made him a power when his legitimate political life had suffered a hopeless shipwreck. And M. Brissot de Warville, who met him frequently in the salons of the day, records with enthu- siasm his favorable impressions. The wife of Burr, ten years his senior, whom he called " the best woman and the finest lady I have ever known," does not appear upon the dinner-list. It is not likely either that she received at her own house, as the dread JAMES KENT IN YOUTH. disease (cancer) that carried her off five or six years later may have been already at work. The more celebrated daughter, Theodosia, whose brilliant gifts made her a "queen of American society" later, was then but a child.
Of Hamilton little need here be said. The vivacity of his French blood would make him a welcome guest at every social gathering, and the wit and wisdom of his conversation would flow with equal readi- ness there, as on the more serious occasions of the public debate before popular assemblies or in senatorial halls. As a bit of gossip, no doubt picked up in just such drawing-room circles, M. de Rochefou- cauld Liancourt (afterward the Duc de Rochefoucauld) mentions the following concerning Hamilton: "Disinterestedness in regard to money, rare everywhere, very rare in America, is one of the most generally recognized traits of Mr. Hamilton; and although his actual practice might be very lucrative, I learn from his clients that their sole complaint against him is the smallness of the fees which he asks of them."1 It is also well known that Mrs. Hamilton was a daughter of General Philip Schuyler, of Albany, and thus in her veins flowed the blood of one of the noblest colonial families, distinguished in the history of the province for more than a century. From a letter of one lady to another-from Miss Kitty Livingston to her sister, Mrs. Jay, while the latter was in Madrid-we obtain a pleasant glance into the incipiency of this happy union. It is dated at Trenton, May 23, 1780, and contains this passage: "General and Mrs. Schuyler are at Morristown. The general is one of three that compose a Committee from Congress. They expect to be with the army all summer. Mrs.
1 "Voyage dans les Etats Unis d'Amerique, 1795, 1796, 1797" (8 vols., Paris), 7: 150.
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Schuyler returns to Albany when the campaign opens. Apropos, Betsey Schuyler is engaged to our friend Colonel Hamilton. She has been at Morristown, at Dr. Cochrane's, since last February." A con- temporary account of Mrs. Hamilton, at the very time when her name was put down on the dinner-list, occurs in the pages of M. Brissot de Warville: "A charming woman, who joins to the graces all the candor and simplicity of an American wife." Her own hospitalities were dis- pensed at her house, located on the corner of Broad and Wall streets. Burr's residence at this time was scarce a stone's throw distant, at 10 Nassau street. Richmond Hill had either not as yet come into his possession, or was used only in summer as a country- seat. In 1789 it was occupied by Vice- President John Adams.
Continuing to cast the eye along the list of legal celebrities given above, we are reminded that then the city of New-York, besides being the federal capital, was also the capital of the State. Here, therefore, resided the chancellor, Robert R. Livingston, of the Clermont branch of that numer- ous family. His residence was No. 3 Broadway. It fell to his share to ad- minister the oath of office to President Washington; and after he had repre- sented our nation at the court of the E. Hamilton great Napoleon, winning the latter's admiration, and doing signal service to his native land in negotiating the purchase of Louisiana, he immor- talized his name above all these other causes by actively pushing to success Fulton's invention for navigating vessels by steam, the Clermont bearing the name of his estate on the Hudson. Egbert Benson, another member of the group of lawyers, was the first attor- ney-general of the State, holding the office from 1777 to 1789. After that he was a judge of the Supreme Court of New-York, and, living to a good old age, became the first president of the New-York Historical Society. Another name high in the annals of the State government is that of Morgan Lewis. After an honorable career as soldier, no sooner were actual hostilities over than he resigned from the army and began his civil career. "He was so impatient," observes his granddaughter, Mrs. Delafield, "to resume the study of the law that he returned to New-York before the British troops had vacated the
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town." There was some risk in this proceeding, for on the eve of the departure of the British there appeared good reason to expect a con- flagration. But the danger blew over, and Lewis, as well as Hamil- ton and other young lawyers, soon had his hands full of business. Morgan Lewis was married to a sister of Chancellor Livingston. He became attorney-general of the State in 1791, then chief justice, and in 1804 defeated Burr as candidate for governor. Though Lewis was no longer of Hamilton's party, it was through Hamilton's efforts that no part of the broken federalist ranks went over to Burr; and out of this gubernatorial contest grew the quarrel that terminated so disas- trously to both men.
An honored place in the circles of New-York society was due also to John Lansing, who had been mayor of Albany, and was still a resident of that town, but who was in New- York as speaker of the State assem- bly. He succeeded Livingston as chancellor, and was in turn suc- Egletonsong ceeded by James Kent. Gouverneur Morris, too, a lawyer, but preeminently a financier, the colaborer in the difficult and desperate days of republican finances with his namesake (but not kinsman) Robert Morris, would ride into town from Morrisania, which he had just purchased, and be welcomed for his patriotic services, as well as for his descent from some of the oldest colonial families-from Gouverneur, the son-in-law of Jacob Leisler, and from the chief justice of the province when it was still a royal possession. In December, 1788, however, he went to England; and while there was appointed minister to France, serving in that post at the beginning of the Reign of Terror. It was also something deeper than the amenities of social life which brought Gouverneur Morris under the roof of Secretary Jay. Once, while the latter was in Europe, Morris hastily despatched this note, speaking volumes for the affection which prompted it: "Dear Sir,-It is now within a few minutes of the time when the mail is made up and sent off. I can not, therefore, do more than just to assure you of the continu- ance of my love. Adieu." Of the remaining names we need only note that Robert Troup was a lifelong friend, from college days, of Hamilton, and born in the same year; that John Watts had received back the estate which his father's "loyalty" had forfeited; and that VOL. III .- 7.
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Richard Varick, at first recorder, succeeded James Duane as mayor of the city. Josiah Ogden Hoffman and James Kent were both in their youthful vigor; the latter admitted to the bar in 1785, and thus just commencing the career that gave him, while yet living, a world-wide reputation as advocate and jurist.
Pursuing our review of the contributions from professional life to dinner-tables and social circles, a glance may be taken at the minis- ters and physicians eminent in those days. Of the Reformed (Dutch)
Memorandum for Capt Livingston 2 filhos Gonne to be DD Gellow as the pation I Do to be De sear Colour in the pattern
please to Get them be Done by Samuel Adams " Inclosed you have a Ganiea for Which please to Get the above Mentioned Govern Did for Capt Bryant we to get them Done for 6/or 7/ Jam Vii your Humble Servant
Church the pastors were Dr. John Henry Livingston and Dr. William Linn; these preached exclusively in English, and were themselves not even of Dutch extraction. But in the old Garden Street Church there worshiped a remnant who still loved to hear the mother- tongue, and Dr. Gerardus Kuypers ministered to them ; but he made no practice of mingling with high society. Dr. Livingston, however, was intimately connected, as his name indicates, with the most promi- nent official and social circles, Mrs. Jay herself being a Livingston. He had also married a Livingston, the daughter of Philip, the "signer" of the Declaration, who had a house on Brooklyn Heights at the beginning of the war. The doctor's tall and dignified figure and high breeding would make him a notable addition to any company; his colleague, Dr. Linn, too, was a man of note, having the reputation of being by far the most eloquent preacher in New-York and even in
The above is a fac-simile of an order written by Mary Alexander, wife of James Alexander, and mother of Lord Stirling. The original is in the possession of Miss Jay.
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the United States. In 1789 he was elected chaplain to the House of Representatives, the first to occupy that office.
Both the Presbyterian ministers, Drs. John Rodgers and John Mason, appear on the dinner-list. Dr. Rodgers was pastor of the Wall Street and "Brick Meeting" churches, which were united under one government. The latter church stood on the site of the "New-York Times " and the Potter buildings, or the tri- angular block bounded by Beekman and Nassau streets and Park Row. Dr. Rodgers was a native of Boston, an ardent patriot during the war, and having served as brigade chaplain, he must have been on terms of famil- iar acquaintance with most of the officers of the Revolutionary army who were now prominent in civil life. He would be welcomed in society, therefore, and also for the reason that he felt entirely at home in such surroundings. "He was elegant in John Rodgers manners but formal to such a degree that there is a tradition that the last thing which he and his wife always did before retiring for the night was to salute each other with a bow and a courtesy." As to his personal appearance, "he is de- scribed as a stout man of medium height who wore a white wig, was extremely careful in his dress, and walked with the most majestic dignity." Dr. Mason was pastor of the Scotch or Covenanter Presby- terian Church, located on the south side of Cedar street, between Nassau and Broadway, now represented by the church on Fourteenth street, near Sixth avenue. He, too, had been a zealous patriot, and served for some years as chaplain at West Point. He was a near neigh- bor of Dr. Linn's, living at 63 Cortlandt street, while the latter's number was 66. He was of medium stature, earnest and solid in his pulpit efforts rather than eloquent, born and educated in Scotland, and a stout opponent there of state interference with the choice of ministers by congregations. His manners were polished, as of a man who had mingled much with people of distinction on both sides of the ocean.
Of the Episcopal clergy we find on the list the name of Dr. Benja- min Moore, who was now rector of Trinity, but had at one time been removed from the position because Tory votes had put him into it. He lived not far from the church, at 46 Broadway. But chief among them as a social figure, by reason of his office as well as because of his social qualities and undoubted patriotic sympathies, was the "easy,
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