Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/79

 JAY

JAY

He organized the meetings held in the Broadway Tabernacle, N.Y., resulting in the state conven- tion at Saratoga, Aug. 10, 1854, and in the forma- tion of the Republican party upon the dissolution of the Whig party in ISoo. He was elected presi- dent of the Union League club in 1SG6 and re- elected in 1877. He was state commissioner for the Federal cemetery at Antietam in 1868 and made a report to Governor R. E. Fenton on the chartered right to burial of the Confederate dead of that campaign. He was U.S. minister to Aus- tria in 1809-73, and advanced the interests of the United States at the World's Fair of 1873. He was cliairman of the Jay commission to investi- gate the system of the New York custom house in 1877, and was Republican member of the state civil service commission in 1883 and subsequently its president. He was manager of the New Y'ork Historical society and a founder and first presi- dent of the Huguenot society in 1855. He was married to Eleanor Kingsland, daughter of Hick- son Woolman and Eleanor (de Forrest) Field. Hobart conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1889, and he received the same degree from Columbia in 1891. He is the author of: TJie Dignity of the Abolition Cause as Compared trith the Political Schemes of the Day (1839); Emancipation in the West Indies (1842); Caste and Slavery in the American Church (1843); America, Free or Slave? (1856); Statistics of American Agricidture (1858); The Proxy Bill and Tract Society (1859); Great Conspiracy (1861); Letter on the Monroe Doctrine (ISd^); Letter to the American Anti-Slavery Society (1864); The Great Issue (1864); and pamphlets on 77ieC/«?frc7i and the Rebellion; Rome in America; The A7ner- ican Foreign Service; The Sunday School a Safe- guard to the Republic; The Fisheries Question; Tiie Public School a Portal to the Civil Service; Tlie Passage of the Constitutional Amendment Abolishing Slavery, and other subjects. He died in New York city, May 5, 1894.

JAY, John Clarkson, pliysician, -was born in New Y'ork city, Sept. 11, 1808; son of Peter Augustus and Mary Rutherford (Clarkson) Ja\'. He was graduated from Columbia college in 1827, and from the College of Physiciansand Surgeons in 1830, and pi'actised medicine. He was a founder of the Lyceum of Natural History (after- ward the New York Academy of Sciences) in 1832; was its treasurer, 1836-43; took an active part in obtaining subscriptions for the new build- ing, and was instrumental in the completion of the work. He was one of the founders, and sec- retary of the New York Yaclit club, and a trus- tee of Columbia college, 1859-81. Dr. Jay was best known for his work as a conchologist, and his library on the subject, with a rare and valu- able collection of shells, was purchased by Catha-

rine S. Wolfe and presented to the Amei'ican ^Museum of Natural History as a memorial to her father. Dr. Jay examined, classified and re- ported on the shells collected bj' Commodore Perry in liis Japan expedition. He is the au- thor of: -rl Catalogue of Recent Shells (1836), and Description of yeic and Rare Shells (1836). He died in Rye. N.Y.. Nov. 15. 1891.

JAY, Peter Augustus, lawyer, was born in Elizabethtown, N.J., Jan. 24, 1776; eldest son of John and Sarah Van Brugh (Livingston) Jay. He was graduated at Columbia in 1794. When his father was sent to Great Britain as special envoy, he accompanied him in the capacity of private secretary, and on his return to New York he studied law, subsequently attaining distinction at the bar. He was a member of the state assem- bly in 1816, and suppoi'ted the bill favoring the construction of the Erie canal, also, with his brother ^S'illiam, supporting the bill recommend- ing the abolition of slavery in the state. He was recorder of New Y'ork city, 1819-21; was a mem- ber of the New Y'ork constitutional convention in 1821; a ti-ustee of Columbia college, 1812-17, and again, 1823-43, and chairman of the board of trustees in 1832. He was president of the New Y'ork Historical society, 1840-43. He received the degree of A.M. from Y'ale in 1798, and that of LL.D. from Harvard in 1831 and from Columbia in 1835. He died in New York city, Feb. 20, 1843.

JAY, William, jurist, was born in New York city, June 16, 1789; second son of John and Sarah Van Brugh (Livingston) Jay. He was prepared for college by the Rev. Thomas Ellison and Henry Davis, and was graduated from Yale in 1807. He studied law, but on account of a weak- ness of the ej'es he relinquished the pro- fession and retired to his father's home at Bedford, N.Y. In 1812 he was married to Augusta, daughter of John McVicker. He was brought up in the Protestant Episcopal faith, but his churchmanship was broad, and he gave his co-operation in the formation of the American Bible society in 1810. against the judgment of the high cliurch party. He was assigned to the bench of Westchester, N.Y., as one of the count}' judges, by Governor De Witt Clinton in 1818, holding the office until 1823. He was reappointed under the new constitution in 1823 and served till 1843, when he was displaced

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