The following entry appears in the record of the Court of Common Pleas of Westchester County, under date of May 25, 1829 : " The court and members of this bar, entertaining the highest respect for the pure and exalted character of the late venerable John Jay, do resolve that we will wear crape upon the left arm for thirty days in token of our respect." Ability, firmness, patriotism and integrity^-- all that go to make man great, -- he possessed in an eminent degree ; and, better' still, he was, as the last lines of his epitaph recite, "in his life and in his death, an example of the virtues, the faith and the hopes of a Christian."

John Jay,' son of William Jay, distinguished as an author and jurist, and grandson of the illu.strious chief justice whose name and works are emblazoned •on the scroll of American fame, was born in New York, June 23, 1817. His early life was passed in the home of his grandfather, at the family seatin Bedford, where he remained till the death of the latter in 1829. His early education began under the most favorable circumstances, and was finished at Columbia College, where he graduated with high honors in 183G. He began the study of law in the office of Daniel Lord, Jr., having as a fellow-student Hon. William M. Evarts. During his college days the Anti-Slavery movement began to be the all-absorbing topic of the hour, but there are few of the rising generation who can appreciate the difficulties which a young man of talent and ancestral name would encounter in allying himself to the then unpopular party, and identifying himself with the avowed opponents of the system which was supported by the wealth and power of the country, and the authority of the Church, and declared to be in full accord alike with the teachings of the Bible and the Constiiution, established by the founders of the republic, which controlle d the actions of every department of the government, and moulded the views and commanded the supf.ort of every officer, from the President to the postmaster of the humblest village.