He lived with his parents throughout his childhood and youth in the homestead at Rye -- " a long, low building, but one room deep and eighty feet wide, having attained this size to meet the wants of a numerous family." He was educated at King's College (now Columbia), taking the bachelor of arts degree in 1764, and, after being admitted to the bar, entered upon a professional career in which he soon gained a reputation os one of the most brilliant and intellectual men in New York. He

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

took a leading part in the public discussion of the questions between the colonies and the mother country, holding aloof from the radical and noisy politicians, but enjoying the unbounded confidence and admiration of the judicious friends of American independence. By the time matters had become shaped for the inevitable, he stood foremost among the well-balanced and sagacious patriots of New York. In 177-1 he married Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, daughter of William Livingston. After the completion of his illustrious public career, he retired to an estate in the Town of Bedford, this county, where lie died.1 He was the father of the eminent and beloved Judge William Jay, of our county bench, and the grandfather of the late distinguished statesman, John Jay, also a prominent Westchester County character. One of the features of the Town of Eye is the cemetery of the Jay family, in which stands a monument to the memory ACCiCSTUS JAY. of the great chief justice. The committee of correspondence in New York City, soon after its organization, opened communication with the rural counties. A subcom it e oflive (John Jay being one of its members) was appointed on the 30th of May " to write a circular letter to the supervisors in the different counties, acquainting them of the appointment of this committee, and submitting To the consideration of the inhabitants of the counties whether it could not be expedient for them to appoint persons to correspond with this committee "upon matters relative to the purposes for which they were appointed." A circular letter was accordingly written, of which thirty copies were sent to the treasurer of Westchester County, with a request to distribute them among "the supervisors of the several districts." It is notas known no rewhether this was done.