John jay founding father biography

John Jay's Early Years

Born in New York City in 1745, John Jay came from a wealthy merchant family whose ancestors included French Huguenots. He began his career as a lawyer in 1764 after graduating from the newly established King’s College, now Columbia University.

He soon become prominent in New York politics and was elected to the first Continental Congress in 1774 as a representative from New York.

During the first Continental Congress, delegates from the American colonies met to discuss resistance to the increasingly oppressive laws enacted by the British Parliament in the lead up to the Revolutionary War.

Jay was not a loyalist to the British Crown, though he initially promoted a peaceful resolution with Great Britain instead of independence.

He urged the British government to reconcile with the colonists. He supported the Revolution, however, as war became increasingly likely.

Jay spent much of the Revolutionary War as a diplomat to Spain where he spent three frustrating