Peter Augustus Jay to Sarah Livingston Jay, 1 August 1794
Peter Augustus Jay to Sarah Livingston Jay
London 1st. August 1794
Dear Mama
We have for some time past been in daily expectation of hearing from you, by the numerous vessels from America which constantly arrive— we hope however that it will be but a short time before we experience that pleasure— Maria & Nancy wish me to give them a description of London; they will perceive perhaps how impossible it is for me to comply with the request when I tell them that such a description fills five octavo volumns which they may find in the city Library— I have been in this place near two months & have seen but a very small part of it indeed— the house in which we lodge is 5 miles from the place where the American Ships lye at Anchor, & the town extends considerably beyond each of those places— A fire broke out some days ago which destroyed 630 houses, many of the Inhabitants who are of the poorer class are reduced to very great distress; they now live in tents pitched in the church yards by order of Government— A Subscription is opened for their releif which will probably amount to a very considerable sum— The Salt-petre ware houses of the East India company first fell a sacrifice to the flames—& the explosions and torrents of fire produced from this drug were the principle means of spreading the conflagration— Those who were spectators of this dreadful scene, say that a stream of melted nitre almost resembling the Volcanic Lava flowed down into the Thames and continued burning even amid the water—1
An Eruption of Mount Vesuvius too has lately happened which has destroyed the Town of Porto Greco containing about 18,000 inhabitants together with several adjoining villages— But it is said that a very small
proportion of lives were lost— This eruption has had the effect of several lowering the mountain several hundred feet, the conic summit has fallen in & a new crater opened on the side—2
Your Chairs are in the hands of a workman he says that from the shape of the work he will not be able to make them so fashionable as he would wish, & he equally laments your prohibition of gilding— Aunt Jay’s bracelets are[?] doing, they are to cost twelve guineas. Papa has not yet had leisure to sit for his picture but I shall not cease to remind him of it, & as soon as it is finished I will have it set & a companion made to it according to your directions—3
Be so good as to give my love to Maria & Nancy. Tell little Wig to not to forget me, & to kiss sally for me— I am my dear Mama your Affectte. Son
Peter Augustus Jay
Mrs. S. Jay—
ALS, NNC (EJ: 06050).
1. The Ratcliffe Fire was the largest such fire in London between the Great Fire of 1666 and the aerial bombings of the Second World War. Ratcliffe, a riverside district in East London, was a center of shipbuilding and warehouses. The fire began on 23 July 1794 when a kettle of pitch boiled over, spreading to a barge containing saltpetre, causing an explosion. The resultant fire destroyed 453 houses and displaced 1,400 people. See Lloyd’s Evening Post (London), 23–25 July 1794.
2. The massive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius began on 13 June 1794.
3. For PAJ’s shopping lists and errands, see the editorial note “John Jay’s Mission to London,” above, and PAJ’s Memoranda & Statement of Accounts, [11 May 1794–9 Apr. 1795], AD, NNC. In the Memoranda, PAJ notes: “I am to request Mrs. Johnson to get for Mama two chairs seated with the seats given Mama by the Marchioness LaFayette in the most elegant fashion so as to serve as patterns for others but they are not to be gilt”.
“Aunt Jay” refers to Mary Duyckinck Jay (1736–1824), wife of JJ’s brother Peter. For more on the bracelets, see JJ to SLJ, 16 Aug. 1794, and note 4, below.