Peter Augustus Jay to Sarah Livingston Jay, 29 June 1794
Peter Augustus Jay to Sarah Livingston Jay
London 29th June 1794
Dr. Mama
It is with much mortification that we learn, that the Ship which carries our letters ^&^ which was to have sailed a week ago, will still be detained several days before she can get to sea. A gentleman who is going in her to settle in America has offered to take our letters, & we have accepted his offer— We have experienced very great attentions at this place every body seems at least to wish us well, the merchants in particular,— Mr. & Mrs. Church1 have been profuse in their civility, we are to dine with them to day for the fourth time since our arrival— Mrs. Low2 begs to be remembered to you & to Mrs. Munro— Mrs. White3 & her family is in the country— Dr. Hays is with Lord Moira,4 & I suppose by this time at Ostend, & Mrs. Whites son5 on board the Nymph at Portsmouth—
The Count Moustier & the Marchioness a le de Brehan are here and I believe in a good deal of distress— we saw them the other day. Little count Louis is in the Austrian service, & the count’s son Edward in France, but where, or under what circumstances is unknown to his Father— as yet he has
been unable to escape from his the country—6 Mrs. Paradise7 & Doctr. Bancroft8 present their respects to you, they have both shewn us all the attentions in their power— Tell little Wig9 that Papa has not forgot his picture with a Cow in it we were talking of it this morning— Ask him what we shall bring for his dear little treker, how does she do? Maria & Nancy would in all probability like this place less than New York— here are no young misses whom it would be easy for them to get acquainted it with, & ^it^ would be impossible for them to walk on the flatstones or even in the park without danger of being ran over. Mr. Pinkney’s family & almost all the genteel people & now in the country— Please give my love to Aunt Ridley who I suppose is with you— and believe me my dear mama to be Your affectionate son.
Peter Augustus Jay
Mrs. Jay
ALS, NNC (EJ: 06049).
1. John Barker Church, then a member of Parliament for Wendover, and Angelica Schuyler Church. PAJ recorded in his diary that they previously dined with the Churches on 15, 17, and 19 June. PAJ Diary A, AD, NNC. On 29 June, also in attendance at the Churches’ were two allies of Charles James Fox, Lord Robert Spencer (1747–1831) member of Parliament, and “the celebrated Colonel Tarlton—”, Banastre Tarleton (1754–1833), who gained notoriety in the war of independence for his brutal actions in the southern campaign, particularly at the Battle of the Waxhaws. ODNBO. For the Jays’ relationship with the Churches and others mentioned in this letter, see the editorial note, “John Jay’s Mission to London,” above.
2. Possibly Margarita Cuyler Low (1738–1802), widow of the loyalist Isaac Low.
3. Mrs. White is Eva Van Cortlandt White, daughter of JJ’s aunt Frances Jay Van Cortlandt, widow of loyalist Henry White, and mother of Peter Jay Munro’s wife Margaret.
4. Francis Rawdon Hastings, first marquess of Hastings and second earl of Moira (1754–1826), served as an army officer and politician. In June 1794, he led 7,000 men to Ostend in Flanders in support of the Duke of York. ODNBO.
5. The son mentioned is the future Sir John Chambers White (c. 1770–1845), who had joined the British navy shortly after the family’s removal to London in 1783, and was about to take command of the Nymph. Cuyler Reynolds, Genealogical and family history of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation (3 vols.; New York, 1914), 3: 1409.
6. Eléonore-François-Elie, marquis de Moustier, and Anne Flore Millet, the marquise de Bréhan. After Moustier’s recall in 1790, he obtained posts in Berlin and Constantinople. In 1793, the couple managed to take refuge under reduced circumstances in London, where Moustier acted as a liaison between the British military and Émigré troops. Moustier’s son Clément-Édouard (1779–1830), later succeeded him as the 4th marquis. The marquise’s son was Armand-Louis-Fidèle de Bréhan (1770–1828), who had accompanied his mother and Moustier to the United States. Moustier would attempt to use his connection to JJ to aid a fellow refugee and transmit letters to France. See Moustier to JJ, 18 Dec. 1794, ALS, NNC (EJ: 07028); JJ to Moustier, 18 Dec. 1794, Dft, NNC (EJ: 08922); and , 4: 50n25, 55, 119n24, 136, 137n5, 248n3, 446n6, 547, 558–60, 566–68, 597, 601, 603n3, 648, 651, 676, 714, 716, and 733.
7. Lucy Ludwell Paradise.
8. Edward Bancroft.
9. William Jay.