To John Jay from Peter Augustus Jay, 12 May 1820
From Peter Augustus Jay
New York 12 May 1820
My dear Father
I have recd. your letter of the 9th. inst. I know nothing of the management of the Canal Company.1 The Dividends have been as you mention. I will ask Mr Eddy whether they are to be annual or how otherwise. I have received your Watch of Mr Sedgwick & will send it by Calhoun put up in the box which Maria provided for it.2
I have purchased for you at the place you directed a Lottery Ticket in the 3d Lottery for the promotion of Literature. It is No. 4759, when it is drawn I will let you know its fate.3
The Council of appointment has not met as was intended. It is to meet sometime in June.4
The annual Meeting of the Bible Society took place yesterday & was very numerously attended. The Supreme Court adjourned for the purpose & the Judges were all there. It was quite as interesting as usual.5
More Money is required for the Assessments. I inclose a bond for $1000 to the Corporation for relief &c for you to execute—6 & I will write to Mr Stevens to pay up his Interest & a part of the principal of his bond—7
Helen & the Baby have had Colds but the rest of us are well— Our Love to William & Sisters I am my dear father Your very Affectionate son
Peter Augustus Jay
John Jay Esqr
P.S. I have opened this letter again to mention that Mary says Calhoun came here for your watch yesterday morning— Mr Sedgwick did not give it me till the afternoon— Mary sent by Calhoun a keg of Rusk from Hannah Benjamin which I believe Mrs Banyer has paid for.8
ALS, NNC (EJ: 06241). Addressed: “John Jay Esqr / Bedford / Westchester County”. Stamped: “NEW-YORK / MAY 12”. Note: “20”. Endorsed.
1. Thomas Eddy had been a New York State commissioner along with DeWitt and Simon Clinton, RRL, the late Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, Robert Fulton, and others, who were charged to purchase the rights of the former Western Inland Lock Navigation and Northern Inland Navigation Companies in 1812. This new company began construction in 1817 on the Erie Canal after the sale was completed by a court-appointed panel of appraisers including Richard Varick and Obadiah German.
2. Probably Roderick Sedgwick (1785–1864), merchant.
3. Although New York State mandated lotteries such as this to promote education, tickets were sold by private dealers. See [New York State], “An Act concerning lotteries,” 10 Apr. 1818, Laws of the State of New-York passed at the thirty-ninth, fortieth, and forty-first sessions of the Legislature, commencing January 1816, and ending up April 1818, vol. 4 (Albany, 1818; Early Am. Imprints, series 2, no. 45045), 124–25.
4. The Council of Appointment met on 30 May 1820.
5. The fourth annual meeting of the ABS was held at the City Hotel on 11 May, with Elias Boudinot presiding. American Bible Society, Fourth Report of the American Bible Society, Presented May 11, 1820 (New-York, 1820), v.
6. This was an assessment on the Walker Street project. See JJ to PAJ, 20 May 1818, above.
7. John Stevens III (1749–1838), RRL’s brother-in-law, who had a mortgage with JJ, and had sought additional funds to build a railroad in New Jersey. See John Stevens to JJ, 28 June 1819, ALS, NNC (EJ: 12560).
8. “Rusk”: a twice-baked bread, dry biscuit. Hannah Benjamin, PAJ’s nurse while his parents were in Spain, continued to work for the family. SLJ sent her a scarf from Spain as a memento for care of the child. See Susan Livingston to SLJ, 10 May 1781, ALS, NNC (EJ: 08295); Hannah Benjamin to SLJ, 27 May 1781, ALS, NNC (EJ: 08298); and PAJ with Susan Livingston to SLJ, 18 July 1781, LS, NNC (EJ: 06042); JJ to Egbert Benson, 8 Dec. 1781, , 2: 651; and SLJ to Catharine W. Livingston, 14 Dec. 1782, , 3: 289.