From John Jay to Sarah Livingston Jay, 28 October 1783
To Sarah Livingston Jay
London 28 October 1783
Harley Street No. 30
My dear Sally
My last to you was dated the 26 Inst. and committed to the Care of Col. Wadsworth1 who set out for Paris this Morning—as it enclosed one for Peter I omit writing to him at present.
Yesterday Mr Adams delivered to me your Favor of the 19 Inst.2 enclosing Locks of Your own and our Children’s Hair, which I shall endeavour to have wrought in the best Manner. As yet I have seen so little of London that I can form but a very imperfect Judgmt. of it.
I was last Evening at the Drury Lane Theatre, where the celebrated Mrs. Siddons3 displayed her Talents in the Character of Belvidera, to which she did ample Justice. The House is neat and well lighted, but not so magnificent as those at Paris
Capt. and Mrs. Rickets dined with us Yesterday—she is very little altered since you saw her—she has one Child but I have not seen it—4
Mrs. Foy5 is married to Col. Carlton, the Brother of the General—her Sister Betsey shortly afterwards went to America with much less than half the Beauty she brought from thence. H. Cruger married his Housekeeper,6 and is now at New York— Betsey Johnson I hear is here, but I have not seen her—she is the Wife of some Gentleman (I do not remember his Name) whom she found at New York a Year or two ago7
On coming Home this Evening I found a Card from Majr. General Maunsel. I shall return his Visit, & the more readily as his Connection with Watkin’s Father may enable him to give some Information respecting him & his—8
A Visitor has just come in— I must therefore postpone adding any thing except that I am my Dear Sally Your very afft. Husband
John Jay
P.S. Mr. Van Schaack who is just entered desires me to present his best Compts. to you—
Mrs. Jay—
ALS, NNC (EJ: 8037).
1. Soon after his trip to Paris in the summer of 1783 Jeremiah Wadsworth went to England and Ireland, where he invested his remaining credit balance in merchandise, which he later disposed of in America at a considerable profit. 24, 49, 54–57.
3. On 27 Oct. 1783 the Drury Lane Theatre presented Thomas Otway’s (1652–85) tragedy, Venice Preserved, featuring the acclaimed Sarah Kemble Siddons (1755–1831). Gentleman’s Magazine (London, 1783), 956.
4. Maria Eliza Ricketts (b. 1783).
5. Hannah Van Horne Foy, SLJ’s second cousin, was the widow of Captain Edward Foy of the Royal Artillery. Her second husband, whom she married in London in May 1783, was Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Carleton (1735–1817), Sir Guy Carleton’s brother, and shortly to be named the lieutenant governor of the newly created province of New Brunswick.
6. Henry Cruger (1739–1827), the son of the New York merchant Henry Cruger (1707–80), attended King’s College for three years, withdrawing in 1757 to set up as a merchant in Bristol. A leader of the radical movement in England, he represented Bristol in Parliament in 1774 and 1784, and became mayor of that city in 1781. Returning to the United States in 1790 Cruger was elected to the N.Y. State Senate in 1792. His second wife was Elizabeth Blair (d. 1790). Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The House of Commons, 1754–1790 (3 vols.; New York, 1964), 2: 280–82.
7. Elizabeth Johnson and William Sharp received a marriage license in New York on 1 July 1782. Names of Persons for whom Marriage Licences were Issued by the Secretary or the Province of New York (Albany, 1860), 205.
8. Major General John Maunsell (1724–95), an Irish-born British army officer, married Elizabeth Stillwell Wraxall, the widow of Captain Peter Wraxall, in 1763. Mrs. Maunsell’s younger sister, Lydia Stillwell, wife of John Watkyn Watkins Sr., was the mother-in-law of SLJ’s sister, Judith (Mrs. John Watkyns Watkins Jr.) Before the Revolution the Maunsell and Watkins families owned neighboring estates on Harlem Heights in New York. Both Maunsell and Watkyns Senior spent the Revolution in England. Charles A. Maunsell, History of the Family of Maunsell (2 vols.; London, 1917–20); and John E. Stillwell, Stillwell Genealogy (4 vols.; 1929–31), vol. 2.