From John Jay to Sarah Livingston Jay, 6 June 1777
To Sarah Livingston Jay
[Kingston, 6th June 1777]
My Dear Sally.
I was extremely happy to be informed by Mr. Morris’ letter that you arrived safely at Troy. The length of the journey and the improbability of your having good accommodations on the road gave me no little anxiety. Elmendolph tells me the little boy behaved very well. I fear the bones of our little sister Kate were sore vexed, and that the memory of this jaunt will influence her to decline paying a second visit to Fishkill. Employ all your eloquence to induce her to return; if it has as much influence on her as on me you will be suc cessful.
Let me remind you of consulting your health in all things—ride, bathe, etc.; should a horse be wanting, buy one at any price. Let your returning with Mr. Morris be determined entirely by our own inclination. A court is directed to be held in Dutchess, and I expect the like order will be given for other countries, so that should you not hear from me so frequently, ascribe it to my absence from here.1 The family at Fishkill continue as usual, my father weak and his spirits much depressed.
The Tories desert in great numbers to take the benefit of our act of grace.2 Mr., or rather the Rev., Parson Beardsley3 and others of some note have come in. Adieu, my dear Sally. Remember me to all the family. I am, with the most sincere affection, Yours,
John Jay
Printed: , 1: 141–42. Original manuscript not located.
1. No court session at this time has been identified; the first supreme court session was in September, and records for courts of oyer and terminer are incomplete. See “Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court of Judicature” (editorial note) on pp. 520–21.
2. On the act of grace for Loyalists, see William Duer to JJ, 3 Jan. 1777, above.
3. Connecticut-born Rev. John Beardsley (1732–1810), B.A. and M.A., King’s College, a rector in Poughkeepsie and in Fishkill before the Revolution, who had refused to take the oath of allegiance required by the state. If Beardsley had in fact “come in,” the effort was unsuccessful. His property was confiscated, and he took refuge in New York City, where in 1778 he was appointed chaplain to the Loyal American Regiment organized by Beverly Robinson. He migrated to New Brunswick with the regiment after the evacuation of New York in 1783. , 1: 222–23; Arthur Wentworth Eaton, The Church of England in Nova Scotia and the Tory Clergy of the Revolution (New York, 1891), 149–50, 161–62; Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.