The Dancing Assembly: An Invitation to a Duel Editorial Note
The Dancing Assembly: An Invitation to a Duel
Dancing assemblies, which were generally held every two weeks during the fall and winter, had been a regular feature of the New York social season since as early as 1740. The city’s most fashionable residents patronized these subscription parties, and John Jay was naturally among those who attended. By 1772 he had become one of the three managers, along with John Reade1 and Robert R. Livingston, and he is known to have held the same post two years later.2 The assemblies were discontinued during the Revolution, but they were revived later, and Jay’s family continued to participate.
The two letters below concern the assembly’s rejection of the application of Robert Randall.3 The rigid standards which Jay as a manager applied indicate how strongly social status was defined in even a small society such as New York. Feelings of injury to personal honor between Jay and Randall almost brought about a personal confrontation. Dueling, while illegal under common law, became increasingly common after the 1760s, as a way for young would-be aristocrats to assert status, demonstrate masculinity, and enforce social norms. Duels were seldom entered into in the heat of an argument, but rather involved an elaborate and prescribed set of preliminary rituals, the Code Duello. Fortunately, it appears that negotiations involving third parties hinted at in the second letter proved successful, and the matter was settled without a duel.4
1. John Reade (1745–1808) ran a freighting and warehouse business. Reade Street in Lower Manhattan is named for him. His mother was Anna French, sister of Philip French, who was the maternal grandfather of Sarah Livingston Jay. In 1774, Reade married Catherine Livingston (1756–1830) daughter of Robert Gilbert Livingston and granddaughter of Gilbert Livingston.
2. Esther Singleton, Social New York under the Georges, 1714–1776 (New York, 1902), 301–5; , 42.
3. Probably Robert Richard Randall (1750–1801). Randall, of Scots descent, was the son of a prosperous merchant and privateer, Thomas Randall. He followed his father to sea and became a successful shipmaster. In 1771, he became active in the Marine Society, a charitable organization devoted to aiding distressed seamen. During the Revolution, he aided the Patriot cause as a privateer. He eventually became part of New York City’s business elite and was a friend of Alexander Hamilton. Provisions made in his will founded the Sailor’s Snug Harbor, a home for seamen and their widows and orphans.
4. See Douglas W. Allen and Clyde G. Reed, “The Duel of Honor: Screening for Unobservable Social Capital,” American Law and Economic Review 8 (2006): 81–115; , chap. 4; and Harwell Wells, “The End of the Affair? Anti-Dueling Laws and Social Norms in Antebellum America,” Vanderbilt Law Review 54 (2001): 1805–47.