On 21 July 1769, John Jay was appointed clerk to the boundary commission created to ascertain the location of the New York-New Jersey dividing line, doubtless through the influence of Benjamin Kissam, one of the agents pleading New York’s case before the commission.1

Under a royal warrant of October 1767, the thirteen commissioners, or any five of them, were to settle the boundary, which had been in dispute since the creation of New Jersey as a separate colony in 1664. New York had not seriously contested a boundary line surveyed in 1719 until disagreements arose over the Minisink patent in 1755. In hearings before the commission, New Jersey argued for the 1719 boundary, which ran from 41° on the Hudson to 41° 40’ on the Delaware, while New York claimed a line from New York City to the site of Easton, Pennsylvania. John Jay and his assistant clerk copied land grants and marked evidence for future identification; then, once the proceedings began, they kept the minutes and entered interrogatories and answers.

Meeting in New York during the height of the summer of 1769, the commissioners received documents in evidence and heard testimony, adjourning on 22 September. On 30 September, the surveyors’ reports were read and filed. The commission, after deliberating for five days, rendered a decision based upon the surveyors’ findings: a compromise line substantially closer to New Jersey’s claims than to New York’s. Both sides entered appeals, and the commission adjourned for two months to convene at Hartford for consideration of these appeals.

Beyond this point the commission’s operations became hopelessly confused. While John Jay dutifully repaired to Hartford in December 1769, the commissioners themselves could not muster a quorum, and the rival provinces did not file their promised appeals. Jay was ready for duty again at the commission’s next scheduled meeting in New York in July 1770, but only one commissioner appeared, and no provincial agents attended. In May 1771, only one commissioner was present at the commission’s last meeting.

In the meantime, Jay had expended considerable time and money in behalf of the delinquent commissioners. Besides the costs of his trip to Hartford, he had to employ six “writers” to prepare copies of the commission’s records when it was expected that the two provinces would appeal the commission’s findings. Some members of the New York Council, apprehensive that they might be held individually responsible for the costs of the commission because of the unfavorable settlement, balked at settling accounts with the province’s agents.2 Jay hit upon the expedient of charging one-half of his salary and expenses to the agents of New Jersey, although it seems that he was not reimbursed by either province.

Even if his requests for compensation were ignored, Jay was not powerless, and he nearly frustrated the efforts of Governors William Franklin of New Jersey and William Tryon of New York to settle the troublesome dispute. In February 1772, the New York Assembly passed a statute accepting the commission’s line and recognizing land titles north of that line that originated from New Jersey grants. However, this act would not go into effect until New Jersey passed similar legislation and the Privy Council approved the laws of both colonies.3 In April 1772, the Board of Trade considered the New York law and refused to report the act to the Privy Council until it was clear that neither colony still intended to appeal the boundary and until the commission under which the line had been determined was returned to England along with the proceedings of the commissioners’ hearings in 1769.4

At a conference with Franklin in September 1772, Tryon settled the first problem, that of New Jersey’s accession to the boundary compromise.5 Later that month, the New Jersey Assembly passed legislation endorsing the commission’s line and recognizing land titles south of the new boundary.6 The only barrier to a settlement was the presentation of the commission’s records to the Board of Trade for review. Here Jay balked and refused to release a copy of the commission’s proceedings until he was directed to do so by an order in council or an act of the New York Assembly.7 When the New York legislature met in January 1773, Tryon pushed through a bill directing Jay to turn over the records. Introduced on 3 February, it was enacted by the assembly and approved by the council in three days.8

On the evening of 6 February 1773, Andrew Elliot, one of the boundary commissioners, was able to deliver the proceedings to Tryon along with the certificate printed below. Tryon forwarded the records to London the next day and assigned the delay in dispatch to Jay’s intransigence.9 In acknowledging receipt of the Commission proceedings, the secretary of state for the colonies commented: “I do not well see upon what ground it was, that Mr Jay had his doubts as to the delivery of the Commission and the proceedings thereupon for running the boundary line between New York and New Jersey; I am to presume, however, from the step taken by the Legislature; that there was some foundation in Law for those doubts.”10

It is most likely that had Jay turned over the product of his labors before his own claims for back pay and other outlays were settled, he probably would have forfeited his chance of recovery. Complying only after being so instructed by an act of assembly, Jay might still not have received compensation for expenses as the commission’s clerk beyond fees paid for copying in the summer of 1769, absent affirmative evidence.11