John Jay - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

On 28 April 1774, Jay married Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, eldest daughter of the New Jersey Governor William Livingston and his wife. At the time of the marriage, Sarah was seventeen years old and John was twenty-eight. She accompanied Jay to Spain, and later was with him in Paris, where they and their children resided with Benjamin Franklin at Passy. Jay had a lot of tragedy in his family life. His wife’s brother Henry Brock Livingston was lost during the disappearance of the Continental naval ship named Saratoga during the Revolutionary War. While in Paris, as a diplomat to France, Jay's father passed away. This event forced a lot of responsibility on to John Jay. Peter and Anna, Jay's blind brother and sister, became the diplomat's responsibility. Another one of Jay's brothers, Augustus, suffered from mental disabilities that forced Jay to provide not only financial, but emotional support to Augustus. Jay's brother Fredrick was in constant financial trouble causing John additional stress. Jay's other brother James was in direct competition with his brother John in the political arena. He joined the loyalist faction of the New York State Senate at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, causing him to be an embarrassment to the Jay Family.