John Jay Chapman was a lawyer, author, and the great-great grandson of John Jay. Born in 1862 in New York City, Chapman attended Harvard Law School and was admitted to the Bar in 1888. After only practicing law for a decade, he dedicated the rest of this life to writing books and essays focusing on…
Our story for this month is about one of America’s earliest landscape architects, and major proponent of advancing careers for women, Mary Rutherfurd Jay (1872-1953). She was the daughter of Peter Augustus Jay (1841-1875) and Julia Post, and the granddaughter of Dr. John Clarkson Jay. Mary grew up at the Jay family estate in Rye,…
John Jay II (1817-1894), son of early abolitionist William Jay, had been exposed to staunch anti-slavery sentiments from an early age. As an attorney, he dedicated a significant portion of his career to arguing against pro-slavery legislation in court, often, securing the freedom of formerly enslaved people who had made their escape north. One case that…