John Jay was born in a wealthy family
The grandfather of John Jay emigrated to America from France in search of a better life for himself. The French at that time were persecuting Protestants and had a lot of laws and requirements that Augustus wasn't eager to follow. Protestants' civil and legal rights were abolished in 1685 after the Edict of Nantes was overturned, and the French Crown then started seizing their property.
Auguste Jay, Jay's paternal grandfather, was one of those impacted. He relocated from France to New York and subsequently Charleston, South Carolina, where he established a prosperous business empire. Peter Jay, Jay's father, was a prosperous trader of furs, wheat, lumber, and other commodities after being born in New York City in 1704.
Jay's mother, Mary Van Cortlandt, a woman of Dutch descent got married Peter Jay in the Dutch Church in 1728. Together, they had ten children, seven of whom lived to adulthood. In accordance with the Gregorian calendar, Jay was born in New York City on December 23, 1745; three months later, the family relocated to Rye, New York.
John Jay spent his early years in Rye. Up to the age of eight, his mother taught him there before sending him to New Rochelle to learn under Anglican priest Pierre Stoupe. Three years later, in 1756, he went back to homeschooling in Rye under the guidance of George Murray and his mother.
