John Jay's Boyhood Home, "The Locusts" in Rye, NY circa 1745-6 (JHC Collection- Gift of John Clarkson and Emily Jay)

This is the place that John Jay returned to after negotiating the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

"Jay quitted Paris in May, Seventeen Hundred Eighty-four, having been gone from his native land eight years. When he reached New York there was a great demonstration in his honor. Triumphal arches were erected across Broadway, houses and stores were decorated with bunting, cannons boomed, and bells rang. The freedom of the city was presented to him in a gold box, with an exceedingly complimentary address, engrossed on parchment, and signed by one hundred of the leading citizens.

Jay spent just one day in New York, and then rode on horseback up to the old farm at Rye, Westchester County...that evening there was a service of thanksgiving at the village church, after which the citizens repaired to the Jay mansion, one story high and eighty feet long, where a barrel of cider was tapped, and "a groce of Church Wardens" passed around, with free tobacco for all.

John Jay stood on the front porch and made a modest speech just five minutes long, among other things saying he had come home to be a neighbor to them, having quit public life for good. But he refused to talk about his own experiences in Europe. His reticence, however, was made up for by good old Peter Jay, who assured the people that John Jay was America's foremost citizen; and in this statement he was backed up by the village preacher, with not a dissenting voice from the assembled citizens."

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The photo above is of an original pencil sketch of the buildings and landscape of the Jay family property in Rye situated between Boston Post Road and Long Island Sound. The estate was aptly called "The Locusts" for 3 locust trees that stood in the forefront. John Jay's father, Peter Jay purchased the land for this home in 1745 from John Budd and in 1746, he moved his family from Manhattan to Rye to spare them the threat of the smallpox epidemic that had already blinded 2 Jay children. Jay was 3 months old at the time of the move and he grew up in Rye on this 250 acre parcel which eventually grew to 400 acres. At 14 years old, Jay left to study at Kings College (now Columbia) but he would return to this home throughout his career as a refuge from public life and to be with his family. Jay chose this sylvan coastal property for his final resting place. He established a private cemetery in 1807 for himself and his descendants and was buried there in 1829.

Because the 1838 mansion was built atop the footprint of this 18th century farmhouse, and oriented in the same position towards the Sound, it is hoped this rendering which shows other buildings on the property will give clues to archaeologists today to find the locations of their foundations and the surrounding 18th century gardens. Already the late Professor Bruce Byland discovered what may be the foundation of one of the two buildings on the far left, believed to be barns or buildings where enslaved women and men worked or lived. John Jay's father Peter owned at least 9 people in Rye and we know many of their names including Mary, Zilpha, Hannah, Anthony, Susan, Clarinda, London and Plato. The site is one of 14 on the Westchester County African American Heritage Trail -- it is a place where enslaved individuals worked but also where they were freed and many even baptized, married and buried according to records at Christ's Church in Rye. The drawing has been enlarged and successfully used in our acclaimed school program "Striving for Freedom."

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Of literary note is the fact that the "The Locusts" is widely believed to have been an inspiration for the Wharton House in James Fenimore Cooper's novel 'The Spy."

In this tale, inspired by a story John Jay himself told Cooper, "The Wharton family" lived at "The Locusts" and their house was situated so "...the fall of the land to the level of the tide water afforded a view of the Sound* over the tops of the distant woods on its margin." Cooper further explained the Sound to readers unfamiliar with its location: " *An island more than forty leagues in length lies opposite the coasts of New York and Connecticut. The arm of the sea which separates it from the main is technically called a sound, and in that part of the country, par excellence, 'The' Sound. This sheet of water varies in breadth from five to thirty miles."

Mary E. Phillips in her book "James Fenimore Cooper" also drew attention to another connection between the Jay's Rye home and "The Spy":

"From "Portraits of Cooper's Heroines," by the Rev. Ralph Birdsall of Cooperstown, is gleaned: On the walls of the Newport home of the Rev. John Cornell hang two old portraits that have close connection with the inner history of "The Spy." To their present owner they came from the New York home of his mother, the late Mrs. Isaac Cornell, and to her they came from the Somerville, New Jersey, home of her father, Mr. Richard Bancker Duyckinck, who in his turn received them from his aunt, Mrs. Peter Jay,--the subject of one of these portraits and at one time mistress of the Jay mansion at Rye. Over one hundred years ago it was that, from the walls of this rare old home at Rye, Westchester County, the grace of these ladies on canvas caught James Cooper's thought to use them, by description, in his coming book, "The Spy." Chapter XIII describes closely the personal appearance and style of dress of these portraits. "Jeanette Peyton," the maiden aunt of Cooper's story, owes her mature charm to the portrait of Mary Duyckinck, wife of Peter Jay. From the "cap of exquisite lawn and lace," her gown of rich silk, short sleeves and "large ruffles" of lace which with "the experience of forty years," also veiled her shoulders, to the triple row of large pearls about her throat,--all these details are found in Cooper's text-picture of Jeanette Peyton. His "Sarah Wharton" no less closely follows the portrait of Mrs. Jay's older sister, Sarah Duyckinck, who became Mrs. Richard Bancker. Her name Sarah may have been given purposely to Sarah Wharton of Cooper's story. Cooper was thirty-two when it was written, and it is not unlikely that Mrs. Jay, then eighty-five years of age, was pleased with this delicate tribute the young novelist paid to the beauty of her own and her sister's youth." These two portraits today are part of the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

James Fenimore Cooper was a longtime friend of the Jay family, enjoying visits to their homes, and a lively correspondence with both Peter Augustus Jay and his wife Mary Rutherfurd Jay.

The Jay Property in Rye, New York was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993.

Jay Heritage Center
210 Boston Post Road
Rye, NY 10580
(914) 698-9275
Email: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com

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Taken in: United States / New York / Harrison / Greenhaven (show map)

Taken on: March 21, 2009

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