Education Editorial Note
Education
John Jay’s education began at home, in Rye, where his mother, Mary, taught him “the rudiments of English, and the Latin grammar.”1 His father, Peter, wrote Jay’s brother James (then studying medicine in Edinburgh) that “Johnny is of a very grave disposition and takes to learning exceedingly well.” At the age of eight, John Jay was sent to the New Rochelle grammar school operated by the Reverend Peter Stouppe, the Swiss pastor of the French and Anglican congregations.2 French was spoken widely in New Rochelle and at the school, and it is perhaps here that Jay gained his familiarity with the language. In 1756, at the age of eleven, Jay returned to Rye for private tutoring with George Murray.3 Under Murray, Jay became proficient in the Latin required for admission to King’s College (now Columbia University).
John Jay was admitted to King’s College in 1760, at the age of fourteen and a half.4 King’s College was founded in 1754 and was orginally chartered as an Anglican institution, but protests by other religious groups, particularly the Presbyterians, led to representation of those groups on the board of trustees.5 The first president of King’s College was the Reverend Dr. Samuel Johnson, a Yale graduate who rejected his Congregationalist upbringing and was ordained in the Anglican Church.6 Under Johnson’s direction, the King’s curriculum was an innovative mix of classical studies, natural sciences, government, agriculture, and business. Many of these classes were taught by Johnson himself, who treated his students in a paternal manner. King’s was a logical choice for Jay to attend, and not merely because of its location; the family had numerous connections to the young institution. Johnson had close ties to the Jay family through Trinity Church, where Peter Jay was a vestryman. Johnson also attempted to tutor John Jay’s older, mentally disabled brother, Augustus, but was frustrated by his “bird witted humor.”7 Jay’s uncle John Chambers was a trustee of the college. Sir James Jay, John Jay’s older brother, was knighted for his fund-raising efforts for the college and promoted the founding of its medical college.
1. , 23.
2. Family tradition had it that JJ hated the school, that Stouppe was absentminded, his wife stingy and mean, and the food bad. See , 1: 11.
4. Matricula or Register of Admissions and Graduations and of Officers Employed in King’s College at New York, 8, NNC, University Archives Collection. See , 1: 14, for anecdotes.
5. See , chapters 2–5.
6. Samuel Johnson (1696–1772) was a graduate of Yale, served as a tutor at the college, and was ordained a Congregationalist minister in 1720. Despite this, he became skeptical of the “Connecticut Way” and was a follower of Bishop George Berkeley. In 1722, as part of the so-called Yale Apostasy, Johnson, Timothy Cutler, Daniel Browne, and James Wetmore sailed to England to seek holy orders in the Anglican Church. Johnson was ordained in 1724 and became a missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (S.P.G.). He was an ardent supporter of an American episcopate. He served as president of King’s College from 1754 to 1763.