The Definitive Peace settled, Jay could now contemplate a long-deferred trip to England to collect a legacy left by the Peloquin family and to take the cure at Bath for a variety of ailments. His correspondence had for many months contained references to his poor health, but official duties prevented his departure from Paris until 9 October. Traveling by way of Calais and Dover, he reached London on the 14th. By coincidence two of the other three American peace negotiators also crossed the Channel during the period of Jay’s stay in England, their collective, if unofficial, presence provoking some raised eyebrows in America.1

Jay had planned originally to go on to Bristol and then to Bath after a week or ten days in the capital, but illness detained him in London, while at the same time curtailing his social life. In London Jay stayed at the Cavendish Square residence of the William Binghams. There he received some old friends and renewed former acquaintances, notably among the small but articulate knot of American merchants who were promoting a program for the liberalizing of trade between Great Britain and the new nation. These included Elkanah Watson (1758–1842), whose trading firm in Nantes had established a London branch, and Joshua Johnson, who had arrived from Nantes to take up residence in Cooper’s Row.

Jay’s social contacts were not confined to the American colony. He spent time with Benjamin Vaughan and Richard Oswald, and may have visited Shelburne at Bowood Park. He also encountered many Loyalists, some of them erstwhile friends, who were now in exile in London. Jay felt free to receive those New York Loyalists whose public behavior since coming to England had been circumspect and to be entertained by them in turn. In contrast, he was reluctant to acknowledge other New York refugees reputed to have circulated “infamous Lies” against the United States or whose conduct during the war had rendered them unacceptable to patriotic Americans. Thus, while he received the Reverend John Vardill and Lieutenant Colonel James De Lancey when they visited him at the Binghams, he declined to return their calls. He made no effort to see the Oliver De Lancey family and snubbed William Bayard Sr., when he passed him on the street.2

Jay’s decisions about whether or not to renew old friendships were dictated by his sense of what was in the national interest, and he did not relish having to turn his back on former close associates. Silas Deane is perhaps the outstanding example. Deane tried unsuccessfully to contact Jay late in November 1783, and again two months later. Jay’s stiff reply of 23 February 1784 from Paris was a final rebuke. Therein he declared himself under “the cruel necessity” of failing to acknowledge Deane’s card left at the Binghams as well as a letter. His further comments were crushing. On the other hand Jay met immediately upon arrival with his friend Peter Van Schaack.3

Men whom Jay was not eager to see in London included two members of his family. He did receive Peter Jay Munro’s father, the Reverend Harry Munro, at Bingham’s residence, but they fell into an argument and parted on bad terms. Although Sir James arrived in England during Jay’s stay there, the two brothers apparently had little or no contact with each other.4

Poor health aside, Jay managed to visit the main sights of London. By permission of George III, Jay, in the company of John Adams, was given a conducted tour of Buckingham Palace by the renowned American historical painter Benjamin West (1738–1820), a number of whose works were hanging on the palace walls. West subsequently included Jay, Adams, Franklin, Laurens, and William Temple Franklin in his unfinished group portrait of The Peacemakers [see illustration on p. 268]. On 11 November Jay joined Adams as an auditor of the king’s speech to the House of Lords.5 In addition he attended a performance at the Drury Lane Theater and a meeting of the Royal Society. He found congenial company during his evening at the Club of Honest Whigs, as a guest of its president, Dr. Richard Price, the nonconformist minister, author, and friend of American independence with whom Jay later corresponded. Sometime during his London visits Jay also sat for a portrait by Gilbert Stuart, and arranged to have two copies made, one for himself and one as a gift for his host, William Bingham, though neither painting was delivered at this time.6 Even though he had still not shaken off his persistent sore throat, Jay finally headed for Bath, arriving there on 27 November. Thence he made two trips to Bristol, one briefly in mid-December, and the other at greater length as the new year began.

Jay’s Bristol visit was prompted by the desire to collect the legacy left to himself, his brothers and sisters, and his father by Mary Ann Peloquin. The Peloquin estate proved a legal thicket for executors, legatees, and attorneys alike. Her original will of 27 April 1768 was followed by eleven codicils. The will disposed of various real estate holdings to a number of named legatees of Bristol, and set up a trust fund to be administered by the Mayor and Aldermen of Bristol in the amount of £19,000, the income from which was to be divided among religious and charitable institutions and a group of thirty-eight poor men and women of Bristol. By her first codicil, bearing the same date as the will, she left Peter Jay £1,000, Sir James Jay £500, and three other New Yorkers, Jay’s aunt, Françoise (Francena) Jay Van Cortlandt,7 £1,000, and his cousins James Van Cortlandt, £500, and Augustus Van Horne, £500.8 In a later codicil (No.5), dated 19 November 1769, all the other living children of Peter Jay were also named as legatees, as follows: Augustus Jay, £100; Eve Jay Munro, Anna Maricka, Peter, John, and Frederick, £500 each. In the seventh codicil, dated 5 December 1772, new trustees were named, to wit— Josiah Tucker, the dean of Gloucester, a prolific writer of tracts and an opponent of the war with America, Robert Hale, and Chester Willoughby, while Dr. Archibald Drummond replaced Isaac Picquet, originally designated.

The effort to settle the Peloquin estate involved Jay in protracted and irritating negotiations in Bristol. The sticking points, as the Peloquin executors saw it, were (1) the possibility that Jay’s father had pre-deceased Mrs. Peloquin, thereby causing that particular bequest to lapse; and (2) the need to prove Peter Jay’s will bequeathing his estate to his own children (a copy of Peter’s will and Jay’s proffered bond being deemed insufficent). Dr. Archibald Drummond, as Jay reported, entertained “so many scruples about legal evidence and imaginary contingencies” that a frustrated Jay started back to London on 9 January. Thereafter his friends Peter Van Schaack and Benjamin Vaughan represented the Jays in England until the matter was at length concluded.9

The affidavits in dispute were submitted to Attorney General Lloyd Kenyon (1732–1802) for his opinion. That official was prepared to waive the requirement that legal papers issued in America bear stamps, impliedly conceding that the Stamp Act of 1765 no longer had validity in the former colonies, but he insisted that stamped receipts be required for moneys issued in England. As regards Peter’s will, the opinion demanded “legal” proof, ruling out affidavits from America as inadequate “till remedied by treaty or law.”10 To compound the difficulties Sir James, then in England, entered a caveat against his brother’s receiving the money due the family until he himself was paid a fourth part of the £1,000 bequeathed to his deceased parent. At length, and shortly before he sailed for America, Jay was able to write Frederick that the Peloquin executors had agreed to recognize the power of attorney and pay the legacies.11

Meanwhile Jay had started back to London on 9 January, and after spending a few weeks more in the capital, reached Dover on 22 January, crossed the Channel to Calais, and was reunited with his family toward the end of the month.

Of the letters below relating to the period of Jay’s English sojourn, the choicest are those between the traveler and his wife whom he had left behind. The fullest extant correspondence between John and Sarah Livingston Jay for any four-month period of their marriage, they reveal the abiding affection and concern for family that ever marked the relations between the pair. Jay’s correspondence with his nephew Peter Jay Munro adds further insights into family affairs and interests. Among other topics both groups of correspondence discussed the tragic case of the imprisonment and death of the Jays’ runaway slave, Abigail, and the excitement over balloon launchings in Paris.12