Lawyer
Centurion, 1869–1915
Born 12 February 1841 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Died 28 March 1915 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Buried Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Churchyard
, Bedford, New York
Proposed by Edgar S. Van Winkle, Buchanan Winthrop, and Frank E. Kernochan
Elected 6 February 1869 at age twenty-seven
Archivist’s Note: Son of John Jay; nephew of Henry E. Pellew; brother-in-law of Edmund R. Robinson and William H. Schieffelin; uncle of John Jay Chapman and William J. Schieffelin
Seconder of:
Century Memorial
William Jay was the great-grandson of the first Chief Justice of the United States. Graduating from Columbia in 1859, he volunteered in the Civil War, and received a staff appointment. As the war proceeded, he was brevetted Major and then Lieutenant-Colonel for gallant and meritorious services in the field. Retiring when the war was over, Colonel Jay took up the practice of law in New York; and in the course of years he was counsel for many corporations, even those as different as the New York Herald and Trinity Church. Of the latter he was Warden and Clerk, not only on the score of merit, but one might almost say by right of heredity. Known in polo, famous in coaching, Colonel Jay was a social figure of our town.
Henry Osborn Taylor
1916 Century Association Yearbook