Images and More: Passed Chief Justices - # 1

Bust of Chief Justice Jay, U.S. Supreme Court,

Washington, D.C. (11 April 2019)

It’s time to get serious about my Dead Chief Justice Scramble. In 2019, I wrote about the magnificent U.S. Supreme Court building and announced my intent to visit the last resting places of the sixteen departed Chief Justices. In 2021, I posted the grave and story of Chief Justice # 10, which was easy because he was also President # 27, William Howard Taft.

I am on the home stretch to visit and photograph their graves. After this July’s meandering drive to the Midwest, only one Chief will remain to be visited. I suggest presenting them in the order of their times in office so that their terms can also track the nation’s history and development. That said, we find that Chief Justice # 1 was difficult to get close to.

Portrait by Henry Loop [1884]

U.S. Supreme Court (11 April 2019)

John Jay should rank among the more important of the nation’s Founding Fathers. When one thinks about it, the history of our country has some definite time stamps. With George Washington’s inauguration in 1789, the Executive and Legislative branches of our new government began to function. The first Supreme Court met after the first president appointed the six original justices; the number has not always been nine.

However, our country won its independence from Britain in 1783 when the Revolution ended with the Treaty of Paris. John Jay, along with John Adams and Ben Franklin, negotiated that agreement. During the Revolution, he represented New York in the First Continental Congress and was president of the Second Congress. He also served as our rebel nation’s Minister to Spain as he tried to gain aid and recognition for our cause.

Governor John Jay

Albany Capitol (5 April 2013)

This portrait of John Jay hangs in the Hall of
Governors of the New York capitol in Albany

In the years that followed independence, Jay served as our Secretary of Foreign Affairs and then Washington’s first Secretary of State. He also authored five of the Federalist Papers that helped ratify our Constitution.

Just like Washington’s performance in office must be judged by the fact that the presidency had not existed before, the Jay Court spent considerable time establishing its role and procedures. When cases finally came up, Jay tried to prioritize decisions based on whether the issues were supported by the Constitution.

In 1795, he was elected governor of New York and resigned as Chief Justice. After serving two terms as governor, he retired to his estate in Rye, a town in eastern Westchester County, New York.

The (Closed) Peter Augustus Jay House (20 May 2021)

The Jay Heritage Center property includes the home built by
John Jay’s son, Peter Augustus, after his father died.

On a pretty May day in 2021, I was visiting my sister in New York and drove to Rye to find the Jay Heritage Center. I knew that the home John’s son, Peter Augustus built, was preserved and the family grave yard was on the property.

I found a news release that announced the Jay Family had opened the private cemetery to the public on Memorial Day 2017. It happened again in 2018…but apparently not since. Repeated attempts failed to contact anyone who could confirm if or when it would open to the public again.

He's In there Someplace

The Private Jay Family Cemetery, Rye New York (20 May 2021)

I walked through the wild, forested acreage and found the Jay Family Cemetery…fenced in and securely locked…as expected. I walked around and shot through and above the fencing where I could.

Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun lays a

wreath at the grave of John Jay, October, 1987.
The justice gave a lecture to commemorate the 200th
anniversary of the publication of the Federalist Papers.

Grave of John Jay

Jay Family Cemetery, Rye, New York (20 May 2021)

Based on the one photograph of Justice Blackmun at the grave in 1987, I can surmise that the marker indicated above is the last resting place of Mr. Jay. Sadly, this is as close as I could get...but it counts as far as I’m concerned. Below is a better image of the grave.

Justice Blackmun’s remarks included the inscription on the Chief Justice’s grave.

“Eminent among those who asserted the liberty and established

the independence of this country which he long served in
the most important offices, legislative, executive, judicial, and
diplomatic, and distinguished in them all by his ability, firmness,
patriotism and integrity...”