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John Jay

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,500.00 USD
John Jay

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Auction Date:2018 Dec 05 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS, three pages on two sheets, 7.5 x 9, December 22, 1783. Written from Bath, a letter to his wife, Sarah Livingston Jay, whom he affectionately calls “My Dear Sally," in part: "I am still without any Letters from you of later Date than the 7’th Instant—subsequent ones are I am persuaded on the Road, and I cannot but flatter myself that this Evening’s Post will bring them—In a letter which was delivered to me this morning from Mr. [Peter] Van Schaack he mentions a young Mr. Donaldson who is going to France and wishes that I would mention him to you. He is a son of Mr. Donaldson who formerly lived in New Jersey and was well acquainted with your father. Whether the young gentleman was born in America or not I can't say. Mr. Van Schaack speaks handsomely of him…I do not know whether that family was Whig or Tory, tho' from the name being Scotch I suspect the latter. I apprize you of this Doubt that you may be the more guarded.

Mr. Van Schaack tells me I may expect to receive from him…the papers he is to furnish relative to my Bristol business. I shall then immediately go to Bristol and endeavor to bring my affairs to a conclusion. The moment they are finished I shall set out for London where I shall not stay longer than may be necessary. No considerations of pleasure can detain me from you a moment. They all conspire to press my Return, and I assure you I view with regret every obstacle to my doing it without further delay—

My health continues to mend—indeed my illness in London left great Room for it. I was last evening at Lady Huntington's chapel where the music exceeds anything of the kind I have hitherto met with—I am told it is unequalled by any church music in this kingdom. I go sometimes and pass an hour with her. She is really an uncommon fine woman of her age—she was, it seems, very intimate with the great men of the last generation such as Ld. Bolingbrook, Ld. Bath, Ld. Bathurst, Ld. Chesterfield, Pope etc etc etc. Her remarks on them render her conversation on that subject very entertaining—Almost all her money as well as her time is devoted to doing good—She is pleasant and cheerful and without any of that solemn austerity which is often tho' falsely imputed to religious characters. There are indeed some who for want of knowing better forbid Religion to smile—a rational, sensible Christian however entertains no such prejudice." In very good condition, with edge chips and tears, and areas of paper loss abutting, but not affecting, the signature.

After signing the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, Jay decided to go to Bath, England, where he hoped that the restorative powers of the waters would improve his health. Leaving his family and friends in Paris in October, 1783, he journeyed to London where he was immediately taken seriously ill. It was a month before he could travel to Bath, and he did not return to Paris until January 1784.