JAY, William, English Congregational clergyman and writer: b. Tisbury, Wiltshire, 8 May 1769; d. Bath, 27 Dec. 1853. After study ing for the Congregational ministry, he offi ciated at Hope Chapel, near Bristol, and became pastor in 1789 of Argyle Chapel, Bath, where he remained till 1853. As a preacher he not only enjoyed a high celebrity in his own denomina tion, but won the applause of fastidious critics like John Foster, Sheridan and Beckford. His sermons are esteemed as well for their catholic spirit as their practical earnestness and simplic ity of style, and have passed through many editions. His collected works were published in 12 volumes between 1842-48, and his auto biography in 1854.
JAY, William, Americanjurist: b. New York, 16 June 1789; d. Bedford, N. Y., 14 Oct. 1858. He was the son of John Jay, statesman and jurist (q.v.). Graduated from Yale in 1808, he studied law with J. B. Henry at Albany, was obliged by defective eyesight to withdraw from the profession, and became in terested in various philanthropic movements, in cluding the anti-slavery cause. He was a
founder of the American Bible Society (1816), which he greatly promoted and long defended against High Church attacks led by Bishop Hobart. In 1818-21 he was judge of common pleas in New York, and in 1835-37 correspond ing foreign secretary of the American Anti Slavery Society, in the drafting of whose con stitution he had assisted. He *rote much on anti-slavery, and was recognized as a leader of the more conservative of the Abolitionists. Among his publications were 'The Life and Writings of John Jay' (1833) ; 'An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the Ameri can Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies' (1834) ; 'A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery) (1837); 'War and Peace) (1848.) JAY, Me., town in Franklin County, about 30 miles northwest of Augusta, on the Androscoggin River and on the Maine Central Railroad. There are granite quarries in the vicinity and the town possesses a large electric power plant. Pop. 2,987.