John Jay was born in New York City in 1745 into a prosperous merchant family of Huguenot descent. He graduated from King's College (now Columbia) at nineteen, read law, and built one of New York's leading practices before the Revolution swept him into public life.
He was a reluctant revolutionary at first — a moderate who hoped for reconciliation with Britain — but once independence was declared he committed completely. He drafted New York's first constitution, served as President of the Continental Congress, and became the young republic's most important diplomat: minister to Spain, then one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Paris that ended the war and secured American independence.
With Hamilton and Madison he wrote The Federalist Papers (five of the essays are his; illness kept the number low), and as Secretary for Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation he saw firsthand how weak the national government was. When Washington needed a first Chief Justice for a court that did not yet exist in any practical sense, Jay — principled, pragmatic, and deeply concerned with national stability — was the natural choice.