JAY, Henry (Grimwade p.560)

[MCB]

Robert Owen, goldsmith of Foster Lane, made an oath in 1704 on behalf of Henry Jay aged 30 years of All Hallows parish, Lombard Street that Jay intended to marry Mary Hazlewood of Norwich at St Leonard, Shoreditch. The document seems relevant to Henry Jay the goldsmith because Owen was also in the same trade and Jay originally came from Norwich. This also fits Grimwade’s proposition that Jay was born in 1675 and only nine years old when he became an apprentice.
His first recorded mark was entered at Goldsmiths’ Hall from Lombard Street at some point between 1714 and 1719.
He was listed at Lombard Street as a freeman of the Goldsmiths Company in the 1727 Poll Book.
He was assessed to Land Tax on unidentified property in All Hallows, Lombard Street precinct until 1729. This was presumably Ball Alley since Richard Gines (Grimwade p.523) is recorded in the same assessment book as a near neighbour and Grimwade noted him at Nag’s Head Court or corner of Ball Alley. All of the Ball Alley property is shown as pulled down in the 1730 Land Tax assessment book and Henry Jay’s business there must have ended.
The Will of Henry Jay, goldsmith late of Stoke Newington, was proved for probate on 12th September 1738 (National Archives reference PROB 11/691/251). This information of death around 1738 coincides with the death notice published in the London Magazine: Henry Jay Goldsmith, Cheapside formerly an eminent goldsmith died August 1738 aged 63. Grimwade considered this Henry Jay was the goldsmith previously known until 1727 in Ball Alley Lombard Street but not the man recorded in Newington in 1734. They now appear to be one and the same man.