Jay, WILLIAM, an English Congregational minister, was born May 6, 1769, at Tisbury, in
Wiltshire. He worked at his father's trade, that of a stonecutter and mason, until his sixteenth year. He was then sent to Marlborough Academy, a Congregational training college for the ministry. His first charge was at Christian Malford, near Chippenham; then he officiated for a year in a chapel belonging to Lady Maxwell; and in 1791 was called as pastor of Argyle Chapel at Bath, which position he occupied for sixty-two years. He died December 27, 1853. Jay was an impressive and eloquent preacher; he began preaching when only sixteen. As a writer he produced several works which attained to a rapid and very extensive popularity. Among them are Morning and Evening Exercises, Short Discourses, The Christian Contemplated, Life of Rev. Cornelius Winter, Memoirs of Rev. John Clark, Lectures on Female Scripture Characters, and an Autobiography (1854). A collected edition of his works, in 12 vols., revised by himself, was published in 1842-48 (new ed. 1876).