[4] In France, she would plan and host the Americans' celebration of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, albeit in absentia because she had only just given birth (in Benjamin Franklin's house) when the event took place.

[5] History leaves too few traces of women, but if one's role in society smoothed the way for the diplomatic process (as Benjamin Franklin believed it did) then Sarah Livingston Jay can be credited with aiding in the ratification of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

"[8] Her social circle included Adrienne de La Fayette, Angelica Schuyler Church, Abigail Adams, Abigail Adams Smith, and Anne Willing Bingham, and the connections forged by these linkages were crucial to future diplomatic successes (Angelica Church, for example, would assist John Jay socially when he traveled to London to negotiate what would become the Jay Treaty).

"[11] "In the society which marked the early days of the Republic, in New York, then the seat of the Continental Congress, Mrs. John Jay...was the acknowledged leader," and Sarah Livingston Jay's "Dinner and Supper list" for 1787-8 contained the names of notable men and women who were the midwives of a new nation, including: General and Mrs. Washington, Colonel and Mrs. Bayard, Alexander and Elizabeth Hamilton, Dr. and Mrs. Rodgers, Elias Boudinot, Daniel Huger, and the DeLancey family.

Like many of the Founding Mothers, credit for any and all of Sarah Livingston Jay's contributions as spouse to a prominent politician have been subsumed by her husband's reputation (i.e. a consequence of coverture).

[14][15] As coverture is no longer the law of the land, however, subsuming Livingston Jay's biography under her husband's is to perpetuate history's error: "we think women were sitting around tending to the tatting or pouring tea, and it's our view of first ladies too and it's all wrong.