William Hay

(1793- )
New York

"Among the many eminent citizens who have lived and died in the county of Saratoga during the present century, no one is more justly entitled to a prominent place in these biographical sketches than Judge William Hay. Yet perhaps no one among them all cared less or strove less for what men commonly call success in life or fame and fortune than he; and perhaps no one among them all, laying aside mere selfish considerations, cared more or strove more than he for what he thought to be the best good of his fellow-men.

Able, eloquent, and learned in his profession, and early commanding a large and lucrative practice, yet he was more of a scholar than a lawyer, and was always only too glad to turn aside from what doubtless seemed to him to be the hard-trodden dusty pathways of the law into the greener and more inviting fields of literature.

. . . .

William Hay was born in Cambridge, Washington county, New York, on the 10th day of September, 1793. His father was James Hay, who emigrated from near Paisley, Scotland. His mother was Katy McVicker, a cousin of the celebrated author, Mrs. Grant, of Laggan.

When quite young his father removed to Glen's Falls, and embarked in business. It was here that he improved to the utmost the somewhat meagre educational facilities which the schools of the country afforded. What could not then be taught him at school his eager thirst for knowledge induced him to seek in the study of books at home, and he soon became quite proficient in English literature and history.

In 1808 he began the study of the law in the office of Henry O. Martindale, of Glen's Falls. In 1812, having in the mean time been admitted to the bar, he opened an office in Caldwell, at the head of Lake George, and such were his talents and ability that he soon acquired a large and lucrative practice. In the War of 1812 he raised a rifle company, and marched at the head of it as lieutenant commanding to Plattsburg, but did not arrive in time for the battle. He was also one of the volunteers in the expedition to Carthagena, in consequence of which he spent a winter in Philadelphia, where he learned the printer's trade. In 1819 he became the publisher of the Warren Patriot, the first and only paper ever published at Lake George. In 1822 he removed to Glen's Falls, and was elected member of Assembly from Warren county. About this time he issued a small volume of poetry, entitled "Isabel Davolos, the Maid of Seville." In the spring of 1837 he removed to Ballston, and in 1840 removed to Saratoga Springs, where he resided until his death, which occurred on Sunday, the 12th day of February, 1870.

Judge Hay was in many respects a most remarkable man. "He was," says Dr. Holden, the learned historian of Queensbury, "a man of extensive reading and vast erudition, not a little tenacious of his opinions and views, some of which bordered upon eccentricity. But few of the sterner sex ever possessed more delicate sensibilities, keener perceptions, or more rapid intuitions.

"In the latter decades of his life he became a bold and fearless advocate of temperance. His delight and recreation, however, were drawn through the flowery, though not thornless paths of poetry and romance. His memory was something extraordinary, his industry in research indefatigable, and his mind was stored with the choicest cullings from the wide fields of literature and belles-lettres. In American history he was a standard authority, to whom it was safe to refer at a moment's warning, and in the matter of local history his mind was an exhaustless treasury."

Indeed, at the time of his death he had collected and arranged in order, in his own methodical way, several large scrap-books of valuable historic matter, in contemplation of publishing a history of this county. Alas, the task has fallen upon less competent hands. Judge Hay married Miss Sophia Payne, daughter of Stephen Payne, of Northumberland. The children of this union were De Witt C., John G., Catharine McVicar, now Mrs. McKean, Mary Payne, now Mrs. Bockes, Sidney, Frank, Agnes, Henry, Alice, and William Wirt."

[Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester,History of Saratoga County, New York (1878)]