Peter Jay Munro

Peter Jay Munro (January 10, 1767 – September 22, 1833) was an American lawyer and Federalist politician from New York.

Early life Munro was born on January 10, 1767, in Rye in the Province of New York in what was then British America. and Eva ( Jay) Munro (1728–1810), who later became estranged. His father was the rector of St. Peter's Church in Albany who was forced to flee America in 1778 and return to his native land, Scotland (where he died in 1801), because he was considered a loyalist.

His mother was the eldest child of Peter Jay (a wealthy trader in furs, wheat, timber, and other commodities) and Mary ( Van Cortlandt) Jay (a daughter of Jacobus Van Cortlandt, a New York Assemblyman who was twice elected mayor of New York City, and sister to Frederick Van Cortlandt). His maternal uncle was Founding Father John Jay, who was the second governor of New York and the first chief justice of the United States. Among her siblings were Gen. Frederick Van Cortlandt White and Vice-Admiral Sir John Chambers White. Together, they were the parents of four sons (of whom only one had issue) and eight daughters, including:

Frances Jay Munro (1797–1869), who married the Rt. Rev. William H. DeLancey, Bishop of Western New York, in 1820. Anna Maria Munro (1806–1865), who married Elias Desbrosses Hunter, only child of New York State Senator John Hunter, in 1832. Sarah Jay Munro (d. 1840), who married Asa Whitney, a successful dry-goods merchant. John White Munro (1814–1898), who married Frances Augusta Bibby (a great-granddaughter of Augustus Van Cortlandt). and was sold to New York collectors Judy and Michael Steinhardt.

Around 1797, Munro built a country house known as the Manor House in present day Larchmont, New York. "The house faced Boston Post Road, so Munro's Scottish gardener imported some larch seeds from Scotland and planted them to screen the property from the dusty road." The estate was sold to shipping magnate Edward Knight Collins in 1845 who called it Larchmont.

Munro died on September 22, 1833, in New York City. He was buried in the Jay Cemetery in Rye, of which he was one of the original three trustees.

Descendants Through his daughter Frances, he was a grandfather of five grandsons and three granddaughters, including Edward Floyd DeLancey, president of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

Through his daughter Anna, he was a grandfather of Elizabeth Desbrosses Hunter (who married her cousin William Heathcote DeLancey Jr.), who inherited Hunter's Island and sold it to former mayor Ambrose Kingsland in 1866. John Hunter III married Annie Manigault Middleton of Middleton Place, Charleston, South Carolina.