John Jay Chapman was born to Henry Grafton Chapman and Eleanor Jay in New York City on March 2, 1862. He was an essayist and poet, and editor of the journal "The Political Nursery." He came from a line of politicians and reformers including his great-great-grandfather founding father Chief Justice John Jay, great-grandfather William Jay the reformer, grandfather John Jay the US diplomat to Austria-Hungary, and grandmother Maria Chapman the abolitionist. His father was a broker and head of the New York Stock Exchange. Chapman was educated at Harvard Law where he had his left hand amputated after a student brawl. He became involved in politics and gained renowned as an essayist, with works including "A Nation's Responsibility" - a response to the horrors of lynching. In 1889 he married Minna Timmins with whom he had three children. After Minna's death he remarried to Elizabeth Astor Winthrop Chanler, of the Astor family with whom he had one child. Chapman died of liver cancer on November 4, 1933.