John Jay

1745–1829 · Supreme Court seat #1 · 1789–1795 · NY

John Jay became the nation's first Chief Justice as part of the Supreme Court's original 1789 bench, having already helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War and co-authored the Federalist Papers. He left the Court to become Governor of New York, a role he judged more consequential than the still-young judiciary.