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WILLIAM HAY {For the greater portion of this sketch the author is indebted to the History of the Town of Queensberry , by Dr. A.W. Holden of Glen's Falls. This work, which is most exhaustive in reference to the subject of which it treats, should be in the library of every scholar in the United States. Too much praise cannot be awarded to it.} - a loved and revered resident of Saratoga Springs - was of Scotch extraction, his ancestors having been among the earliest of that hardy band of Scotch adventurers who hewed them out a home in the wilderness, on the eastern confines of Charlotte County, about a century ago. {Charlotte County at that time included the present counties of Albany, Saratoga, Washington, and Warren.} He was a blood relation of the late Henry Hay of Ticonderoga, and of Colonel Udney Hay, who held important relations to the American army of the Revolution. He was born in the year 1790, in Cambridge, Washington County, N.Y., and his early training was in the straight and narrow ways of Scotch Presbyterianism. About the beginning of the present century, his father, William Hay, came to Glen's Falls, where he embarked in the lumber business, and erected a store - the first building put up on the site, now (1875) occupied by Pearsell & Coolidge as a clothing store. For a time he carried on an extensive trade, but he was ultimately unsuccessful, and the property passed into the hands of John A. Ferris and others. Amid these reverses, however, the son struggled nobly on unaided in the acquirement of an education - his advantages being of the scantiest, both as regards quality and opportunity. In 1808 he was pursuing the study of the law in the office of Henry O. Martindale, near the site of "Vermillia's Block," in Glen's Falls. In 1812 he opened an office for the practice of his profession in Caldwell, at the head of Lake George.

Of Judge Hay, personally, I am enabled to speak confidently, having been honored by an acquaintance with him of many years. He was a man of singularly temperate habits - so much so, indeed, as to have been accused by his political opponents of fanaticism. He was a person of firm convictions, very decided, if a necessity arose; in his expression of them; possessing also a remarkable love of truth, he was, like Dr. Steel, an intense hater of shams. Indeed, this latter trait was oftentimes the cause of his losing wealthy clients, since his plain speaking regarding the justice of their claims was, in many instances, extremely unpalatable. In his treatment, however, of those who won his respect by sterling qualities of character, no one could be more tender and sympathetic. His intercourse with youth, especially, was ever marked by a peculiarly courteous and genial manner. His benevolence and kindness of heart were great; and yet so unobtrusively were his acts of kindness performed that, in this world at least, it will never be known how many people he has assisted both by practical advice and by substantial pecuniary benefits. {I have in my mind now two instances: one, who having been elected lieutenant in the late war, and having nothing wherewith to purchase a sword or an outfit, was enabled to go with his company to the seat of war by the private liberality of Judge Hay, who supplied, at some inconvenience to himself; the entire outfit; the other, a poor woman, to whom he gave the entire proceeds of one of his works - having, indeed, written it with that specific object.} Far, moreover, from possessing that narrow professional jealousy which too frequently mars an otherwise excellent character, he was ever willing to give advice to his brothers of the bar, and allow them to gather largely of the rich stores of his experience. He was likewise, as Dr. Holden truly says: "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."

While practising law at Caldwell, and early in the winter of 1816-17, Judge Hay was married to a daughter of Stephen Paine of Northumberland, Saratoga County, N.Y., by whom he had eight children, five of whom yet survive. {Of his two daughters, one is the wife of Hon. Judge Bockes, of Saratoga Springs, and the other is the wife of Hon. James B. McKean, late Chief-Justice of Utah Territory.}