George W. Lay
American politician (1798-1860)
George Washington Lay (July 26, 1798 – October 21, 1860) was an American politician and diplomat who served as a U.S. representative from New York and charge d'affaires to Sweden.
Born in Catskill, New York, Lay pursued classical studies and graduated in 1817 from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He studied law with Phineas L. Tracy, attained admission to the bar in 1820, and commenced practice in Batavia, New York as Tracy's partner. Lay served as Treasurer of Genesee County from 1825 to 1831.
He was elected as an Anti-Masonic Party candidate to the Twenty-third Congress and reelected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1837). In 1835 he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Yale University.
Lay later became a Whig and served as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1840. He was Charge D'Affaires to Sweden from May 12, 1842, to October 29, 1845.
He died in Batavia on October 21, 1860. He was interred in Batavia Cemetery.
“George W. Lay” enters the record as american politician (1798-1860). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what George, American and politician can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5545672. VIAF identifies the subject as 7270455. The Library of Congress control number is nr94004347. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1798, 1860, 1817 and 1820.
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This entry incorporates text from “George W. Lay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.