Sarah Van Brugh Livingston was born on August 2, 1756, the daughter of William Livingston and Susannah French Livingston. Called Sally within the family, she was one of thirteen children born to the couple. Both parents descended from prominent New York families, and her father was a lawyer, writer, and political critic who later became the first governor of New Jersey.

Sarah spent her early childhood in New York City. In the 1760s William Livingston withdrew from city life and established a country estate at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, later known as Liberty Hall. The household linked urban refinement with farm and estate management. Its comfort and status depended partly on enslaved labor, a reality that shaped Sarah’s upbringing and later household.

Her education was designed for an elite eighteenth-century woman. She learned reading, writing, religion, dancing, etiquette, household management, and the social arts required to receive guests and sustain family networks. She also read widely enough to follow public affairs. William Livingston’s political writing, extensive connections, and lively household exposed his daughters to debates over imperial power as relations between Britain and the colonies deteriorated.

Sarah’s siblings were central to her social world. In surviving letters the Livingston sisters exchanged family news, political observations, and advice with unusual energy. This practice refined Sarah’s prose and prepared her for the correspondence through which she later managed long separations and diplomatic relationships. Her upbringing was privileged, but it did not make her merely ornamental: she was trained to organize a complex household and represent her family in company.

On April 28, 1774, seventeen-year-old Sarah married John Jay at Liberty Hall. Jay was a New York lawyer from another well-connected family and was already moving toward public leadership. Within months, the imperial crisis accelerated.