The brick cottage was built around 1800 for Jay’s first farm manager, Major Samuel Lyon. Lyon oversaw daily farm work including ditching and draining land, building and maintaining fences, plowing, planting, and harvesting fields, and tending the orchards. Like others in his economic position, John Jay employed tenant farmers who carried out this work under the manager’s supervision. In return for their services, Jay provided cottages and small gardens and subsidized the cost of seeds and tools so they could plant larger cash crops on his land. Rent was often paid to Jay in the form of shares of these cash crops.