One of the best resources for studying various Founders and their times through primary sources is Founders Online. One unfortunate choice made in deciding which Founder to feature for his connection with the federal judiciary was to include the Papers of John Jay, rather than the Papers of John Marshall (which remain behind a paywall at present, though we are hopeful that will change soon). 

Jay was the first Chief Justice, serving from 1789 until he resigned in 1795 to take a more prestigious job as Governor of New York. Jay’s replacement was John Rutledge, whom George Washington appointed with a recess appointment but failed to receive Senate confirmation. A leading reason for opposition to Rutledge was his support for an unpopular treaty negotiated by John Jay. Rutledge’s successor was Oliver Ellsworth, who served until 1801. Ellsworth’s resignation left the lame-duck President John Adams with few options, so he turned back to John Jay, mailing him a commission to be the Chief Justice. In a famous letter refusing and returning the commission, Jay wrote to Adams that he had left the Bench in 1795

“perfectly convinced that under a System so defective, it would not obtain the Energy Weight and Dignity which are essential to its affording due support to the national Government.; nor acquire the public Confidence and Respect, which, as the last Resort of the Justice of the nation, it should possess.”

The same day Jay sent a less-well-known letter to the man who would be his successor, John Marshall, who was then serving as Secretary of State. It was under Marshall’s long leadership as Chief Justice (1801-1835) that the Supreme Court took on the “Energy, Weight, and Dignity” that Jay despaired of the Court achieving. Perhaps this is why people often mistakenly think Marshall was the first Chief Justice. Though he wasn’t the first, he was the best, and it would have been more fitting for the judicial branch to have been represented by John Marshall rather than John Jay at Founders Online.