The subject was born in Philadelphia, the son of Jacob Schieffelin, Sr., who had immigrated from Germany in 1745. In 1780 he married Hannah Lawrence, a Quaker of New York, and he lived there until 1783, when he moved to Montreal. He returned to New York in 1794 and took an interest in a wholesale drug firm called Lawrence and Schieffelin until 1799; he was the sole proprietor until 1805; from that year until his retirement in 1814 it was known as Jacob Schieffelin and Son.