Eyre was born in Burlington, New Jersey. He married Lydia Wright Eyre on December 28, 1761, when Jehu was twenty-three years old. Jehu's brother Manuel, also an officer in the Continental Army[citation needed], had married Lydia's sister Martha on January 8 of the same year. In total, Jehu and Lydia Eyre would have five children: George (named after his grandfather), Jehu Jr., Franklin, Sarah, and Lydia (named after her mother). Of the carnage there, Eyre later wrote: A portrait of Jehu Eyre can be found at Trumbull's Gallery at Yale College.