Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/252

 BAYARD.

BAYARD.

of the provincial congress in 1744. In conjunction with a Iricnil he fitted out a privateer, and his firm furnishe.l many of the arms used by the patriots t)f the revolution. He was chosen colonel of one of the regiments raised in liis city in ITT."), and the following winter saw active service fighting at Brandywine. Germantown and Princeton, and received personal comi)linients from Washington for his bravery in battle. He served on the state IxKird of war in 1777, and in the same year was made sj^eaker of the state assembly, being re- elected in 177H. He was a member of the state revenue committee in 1780, the year follow- ing was chosen one of the supreme executive council, and in 1785 took his seat in the Con- tinental Qmgress, which met in New Y'ork. At the close of the revolutionary war the losses he had sustained obliged him to sell his property in Cecil county, Md.. and having ceased to do busi- ness in Pliiladelphia, he removed to New Jersey and settled at New Brunswick, where he was re- nowned for his generous hospitality. In 1790 he was chosen mayor of New Brunswick, and was afterwards presiding judge of Somerset county court of common pleas. For several years he was interested with others in the manufacture of cotton at Paterson, but retired from business in 179.1. Colonel Bayard was thrice married: to Margaret Hodge, who died in 1780; to Mrs. Hodg- son, widow of John Hodgson, who died in 1785; and to Johannah. sister of Gen. Anthony W. White, of New Brunswick. He was a consistent Federalist and somewliat of an aristocrat. He died in New Briinswick, N. J., Jan. 7, 1807.

BAYARD, Nicholas, colonial official, was born in Alplien. Holland, about 1644; son of Samuel Bayard, a rich merchant of Amsterdam, and after the death of his father came to America with his mother and his uncle, Peter Stuyvesant, the last governor of New Amsterdam, in 1647. Nicholas was educated by his mother, a culti- vated woman of great natural ability. He was private secretary to his uncle, the governor, and about the same time was chosen clerk of the common council, and surveyor of the province. He tofjk for his wife, in 1666, Judith Verlet, a si.ster of his mother's second husband, who liad, in 1662, been impri.soned as a witch in Hart ford, Conn. In 1673 Nicholas Bayard held office as secretary of the province, and when the Eng- li.sh for the second time obtained ix)sse.ssion of New Y'ork. in 1685, he was mayor of that city, and also sjit in Governor Dongan's council, and frameelled to fiee for his life, taking refuge in Albany. Returning from Albany to visit his sick child, he was arre.sted and imprisoned, but was released on the arrival of Governor Slough- ter, and made a councillor. Colonel Bayard was implicated in the Captain Kidd piracies, in con- nection with Lord Bellomont, the new governor. He went to England, where he pro\ed himself guiltless of the un]nitation. Later, however, he narrowly escajjed death, being accused by the followers of his old enemy, Leisler, of a scheme to establish popery and slavery in New Y^ork ; he was foimd guiltj' of high treason and sentenced to death by Chief Justice At wood, but at this crisis the wheel of fortune again revolved ; King William died, the chief justice fled, and Colonel Bayard's position and property were restored to him. W^ith Lieutenant Lodowick he wrote and published a " Journal of the Late Action of the French in Canada," of which only two copies of the original edition are pre.served. It was repub- lished in 1866. He died in New Y^ork city in 1707.

BAYARD, Richard Henry, statesman, was born at Wikuington, Del., Sept. 8, 1796; the eldest son of James Asheton Bayard, Federalist. After his graduation from Princeton, in 1814, he studied law and was admitted to practice in Wilmington. In 1836 he was elected to a seat in the U. S. senate, made vacant by the resigna- tion of Arnold Naudam, and resigned September, 1839, to accept the chief justiceship of Delaware, being re-elected in December, 1839, for the full term, which he served out. His last public office was that of charge d' affaires at Brussels, which he held from 1850 to 1853. He married a grand-daughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. He died in Pliiladelphia, Pa., March 4, 1868.

BAYARD, Samuel, jurist, was born in Philadel- phia, Pa., Jan. 11, 1767; the fourth son of John and Margaret (Hodge) Bayard. After his graduation from Princeton college, in 1784, as valedictorian, he studied law and established an excellent practice in his native city. He became interested and prominent in politics, and was made clerk of the .supreme court of the United States in 1791. From 1794 to 1798 he represented the United States government in London, as its agent, to prosecute American claims before the admiralty courts. Upon his return he practised law at New Rochelle, N. Y., receiving the appointment of presiding judge of Westchester covmty. From 1803 to 1806 he resided and practised in NewY'ork city, and the year after his removal to that city helped to establish the New Y^ork historical soci- ety. He al.so aided in the organization of the American Bible society and the New Jersey