Nathaniel Platt Bailey (June 7, 1809 – October 12, 1891) was an American merchant and philanthropist.

Early life

Bailey was born on June 7, 1809, at Chateangay near

Plattsburgh, New York Plattsburgh ( moh, Tsi ietsénhtha) is a city in, and the seat of, Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the 2020 census. The population of the surroundin ...

. He was the son of William Bailey (1763–1840) and his second wife, Phoebe (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Platt) Bailey (1779–1859). His father's first wife was Hannah Hagaman, who died in 1798. Among his siblings was Phebe Altie Bailey, and Theodorus Bailey, John William Bailey, and Mary Elizabeth Bailey. His father was a pioneer settler and surveyor in

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

and Franklin Counties who later became a Judge. His paternal grandparents were Altje (née Van Wyck) Bailey and Col. John Bailey. His uncle was Theodorus Bailey, a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

and

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from New York. His maternal grandparents were Phebe (née Smith) Platt and Capt. Nathaniel Platt (brother of Zephaniah Platt and uncle to Judge

Jonas Platt Jonas Platt (June 30, 1769 – February 22, 1834) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives. Early life Platt was born on June 30, 1769, in Poughkeepsie, Province of New Yo ...

and New York State Treasurer Charles Z. Platt).

Career

In 1824, Bailey came to New York and entered into business as a merchant, retiring when he was thirty-five years old. He was a Vestryman of Trinity Church served as a senior Governor of

New York Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center (previously known as New York Hospital or Old New York Hospital or City Hospital) is a research hospital in New York City. It is part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the teaching hospital for Cornell University. ...

. Bailey also owned in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

, part of what is now called West Fordham (formerly the site of Fort No. 6 during the Revolutionary War, extending from Fordham Road to Kingsbridge Road and from Bailey Avenue to University Avenue. There, Bailey built a large mansion that overlooked the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyte ...

, and, reportedly, the

New Jersey Palisades The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...

to the west. Upon his death, the estate was subdivided into streets and avenues and the bulk of the property became the grounds of the current U.S. Veterans Medical Center. Bailey was a member of the

Union League Club The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray H ...

, the Union Club, the Century Club and the

Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York is a charitable organization in New York City of men who are descended from early inhabitants of the State of New York. Charles R. Mackenzie is the current president. The organization preserves ...

, for which he served one term as president the 26th President in 1884, succeeding

Abraham Riker Lawrence Abraham Riker Lawrence (September 19, 1832 – February 14, 1917) was an American lawyer, judge, and historian. Early life Abraham was born in New York City on September 19, 1832 and was the namesake of his paternal uncle, Abraham Riker Lawrence, ...

. He previously served as third vice-president in 1879, second vice-president in 1880 to 1881, and first vice-president from 1882 to 1883.

Personal life

On July 26, 1836, Bailey was married to Eliza Meier Lorillard (1815–1900). Eliza was a daughter of Jacob Lorillard Jr., a wealthy leather merchant, and a granddaughter of Jacob Lorillard (son of

Pierre Abraham Lorillard Pierre Abraham Lorillard (1742 – 1776) was a French-American tobacconist who founded the business which developed into the Lorillard Tobacco Company, which claimed to be the oldest tobacco firm in the United States and in the world. His name i ...

, founder of the

Lorillard Tobacco Company Lorillard Tobacco Company was an American tobacco company that marketed cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max. The company had two operating segments: cigarettes and electronic cigarettes. T ...

). Her sister Emily Lorillard married

Lewis G. Morris Lewis Gouverneur Morris (August 19, 1808 – September 19, 1900) was an American maritime advocate and sheep and cattle breeder who was a member of the prominent Morris family of Morissania. Early life Morris was born on August 19, 1808, i ...

. Together, they were the parents of three children, including: * Ann Mary Bailey (1837–1864), who married her second cousin, Theodorus Bailey Woolsey (1839–1907), a grandson of Theodorus Bailey. * Lorillard Bailey (1839–1860), a twin who died aged 21, unmarried. * James Muhlenberg Bailey (1839–1897), a twin who married Alletta Remsen Lynch (1870–1930), a daughter of Edward Livingston Lynch and a descendant of Robert Livingston, first Lord of

Livingston Manor Livingston Manor was a tract of land in the Province of New York granted to Robert Livingston the Elder during the reign of George I of Great Britain. History Livingston Manor was a tract of land in the colonial Province of New York gra ...

, and

Robert R. Livingston Robert Robert Livingston (November 27, 1746 (Old Style November 16) – February 26, 1813) was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat from New York, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He was known as "The Chancellor", afte ...

of Clermont. Bailey died at his country residence in Fordham Heights in New York City on October 12, 1891. After a funeral at Trinity Chapel on

West 25th Street West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

, he was buried alongside his family in the

Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery The Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery is a rural cemetery located in Poughkeepsie, New York and includes the gravesites of several notable figures. It also has a crematory. The forty-four acres of land used for the cemetery were purchased by Matthew ...

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...

.New York Surrogate's Court Book of Wills 31 December 1891. Liber 466, Page 64. In 1899, his Bronx estate was sold to the

Sisters of Charity Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity in their name. Some ''Sisters of Charity'' communities refer to the Vincentian tradition, or in America to the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, but others are unrelated. The ...

for $290,000 (equivalent to $ today) and was used to operate the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum.

Descendants and legacy

Through his son James, he was a grandfather of Alletta Nathalie Lorillard Bailey (1883–1935), an amateur architectural historian and photographer, who married Lewis Gouverneur Morris II (1882–1967) in 1908. After Alletta's death, Morris remarried to

Anita de Braganza Anita Stewart Morris (August 7, 1886 – September 15, 1977) was an American socialite and heiress who married Prince Miguel, Duke of Viseu, grandson of King Miguel I of Portugal, and the eldest son of Dom Miguel, Duke of Braganza, who was Mig ...

, widow of

Prince Miguel, Duke of Viseu Prince Miguel of Braganza, Duke of Viseu (22 September 1878 – 21 February 1923) was a member of the exiled branch of the House of Braganza. The eldest son of the Miguelist pretender to the throne of Portugal he married an American heiress in ...

. Bailey is the namesake of a playground known as Bailey Playground and bounding Bailey Avenue in

Kingsbridge, Bronx Kingsbridge is a residential neighborhood in the northwest portion of the Bronx, New York City. Kingsbridge's boundaries are Manhattan College Parkway to the north, the Major Deegan Expressway or Bailey Avenue to the east, West 230th Street to th ...

References

External links

Portrait of Nathaniel Platt Bailey
by Henry Inman, , at the

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Nathaniel Platt 1809 births 1891 deaths American philanthropists Lorillard family Fordham, Bronx Presidents of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York