William Bayard Jr. (1761 – September 18, 1826) was a prominent New York City banker and a member of the Society of the

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. ...

. He was a close friend to Alexander Hamilton, who was taken to his

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

home after his famous duel with Aaron Burr, where Hamilton later died.

Life

Bayard was born in 1761 to Catharine McEvers (1732–1814) and William Bayard Sr. (–1804), who was elected as a delegate to the 1765 Stamp Act Congress, and was assigned to the committee that drafted language opposing taxation without representation. When the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...

broke out in 1775, his father remained loyal to the crown, assisting the British troops that occupied New York City in 1776. Although Bayard Jr. remained in New York after the war, other members of the family had fled, and many of the family's properties were confiscated. His siblings included Samuel Vetch Bayard (1757–1832) and Mary Bayard (1779–1849).

Family

Bayard was a member of the prominent Bayard family of

French Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...

ancestry who descended from Balthazar Bayard, a French Protestant, who had taken refuge in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands ( Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

where the Huguenots found sanctuary from their religious persecution in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. The first Bayards in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

arrived in the Dutch colony of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

with the newly appointed Governor-General

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant (; in Dutch language, Dutch also ''Pieter'' and ''Petrus'' Stuyvesant, ; 1610 – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch Director of New Netherlan ...

. In the early 18th century, the Bayards became among the largest landowners in the New York-New Jersey area. Bayard was also a descendant of Stephanus Van Cortlandt and the

Schuyler family The Schuyler family ( /ˈskaɪlər/; Dutch pronunciation: xœylər was a prominent Dutch family in New York and New Jersey in the 18th and 19th centuries, whose descendants played a critical role in the formation of the United States (especiall ...

Career

He founded the mercantile firm of LeRoy, Bayard & McEvers with Herman LeRoy and James McEvers. The firm was dissolved in 1816 after McEvers retired and was reorganized as Leroy, Bayard & Co. Bayard was director of the

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...

, president of The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York from its beginnings in 1819, governor of the

, trustee of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, member of the

New York Society Library The New York Society Library (NYSL) is the oldest cultural institution in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the New York Society as a subscription library. During the time when New York was the capital of the United States, it was the de ...

, and one of the owners of the Tontine Coffee House. He was chairman of a meeting in December 1815 that drafted the petition for the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly redu ...

and chairman of the celebration planning for the canal's completion in 1825. From 1801 until 1821, Bayard served as a vestryman at Trinity Church. In 1824, he was chairman of the committee to receive General Lafayette in 1824.

Alexander Hamilton

He was a close friend to Alexander Hamilton and it was to Bayard's

home located just below the present Gansevoort Street, where the mortally wounded Hamilton was taken after his famous duel with Aaron Burr. Hamilton died in Bayard's home the next day.

Personal life

In 1783, Bayard married Elizabeth Cornell (d. 1854), daughter of Loyalist Samuel Cornell and Susannah Mabson, and a descendant of Thomas Cornell (). Elizabeth's father died in 1781 in British-controlled

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, having moved there from

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...

after 1777 after refusing to take the

Oath of Allegiance An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges a duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to a monarch or a country. In modern republics, oaths are sworn to the country in general, or to the country's constitution. Fo ...

to the new

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Samuel Cornell had transferred a share of his North Carolina property to Elizabeth; in 1779, however, the North Carolina Legislature voted to retroactively seize all property of Loyalists back to 1776. In November 1784, Mrs. Bayard unsuccessfully sued to have her property returned to her.Murphy, Elizabeth Burbank. Bayard, Elizabeth Cornell. NCPedia. 1979. http://ncpedia.org/biography/bayard-elizabeth Accessed April 5, 2015 William Jr. and Elizabeth had seven children, including: *Catherine Bayard (1786–1814), who married Duncan Pearsall Campbell (1781–1861), grandson of Duncan Campbell (d. 1758) *Susan Bayard (1787–1814), who married Benjamin Woolsey Rogers (1775–1859), son of Moses Rogers, a wealthy New York merchant who owned Shippan Point, and Sarah Woolsey, and a distant cousin descended from Thomas Cornell *William Bayard (1788–1875), who married Catherine Hammond *Maria Bayard (1789–1875), who also married Duncan Pearsall Campbell (1781–1861) *Eliza Justine Bayard (b. 1793), who married Joseph Blackwell *Robert Bayard (1797–1878), who married Elizabeth McEvers *Harriet Elizabeth Bayard (1799–1875), who married General Stephen Van Rensselaer IV (1789–1868), son of

Stephen Van Rensselaer Stephen Van Rensselaer III (; November 1, 1764January 26, 1839) was an American landowner, businessman, militia officer, and politician. A graduate of Harvard College, at age 21, Van Rensselaer took control of Rensselaerswyck, his family's mano ...

, both a distant cousin through the Van Cortlandt family. William died on September 18, 1826, in

Westchester Westchester most commonly refers to Westchester County, New York, immediately north of New York City. __NOTOC__ It may also refer to: Geography Canada *Westchester Station, Nova Scotia, Canada United States *Town of Westchester, the original seat ...

and along with his wife, Elizabeth, was buried in the Churchyard Cemetery of Trinity Church in lower

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

Descendants

Bayard's granddaughter, Eliza Bayard Rogers (1811–1835), through his daughter Susan Bayard Rogers, married William Paterson Van Rensselaer (1805–1872), son of

Stephen Van Rensselaer III Stephen Van Rensselaer III (; November 1, 1764January 26, 1839) was an American landowner, businessman, militia officer, and politician. A graduate of Harvard College, at age 21, Van Rensselaer took control of Rensselaerswyck, his family's ma ...

, on May 13, 1833, in New York City. William P. Van Rensselaer was a half-brother to Stephen Van Rensselaer IV, the husband of Bayard's youngest daughter, Harriet E. Bayard. William and Eliza had one son together, William P. Van Rensselaer Jr. (1834–1854), before Eliza's death in 1835. On April 4, 1839, Van Rensselaer remarried to Eliza's sister, Sarah Rogers, with whom he had the rest of his children.

References

Notes Sources
''Archives of the General Convention''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayard, William

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

1761 births 1826 deaths American people of Dutch descent Schuyler family Businesspeople from New York City American bankers People of the Province of New York Colonial American merchants Burials at Trinity Church Cemetery 19th-century American merchants