Nicholas Bayard (c. 1644–1707 or 1709) was a government official and slave trader in
colonial New York
The Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and later royal colony on the northeast coast of North America. As one of the Middle Colonies, New York achieved independence and worked with the others to found the Unit ...
. Bayard served as the
mayor of New York City
The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
from 1685 to 1686. He is historically most notable for being
Peter Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant (; in 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-general of the colony of New Net ...
's nephew and for being a prominent member of the
Bayard family
The Bayard family has been a prominent family of lawyers and politicians throughout American history, primarily from Wilmington, Delaware. Beginning as Federalists, they joined the party of Andrew Jackson and remained leaders of the Democratic P ...
, which remained prominent in
New York City history into the 20th century.
[Landmarks Preservation Commission LP-0645]
/ref>
Early life
Bayard was born in Alphen, Holland, the son of a 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 Be ...
refugee to Samuel Bayard (c. 1615–c. 1647) and Ann Stuyvesant (1613–1683), the sister of Governor Petrus Stuyvesant
Peter Stuyvesant (; in 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-general of the colony of New Net ...
.
In May 1647, he accompanied his widowed mother to America. Three other children, Balthazar (who married Maria Lockerman in 1664), Petrus (who married Blandina Kierstede in 1674) and Catharine (who married William De Meyer), also arrived in 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 ...
. His Aunt Judith Bayard (c. 1615–1687), the sister of Samuel Bayard, married Director General Stuyvesant, and thus there was a double relationship between the families.
Career
In 1664, Stuyvesant, whose patronage supported Bayard's career, appointed him clerk of the Common Council, and soon afterward became private secretary to Stuyvesant and received the additional appointment of surveyor of the province. After the re-conquest of New York by the Dutch in 1672, Bayard became secretary of the province. Under the second English regime, in 1685, when Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick
Thomas Dongan, (pronounced "Dungan") 2nd Earl of Limerick (1634 – 14 December 1715), was a member of the Irish Parliament, Royalist military officer during the English Civil War, and Governor of the Province of New York. He is noted for hav ...
, was governor, Bayard was mayor of New York; prior to 1680, New York mayors served one-year terms but thereafter they served two-year terms, with few exceptions. Bayard was one of the exceptions and served only one year. As a member of the governor's council, Bayard drew up the Dongan Charter
The ''Dongan Charter'' is the 1686 document incorporating Albany, New York, as a city. Albany's charter was issued by Governor Thomas Dongan of the Province of New York, a few months after Governor Dongan issued a similarly worded, but less det ...
that was granted in 1686.
In 1688, he received, at the head of the regiment of militia of which he was colonel, the restored but cordially detested Governor Edmund Andros
Sir Edmund Andros (6 December 1637 – 24 February 1714) was an English colonial administrator in British America. He was the governor of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence. At other times, Andros served ...
. As one of the three resident members of the governor's council, and commander-in-chief of the militia of the province, he was the object of popular hatred during Leisler's Rebellion
Leisler's Rebellion was an uprising in late-17th century colonial New York
The Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and later royal colony on the northeast coast of North America. As one of the Middle Coloni ...
, and fled to Albany to escape assassination. Returning to attend an only son on his sickbed, he was arrested and briefly imprisoned. He was released upon the arrival of the new governor, Henry Sloughter
Henry Sloughter (died July 23, 1691) was briefly colonial governor of New York in 1691. Sloughter was the governor who put down Leisler's Rebellion, which had installed Jacob Leisler as ''de facto'' governor in 1689. He died suddenly in July 16 ...
, who put down the rebellion and sat on the Common Council.
A ''Narrative of an Attempt made by the French of Canada upon the Mohaque's Country,'' by Colonel Bayard and his friend Lieut.-Colonel Charles Lodowick was published in London in 1693.
Bayard was a slaveholder
The following is a list of slave owners, for which there is a consensus of historical evidence of slave ownership, in alphabetical order by last name.
A
* Adelicia Acklen (1817–1887), at one time the wealthiest woman in Tennessee, she inh ...
and owner of slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...
s throughout much of his adult life. According to Alan J. Singer, he
was the mayor of New York City under the English from 1685 to 1686 and a nephew of Dutch colonial superintendent Peter Stuyvesant, the largest private slaveholder in the Dutch colony.
Samuel was a member of the colonial assembly and related through marriage to the prominent slaveholding Van Cortlandt, Van Rensselaer, and Schuyler Schuyler may refer to:
Places United States
* Schuyler County, Illinois
* Schuyler County, Missouri
* Schuyler, Nebraska, a city
* Schuyler County, New York
* Schuyler, New York, a town
* Schuyler Island, Lake Champlain, New York
* Schuyler C ...
families. Nicholas and then Samuel owned and operated sugar mills processing slave-produced commodities in the city. The Bayard's owned stakes in at least eight slave-trading ships. There are Bayard Streets in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, and in the Westchester County
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population o ...
towns of New Rochelle
New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...
and Larchmont
Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Lar ...
.
Aside from his sizeable farm in the "Out Ward" of New York, Bayard received a license from the notoriously corrupt Governor Benjamin Fletcher
Benjamin Fletcher (14 May 1640 – 28 May 1703) was colonial governor of New York from 1692 to 1697. Fletcher was known for the ''Ministry Act'' of 1693, which secured the place of Anglicans as the official religion in New York. He also built ...
in 1694 to buy 4,000 acres along the Schoharie Creek from the Indians, for some £100. When Fletcher chartered his staunch ally's purchase in 1695, the original 4,000 acres became a tract forty miles long and thirty miles broad on both sides of the Schoharie Creek, some 768,000 acres, the Manor of Kingsfield. The Indians were unhappy and repudiated the deal. They found an ally in Governor Bellomont, who replaced Fletcher in 1697 and revoked some of Fletcher's most outrageous land grants, including Bayard's. Colonel Bayard did not relinquish his claim on these lands and went to London to clear his title before the Lords of Trade.
Accused in 1702 of high treason before Chief Justice William Atwood, on the basis of a remonstrance signed by him and others, as libelous, he was sentenced to death; but after the death of the New York governor and the removal of Atwood on a corruption charge, the proceedings were annulled by an order in council, and he was reinstated in his property and honors.
Personal life
On 23 May 1666, he married Judith Verlet or Varleth, daughter of Casper Varleth whose brother Nicholas Varleth was Ambassador to Virginia from New Amsterdam. Together, they were the parents of:
* Samuel Bayard (1669–1746), a member of the Colonial Assembly who married Margaretta Van Cortlandt (b. 1674), daughter of Stephen Van Cortlandt and his wife, Gertruj Schuyler, daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler
Colonel Philip Pieterse Schuyler or Philip Pieterse (1628 – 9 May 1683) was a Dutch-born colonist landowner who was the progenitor of the American Schuyler family.
Early life
Philip Pieterse Schuyler was born in Amsterdam, Holland in the Repub ...
, and established the Bayard family
The Bayard family has been a prominent family of lawyers and politicians throughout American history, primarily from Wilmington, Delaware. Beginning as Federalists, they joined the party of Andrew Jackson and remained leaders of the Democratic P ...
in colonial New York, on 12 March 1696.
The Bayard Farm
Many historic buildings in SoHo
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
and elsewhere in lower Manhattan stand on land formerly belonging to his Bayard Farm. This includes Sullivan Street
Sullivan Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, which previously ran north from Duarte Square at Canal Street, but since around 2012 begins at Broome Street, to Washington Square South, through the neighborhoods of Hudson Square, SoHo, the So ...
.[
The old Bayard house, erected in 1751 by a later Nicholas Bayard, stood on the west side of The ]Bowery
The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "B ...
near present-day Broome Street, in a farm originally of some two hundred acres; the house and its house-lot were purchased in 1798, and converted by a Frenchman named Delacroix into a new site for his popular resort, known as "Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens is a public park in Kennington in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, on the south bank of the River Thames.
Originally known as New Spring Gardens, it is believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660, being ...
." The only other residences within sight in pre-Revolutionary days were the Robert De Lancey
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...
mansion, on the east side of the Bowery, and Peter Stuyvesant's seat to the north. Not far distant rose "Bayard's Mount", fortified as "Bunker's Hill" in the early stage of the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
.
Descendants
Through his son Samuel, he was the grandfather of:
* Nicholas Bayard, who married Elizabeth Rynders (b. 1673), granddaughter of Jacob Leisler
Jacob Leisler ( – May 16, 1691) was a German-born colonist who served as a politician in the Province of New York. He gained wealth in New Amsterdam (later New York City) in the fur trade and tobacco business. In what became known as Leisler's ...
, on July 3, 1729;
* Gertrude Bayard, who married Peter Kemble
Peter Kemble (December 12, 1704 – February 23, 1789) was an American politician from the colonial period who served as President of the New Jersey Provincial Council from 1745 to 1776, the last to hold that office.
Biography
Peter Kemble was bo ...
(1704-1789), a prominent New Jersey businessman and politician; and
* Stephen Bayard
Stephanus Bayard or Stephen Bayard (May 31, 1700 aptized– 1757) was the 39th Mayor of New York City from 1744 to 1747.
Early life
Stephanus Bayard was born in May 1700 to Judge Samuel Bayard (1669–1746) and Margaretta Van Cortlandt (1674 ...
, who married Alida Vetch, and served as the 39th Mayor of New York City.
He was the great-grandfather of:
* Nicholas Bayard (b. 1736), who married Catharine Livingston (1743–1775), daughter of Peter Van Brugh Livingston
Peter Van Brugh Livingston (bp. November 3, 1710 Albany, New York – December 28, 1792 Elizabethtown, Union County, New Jersey) was a Patriot during the American Revolution who was a wealthy merchant and who served as the 1st New York State Trea ...
(1710–1792) and Mary Alexander
Mary Spratt Provoost Alexander (April 16, 1693 – April 18, 1760) was an influential colonial era merchant in New York City.
Early life
Mary was born in New York City on April 16, 1693. She was the daughter of John Spratt (c. 1650–1697) an ...
, on April 20, 1762 and
* Judith Bayard, who married Jeremiah Van Rensselaer
Jeremiah Van Rensselaer (August 27, 1738February 19, 1810), from the prominent Van Rensselaer family, was Lieutenant Governor of New York and a member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing New York in the 1st United Sta ...
(1738–1810), son of Johannes Van Rensselaer
Johannes Van Rensselaer (January 3, 1708 – February 21, 1783) was a member of the prominent colonial Van Rensselaer family.
Early life
Van Rensselaer was born on January 3, 1708, at the family estate, "Rensselaerswyck", in what is now Waterv ...
(1708–1793) and Engeltie "Angelica" Livingston (1698–1746/47) in 1760.
References
;Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayard, Nicholas
1640s births
1700s deaths
American members of the Dutch Reformed Church
American slave owners
American slave traders
Nicholas
Nicholas is a male given name and a surname.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglicanism, Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the n ...
Mayors of New York City
People from Alphen aan den Rijn
People of the Province of New York
People of New Netherland
Year of birth uncertain