Biographical and genealogical history of the state of Delaware, Vol. I, Part 36

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa.
Number of Pages: 1482

USA > Delaware > Biographical and genealogical history of the state of Delaware, Vol. I > Part 36

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Thomas Francis Bayard's American genea- logy, as derived from said Samuel Bayard, is as follows:

1. PETRUS BAYARD, eldest son of Samuel and Anna (Stuyvesant) Bavard, 'was born in 16-, at Alphen, on the Rhine, in South Holland, about seven miles from Leyden, and died in New York City in 1699. Ile married, November 4, 1674, Blan- dina Kierstede, daughter of Dr. Hans Kier- stede and Sarah Roelofs, and granddaughter of Jans Roelofs and his wife, the notable heir-

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ess Anneke Jans, by whom he had three chil- dren, Samuel, Petrus and Sarah Bayard, all born in New York.

In 1625 Governor Andros granted him a tract of land at Bombay Hook, Delaware, for which he afterwards, on May 4, 1679, pur- chased a deed from the Indian owners. About this time he joined the Labadists, a religious sect who were the disciples of Jean de Labadie, a French enthusiast, and, in 1684, united with them in the purchase and colonization of the Labadie tract, being a portion of Augustine Ilermann's Bohemia Manor, between the Elk and Bohemia Rivers in Cecil county, Mary- land. Some years later this community was dissolved, Petrus Bayard returning to New York, where he died in 1699, and a consider- able part of the Labadie tract, upon its par- tition in 1698, passed into the possession of Samuel Bayard, his eldest son.

2. SAMUEL BAYARD, son of Petrus and Blandina (Kierstede) Bayard, born in New York in 1675, died at "Great House," his Bo- hemia Manor mansion and estate, November 23, 1721. In 1698, the year before his father's death, he removed from New York to Bohemia Manor and purchased, with his brother-in-law, Hendrick Sluyter, a portion of the Labadie tract which, in 1716, they di- vided into separate shares. Here he brought his first wife, Susannah Bouchelle, and, after her death, his second wife, Elizabeth Sluyter. The latter survived her husband's death in 1721, and, at her death, their son, James Bay- ard-the other children being Peter, Sammuel, and Mary Ann-inherited "Great House," the family estate.

3. JAMES BAYARD, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Sluyter) Bayard, born at "Great House," Bohemia Manor, ~~~ , 17-, die 17 -. Ile married Mary Asheton, of Virginia, - , 17-, by whom he had one daughter who died in her seventeenth year, and two sons, twins, John and James Asheton Bayard. John Bayard was a distin- guished Revolutionary patriot, served as a colonel at the battles of Princeton, Brandy- wine and Germantown, and was a member of the Provincial Congress, 1774, and of the Continental Congress, 1785.

4. DR. JAMES ASHETON BAYARD, son of James and Mary ( Asheton) Bayard, born at "Great House," Bohemia Manor, Au- gust 11, 1738, where he and his brother John

received a classical education under their pri- vate tutor, Rev. George Duffield, afterwards an eminent Presbyterian divine. In 1756, at the age of eighteen, he and his brother left their Maryland home for Philadelphia, Pa., where John entered the counting house of John Rhea, and James A. began the study of medicine with Dr. Thomas Cadwalader. About 1759 John Bayard married Margaret Hodge, daughter of Audrew Hodge, of Philadelphia, and, not long after, his brother James Ashe- ton married her sister. As John was born about half an hour earlier than his twin brother, James Asheton, he inherited, upon the death of their father, intestate, all of the Bohemia Manor real estate, under the colo- nial laws of Maryland. But such was his af- feetion and generosity toward his brother that he at once conveyed to him one-half of the in- herited property.

Dr. James Asheton Bayard died January 8, 1770, in Philadelphia, Pa., leaving a daughter Jane who died ummarried, and two sons, John Hodge, who died about 1820, unmarried, and James Asheton Bayard, the second.

5. JAMES ASHETON BAYARD, 2, son of Dr. James Asheton and (Hodge) Bayard, born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 28, 1767, died in Wilmington, Delaware, August 6, 1815. In 1795 he married Anne Bassett, great-granddaughter of Augustine Hermann, of Bohemia Manor, and daughter of Richard Bassett, of Delaware, (son of Major Michael Bassett and Judith Hermann, granddaughter of Augustine Hermann), who was captain of the Dover Light Horse under Washington in 1777, member of the Delaware Constitutional Conventions of 1776 and 1792, member of the Convention which framed the Federal Consti- tution, United States Senator from Delaware 1789-93, Chief Justice of the Court of Com- mon Pleas 1793-99, Governor of Delaware 1799, and United States Circuit Judge 1801. HIe died in September, 1815.

James Asheton Bayard, 2, was graduated from Princeton 1784, began the practice of law in Wilmington, Del., 1787, member of Congress from Delaware 1796-1803, United States Senator 1804-13, one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Ghent 1814, declined appoint- ment as Minister to France in 1801, and to Russia in 1815. He was, as described by a biographer, "a tall, well-proportioned, erect man, of light complexion, light hair, hand-

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some face, intelligent and manly expression, and of courteous and dignified manners. His portrait was painted by Adolphe Ulrie Wert- muller, a Swedish artist, who also successfully delineated the face and figure of Washington. Bayard was one of whom, as of his uncle, Col. John Bayard, it might truly be said that nature, education, mind, heart and habit, had combined to make a gentleman. Ilis elo- quence was lofty and commanding, and he stood second to no man either in the House or the Senate. Ile left an enviable and unbleu- ished reputation, and is still regarded as the glory of Delaware, as his illustrious name- sake of the sixteenth century was then, and is still called, the pride and glory of France."

He was buried at Bohemia Manor, where his father-in-law, Governor Richard Bassett, was, within a month afterward, interred by his side. He died leaving two daughters, ('aroline and Mary, and four sons, Richard II., James Asheton 3rd, Dr. Edward, and Henry M. Bavard.

Richard HI. Bayard, his son, was born in Wilmington, Del., September 23, 1796, died in Philadelphia, Pa., 1868, graduated from Princeton 1814, admitted to the Delaware Bar 1818, first Mayor of Wilmington 1832, U. S. Senator 1836-39, Chief Justice of Delaware 1839-41, U. S. Senator 1841-45, Minister to Belgium 1850-53. He married Mary Sophia, granddaughter of Charles Carroll, of Carroll- ton, a Maryland signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Harriet Chew, daughter of Provincial Councillor Benjamin Chew of Germantown, Pa.

6. JAMES ASHETON BAYARD, third son of James Asheton and Annie (Bassett) Bayard, born in Wilmington, Del., November 15, 1799, died in Wilmington June 13, 1880, and buried in the Old Swedes' churchyard.

He was admitted to the Delaware Bar in 1822 and rapidly rose to the front rank of his profession. Ile won great reputation as a lead- ing counsel in the celebrated suit of Randel against the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, and in the noted Pea Patch Island case. He began his political public career as a Jackson Democratie candidate for Congress in 1828, and to the end of his life was a con- sistent, earnest and unwavering Democrat. He was United States District Attorney for Delaware under President Van Buren, and elected and re- elected to the United States Sen-

ate in 1850, 1856 and 1862. He opposed the adoption of the "test oath" for Senators in 1864, and, having taken it to disprove the un- patriotic imputation it implied as to kim per- sonally, he resigned from the Senate in resent- ment of the affront. Upon the death of his suc- cessor, in 1867, he was appointed by Governor Saulsbury to fill the vacancy until the next session of the Legislature. On January 19, 1869, both he and his son Thomas F. Bayard were elected by the Legislature, the one to fill out his own unexpired senatorial term, and the other for the full term as his father's suc- cessor; so that, at noon of the same day, March 4, 1869, the father retired from senatorial life as his son entered it in his stead-an incident hitherto unprecedented in the annals of the Senate. During his long career in the Senate he filled many important positions, among them the chairmanship of the Judiciary Com- mittee.

James A. Bayard was a man of stalwart stature and massive mould, with powerfully cast features, habitually preserving the courtly bearing and the gracious man- ner of the ideal gentleman of the olden .school. Ile possessed a logical mind of great power and clearness, and bore a national reputation as one of the ablest mem- bers of his profession, especially as a constitu- tional lawyer. Ilis entire professional life- excepting the three years, from 1843-46, passed in New York City-was spent in Dela- ware. He was a man of unblemished integ- rity, inherent candor and sincere convictions. In his speech in the Senate, in March, 1861, he denied the right of secession, declaring his desire to preserve the Union, and strove to avert the horrors of impending war. Both he and his son proved their fidelity to the Con- stitution and the Union of their fathers by their patriotic exertions in preventing Dela- ware from being drawn into the fatal whirl- pool of secession.

He married, July 8, 1823, Anne Francis, born in Philadelphia, Pa., February 9, 1802, died in Wilmington, Del., March 13, 1864. She was the daughter of Thomas Willing Francis and Dorothy Willing, his wife and cousin. Thomas Willing Francis was a son of Tench Francis and Anne Willing, his wife, the grandson of Tench Francis, Attorney Gen- eral of the Province of Pennsylvania, the unele of Sir Philip Francis, K. B., author

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of the celebrated "Letters of Junius." Dorothy Willing, wife of Thomas Wil- ling Francis, was the daughter of Thomas Willing of Philadelphia and granddaughter of Charles Willing, captain of the Philadel- phia Associators 1747, the son of Thomas Wil- ling, of Bristol, England, merchant, and his wife, Anne Harrison, granddaughter, on her paternal side, of Major General Thomas Har- rison, and, on her maternal side, of Simon Mayne, both members of the High Court of Justice which condemned Charles I.

The children of James Asheton and Anne (Francis) Bayard were James Asheton, 4th, born January 10, 1825, died, unmarried, July 17, 1848; Mary Ellen, married Augustus Van Cortlandt Schermerhorn, of New York, Thomas Francis, Sophia Harrison, died 1832, George Harrison, died 1836, Mabel, died No- vember 28, 1897, married first Dr. John Kent Kane, of Philadelphia, Pa., brother of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the Arctic explorer, married second Levi C. Bird, Esq., of Wil- mington, Del., Florence, died February 8, 1898, married Benoni Lockwood, New York, Major United States Volunteers, War of 1861-5.

7. THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD, son of James Asheton and Anne (Francis) Bay- ard, born Wilmington, Del., October 29, 1828. He was christened Thomas Willing Francis, but for the sake of brevity, omitted the name of Willing.

He married 1st, in 1856, Louisa Sewell, daughter of Josiah and Catherine Eloise (Sew- ell) Lee, Baltimore, Md. Their children were, Katherine Lee, died January 16, 1886; James Asheton, 5th, Mabel, married Samuel D. Warren, Boston, Mass., Mary Lee, died 1862, Annie Francis, died unmarried, November, 1898, Florence, married William S. Hilles, Esq., Wilmington, Del., Louise Lee, mar- ried Prof. Frank Angell, Stanford University, Cala., Thomas Francis, attorney-at-law, New York, Ellen, married Count Reinhold A. Lewenhaupt, of Sweden, William Shippen, died 1870, Willing Francis, died 1871, and Philip Francis. Mr. Bavard married, 2nd in 1890, Mary Willing, Washington, D. C., daughter of Dr. George Clymer, U. S. N., grandson of George Clymer, a Pennsylvania signer of the Declaration of Independence, and grandson also of Thomas Willing, of Phil- adelphia, a Justice of the Supreme Court of

Pennsylvania, 1761, president of the Provin- cial Congress, 1774, member of the Continen- tal Congress in 1775 and 1776, president of the Bank of North America, and also of the Bank of the United States, mayor of Philadel- phia, etc. Her mother was Mary, daughter of Rear Admiral William Branford Shubrick, U. S. N.

The education of Thomas F. Bavard was pursued in his native state until 1841, when he was sent to Flushing, Long Island, to com- plete his studies under the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D. On passing from the care of Dr. Hawks, Mr. Bayard entered the commer- cial house of his brother-in-law, August Van Cortlandt Schermerhorn, of New York; here, and subsequently in the employ of S. Morris Waln, of Philadelphia, he profited by the ample opportunities afforded him for becom- ing conversant with the laws of trade and the management of financial affairs, a knowledge which proved most valuable to him in pub- lie life. At the age of twenty, after the death of his brother, James A. Bayard, Jr., in 1848, he returned to his home and parents in Wil- mington, and having devoted three years to the study of law, was admitted to the bar of Delaware in 1851. For two years he prac- tieed as his father's assistant, and in 1853 was appointed United States Attorney for Dela- ware. This office he resigned a year later, in order to enter into partnership with his friend, William Shippen, Esq., of Philadelphia. The legal firm thus instituted existed until the death of Mr. Shippen in 1858, when Mr. Bay- ard again returned to Wilmington. From this time a large portion of the business devolving upon him consisted in the fulfilment of trusts and executorships, and the management of es- tates; an exacting occupation, but one for which Mr. Bayard was well qualified by his early experience of business, his sound and practical judgment, and his great capacity for difficult and tedions work.

The Civil War broke out in 1861, while Thomas F. Bayard was still young; yet it is not too much to say that it was largely due to his patriotism, moderation, and persuasive elo- quence that Delaware was not hurried, in the feverishexcitement of the times, into the ranks of the seceding states. At a mass meeting held in Dover in June of that year, he suc- ceeded in calming the perturbed minds of his audience by reminding them that they had

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no part in the "secession, revolution or re- bellion, by whatever name it may be called," but that it was their duty to keep their state in the Union, and to continue, as they always had been, faithful to that Union, and to the Constitution. Ilis hope at that time was one shared by many others-that war might be averted and the seceding states be sooner or later won back to their allegiance to the Fed- eral government. The meeting was adjourned, after adopting certain resolutions, the last of which expressed the decision that there was "no necessity for convening the legislature of the state."

This is one of the most significant incidents whereby Mr. Bayard's name is connected with public affairs, prior to his election as his father's successor in the national senate, as above related. Although belonging to the con- servative minority, his position as a leader soon became assured, and was maintained through- out his sixteen years of senatorial service. La- borious, moderate and clear-sighted, he was a valuable member of a number of committees, among them those on finance, private claims, and the revision of laws; also in the inquests institute for the examination of disturbed conditions in a number of the southern states. Through his skill and perseverance as a leader, the so-called "force bills" were defeated in the Senate. His work as a member of the Sen- ate Committee on Investigation and retrench- ment. concerned principally with the conduct of affairs in the New York Custom-house, was thorough and effective, and is remembered as one of his most able achievements.

Mr. Bavard was twice re-elected to the Sen- ate. In 1876 he took an active part in the dis- cussions concerning the presidental election, and advocated the formation of the Electoral Commission, of which he was made a member. In 1880 he became chairman of the commit- tees on Finance and Judiciary. At the Demo- cratic National Convention, held in the same year, he was a candidate for the presidential nomination, and stood second only to General Hancock in the number of votes he received. At the convention of 1884, two ballots were taken, in both of which Mr. Bayard's vote was the next highest to that given Mr. Cleveland. He was the first statesman invited to consulta- tion by President Cleveland, and received at once the offer of the highest place in the new cabinet. After long deliberation Mr. Bavard

accepted this tender, although some prominent leaders of his party advised him not to do so, fearing that his withdrawal from the Senate would be disadvantageous. The most notable incidents of our foreign relations during his term as Secretary of the State were the Fish- ery Treaty, the Behring Sea controversy, and an agreement between the United States and Spain whereby each country abolished from its tariff such duties as discriminated against the other. In 1889 he withdrew from public life at the close of President Cleveland's term. From the retirement of private life and the duties of his profession, amid which, however, he did not fail to watch with an eye of keen interest the course of his country's affairs, and to exert by voice and by pen a potent influence upon them, Thomas F. Bayard was once more called, in 1893, to represent that country at the Court of St. James. He was the first to bear the title of Ambassador to Great Britain. If "the evil that men do lives after them," we have in Mr. Bayard's mission and its results an illustrious proof that the good is not always "interred with their bones." The whole course of his statesmanlike career as ambassa- dor was such as to promote a mutual, clear un- derstanding and good will between England and America, the existence of which has been most fully and happily made manifest during our recent Spanish-American war. The ad- verse criticism aroused among his opponents in the United States by his candid expression of his philosophical convictions before the Ed- inburgh Philosophical Institution, which were at variance with the tariff policy adopted by the United States, will be forgotten as a pass- ing cloud, while his faithful and far-sighted services will seeure for him the lasting grati- tude of his countrymen. The controlling mo- tive of Mr. Bayard's conduct as ambassador was thus expressed by him, with his character- istic modesty and simplicity: "I went as friend, to clear up all misunderstanding, and to bring together the hearts and the feelings of two nations bound by ties such as exist be- tween no other two nations on the globe." llis sincere patriotism was gratified by the honor and favor with which he found the name of an American to be received; and in addition to this, he had the satisfaction of feeling that the special courtesies showered upon him in Great Britain were largely due to the fact that

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the pacific spirit of his mission was fully rec- ognized and reciprocated.

An interesting incident of his residence in England was the restoration to Massachu- setts of a volume commonly called "The Log of the Mayflower," which is really a history of the voyage of the Pilgrims, and of the Plymouth colony, writ- ten by Governor Bradford. The volume is supposed to have been sent to London at the time of the Revolution. It was restored through Mr. Bayard's agency, at the instance of various Massachusetts societies, and was presented to the legislature of that state, in joint session, May 26, 1897. Acknowledg- ment was made by Senator Hoar, who took this ocasion to express his appreciation of Mr. Bayard's efforts for the promotion of fraternal relations between the two great English-speak- ing nations. Upon his return to America, he presented interesting relies to two Wilming- ton churches; to Brandywine M. E. church, a Wedgewood cameo of John Wesley, and to the Baptist church fac similes of the original manuscript of Pilgrim's Progress, and of the chair used by John Bunyan in the Ludlow street jail.

The warm appreciation of Mr. Bayard's fel- low-citizens was publicly evinced on the occa- sion of his return from a visit to Europe in November, 1879, when, at a reception attend- ed by hundreds of the people of Delaware, representatives of all parties and classes united in extending to him a most cordial welcome, and in expressing their admiration for his per- sonal character, and their gratitude for his public services. Thomas F. Bayard was, in- deed, one whom all classes and conditions of men delighted to honor. Both at home and abroad. he received numerous publie tributes of appreciation of his merits as a statesman, as well as of his personal character -- if the two may be separated. For the glory of Mr. Bay- ard's career was its consistency; he had no two standards of action for public and for private life. The high-toned principles that con- trolled his personal affairs and his business and social intercourse with his fellowmen were brought to bear with telling effect upon such public interests as lay within his sphere of activity. These principles were the motive of his sturdy insistence upon "specie payments," and his unvarying advocacy of a sound money policy, during his period of service as United

States senator; and in like manner, every pub- lic question with which he was confronted, was submitted to the test of his lofty ideals of truth and justice. Men of even less integrity and moral power, are not slow to recognize the su- periority of an absolutely true character; hon- ors were done to Mr. Bayard, therefore, simply because they were less dear to him than honor.

The death of this eminent man occurred September 28, 1898, after an illness of six weeks, at Karlstein, the summer home of his daughter, Mrs. Warren, near Dedham, Mass. His remains were brought to his home, Dela- more Place, Wilmington, and interred, ac- cording to his expressed desire, with brief and simple services, in the family vault at Old Swedes' church. When the news of his death was received in his native city, the flag on the city hall was placed at half staff, and other flags on public and private buildings through- out Wilmington soon displayed the same sign of mourning. It was a touching evidence of the universal esteem in which he was held, that the imitation extended even to children's flags, which had been erected on vacant lots during the excitement over the Spanish- American war. Many tributes of respect were paid; among these, in Delaware, were the me- morials of the Bar, of the Delaware Society of Colonial Wars, of which he was Governor, and of the Young Men's Democratie Club, in- cluding numerous personal tokens of honor from those who had been most nearly associated with Mr. Bavard. The flags of all diplomatie and consular offices throughout the United States were, by order of the Depart- ment of State at Washington, placed at half- mast for ten days. The press generally, both in the United States and in England, con- curred in expressions of admiration for his un- sullied and patriotic record, and of regret for his departure. "It was just and fitting," to borrow the words of Associate Justice Grubb, of Delaware, "that he should pass painlessly and peacefully away at the summit of his fame, and when he had just finished that crowning work of his life which won for our country the attachment and support of our mother country in our hour of need."

We take pleasure in acknowledging the valuable assistance rendered in the prepara- tion of this memorial of the Bayard family by Hon. Ignatius C. Grubb. By preparing

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the genealogical matter and adding many in- teresting particulars concerning the various members of the family, he has imparted to the sketch both accuracy and completeness.

HONORABLE IGNATIUS COOPER GRUBB, Wilmington, Del., son of Welling- ton and Beulah C. (Allmand) Grubb, was born at "Stockdales," the family homestead, Grubb's Landing, Del., April 12, 1841. Hle is Associate Judge-at-large of the Supreme Court, etc., of Delaware, and in length of ser- vice the senior judge of the entire state Bench.

Judge Grubb's ancestry were among the earliest Swedish and English settlers, and the oldest colonial county families; and through successive generations his family have been prominent and extensive owners of agricul- tural and mining lands in Delaware, Penn- sylvania and New Jersey. Through his first American paternal ancestor, John Grubb, and the intermarriage of his descendants with those of Otto Ernest Koch, Swedish secretary under Governor John Printz at Tinicum, Colonel John Fenwick, founder of the Salem, N. J., colony, Governor William Clayton, president of the Colonial Council and of the Upland Court, Pennsylvania, and the Ship- pens, Buckleys, Gilpins and other leading set- tlers, Judge Grubb comes of stock whose representatives have not only adorned the Bench of Delaware, but also ably and wor- thily filled other high and responsible positions in that state and elsewhere. Said John Grubb, the first of his name to settle in Delaware, be- longed to a county family of note in Wiltshire, England, which was of ancient Danish line- age, and was seated in that county prior to 1530, and still earlier in Hertfordshire.

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Biographical and genealogical history of the state of Delaware, Vol. I, Part 36

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa. Number of Pages: 1482

Author: Runk, J.M. & Co
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa.
Number of Pages: 1482