USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume III > Part 7
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After the war he served as one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. He served twice as a member of the Conti- nental Congress, and in 1803 was appointed Chief Justice of Mississippi Territory, serving in that capacity until his death on January 21, 1811, at Natchez, Mississippi. He married in 1771 Elizabeth Maud Fisher. His children were Cæsar Augustus Rodney, the distinguished lawyer and diplomat, and Lavinia Rodney, who married John Fisher, the second United States judge for the district of Delaware.
CAESAR A. RODNEY. 1772-1824.
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CÆSAR A. RODNEY.
Cæsar A. Rodney, only son of Judge Thomas Rodney was born at Dover, January 4, 1772. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, studied law in Philadelphia, and was admitted to the Bar in that city. He came to Wilming- ton soon after his marriage in 1793, and began the practice of law. In 1797 he was elected to the Legislature, and was elected to Congress in 1802, being the first Democrat chosen from Delaware to any public position. In 1804 Mr. Rodney was chosen one of the seven managers to conduct the impeach- ment of Judge Chase. The great ability and legal knowledge displayed by him in this memorable case gained for him a national reputation as an eminent lawyer. In 1807 he was appointed by President Jefferson, Attorney-General of the United States, and continued in that office under President Madison, until his resignation in 1811. During his term of office many important cases were tried by him for the Govern- ment among which was the notable Burr and Blenerhasset conspiracy trial.
On the breaking-out of the war with England in 1812, Mr. Rodney was charged with the command of the troops raised in Delaware, and was for a time in command of the forts at Wilmington and New Castle. In 1817 he was appointed by President Monroe, the head of a mission to the South American States, to ascertain their condition and the expediency of their acknowledgment by the United States. In 1822 he was elected to the United States Senate by the Legislature of Dela- ware and in 1823 he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Provinces of La Plata. He was an excellent classical scholar, an eminent lawyer and a polished gentle- man. He died June 10, 1824, and was buried in the English Church of the City of Buenos Ayres, and a handsome monu- ment was erected in that city to his memory.
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THOMAS MCKEAN RODNEY.
Thomas Mckean Rodney, was the son of the Hon. Cæsar A. Rodney, and was born in Wilmington, September 11, 1800. At the age of fourteen he was appointed by President Madison a cadet at West Point, where he remained for three years, when he obtained leave of absence to accompany his father on a mission to South America. On his return to the United States he resigned his commission, and began the study of law with his father, and was admitted to the Bar.
In 1823, his father having been appointed minister to Buenos Ayres, he accompanied him as Secretary of Legation to that country. Upon his return to America he was appointed by President John Quincy Adams, Consul General to the city of Havana, Cuba, in which position he continued until removed by President Jackson. In 1842 he was appointed United States Consul at Matanzas, Cuba, where he remained until the close of President Tyler's administration. In 1849 he was appointed to the same consulate by President Tyler, continu- ing in that office until the close of President Fillmore's term.
He was one of the electors on the Republican ticket in Delaware in 1856. He was a member of the Delaware Legis- lature in 1847. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lin- coln Collector of Customs for the district of Delaware, and retained that position until removed by President Johnson in 1866. By his personal integrity and faithful attention to duty, Mr. Rodney won the esteem and respect of all who were brought into official relations with him. He died at his resi- dence, Cool Spring, Wilmington, April 24, 1874.
CÆSAR A. RODNEY (THE SECOND).
Cæsar A. Rodney (the second), was the son of Thomas Mckean Rodney, and the great-grandson of Thomas Rodney. His youth and manhood were spent in Wilmington, where he was well known both in business and social circles. As a man of business he was intelligent, industrious and upright. He was at different times intrusted by his fellow citizens with offi-
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cial duties, which he faithfully and efficiently performed. He became the head of a large and important manufacturing establishment, and by his scientific knowledge and practical acquirements, changed an unsuccessful concern into a most profitable investment for its owners. In domestic and social life Mr. Rodney was beloved and esteemed. He was an active and valuable member of the historical society of Delaware. He died June 23, 1884.
The only present living male descendant of the Rodney line through Caesar Rodney (the father of the Signer) is John M. C. Rodney, a son of Thomas Mckean Rodney, and grand- son of Caesar A. Rodney, who was Attorney-General of the United States. John M. C. Rodney is a bachelor and lives quietly at "Cool Spring," in Wilmington, the home of his distinguished grandfather. He has been a successful busi- ness man and merits the respect of his many friends in Wil- mington, where the whole of his life has been spent.
OTHER BRANCHES OF RODNEY FAMILY.
In another line of the Rodney family, descendants of William Rodney, born in 1689, the eldest son of the first William Rodeney, appears the name of several Rodneys who have figured prominently in State affairs. Daniel Rodney, who served as Governor of the State from 1814 to 1817, was a grandson of William Rodeney the second. Daniel Rodney was born in Lewes, September 10, 1764, and spent his entire life there. He was an active merchant, served in both branches of the General Assembly, was twice elected to the National House of Representatives, and for a few months, in 1826 and 1827, served by appointment, as a member of the United States Senate. He was the father of a large family.
George B. Rodney, son of Governor Daniel Rodney, born April 2, 1803, was educated at Princeton College, studied law and was admitted to the Bar at Easton, Pennsylvania ; he afterwards returned to his native county of Sussex where he served from 1826 to 1830 as Register in Chancery and
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Clerk of the Orphan's Court. After retiring from that office, he went to New Castle where he resided ever afterwards, and where he was always recognized as a leading and influential member of the Bar. He served two terms in the National House of Representatives from 1840 to 1844 and died at New Castle June 17, 1883.
John H. Rodney, a son of the above George B. Rodney, and a grandson of Governor Daniel Rodney, was born in New Castle June 18, 1839. After studying law with his father, he was admitted to the Bar of New Castle County in 1862, and since that time he has been actively engaged in the practice of the law, ranking as one of the ablest of the lawyers of the State, and, like his father, is recognized as an authority upon questions of Court practice. For many years he was attorney for the Levy Court Commissioners, proving a safe and learned counselor. He has always made his home in New Castle, where he has taken a leading part in public affairs, but since the removal of the court house to Wilmington, he has had his office in the latter city.
John H. Rodney, Jr., born November 9, 1876, son of the above John H. Rodney, is also a member of the New Castle Bar, having been admitted in 1902. He has his office with his father, in Wilmington, and lives at New Castle. The youngest member of the New Castle County Bar is Richard Seymour Rodney, youngest son of John H. Rodney, admitted in 1906.
Caleb Rodney, born April 29, 1767, was another grandson of William Rodney, the second ; like his brother, Governor Daniel Rodney, he was a life-long resident of Lewes, and en- gaged in mercantile pursuits. He was always a leading man in public affairs. He was four times elected to the State Senate and in 1821 was elected Speaker of the Senate, and as such, succeeded to the Governorship in April, 1822, on the death of Governor John Collins. He served as Governor for the unexpired term, until January, 1823. He was a member of the State House of Representatives for ten years. He died
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JAMES A. BAYARD. 1767-1815.
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at Lewes April 29, 1840, and his remains lie buried in the graveyard adjoining St. Peter's Episcopal Church in that town.
THE BAYARD FAMILY.
The Bayards are a French family, but some of the older heads were driven out of France by religious persecution, and early in the seventeenth century sought refuge in Holland, where Samuel Bayard married Anneke Stuyvesant, a sister of Governor Peter Stuyvesant. She came to America, a widow, with her brother, the Governor, in the year 1647. From her three boys whom she brought with her at that time, have sprung the Bayards of America.
JAMES ASHETON BAYARD.
James Asheton Bayard, the elder, a distinguished American statesman, was born in the city of Philadelphia, July 28, 1767. He was the second son of Dr. James A. Bayard, a physician of promising talents and great reputation, but who died January 8, 1770, at an early period of life. At an early age James A., his son, was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Col. John Bayard, who resided in Philadelphia, and in whose family he lived for several years. His education was commenced in the family of his uncle, and after preparatory instruction, under a private tutor, he entered Princeton Col- lege, and was graduated therefrom with the highest honors, September 28, 1784. After leaving college he pursued his legal studies in Philadelphia, on concluding which he resolved to practice his profession in the adjoining State of Delaware, and was admitted to the Bar in New Castle County, in August, 1797.
His close application to study during the first years of his professional life and his thorough familiarity with the princi- ples of political science and general jurisprudence soon gave him a high position in the law, and in public affairs. He was a member of Congress from Delaware 1796 to 1803, United States Senator from 1804 to 1813 and one of the negotiators
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of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. He declined an appointment as Minister to France in 1801, and to Russia in 1815. In Congress he was a Federalist leader, and was largely influ- ential in electing Thomas Jefferson, President. In 1795, he married Anne Bassett, great-granddaughter of Augustine Her- mann, of Bohemia Manor, and daughter of Richard Bassett, afterwards Governor and Chief Justice of Delaware.
James A. Bayard, the elder, was a man of whom it has truly been said "That nature, education, mind, heart and habit had combined to make a gentleman." He died on the 6th of August, 1815, at the age of forty-eight years, in the City of Wilmington, leaving two daughters and four sons, James A., the younger, Richard H., Dr. Edward and Henry M. Bayard.
JAMES A. BAYARD.
James A. Bayard, the younger, third son of James Asheton and Anne (Bassett) Bayard, was born in Wilmington, Novem- ber 15, 1799. He was graduated from Union College at nine- teen years of age, and in 1821 was admitted to the Bar. In early life he took an interest in public affairs and rapidly rose to the front rank of his profession. He began his politi- cal career as a Jackson Democratic candidate for Congress, in 1828, and to the end of his life was a consistent, earnest and unwavering Democrat. He was United States attorney for the district of Delaware under President Van Buren, and was elected and re-elected to the United States Senate in 1850, 1856 and 1862.
He strenuously 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 him personally, he re- signed from the Senate in resentment of the affront. Upon the death of George Read Riddle, his successor, 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
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JAMES A. BAYARD. 1799-1380.
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by the General Assembly as United States Senators, the one to fill out his own unexpired Senatorial term, and the other for the full term as his father's successor, so that at noon of the same day March 4, 1869, the father retired from Sena- torial life, as his son entered it in his stead, thus introducing in three successive generations, a representative of the Bayard family to Senatorial honors and duties, an incident unprece- dented in the annals of the Senate and country.
In the long list of eminent lawyers that have sprung from Delaware there have been none more renowned than James A. Bayard, the younger, and in fact all of the old traditions point to him as possibly the most illustrious member of the Bar that Delaware has produced. His public and private life were marked by unswerving fidelity to principle, and strict rectitude in the performance of all his responsible duties. On July 8, 1823, he married Anne Francis, daughter of Thomas Willing Francis and Dorothy (Willing) Francis. His wife's father was the grandson of Tench Francis, Attorney-General of the Province of Pennsylvania. Mr. Bayard died in Wilmington, June 13, 1880, and the remains of the honored statesman were interred in the family vault in the graveyard of the Old Swedes Church. His children were James A., who died at the age of twenty-three years, Mary Ellen, married Augustus Van Cort- landt Schermerhorn, Thomas Francis, Sophia H., George H., Mabel, married firstly, Dr. John Kent Kane, and secondly, Levi C. Bird, Esq., and Florence, who married Major Benoni Lockwood.
RICHARD H. BAYARD.
Richard H. Bayard, son of James A. Bayard, the elder, was born in Wilmington, September 23, 1796. He was graduated from Princeton in 1814, admitted to the Delaware bar in 1818, was the first Mayor of Wilmington from 1832 to 1834, United States Senator, 1836-1839, and Chief Justice of Delaware from 1839 to 1841, United States Senator, 1841-1845, and Minister to Belgium, 1850-1853. He married Mary Sophia, grand-
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daughter of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland signer of the Declaration of Independence. He died in Philadelphia in 1868.
THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD.
Thomas Francis Bayard, son of James Asheton Bayard and Anne (Francis) Bayard, was born in Wilmington, October 29, 1828. His education was pursued in his native State until 1841, when he was sent to Flushing, Long Island, to complete his studies under the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D. On passing from the care of Dr. Hawks, Mr. Bayard entered the commercial house of his brother-in-law, Augustus Van Cort- landt Schermerhorn of New York. The opportunities afforded him in commercial life whereby he became conversant with the laws of trade and the management of financial affairs proved most valuable to him in public life.
At the age of twenty he returned to his home in Wilming- ton, and having devoted three years to the study of law, was admitted to the bar of Delaware in 1851. For two years he practiced as his father's assistant, and in 1853 was appointed United States Attorney for the District of Delaware. This office he resigned a year later and went to Philadelphia, where he entered into partnership with his friend William Shippen, Esq. The legal firm thus instituted existed until 1858, when he returned to Wilmington. From this time a large portion of the business devolving upon him, consisted of the fulfill- ment of trusts and executorships and the management of estates, a branch of the profession for which he was well quali- fied by reason of his early experience in business, his sound and practical judgment, and his great capacity for laborious work.
Like his father, Thomas F. Bayard was a strong Democrat and greatly interested in political affairs, taking a more promi- nent part after he was chosen to succeed his father in the United States Senate. His term in the Senate began at noon on March 4, 1869, at the moment that his father's term ex-
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THOMAS F. BAYARD. 1828-1898.
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pired. He soon became one of the most active and influential members of the body, and performed much useful work upon committees. In 1875 he was re-elected, and in 1880 he be- came Chairman of the Committee on Finance and a member of the Committee on the Judiciary. He was again elected to the Senate in 1881. At the Democratic National Convention held in 1880 he was a candidate for the presidential nomina- tion 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 to Grover Cleveland, the nominee.
He was the first statesman invited in consultation by Presi- dent Cleveland after the latter's election and immediately re- ceived the offer of the highest place in the new cabinet. After long deliberation Mr. Bayard accepted the position of Secretary of State that had been tendered him, but much against the wishes of some of the prominent leaders of his party who feared that his withdrawal from the Senate would be disadvantageous. The most notable incidents of our for- eign relations during Mr. Bayard's term as Secretary of State, were the Fishery Treaty, the Behring Sea Controversy, and an agreement between the United States and Spain whereby each country abolished from its tariff such duties as discrim- inated against the other.
In 1889, at the close of President Cleveland's term, Mr. Bayard withdrew from public life, but from the retirement of private life and amid the duties of his profession he did not cease to watch with an eye of keen interest the course of his country's affairs, and to exert by voice and pen a potent influ- ence upon them. In 1893 Thomas F. Bayard was called to represent this country at the Court of St. James. He was the first to bear the title of Ambassador to Great Britain. The whole course of his career as Ambassador was such as to pro- mote good will between England and America, the existence of which has been most fully and happily made manifest dur- ing our recent Spanish-American War.
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Mr. Bayard was a man whom all classes and conditions of men delighted to honor. The glory of his career was its con- sistency. With his intellectual strength were united a grace- ful courtesy and tender sympathy which everywhere won for him both profound respect and affectionate regard. He also possessed a moral strength which gave his life a strong and wholesome influence. The death of this eminent man oc- curred 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 and interred according to his expressed desire, with brief and simple services in the family vault in the graveyard of the Old Swedes' Church. There, in the shadowed sunlight of an autumn afternoon, and amid a large concourse of sympathetic friends, the dust was returned to the earth whence it came.
Mr. Bayard left three sons, James A., Thomas F., Junior, and Philip. Thomas F. Bayard, Junior, studied law with his father and was admitted to the New Castle bar in 1893, and has for several years been in active and successful practice.
THE McLANE FAMILY.
COL. ALLEN MCLANE.
Col. Allen McLane, an eminent citizen of Delaware by adoption, was born in Philadelphia, August 8, 1746 and settled near Smyrna in Kent County, Delaware in 1774. He was early in the field in the cause of Independence. In 1775, he was appointed lieutenant in Colonel Caesar Rodney's regi- ment of Delaware militia, and in 1776 joined Washington's army and distinguished himself in the battles of Long Island. White Plains, Trenton and Princeton. Colonel McLane was present at the siege and surrender of Yorktown, and retired from service November 9, 1782. Many thrilling incidents are related of him which show his remarkable bravery as a soldier. On several occasions, when surprised by British troopers, he charged through them and escaped.
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After the war, Colone! MeLane settled at Smyrna and entered upon peaceful avocations. He was a member of the State Convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States in 1787. He was twice & meraber of the Delaware House of Representatives and United States Marshal of the Delaware District from 1790-98. He was also Collector of the Port of Wilmington, from 1808 to the time of his death. He died May 22, 1829, and his remains were interred in Asbury Church graveyard, Wilmington.
In the issue of The Delaware Register, of Saturday, May 30, 1829, a weekly newspaper published in Wilmington at that time by A. and H. Wilson, appears the following obituary notice of Allen McLane.
" In this Borough on the evening of Friday the 22nd inst. in the 83rd year of his age Col. Allen McLane, father of our Minister to London. The deceased was born in Philadelphia on the 8th of August, 1746, and is well-known as a distin- guished officer in the Revolutionary army. After that hard struggle for our liberties had gloriously ended, he filled, with fidelity, several public offices ; and at the close of the Admin- istration of President Washington, that great man appointed him Collector of the Port of Wilmington in which office he remained until his death. When the news of his decease was announced the vessels in port displayed their flags at half mast in which position they were kept till after the funeral solemnities, which were performed on Sunday at the burying ground of the Methodist Church, attended by an unusually large number of people, among whom were many of the citi- zens of the neighboring towns and country."
LOUIS MCLANE.
Louis McLane, son of Colonel Allen McLane was born in Smyrna, Delaware, May 28, 1786. In 1798, he entered the navy as midshipman and cruised for a year under Commodore Decatur, in the frigate " Philadelphia." He studied law with Hon. James A. Bayard, and was admitted to the bar in 1807.
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In 1817 he was elected a member of Congress from Delaware, and remained in that office until 1827. From 1827-29, he was United States Senator, and Minister to England, 1829-31. In 1831 he entered President Jackson's Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury, and in 1833 was appointed Secretary of State. Removing to Maryland about 1835, he was elected President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and served from 1837 to 1847. In 1845, he was entrusted with the mission to England during the Oregon negotiations. He died in Balti- more, Maryland, October 7, 1857.
DR. ALLEN MCLANE.
Dr. Allen McLane, son of Colonel Allen McLane, was born in Smyrna, Delaware in 1786. Dr. McLane was educated at the Newark Academy and Princeton College, and received his medical diploma from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. McLane served as surgeon in Cæsar A. Rodney's Company, in the war of 1812. He was a member of the vestry of the Old Swedes Church, and one of the founders of Trinity Chapel. Dr. McLane was one of the most prominent physicians of his city and his death was regarded as a public calamity. His death occurred suddenly, January 11, 1845, from heart disease, and his remains were interred in the graveyard of the Old Swedes Church.
THE MACDONOUGH FAMILY.
. The Macdonough family was of Scotch-Irish origin. The great-grandfather, Thomas Macdonough, was a native of Scot- land, but on account of the disturbed condition of that country emigrated to Ireland, and settled on the River Liffey, County of Kildare. This Thomas Macdonough had several children, two of whom, John and James, came to America about 1730. John Macdonough settled on Long Island, and James Mac- donough, the ancestor of the Delaware line, settled in St. Georges Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, at a place then called " The Trap," but to which the post-office depart-
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ment in 1844 gave the name of Macdonough. Here James Macdonough lived to a good old age, dying about 1802 in his eightieth year. He left several children among whom was a son, Thomas Macdonough.
THOMAS MACDONOUGH.
Thomas Macdonough (second), son of James Macdonough, was born in 1747, and lived in stirring times. He was a physician by profession, but when there came the call to arms in 1776 he threw away the lancet and buckled on the sword. On March 22, 1776, he was commissioned by Congress as Major in Colonel John Haslet's regiment of Delaware troops in the Continental service. He took a conspicuous part in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton and Princeton, and acquitted himself with great credit. In 1782 he was Colonel of the Seventh Regiment, Delaware militia. In 178S he was appointed third Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Orphans' Court by Governor Collins. In 1791 Governor Clayton appointed him second Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Orphans' Court, and in 1793 he was again appointed by the same Governor one of the Justices of the Court of Com- mon Pleas. He died in 1795.
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