John Bubenheim Bayard (11 August 1738 – 7 January 1807) was a merchant, soldier, and statesman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He achieved the rank of colonel while serving with the Continental Army, and was a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Congress of the Confederation in 1785 and 1786. Later he was elected as mayor of New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Early life
John Bubenheim Bayard was born on 11 August 1738 to James Bayard (1717–1780) and the former Mary Asheton (born c. 1715) at Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland. He had a twin brother, James Asheton Bayard (1738–1770).
Their father James was the youngest son of Samuel Bayard (1675–1721), who was born in New Amsterdam, and Susanna Bouchelle (1678–1750), both of French Huguenot ancestry. James Bayard was educated at West Nottingham Academy under the tutelage of the Rev. Samuel Finley, who later became the 5th President of Princeton University.
Career
In 1755, John Bayard moved to Philadelphia and became a merchant. He entered the business world in the counting-room of a merchant, John Rhea. He began making his own investments in shipping voyages, prospered, and became one of the leaders in the merchant community. When he joined his own firm, it was named Hodge & Bayard. In 1765 Bayard signed the non-importation agreement in protest of the Stamp Act, even though it hurt his own business. By 1766, he had become one of the leaders of the Philadelphia Sons of Liberty.
Later life
By 1788, Bayard had settled most of the debts he had run up during the war. He was forced to sell the estate in Maryland to another branch of the family, and closed down his Philadelphia business. He built a new home in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and moved there in the expectation of retiring. But in 1790, he was elected mayor of New Brunswick. Then, for many of his remaining years he sat as the judge in the court of common pleas for Middlesex County. He died at home in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on 7 January 1807, and is buried in the First Presbyterian Churchyard there.
Personal life
In 1759, he married Margaret Hodge (1740–1780), the daughter of Andrew Hodge (1711–1789), sister of Andrew Hodge and Hugh Hodge, and the aunt of Rev. Charles Hodge (1797–1878), Before her death in 1780, the couple had several children, including:
- James Ashton Bayard (1760–1788), who graduated from Princeton in 1781, and who married to Eliza Rodgers, daughter of Dr. John Rodgers, a trustee of Princeton from 1765 to 1807.
- Anna Bayard (1779–1869), who married Samuel Boyd.
In 1781, shortly after the death of his first wife Margaret, Bayard remarried, to Mary (née Grant) Hodgson (d. 1785). She was a widow of John Hodgson of South Carolina. sister-in-law of William Paterson (1745–1806), and granddaughter of Lewis Morris (1671–1746), the Chief Justice of New York from 1715 to 1733 and Governor of New Jersey from 1738 to 1746. She survived him and died on June 26, 1834, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Through his second son, Andrew Bayard, he was the grandfather of six, Sarah Bayard, John Bayard (1795–1869) (a founder of the Philomathean Society at the University of Pennsylvania), Elizabeth Bayard, Theodosia Bayard, James Bayard, and Charles Bayard. Susan Bayard, Maria Bayard, Samuel John Bayard (1801–1878) (who married Jane Ann Winder Dashiel, the parents of Gen. George Dashiell Bayard (1835–1862)), William Marsden Bayard (1803–1863), Juliet Elizabeth Bayard (1806–1865) (who married William Augustine Washington II (1804–1830), son of William A. Washington), and Caroline Smith Bayard (1814–1891) (who married Albert Baldwin Dod (1805–1845)).