Stephen Bayard


Stephanus Bayard or Stephen Bayard was the 40th Mayor of New York City from 1744 to 1747. He was instrumental in the founding of Columbia University.

Early life

Stephanus Bayard was born in May 1700 to Judge Samuel Bayard and Margaretta Van Cortlandt. His paternal grandfather was Nicholas Bayard, the 16th Mayor of New York City and a nephew of Peter Stuyvesant. His maternal grandparents were Stephen Van Cortlandt, the 17th Mayor of New York City, and Gertruj Schuyler, daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler.
His siblings included Judith Bayard, who married Rip Van Dam, Nicholas Bayard, who married Elizabeth Rynders, Gertruyd Bayard, who married Peter Kemble, Samuel Bayard, who married Catharine Van Horn, and Margaretta Bayard who married James Van Horn.

Career

In 1725, Bayard wrote to Robert Livingston stating that 30 slaves died on a voyage to the colony due to a shortage of food and that Moses Levy was awaiting the payment of Livingston's account.
On September 29, 1744, Bayard was appointed the 40th Mayor of New York City for three consecutive one-year terms until 1747. During his first year in office, he took steps to found a college in New York City, feeling that New Yorkers had neglected the interests of education. He initiated the raising of £2,250 for the foundation of a college, which was completed 10 years later and became King's College and then Columbia University.
In May 1745, his government prohibited skinners, leather dressers, and curriers from neighborhoods below the Collect and prohibited hatters and starch makers from pouring waste into the streets.

Hoboken

Bayard had country estate and farm at Castle Point, called Hoboken, in Bergen County, New Jersey. After his death, his son, William Bayard, inherited the property. William, who originally supported the revolutionary cause, became a Loyalist Tory after the fall of New York in 1776 when the city and surrounding areas, including the west bank of the renamed Hudson River, were occupied by the British. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Bayard's property was confiscated by the Revolutionary Government of New Jersey. In 1784, the land described as "William Bayard's farm at Hoebuck" was bought at auction by Colonel John Stevens for £18,360.

Personal life

On March 12, 1724, he married Alida Vetch, the only daughter of Samuel Vetch, the Royal Governor of Nova Scotia, and Margaret Livingston, a daughter of Robert Livingston and Alida Schuyler Van Rensselaer. Together, they were the parents of eight children, including:
  • Samuel Bayard
  • Nicholas Bayard
  • William Bayard, who married Catharine McEvers in 1750, who was a delegate to the 1765 Stamp Act Congress and loyalist in the Revolutionary War
  • Stephen Bayard
  • Robert Bayard, who married Rebecca Apthorp, daughter of Charles Apthorp, in 1766. After her death, he married her sister, Elizabeth Apthorp, the widow of James McEvers, in 1773.
  • Margaret Bayard
After his first wife's death, he married Eve Schuyler in New Barbadoes, New Jersey. They did not have any children.

Descendants

His grandchildren included: Samuel Vetch Bayard, William Bayard Jr., Mary Bayard, and Elise Justine Bayard.
His great-granddaughter, Harriet Elizabeth Bayard, married General Stephen Van Rensselaer IV, son of Stephen Van Rensselaer III, both distant cousins through the Van Cortlandt family. His great-grandson, William Bayard Cutting, was a merchant, developer, and factory owner.