Col John Bayard

 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.

John Bubenheim Bayard was born on 11 August 1738 to James Bayard (1717–1780) and the former Mary Asheton (b. ca. 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.^[2] 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.

 Bayard's paternal line were French Huguenots who escaped France through the Netherlands. His 2x great-grandfather, Samuel Bayard (d. ca. 1647), the son of the Rev. Balthazar Bayard, married Ann Stuyvesant, the daughter of the Rev. Balthazar Stuyvesant, in the Netherlands in 1638.^[2] After Samuel Bayard's death, she brought their four children, of which Petrus Bayard (d. 1690), John Bayard's great-grandfather, was the eldest, to New Netherland with her brother Peter Stuyvesant in 1647. In 1698, John Bayard's grandfather, Samuel Bayard (1675–1721), moved to Maryland and established a plantation known as Bohemia Manor in Cecil County. It remained the seat of the family for several generations of the Bayard family.

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 Hedge & 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.^[4]

Revolutionary War

Bayard was elected to the convention of Pennsylvania in July 1774, and re-elected in 1775. This group was originally the revolutionary counter to the official assembly, but eventually replaced it as the legislature for the new government. When regiments were raised for the defense of Philadelphia in 1775, Bayard became Colonel of the second regiment. In 1776, when the convention had become a constitutional assembly, he was named to the Committee of Safety. In March 1777, he became a member of the state's Board of War, and the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and was re-elected in 1778.

In the meantime, Hedge & Bayard was contracted with the Continental Congress to supply the Continental Army. Bayard fitted out a ship sent out as a privateer. But, in the fall of 1777, the British occupied Philadelphia. Bayard moved his family to a farm at Plymouth. After getting them settled, he took to the field with his regiment. They fought at the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Princeton. Bayard was cited by General Washington for his gallant leadership in the Battle of Princeton.

In 1781, Bayard became head of the Board of War, and as such joined the state's Executive Council. Under Pennsylvania's 1776 constitution this was a kind of combination of the roles of a governor's cabinet and the state Senate. In 1785 he was elected to the Congress of the Confederation, the successor of the Continental Congress. He served there in 1785 and 1786, attending their meetings in New York, then the temporary seat of government. In 1787, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society

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 January 7, 1807 and is buried in the First Presbyterian Churchyard there.