Description:

Nicholas Bayard
New York, NY, March 17, 1670/71
Dutch Clerk and Future Mayor of Colonial New York City Nicholas Bayard Memorandum
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NICHOLAS BAYARD, Autograph Document Signed, March 17, 1670/71. Memorandum. In Dutch. 1 p., 8.25" x 12.75". Expected folds, general toning; some edge tears, some tape repair on verso; very good.

Governor Petrus Stuyvesant's private secretary Nicholas Bayard prepared this memorandum in March 1670/71. It mentions a variety of dates from 1649 to 1670 and William Nicolls, the attorney general appointed in 1687 whom Jacob Leisler imprisoned along with Bayard.

Historical Background
Late in 1688, the Glorious Revolution in Great Britain deposed Catholic King James II and replaced him with his Protestant daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband William III. In America, King James II's governor of the Dominion of New England (which also included New York and East and West Jersey) Edmund Andros was extremely unpopular. In April 1689, a mob in Boston arrested Andros and other dominion officials. Francis Nicholson, Andros's lieutenant governor in New York, kept news of both the Glorious Revolution and Andros's arrest from his citizens. In these circumstances, local militia took charge of the city and called on Jacob Leisler to take command.

Nicholson fled the city on June 10 for the Jersey shore, where he hoped to sail for England. In New York City, Leisler controlled the militia, but Dutch patroons Nicholas Bayard, Stephanus van Cortlandt, and Frederick Philipse composed the council, and van Courtlandt was mayor. After a confrontation, Bayard and van Cortlandt fled to Albany, and Philipse withdrew from political life, leaving Leisler in charge of the city. A committee of safety formed and chose Leisler as the province's commander-in-chief.

In October, councilors Bayard and Philipse issued a proclamation from Albany declaring Leisler's rule illegal and ordered militia commanders to stop supporting him, but the proclamation had no effect. Albany became the initial center of resistance to Leisler and established a convention to rule. Because France and England were at war, Albany feared an attack from French Canada. Early in 1690, Leisler also gained control over Albany. French and Indian raiders attacked Schenectady, and both the Albany convention and Leisler blamed the other for the failure to defend Schenectady. Leisler seized a letter from William and Mary to Lieutenant Governor Nicholson as a grant of legitimacy and began referring to himself as the lieutenant governor.

By the spring of 1691, Henry Sloughter, appointed by King William III as the new provincial governor of New York, arrived, convinced Leisler to surrender, and arrested him for treason, simultaneously releasing Nicholas Bayard and William Nicolls. Subsequent trials convicted Leisler and seven others and sentenced them to death. Leisler and his son-in-law were hanged in mid-May 1691.


Nicholas Bayard (ca. 1644-1707) was born in Alphen, Holland, the son of Huguenot refugee Samuel Bayard and Ann Stuyvesant, the sister of New Netherland Governor Petrus Stuyvesant. In 1647, he accompanied his widowed mother to America, where his paternal aunt had married Governor Stuyvesant in 1645. In 1664, Stuyvesant appointed Bayard clerk of the Common Council, and he soon afterward became Stuyvesant's private secretary and the surveyor of the province. After the reconquest of New York by the Dutch in 1672, Bayard became secretary of the province. Under the second British regime, Bayard served as mayor of New York from 1685 to 1686. He was a member of Governor Edmund Andros's Council and fled to Albany to escape assassination during Leisler's Rebellion. After receiving a license in 1694 from the notoriously corrupt Governor Benjamin Fletcher to purchase 4,000 acres along Schoharie Creek from the Indians, Bayard made the purchase and then received a charter from Fletcher for some 768,000 acres along the creek. When Governor Bellomont replaced Fletcher in 1697, he revoked the outrageous land grant, and Bayard went to London to clear his title before the Lords of Trade. While there in 1709s, he was accused of high treason before Chief Justice William Atwood, found guilty, and sentenced to death. However, after the death of the colonial governor and the removal of Atwood for corruption, the orders were revoked, and Bayard regained his property and position.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.25" x 12.75"
  • Medium: ADS

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