Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Bayard, Nicholas, 1644-1707

Colonial executive; born in Alphen, Holland, in 1644. His mother was a sister of Governor Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Netherland, whom she accompanied to America in 1647, with her three sons and a daughter. The old Bayard mansion in New York City, on the Bowery, was converted into a pleasure garden in 1798. The Astor Library is built on a part of the estate. Under the second English regime, in 1685, Bayard was mayor of New York, and a member of Governor Dongan's council. In 1698 Col. Bayard went to England to clear himself of the [300] imputation of complicity in the piracy of Captain Kidd, having been accused by the Leisler faction of both piracy and a scheme to introduce slavery. He was tried before Chief-Justice Atwood and sentenced to death. The proceedings, however, were annulled by an order-in-council, and he was reinstated in his property and honors. He died in New York City, in 1707.