Bayard (II)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

THOMAS FRANCIS, an American statesman and diplomatist, born in Wilmington, Del., Oct. 29, 1828. He came of a family which four cessive generations represented the State for sucof Delaware in the United States Senate. The first of his ancestors to settle in that State was Peter, a son of Petrus Bayard, probably a collateral descendant of the celebrated Chevalier Bayard and Anne C. Stuyvesant, the latter a sister of Peter Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch Governors of New Netherlands. Mr. Bayard's great-grandfather, Richard Bassett, was a member of the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Bayard was admitted to the bar in 1851 and practiced law until 1868, when he succeeded his father, James A. Bayard, in the United States Senate. In the Democratic National Convention of 1872 he received 15 votes for the presidential nomination, and in the convention of 1876, 31 votes, which he turned over to Samuel J. Tilden. In 1880 and again in 1884 his name was voted on in the National convention of his party. In 1885 he was chosen by President Cleveland as Secretary of State, and on Cleveland's second election, in 1892, he was appointed United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James, being the first to bear that title. While holding this high office he won many friends by his personal charm of manner, and his public utterances promoted good feeling in both social and government He died in Dedham, Mass., circles. Sept. 28, 1898. BAYAZID. See BAJAZET.