Samuel Bayard
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Vetch Bayard (born 1757, New York – d. 28 May 1832 Wilmot, Nova Scotia) was a Loyalist military officer in the American Revolution who served in the King's Orange Rangers (KOR).[1] He is the son of William Bayard who founded the KOR.[2] He was the great-grandson of Governor Samuel Vetch and was the father of Robert Bayard.[3][4]
Career
In March 1778, Lt. Col. Samuel Bayard was charged with murdering one of his own officers in the ranger unit.[5] Bayard was tried and found guilty of manslaughter in October, and sentenced to be suspended for three months and then removed from his command. This sentence was overturned on a technicality by the Judge Advocate General,[6] but probably played a role in Bayard's subsequent difficulties in retaining his command.
On November 17, 1778 the KOR arrived by sea at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
At the end of 1779, Lt. Col. Bayard learned of a plan to merge the KOR with the
Liverpool
In the 1770s, Liverpool was the second-largest settlement in Nova Scotia, after Halifax. Unlike Halifax, nearly everyone in Liverpool was a New England Planter. The town was at first sympathetic to the cause of the American Revolution, with outlying outports like Port Medway and Port Mouton almost continuously visited by American privateers,[10] but after repeated attacks by American privateers on local shipping interests and one direct attack on the town itself, Liverpool citizens turned against the rebellion. Simeon Perkins wrote a successful appeal to the authorities in Halifax, and on December 13, 1778 Capt. John Howard's company of the Samuel Bayard regiment arrived aboard the transport Hannah. The company consisted of Howard, 2 lieutenants, 1 ensign, 3 sergeants, 2 or 3 corporals, 48 privates, and several camp followers, both women and children.[11][12] During the next year the men assisted the locals in re-building Fort Morris (Nova Scotia) at what is today called Fort Point.
Port Williams
At Port Williams, Nova Scotia, the threat of American privateer attacks had subsided. In the spring of 1781, Major Samuel Bayard was ordered to take a detachment of Rangers overland from Halifax to
... the great satisfaction he has received in seeing the two provincial battalions of Royal N.S. Volunteers and the King's Orange Rangers, and highly approves of their discipline and military appearance ...[17]
The King's Orange Rangers were disbanded in the autumn of 1783.
After the war Bayard was granted land in Aylesford, which he sold off and purchased land in Wilmot. Bayard became a Lieutenant Colonel of the Duke of Kent's regiment, the Royal Nova Scotia Regiment (1793 – 1802). He is buried in the Bayard Family Cemetery in South Farmington, Wilmot, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Legacy
- namesake of Bayard Road, Wilmot, Nova Scotia
See also
References
- ^ Obituary published in Acadian Recorder – Saturday, 09 June 1832 – Page 3:
- ^ "Biographical Sketches of Loyalist Ancestors, Project of the Hfx. - Dart. Br. of the UELAC, 1983"
- ^ "The history of Kings County, Nova Scotia, heart of the Acadian land". Salem, Mass., The Salem press company. 1910.
- ^ Robert Bayard - Canadian Biography Online
- ^ "Login". www.hhennigar.ca.
- ^ "King's Orange Rangers", John G. Leefe, Liverpool 1996, p 3
- ^ King 1996, p 4
- ^ "Loyalist Institute: King's Orange Rangers, Bayard's Memorial". www.royalprovincial.com.
- ^ "Loyalist Institute: King's Orange Rangers, Bayard to Clinton". www.royalprovincial.com.
- ^ Brebner. Neutral Yankees. 334-335
- ^ "Loyalist Institute: Reenactment Groups - King's Orange Rangers, Capt. John Howard's Company".
- ^ "King's Orange Rangers", John G. Leefe, Liverpool 1996, p 14
- ^ "Provincial Archives of New Brunswick". archives.gnb.ca.
- ^ Sabine, Lorenzo (4 June 1864). "Biographical sketches of loyalists of the American Revolution, with an historical essay". Boston, Little, Brown and Company – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "RootsWeb.com Home Page". archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com.
- ^ "King's Orange Rangers", John G. Leefe, Liverpool 1996, pp 12-13
- ^ Piers, Harry; "The Fortieth Regiment, Raised at Annapolis Royal in 1717; and Five Regiments Subsequently Raised in Nova Scotia"; Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, vol. XXI, Halifax, NS, 1927, p 163