The Bayard family has been a prominent family of lawyers and politicians throughout American history, primarily from Wilmington, Delaware. Beginning as Federalists, they joined the party of Andrew Jackson and remained leaders of the Democratic Party into the 20th century. Counting Richard Bassett, the father-in-law of James A. Bayard Sr., the family provided six generations of U.S. senators from Delaware, serving from 1789 until 1929.

History

Ann Stuyvesant Bayard, widowed wife of the French Huguenot Samuel Bayard, came to New Netherland with her brother, Director-General Peter Stuyvesant in 1647. Her grandson, another Samuel Bayard, went to Bohemia Manor, Maryland, in 1698. His grandson was John Bubenheim Bayard (1738–1808), Continental Congressman from Pennsylvania, and his great-grandson, John Bayard's nephew, was James A. Bayard Sr., the first Bayard in the U.S. Senate.

Family members