BAYARD, William, merchant, born in New York, 1 June 1729; died in Southampton, England, in 1804. He joined the Sons of Liberty, but his principles would not permit him to aid the movement for independence, and he sailed for England, residing near Southampton. At the period of his departure Colonel Bayard was among the most prominent and opulent merchants of New York. His ancestral countryseat at Castle Point included nearly all the land on which the present city of Hoboken is built. The estate was confiscated and sold, but by marriage has again passed into the possession of a Bayard. Two of his four sons entered the British army*Lieut.-Colonel John Bayard, and Major Samuel Vetch Bayard. His third son, William, was the head of the leading mercantile house of New York in the early part of the present century, the firm being Bayard, Leroy & McEvers.