Delaware State Archives

BAYARD, Richard Henry, (son of James Asheton Bayard, Sr., brother of James Asheton Bayard, Jr., and grandson of Richard Bassett), a Senator from Delaware; born in Wilmington, Del., September 26, 1796; graduated from Princeton College in 1814; studied law; admitted to the bar in New Castle, Del., in 1818 and commenced practice in Wilmington; first mayor of Wilmington in 1832; elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Arnold Naudain and served from June 17, 1836, to September 19, 1839, when he resigned to become chief justice of Delaware; chairman, Committee on Private Land Claims (Twenty-seventh Congress), Committee on District of Columbia (Twenty-seventh Congress), Committee on Naval Affairs (Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses); served as chief justice of Delaware 1839-1841, when he resigned; elected again to the United States Senate, as a Whig, to fill the vacancy which had existed since his own resignation in 1839 and served from January 12, 1841, to March 3, 1845; was not a candidate for reelection in 1845; charge d’affaires to Belgium 1850-1853; died in Philadelphia, Pa., March 4, 1868; interment in the Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery, Wilmington, Del.