JAMES BEARD / BARD (1791-1828)

     James Beard was born probably in the year 1791.  That date was extrapolated from a death record that gave his age as 37 at his death in 1828.  No other official record of his birth has yet been found.

      Bard family lore has it that James was born near Dublin, Ireland, at the Bard Estate called “Belmont.”  This information may have originally been passed down by Flora MacDonald Woodcock Potter, one of James Bard's granddaughters.  She had been questioned about her grandfather by Henrietta Onderdonk Bard, Flora's first cousin once removed and a very early Bard family researcher.  Flora's written response to Henrietta, dated May 13, 1925, reads as follows:

     "My dear Miss Bard,
          Your letter interests me very much - well, I only wish I did know something definite about my Grandfather James Bard - as it seems extraordinary that such a highly respectable family should know so little about its family tree.
          Everybody is dead who did know anything - and my knowledge, slight as it is, came from my mother [Mary Romeyn Bard Woodcock] and Aunt Eliza [Ann Eliza Bard] - both of whom were extremely vague when it came down to facts.  All I definitely remember is that my Grandfather James Bard was born in Ireland on the Bard estate, "Belmont" - somewhere near Dublin.  His ancestors were Huguenots, and at the time of the Edict of Nantes it was believed they fled from France to Ireland.
          If you know anything more than I have told you I will be very grateful if you will let me know.
                                                                          Very sincerely yours,
                                                                          Flora MacD. Potter"

      (The Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685, which essentially declared Protestantism illegal.)

      In contradiction to what Flora wrote, however, James's daughter [Ann] Eliza Bard’s death certificate says that her father, James Bard, was born in Belfast, Ireland.

      In 1949 another Bard family researcher, Gertrude ("Truda") Bard Smith Pfeiffer, pursued a hunch that the family had noble roots.  As she wrote in 1960 in her "Notes on the Bard Family," she based this assertion on conversations she had had with her maternal grandmother – Isabella Bard Peck, herself a granddaughter of James Bard – who “had always said we were of the nobility, and was very proud of being related to someone named Persiana Bard.” 

     Well, Persiana is a most unusual name, and it would certainly stand out in genealogy research.  Sure enough, the name does appear quite often in Bard genealogies.  Persiana was a daughter of Henry Bard, Viscount Bellomont.  Her sister, Frances, was the mistress of Prince Rupert and had an illegitimate child by him named Dudley Bard (he evidently took his mother’s surname).   Truda Pfeiffer speculated that, although Dudley was slain at the Siege of Buda in 1686 at the young age of twenty, he may have fathered a son, who could be an ancestor of James Bard.  Henry Bard had two or three other children, but none of them had progeny that would fit.

     It’s difficult not to accept Truda’s grandmother’s words at face value.  She would have heard these stories about her grandfather passed down firsthand in her family.  However, Isabella Bard Peck is reputed to have been a little mentally unstable, and perhaps her recollections should be taken with a grain of salt.  But if we assume her claims are true, Belmont is certainly a logical misspelling of Bellomont, which is near Dublin.  

     A major problem, however, is the spelling of the surname.   In the earliest American records found for him to date, James’s surname is rendered as Beard, not Bard.  Presuming James came to this country as James Beard, then perhaps all these Bard ancestors do not pertain.  This whole notion needs to be seriously researched, because, as it stands now, the present James Beard/Bard is the brick wall in this particular Bard ancestral line.  Nothing is known about his parents, where and when exactly he was born, when he immigrated to America, etc., etc. 

     When you do an online search for James Beard, for every one hit you get for our James Beard, you get about 999 hits for this smiling fellow on the right.  He's the other James Beard, the famous American chef and cookbook writer.  This is his image on a recent U.S. postage stamp.

     To muddy the waters even more regarding James Bard’s origin, there’s an indication in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census that James was born in Scotland, not Ireland.  Mary Romeyn Bard, mentioned above, was one of James Bard’s daughters.  In 1880 she was married to William P. Woodcock and was living in Sing Sing, New York.  She – or someone else in the household – evidently told the census taker that both of her parents were born in Scotland.  But James’s New York death record (with the surname Beard) confirmed his “place of nativity” as Ireland.

     James Beard immigrated probably – but not necessarily – to New York City (at an unknown date) and worked as a shoemaker.  If he was indeed descended from nobility, it seems a little unlikely that he would have come to America and earned his living making and repairing boots and shoes.  And it also stands to reason that there would be much more information available about him.

     Below is a church record from the current First Baptist Church of New York City.  It  shows that James Beard was married to Isabella Nichols on March 9, 1808 (second line from the bottom).  This is concrete confirmation that he initially went by the surname Beard.  There are many variations of the spelling of Isabella's last name;  it has been handed down to her descendants as "McNichol," not "Nichols."  
     Based on James’s age at his death in the New York death record, he would have only been around 17 years old at the time of his marriage, and Isabella would have been about a year older.

     Isabella reportedly hailed from Nova Scotia.  But Isabella may have actually been born in Scotland too.  Two of her daughters – Mary Romeyn Bard and Ann Eliza Bard – both indicated on census forms that their mother was born in Scotland.  (And see further evidence below.)

     One other source lends credence to Isabella McNichol’s Scottish origin:  Margaret Wright Bard Blanchard, a great granddaughter of James and Isabella Bard, always averred that her family was Scotch/Irish.  In addition, she also recalled that her father, Junius Theodore Stagg Bard, had told her that during the Revolutionary War “his people” were Tories.  “His people” would certainly include the McNichols as well as the Bards.  Many of the Tories (aka Loyalists to the British crown) from New York and other states emigrated to Canada, and many of those settled in Nova Scotia.  So, it’s possible that this McNichol line did indeed originate in Scotland, came to New York – or somewhere else in America – emigrated to Nova Scotia during or after the Revolution, and then returned to New York later.

     The marriage entry in this Bard family bible confirms that James and Isabella were married in New York on March 9, 1808, by Reverend Dr. Parkinson.   A Reverend William Parkinson was pastor of the First Baptist Church on Gold Street in New York City from 1805 to 1840.  (The current First Baptist Church is located at West 79th Street and Broadway.)  Their marriage at this church coincides with an account that was written in Isabella’s obituary in the Ossining, New York, “Democratic Register” – that at age nineteen (around 1809) she joined the First Baptist Church on Gold Street in New York.  Her funeral, however, would be conducted by officials of the two Episcopal churches in Sing Sing, New York – St. Paul’s and Trinity.  (It is unknown which Bard family had this bible, who made this entry, and where the bible is today.)

     In her 1960 monograph "Our Grandmothers and Grandfathers" Truda Pfeiffer quoted some notes of Henrietta Onderdonk Bard, who wrote that Isabella’s father owned fisheries in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, and when her father married for a second time the children left home.  Henrietta added that Isabella “came to New York City to live with her sister, Margaret.” 

     An unidentified source further explained that Isabella and her sister went back to the New York City area because they didn’t get along with the stepmother.  If Isabella and her sister went “back” to the New York City area, then that implies that they had lived there before.  It is unclear whether Margaret is the sister that accompanied Isabella from Nova Scotia or whether Margaret was already living in New York and Isabella and a different sister went there (Isabella had two other sisters, one named Mary and one whose name is not known).  This all still needs to be verified.

     As recorded in the above-mentioned family bible, James and Isabella had eight children:

          Maria Bard, born January 23, 1809

          Ann Elisa Bard, born January 14, 1811

          James Mackie Bard, born August 1, 1813

          John Bard, born December 18, 1815

          William Henry Heborn Bard, born August 18, 1818

          Mary Romeyn Bard, born August 20, 1820

          Samuel Bard, born March 18, 1823

          Ann Elisa Bard, born March 15, 1825

     No birth or baptism records for any of these children have been found…yet.

     The first Ann Elisa Bard must have died young, because James and Isabella gave their last child the same name.  The spelling of her name changed, however, and she apparently was known just as Eliza Bard.  The entries in the family bible show that all of the Bard children were born in New York City except for the first Ann Elisa and James Mackie, who were born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

     A search of the city directories for New York and Philadelphia found listings for James for most of the years between 1809 and 1828. From 1809 to 1824 he shows up as James Beard.   In 1825 the surname changes to Bard (his address is exactly the same for 1824 and 1825, when the spelling of the surname changed.  The spelling of the name as Beard did not appear again in the city directories.)

     These city directories were like today’s Yellow Pages and usually listed the person’s occupation and business and home addresses.   The pertinent information for James during those years follows below.   Every time his occupation is noted, it is “Shoemaker,” but there is no occupation noted in more than half of the entries in the city directories, especially the last five years of his short life.  He didn’t have separate business and home addresses, so he probably worked out of his home.

     The first occurrence of James Beard in a city directory was in the 1809 New York city directory.  This would have been a year after he got married.  He either may not have been living in New York City prior to that or he didn’t have an occupation that rated inclusion in the city directory before then.   In 1809 James Beard’s address was 129 Harman Street and in 1810 it was 148 William Street in New York City.   He did not appear in any New York city directories from 1811-1818.  Part of this time he was living in Philadelphia.

     James Beard shows up (once as Baird) in the Philadelphia city directories for 1811, 1813 and 1814 at 386 (or 388) South Front Street, occupation Shoemaker.  There were no Philadelphia directories published in 1812 and 1815.  Isabella transferred her membership from the First Baptist Church in New York to the Third Baptist Church in Philadelphia in March 1811, two months after daughter Ann Elisa was born.  So the family probably moved to Philadelphia sometime in 1810.  Then, in August 1815, Isabella transferred her church membership back to New York, so it was probably around then that they moved back.  Son John was reportedly born in New York City in December 1815.  

     James’s name does not appear in the New York city directories for 1816, 1817 or 1818.  Perhaps he just didn't get tallied for the directory for a couple of years.  

     In 1819 he finally shows up again in the New York city directory, living at 5 Catherine Street.  His occupation was "boarding house."  In 1820 he was living at 7(2?) John Street (the second digit is not clearly legible), and in 1821 at Christopher op[posite] Bedford. 

     In 1822 James Beard shows up in the New York city directory at “Amos c. Greenwich-lane.”  (The “c.” means “corner.”)   He’s not in the 1823 directory.  For the next four years, 1824 to 1827, his address was 33 Warren Street.  (This was his address when the change in his surname from Beard to Bard occurred.  See illustration below.  The top one is from the 1824 directory and the bottom one is from the 1825 directory.  It is unknown whether he had his name changed legally or whether he just did it.)  Finally, in 1828, and for the last time, he shows up at 26 Park-place.

     Here’s the same city directory information as above, but in an easier-to-read form:

          1809-10 (New York) - Beard, James, shoemaker, 129 Harman.

          1810-11 (New York) - Beard, James, shoemaker, 148 William.

          1811 (Philadelphia) - James Beard, shoemaker, 386 S. Front.

          1812 - There was no Philadelphia directory for this year.

          1813 (Philadelphia) - James Beard, 386 Front Street (no occupation given).

          1814 (Philadelphia) - James Baird, shoemaker, 388 South Front.

          1815 - There was no Philadelphia directory for this year.

          1816 - 1818 - (Haven’t found him in any directory yet).

          1819-20 (New York) - Beard, James, boarding house, 5 Catherine.

          1820-21 (New York) - Beard, James, 7(2?) John (second number kind of illegible, no occupation).

          1821-22 (New York) - Baird, James, cordwainer, Christopher op[posite] Bedford.

          1822-23 (New York) - Beard, James, shoemaker, Amos c[orner] Greenwich-lane.

          1823-24 - Didn’t find him in the 1823 New York directory.

          1824-25 (New York) - Beard, James, 33 Warren (no occupation).

          1825-26 (New York) - Bard, James, 33 Warren (no occupation, this is where the spelling change of his name occurs).

          1826-27 (New York) - Bard, James, 33 Warren (no occupation).

          1827-28 (New York) - Bard, James, 33 Warren (no occupation).

          1828-29 (New York) - Bard, James, 26 Park-place (no occupation).

     A search at the Manhattan City Register’s Office in 2013 for any deeds or mortgages for these properties yielded no results for the names James Bard or Beard.   Information was found for four of the properties:  148 William Street, 7(2?) John Street, 33 Warren Street and 26 Park Place.   There were indeed conveyance records for these four properties, but they all showed other owners.  It must be assumed that James and Isabella never owned any of their properties but rather rented them all.

     James died in New York on October 3, 1828, at the very young age of 37.  The New York death record gives the cause of his death as bilious fever and his residence as Park Place.  That street address matches the information in the 1828 New York city directory, and a brief death notice in the New York Commercial Advertiser indicated that his funeral would be at 26 Park place.  (It’s interesting to note that his name is given in both of these death records as James Beard, even though his name was rendered as Bard in the city directories starting in 1825.)  Here's an image of the death record.  The entry for James Beard is the one on the bottom of each page, with the green mark by it.

     A cursory search through the indexes of wills and letters of administration at the Surrogate’s Court on Chambers Street in Manhattan in 2013 was also unsuccessful.   There were none in the names of James Bard or Beard.   This could probably be investigated further, however.

     As indicated in the death record, James was buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery on Rutgers Street.  They stopped burying people in that cemetery in 1851 when a ban on burials below 86th Street in Manhattan was instituted.  And then between 1856 and 1865 most of the remains and gravestones were moved from that cemetery to two cemeteries in Brooklyn – Cypress Hills Cemetery and The Evergreens Cemetery.  To date no records have been found of a James Beard or James Bard at either of those Brooklyn cemeteries.

     Bard researcher Henrietta Onderdonk Bard wrote that James’s widow, Isabella, opened the first rooming house in New York City near Trinity Church after her husband had died, and that the artist, Gilbert Stuart, was one of her lodgers.  The timing of that statement is incorrect, however, because Gilbert Stuart died in July of 1828, three months before James Bard.

     There is convincing evidence that Isabella ran a boarding house before 1828, and that would have been where Gilbert Stuart stayed.  There were ads in some New York newspapers in the 1825-1828 time frame for "furnished rooms to let" at 33 Warren Street.  Since that was the Bard's address in those very same years -- as indicated in the city directories -- it is probably safe to assume that Isabella took in boarders at that address as early as 1825 and maybe a year earlier. 

     It came as a wonderful surprise to discover in 2012 that Gilbert Stuart actually painted Isabella's portrait, and that painting has been dated to circa 1825.  The painting is entitled “Portrait of Mrs. James Bard,” and it is currently in the collection of the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, New Jersey.  It had previously been in the possession of Mary Romeyn Bard Woodcock, daughter of James and Isabella Bard, and then, after Mary's death, the painting was passed down to her daughter, Flora MacDonald Woodcock Potter.   Presumably the museum got it from Flora.

     According to Wikipedia, Gilbert Stuart was habitually neglectful of his finances and continually had financial troubles.  Therefore, it is certainly within the realm of possibility that he painted Isabella’s portrait as payment in kind for his lodging. 

     There is a short biography of Isabella that accompanies an image of this portrait in a book called "Gilbert Stuart, An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works," by Lawrence Park.  The bio doesn't entirely jibe with other information already known about her;  it gives a middle name of MacDonald that hasn't appeared anywhere else (except for Flora MacDonald Woodcock Potter), it does confirm that she married at a very young age, and it also adds to the confusion about her origins by stating again that she was born in Scotland. 

     The bio reads as follows:  "Mrs. James Bard, c. 1785 - c. 1876.  She was Isabella MacDonald MacNichol of Inverness, Scotland, where she was born, the daughter of Admiral MacNichol of the British Navy during the Revolutionary War, who received from King George a large grant of land in Nova Scotia and who brought his family over from Scotland.  She married, while very young, James Bard of Belmont -- the Bard Estates -- near Dublin, Ireland."

     Widow Isabella Bard shows up herself (as Bird this time!) in the 1829-1830 Manhattan New York city directory, about a year after her husband's death.  The entry reads as follows:  "Bird, Isabella widow;  Occupation - Boardinghouse;  Primary address - 26 Park-place."  Park-place was the last address noted for James (in the 1828 New York city directory) as well as the address of his residence when he died.

     An interesting sidelight to the Gilbert Stuart story is that one of his daughters - most likely Jane - had a room (or rooms) at 26 Park Place from where, in the spring of 1833, she was selling her copies of her father's portraits of George and Martha Washington.  This was Isabella Bard's boarding house.

     Park Place was evidently a very posh neighborhood of New York City in the 1820s and 1830s.  In a book entitled “The Unbounded Community:  Neighborhood Life and Social Structure in New York City, 1830-1875,” by Kenneth A. Scherzer, there’s a footnote that says “Broadway, Park Place, Bleecker and Bond Streets had epitomized wealth in the 1830s, but the many affluent residents shifted to newer districts uptown after 1840...”   So Isabella's lodging house would have been in operation in the heyday of this concentration of wealth – 1831-1833, and probably earlier.

     In the New York city directories from 1831 to 1833 Isabella continued to be listed as having a “lodginghouse” at 26 Park-place.  Her last appearance in a New York city directory was in 1834, and her address at that time was 715 Greenwich Street (or Lane).

     Probably sometime around 1834 Isabella moved to Sing Sing in Westchester County, New York.  (One record suggested that she moved there around 1839, but in 1836 a "Miss Mary Bard" - very likely Isabella's 16-year-old daughter Mary Romeyn Bard - was identified working as an "assistant" at the Franklin Academy in Sing Sing.  Franklin Academy was a boarding school for young ladies.  If this was indeed Isabella's daughter, then the family was presumably already living in Sing Sing by 1836.)

     Isabella's son-in-law, Robert Wiltse, was the warden at Sing Sing Prison at the time, and it was most likely through him that she got a job as matron of female prisoners at Sing Sing.  She held this job until at least 1844.  She later lived with Robert Wiltse and his family (at least in 1850) and then she went on to live with her son James Mackie Bard and his family (from census records in 1860 and 1870).

     Isabella died on August 1, 1879, more than 50 years after James’s death.  She was 89 years old.  She is buried in Dale Cemetery in Ossining, New York.

20151125