Edward Bayard and Homeopathy
Edward Bayard 1806 - 1889 was a homeopath who became one of the first members of the American Institute of Homeopathy and the International Hahnemannian Association.
Bayard of New York, was born March 6th, 1806, in Wilmington, Del., and is the son of Hon. James A. Bayard, of that State. He was educated in Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., and graduated in 1825.
Choosing the profession of law, he commenced its study in the office of judge Howell, in Canandaigua, N. Y., and subsequently with the Hon. Judge Cady (Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s father), of Johnstown, N. Y., whose eldest daughter (Tryphena) he married in 1827.
While in Johnstown, he was a Captain, Major, and Lieutenant Colonel in the militia ; and was admitted to practice law in all the courts of the State. He studied medicine in the medical department of the New York University, and received his diploma in 1845, since which time he has practiced medicine in New York city.
Dr. Bayard, while studying law, practiced homeopathy as an amateur in Seneca Falls, Seneca county, and was successful in introducing it into Western New York.
Bayard became ill in 1830, when he was diagnosed with a heart condition and given a bleak prognosis by an orthodox heart specialist. His wife Tryphena persuaded him to try homeopathy, so he consulted Augustus P Biegler. His recovery was so remarkable, Bayard resolved to give up the law to study homeopathy.
Subsequently both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her sister Tryphena became staunch homeopathic supporters.
Bayard practiced with Samuel Swan in New York, where he challenged the orthodox medical establishment at Seneca Falls along with C D Williams, president of the Western New York Homeopathic Society, when the Seneca County Medical Association ousted Williams because he was a homeopath.
Bayard graduated with some of the great American homeopaths at the time, including Adolph Lippe, P. P. Wells, Benjamin F Joslin, Carroll Dunham, Henry Newell Guernsey, Constantine Lippe (Adolph’s son), Eugene Beauharis Nash, Edward William Berridge, Henry. C. Allen, Earnest Farrington and his son Harvey Farrington, William A Yingling
Lac caninum was made from the milk of Mrs. Bayard’s spaniel [the wife of homeopath Edward Bayard, M.D.] whose ‘affection for the human race was unusually strong’.
Bayard’s wife Tryphena was Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s elder sister. Tryphena managed the family money. Together with her husband Edward Bayard, Tryphena and Bayard became ‘parents’ to her younger sisters when Elizabeth’s brother Eleazar died at age 20 (thus all five brothers were now deceased), leaving only five daughters remaining, who until the New York State Married Woman’s Property Act was passed in 1848, could not inherit.
Bayard took over the girls’ education and applauded their success, arguing with the girl’s father and persuading him to allow Elizabeth Cady Stanton to continue her education, at a time when no college in the country admitted women. Elizabeth remembered Bayard as a fun loving, thoughtful and affectionate, and ending the strict discipline of her previous existence.
Bayard and Tryphena also discussed philosophy with Elizabeth, which influenced her greatly, she called Bayard an ‘inestimable blessing‘ - she was more than a little in love with him. Bayard also offered legal advice to Elizabeth and introduced her to the arguments around abolitionism, in company with her cousin Gerrit Smith.
In 1830, Edward Bayard moved the family to Seneca Falls, gave up his law profession and began his training as a homeopath. His family business was located at Seneca Falls, where that family had purchased land in 1798, but business went badly for the family, retaining only the plot of land that would eventually become Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s home.
Tryphena was a founding trustee of homeopathic New York Medical College in 1886, and the dispensary there was named after Bayard.
The Bayard Family were descended from the 16th century French Chevalier de Bayards, and the Bayard’s became a prominent New York family.
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.
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.
Robert Bayard 1788 - ? I think Robert was also a relative, possibly a member of the family who originally went to England and then to American? Robert was a Medical Doctor trained in Edinburgh and quite a controversial character, writing a book called the Evidences of the Delusions of Homeopathy, and arguing forcefully against J C Peterson, the first homeopathic physician in St. John. His son William was also a doctor. His other son was called Edward…..
Sue :: Dec.14.2007 :: American History :: No Comments »