Edward Bayard M.D.
Image credit: National Library of Medicine
Edward Bayard M.D. (5 March 1806 – 28 September 1889) was a lawyer for eighteen years, who converted to become a homeopath, and continued in homeopathic practice for the next fifty years. Bayard became one of the first members of the American Institute of Homeopathy and the International Hahnemannian Association.
Edward Bayard was the brother in law of women’s rights activist and lay homeopath Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 – 1902), and he was married to her oldest sister, Tryphena Cady (1804 – 1891).
Edward Bayard was a patient of Augustus P. Biegler, and he was a colleague of Samuel Swan, Charles Draper Williams, and he 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 Lippe‘s son), Eugene Beauharnais Nash, Edward William Berridge, Henry Clay Allen, Ernest Albert Farrington and his son Harvey Farrington, William A. Yingling,
The remedy Lac caninum was made from the milk of Mrs. Bayard’s spaniel.
Edward Bayard was a lawyer attached to Elizabeth Cady Stanton‘s father’s law practice, and being called upon to defend a homeopath who had been indicted under an old statement at the instigation of the Medical faculty, he was led to look into that school of medicine and he became a homeopathic physician, and continued to be such for nearly fifty years. Edward Bayard was a devout follower of Emanuel Swedenborg 1688-1772).
Elizabeth Cady Stanton explained: “… his tender treatment of his poorest patients endeared him to all who knew his boundless charity and faithful service. He was remarkable for his uniform kindness and self control. None could recall a harsh word or act towards brother or sister in these long and intimate relations.
“A sweet charity and divine patience pervaded alike his social and professional life. He was a graduate of Union College, a classmate of my brother, and frequently visited my father’s house. At the end of his college course he came with his brother Henry to study law at Johnstown. A quiet, retired little village was thought to be a good place in which to sequester young men bent on complteing their education, as they were there safe from the temptations and distracting influenced of large cities.
“In addition to this consideration, my father’s reputation made his office a desireable resort for students, who, furthermore, not only improved their opportunities….
“Edward Bayard was a tall, fully developed man, remarkably fine looking, with cultivated literary taste and a profound knowledge of human nature. Warm and affectionate, generous to a fault in giving and serving, he was soon a great favourite in the family, and gradually filled the void made in all our hearts by the loss of the brother and son….
“The advent of Edward and Henry Bayard was an inestimable blessing to us. With them came an era of picnics, birthday parties and endless amusements; the buying of pictures, books, musical instruments, and ponies, and frequent excursions with parties on horseback.
“Fresh from college, they made our lessons in Latin, and Greek, and mathematics so easy that we studied with joy. Henry Bayard’s chief pleasures were walking, riding, and playing all manner of games, from jack straws to chess, with the three younger sisters, and we have often said that the three years he passed in Johnstown were the most delightful of our girlhood…
“My brother in law Edward Bayard, ten years my senior, was an inestimable blessing to me at this time, especially as my mind was just then opening to the consideration of all the varied problems of life. To me and my sisters he was a companion in all our amusements, and a counsellor in all our youthful trials and disappointments.
“He was of a truly metaphysical turn of mind, and in the pursuit of truth was in no way trammeled by popular superstitions. He took nothing for granted and, like Socrates, went about asking questions”.
Bayard of New York, was born March 6th, 1806, in Wilmington, Del., and was 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 Charles Draper Williams, president of the Western New York Homeopathic Society, when the Seneca County Medical Association ousted Charles Draper Williams because he was a homeopath.
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 Cady Stanton‘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 property.
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 Cady Stanton 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 Cady Stanton, 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 Cady Stanton and introduced her to the arguments around abolitionism, in company with her cousin Gerrit Smith.
In the mid-1830s, 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 the homeopathic New York Medical College in 1886, and the dispensary there was named after Bayard.
Edward Bayard would spend the remainder of his life as a diligent and dedicated homeopathic physician. On his death he was memorialized by the international homeopathic community for his commitment to Hahnemannian medicine. He contributed to homeopathic journals and conferences, proved remedies, and even applied his skills to veterinary homeopathy.
Bayard died in North Yarmouth, Maine, on Saturday 28 September, 1889, aged 83 years and 6 months. A lengthy obituary was published in The Homoeopathic Physician Vol. 9 (1889)
Of interest:
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.
Dr. Robert Bayard (1788 – 1886) was a Medical Doctor trained in Edinburgh and quite a controversial character, writing a book called the Evidences of the Delusions of Homeopathy, and in 1870 argued forcefully against John C. Peterson, the first homeopathic physician in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. His son William (1814 – 1907) was also a doctor.
Leave A Comment