Account of the Commitment, Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of

(BAYARD, NICHOLAS)

Publication Date: 1703

About this Item

(BAYARD, NICHOLAS). An Account of the Commitment, Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Nicholas Bayard Esq; for High Treason, in Endeavouring to Subvert the Government of the Province of New York in America, by his Signing and Procuring others to Sign Scandalous Libels. London: Printed at New York by order of his Excellency the Lord Cornbury, and reprinted at London, 1703. Fol. 31, [1] p. Modern calf-backed marbled boards, very skillfully executed in period style. Final leaf H2 supplied from another copy, title lightly browned, else a very attractive copy. The first English (and earliest obtainable) edition of one of the earliest printed American judicial proceedings. Nicholas Bayard (1644-1707), nephew of Peter Stuyvesant, was a mayor of New York and a member of the governor's council. When Jacob Leisler seized control of the government of New York in 1689, Bayard was a prime target, and he fled to Albany, where he was seized, brought back to the fort, and imprisoned. Finally Governor Sloughter arrived from England and had Bayard released. In 1697 the new governor, Bellomont, accused Bayard of complicity with the previous governor in the encouragement and protection of pirates. Bayard was removed from office and later accused of encouraging sedition and mutiny and of being a Jacobite. Tried for high treason, he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The present work contains the entire text of the 1701/2 proceedings. The unobtainable American edition, printed in New York by Bradford in 1702, is known by only a few copies, in the usual old institutions; this English edition, which contains additional text (pp. 27-32), is almost as scarce. Howes B256; Church 809; Sabin 53436; European Americana 703/12; Ritz, American Judicial Proceedings, 1.05(2c).

Seller Inventory # 12925

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Account of the Commitment, Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of
• Publication Date: 1703
• Binding: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Americana