(Originally Published in Columbia University Quarterly, October 1941, Pages 222-241) (Reprinted with Permission ofThe Trustees ofColumbia University in the City of New York. All Rights Reserved) Documents of a Great Columbia Family AreNowatBard THE BARD FAMILY FELIX E. HIRSCH ALL sides, my dear son, you have sprung from respecta­ ble ancestors. Many, if not all your more immediate an­ 0 cestors were driven from their homes for their religious faith, the strongest evidence that can be given at this day that they were men of truth, virtue and honor." These are words of great family pride, but they do not seem unjustified to the impartial student of history. The man who wrote them more than a hundred years ago was William Bard, the great-grandson of Huguenot im­ migrants, and he addressed them to his only surviving son, John, with whom the male line of the family was to end. These five generations of the Bards gave to this country a large number of unusual personalities who combined to a rare degree Gallic charm and esprit with will power, vision and wisdom. Some of them have played a great part in the rise of Columbia University since the days of King's College. The University has never forgotten its deep obligation and perpetuates the name of the family in two appropriate places: in Bard Hall at the Medical Center and in Bard College at Annandale-on-Hudson. Only a few books of limited merit, but many fine articles have been written about various Bards, and they are also mentioned in innumerable other publications. At present, a new biography of Samuel Bard, the most famous member of the family, is in an ad­ vanced stage of preparation. But thus far nobody has dared to face the harder and, on the other hand, more rewarding task of writing a collective biography of the Bards. We look in vain for the author CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY, OcTOBER 1941 who might be willing and able to bring two centuries of family history, with all its ups and downs, together in a single volume, as James Truslow Adams did for the Adams family. Where is the writer who would aptly interpret the spirit prevailing among the Bards in five generations, would describe the intimate associations of these Huguenot descendants with Franklin, Washington, Ham~ ilton, and many other great men of their time, and would tell of the pioneer role they played in the progress of science, the propa~ gation of religion, and theeconomic development of this country? Such a book would add to our understanding of American social and cultural history and also offer us deeper insight into some problems that are today as burning as they were when the Edict of Nantes was revoked. The historian who intended to study the Bard family with these points in mind could not content himself with consulting the of~ ficial records in the institutions with which the Bards were closely connected. He would soon find out that the most relevant material for his task is not available in public or semipublic collections of the city, although, for instance, theNew Yark Historical Society, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the New York Acad~ emy of Medicine possess some interesting Bard documents. But the various branches of the family kept the papers of their famous ancestors out of sight. Only in 1938-39 this policy was in part reversed by the generous action of Mr. J A Sands, a great~great~ grandson of Dr. Samuel Bard. He turned his rich collection of family documents and pictures over to Bard College Library. Hav~ ing spent his youth in Annandale on an estate adjacent to the Col~ lege (then St. Stephen's), of which his father was a Trustee, and having been on intimate terms with its founder ,John Bard, he felt that this was the right depository for his treasures. For many years, Bard College Library has owned a large part of William Bard's fine personal book collection, and also has been happy to possess two volumes of Samuel Bard's lectures in manuscript and THE BARD FAMILY some other items that John Bard gave to his college. But the new treasures are overwhelming by comparison. Among them are offi~ cial documents indicative of the careers that some of the first Bards made here in the service of the English kings, and there are others that tell of the even greater achievements of their descend~ ants in the service of scholarship and humanity. Many dozens of deeds and other legal papers show the manifold financial and real estate transactions through which the family acquired its wealth in the eighteenth century. Included in the collection are also por~ traits ofseveral ofthe Bards, painted by Miriam Sandys from early originals. But, above all, here we have their most important per~ sonalletters, as they were passed from generation to generation. Apparently Dr. John Bard started to collect his family's letters in the middle of the eighteenth century, possibly when his son Samuel studied at Edinburgh; we find that he numbered some of them later on in his own handwriting. His grandson William seems to have made a new effort to bring the family correspondence to~ gethcr and to find out about the French origins of the Bards. The spirit in which this search was undertaken is defined in another passage of his letter to John Bard, from which we quoted before; To value ourselves in our ancestry, especially when unsupported by our own merit, and to show to others that we do so, by a proud and haughty air, is the sure sign of a little and trifling mind; while to feel that we owe it to ourselves, to those who have gone before us and to those who are to come after us, to leave unbroken the bright chain of honor of which we are a link, is the sign of a noble and generous one. ~nfortunately, some important parts of his collection were lost .In William Bard's own lifetime. His grandson Arthur Sandys •· ···• (~ands) reports that Jared Sparks when working on his American Bwgraphies appealed to his friend William Bard to let him see all .·the letters that Benjamin Franklin had written to Dr. John Bard in . ~he course of an intimate correspondence extending over half a · <.(rtury. Wilham refused at first, but finally gave in and sent him t tough his brother-in-law, John Me Vickar, a selection of the 19 CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY QuARTERLY, OcTOBER 1941 Franklin letters-and did not get back a single item. The rest of the Franklin letters and also the correspondence of the Bards with Washington and Hamilton vanished in a great fire that destroyed a building in New York in which William Bard had kept part of his properties. After the very early death of his parents, Arthur Sandys was brought up in the house of his grandfather William Bard and was treated there like a younger son. He acquired a deep interest in the family history. In later life, Sandys traveled extensively in order to establish the genealogical facts about the origins of the Bards. For good reasons, the collection of the family papers was en­ trusted to him, and he did much to improve it. He also wrote, only tor his relatives, a short volume of reminiscences; it contains many interesting details, some of which have been used for this paper, and conveys to the reader the atmosphere of William Bard's home. This manuscript was presented to Bard College Library by his nephew Mr. ]. A. Sands a few months ago; it is a most welcome addition to the Bardiana collection. Gifts from other sources have also come in occasionally in recent times. It is hoped that some day those descendants of the Bards who still own family docu­ ments and letters will follow the example set by Mr. Sands. Bard College Library-located in Dutchess County where the Bards spent the happiest part of their lives and where now most of them rest from their labors-ought to be a suitable domicile for all their family papers. To give an indication of the scope and wealth of the Bardiana collection, it may be best to put a few of its choicest items before the reader. Some, perhaps, will interest him because they offer sidelights on historic events; others may appeal to him as docu­ ments of the human heart. "'\ X JHEN, in bygone days, we learned in school about the revo­ V V cation of the Edict of Nantes and its consequences, we felt that this was definitely a matter of a dead past; for' 'tolerance'' 20 THE BARD FAMILY had become the watchword everywhere. The times have changed, and once more persecution, migration, and eventual readjust­ ment of large groups are bitter faCts. Therefore we look today at the story of the Huguenots with renewed interest and deeper un­ derstanding. How did the first Bard who came to this country accommodate himself to the style of life in the New World? Peter Bard was born in Montpellier, but left his home country in earliest childhood. His father, Benoit, found a refuge for the family in England. Apparently he had friends in the court circles ofLondon and was able to pave the way for his son's later business career. In 1706 Peter Bard went to the Colonies. He had not been there long when he met, in New Castle (Delaware), the young daughter of the English physician Dr. Samuel Marmion who had come to this country only a few years before.