Bayard, Samuel (1767-1840), a Philadelphian of Huguenot ancestry, was valedictorian of the Class of 1784 at the age of seventeen. He became well known in the law and in public service -- as clerk of the United States Supreme Court, prosecutor of United States claims before the British admiralty courts, presiding judge of Westchester County -- and when he was forty returned to live in Princeton. He became the first mayor of the borough, and was for a time presiding judge of the court of common pleas of Somerset County and a member of the state assembly. At different times he served the College as librarian, trustee, and treasurer; he was a founder and a trustee of the Seminary. The street on which he lived was named Bayard Lane in his honor.
From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton
University Press (1978).
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