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THE TRIAL OF NICHOLAS BAYARD FOR HIGH
TREASON, NEW YORK CITY, 1702.

THE NARRATIVE.

Jacob Leisler fell a victim to the malignant feelings en-
gendered by political contentions in the Provinces in 1691;
and the passions, excited in his adherents by hia melancholy
fate, continued long to distract the public councils, and to
embitter the social intercourse of the inhabitants of the pro-
vinee. His son, Jacob, unmindful of his father’s dying re-
queat, made upon the gallows, could never forget or forgive
his melancholy death, and lost no opportunity to vindicate
his name, and to cast odium upon those who had been ir -
strumental in the wrongs he suffered; nor was he unsuccess-
ful.

The aristocratic party maintained their influence with
those in power until the arrival of Lord Bellamont in 1698,
as governor of the province. The sympathies of that noble-
man had been exeited in England by young Leisler, in favor
of his adherents, who were thus favored by the governor’s
countenance and support. At the death of this nobleman, in
1701, the ancient animosities of the rival factions were re-
vived with the utmost zeal and fury. Information being re-
ceived that Lord Cornbury* was to succeed the Earl of Bella-

*Corwavury, Epwarp Hype, (1661-1724.) Third Earl of Claren-
don, Second Lord Cornbery; born in England, son of Henry
Hyde, Second Earl of Clarendon; M. P. for Wiltshire, 1685-1695;
for Christehureh, 1695-1701; Captain General and Governor-in-
Chief of New York and New Jersey, 1701-1708; was removed in
1708, and thrown into prison for debt before he returned to Eng-
land; made Privy Councillor, 1711, and wes Envoy Extraordinary
to Hanover in 1714; died in London,

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