Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton


Like Father Like Daughter: The Relationship Dr. Richard Bayley and Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton

– By Miranda Hajduk


 

New York City Resident

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was born August 28 1774 In New York City either in Manhattan or Staten Island (no birth records have been found). She was baptized Episcopalian and converted to Roman Catholicism after her husband’s death.  She lived in several locations in lower Manhattan as a child occasionally  with her father Dr. Richard Bayley and later as a wife to the merchant William Seton Jr.  before leaving the city for Italy with her husband  in 1803.

The street patterns and names of lower Manhattan have not changed very much over the last 200+ years. The  Google map below shows the approximate locations of the houses where the Bayleys and Setons lived.

 

40 John Street was the home of Elizabeth's sister Mary Magdalen and her husband Dr. Wright Post.  An entry in the Seton bible indicates that Elizabeth and William Seton were married here in her sister's home.

"William Magee Seton, on 25th Jan. by Rev. Bishop [Samuel] Provoost, in John Street, to E.A. Bayley aged 19 years 5 months, daughter of Richard Bayley, M.D. of New York. "  from Melville (2009) p. 25.

According to the 1798 City Directory Dr. Richard Bayley was listed as the city's Health Officer living at 5 State street.  The following year he would move to his new residence at the new Quarantine Grounds on Staten Island.

40 Broadway was Dr. Richard Bayley's home in 1794.  There were many prominant physicans living along Broadway in 1794 including his teacher  and brother-in-law John Charlton (34 Broadway), David Hosak who treated Hamilton after his final wound (65 Broadway), and Rev. Dr. Benjamin Moore (180 Broadway).  The country's first Chief Justice, John Jay, lived at 52 Broadway.

Dr. Richard Bayley's home from 1791 - 1793.  The street name at the time was Smith Street and it was changed to William Street in 1794.

51 Wall Street was the home of Dr. Richard Bayley in 1790.  It was during  this year that he began promoting the opening of the New York Dispensary.

Dr. Richard Bayley lived at 60 Pine (called King Street at the time) in 1789.  It's possible that he also lived here in 1788 but no records are available to confirm this.  It was in 1788 that the Doctor's Riot took place.  After the mob destroyed Dr. Bayleys anatomical collection at the New York Hospital they hunted down the doctors in their homes. Elizabeth Bayley was in her fathers home at this time and described the horror of the situation ".. in a sweat of terror saying all the while OUR FATHER."

Dr. Richard Bayley's home in 1787.  At that time this street was known as Smith Street.  The street name change occurred in 1794.

In 1800 Elizabeth and William Seton moved to the house at 8 State Street after going bankrupt and being evicted from the long-time Seton family home at 61 Stone street. Their 5th child, Rebecca Mary, was born here in June of the year that they moved into the house. They lived here until 1803 when they sold their furniture and sailed to Italy to help William Seton recover from tuberculosis.  He died in Quarantine in Livorno Italy.

The neighboring Watson House at 7 State Street and the Church of the Holy Rosary, built on the site of her former home at 8 State Street, is now the Shrine of Elizabeth Bayley Seton.

27 Wall Street was Elizabeth and William Seton's first home. A little distance down the street at 57 Wall lived an acquaintance - Alexander Hamilton. Owning a first home was a big deal for the young Elizabeth. In a retrospective memoir "Dear Remembrances" she wrote:

"My own home at 20 - the world- that and heaven too, quite impossible!" Every moment clouded with that fear. "My God, if I enjoy this I lose you" - yet no true thought of Whom I would lose, rather fear of hell and [being]shur out from heaven"

In this home she would give birth to her first three children, Anna Maria (5/3/1795), William M. Seton II (11/25/1796) and Richard Bayley Seton (7/20/1798)

When William Seton Sr. died June 9 1798 William Seton Jr. gained the responsibility to care for his younger siblings necessitating the need to move back to the 61 Stone Street Seton Family home.

61 Stone street was the residence and place of business of her father-in-law William Seton Sr. When Elizabeth and William Seton Jr were married in 1794 they first lived here before moving to their own home at 27 Wall Street later in the year.  They would return to live in this house again in 1798 after the death of her father-in-law.

 

The Shrine of Elizabeth Bayley Seton

Along the curve of State Street in the Battery in Manhattan there was once a row of Federal-style townhouses built by wealthy merchants.  All of these houses are gone today except for the Watson house at 7 State street which is still standing.  The original Watson house was built on the east side of the 7 State Street  plot in 1793 and in 1806 a west wing was added on what was the original house garden grounds  to complete the house as it is today.   Elizabeth Bayley Seton lived in the neighboring house at 8 State Street from 1801 to 1803. At this time the State Street house was waterfront property. From her window she could see all of the New York Bay and on a clear night as far as Sandy Hook.  She also had a great view of her father’s home at the Quarantine Grounds across the bay on Staten Island.  The Church of the Holy Rosary was erected on the lot of her former home. This church and the Watson house at 7 State Street is now the Shrine of Elizabeth Bayley Seton. Dr. Richard Bayley also lived in one of these townhouses (5 State Street)  for a time  when he was the Health Officer of New York City before he moved to his residence on the Quarantine Grounds at the Watering Place  in 1799.

The Church of the Holy Rosary is on the site of Elizabeth & William Seton’s home (8 State Street) . The church building and the Watson house (7 State Street) is now the Shrine of Elizabeth Bayley Seton. (ca 1976)

 

The Watson House at 7 State street is the only original Federal-style townhouse (1793) on State Street that is still standing. In this image the 8 State Street lot where the Seton house was located was occupied by a different building which was subsequently knocked down to build the Church of the Holy Rosary. (Edmund V. Gillon print from the Museum of the City of New York)

The Bayley Seton Shrine today at 7 State Street. The original Watson house still stands but it is no longer a waterfront property and it is now dominated by the surrounding skyscrapers (from Google maps February 10, 2017).