Nathaniel Platt Bailey

Bailey was born on June 7, 1809, at Chateangay near Plattsburgh, New York. He was the son of William Bailey (1763–1840) and his second wife, Phoebe (née Platt) Bailey (1779–1859). His father's first wife was Hannah Hagaman, who died in 1798. Among his siblings was Phebe Altie Bailey, and Theodorus Bailey, John William Bailey, and Mary Elizabeth Bailey. His father was a pioneer settler and surveyor in Clinton and Franklin Counties who later became a Judge.

His paternal grandparents were Altje (née Van Wyck) Bailey and Col. John Bailey. His uncle was Theodorus Bailey, a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from New York.{{cite book |title=The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1- |date=1905 |publisher=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJM-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11 |access-date=17 April 2019 |language=en}} His maternal grandparents were Phebe (née Smith) Platt and Capt. Nathaniel Platt (brother of Zephaniah Platt and uncle to Judge Jonas Platt and New York State Treasurer Charles Z. Platt).{{cite book |last1=Platt |first1=George Lewis |title=The Platt Lineage: A Genealogical Research and Record |date=1891 |publisher=T. Whittaker |page=[https://archive.org/details/plattlineageage00platgoog/page/n129 124] |url=https://archive.org/details/plattlineageage00platgoog |access-date=12 April 2019 |language=en}}

In 1824, Bailey came to New York and entered into business as a merchant, retiring when he was thirty-five years old. He was a Vestryman of Trinity Church served as a senior Governor of New York Hospital.

Bailey also owned {{convert|28|acre}} in the Bronx, part of what is now called West Fordham (formerly the site of Fort No. 6 during the Revolutionary War, extending from Fordham Road to Kingsbridge Road and from Bailey Avenue to University Avenue. There, Bailey built a large mansion that overlooked the Harlem River, and, reportedly, the New Jersey Palisades to the west.{{cite journal |last1=Munch |first1=Janet Butler |title=Villas on the Hudson: An Architectural and Biographical Examination |journal=The Hudson Valley Regional Review |date=1993 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=93–126 |url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1232&context=le_pubs |access-date=17 April 2019}} Upon his death, the estate was subdivided into streets and avenues and the bulk of the property became the grounds of the current U.S. Veterans Medical Center.

Bailey was a member of the Union League Club, the Union Club, the Century Club and the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, for which he served one term as president the 26th President in 1884, succeeding Abraham Riker Lawrence.{{cite book |last1=Youngs |first1=Florence Evelyn Pratt |author2-link=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |last2=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |title=Portraits of the Presidents of The Society, 1835-1914. |date=1914 |publisher=Order of the Society |location=New York, NY |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hx4mm9;view=1up;seq=57 |access-date=12 April 2019}} He previously served as third vice-president in 1879, second vice-president in 1880 to 1881, and first vice-president from 1882 to 1883.{{cite book |title=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: Organized February 28, 1835, Incorporated April 17, 1841 ... |date=1923 |publisher=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |pages=170–174 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7fF_Y5mrN0C&pg=PA170 |access-date=17 April 2019 |language=en}}

On July 26, 1836, Bailey was married to Eliza Meier Lorillard (1815–1900).{{cite book |last1=Association |first1=John Conrad Weiser Family |title=The Weiser family: a genealogy of the family of John Conrad Weiser, the elder (d. 1746); prepared on the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of his arrival in America, 1710-1760 |date=1960 |publisher=John Conrad Weiser Family Assoc. |page=210 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5JYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA210 |access-date=17 April 2019 |language=en}} Eliza was a daughter of Jacob Lorillard Jr., a wealthy leather merchant, and a granddaughter of Jacob Lorillard (son of Pierre Abraham Lorillard, founder of the Lorillard Tobacco Company). Her sister Emily Lorillard married Lewis G. Morris.{{cite book |last1=Museum (R.I.) |first1=Newport Art |title=Newportraits |date=2000 |publisher=University Press of New England |isbn=9781584650188 |page=186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JLfRCgAPCyIC&pg=PA186 |access-date=17 April 2019 |language=en}} Together, they were the parents of three children, including:

• Ann Mary Bailey (1837–1864), who married her second cousin, Theodorus Bailey Woolsey (1839–1907),{{cite book |last1=Senate |first1=New York (State) Legislature |title=Documents of the Senate of the State of New York |date=1908 |publisher=E. Croswell |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gexBAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA13 |access-date=17 April 2019 |language=en}} a grandson of Theodorus Bailey.{{cite book |last1=Dwight |first1=Benjamin Woodbridge |title=The History of the Descendants of John Dwight of Dedham, Mass |date=1874 |publisher=J.F. Trow & Son, printers |page=289 |isbn=9781981482658 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i6RPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA289 |access-date=17 April 2019 |language=en}}
• Lorillard Bailey (1839–1860), a twin who died aged 21, unmarried.{{cite book |title=Proceedings and Addresses at Ephrata, October 20, 1899 |date=1900 |publisher=The Pennsylvania-German Society |page=50 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1UpHAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA50 |access-date=17 April 2019 |language=en}}
• James Muhlenberg Bailey (1839–1897), a twin who married Alletta Remsen Lynch (1870–1930),{{cite news |title=Mrs. Alletta R. Bailey |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/02/12/96046899.pdf |access-date=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=12 February 1930}} a daughter of Edward Livingston Lynch and a descendant of Robert Livingston, first Lord of Livingston Manor, and Robert R. Livingston of Clermont.

Bailey died at his country residence in Fordham Heights in New York City on October 12, 1891. After a funeral at Trinity Chapel on West 25th Street, he was buried alongside his family in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery in Poughkeepsie, New York.{{cite news |title=NATHANIEL PLATT BAILEY |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1891/10/13/103341589.pdf |access-date=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=13 October 1891}}New York Surrogate's Court Book of Wills 31 December 1891. Liber 466, Page 64. In 1899, his Bronx estate was sold to the Sisters of Charity for $290,000 (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|290000|1899}}}} today) and was used to operate the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum.

Through his son James, he was a grandfather of Alletta Nathalie Lorillard Bailey (1883–1935),{{cite news|title=MRS. LEWIS MORRIS DIES IN HER HOME; Wife of Descendant of Patriot Was Socially Prominent and Former Tennis Champion.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/01/14/archives/mrs-lewis-morris-dies-in-her-home-wife-of-descendant-of-patriot-was.html|access-date=27 September 2017|work=The New York Times|date=January 14, 1935}} an amateur architectural historian and photographer,{{cite web|title=Alletta Nathalie Lorillard Bailey Morris (1883-1935)|url=https://library.columbia.edu/locations/avery/da/collections/morris_nathalie.html|website=columbia.edu|publisher=Columbia University|access-date=27 September 2017}} who married Lewis Gouverneur Morris II (1882–1967){{cite news|title=LEWIS G. MORRIS, 85, EX-MUSEUM TRUSTEE|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D07E6DE1F3AE63ABC4D52DFBE66838C679EDE&legacy=true|access-date=27 September 2017|work=The New York Times|date=15 August 1967}} in 1908.{{cite news|title=MISS ALETTA BAILEY WEDS LEWIS MORRIS; The Bridegroom Is a Descendant of Lewis Morris and Gov. Bradford. OTHER WEDDINGS OF A DAY Miss Georgia Gray Marries Frederick Henoken and Miss Arden Weds Lieut. George W. Beavers.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/04/21/archives/miss-aletta-bailey-weds-lewis-morris-the-bridegroom-is-a-descendant.html|access-date=27 September 2017|work=The New York Times|date=21 April 1908}} After Alletta's death, Morris remarried to Anita de Braganza, widow of Prince Miguel, Duke of Viseu.{{cite news |last1=Gray |first1=Christopher |title=Streetscapes/100 East 85th Street; A Slim Town House Survivor on a Park Ave. Corner |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/07/realestate/streetscapes-100-east-85th-street-slim-town-house-survivor-park-ave-corner.html |access-date=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=7 August 1994}}

Bailey is the namesake of a playground known as Bailey Playground and bounding Bailey Avenue in Kingsbridge, Bronx.{{cite web |title=Bailey Playground Highlights : NYC Parks |url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/bailey-playground/history |website=www.nycgovparks.org |access-date=17 April 2019}}

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• [https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/nathaniel-platt-bailey-1809-1891 Portrait of Nathaniel Platt Bailey] by Henry Inman, {{Circa|1830}}, at the New-York Historical Society.

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Category:1809 births

Category:1891 deaths

Category:American philanthropists

Category:Lorillard family

Category:Fordham, Bronx

Category:Presidents of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York