Theophylact Bache

Theophylact Bache ( ; – ) was an American merchant and fifth president of the New York Chamber of Commerce.

Early life Theophylact Bache was born on in Settle, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He was the son of William Bache, a tax collector, and Mary (née Blechynden) Bache, who were married around 1720. His younger brother, Richard Bache, was the second Postmaster General of the United States and the son-in-law of Benjamin Franklin. Richard died in 1756, and Bache became the owner of merchant vessels, and engaged in privateering.

In 1774, he was one of the committee of correspondence appointed when the port of Boston was closed. He supported the first Continental Congress; but when the American Revolutionary War actually began he remained so far neutral as to incur the suspicions of the committee of safety. He remained in New York during the British occupation of the city, and befriended American officers held there as prisoners of war. In 1777 he was chosen the fifth president of the New York Chamber of Commerce. Among her siblings was Catherine Barclay (wife of Augustus Van Cortlandt), and Sarah Ann Barclay (wife of Anthony Lispenard).

Elizabeth Garland Bache (1762–1795), who married James Noel Bleecker, the eldest son of Anthony Lispenard Bleecker. Sarah Elizabeth Bache (1774–1852), who married James Noel Bleecker, after the death of her elder sister, in 1795.

Descendants Through his daughter Mary, he was a grandfather of Sarah Barclay McEvers (the wife of Robert Montgomery Livingston, a grandson of Judge Robert Livingston) and Bache McEvers (1798–1851), was an American commission merchant, shipper, and insurer.