The daily gazette., 1875-03-17
THE TONTINE ASSOCIATION.

The Death Of One Of tho Last Suroiying
Ssuen--An Eusnt that Recalls Re-
uaarkabls Compact that aoas Made 6y
NsW York Business Men in the Early
Dayscf the Republic.
from the N. Y, Sun, Yesterday |
William Bayard, who was buried on
Friday in the Bayard family vault in
Trinity churchyard, was one of the
nominees of the old Tontine Associa-
tion. He was one of the seven survi-
vors on whose lives Is staked property
worth nearly one million dollars, His
father, Col. Bayard, was one of the
founders Of the association, and had
two shares, one on the life of his son
and the other on that of his daugh-
ter. The association was founded in
The incorporators were all Knicker-
booker merchants who met daily in
coffee house in Broad street In the last
century for rejection and Intercourse.
Becoming in time too small for their
accommodation, the place was vacated
and site for new building was selec.
was erected q building which is ia
nous jn the history OF old New York
as the Tontine coffee house, being the
resort of the most distinguished law
yers, writers, actors, and merchants of
that day.
The plan on which the association
was started was kind of speculation
in longevity. 1t was taken from Lo-
EMO Tonti, hence the name Tontine.
He was Neapolitan, who fiourished
about 1858, and who introduced
among capitalists novel system of
betting on human life. The
property bought at Water and
Wall streets was divided into two
hundred and three shares, which were
sold for 5000 each. Each shareholder
chose nominee, during whose life
he was to receive his equal proportion
of the net proceeds of the rental of
this property, but on the death of any
member, his interest In the capital
stock was forfeited to the other share
holders whose nominees were still
living. The property was vested in
five trustees, who were to hold 1t until
the nominees were reduted to seven,
when it was to be divided. The num-
Der seven was suggested to the incor-
porators, 1t is said, by Wadsworth's
poem.
I'VE ARE SEVEN"
The shareholders mostly gambled
on the lives of their children and
grandchildren. Mr.. Bayard was
about three years old when his father
took the share on his life, and his sis
ter, who is still alive in her ninetieth
year, was about five years old. The
lives of the nominees were precious
to those who held the chances on
them, and they were watched and
looked after with the greatest care
from their earliest years until they
grew to manhood or went down TO
their graves. Mr.. Frederick de Pcys-
ter, the President of the last Board of
Trustees of the association, humuor-
ously tells of the feeling which exis-
ted among the nominees and the
shareholders after the association had
been established thirty or forty years,
and the shares had passed by death
er other causes from the possession of
the original owners in new hands,
who, in many instances, were strang-
ers or only causual acquaintanoes,
of the nominees. Mr. De Peyster in
herited several shares from his father
Colonel De Peyster. Tho nominees
were all older than himself. When
ever he met them, after they had
advanced in years, and he seemed to
be looking at them intently, they
greeted him with, "oh, you needn't
look at US so, We are not ready to
die yet"
The Tontiae coffee house was compile
ted in 1904 The lot on which it stood
is one hundred feet square, and is still
owned by the association. The coffee
house cost 1000. and during the first
twenty mine years it rented for IS, 500 a
year, and the interest on each share
averaged about eight and two-thirds per
cent. One Of the articles of the assoei-
| alton was that whenever there was an
election to fill vacancy in the board OF
trustees, it should take place ON the
original ground on which the coffee
| house was built. There was an election