When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, his father remained loyal to the crown, assisting the British troops that occupied New York City in 1776.

The first Bayards in the New World arrived in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam with the newly appointed Governor-General Peter Stuyvesant.

The firm was dissolved in 1816 after McEvers retired and was reorganized as Leroy, Bayard & Co.[4] Bayard was director of the Bank of America, president of The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York from its beginnings in 1819, governor of the New York Hospital, trustee of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, member of the New York Society Library, and one of the owners of the Tontine Coffee House.

Elizabeth's father died in 1781 in British-controlled New York, having moved there from North Carolina after 1777 after refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance to the new United States.

On April 4, 1839, Van Rensselaer remarried to Eliza's sister, Sarah Rogers, with whom he had the rest of his children.