Richard Bache
Portrait of Bache, byJohn Hoppner
United States Postmaster General
In office November 7, 1776 – January 28, 1782
Appointed by	Continental Congress
Preceded by	Benjamin Franklin
Succeeded by	Ebenezer Hazard
Personal details
Born	(1737-09-12)September 12, 1737 Settle,West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	April 17, 1811(1811-04-17) (aged 73) Bucks County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Spouse	Sarah Franklin ​ ​ (m. 1767; died 1808)​
Children	Benjamin Franklin Bache William Franklin Bache Sarah Franklin Bache Eliza Harwood Louis Franklin Bache Deborah Duane Richard Bache Jr. Sarah Sergeant

Richard Bache (September 12, 1737 – April 17, 1811), born inSettle,West Riding of Yorkshire, England, immigrated toPhiladelphia, in the colony ofPennsylvania, where he was a businessman, amarine insurance underwriter, and later served as Postmaster-General of the American Post Office. He also was the son-in-law ofBenjamin Franklin.

Bache was born on September 12, 1737, inSettle,West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest child of William Bache, a tax collector, and Mary (née Blechynden) Bache, who were married around 1720. His older brother wasTheophylact Bache,^[1] who married Ann Dorothea Barclay (a daughter ofAndrew Barclay and Helena (néeRoosevelt) Barclay).^[2]

In 1751, his elder brother Theophylact arrived in New York City, where he was taken under the wing ofPaul Richard, a successful merchant and former mayor, whose wife was a Bache relative.^[1][3]

Bache immigrated as a young man in 1760 to New York to join his brother Theophylact in a dry goods and marine insurance business. After a couple of years, he went to Philadelphia, where he prospered for several years. He was among nearly 30 young men who in October 1766 met at the city'sLondon Coffee House to found the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club (GFHC), the first in America, to take up a pursuit closely associated with becoming "true Englishmen."^[4]

In 1767, Bache suffered financial problems when debts contracted by him were repudiated by his London associate,Edward Green.^[5]

During theAmerican Revolution, Bache served on theBoard of War, which was a special standing committee to oversee theContinental Army's administration and to make recommendations regarding the army toCongress. His wife,Sally, was widely known for her patriotism and charitable activities.^[6] After immigrating toNorth America, he acquired ownership of aslave named Bob.^[7]

Franklin later arranged an appointment for Bache, as theUS Postmaster General (1776–1782), to succeed him. After Franklin's death in 1790, Bache and Sally lived off her inheritance from Franklin, moving their family to the Vandegrift residence in 1794,^[8] along theDelaware River north of Philadelphia.^[9]

In 1767, Bache had proposed toSarah Franklin (1743–1808), known as Sally, the only daughter ofBenjamin Franklin andDeborah Read.^[10] They objected, given his precarious finances and rumors that Bache was a fortune hunter.^[9] Although Franklin and his wife Deborah Read never formally approved, they acquiesced to the marriage in 1767.^[9] Bache and Sally had eight children together, including:^[11]

• Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769–1798), who became a journalist and publisher, founding a newspaper. He was a spokesman for theJeffersonian Republicans; he strenuously opposedGeorge Washington,John Adams and theFederalist party. He died during the Philadelphiayellow fever epidemic.^[11] He ran theAurora newspaper and printing business with his wifeMargaret Hartman Markoe Bache.^[12]
• William Franklin Bache (1773–1814), who married Catherine Wistar.^[11]
• Sarah Franklin Bache (1775–1776)^[13]
• Eliza Franklin Bache (1777–1820) married John Harwood.^[11]
• Louis Franklin Bache (1779–1818), a Lt. Col. in the Pennsylvania State Militia Volunteers during theWar of 1812 who married Mary Ann Swift and, after her death, Esther Egee.^[11][14]
• Deborah Franklin Bache (1781–1863), who marriedWilliam J. Duane, a lawyer who was appointed as the 11thUnited States Secretary of the Treasury.
• Richard Franklin Bache (1784–1848), who served in theRepublic of Texas Navy and served in theSecond Texas Legislature. He married Sophia Durrell Dallas, eldest daughter ofAlexander J. Dallas.^[11]
• Sarah Franklin Bache (1788–1863), marriedThomas Sergeant, an associate justice of thePennsylvania Supreme Court and postmaster of Philadelphia.^[15]

Sally, a leader in relief work during the War and for women in the pro-independence effort,^[16] died from cancer in Philadelphia on October 5, 1808.^[17] Bache died inBucks County, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1811. He was buried alongside his wife atChrist Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia.^[11]

Through his son William, he was a grandfather of U.S. Navy surgeonBenjamin Franklin Bache (1801–1881). Through his son Richard, he was a grandfather of the physicistAlexander Dallas Bache (1806–1867) and Mary Blechynden Bache (1808–1873), wife of Secretary of the Treasury,Governor of Kansas, andU.S. Senator from Mississippi,Robert John Walker and mother of five children, including Union Army GeneralDuncan Stephen Walker.^[11]

Through his daughter Eliza, he was a grandfather of the United States Navy AdmiralAndrew A. Harwood. Through his youngest daughter Sarah, he was a great-grandfather of Margaret Mason Perry (of the Perry family of Rhode Island) who marriedJohn La Farge.^[11]

•  Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1906). "Bache, Richard".The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. Boston: American Biographical Society. p. 174.
• Richard Bache Sr. atFind a Grave
• Sarah Franklin Bache Papers,American Philosophical Society

• 1737 births
• 1811 deaths
• Franklin family
• Insurance underwriters
• British emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies
• People from colonial Pennsylvania
• People from Settle, North Yorkshire
• People of Pennsylvania in the American Revolution
• United States postmasters general

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• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from The BDA (1906)
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