Richard Bache

Richard Bache

Richard Bache (born September 12, 1737 in Settle , Yorkshire , †  July 29, 1811 in Berks County , Pennsylvania ) was the second Postmaster General of the United States and successor to Benjamin Franklin in this office.

Born in England , Richard Bache moved to North America in 1765, where he initially settled in New York City . Two years later he married Sarah Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's only daughter. In 1770 the couple moved to Philadelphia , where Bache worked for his brother's company. He was also active in the independence movement and served as chairman of the Republican Society of Philadelphia.

After his father-in-law took over the post of postmaster general in 1775 , he brought Bache to his side. Among other things, he held the office of Comptroller within the Postal Service . When Franklin turned to other tasks in the revolutionary movement in 1776, Bache was promoted to Postmaster General on November 11 of that year . He held this post until 1782. During the War of Independence , he was also a member of the government's Board of War .

Richard Bache and his wife Sarah had eight children, two of whom became well known. Benjamin Franklin Bache sided as a journalist with controversial articles on the side of Thomas Jefferson and against the Federalist Party of George Washington ; he died of yellow fever in 1798. Richard Bache Jr. became a politician and served on the state legislature of the Republic of Texas . His son Alexander Dallas Bache became a respected physicist.

Web links

• Short biography ( Memento from February 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )