Background
Stephen was born on June 12, 1736 in Southampton, New York, United States, tenth and youngest child of John and Hannah (Howell) Sayre. He was descended from Thomas Sayre, an early settler of Southampton.
Stephen was born on June 12, 1736 in Southampton, New York, United States, tenth and youngest child of John and Hannah (Howell) Sayre. He was descended from Thomas Sayre, an early settler of Southampton.
Sayre graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1757.
After studies Stephen went to London, where quickly won him a position in society. He became a member of the mercantile house of Dennys De Berdt, at that time colonial agent of Massachusetts, and returned to America for a year, collecting debts for the firm, soliciting commissions, and acting also for Charles Townshend, with whom he was a favorite, in the interests of a land scheme which Townshend hoped to promote in the colony of New York.
In 1770 De Berdt died, leaving his firm in financial difficulties, and Sayre organized the banking house of Stephen Sayre & Barth-Coote-Purdon of Oxford Street. He desired De Berdt's position as colonial agent but his candidacy failed. Unofficially, however, he worked constantly for the cause of the colonies.
He kept in close touch with prominent men both in America and England and was responsible for the beginning of the correspondence of Arthur Lee and Samuel Adams.
In 1774, his name headed the list of signers of a petition from Americans in London protesting against the proposed closing of the port of Boston.
Meantime (1773), Sayre and William Lee had served for a year as sheriffs of London. Sayre's outspoken partisanship finally involved him with the authorities and in October 1775 he was arrested and lodged in the Tower, charged with having plotted to seize the King, take possession of the Tower, and overthrow the government. After five days of close confinement he was admitted to bail and subsequently discharged for lack of evidence. He then sued Lord Rochford for assault and false imprisonment. A verdict was found in his favor, but a point of law prevented the award of damages.
By the time the suit was settled the banking house had failed, and Sayre went to Paris intending to sail for America. In May 1777, Arthur Lee appointed him secretary of his mission to Berlin, but the two men quarrelled constantly, and when Lee, unsuccessful, returned to Paris, Sayre stayed behind. After some months in Berlin, he went unofficially to Copenhagen to propose commercial relations with the United States and to further the suggested neutral league. Early in 1779, he moved on to Stockholm, apparently posing as an official agent of the United States, but accomplished nothing. His next venture was into Russia on various private projects.
At the end of the war he returned home, where he met the South American patriot, Francesco Miranda, then on a tour of the United States; henceforth he was a warm advocate of Miranda's plans and in frequent communication with him. Sayre petitioned Congress for payment for his European services, but without result, and he went again to Europe.
Returning to America in 1793, he bought a large estate in New Jersey and recommenced petitioning Congress. At length, in 1807, an act was passed granting him pay for the time he spent in Berlin as Lee's secretary, but ignoring his claim for payment for services at Copenhagen and Stockholm.
He died at "Brandon, " the home of his son in Middlesex County, Virginia.
Sayre was an enthusiastic supporter of the French Revolution, even attempting to arrange American weapons for the French Army. He received the reputation of a political extremist, which seemed to be confirmed by his hostility to the emerging Federalist Party.
Sayre was a handsome person and had agreeable manners. His charm, however, concealed an impetuous and rash nature which often involved him in difficulties and which prevented him all his life from any solid accomplishment.
His wife, Elizabeth (Noel), a London heiress whom Sayre had married February 18, 1775, died in 1789, and he married in Paris, 1790, Elizabeth Dorone, also a woman of wealth.