Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 11 - Section VI

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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VI. Bayley, Baronet.

Like Hatfield, Whittlesey became a scene of the draining operations of Sir Nicolas Vermuyden, and about the year 1646 a French congregation endeavoured to establish itself there. But in 1652 it united with the French Church of Thorney Abbey, about four miles distant, and also situated in the Isle of Ely and county of Cambridge. Among the settlers was Philippe de Bailleu, who is so named in the baptismal register for twenty years, numely, from 1659 to 1679; he became Bailleu in 1681 , and so continues till 1692. Ultimately he adopted the surname of Bayley, and in his will, dated 30th July 1705, and proved 18th December 1706, he calls himself Philip Bayley the elder, of Whittlesey, in the Isle of Ely, in the county of Cambridge, yeoman. From the register and from his will we find that he was married four times: — 1st, in 1658 to Jeanne de la Chasse; 2d, in 1664 to Ester, youngest daughter of Andre Clerbau of the Levels, in the parish of Hatfield, Yorkshire; 3d, in 1678 to Marthe Descamps; and 4th, after 1692, to Susanne de Lo;^[1] she survived him, and received as his widow £110 in cash, and “one of my best beds with the bedstead, bedding, and furniture thereunto belonging, and all that chest of linnen I had with her at the time of our intermarriage.” His brother, Jean de Bailleu, otherwise John Bayley, survived him, and is named in his will; others of his name, probably brothers, were Abraham de Bailleu, husband of Susanne Haguerier (1669), and David Bailleu (1683).

By his first wife, Philippe de Bailleu had a daughter Susanne, born 1659, who died before him. By his second wife he had Philippe, born 1665; Jacob, born 1669; Daniel, born 1672; Ester, born 1674, and Philip second, born 1676, of whom at the time of his death Daniel was the only survivor. By his third wife he had Pierre, born 1679; Mary, born 1681; Philip third, born 1683; Jacob, born 1685; Susanne, born 1687; and Estienne, born 1692, all of whom survived him except Pierre and Estienne. In 1705, Daniel was aged thirty-three; and Mary, aged twenty-four, had become Mrs. Hardly, wife of Daniel Hardly; Jacob and Susan were twenty and eighteen respectively. His surviving sons, therefore, were Daniel, Philip, and Jacob. His “nephew,” Jacob Ris, was probably a nephew of his third wife; he and John Bayley were the executors. The testator’s son, Daniel, was a married man, and had in 1705 two children, Susan and Daniel; so was his son, Philip, with one child named Martha. The charitable bequests were “unto the poore people belonging unto the Erench congregation at Thorney,” and 40s. “unto the poore people of Whittlesey.” The house and farm in which he died was his own property, bought from William Clarke; his other property was leasehold, and consisted of (1) a farm in Thorney; (2) a piece of ground called Sparkes’s Close, extending to 27 acres; (3) a parcel of land at the Old Sluice in Whittlesey, extending to 40 acres, held from the Duke of Bedford; (4) a parcel of land called Willowhall Farm, held from the Earl of Torrington; this last was bequeathed to the youngest sons, but seems to have come into the occupation of the eldest, who is styled in the pedigree Daniel Bayley of Willow Hall. From him the modern family descends. He was baptized in the French Church of Thorney on 3d November 1672. His wife’s maiden name was Ester du Bois (he himself seems to have been named after Daniel de Bois, who stood as a witness at his baptism). He died in 1729, in his fifty-seventh year, leaving a son, Isaac, born in 1706, the year after the date of Philippe de Bailleu’s will. Isaac Bayley was sometime of Oxney near Peterborough, and afterwards of Chesterton in Huntingdonshire; he died in 1751, aged forty-five. He had married Orme, daughter of Henry Bigland, Esq., and was the father of Rev. Edward Bayley, D.D., Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, rector of Courteenhall (who died in 1813), and of John Bayley, gentleman.

Mr. John Bayley (who died about 1790) married Sarah, daughter and heir of Rev. White Kennet, prebendary of Peterborough, and grand-daughter of the Bishop of Peterborough. Their eldest surviving son was John Bayley, born 3d August 1763. He was educated at Eton, and entered Gray’s Inn in November 1783, where he devoted himself to the study and private practice of law, and published in 1789 a “Summary of the Law of Bills of Exchange, &c,” still the standard work on the subject; also “Lord Raymond’s Reports,” ably annotated, in 1790. He was called to the bar on 22d June 1792, and was promoted to the degree of Serjeant in 1799. In May 1808 he was made a Judge of the King’s Bench, and was knighted; he sat there for twenty-two years, holding for seventeen years the next place to the Chief Justice. In 1816 he published an edition of the Prayer Book of the Church of England. In order to lighten the labours of advancing years he was removed to the Court of Exchequer on 14th November 1830 as “additional Baron,” but was accorded his place of seniority next to the Chief Baron, which he occupied till February 1834, when he retired. Foss says in his “Dictionary of Judges”: “Sir John Bayley occupied the Bench for twenty-six years, with the highest reputation as a lawyer, and undiminished respect and esteem from every one who acted either with or under him.” He was made a Privy Councillor on March 5, and a Baron on March 15, 1834. The Right Honourable Sir John Bayley died on 10th October 1841; he was the father of the second Baronet, of Rev. Kennctt Champain Bayley, Rector of Copford, and of Francis Bayley, Judge of the Westminster County Court.

The second Baronet was born 23d December 1793, and was a barrister-at-law; he married in 1822 Charlotte Mary, second daughter of John Minet Fector, Esq. of Kearsney Abbey, near Dover. He became Sir John Edward George Bayley in 1841, and died 23d December 1871.

His successor, Rev. John Robert Laurie Emilius Bayley, was born 16th May 1823; he was educated at Cambridge, from which University he has the degrees of B.A., M.A., and B.D. He was ordained in 1846 by the Bishop of Oxford; he married in 1855 Marianne Sophia, third daughter of Edward Royd Rice, Esq. of Dane Court, M.P. for Dover for twenty years. He became a London clergyman in 1867, when he was presented to the vicarage of St. John’s, Paddington. He succeeded to the baronetcy in the end of 1871, and chose the designation of Sir Emilius Bayley (all his sons have the additional baptismal name of Emilius).

*⁎* That the ministry of the reverend Baronet is an earnest, scriptural, and effective one, may be inferred from the following list of his publications:—

1. The Choice: Five Lectures on Confirmation. 1st edition, 1857; 2d edition, 1865; 3d edition, 1867; 4th edition, 1880.
2. The Christian Life viewed under some Practical Aspects. 1867.
3. Commentary and Sermons on St Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians. 1869.
4. The Power of Goodness : a Sermon preached (in substance) in the Parish Church of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, on Sunday morning, April 2d, 1876, after the Funeral of the Rev. W. Conway, M.A., Canon of Westminster, and Rector of St. Margaret’s.
5. The Meekness of Wisdom : a Sermon preached (in substance) in St. John’s Church, Paddington, upon Sunday morning, April 22d, 1877, on the death of Benjamin Shaw, Esq., M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
6. Christian Treasure-Trove : an Account of the recent discovery of Ancient Manuscripts, containing the whole Epistle of St. Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, a.d. 98. Two Lectures delivered in St. John’s Church, Paddington, June 19th and 26th, 1877.
7. Thorough : Being an attempt to show the value of Thoroughness in several departments of Christian Life and Practice, pp. xxxix. 386. 1st edition, 1878; 2d edition, 1879.
8. The Spirits of Just Men made Perfect : a Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Tilmanstone, Kent, upon Sunday, December 8th, 1878, on the death of Mr. Rice, of Dane Court, who died November 27th, 1878, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. Printed by request for private circulation.
9. Deep unto Deep : Being an inquiry into some of the deeper experiences of the Christian Life. Pp. xxxvi. 384. 1880.

The conclusion of the preface to the last-named book has a good Huguenot ring:— It is not so much the abstract idea of suffering which proves a difficulty to the Christian as the endurance which it calls for. The tendency of all suffering is to depress the mind, to weaken the spiritual nerve-power (if I may so express it), and to deprive us of that courage of which at the time we stand in special need. Now, Christianity is emphatically a manly religion; quit you like men, be strong, is the apostolic exhortation. The idea of bravery underlies that principle of endurance which is habitually urged upon us in the New Testament. Let us be brave, then, if God calls us to pass through tribulation. The prospect which lies before the Christian is a grand one; the resources within his reach are ample : In God’s Word will I rejoice; in the Lord’s Word will I comfort me.”

1. Estienne de Lo was an ancien at Norwich, 12th August 1596. The Thorney family usually dropped the de.