Sir John Robert Laurie Emilius Bayley, 3rd Baronet (16 May 1823 – 4 December 1917), later Sir Emilius Laurie, was an English clergyman,

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

and amateur

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He was generally known by his middle-name Emilius and changed his surname to Laurie in 1887.

Early life

Bayley was born at

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

in London in May 1823, the son of lawyer Sir John Bayley, 2nd Baronet and his first wife Charlotte.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 49–50.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) He is thought to have been given the name Emilius, by which he was generally known, after the name of one of his father's horses which won The Derby in 1823.Rev. Sir Emilius Laurie
, Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. Retrieved 2017-03-26. His grandfather, Sir John Bayley, 1st Baronet, had the Bayley Baronetcy of Bedford Square created for him in 1834. This became known as the Laurie baronetcy after 1887. Bayley was educated at

Eton college Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

where he was in the cricket team for four years and

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in 1840 and 1841. He set a record for the highest score in the

Eton v Harrow The Eton v Harrow cricket match is an annual match between public school rivals Eton College and Harrow School. It is the oldest modern sporting rivalry between two schools, one of the longest-running annual sporting fixtures in the world and ...

match, scoring 152 at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

in 1841, a record which stood until 1904.Bayley-Laurie, Rev. Sir Emilius
Obituaries in 1917, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', 1918. Retrieved 2017-03-26. He went up to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, matriculating in 1846 although he did not actually attend Trinity until 1861 and became a

ten-year man A ten-year man was a category of mature student at the University of Cambridge. Under the University's statutes of 1570, a man over twenty-four could proceed to a BD degree ten years after matriculation without first gaining a BA degree or a MA ...

and was awarded his

Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD, DB, or BDiv; ) is an academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. ...

in 1862. Venn J, Venn JA (1940) ''

Alumni Cantabrigienses ''Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900'' is a biographical register of former members of the University of Cambridge whic ...

'', part II, vol. I, p. 194. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Available online
Retrieved 2022-06-19.)

Cricketing career

Bayley played for MCC against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1842; his father was President of the club in 1844. He appeared nine times for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

between 1842 and 1844, first playing for the team before its foundation at the 1842

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first he ...

. In total Bayley played in 29

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

matches, appearing 12 times for MCC and six for the

Gentlemen of Kent Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent. ...

as well as once for an England team.John Bayley

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 2017-03-26.Emilius Bayley
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-03-26. He was considered a "hard-hitting batsman", particularly on the leg-side, but his career as a churchman cut short his serious cricket career. Bayley's younger brother, Lyttleton Bayley, also captained Eton at cricket and played for Kent.

Churchman and baronet

After being ordained as a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

at Oxford in 1846 and a priest in 1847, Bayley became the vicar of North Wheatley in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

from 1847 to 1849. He was a

perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly ...

Woburn, Bedfordshire Woburn (, meaning twisted or crooked stream) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, about southeast of Milton Keynes and south of junction 13 of the M1 motorway. At the 2011 census, it had a populat ...

between 1853 and 1856, of St George's church in

between 1856 and 1867 and of St John's church in

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

from 1867 to 1888. He married Marianne Rice, the daughter of

Edward Royd Rice Edward Royd Rice Justice of the Peace, JP Deputy Lieutenant, DL (25 April 1790 – 27 November 1878) was an English politics, politician and first-class cricket, first-class cricketer. He was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Par ...

, in 1855. The couple had five children, with two inheriting the Baronetcy. * Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Claude Villiers Emilius Laurie Laurie, 4th Baronet (1855–1930)Venn, p.193. *Blanche Alice May Laurie (1857–1945) * Sir Wilfrid Emilius Laurie, 5th Baronet (1859–1936)Venn, p. 195. *Cecil Emilius Laurie (1862–1919) *Arthur Emilius Laurie (1866–1874) Bayley succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1871 on the death of his father, becoming the third Baronet. In 1886, he inherited Maxwelton House at

Moniaive Moniaive ( 'monny-IVE'; , ''"The Holy Moor"'') is a village in the Parish of Glencairn, in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. It stands on the Cairn and Dalwhat Waters, north-west of the town of Dumfries. Moniaive has been named best o ...

Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the hi ...

through his mother's line. His great-uncle Admiral Sir Robert Laurie had died without an heir and the house had passed to Bayley's uncle John Minet Fector who had died in 1868 without an heir. As a condition of Robert Laurie's will, Bayley changed his surname to Laurie in February 1887.History - Maxwelton House, (also known as Glencairn Castle), Thornhill, Scotland
, Parks and Gardens UK, 2007-07-27. Retrieved 2017-03-26.Maxwelton (Glencairn Castle)

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

. Retrieved 2017-03-26. Bayley died in 1917 at Maxwelton at the age of 94. At the time he was believed by Wisden to be the oldest living cricketer "of any note in England".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayley, Emilius 1823 births 1917 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English cricketers Kent cricketers Non-international England cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers

203 Year 203 ( CCIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Plautianus and Geta (or, less frequently, year 956 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 203 for this ye ...

Fast v Slow cricketers People from Bloomsbury