Sir John Bayley, 1st Baronet, PC (1763–1841), was an English judge.

Life

Bayley was the second son of John Bayley and Sarah his wife, the granddaughter of Dr.

White Kennet White Kennett (10 August 166019 December 1728) was an English bishop and antiquarian. He was educated at Westminster School and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where, while an undergraduate, he published several translations of Latin works, including ...

, bishop of Peterborough. He was born at

Elton, Huntingdonshire Elton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Elton lies approximately south-west of Peterborough. Elton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a ...

, on 3 August 1763, and educated at Eton. Though nominated for

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, he did not go up to the university, and was admitted to

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wa ...

on 12 November 1783. After practising some time as a special pleader, he was called to the bar on 22 June 1792, and went the home circuit. In 1799 he became a serjeant-at-law, and was for some time recorder of Maidstone. In May 1808 he was made a judge of the

King's Bench The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions. * Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of common ...

, in the place of Sir Soulden Lawrence, and was knighted on the 11th of the same month. After sitting in this court for more than twenty-two years, he was at his own request removed to the Court of Exchequer in November 1830. He resigned his seat on the bench in February 1834, and was admitted to the privy council on 5 March 1834. He was created a

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 ...

''of

Bedford Square Bedford Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of the Borough of Camden in London, England. History Built between 1775 and 1783 as an upper middle class residential area, the square has had many distinguished residents, inclu ...

, in the

County of Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

'' on 15 March 1834. By his quickness of apprehension, his legal knowledge, and his strict impartiality, Sir John Bayley was peculiarly adapted for judicial office. The ease and pleasure with which he got through his work caused M. Cotte, the French advocate, to exclaim, 'Il s'amuse à juger.' The most memorable case which came before Sir John in his judicial capacity was the action for libel brought in 1819 by the attorney-general against

Richard Carlile Richard Carlile (8 December 1790 – 10 February 1843) was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom. Early life Born in Ashburton, Devon, he was the son of a shoemaker who ...

for the republication of

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

's ''

The Age of Reason ''The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology'' is a work by English and American political activist Thomas Paine, arguing for the philosophical position of deism. It follows in the tradition of 18th-century Briti ...

'' and

Elihu Palmer Elihu Palmer (1764 – April 7, 1806) was an author and advocate of deism in the early days of the United States. Life Elihu Palmer was born in Canterbury, Connecticut in 1764. He studied to be a Presbyterian minister at Dartmouth College, where ...

's ''

Principles of Nature ''Principles of Nature'', also known as ''The Principles of Nature, or A Development of the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery among the Human Species'', was a work written in 1801 by Elihu Palmer. The work was similar to Thomas Paine's writings, ...

''. Bayley jointly owned three sugar plantations in British Guiana and Dominica, and when the British government emancipated the slaves in the 1830s, he and his partners were compensated to the tune of over £20,000 each for over 400 slaves in their possession. He died, aged 78, at the Vine House near Sevenoaks, on 10 October 1841.

Family

By his wife Elizabeth, the daughter of John Markett of Meopham Court Lodge, co. Kent, he had three sons and three daughters. His eldest son,

Sir John Bayley, 2nd Baronet Sir John Edward George Bayley, 2nd Baronet (23 December 1793 – 23 December 1871) was an English baronet and amateur cricketer. Born in London, he was the son of Sir John Bayley, 1st Baronet and his wife Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Jo ...

, was a noted cricketer. The 3rd baronet, the Rev. Sir John Laurie Emilius Bayley, was his grandson.

Works

*''A Short Treatise on the Law of Bills of Exchange, Cash Bills, and Promissory Notes'', 1789. *''Lord Raymond's Reports and Entries in the King's Bench and Common Pleas in the Reigns of William, Anne, George I and II'', 4th edition, 1790. *''The Book of Common Prayer, with Notes on the Epistles'', 1813. *''The Prophecies of Christ and Christian Times, selected from the Old and New Testament, and arranged according to the periods in which they were pronounced'', by a Layman, edited by Rev. H. Clissold, 1828.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayley, John 1763 births 1841 deaths People from Elton, Cambridgeshire People educated at Eton College Members of Gray's Inn English knights 18th-century English judges 18th-century English writers 18th-century English male writers 19th-century English writers Justices of the King's Bench Barons of the Exchequer English male writers 19th-century British male writers Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom