Benjamin Bayly (1797 – 1850)

One of a considerable number of Army and Navy officers in my family was Benjamin Bayly (1797–1850), an infantry lieutenant. He was my 4th great-uncle, younger brother of my 4th great-grandmother Charlotte Elizabeth Dana née Bailey (1795 – 1846).

Benjamin Bayly was born on 5 November 1797 in Nenagh, Tipperary, the son of the Reverend Henry O’Neale Bayley (1757 – 1826) and Anna Penelope (Grueber) Bayly (1764 – 1837).

From the 1821 ‘List of the Officers of the Army and of the Corps of Royal Marines‘ it appears that Bayly had joined the 1st Garrison Battalion as an ensign on 25 June 1816. Garrison Battalions were reserve troops concerned with maintaining defence and good order in troublesome territory. They were recruited from elderly veterans or other troops considered unfit for front-line combat. Bayly’s Garrison Battalion, formed in 1805, was stationed in Ireland from 1807.

With Napoleon’s surrender in April 1814 Garrison battalions were no longer needed. On 5 December 1814 Bayly’s 1st Garrison battalion was disbanded. For over four years, from 2 December 1816, Bayly was on half pay.

In April 1821, some seven years after he was stood down, Bayly joined the 21st (Royal North British Fusilier also known as the Royal Scots Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot as a second lieutenant. (A fusilier was an infantryman armed with a light smooth-bore ‘Fusil’ flintlock musket.)

From 1819 to 1827 the 21st Foot served in the West Indies and British Guiana, most notably quelling an insurrection in Demerara.

The uniform of the regiment in 1827 from the Historical record and regimental memoir of the Royal Scots fusiliers, formerly known as the 21st Royal North British fusiliers by James Clark. Opposite page 42 retrieved from archive.org.

In December 1824 Benjamin was promoted by purchase to First lieutenant. On 2 December 1826 in Kingstown, the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, he married Mary Ann Cameron Wylly (1811 – 1892), daughter of William Wylly, the Chief Justice of St Vincent.

In October 1828 the 21st Foot, now returned to England from the West Indies, moved from Bath to Fermoy, Ireland. In June 1829 it was stationed at Mullingar and in 1830 in Kilkenny. In September 1831 the regiment moved from Dublin to Warrington, Lancashire.

Following this, the regiment was posted to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), arriving in stages from 1832 to 1833, to be put in charge of convicts.

The unit history explains its role:

During the years from 1834 to 1838, the Fusiliers were employed throughout the island of Tasmania, and at Perth, Port Phillip, Swan River, and Western Australia, on detachment duty in charge of various convict stations, and parties on public works ; only two companies, with band and staff, remaining at headquarters. The duties were incessant, hard, and very trying, but, on all occasions, performed in such a manner as to meet the approbation of the Government.

Benjamin and Mary Ann had at least six children.

• Their oldest surviving child, Eliza Matilda, was baptised in Warrington, Lancashire in November 1831
• Their second surviving child, Benjamin Peddie, was born in 1837 in Tasmania
• Thirza Ellen was born in 1841 at Hobart
• An unnamed child was born and died the same day in 1843 at Lagoon Bay, near Dunalley, 40 kilometers north of Port Arthur
• William Chambers was born in 1845 at Hobart
• Henry Vincent was born in 1850 at Richmond, Tasmania, (six months after his father’s death)

In 1838 Lieutenant Bayly, 21st Fusiliers, was appointed Assistant Police Magistrate at Waterloo Point. At the same time Benjamin Bayly, Esquire, was appointed coroner.

From 1839 the 21st was transferred to Calcutta, sailing from Hobart Town in February 1839. Rather than leave Tasmania, Bayly, now with the rank of Captain sold his commission and retired.

At the time of the 1842 census Benjamin Bayly was in Debsborough, near Dunalley, in the parish of Carlton, census district of Richmond. His house was of wood and brick. There were 22 people in the household.

In November 1842 B. Bayly, advertised for a tenant for a 1700 acre farm at Desborough, East Bay Neck. Bayly intended to move 17 kilometers east to Lagoon Bay.

From the Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas.), Tuesday 8 November 1842, page 1

To be Let, DEBSBOROUGH, AT EAST BAY NECK. 
THIS FARM contains 1700 acres of very superior land, with an unlimited back run, nearly 200 acres are in cultivation ; the garden contains two acres, and is stocked with trees selected from some of the best gardens in the colony ; several large paddocks are fenced in with substantial post and rail fences ; it is abundantly supplied with water in the driest seasons, and is an excellent stock and sheep run, and the tenant can have any number with the farm. The crops and stock to be taken at a valuation. The dwelling-house, lately finished, contains nine rooms ; there is an excellent barn, capable of containing 1000 bushels of corn ; there are also out-houses and stabling suitable for the farm. To an industrious tenant every encouragement will be given, and he may have immediate possession, the proprietor being about to remove to Lagoon Bay.
Application to be made to the undersigned, at East Bay Neck.
B. BAYLY. Nov. 8. 2159

From about 1845 Bayly was employed as a visiting magistrate to Maria Island, 50 kilometres north of Boomer Island.

Benjamin Bayly died on 3 March 1850 at the age of 52. He was buried on Maria Island at Darlington.

In 1885 Benjamin Bayly’s youngest son Henry Vincent Bayly married Harriet Louisa Bayley, daughter of Captain James Bayley, a Tasmanian seaman (no relation or at least not a close relation).

Captain James Bayley and his wife Elizabeth lived at Runnymede, a substantial cottage a mile or so north of central Hobart. After their marriage Henry and Harriet moved into Runnymede, where their six children grew up. Henry’s mother, Mary Ann Bayly nee Wylly, died there in 1892, and his sister Matilda in 1899.

In 1931, on Harriet’s death, Runnymede passed to Hally and Emma, her two spinster daughters, and the building was divided into four flats. The Bayly sisters, who continued to live there, were keen for the property to be preserved for future generations, and in 1965 it was bought by the Tasmanian Government ‘for preservation and development as a State monument’. It is presently run by the National Trust.

Benjamin Bayly’s diaries were donated by the Bayly family and are now held by the Tasmanian Archives.

Runnymede in 1888. Photograph from Libraries Tasmania

In 1840 Benjamin Bayly’s nephew, Henry Edmund Pulteney Dana (1817 – 1852), possibly at the suggestion of his uncle, arrived in Tasmania seeking a government position. Unsuccessful, he moved to Victoria, where he was appointed by Governor La Trobe to establish a native police corps.

Related posts:

• N is for Nenagh concerning Benjamin’s father
• F is for field dayconcerning Benjamin’s brother-in-law William Pulteney Dana who also served in a Garrison Battalion
• Trafalgar Day 21 October: Benjamin’s brother James served at the Battle of Trafalgar

Wikitree:

• Benjamin Bayly (1797 – 1850)
• Mary Ann Cameron (Wylly) Bayly (1811 – 1892)
• Henry Vincent Bayly (1850 – 1903)
• Harriet Louisa (Bayley) Bayly (1861 – 1931)

Trafalgar Day 21 October

In Great Britain 21 October is celebrated as Trafalgar Day. During the Napoleonic Wars, as part of Napoleon’s plan to invade England, the French and Spanish Naval fleets combined forces to take control of the English Channel. On this day in 1805, the Royal Navy under the command of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson intercepted the would-be invasion off Cape Trafalgar, on the south-west coast of Spain. Nelson’s battle tactics claimed 22 of the 33 allied ships, while the smaller British fleet lost none. Nelson was fatally wounded in the battle.

The Battle of Trafalgar painted by Clarkson Frederick Stanfield retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

Order of battle

Nelson’s message via flag signal – “England Expects Every Man Will Do His D U T Y” from the The Boy’s Own Paper, 1885, employing the flags as shown in the 1804 copy of the Signal-Book.
Nelson instructed his signal officer, Lieutenant John Pasco, to signal to the fleet, as quickly as possible, the message “England confides [i.e. is confident] that every man will do his duty.” Pasco suggested to Nelson that expects be substituted for confides, since the former word was in the signal book, whereas confides would have to be spelt out letter-by-letter. Nelson agreed to the change (even though it produced a less trusting impression).
Image retrieved from http://navalmarinearchive.com/research/signalflags10.html

Naval General Service Medal*

The Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) was a campaign medal approved in 1847, and issued to officers and men of the Royal Navy in 1849. It was awarded retrospectively for various naval actions during the period 1793–1840.  Each battle or campaign covered by the medal was represented by a clasp on the ribbon. The medal was never issued without a clasp, 231 of which were sanctioned. The clasps covered a variety of actions, from boat service, ship to ship skirmishes, and major fleet actions such as the Battle of
Trafalgar. The medal was awarded only to surviving claimants. A combination of factors, from illiteracy to limited publicity, meant that many of those eligible did not apply for the new medal. The Admiralty awarded 20,933 medals in total.

I have several relatives who served in Trafalgar. They are remembered in the 1913 book compiled by Colonel Robert Holden Mackenzie: “The Trafalgar Roll : Containing the Names and Services of All Officers of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines Who Participated in the Glorious Victory of the 21st October 1805, Together with a History of the Ships Engaged in Battle.” Mackenzie’s Trafalgar Roll, compiled 107 years after the battle, was the first attempt to list “the names of all the officers of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines who by their valour contributed to the day’s success”.

Mackenzie wrote: “… with the exception of the admirals, and the captains of ships, who were rewarded with gold medals, comparatively few of those who contributed to the victory of Trafalgar received any official recognition of their services: the majority had gone to their last berths by the time Queen Victoria, on the 1st June 1847, nearly forty-two years after the fight, graciously repaired the omission of her predecessors by bestowing a silver medal with clasps on the survivors of the various actions, including Trafalgar, fought between 1793 and 1840.”

James Bayly was a midshipman on the Euryalus, a 36 gun frigate

Captain J. Bayly, one of five brothers in the navy and army, was the son of the Rev. Henry Bayly, Rector of Nenagh and Nigh, Co. Tipperary. Born at Nenagh, and entered the service in 1799 as a Volunteer. Served in Penelope at blockade of Malta, and at the capture of the Guillaume Tell, 1800 ; and in the expedition to Egypt in 1801. Served as Mid. of Euryalus at Trafalgar, 1805—promoted to Lieutenant. Lieutenant of the Ganges at capture of the French frigate Le President, 1806; and in the expedition to Copenhagen, 1807. Did good service in rescuing the Euryalus and Shearwater, brig, from six of the enemy’s ships in a gale off Toulon, 1810. Commander, 1828. Retired Captain, 1856. War medal and three clasps. Died in 1857.

August James De Crespigny was a midshipman on the Spartiate, 74 guns

Commander A. J. De Crespigny, was 3rd son of Sir William Champion De Crespigny, 2nd Bart., M.P., and Sarah, daughter of the 4th Earl of Plymouth. Born in Italy. Entered service as Volunteer 1st Class, 1805. Mid., 1805. Mid. in the Spartiate at Trafalgar, 1805. Lieut., 1811. Received Royal Humane Society’s medal, 1815, for gallantry in saving life from drowning. Commander, 1825. In command of Scylla, and died off Port Royal, Jamaica, of yellow fever, 1825.

Benjamin Mainwaring was a volunteer 1st class (rated as A.B. able seaman) on the Temeraire, 98 guns

Lieut. B. Mainwaring was son of Edward Mainwaring, and second cousin of Vice-Admiral T. F. C. Mainwaring, who served in the Naiad at Trafalgar, and died in 1858. Born in 1794. Borne on ship’s books of Temeraire as A.B. at Trafalgar, 1805. Served in boats of Revenge at cutting out of two privateers from under the enemy’s battery on the coast of Catalonia, 1814. Lieut., 1814. Served in Coastguard, 1831-36. Medal and clasp. Died in 1852.

Thomas Francis Charles Mainwaring was a lieutenant on the Naiad, a 36 gun frigate

Vice-Admiral T. F. C. Mainwaring was the eldest son of Charles Henry Mainwaring, of Whitmore Hall, Co. Stafford, and Julia, daughter of Rev. Philip Wroughton. He was second cousin of Lieut. Benjamin Mainwaring, R.N., who served in the Temeraire at Trafalgar. Born in 1780, he entered the service from the Royal Naval Academy in 1796, as a Volunteer 1st Class. Lieut., 1800. Lieut, of Naiad, 1802-6, including the battle of Trafalgar, 1805. Commander, 1806. Commanded the Tartarus, fireship, in the expedition to Copenhagen, 1807; at the sinking of two French privateers off Pillau, 1810; and conveying the ex-King of Sweden from Riga to England, 1810. Captain, 1810. Retired Rear-Admiral, 1846. Medal and clasp. Died in Marlborough Buildings, Bath, 1858.

Further reading and related posts

• Mackenzie, Robert Holden. “The Trafalgar Roll : Containing the Names and Services of All Officers of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines Who Participated in the Glorious Victory of the 21st October 1805, Together with a History of the Ships Engaged in Battle.” G. Allen, [London : Cornmarket Press], 1913, retrieved through archive.org
• Naval General Service Medalpictued above was awarded to Corporal Henry Castle, Royal Marines, with clasps ‘Trafalgar’ (HMS Britannia) and ‘Java’ (HMS Hussar). From the Auckland Museum, CC BY 4.0, image retrieved through Wikimedia Commons
• Jemmett Mainwaring and the start of a Mainwaring naval tradition – part 1
• J is for jaundiced in Jamaica

Wikitree:

• James Bayley (1784 – 1857)
• Augustus James Champion de Crespigny (1791 – 1825)
• Benjamin Mainwaring (1794 – 1852)
• Thomas Francis Charles Mainwaring (1780 – 1858)

Z is for zeal

Helen Maria Bayly, my fourth great aunt, was the second youngest of the sixteen children of Henry O’Neale Bayley (1757–1826) and Anne Penelope Bayley nee Grueber (1762–1837). Helen married a famous mathematician and astronomer. Was this an unhappy union with a man who neglected his wife in a too-zealous pursuit of his career, or was it zany, zestful, and zingy?

Helen Bayly married William Rowan Hamilton (1805–1865) on 9 April 1833 at Ballinaclough, Ireland. The marriage was announced in the Belfast Newsletter of 16 April 1833:

At Ballinaclough Church on Easter Tuesday, William Rowan Hamilton Esq. Royal Astronomer of Ireland to Helen Maria, daughter of the late Rev. Henry Bayly, Rector of Nenagh.

They had three children:

• William Edwin Hamilton 1834–1902
• Archibald Henry Hamilton 1835–1914
• Helen Eliza Amelia Hamilton 1840–1870

Dunsink Observatory was established in 1783. On the right is the main building. On the left is the dome housing the 12″ Grubb refractor. William Rowan Hamilton was a director of the observatory and lived here with his family from 1827 to 1865. Photograph retrieved from geograph.ie.

William Rowan Hamilton’s biographer, Robert Perceval Graves, wrote in the 1880s of the Bayly family: “The lady whom Hamilton married in the year 1833 was a daughter of the Rev. Henry Bayly, Rector of Nenagh, in the county of Tipperary, a member of the family whose head is settled at Debsborough in that county : she was in this way connected with Lord Dunalley and with Dean Head, Dean of Killaloe, who were neighbours in the country, took an interest in the marriage, and were subsequently Hamilton’s acquaintances and correspondents. Miss Bayly’s mother, whose maiden name was Grueber, and who by her letters appears to have possessed a bright mind and amiable disposition, was at this time a widow and resided at Bayly Farm, near Nenagh. She (Anne Grueber) had many children, two of whom were married to brothers, Mr. William and Mr. Henry Rathborne, whose country-houses, Scripplestown and Dunsinea, were in immediate neighbourhood to the Observatory. With the elder of these sisters, Mrs. William Rathborne of Scripplestown, Helen Bayly was often a guest.”

There seems to be considerable disagreement among biographers of William Hamilton about the success or otherwise of his marriage.

In their “Math and mathematicians: the history of math discoveries around the world” Lawrence Baker and Leonard Bruno, portray it as a dismal failure:

[Having had two marriage proposals rejected, in 1833] “Hamilton married Helen Marie Bayly, a country preacher’s daughter. Although they had three children together, his wife proved not only to be chronically ill but extremely pious, shy, and timid. Since she was also unable to run a household, Hamilton’s married life was both difficult and unhappy.”

Retrieved through archive.org (requires free registration)

On the other hand, Anne van Weerden, a Dutch researcher, disagrees strongly with the description of Hamilton by various biographers as “an unhappily married alcoholic”. She notes that his own account of the discovery of the quaternions [an extension of the complex numbers], “…which he made when he was walking with his wife, breathes such a peaceful atmosphere that it became the inducement to investigate how an alleged unhappy marriage could lead to such a circumstance.” In her “A Victorian Marriage : Sir William Rowan Hamilton” (Weerden, Anne . A Victorian Marriage: Sir William Rowan Hamilton. 2017. Internet Archive BookReader.), she argues that “…he did have a good marriage, and that according to current standards he was by no means an alcoholic.”

Images of Sir William Rowan Hamilton and his wife Helen, Lady Hamilton retrieved from http://www.annevanweerden.nl/HamiltonPhotoPage.html

Anne van Weerden was surprised by part of a letter Hamilton wrote to his son Archibald on the 5th of August 1865 while “the hand which penned it was at the time tremulous with approaching death.” The letter triggered her research and she argues that the dark view on this marriage as having been an unhappy one, or even a burden for Hamilton, does not seem to fit in with Hamilton’s recollection of how he found the quaternions:

But on the 16th day of the same month – which happened to be a Monday, and a Council day of the Royal Irish Academy – I was walking in to attend and preside, and your mother was walking with me, along the Royal Canal, to which she had perhaps driven; and although she talked with me now and then, yet an undercurrent of thought was going on in my mind, which gave at last a result, whereof it is not too much to say that I felt at once the importance. An electric circuit seemed to close; and a spark flashed forth, the herald (as I foresaw, immediately) of many long years to come of definitely directed thought and work, by myself if spared, and at all events on the part of others, if I should even be allowed to live long enough distinctly to communicate the discovery. Nor could I resist the impulse – unphilosophical as it may have been – to cut with a knife on a stone of Brougham Bridge, as we passed it, the fundamental formula with the symbols, i, j, k; namely, i² = j² = k² = ijk = −1 , which contains the Solution of the Problem, but of course, as an inscription, has long since mouldered away. A more durable notice remains, however, on the Council Books of the Academy for that day (October 16th, 1843), which records the fact, that I then asked for and obtained leave to read a Paper on Quaternions, at the First General Meeting of the Session: which reading took place accordingly, on Monday the 13th of the November following.

Broome Bridge (also known as Broom Bridge and called Brougham Bridge by Hamilton, perhaps in jest) on the Royal Canal in 2007. Renowned as the location where, in 1843, the Irish mathematician, physicist and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton came up with an important mathematical equation.  He was walking from the observatory to
Dublin, because he had to preside the monthly meeting. Apparently, his wife had joined him when he was walking along the canal, he had not noticed where she came from. He scratched the formula on the stone work, perhaps to celebrate it. Photograph retrieved from georgraph.ie.

The plaque on Broome Bridge commemorating William Rowan Hamilton’s discovery. The the fundamental formula for quaternion multiplication reads i² = j² = k² = ijk = −1 .

Dunsink Observatory is about 10 kilometers north-west of Dublin City centre.
There is an annual Hamilton Walk on 16 October from the Observatory to Broome Bridge to commemorate the discovery of the non-commutative algebraic system known as quaternions.

Having read Anne van Weerden’s essay and her other writings I am convinced by her arguments that William Rowan Hamilton was happily married to his wife Helen. William Rowan Hamilton’s zeal for his work was not interrupted by his wife. She ran her household around him and did not interrupt him with demands to come to dinner. Perhaps this was the foundation of their zero-problem marriage. Each had their zone; one zigged, the other zagged.

Related posts

• N is for Nenagh

Wikitree:

• Helen Maria (Bayly) Hamilton (1804 – 1869)
• William Rowan Hamilton (1805 – 1865)

N is for Nenagh

One of my fifth great grandfathers was a clergyman named Henry O’Neale Bayley (also spelled Bayly or Bailey), born in 1757 at Nenagh, Tipperary, Ireland to John Bayley (1724 – 1797) and Martha (or Bridget) nee Holmes (c. 1730 — ?).

Henry Bayley was first educated by a Mr Brown of Castlelyons.  In 1774, at the age of 17, he enrolled at Trinity College Dublin, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree five years later. Ordained on 19 March 1780, he was appointed rector and vicar at Kilquane (Ballyshonboy), County Limerick in 1782, becoming rector of Nenagh in 1803.

In Dublin on 3 June 1783 he married Anne Penelope Grueber. They had 16 children, perhaps more:

• James Bayly 1784–1857, a naval officer
• Henry Aldborough Bayly 1785–1840
• Peter Bayly 1787–1852, a naval officer
• John Bayly 1789–, an army officer in the 2nd Bengal Light Cavalry
• Jane Bayly 1790–1849, wife of Henry Rathborne
• Penelope Mary Bayly 1794–1845, wife of William Rathborne
• Charlotte Elizabeth Bailey 1795–1846, my fourth great grandmother, who married William Pulteney Dana in about 1812
• Benjamin Bayly 1797–1850, an army officer in the 21st Fusiliers
• William Prittie Bayly 1798–1842, an army officer in the 92nd Highlanders
• Samuel Bayley 1800–
• Barbara Bayley 1800–
• Isabella Bayly 1802–1866, wife of William White
• Helen Maria Bayly 1804–1869, wife of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, noted mathematician and astronomer
• Maria Bayly 1805–1851, wife of George Coplen-Langford
• Amelia Bayly
• Humphry Bayly

On 29 January 1826 Henry Bayly died at the age of 68 at Scripplestown house, near the Dunsink Observatory.

Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier 7 Feb 1826: On the 29th ult., at Scripplestown, the residence of his son-in-law, William Rathborne Esq., the Rev. Henry Bayley, Rector of Nenagh, in his 69th year.

Henry’s wife, Anna Penelope, died at at Dunsink Observatory, the home of her son-in-law, William Rowan Hamilton, on 30 September 1837.

The lady whom Hamilton married in the year 1833 was a daughter of the Rev. Henry Bayly, Rector of Nenagh, in the county of Tipperary, a member of the family whose head is settled at Debsborough in that county : she was in this way connected with Lord Dunalley and with Dean Head, Dean of Killaloe, who were neighbours in the country, took an interest in the marriage, and were subsequently Hamilton’s acquaintances and correspondents. Miss Bayly’s mother, whose maiden name was Grueber, and who by her letters appears to have possessed a bright mind and amiable disposition, was at this time a widow and resided at Bayly Farm, near Nenagh. She (Anne Grueber) had many children, two of whom were married to brothers, Mr. William and Mr. Henry Rathborne, whose country-houses, Scripplestown and Dunsinea, were in immediate neighbourhood to the Observatory. With the elder of these sisters, Mrs. William Rathborne of Scripplestown, Helen Bayly was often a guest.

Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Andrews professor of astronomy in the University of Dublin, and Royal astronomer of Ireland, including selections from his poems, correspondence, and miscellaneous writings by Graves, Robert Perceval; De Morgan, Augustus. Publication date 1882-89. Pages 1-2 of volume 2 retrieved though archive.org

From A topographical dictionary of Ireland; exhibiting the names of the several cities, towns, parishes and villages, with the barony, county, and province, to which they respectively belong … Collected from the most authentic documents, and arr. in alphabetical order. Being a continuation of the topography of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by Nicholas Carlisle, published 1810. Page 597 retrieved through archive.org.

NENAGH, in the Barony of Lower Ormond, Co. of TIPPERARY, and Province of Munster : a R. and V., united by Act of Council, on the 16th of February 1798, to the R. and V. of Knigh : a Church, in good repair, in the Town of Nenagh : no Glebe House, but the Incumbent is under orders to build : a Glebe, of 2 acres, in the parish of Nenagh, near the church; and, of l6a. 3r. Op., in the parish of Knigh, two miles distant from the former : The Rev. Henry Bayly, A. B., the Incumbent (in 1806), who has cure of souls, and is under orders to reside : the duties are performed by his Resident Curate, The Rev. Thomas Falkener, A. B., at a Salary of £50. per annum. Nenagh is in the Diocese of Killaloe, and Province of Cashel. It is 75 m. S. W. b. W. from Dublin. It has six Post-days in the week. The Fairs are holden on the 29th of May, 4th of July, 4th of September and 10th of October. It is situate upon a River, which empties itself into Lough Deirgeart, and is a large, regular, and well built Town. Here is a handsome old Castle, of great strength, called Nenagh Round. The parishes in the Union of Nenagh are contiguous ; their estimated extent from North to South being 3 miles, and from East to West 5 miles. ” About the beginning of the year 1200, an Hospital was founded here for Canons following the Rule of St. Augustin, who were constantly to admit the sick and infirm; it was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and was usually called Teacheon, or, St. John’s House. Theobald Walter was the founder. A Friary was founded here for Conventual Franciscans, in the reign of King Henry the Third, by one of the family of Butler, or, as others say, by Kennedy. This Friary was supposed to be one of the richest foundations of the Franciscan Order in this kingdom.” Archdall’s Monast. Hibern. pp. 670. et seq.

Nenagh Castle (Nth West view) Dublin Penny Journal, Volume 1, Number 38, March 16, 1833. Image retrieved from Hidden Tipperary. The Norman keep was built about 1200.

I am not sure if the Reverend Henry Bayly did build the Glebe House. In 1820 or thereabouts he did, however, build a farm house at Ballyclough, a few miles from Nenagh. The farm was originally called Clover Hill. It stayed in the family for nearly 200 years. In 2017, then operating as bed-and-breakfast accommodation, it was advertised for sale.

Bayly Farm from the sale advertisement in 2017

Related posts

• F is for field day

Wikitree:

• Rev Henry O’Neale Bayley aka Bayly, Bailey
• Anna Penelope Bayly formerly Grueber aka Bayley
• John Bayly