ZACHARY BAYLY OF WESTBURY (1677-1738)

Parish records show that Zachary Bayly, son of Nathaniel, was baptised in Westbury on 31 Jan 1676 (Old Style, i.e. 1677). A rough pedigree of the Bayly family, drawn up by a descendant in the 19th century, shows Nathaniel Bayly, “a white Clothier”, as the father of two sons, “Zachary Bayly & James Bayly”, and Zachary Bayly as the father of “Zachary Bayly of Jamaica”. A note added at a later date says James “died in Jamaica”.[1] In 1715 Zachary married, at the late age of thirty-eight, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Lee.[2] Legal records after his death show that he was in business as a carrier but got heavily into debt in the mid-1720s and was bankrupt when he died in January 1738, leaving eight children.[3] His main creditor was his father-in-law, Peter Lee, a wool stapler and prominent member of the Independent Congregation in Warminster.[4] After Elizabeth Bayly’s death later in 1738, Lee took over as guardian of the children, and left them provided for in his will (1744) with legacies of £40 each and other bequests.[5] One of the executors of the will was Bryan Edwards (1704-1758) who had married Zachary Bayly’s daughter Elizabeth in 1742: their eldest child was Bryan Edwards (1743-1800), the West Indian historian.

Zachary Bayly’s late marriage prompts the conjecture that he went out to Jamaica at the same time as his brother James and spent some years there. It was common practice for brothers to go out together, and a Zachariah Bayly was living in Jamaica in the early years of the eighteenth century. The name appears on a memorial inscription (only part-visible) on a “black marble slab, partly covered by a pew” in St Andrew’s Church, Jamaica, which was recorded 1875. [6] The slab marked the burial-place of Leah, who died in 1706/7, wife of “Zachariah Bayly”. The inscription continues, “Here also … the body … Zachar … 19th of July …”, perhaps her son.

The lavish memorial in the principal church in Jamaica indicates that her husband was prosperous; if he was indeed Zachary Bayly of Westbury, he would have returned home with ample capital to set up as a carrier.

[1] Wiltshire & Swindon Archives 540/2.
[2] Index of England Marriages, 1538–1973: Zachary Baily and Elizabeth Lee, 12 Nov 1715, Saint Denys, Warminster, Wilts, transcribed by FamilySearch Intl.
[3] National Archives: Chancery suit Lee v Baily, C11/771/41 (2 June 1738); Administration of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Zachariah Bayly, PROB 6/114 (9 Oct 1738). With acknowledgments to John Wintrip, Genealogy Specialist.
[4] Henry M. Gunn, The History of Nonconformity in Warminster (Warminster, 2003), 49-50.
[5] Will of Peter Lee, 24 March 1743, proved 7 Sept 1744: Wiltshire and Swindon Archives P1/h/403.
[6] J.H. Lawrence-Archer, Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies (1875), 238.