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John Bayly was born in Chichester on 17 February 1735, the son of George Bayly, physician. He was one of twins, his sister dying early in childhood. Bayly himself was a feeble child. He was educated at the grammar school in Lymington, Hampshire, until the age of 12 when he was sent to a tutor in St Albans, where he became proficient in French. He was then tutored in Taunton for three years, before going to study medicine at Edinburgh University. A smallpox inoculation during his first year at Edinburgh affected his health so severely that he was forced to return home to convalesce for six months. He eventually graduated MD at Edinburgh, and in 1758 moved to London where he spent a year in hospital practice.
In 1759 Bayly returned to Chichester, at the age of 24, to become his father's partner in practice. He lived as a bachelor, with his parents, in a house in the East Pallant, Chichester. He remained in practice with his father until the latter's death in 1771. Bayly practiced in an era when the Royal College of Physicians held no jurisdiction in the provinces. The Apothecaries Act (55 Geo.III c.194) which compelled recognised qualifications was not passed until 1815, the year of Bayley's death. Bayly's life as a doctor in the second half of the eighteenth century, was that of
'a young man in a practice covering a large area round Chichester, competing with unlicensed apothecaries and quacks, applying his academic training, and trying to gain experience from the faithful recording of his failures as well as his successes' (Trail & Steer, 1963, p.9).
In 1784 Bayly was one of the pioneers in the establishment of a Public Dispensary in some cottages in Chichester (which became the West Sussex, East Hampshire and Chichester General Infirmary, and eventually the Royal West Sussex Hospital). Bayly had always suffered from ill health and his work as a doctor further exacerbated his weak constitution. This prevented him from direct or active involvement with the Dispensary, the work being undertaken by Dr Thomas Sanden, his cousin. He suffered from almost total deafness in one ear, and was partially sighted in his left eye.
Another professional interest of Bayly's was the relationship between the climate and disease. Throughout the late 1760s and early 1770s he made detailed meteorological observations and linked them with incidences of disease in Chichester.
Bayly had many interests outside of medicine, such as the stage; he was especially keen on Shakespeare's comedies. He also enjoyed poetry, art and music, and was an accomplished flutist. He had a particular interest in theology, and amassed a large library of theological works. Indeed he was a zealous Unitarian during the last thirty years of his life.
Bayly continued to practice until the end of the 1790s when he retired. In his retirement, despite ill health, he enjoyed through the
`society of a very few select friends, the fruits of early study, and the retrospect of maturer years devoted to beneficent exertion' (Sanden, 1816, p.13).
He died on 11 November 1815 at the age of 80, and was buried in the chancel of the church of All Saints in the Pallant, Chichester, on 18 November 1815.
Publications about Bayly:
A Tribute to the Memory of John Bayly, MD, Thomas Sanden (Chichester, 1816)