Annie Maria Bayley
The Bayley family has been traced back to Thomas Bayley and Elizabeth Hassall who were married in Newport, Shropshire, England in 1787.1 Thomas’ parents have not been uncovered yet, but Elizabeth is most likely the daughter of John Hassall and Elizabeth Ward who were married in Newport 30 December 1745. They had seven children listed in the register as having been christened there, Elizabeth being the youngest.2
John Bayley, 1789-1859, son of Thomas and Elizabeth, was christened on 2 January 1789 in Newport.3
In the same parish register, eighteen months later, “Thos and Eliz Bailey” were the parents of Sarah, christened 26 May 1790, who was probably a younger sister to John.
No other children have been found so far for Thomas and Elizabeth Bayley.
John Bayley, born 1789, was residing in London when he married Jane Smith in St. Lawrence Church, the parish church in Gnosall.4 Jane was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Smith.5 John and his wife Jane, born in Wilbrighton, Staffordshire,6 were the parents of at least five children: John Horatio Robert, George, Anne, Enoch and Samuel. John Sr. was a mercer in 1816, but by 1828 he was a schoolmaster in Wolverhampton.7
John Horatio Robert Bayley, 1816-1885, was known as John H.R. Bayley or John Bayley. He was the oldest son, born in Wellington, Shropshire, in 1816 and christened there in All Saints Church.8 Like his father, John was a school teacher. In 1835 he married Margaret Morris in Old Swinford, Worcestershire.9 John H.R. and Margaret had six children: Hamlet Ambrose, Laura Fidelia, Werner, Marion, Ada Jane and Pauline Edith.
Hamlet Ambrose Bayley, 1836-1904, like his father and grandfather, was a school master. In 1859 he married Esther Ashcroft, daughter of William Ashcroft and Hannah Smith.10 Hamlet and Esther had three children, Annie, Howard and Neville, all three of whom eventually moved to the United States. Esther died in 187911 and about 1894 Hamlet moved to Pittsburgh where his children were living and where he later died.12
Hamlet’s oldest child, Annie, 1860-1927, married Charles Edward Miller, son of William Charles Miller and Lucy Swainson of Liverpool, in 1882.13 They left for Canada where they homesteaded in Manitoba, later moving to Pittsburgh, London, Wyoming and Montana.
