Brig. General Jacob Bayley

Note on spelling of last name: His last name was most likely spelled Bayley, since the "Bayley-Hazen Military Road" is named for him.

• BAILEY, JACOB SR Ancestor #: A004648
• Service: VERMONT Rank(s): BRIGADIER GENERAL, PATRIOTIC SERVICE
• Birth: 7-19-1726 NEWBURY ESSEX CO MASSACHUSETTS
• Death: 3-1-1815 NEWBURY ORANGE CO VERMONT
• Service Source: GOODRICH, ROLLS OF THE SOLS IN THE REV WAR, 1775-1783, P 818; WELLS, HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VT, P 435
• Service Description: 1) MILITIA; DELEGATE TO CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

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Revolutionary War General. He moved to Hampstead, New Hampshire, and was a Captain with the British in the French and Indian War, later receiving promotion to Colonel. He settled in Newbury, Vermont in 1764 and was one of the founders of the town, serving as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Justice of the Peace. In 1776 he was named to Vermont's Council of Safety and appointed Brigadier General of the Vermont Militia. That year he began work on the famed Bayley-Hazen Military Road to connect Newbury to St. Johns, Quebec. Later in 1776 Bayley was appointed Commissary General of the Continental Army's Northern Department. He was friendly with the St. Francis Indians, who provided him important intelligence on Burgoyne's army during its invasion. This enabled Bayley to keep Generals Schuyler and Gates informed about the size and movement of Burgoyne's force, which played a key role in Continental Army's victory at the Battle of Saratoga, where Bayley commanded a division.

During and after the Revolution, Bayley continued his involvement with Vermont's government, by serving as Newbury Selectman and Town Meeting Moderator, Orange County Probate Judge, Chief Judge of the County Court, and member of the Governor's Council. He died in modest financial circumstances, never receiving compensation for the personal expenses he incurred in support of the Revolution.

Jacob Bailey was a founder of Newbury, Vermont.

(bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46817687" target="_blank Bill McKern)]

The Bayley–Hazen Military Road was a military road that was originally planned to run from Newbury, Vermont, to St. John's, Quebec, not far from Montreal. The southern 54 miles (87 km), running from Newbury to Hazen's Notch near the Canada–United States border, were constructed between 1776 and 1779 during the American Revolutionary War. Portions of the road's route are used by modern roads today.

The road is named for the principal proponents of its construction. Jacob Bayley and Moses Hazen were among the founders of Newbury and nearby Haverhill, New Hampshire, and Hazen also had property interests at St. John's. The idea for the road featured prominently in several proposals (promoted primarily by Hazen to George Washington and the Second Continental Congress) for invasions of Quebec by Continental Army forces following the failed 1775 invasion.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayley_Hazen_Military_Road

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Jacob Bayley (July 19, 1726 – March 1, 1815[1]) was an officer, first serving with the British in the French and Indian War, then later as a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

After the French and Indian War, Bayley was one of the founders of Newbury, Vermont, and Haverhill, New Hampshire,[2] He became wealthy from the proprietorship thereof, but during the Revolutionary War he paid for military expenses and soldiers' pay out of his own pocket, for which he was never compensated, and he died an impoverished man.

Early life and family
He was born in Newbury, Massachusetts. On July 19 ,1726, he married Prudence Noyes (1729–1809). The following year, they and their first child, Ephraim, moved to Hampstead, New Hampshire. At the first town meeting on February 5, 1749, he was elected one of the town's five selectmen.[3]: 18 

French and Indian War
He was initially a lieutenant in the New Hampshire Provisional Regiment and spent the fall of 1755 scouting the area around Lake Champlain.[3]: 19 

Promoted to captain, he raised a company that was among the defenders at the siege of Fort William Henry in August 1757.[4] When the British surrendered on the promise by the French victors that they would be protected from the latter's Native American allies. However, the terms of capitulation were violated; the Native Americans attacked the British soldiers and their dependents as they withdrew, killing many soldiers and capturing women, children, servants and slaves. Captain Bayley was among those who managed to escape.[3]: 19  According to family tradition, he fled, running barefoot 12 miles (19 km) to Fort Edward; the Provincial Assembly of New Hampshire awarded him £14, 11s, 6p for his losses during the retreat, which included his shoes.[3]: 20 

The war turned in favor of the British. Bayley participated in General Amherst's capture of Fort Carillon and of Montreal in New France,[1] which essentially ended the fighting in North America.[3]: 21  By the end of the war, Bayley had been promoted, first to lieutenant-colonel, then to colonel.[1][3]: 21 

Inter-war years
Founding of Newbury and Haverhill
With the war over, in the fall of 1760 Bayley and three hometown friends and fellow officers - Captain John Hazen and Lieutenants Jacob Kent and Timothy Bedell - left Montreal to go home. On their travels, they found a location at the Oxbow, an extension of the Connecticut River, that they decided to make their new home.[3]: 23  In the summer of 1761, Bayley, Hazen and some hired hands cleared the fields around the Oxbow. The first four permanent settlers arrived in February 1762.[3]: 25  On May 18, 1763, Benning Wentworth, colonial governor of the Province of New Hampshire, granted them charters for Newbury (named after the hometown of Bayley and the others) and Haverhill, on opposite sides of the Oxbow (Newbury on the west bank and Haverhill on the east bank).[2][3]: 24 

Bayley and Ethan Allen
A dispute over land titles, which found Bayley and Ethan Allen on opposing sides, exacerbated by religious and other differences, resulted in mutual animosity.[2]

American Revolutionary War
On May 22, 1776, the Committees of the Counties of Cumberland and Gloucester, New York, nominated then-Colonel Bayley for the position of brigadier-general of the state militia of those counties.[5] The promotion was approved.[6]

Bayley, as a colonel and later as a brigadier general, corresponded with George Washington (63 letters can be read in their entirety at Founders Online, an official website of the United States government administered by the National Archives and Records Administration),[7] first regarding constructing the Bayley Hazen Military Road, then about the situation in Canada and a possible second invasion attempt. (The United States had unsuccessfully invaded Quebec in 1775.) He and Moses Hazen built the Bayley Hazen Military Road, starting in 1776, to support a second invasion of Canada that never materialized. In 1777, he was appointed Commissary General of the Northern Department of the Continental Army.

Bayley only saw action once in the war, leading a division in the October 7, 1777, portion of the Battles of Saratoga[6] He was stationed with 2000 New Hampshire militiamen north of Fort Edward.[8]

In the early 1780s, the British were conducting the secret Haldimand Negotiations with the Vermont Republic. Because of Bayley's implacable opposition to negotiations with the British, an attempt was made to take him prisoner and take him to Canada, but it narrowly failed.[6][2] Bayley's neighbor, Colonel Thomas Johnson, had earlier been captured by the British and released on parole, but he violated his parole in 1782 to forewarn Bayley.[2][9] (Ethan Allen was one of the Haldimand negotiators, further exacerbating his relationship with Bayley.[2])

Legacy
There is a monument to General Bayley in the Newbury town common.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Bayley

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Family

Reference: ancestry.com:

Jacob Bailey was Born in Newbury Essex, Massachusetts on 19 Jul 1726 to Joshua Bailey and Sarah Coffin. He died 01 Mar 1815 Newbury, Orange, Vermont. Jacob married Prudence Noyes and had 12 children.

Family Members

Parents

1. Joshua Bailey 1685-1760
2. Sarah Coffin 1685-1768

Spouse(s) Prudence Noyes 1715-1827

Children

1. Ephraim Bailey 1745-1825, m. [1] HANNAH FOWLER [2] LUCY HODGES
2. Abigail Bailey 1749-Unknown
3. Noyes Bailey 1751-Unknown
4. Joshua Bailey 1753-1841, m. [1] ANNA FOWLER
5. Hannah Bayley 1753-Unknown
6. Jacob Bailey 1755-1837, m. [1] RUTH BEDELL [2] MARY LADD
7. James Bailey 1757-1784
8. Sarah Bayley 1759-1841
9. Amherst Bailey 1760-1783
10. Abner Bailey 1745-1783
11. John Bailey 1765-1839, m. [2] HANNAH LADD
12. Isaac Bailey 1767-1850, m. [1] BETSEY JOHNSON

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References

• https://sarpatriots.sar.org/patriot/display/106897
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial -
• https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Newbury/aBirthsB.shtml "(BAILEY (Baile, Baily, Baley, Bayley, Baylise, Bayly)) Jacob, s. Joshua and Sarah, July 19, 1726."
• https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Newbury/aMarriagesB.shtml "(BAYLEY (Bailey)) Jacob, and Prudence Noyes, Oct. 16, 1745.*"
• Newbury VR has Jacob & Prudence with:
  • Ephraim, s. Jacob and Prudence, Oct. 1, 1746