Author: Bayly, Nathaniel Thomas Haynes
Biography:
BAYLY, Nathaniel Thomas Haynes (1797-1839: ODNB)
pseudonym Q in the Corner
Playwright and poet. His father, Nathaniel Bayly, was an attorney who had become bankrupt in 1793, and his mother was Melasina Warburton (Freeman) Bayly; they had married in London on 17 Aug. 1795. Although no public record has been located, Bayly was born in Bath on 13 Oct. 1797. He was educated at Winchester College before being articled to his father in May 1813. Bayly found the law dull and he matriculated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, on 9 Dec. 1818. However academic studies proved to be no more to his liking than the law and he left without taking a degree. After the failure of his love affair with Anne Darby of Bath, he travelled to Scotland and Dublin (the family owned estates in Ireland), returning to Bath in 1824. As “Q in the Corner” he published poetry in the Bath Herald. He married Helena Beecher Hayes in Cheltenham on 11 July 1826; they had two daughters. The couple moved to London in 1829 where Bayly began to make his name as a playwright. A collapse in the family fortunes meant that they were financially dependent on his writing career. In Mar. 1839 he was awarded £50 by the RLF. Bayly was, however, in poor health and he died of jaundice on 22 Apr. 1839 at Cheltenham, where he had gone for the medicinal spa waters. His family was helped financially by a benefit at Drury Lane and by a further £50 from the RLF. Their situation was not helped by the apparent loss of Bayly’s will; it was not located and proved until 10 June 1858. Helena Bayly published a two-volume collection of her husband’s poems and songs in 1844. (ODNB 23 Feb. 2019; ancestry.co.uk 23 Feb. 2018, 13 Nov. 2022; RLF file 955)
Other Names:
- N. T. H. Bayly
- T. H. Bayly
- Thomas Bayly
- Thomas Haynes Bayly