Richard Bayley
| Richard Bayley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1745 Fairfield, Connecticut |
| Died | August 17, 1801 (aged 56) |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Known for | First NYC Health Officer |
| Children | Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton |
| Relatives | James Roosevelt Bayley, grandson |
Richard Bayley (1745 – August 17, 1801) was a prominent New York City physician and the first chief health officer of the city.
Bayley was born in 1745 in Fairfield, then in the Colony of Connecticut, to a family of French Hugenot and English descent, based in New Rochelle, New York. In 1766 he was apprenticed to New York City physician John Charlton. Bayley married John's sister, Catherine Charlton, at St. John's Episcopal Church (Elizabeth, New Jersey); her father was the rector of St. Andrew's Church, Staten Island. The couple had three children, including Elizabeth Ann Bayley. Later, known as Mother Seton, she became the foundress of the first group of Catholic Religious Sisters in the nation, and was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be declared a saint, and Guy Carelton Bayley, whose son James Roosevelt Bayley became a Roman Catholic Bishop and Archbishop.
Bayley traveled to London in 1769, where he studied anatomy with William Hunter. Bayley returned to the United States in 1772, where he opened a practice with Charlton, his father-in-law and former instructor. He returned to England in 1775 to continue his work with Hunter.
A Loyalist, Bayley returned to America and enlisted in the British army as a surgeon at the start of the American Revolution and was stationed in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1777, however, the illness of his wife caused him to return to New York, where she soon died. He took no further part in the conflict. The following year he married Charlotte Barclay, and they eventually had four children. They later separated.
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