Thomas Monteagle Bayly

Thomas Monteagle Bayly (March 26, 1775 – January 7, 1834) was an eighteenth and nineteenth century politician, lawyer and planter from Virginia's Eastern Shore who represented Virginia's 13th congressional district (1813-1815) as well as served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. One of his sons, Thomas Henry Bayly, later also served as a congressman (1844-1856). Complicating matters (in addition to variant spellings of the familial surname common at the time), another lawyer of similar name Thomas Bayly (1775-1829) from Wicomico County on Maryland's Eastern Shore represented Maryland's 8th congressional district (1817-1823).

Early life Born on Hills Farm near Drummondtown, Virginia to the former Anne Drummond and her husband Thomas Bayly, Bayly was the youngest of three sons, and also had two younger sisters. He was descended from the First Families of Virginia. An ancestor, Richard Bayley, was one of the early settlers of Accomack County, establishing a plantation called "Craddock" early in the 17th century. This Thomas Bayly received a private education appropriate to his class, then attended Washington Academy in Maryland. He went on to graduate from Princeton College in New Jersey in 1794, then studied law. In the 1820 federal census, Bayly's 37 person household in Accomack County included 2 free blacks and 26 enslaved. By the time Bayly died, his extensive landholdings included property in Maryland as well as in Ohio and Illinois. In 1801, Bayly won election to the Virginia State Senate, representing Virginia's Eastern Shore, and was re-elected until 1809.

A vocal opponent of the War of 1812, Bayly successfully ran as a Federalist in 1812. Because of his popularity on the Eastern Shore, and possibly because British warships in Chesapeake Bay limited turnout in the western part of the district which favored the incumbent, he narrowly defeated Congressman Burwell Bassett to win election to the United States House of Representatives. Despite accusations that polling places had remained open too long in Accomack County, the House of Representatives seated Bayly, who served from 1813 to 1815. Bayly took the field in 1814 as lieutenant colonel of Virginia's 2nd Regiment of militia. Bayly again won election in 1828, again serving alongside John P. Drummond, and twice re-elected the pair.

Before his last term in the House of Delegates, Bayly also served as one of the four delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830 from the Tidewater district including Mathews, Gloucester, Middlesex, Northampton and Accomack counties, together with Thomas R. Joynes, Abel P. Upshur and Calvin H. Read (who died and was replaced by William K. Perrin). During the convention, Bayly endorsed some of the reforms advocated by the western counties, including extension of suffrage to more white men and reapportionment, but adopted generally conservative positions and voted against other reforms.