Edmund L. Baylies
Born
Edmund Lincoln Baylies, Jr.

December 2, 1857
New York City, U.S.
DiedApril 29, 1932 (1932-04-30) (aged 74)
New York City, U.S.
Alma mater
EmployerCarter Ledyard & Milburn
Spouse
Louisa Van Rensselaer
​
​
(m. 1887)​
Relatives
Signature

Edmund Lincoln Baylies, Jr. (December 2, 1857 – April 29, 1932) was a New York City lawyer, philanthropist, and member of New York Society during the Gilded Age.[1]

Early life

Baylies was born in New York on December 2, 1857. He was the eldest child of Edmund Lincoln Baylies (1829–1869), a merchant and philanthropist,[2] and Nathalie Elizabeth Ray (1837–1912).[3][4] He was the brother of Cornelia Prime Ray, who married Judge Francis Cabot Lowell; Walter Cabot Baylies,[5] a president of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company who married Charlotte Upham;[6][7] in 1888,[8] and Ruth Baylies.[9][2]

His maternal grandparents were Cornelia (née Prime) Ray (the daughter of Nathaniel Prime) and Robert Ray, the brother-in-law of New York Gov. John Alsop King. His paternal grandparents were Edmund Baylies (a cousin of U.S. Representative Francis Baylies) and Eliza Ann (née Payson) Baylies. Through his father's family, he was descended from Benjamin Lincoln, the Revolutionary War general and aide-de-camp to Washington,[3] and Thomas Baylies, who emigrated to the America in 1737.[6] His aunt, Ruth Baylies, was married to Maturin Livingston Jr., the son of Maturin Livingston, making Elizabeth Livingston, the wife of George Cavendish-Bentinck, and her twin sister, Ruth T. Livingston, the wife of Ogden Mills, his first cousins. Another aunt, Cornelia Ray, was married to Maj. Gen. Schuyler Hamilton, son of John Church Hamilton and grandson of Alexander Hamilton, making Robert Ray Hamilton, his first cousins.[9]

Baylies graduated from Harvard College, with an A.B., in 1879 and then from Harvard Law School, with an L.L.B., in 1882. He also obtained an LL.D. from Columbia Law School in 1882.[10]

Career

After graduating from law school, he spent a year traveling around the globe, and then joined Scudder & Carter, a firm founded by Henry Joel Scudder and James C. Carter.[1] In 1895, Baylies, who focused on real estate,[11][12] became partner at the firm, then known as Carter & Ledyard, after the admission of Lewis Cass Ledyard. He retired from the firm in 1926, which was then known as Carter Ledyard & Milburn, following the addition of John G. Milburn in 1904.[1] He was also personal counsel to Cornelius Vanderbilt III.[13]

In 1896, he spoke before the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce in support of the bill to establish a cable between the United States and the Hawaiian Islands.[14]

He was a president of the Vanderbilt Hotel Corporation, a director of the Metropolitan Opera Company, All America Cables, Inc., the Eastern Steel Company, a trustee of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, and vice-president and trustee of the Green-Wood Cemetery.[1]

Baylies was associated with the Seamen's Church Institute for 47 years.[15][16] He served as the Institute's counsel from 1892 to 1915 and was chairman of the executive committee from 1905 until he became president in 1913.[1] In the January preceding his death, was made honorary lay president. He was a member of the New-York Historical Society and the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati.[10]

Society life

In 1892, Baylies and his wife were both included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[17]

Baylies was a member of the Knickerbocker Club, the University Club, the Century Association, the Harvard Club, the Riding Club and the New York Yacht Club.[1]

Personal life

On January 18, 1887, Baylies was married to Louisa Van Rensselaer (1865–1945)[18][19] at St. Thomas Church in Manhattan.[20] She was the daughter of Alexander Van Rensselaer (1814–1878) and his second wife, Louisa (née Barnewall) Van Rensselaer. Her paternal grandparents were Stephen Van Rensselaer III, the Patroon of Rensselaerwyck, and Cornelia Bell Paterson,[9] the daughter of William Paterson, the 2nd Governor of New Jersey.[21] In 1917, after his death, his wife received the Legion of Honour in recognition of her work for France.[22]

In 1919, he suffered from double pneumonia and traveled to the Virginia Hot Springs for recovery.[23]

Baylies died at his home on 10 East 62nd Street in Manhattan on April 29, 1932.[1] He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.[24] The pallbearers included Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler, Gen. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, Stephen Baker, Walter W. Parsons, Henry Parrish, Allison V. Armour, Charles D. Wetmore, Henry B. Anderson, Frank Gray Griswold, and Frank L. Polk.[24] The ushers were Herbert Robbins, Percy Pyne, Henry Hill Anderson, Whitney Warren, Le Roy King, Henry Bull, and George Pendelton.[24] His widow died on December 1, 1945, at Hamstead Marshall in Newbury, England, where she was living with the Countess of Craven, formerly Cornelia Martin who was the widow of William Craven, 4th Earl of Craven and the daughter of Bradley Martin.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "E.L. BAYLIES IS DEAD; WAS LEADER IN BAR; Socially Prominent Attorney Helped to Create Cathedral of St. John the Divine. SEAMEN'S INSTITUTE HEAD Was Its President for 19 Years | Handled Many Large Estates Member of Old Family". The New York Times. April 30, 1932. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  2. 1 2 "MRS. N.E. BAYLIES DIES.; Descendant of One of the Oldest Families In America". The New York Times. December 10, 1912. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  3. 1 2 Hall, Edward Hagaman (1894). The Sons of the American Revolution: New York State Society, 1893-94. Republic Press. p. 60. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  4. ↑ Miller, Tom (September 8, 2014). "Daytonian in Manhattan: The Lost Baylies Mansion -- No. 1 East 71st Street". Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  5. ↑ "W. C. BAYLIES DIES; UTILITIES LEADER; Former President of Edison Company in Boston and a Prominent Industrialist, IN RETIREMENT FOR YEAR Began His Career With the Erie Railroad After Graduation From Harvard in 1884". The New York Times. May 4, 1936. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  6. 1 2 Eliot, Samuel Atkins (1911). Biographical History of Massachusetts: Biographies and Autobiographies of the Leading Men in the State. Massachusetts Biographical Society. p. 12. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Mrs. Walter C. Baylies". The New York Times. April 25, 1939. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  8. ↑ "TAKING A BOSTON BRIDE.; WEDDING OF MISS CHARLOTTE UPHAM AND WALTER C. BAYLIES". The New York Times. November 18, 1888. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  9. 1 2 3 Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York, Volume 3. New York: Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 1166, 1341. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  10. 1 2 Hall, Edward Hagaman (1899). Register of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution ...: Containing an Account of the Origin of the Sons of the American Revolution ... the Constitution and By-laws of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution; Lists of the National, State and Chapter Officers; Roll of Members, with Personal Data and Genealogies; Roll of Revolutionary Ancestors ... Sons of the American Revolution. Empire State Society. p. 84. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  11. ↑ "PARK AVENUE PLAN WILL COST $375,000; Lloyd Collis Denies It Will Take $2,826,279, as Asserted, to Carry Out His Scheme". The New York Times. May 25, 1913. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  12. ↑ "APARTMENT HOUSE DEALS.; Edmund L. Baylies Sells the Harold, Held at $300,000". The New York Times. May 25, 1921. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  13. ↑ "DENIES VANDERBILT DENOUNCED BRITISH; Edmund L. Baylies, His Lawyer, Repudiates Alleged Interview Assailing Triple Entente. WIDELY PRINTED IN GERMANY Vanderbilt Is Now on His Way to New York on White Star Liner Olympic". The New York Times. September 18, 1914. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  14. ↑ "ARGUING FOR HAWAIIAN CABLE.; Edmund L. Baylies of New-York Asks for National Aid". The New York Times. January 18, 1896. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  15. ↑ "THE SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE". The New York Times. December 5, 1926. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  16. ↑ "OPENS FUND DRIVE TO HELP SEAMEN; Church Institute Is Seeking $2,000,000 to Complete Annex to Sailors' Home. $750,000 ALREADY GIVEN E.L. Bayiles Calls on New Yorkers to Help Keep This Port the "Friendliest in the World."". The New York Times. May 2, 1926. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  17. ↑ McAllister, Ward (February 16, 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Mrs. Edmund Lincoln Baylies (Louisa Van Rensselaer, 1865-1945)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  19. 1 2 "MRS. BAYLIES DEAD; HELPED CATHEDRAL". The New York Times. December 2, 1945. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  20. ↑ "THE BAYLIES--RENSSELAER WEDDING". The New York Times. January 19, 1887. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  21. ↑ Sullivan, Robert G. (1911). "Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Van Rensselaer Vol. IV". www.schenectadyhistory.org. Schenectady County Public Library. pp. 1814–1821. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  22. ↑ "France Honors Mrs. E.L. Baylies". The New York Times. November 1, 1917. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  23. ↑ "Edmund L. Baylies Recovering". The New York Times. January 5, 1919. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  24. 1 2 3 "NOTABLES MOURN EDMUND L. BAYLIES; Bishops Freeman and Manning and Other Clergyman Take Part in Funeral. AT ST. JOHN'S CATHEDRAL Impressive Service Held for Prominent Lawyer, Churchman and Philanthropist". The New York Times. May 4, 1932. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
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