Caledonia

BAYLIES, Nicholas

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, p 352

Hon. Nicholas BAYLIES came to Lyndon [Caledonia County, Vermont] to reside in 
1835. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, and afterwards a student and 
partner of the Hon. Charles MARSH of Woodstock [Windsor County, Vermont], 
and afterwards of Senator UPHAM of Montpelier [Washington County, Vermont]. 
He was a native of Massachusetts. While residing at Woodstock, he [Nicholas 
BAYLIES] married Mary, daughter of Professor RIPLEY of Hanover [Plymouth 
County, Massachusetts?], and sister of Gen. Eleazer W. and James W. RIPLEY, 
of the army of 1812, and since of congress.

He [Nicholas BAYLIES] moved to Montpelier in 1810, and had Judge PRENTISS and 
other able men to compete with; yet, by industry, besides laboriously 
attending to his office and large court business, he composed several volumes 
of Indexes of Common and American Law, arranged under appropriate heads, 
affording ready references for practical use, and very valuable to the 
profession, three good sized volumes of which were published, entitled 
Baylies' Digested Index. Other volumes, written afterwards as an addenda, 
have not been published. He also published a treatise on the powers of the 
mind, considered valuable. He was an able practitioner of his profession 
until 1833, when he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court, and re-elected 
in 1834, discharging the duties of the office with distinguished ability. 

His wife having deceased, on retiring from the bench he ever after made his 
his home with his only daughter, Mary R., Mrs. George C. CAHOON, and although 
advanced in life, yet possessing good health and a vigorous constitution, he 
entered into the practice of law again with the ardor of youth, especially of 
chancery, in which he delighted, and at his [Nicholas BAYLIES'] death, in 
1847, aged seventy-nine years, was esteemed one of the most learned lawyers 
of the state. His mind was not as much characterized for brilliancy as for 
patient and indomitable perseverance in investigation and in arriving at 
correct conclusions. His family consisted of three children: the oldest a 
son, (1) Horatio N., who was a merchant, and died in Louisiana in 185-; and 
his youngest son, (2) Nicholas, Jr., a lawyer, who resides in Des Moines 
[Polk County], Iowa. The daughter, (3) Mary Ripley, Mrs. George C. CAHOON, 
died at Lyndon [Caledonia County, Vermont], 18 July 1858.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly