The name Bailey as a surname is probably from the town Bailli, in the arrondissement of Neufchatel. Bailie is a township in Cumberland, and Bailey the name of one in Lancashire.
The spelling of the name has never been uniform. In France the ususal orthography is Baailly; in Scotland, Baillie; and in England and America, Baily, Bailey, and Bayley. Other variations of the name are: Baille, Balai, and Baillet (the "t" silent).
As to the derivation of the name, authorities differ. There are those who got it from the same root as bail and bailiff, namely, the old French word bailer or bailor, meaning to deliver or give up.
Bailey, as a term in architecture, is said to be a corruption of ballium, or from the French baille, which, in turn, is a corruption of bataille, a place where soldiers drill in battle array, or the open space between the inner and outer lines of a fortification. The Inner and Outer Bailey often play important parts in old English novels, do they not? There is the old Bailey at London and York; and the Upper and nether Bailey at Colchester.
In France, where the name is Baillet, as well as Bailly, Adrien Baillet of Picardy was a writer and critic. Jean Sylvain Bailly was on orator, astronomer, and a promoter of the French Reveloution. The day following the fall of the Bastile he was made mayor of Paris, but his counsels of moderation being distasteful, he too promptly lost his head.
The Baileys have been prominent in the history of Great Britian, and seated at Sheffield, Bristol, and Nottingham; also at Glasgow, and on the banks of the Clyde, in Lanarkshire.
The family has had almost more than its share of learned men and women; literary lights, bright and shinning; and scientists, and philosophers.1
1Historical Record of the Bailey Family and Its Coat of Arms: Prepared for Wilson Studio of Hearaldry by Claude O. Wilson, Jr.
1st # free white males 16 year upwards and head of families 2nd # free white males under 16 years 3rd # free white females and head of families 4th # all other free persons 5th # slaves Bailey, Jacob....................................1-0-1-0-0 Bailey, Mathew...................................1-3-3-0-0 Bailey, Thomas...................................1-2-5-0-0 Bailey, Lydia....................................2-2-1-0-0
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