Baily was also a major figure in the early history of the Royal Astronomical Society, as one of the founders and as the president four times.

[1] After a tour in the unsettled parts of North America in 1796–1797, his journal of which was edited by Augustus De Morgan in 1856, Baily entered the London Stock Exchange in 1799.

The phenomenon, which depends upon the irregular shape of the Moon's limb, was so vividly described by him as to attract an unprecedented amount of attention to the total eclipse of 8 July 1842, observed by Baily himself at Pavia.

[2] In other work, he completed and discussed H. Foster's pendulum experiments, deducing from them an ellipticity for the Earth of 1/289.48 (Memoirs R. Astr.

His laborious operations for determining the mean density of the Earth, carried out by Henry Cavendish's method (1838–1842), yielded the authoritative value of 5.66.

[2] Baily died in London on 30 August 1844 and was buried in the family vault in St Mary's Church in Thatcham, Berkshire.