In the latter capacity he edited Calendars of the Proceedings in Chancery in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in 3 volumes for the Record Commission (1827–32), for which he is said not only to have received the sum of £2,739, but to have claimed further remuneration.
His exorbitant charges and mode of editing were vigorously assailed by Charles Purton Cooper, then secretary to the Commission, Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, and others.
A committee was appointed to inquire into the circumstances, and, after meeting no fewer than seventeen times, issued a report, of which twenty-five copies were printed for the private use of the board.
Bayley's History and Antiquities of the Tower of London appeared in two parts in 1821–5, and an abridgment was published in 1830.
He had also made considerable progress on a complete parliamentary history of England, and for this he obtained copious abstracts of the returns to parliament, 1702–10, from the original records in the Rolls Chapel.