Although the senior Bayly served a term in the U.S. House of Representatives (1813–1815) during the War of 1812, he primarily operated a plantation using enslaved labor, and would also later again serve (part-time) in the Virginia House of Delegates and at the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829 representing Accomack County.
[2] Admitted to the bar in 1830, Bayly practiced law in Accomac County, Virginia and also operated the family plantation using enslaved labor, especially after his father's death in 1834.
[4] Accomack County voters elected and re-elected Bayly as one of their two representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served (part time) from 1836 to 1842.
In 1844, Bayly won election as a Democrat to fill a vacancy in the United States House of Representatives caused by the resignation of Henry A.
Bayly died on June 23, 1856, during his congressional term, but at his estate, Mount Custis, near Drummondtown, Virginia.