Mrs. (Mary) Bayly

Mary Bayly (4 March 1816 – 13 December 1899), sometimes also spelled Mary Bayley, was a British temperance activist and pamphlet writer. She is remembered for writing Ragged Homes and How to Mend Them and for using her books and pamphlets to argue that social reform began in the home.

Born Mary Saunders, she came from a family active in public and reform life, and she later married Captain George Bayly. Sources describe her as a founder of a Mothers' Society in the 1850s, and her writing focused on the lives of poor women and children, especially in London. Her best-known work combines moral urgency with very concrete observations about housing, cleanliness, childcare, and daily hardship.

Bayly's books belong to the world of Victorian philanthropy, but they also give a vivid picture of how reformers tried to respond to urban poverty. Alongside her temperance work, she wrote other domestic and religious works, including Home Weal and Home Woe and The Life and Letters of Mrs. Sewell.