author
1823–1917
A Victorian clergyman, baronet, and occasional cricketer, he wrote practical Christian works shaped by parish life and public preaching. His surviving books have a direct, earnest tone that reflects the religious world of nineteenth-century England.
by Sir Emilius Bayley
Born in London on May 16, 1823, he was formally Sir John Robert Laurie Emilius Bayley, 3rd Baronet, though he was usually known simply as Emilius. He later took the surname Laurie, and sources describe him as an English clergyman as well as an amateur first-class cricketer.
He was educated at Cambridge and ordained in the Church of England in the 1840s. During his ministry he served at Woburn, St George's in Bloomsbury, and St John's, Paddington. His writing grew out of that church life: Project Gutenberg lists Episcopal Fidelity, a sermon preached in Westminster Abbey in 1877, and other records connect him with practical devotional and pastoral works.
He died in Dumfriesshire in December 1917 at the age of 94. For modern listeners, his appeal lies in the mix of Victorian conviction and plain-spoken religious instruction found in the sermons and reflections that still circulate today.