Richard Bayley was a well known physician of the 18th century. He taught and did research on the most prominent medical problems of the time, and developed a new treatment for diphtheria that helped save many lives. He was also deeply involved in the health of the immigrants that came to the United States through Ellis Island in New York.

Richard Bayley was born in 1745 in Fairfield, Connecticut. As a child he was well educated in a variety of subjects including French and the classics. Little is known about his life until 1766, when he took an apprenticeship with John Charlton. Charlton was a very well known physician who lived and worked in New York. During the time that he was an apprentice, Bayley courted Charlton's sister. Eventually they married and three children. In 1977 his wife died, and a year later he married Charlotte Barclay, with whom he had...