William Bayly "...was an early mayor of New Plymouth, who owned and farmed land at the seaward end of the current road near Ngamotu Beach.The farm was called Blagdon, and the land it occupied is traversed by Blagdon Rd. Blagdon is a popular name in Dorset and Somerset in England. William Bayly was a pioneer settler who arrived in New Plymouth on the Amelia Thompson in 1841 with his wife, Elizabeth, and his brothers, Thomas and James, and their wives. Surveyed in 1842, Bayly Rd marked New Plymouth's western boundary and gave access from Ngamotu Beach to the original highway to the new settlement. William Bayly was wounded when he fought against the Maori in the Battle of Waireka in March 1860. In 1881 he became New Plymouth's fourth mayor, and served another term from 1886 to 1888. The two-storied house he owned in Strandon became the first boarding hostel for the New Plymouth Girls' High School. He owned three butcheries in New Plymouth, selling meat from stock on his properties at Warea, Rahotu, and Okato and was one of the first directors of the Taranaki Freezing Works Company Limited which erected a building at Moturoa in 1895. In 1901 the province's dairy companies purchased the company and established the Taranaki Producers' Freezing Works Company Ltd.
William Bayly died in July 1902." Source: Word on the Street Article written and researched by staff of the Taranaki Research Centre at Puke Ariki. Published in Taranaki Daily News on 21 November 2009 and online here: http://ketenewplymouth.peoplesnetworknz.info/taranaki_street_names/topics/show/804-bayly-road-dn-21112009
His obituary was published in the Taranaki Herald 7 July 1902 p.2 http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=TH19020707.2.9&srpos=10&e=--1902-----10--1-byDA---2William+Bayly--