Unlike most of his artist-contemporaries, who were predominantly middle-class southerners, Bayes was a northerner from artisan stock. His father William Bayes was a shoe-maker, his mother, Hannah Uttley, was a local farmer’s daughter. He had the opportunity to widen his knowledge and apply at least part of it when, around 1845, his father set up a museum, library, and school-room.
Financed by a legacy and the sale of the family house, Bayes abandoned his home and moved to London. In 1863, he enrolled at Heatherley’s (formerly Leigh’s) Art School and supported himself by illustrating for the Dalziels while also becoming a member of the St John’s Wood Clique. Bayes went on to establish himself as a painter of portraits, watercolours, large romantic pieces in a neo-classical idiom and topographical etchings. He was elected to the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers, along with membership of the RWS (Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour).
On 26th June 1909 he fell heavily as he avoided a street cab and he died shortly afterwards.
(source: http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/bayes/biography.html)