Priscilla Beals Shaw was born to Warren Shaw, farmer and Nancy Thomas on March 12, 1844 in South Weymouth, Massachusetts. From 1862-63 she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. After leaving Mount Holyoke, she returned to South Weymouth to teach until her marriage to James H. Bayley in 1867. Of her five children, three died at birth. Bayley died on March 30, 1924 at the age of eighty in Braintree, Massachusetts.