Marcellus Bailey (1840 – January 16, 1921) was an American patent attorney who, with Anthony Pollok, helped prepare Alexander Graham Bell's patents for the telephone and related inventions.
The son of abolitionist and National Era editor Gamaliel Bailey, Marcellus Bailey was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was a major in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war he studied law at the Columbian College Law Department (now the George Washington University Law School), and graduated in 1866.
Bailey became a patent attorney and continued his patent law practice for almost 55 years until his death. When Alexander Graham Bell began work on the telephone, Bailey was a partner of patent attorney Anthony Pollok in the law firm of Pollok & Bailey. Bell's patron and future father-in-law Gardiner Hubbard paid Pollok and Bailey to work on Bell's patent applications and patents. Bailey was a founding member of the Metropolitan Club, and President of the Alibi Club.[1] The Alexander Graham Bell Papers collection at the Library of Congress contain letters from Bell to Pollok and Bailey regarding Bell's patents for the telephone. Bailey died in Washington, D.C., on January 16, 1921 and is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown.[1]