Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Medley, Samuel (1769-1857)
MEDLEY, SAMUEL (1769–1857), painter and one of the founders of University College, London, born on 22 March 1769, was son of Samuel Medley (1738–1799) [q. v.], the baptist minister. Adopting painting as his profession, he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy, in 1792 sending ‘The Last Supper.’ He painted several religious and historical subjects, but latterly devoted himself chiefly to portraiture, in which he gained considerable practice and reputation. In 1805, however, he found his profession injurious to his health, so he abandoned it, and went on the Stock Exchange, where he made a comfortable income, continuing to paint in his leisure hours. Medley was a member of a large baptist community in London, under the Rev. F. A. Cox, with whom, Lord Brougham, and some leading dissenters of education and position, he was associated in founding University College, London, in 1826. He resided for the latter portion of his life at Chatham, where he died on 10 Aug. 1857, and was buried there. Medley married, first, in 1792 Susannah, daughter of George Bowley of Bishopsgate Street, London; secondly, in 1818, Elizabeth, daughter of John Smallshaw of Liverpool. By his first wife he had three sons, William, Guy, and George, and three daughters, of whom the eldest, Susannah, married Henry Thompson, and was mother of Sir Henry Thompson, the eminent surgeon. A large group of portraits, representing ‘The Medical Society of London,’ painted by Medley, is in the rooms of that society in Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, London; it has been engraved by C. Branwhite [q. v.] Other portraits by him, including one of his father, are in the possession of Sir Henry Thompson, and show a firm, powerful touch; two of them, representing his children, were exhibited at the winter exhibition, Burlington House, 1887.
[Medley's Memoir of the Rev. S. Medley, 1800; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Royal Acad. Catalogues; private information.]