Samuel Medley, Jr. 

Samuel Medley, Jr. (1769-1857) was the son of Samuel Medley of Liverpool (see previous entry). The younger Medley became a noted painter. He entered the Royal Academy in London in 1791 (he was a student at one point of Sir Joshua Reynolds) and first exhibited the following year. Initially he painted religious and historical subjects, but later became known primarily for his portraits, exhibiting twenty-eight paintings (primarily portraits) between 1792 and 1805. That year his health precluded his continuing his painting full-time, and he turned to the stock exchange, from which he would maintain a comfortable living the remainder of his life. He was a member at Carter Lane under John Rippon between 1798 and 1812, and thereafter worshiped at Hackney under F. A. Cox. He was an active participant in the early years of the Baptist Union and supporter of the BMS from its earliest days. Along with Cox, Joseph Hughes, and many other prominent London Nonconformists and Anglicans, Medley was instrumental in the founding of University College, London, in 1826. His painting, The Medical Society of London, can still be seen in the Society’s rooms in Chandos Street, Cavendish Square, London. In 1818, he married Elizabeth Smallshaw (his second wife), daughter of John Smallshaw of Liverpool (see letter 39). See Seymour J. Price, “The Early Years of the Baptist Union.” Baptist Quarterly 4 (1928–1929), 121-123; Horsleydown and Carter Lane Church Book, 1719–1808, MS., Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle, London.