Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/220

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unquestionable. Adult baptism was not an essential for membership in his church, which became practically congregational. He yearly visited London, preaching at the Surrey Tabernacle and that in Tottenham Court Road. After a painful illness he died on 17 July 1799. He married (17 April 1762) Mary, daughter of William Gill, hosier, of Nottingham. His portrait was painted and engraved by his son Samuel [q. v.], for a volume of ‘Memoirs,’ published by the latter in 1800. Two of Medley's sermons are printed with his ‘Memoirs’ (1800); one was translated into Welsh. His hymns, originally printed on single sheets, and in the ‘Gospel Magazine’ and other publications, were collected in 1. ‘Hymns,’ &c., Bradford, 1785. 2. ‘Hymns on Select Portions of Scripture,’ &c., Bristol, 1785 (this is called 2nd edit., but is a smaller and variant collection; it was enlarged 1787). 3. ‘Hymns,’ 1794. 4. ‘The Public Worship and Private Devotion … Assisted … in Verse,’ &c., 1800. Though Halley calls Medley ‘a small poet,’ Mr. Stevenson speaks of ‘the warmth and occasional pathos’ of his hymns, of which he specifies twenty as having gained considerable vogue. His daughter Sarah published a volume of ‘Original and Miscellaneous Poems,’ Liverpool, 1807, and other poems in Liverpool magazines; also a ‘Memoir,’ 1833, of her father, with appended hymns, ascribed to him, but many of them altered, and some of them by Thomas Kelly (1769–1854).

[Memoirs by Samuel Medley, his son, 1800; Memoirs of Gilbert Wakefield, 1804, i. 208 sq.; Memoirs by Sarah Medley (his daughter), 1833; Thom's Liverpool Churches and Chapels, 1854, pp. 43 sq.; Halley's Lancashire, 1869, ii. 479 sq.; Urwick's Nonconf. in Herts, 1884, pp. 361, 466; Mr. W. R. Stevenson, in Julian's Dict. of Hymnology, 1892, pp. 112, 722.]

A. G.

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.]

L. C.

MEDOWS. [See also Meadows.]

MEDOWS, Sir WILLIAM (1738–1813), general, second son of Philip Medows [see under Meadows, Sir Philip], deputy ranger of Richmond Park, and Lady Frances Pierrepont, daughter of the Duke of Kingston, was born on 31 Dec. 1738. He entered the army as an ensign in the 50th regiment in 1756. In 1760 he went with his regiment to join the allied army under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who as Frederick the Great's lieutenant was defending western Germany against the French. Medows remained in Germany till March 1764. In the December of that year he obtained the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 5th regiment of foot, exchanging in September 1773 into the 12th light dragoons. In 1775 Medows again exchanged into the 55th regiment of foot, which was on the point of starting for America, to act against the revolted colonists. He distinguished himself at the battle of Brandywine in 1776, and in an expedition against Santa Lucia in 1778. He returned to England in 1780, and was now made colonel of the 89th regiment. Medows held a high command in the expedition sent out under Commodore Johnstone against the Cape of Good Hope in 1781. A skirmish occurred with the French admiral, Suffren, in Prava Bay on 16 April 1782, and on arriving at the Cape of Good Hope the English