Thomas Linley the younger

Thomas Linley the younger (7 May 1756 – 5 August 1778), also known as Thomas Linley, Junior or Tom Linley, was the eldest son of the composer Thomas Linley and his wife Mary Johnson. He was one of the most precocious composers and performers that have been known in England. A highly talented violinist, Tom Linley was also the most promising of all native English composers between Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar, combining prodigious talent with a delightful personality. He is sometimes referred to as the "English Mozart". His early promise was cut short when he drowned in a boating accident, aged just 22 years.

Outside London, Bath was the most fashionable city in late 18th-century England and, in Bath, the Linleys were the most influential musical family.

Originally from Gloucestershire and of a modest background (Tom's grandfather was a carpenter/builder whose business later flourished thanks to Bath's urban development), the Linleys quickly became the most prominent artists among the community of musicians providing entertainment to the wealthy tenants of the elegant city. Charles Burney famously described them as "a Nest of Nightingales".

Tom's father, Thomas Linley the elder, who worked as a music and singing teacher, took over the management of the musical performances held at the Assembly rooms in Bath in 1766 and then became musical director of the New Bath Assembly Rooms in 1771. He soon put his children, whose musical education he supervised, to work. First, in 1762, Tom and his sister Elizabeth Ann were selling tickets to the concerts and soon after, as early as 1763, they were performing in front of full houses with their other siblings. Anything earned by the children was commandeered by Linley the elder and the talented youngsters quickly became a major source of income allowing the family finances to prosper and raising their social standing.

Tom's sisters – Elizabeth Ann (born 1754), Mary (born 1758) and Maria (born 1763) – were accomplished singers and actresses. His brother Samuel (born 1760) was a talented oboist before becoming a sailor. His youngest brother, William (born 1771) would also be a musician and, later in his life, a composer.

Tom, whose abilities were apparent from a very young age, played a violin concerto at a concert in Bristol on 29 July 1763 at the age of only 7. The Bath Journal thus advertised on 25 July 1763:

For the Benefit of Mr. Linley. At Loggan's Room at the Hot Wells on the 29th Inſt. Will be perform'd A Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music. The Vocal Parts by Mr. Linley, Mr. Higgins and Maſter Linley. The Firſt Violin by Mr Richards of Bath. End of the Iſt Act a Concerto on the Violin by Maſter Linley, a child of ſeven years old. End of the 2nd Act an Elegy of Jackson's by Mr. and Maſter Linley and Mr. Higgins

Tom started to compose soon after. William Boyce, Master of the King's Musick at the time, took him under his wing and Tom studied with him from 1763 to 1768.