Introduction

Biography

Blind from birth, Lin­ley stu­died with Ed­ward Miller, or­gan­ist at Don­cas­ter Par­ish Church, and lat­er (be­ing the suc­cess­ful can­di­date among 17 com­pe­ti­tors) be­came or­gan­ist of St. James Cha­pel, Pen­ton­ville, Lon­don.

He mar­ried a well-to-do blind la­dy, and around 1797 they pur­chased Bland’s mu­sic bu­si­ness in Hol­born, which was un­suc­cess­ful. He was al­so for some time mu­sic agent for John Wat­len of Ed­in­burgh.

After sus­tain­ing great fi­nan­cial loss­es through the trea­che­ry of a friend, he made a voy­age to Am­er­ica (be­ing succeeded as cha­pel or­gan­ist by Will­iam Hod­soll), where his per­form­anc­es and com­po­si­tions brought him some no­tice.

He re­turned to Don­cas­ter in 1799.