William Linley was one of 7 musical siblings born to Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson.

He joined the British East India Company

British East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 and was in India 1790-5 and 1800-5, holding a writership at their College

East India Company College

The East India College was a college in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire, England. It was founded in February 1806 as the training establishment for the British East India Company . At that time, the BEIC provided general and vocational education for young gentlemen of sixteen to eighteen years old,...

 in Madras. He retired from the company in 1810 and devoted himself to singing, composing glee

Glee (music)

A glee is an English type of part song spanning the late baroque, classical and early romantic periods. It is usually scored for at least three voices, and generally intended to be sung unaccompanied. Glees often consist of a number of short, musically contrasted movements and their texts can be...

s and songs and writing literature. He bequeathed his collection of family portraits to Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London. England's first purpose-built public art gallery, it was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane and opened to the public in 1817. Soane arranged the exhibition spaces as a series of interlinked rooms illuminated naturally...

.

Source

• Brief biography (Dulwich Picture Gallery)