Title: Portrait of William Hayley (1745-1820)

Height 90 cm, width 62 cm
Artist: James Millar (fl.1763-1805)
Date: c.1790
Oil on Canvas
Provenance: Gift of W.C. Edwards, 1924
Museum No. OLNCN.604

William was born in Chichester; his father Thomas Hayley (1715-48) was the Dean of Chichester. From 1750 he was sent to a boarding school in Kingston where he contracted a serious illness that left him with a life-long limp. From Eton College (1757-63) he went up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge but left without a degree.

His first published work 'Ode on the birth of the Prince of Wales' met with some success and was reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine (January 1763). However, efforts to become a playwright did not meet with similar success and several plays and an opera were rejected.

Turning from these failures Hayley concentrated on his poetry with a mix of epitaphs, odes and sonnets, composing more than 140 epitaphs.

In 1776 he was introduced to the artist George Romney (1734-1802) who became a friend and frequent visitor to Hayley's home at Eartham near Chichester.

Hayley's greatest achievement was his didactic poem Triumph of Temper, 1781. Written in rhyming couplets it was intended to teach young women the virtues of a pleasant nature. It was a major success and ran to 14 editions.

With the death of his son Tom and his friend William Cowper in 1800, Hayley became something of a recluse, retiring to Eartham. He had another major success with his Life of Cowper (1803) that with further editions earned him £11,000. By this time Hayley was also patron to William Blake who had moved to nearby Felpham in order to finish a portrait of Hayley's son Tom.

Hayley suffered kidney trouble from 1812 and died of a bladder stone in 1820. On his death his extensive library was auctioned over a period of 13 days. He left his memoirs (which were written in the third person) to be edited by Rev. John Johnson (published 1823).