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.

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.

[9] Anything earned by the children was commandeered by Linley the elder[10] and the talented youngsters quickly became a major source of income[10] allowing the family finances to prosper and raising their social standing.

[2] From then on, their father always asking for higher fees for them, Tom and his siblings started to appear further afield, notably in charity concerts and oratorios, including in London.

[13] In May 1768, the famous portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough reported in a letter to William Jackson that "Tommy Linley [was] bound for Italy at the first opportunity".

[2] The Tenor Michael Kelly recounts in his Reminiscenses how, 10 years later, when he met Nardini, the latter "spoke with great affection of his favourite scholar, Thomas Linley, who, he said, possessed powerful abilities".

About Tom, "der kleine Tomaso", Leopold Mozart writes in one of his letters to his daughter Anna Maria, that he is "ein allerliebster Knab [...] welcher wunderschön spielt" (a very dear boy [...] who plays beautifully).

But when he learned that our departure had been fixed for midday, he came at 9 o'clock in the morning and gave Wolfgang, amidst many embraces, the following piece of poetry, which Sgra.

[18] Upon his return from Italy in 1771 Tom was soon recognised as one of the best violin virtuosos in Britain and quickly became a leading figure in London's musical life,[12] leading the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette to qualify him as "one of the moſt capital players on the violin in this kingdom"[19] in a review of a concert given on 10 September 1774 in Winchester at the occasion of a three day musical festival.

On Friday morning, at the Cathedral, the MESSIAH.- In the evening, at the Booth-hall, a Grand MISCELLANEOUS CONCERT, conſiſting of capital Songs and Choruſes, and Inſtrumental Pieces.

The Performers are desired to be in Gloceſter on Sunday evening, in order to rehearſe on Monday morning, the IIth, and to dine the ſame day with the Stewards, at the King's-head.

But Tom also occasionally "led the band", as stated by the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette of 29 February 1776 in a glowing review of the representation of Handel's Acis and Galatea.

[26] Its popularity was such that King George III brought his family to see it several times and Garrick allegedly lost most of his audience at the nearby Drury Lane Theatre.

[13] According to Matthew Cooke, by this time ("between the years 1771 and 1776"), Tom Linley had "composed no less than Twenty Concertos for the violin [...and] many of these [...had been] performed by him [...] at Drury Lane [...] and [...had been] received with the most unbounded applause.

"[27] In 1777 he composes what is usually viewed as his master-piece: an oratorio about the crossing of the Red Sea,[3] The Song of Moses, which is reprised in 1778 in a slightly modified version.

[12] According to the Mozart-Linley-Kraus 250th Anniversary Festival press release, "[it] was performed in London representations of that play for about forty years after Linley's death, before it was [...] supplanted by Henry Bishop's [...] Tempest.

"[18] In addition to that chorus, Linley also composed an air for Ariel's first appearance in the play, re-arranged some of the play's established music, including some of the numbers written by Thomas Arne, and wrote a separate setting of "Hark, hark, the watch-dogs bark" in which in the instruments of the orchestra are meant to somewhat render the sound of dogs barking and of cockerels.

However, according to Gwilym Beechey (author of the article on Tom Linley in the New Grove Dictionary and editor of some of his music[29][30]), the works that survived attest to "his fluent and congenial melody, his contrapuntal facility, and his imaginative orchestration.

[31] For instance, his orchestral cantatas, in the style of the ones composed by Arne and others for the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and the likes, delight with their particularly refined obligato instrumental parts that either playfully intertwine with the singers' voice (for instance, the virtuosic oboe in the airs 'Fly, Damon, to yon secret grove' and 'If thy too-cruel bow be bent') or colour the piece with subtle echoes of poetically charged evocations (the french horn in the air 'Wrapt close from harm' in the cantata Ye nymphs of Albion's beauty-blooming isle).

The en-vogue Italianate galant style – inspired by the likes of Nardini, Lolli, Giardini and many others – pervades the whole composition, however Linley's imaginative and creative writing also transpires in his way of mixing passages of extreme technical demands on the soloist (virtuosic and complex musical lines set above the 5th position, long continuous passages of double-stops, octave scales, rapid extreme register jumps, etc.)

His fresh approach to colourful orchestration both in terms of instrumentation and harmony (in particular the harmonic progressions in cadences and suspensions) also makes his concerto quite distinctive.

But Sheridan's play The Rivals, created in January 1775, had been such a great success that they thought that a new comedy by the same author, to which would be added musical interludes, could not fail.

On top of which he arranged and edited the folk songs selected by Sheridan and Elizabeth and the additional arias by other composers, his father's input representing a bit more than a quarter of the whole opera.

If the original text of Sheridan's libretto rapidly slipped into unreliable, corrupted and "debased" versions due to its complex copyright and publication history, according to William Davies (editor of Tom Linley's music for some of the Hyperion recordings and author of the first critical edition of Tom Linley's 1778 opera The Cady of Bagdad), the state of The Duenna's music is even "more fragmentary".

Modern representations: Including: Tom was a host of the Duke of Ancaster with his sister Mary and "his Companion Mr. Olivarez, Italian Master" – maybe the Spanish violin virtuoso and composer Juan Oliver y Astorga – at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire, when he drowned in a boating accident "just three months after his 22nd birthday".

[4] The press reported the circumstances of his death as follows: Drewry's Derby Mercury, Friday 14 August 1778:[45]On the 5th Inſtant a melancholy Accident happened at Grimſthorpe in Lincolnſhire, the Seat of his Grace the Duke Ancaſter:- Mr. Thomas Linley, eldeſt Son of Mr. Linley, one of the Proprietors of Drury-lane Theatre, Mr. Olivarez, an Italian Maſter, and another Perſon, agreed to go on the Lake in his Grace's Park, in a Sailing Boat, which Mr. Linley ſaid he could manage very well; but no ſooner had they ſailed into the Middle, than a ſudden Squall of Wind ſprung up, and overſet the Boat; however, they all hung by the Maſt and Rigging for ſome Time, till Mr. Linley ſaid, he found it was in vain to wait for Aſſiſtance, and therefore, though he had his Boots and Great Coat on, he was determined to ſwim to Shore, for that purpoſe he quitted his Hold, but had not ſwam above 100 Yards before he ſank to the Bottom, and was unfortunately drowned.

Her Grace of Ancaſter ſaw the Whole from her Dreſſing-Room Window, and immediately diſpatched ſeveral Servants off to take another Boat to their Aſſiſtance, which unfortunately came only Time enough to save Mr. Olivarez.- Mr Linley remained under Water near 40 Minutes, ſo that every Effort made uſe of to resſtore him to Life proved ineffectual.

– This Accident has deprived the Profeſſion to which he belonged of one of its Principal Ornaments, and Society of a very accompliſhed and valuable Member.Jackson's Oxford Journal, Saturday 15 August 1778:[46]On Wedneſday the 5th Inſtant, Mr. Thomas Linley, eldeſt Son of Mr. Linley, one of the Proprietors of Drury-lane Theatre, fell out of a Boat into a Lake belonging to his Grace the Duke Ancaſter, at Grimſthorpe in Lincolnſhire, and was unfortunately drowned.

The Circumſtances of his Death are thus related by a Perſon just arrived from Grimſthorpe: Mr. Linley and Mr. Olivarez, Italian Maſter, and another Perſon, agreed to go on the Lake in a Sailing Boat, which Mr. Linley ſaid he could manage; but no ſooner had they ſailed into the Middle of the Lake, than a ſudden Gale of Wind ſprang up, and overſet the Boat; however, they all hung by the Maſt and Rigging for ſome Time, till Mr. Linley ſaid he found it was in vain to wait for Aſsiſtance, and therefore, though he had his Boots and Great Coat on, was determined to ſwim to Shore, for which Purpoſe he quitted his Hold, but had not ſwam above a hundred Yards before he ſunk.

Her Grace the Ducheſs of Ancaſter ſaw the whole from her Dreſsing-room Window, and immediately ordered ſeveral Servants to take another Boat, and go to their Aſsiſtance, but they unfortunately only came early enough to take up Mr. Olivarez, his Companion, not being able to find the Body of Mr. Linley for more than forty Minutes.— Miſs M. Linley came up to Town with the melancholy Tidings of the Diſaster, and now lies dangerously ill at the Duke of Ancaſter's in Berkeley-ſquare; Mrs Sheridan is likewiſe inconfortable [sic.]