Medley, Samuel, a Baptist minister, was born in Hertfordshire, England, June 23, 1738; was surrounded by pious influences in early life, but became a careless and wicked youth; joined the navy, and was severely wounded. Some one about this time chanced to read to him a sermon by Dr. Isaac Watts, which led to his conversion. After his recovery he entered the ministry. For the last twenty-seven years of his life he was the popular and influential pastor of a large Baptist Church in Liverpool. He died July 17, 1799. His hymns, two hundred and thirty in number, were collected and published the following year under the title of Medley's Hymns. "The charm of Medley's hymns consists less in their poetry than in the warmth and occasional pathos with which they give expression to Christian experience."