Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hayley, Thomas Alphonso
HAYLEY, THOMAS ALPHONSO (1780–1800), sculptor, natural son of William Hayley the poet [q. v.], was born 5 Oct. 1780, and showed in 1794 signs of a love for sculpture. He was encouraged to learn drawing by Joseph Wright of Derby, and having attracted the attention of Romney the painter, and of Flaxman [q. v.], was in 1795 articled to the latter as a resident pupil for three years. He was treated with the greatest affection by both artists, and appears to have shown much promise, even experimenting in oil-painting. In 1798, however, he showed symptoms of ill-health, arising from curvature of the spine, and was compelled to return to his father's cottage at Felpham in Sussex, where, after two years of suffering, he died on 2 May 1800. Hayley modelled busts of Flaxman, Lord Thurlow, and James Stanier Clarke. A medallion by him of Romney was engraved by Caroline Watson for his father's ‘Life of Romney.’ In his father's ‘Essays on Sculpture’ (1800), there are a portrait of young Hayley from a medallion by Flaxman, and a drawing by him of the ‘Death of Demosthenes,’ both engraved by William Blake (1757–1827) [q. v.] His father wrote many sonnets to his memory.
[Hayley's Life of Romney; Gilchrist's Life of Blake.]