Thomas John Horsley was a Sunderland-born portrait painter who specialised in watercolour portraits, including miniature works on ivory. Born in Bishopwearmouth on 7 October 1795, he was the son of Thomas Horsley, a noted oil painter who painted John Wesley during the Methodist preacher’s visit to the area. As a young man, Horsley moved first to Hull and then to London, where a small number of his paintings were shown at the Royal Academy between 1820 and 1833. He later returned to Bishopwearmouth, where he continued to paint miniature portraits. Horsley died on 10 July 1870 and was buried three days later in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery. At the time of his death, he lived in Derwent Street; the cause was bronchitis, then commonly known as “the old man’s enemy.”
