Constituency : Lancaster 1847-8, 1852-64
Samuel, an East Indian merchant, was first elected in 1847 but was unseated on petition. He got back in at the next general election and held the seat until his death. In 1857 he was chairman of the East India and China Association and keen for Palmerston's government to prosecute the war against China for the sake of commercial penetration. Samuel was regarded as eccentric. In the great censure debate in 1857 he read into the record a letter from his associates claiming there was no opium trade provoking a shouted response from Gladstone
Samuel was a co-founder of the National History Museum and some claim to have coined the word "dinosaur". He was a local benefactor and presented a new public baths to the city in 1863 which lasted till 1939.
He died in 1865 aged 72.
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