Constituency : Nottingham 1865-6, Bristol 1868-86
Samuel ousted Charles Paget at Nottingham after a very aggressive campaign that caused street riots in the city.
Samuel was the son of a woollen manufacturer. By 1860 he was in control of the family business and it expanded greatly. He was a Congregationalist. He also bought a share in The Daily News, a Liberal paper whose circulation and therefore influence increased under his proprietorship. He was a keen philanthropist who set up adult education colleges. He was a fierce abolitionist and housed and supported the escaped slave Josiah Henson. He also supported the trades unionist George Potter and his Bee Hive journal. He was a model employer who paid well and gave his workers exemplary working conditions. In 1857 he swore off alcohol for the rest of his life in response to a heckler at a temperance meeting.
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Samuel was evicted from his seat in 1866 when the whole Nottingham election was re-run.
Samuel was a keen supporter of Gladstone. He said " I regard Mr Gladstone as the greatest, purest and ablest statesman of the present age, and of all ages or any age ". He was an advocate for all the great reforms of Gladstone's first ministry. He supported the compromises in Forster's Education Act rallying moderate Nonconformists to the Bill.
In 1873 Samuel headed a deputation to the Chancellor, Robert Lowe calling for the repeal of income tax on trading profits but it was rebuffed.
Samuel seconded Hartington for the leadership in 1874.
In 1885 Samuel turned down Gladstone's offer of a peerage as he was opposed to a hereditary second chamber.
He died in 1886 aged 77.
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