Louis and Edward Samson

The boys appear on the 1851 census, aged 8 and 5 respectively, living with their parents, Louis and Anne Samson, at 45 Gloucester Square in Paddington. Their father, who was 55 years old, gave as his profession ‘Merchant Dealing in Foreign Stocks and Shares.'

Ten years later the boys, now 18 and 15 years old, were still at the same address but their mother was now a widow and an ‘Annuitant.'

Louis Samson was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating BA in 1865 and MA in 1882. He studied law and became a member of Middle Temple in 1868. In 1865 at Kensington he married Fanny Anne Stokes, daughter of Captain (later Admiral) John Lort Stokes, who served on HMS Beagle for nearly 18 years. In 1881 the couple were living at 63 Cambridge Terrace, St John’s Wood, London. Louis gave as his profession ‘Barrister not in practice, BA Oxford, Income from Dividends.' By 1911 they were living on 'Private Means' with three unmarried daughters and eight servants (including a butler) at Haverfordwest in Wales. Louis died there in 1925.

Edward Samson was also educated at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating BA in 1868 and MA in 1871. He entered Holy Orders and served as the Vicar of Pipe Ridware (1873-74) and then as the Vicar of Brereton for over 30 years, both livings in the County of Staffordshire. On 6 January 1880 he married Alice Mary Legge, daughter of General the Honourable Arthur Charles Legge, a younger son of the 3rd Earl of Dartmouth. He died in Staffordshire in 1921.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 24 April 1861.