Family Name: Samson
First Name: Pierre
Death Date: Fri, Nov 15, 1748
Death Place: Baynards/Barnards Place, West Hoathly, Sussex.
Main places of activity:
Place To
Holland (The Hague?) 1725
Place From To
London 1725 1747
Personal info:
Career

In 1715 Samson was recruited as a translator, secretary and secret agent by Horatio Walpole.

In the autumn of 1726 he helped Walpole to arrange the printing and distribution of the response to the 'Analyse' of the Treaty of Hanover (1725).

Samson appears to have kept up his association with Walpole after settling in London in 1726, but he also became involved in London's Huguenot community.

In 1740 he was elected as one of the directors of the French Protestant Hospital.

Samson was also associated with Charles Levier at The Hague and with Jacques Bernard, Pierre Des Maizeaux and John Toland. Toland dedicated his Origines judaicae to Samson.
Financial Situation

Samson worked for Walpole from 1715 until at least the end of 1726 and perhaps longer. He Received an income for this.
Translations Other Works

secondary bibliography references

Archival sources:

The National Archives, SP78/184, 193, 195, 196, 211, 213, 215, 222, 230, 231, 276.

British Library, Add. MSS 32750, f.527; 4281, f. 92.

University of Leiden, March. 2, 'P. A. Samson à Ch. Levier, 18 janvier 1737 (v.s.)'.

The Huguenot Library, London, A1/1, 9 April and 2 July 1740, 21 February 1740/41, 6 October 1642, 5 October 1743.


Printed sources:

M. M. Haag, La France Protestante; ou, vies des protestants français, Paris, Joël Cherbuliez, 1861, vol. IX, pp. 134-135.

R. Hammersley, The English Republican Tradition and Eighteenth-Century France: Between the Ancients and the Moderns, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2010, pp. 38-39, 41-44.

R. Hammersley, 'The "Real Whig" - Huguenot network and the English Republican tradition', in Cultural transfers: France and Britain in the long eighteenth century, ed. by A. Thomson, S. Burrows, and E. Dziembowski, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 2010, pp. 22-24.

J. J. Murray, ed., An Honest Diplomat at The Hague: the private letters of Horatio Walpole, 1715-1716, Bloomington, IN, 1955, pp. 67, 95-96 and 107.

J. Toland, Dissertationes duae: Adeisidaemon et Origines judaicae, The Hague, Thomas Johnson, 1708/9, pp. 101-103.

Translations

  • Discourses Concerning Government

  • Translation Title: Discours sur le gouvernement, par Algernon Sidney, ... traduits de l'anglois par P. A. Samson
  • Original Author: Algernon Sidney
  • Original title: Discourses Concerning Government
  • Publ. Year From: 1667 to:
  • lang: English
  • Note:

    Published 1664?
  • Title: Discourses Concerning Government
  • Publisher: Isaac Littlebury
  • Pub. Place: London
  • Pub. Year: 1697
  • Lang: English
  • Translation: Discours sur le gouvernement, par Algernon Sidney, ... traduits de l'anglois par P. A. Samson
  • Publisher: Louis & Henri van Dole
  • Pub. Place: The Hague
  • Pub. Date: 1701
  • Lang: French
  • Note:

    Re-issued 1755, new edition 1794:

    Discours sur le gouvernement, par Algernon Sidney, traduits de l'anglais par P. A. Samson: nouvelle édition conforme à celle de 1702, Paris, 1794.

  • A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, to My Lord *****

  • Translation Title: Lettre sur l'enthousiasme
  • Original Author: Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
  • Original title: A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm, to My Lord *****
  • Publ. Year From: 1707 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Lettre sur l'enthousiasme
  • Publisher: Thomas Johnson
  • Pub. Place: The Hague
  • Pub. Date: 1708
  • Lang: French

  • Letters written by Sir William Temple, Bart. and other ministers of state, both at home and abroad.

  • Translation Title: Lettres de Mr le Chevalier G. Temple, et autres Ministres d'état, tant en Angleterre que dans les paies étrangers
  • Original Author: Jonathan Swift
  • Original title: Letters written by Sir William Temple, Bart. and other ministers of state, both at home and abroad.
  • Publ. Year From: 1699 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Lettres de Mr le Chevalier G. Temple, et autres Ministres d'état, tant en Angleterre que dans les paies étrangers
  • Publisher: Henri van Bulderen
  • Pub. Place: The Hague
  • Pub. Date: 1710
  • Lang: French
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By:

  • Rachel Hammersley