Early Life
Sampson was born in Derry, Ireland to an affluent Anglican family. He studied law in London. In his twenties, he briefly visited an uncle in North Carolina. In 1790 he married Grace Clark; they had two sons, William and John, and a daughter, Catherine Anne.
Admitted to the Irish Bar, Sampson became Junior Counsel to John Philpot Curran, and helped him provide legal defenses for many members of the Society of United Irishmen. A member of the Church of Ireland, Sampson was disturbed by anti-Catholic violence and contributed writings to the Society's newspapers. He was arrested at the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, imprisoned, and compelled to leave Ireland for exile in Europe. Shipwrecked at Pwllheli (he spelt it "Pulhelly") in Wales, he made his way to exile in Oporto, where he was again arrested, imprisoned in Lisbon, and then expelled. After living some years in France, and then Hamburg, he fled the approach of Napoleon's armies to England where he was re-arrested. After unsuccessfully petitioning for a return to Ireland, he arrived in New York on 4 July 1806.
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