William Sampson (lawyer) - The Catholic Question in America

The Catholic Question in America

In America, Sampson successfully continued his career in the law, eventually sending for his family. He pursued cases such as the defense a Navy Lieutenant prosecuted for dueling. The authorities in Ireland disbarred Sampson, which caused him some bitter amusement, as it didn't affect his work in the United States.

Sampson's most important case in America was in 1813 and is referred to as "The Catholic Question in America". Police investigating the misdemeanor of receiving stolen goods questioned the suspects' priest, the Reverend Mr. Kohlman; he declined to given any information that he had heard in confession. The priest was called to testify at the trial trial in the Court of General Sessions in the City of New-York; he again declined. The issue whether to compel the testimony was fully briefed and carefully argued on both sides, with a detailed examination of the common law; in the end, the confessional privilege was accepted for the first time in a court of the United States.

He died in 1836 and was buried in the Riker Family graveyard on Long Island in what is now East Elmhurst, Queens, New York. He was later reinterred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, where he is now buried in the same plot as Matilda Witherington Tone and William Theobald Wolfe Tone, the wife and son of the Irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone, and his daughter Catherine, the wife of William Theobald Wolfe Tone.