Samm/Samms Family

[Sammsearch]

Does anyone know of research on the Samm/Samms, etc. family in Bedfordshire in the 17th and early 18th centuries? Some circumstantial evidence indicates that the John Samm who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1712 was from Clophill. He married Amy Kilby in 1690 and they had Hannah, John, Nathaniel and Mary. Amy died in 1700. John Sr. was a son of Nathaniel Samm of Lidlington.

[bedfordshire boy]

Welcome to Rootschat

See http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/answers/answers-2010/ans10-022-sams.htm for someone in the US who was researching this family.

Was the Philadelphia John Samm a Quaker? If so is there a Letter of Introduction recorded in the Monthly Meeting that he attended in the US? Have you checked Hitchin Monthly Meeting records to see if there's any reference to him emigrating? Quaker records are usually excellent. Is there a connection to the John Samm who died in Northampton gaol a couple of generations earlier?

Have you found a marriage in 1690 or is this an assumption based on the birth of their first child?

David

[Sammsearch]

David, thank you for your reply.

Yes, I did find a Quaker marriage record of John in the Hitchin MM minutes.  It has John Samm of Ampthill in March, 1690 signifying his intentions to marry Amy Kilby of Ickleford. Quaker BMD records show their children's births in Clophill after that and Amy's death there in 1700. "John Samm of Clophill" paid £215 for property in Clophill village in 1695. Two of his brothers, Nathaniel and Joseph, also lived there.

Finding this record was one of those "Eureka!" moments in genealogy. I was looking at Hitchin MM records on a LDS microfilm reel that was catalogued as only having births, marriages and deaths when, lo and behold, I ran into Hitchin MM minutes from about 1695 to 1740 or so and found the marriage there. I first found these minutes on LDS film 583990 and later found a cleaner version on 828176. I'm brand new at Rootschat and still not sure how to navigate around, but if there is some way I can send you a scan of this marriage record I'll gladly do so. Obviously, knowing that these minutes exist in these sources will be of great help for anyone researching Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire Quakers.

My fellow Sams researcher and I theorize that John Samm ceased being a Quaker after Amy's death. His father, Nathaniel, had been a persecuted Quaker in Lidlington, but this Samm family seems to have had both Quaker and established church members. The John Samm who died in jail for his Quaker beliefs appears to have been a great-uncle of Nathaniel.

I've had no luck finding a John Samm who presented a certificate from England to Philadelphia area monthly meetings. We have found no indication that any pre-1750 Samses in the Philadelphia area were Quakers, although one, Nathaniel Samms, became one in 1754. I've looked carefully at the Hitchen MM minutes for a certificate of removal around 1710 or 1711 without finding one, but it apparently wouldn't be there anyway because I found this 1702 entry in the minutes: "It is the judgment of this Meeting that private Certificates or Letters of Recommendation should be taken No notice of."

On the website you sent, the "someone" in the US researching the Samm family was me three years ago. But, I do appreciate your sending it; I should have put my name on my posting.

Paker C. Sams
Findlay, Ohio USA