Sampson Eardley, 1st Baron Eardley (10 October 1744 – 25 December 1824), known as Sampson Gideon until 1789,[1] was the son of another Sampson Gideon (1699-1762), a Jewish banker in the City of London who advised the British government in the 1740s and 1750s.
He served as Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire from 1770 to 1780, Midhurst from 1780 to 1784, Coventry from 1784 to 1796, and Wallingford from 1796 to 1802.
Sampson Gideon (as he then was) was created a baronet in 1759. In 1768, he married Maria Wilmot, the daughter of Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.[1] On 17 July 1789 he legally changed his surname to that of Eardley.[1] and in the same year he was created an Irish peer, with the title of Baron Eardley, of Spalding in the County of Lincoln. An Irish peerage carried no seat in the House of Lords and thus did not disqualify him from membership of the British House of Commons. In November 1789 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society[2]
As he had no sons, the peerage became extinct on Lord Eardley's death. His daughter the Honourable Charlotte Elizabeth married Sir Culling Smith, 2nd Baronet, and their son Sir Culling Smith assumed the surname of Eardley in lieu of Smith in 1847 (see Eardley Baronets). Charlotte's and Sir Culling Smith's daughter Maria Charlotte married Reverend Eardley Childers Walbanke-Childers and was the mother of politician Hugh Childers.