Samson (bishop)

Samson (died 5 May 1112) was a medieval English clergyman.

Life

Samson was a Royal Chaplain and a canon and Treasurer of the diocese of Bayeux.^[1]

In the Domesday Book he is referred to as the chaplain and is recorded as holding St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton and considerable properties in southern Staffordshire, most of which he sublet to either the canons of St. Peter's or to other clergy.

In 1096 he was elected Bishop of Worcester, he was ordained a deacon and priest on 7 June 1096 and consecrated bishop on 8 June 1096.^[1] Being a Bishop did not prevent him from fathering at least one child, a daughter, Isabelle of Douvres, known for her later laison with Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester. The son of Robert and Isabelle was Richard who was Bishop of Bayeux from 1135 to 1142. Samson had two sons who also became bishops. Richard was Bishop of Bayeux from 1108 to 1133, and Thomas was Archbishop of York from 1108 to 1114.^[2]

He has been suggested as possibly the scribe who oversaw the compilation of Domesday Book^[3] by the historian V. H. Galbraith.^[4]

He died on 5 May 1112.^[5]

Notes

References

• British History Online Bishops of Worcester accessed on 3 November 2007
• Chaplais, Pierre (1987). "William of Saint-Calais and the Domesday Survey". In Holt, J. C.. Domesday Studies: Papers Read at the Novacentenary Conference of the Royal Historical Society and the Institute of British Geographers, Winchester 1986. Boydell Press. pp. pp. 65–77. ISBN 0-85115-477-8. 
• Clanchy, C. T. (1993). From Memory to Written Record: England 1066–1307 (Second ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-631-16857-7. 
• Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde Handbook of British Chronology 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961

Further reading

• Galbraith, V. H. (1967). "Notes on the Career of Samson, Bishop of Worcester (1096–1112)". The English Historical Review 83 (322): 86–101. JSTOR 559525.