Samuel Boddington (19 June 1766 – 19 April 1843) was a British politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for
Tralee
Tralee ( ; , ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the River Lee') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in ...
from January 1807 to May of the same year.
He was baptised 7 July 1766 at the Baker Street Meeting House (Presbyterian) in
Enfield, London
Enfield is a large town in north London, England, north of Charing Cross. It had a population of 333,587 in 2021. It includes the areas of Botany Bay, London, Botany Bay, Brimsdown, Bulls Cross, Bullsmoor, Bush Hill Park, Clay Hill, London, ...
, the son of Benjamin and Sarah Boddington. The Boddington family held large estates in the West Indies and Samuel was left a fortune by his father who had been a director of the
South Sea Company
The South Sea Company (officially: The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...
as well as a West India merchant with offices at Mark Lane.
In 1792 Samuel fell in love with Grace Ashburner, the daughter of William Ashburner, was in charge of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
's factory in
Tellicherry
Thalassery () (also called Tellicherry) is a city and municipality on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahe and Kozhikode. Thalassery municipality has a population of just under ...
before he moved to the same position in
Bombay
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
. The couple married the same year. But Grace soon tired of her husband's quiet intellectual interests (Henry Fox rather unkindly referred to Samuel Boddington as "the arch-bore old Bod.") and in 1797 she eloped with his cousin Benjamin Boddington who had recently joined the family firm. After a court case which awarded £10,000 to Samuel, the couple divorced and Grace married Benjamin in 1798.
Thereafter, Samuel approached his friend,
Richard Sharp (politician)
Richard Sharp, FRS, FSA (1759 – 30 March 1835), also known as "Conversation" Sharp, was an English hat-maker, banker, merchant, poet, critic, Member of Parliament, and conversationalist. He was at various times known in London society as "Ha ...
, a fellow Dissenter, fellow member of the Fishmongers' Company, and both mutual friends of
Samuel Rogers
Samuel Rogers (30 July 1763 – 18 December 1855) was an English poet, during his lifetime one of the most celebrated, although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron. ...
, asking if he would join him in business, and eventually a West India company of Boddington, Sharp and Philips (
Sir George Philips, 1st Baronet
Sir George Philips, 1st Baronet (24 March 1766 – 3 October 1847) was an English textile industrialist and politician. He was closely associated with Manchesterism and has been described as the "unofficial member for Manchester", though not fo ...
) was established at 17 Mark Lane. Both Boddington and Philips (later Sir George Philips) followed Sharp's example and became dissenting Whig members of Parliament.
He died on 19 April 1843, aged 76, and was buried at