Blowers, Sampson Salter

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Phyllis R. Blakeley, “BLOWERS, SAMPSON SALTER,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/blowers_sampson_salter_7E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Lawyer, office holder, politician, and judge; b. 10 March 1741/42 in Boston, son of John Blowers and Sarah Salter; m. there 5 April 1774 Sarah Kent, daughter of Benjamin Kent, a barrister of Boston; they had no children but adopted Sarah Ann Anderson; d. 25 Oct. 1842 in Halifax.
    • Brought up by his maternal grandfather, Sampson Salter, he attended the Boston Grammar School and graduated from Harvard College with a ba in 1763 and an ma in 1765. Blowers then studied law in the office of Thomas Hutchinson and in 1766 was admitted as an attorney in the Suffolk Inferior Court. Four years later he became a barrister in the Massachusetts Superior Court. Blowers made spectacular progress as a trial lawyer, and in 1770 was associated with John Adams and Josiah Quincy in defending the soldiers of the 29th Foot accused of murder in the Boston “massacre.” By that time the income from his law practice was £400 annually, one of the largest in Boston.
    • Blowers had been much criticized for his loyalist sentiments, and this event persuaded him to leave Massachusetts. Five months later he sailed for England with his wife, Sarah.
    • The British occupation of New York City and Newport, R.I., in 1776 made Blowers optimistic about his prospects, and he left England with his wife in 1777, believing that he would be “useful as well to Government as to himself by residing in America.” On 13 March 1781 he was appointed solicitor general of New York through the influence of Lord George Germain, secretary of state for the American colonies.
    • In September 1783 Blowers sailed for Halifax, bearing a letter of recommendation from Sir Guy Carleton. Notwithstanding Governor John Parr’s polite reception, Blowers was doubtful about his prospects.
    • Blowers’s eminent position in the legal field rapidly made him the recipient of government favour. In December, 1784, he was appointed attorney general of Nova Scotia. In 1785 Blowers had entered politics when he was elected to the House of Assembly for Halifax County, and he was chosen speaker when the new house met.
    • As matters turned out, Blowers was appointed chief justice, but not until 9 Sept. 1797. As chief justice, Blowers commanded great respect. 
    • Slavery was an important issue to Blowers. While attorney general he had had frequent conversations with Strange on the subject, and found that the chief justice did not want to make a decision on the legality of slavery but rather “wished to wear out the claim [of slave-holders] gradually.” When Blowers became chief justice he adopted this policy. On one occasion a Black woman arrested in Annapolis Royal was claimed as a slave, and Blowers hinted that an action should be brought to try this claim. The plaintiff could not prove that he had had a legal right to purchase the woman, and his case collapsed. Because in part of Blowers’s demands for the proof of its legality, slavery died out in Nova Scotia relatively soon in the 19th century, in contrast to New Brunswick, where Chief Justice George Duncan Ludlow held that slavery was legal.
  • Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=10017
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/172581902/sampson-salter-blowers