{{Short description|American politician (1849–1899)}} thumb|Samuel Jones Bampfield circa 1898 Beaufort, SC '''Samuel Jones Bampfield''' (1849–1899), was an American lawyer, newspaper editor, Christian minister, and state legislator who lived in South Carolina.
== Biography == Bampfield was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1849, and graduated from Lincoln University in 1872.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-_QDwAAQBAJ |title=Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction |date=1996-08-01 |publisher=LSU Press |isbn=978-0-8071-2082-8 |pages=11 |language=en}}</ref> Historian Eric Foner documented him as free born, and of mixed race.<ref name=":0" /> He read law in Charleston and passed the bar.
He represented Beaufort County, South Carolina in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1874 to 1876.<ref name=":0" /> He also served as Beaufort's postmaster and as a clerk of the county court. He edited the ''New South'' newspaper,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Penn |first=Irvine Garland |author-link=Irvine Garland Penn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y80OAAAAIAAJ |title=The Afro-American Press and Its Editors |date=1891 |publisher=Willey & Company |isbn=978-0-598-58268-3 |pages=205 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref> and belonged to the Presbyterian Church.
He founded the Berean Presbyterian Church in Beaufort in 1892.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=African American Historic Places in South Carolina |url=https://scdah.sc.gov/sites/default/files/Documents/Historic%20Preservation%20(SHPO)/Publications/AAHistoric%20places%20in%20sc.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211221213456/https://scdah.sc.gov/sites/default/files/Documents/Historic%20Preservation%20(SHPO)/Publications/AAHistoric%20places%20in%20sc.pdf |archive-date=2021-12-21 |access-date=2021-07-30 |website=South Carolina Department of Archives and History}}</ref> He married the 19-year-old daughter of Robert Smalls, Elizabeth Lydia Smalls. They lived at 414 New Street in Beaufort, South Carolina and had 11 children. She took over as postmaster after his death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://beaufortdistrictcollectionconnections.blogspot.com/2017/06/heritage-walking-tour-robert-smalls.html|title=Beaufort District Collection Connections: Heritage Walking Tour: Robert Smalls, 1839–1915|first=Grace|last=Cordial|date=June 21, 2017}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74667883/samuel-j.-bampfield Findagrave entry]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bampfield, Samuel}} Category:1849 births Category:1899 deaths Category:19th-century African-American lawyers Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:19th-century American newspaper editors Category:African-American journalists Category:Editors of South Carolina newspapers Category:African-American people with free status before 1865 Category:Members of the South Carolina House of Representatives Category:People from Charleston, South Carolina Category:South Carolina lawyers Category:South Carolina postmasters Category:19th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly Category:African-American politicians of the Reconstruction era Category:19th-century African-American clergy