{{Short description|British businessman and Conservative politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} 200px|right|thumb|Portrait (1874) of Sir Samuel Bignold (1791–1895), by Frederick Sandys (1829–1904) '''Sir Samuel Bignold''' DL (13 October 1791<ref>''Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812''</ref> – 2 January 1875)<ref name=Rayment/> was a British businessman with insurances and Conservative politician. thumb|Statue of Sir Samuel Bignold at Surrey House, Norwich
==Background== Born in Norwich, he was the third and youngest son of Thomas Bignold<ref name=Companion>{{cite book | last = Dod | first = Robert P. | title = The Parliamentary Companion | year = 1857 | publisher = Whitaker and Co. | location = London | pages = 178 }}</ref> and his wife Sarah, widow of Julius Long and daughter of Samuel Cocksedge.<ref name=Norwich/> He was educated at schools in Norwich and Bury St Edmunds.<ref name=Norwich/>
==Career== From 1814, he worked as secretary for the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Company<ref>Robert Blake: ''Esto Perpetua: the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society'' (1958)</ref> and from 1818 had the same office for the Norwich Union Life Assurance Society,<ref name=Dod>{{cite book | last = Dod | first = Robert P. | title = The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland | year = 1860 | publisher = Whitaker and Co. | location = London | pages = 118 }}</ref> both founded by his father.<ref name=Norwich>{{cite web | url = http://www.norwichchurches.co.uk/monuments/Samuel_Bignold/Samuel%20Bignold.html | title = Norwich Historic Church Trust - Samuel Bignold 1791-1875 | accessdate = 22 November 2009 }} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> Although an admirer of Benjamin Disraeli, he rejected the latter's rather dubious request of a loan by the Society; however, after a meeting lent the money from personal funds.<ref name=Norwich/> In 1866, he arranged the incorporation of the Amicable Society, Britain's oldest life insurance institution.<ref name=Norwich/>
Bignold was appointed Sheriff of Norwich in 1830<ref>Robert Bignold: ''Five Generations of the Bignold Family, 1761-1947, and their connection with the Norwich Union'' (1948)</ref> and was mayor of that city in the years 1833, 1848, 1853 and lastly 1872.<ref>{{cite book |editor1=M. G. Wiebe |editor2=Mary S. Millar |editor3=John Alexander |editor4=Wilson Gunn | title = Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1857-1859 |url=https://archive.org/details/benjamindisraeli0006disr |url-access=registration | publisher = University of Toronto Press Inc. | location = Toronto | edition = 2nd | isbn = 0-8020-8728-0 | year = 2004 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/benjamindisraeli0006disr/page/32 32] }}</ref> He presented a note of support of the Crimean War from the city of Norwich to the Parliament in 1854, for which he was created a Knight Bachelor.<ref name=Dod/> Shortly thereafter, he entered the British House of Commons and sat for Norwich in the following three years.<ref name=Rayment>{{cite web | url = http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ncommons3.htm | title = Leigh Rayment - British House of Commons, Norwich | accessdate = 22 November 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170407065925/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ncommons3.htm | archive-date = 7 April 2017 | url-status = usurped | df = dmy-all }}</ref> Bignold served as Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk.<ref name=Walford/>
==Family== In 1815, he married Elizabeth, the only child of William Atkins<ref name=Walford>{{cite book | last = Walford | first = Edward | title = The County Families of the United Kingdom | url = https://archive.org/details/countyfamiliesof01walf | year = 1860 | publisher = Robert Hardwicke | location = London | pages = [https://archive.org/details/countyfamiliesof01walf/page/53 53] }}</ref> and had by her six sons and seven daughters.<ref name=Norwich/><ref>Rosa, one of his daughters, married Edward Henry Bickersteth.</ref> He died in 1875 at Bignold House, which he had bought in 1820 and then had become his head office, and was buried at St Margaret, Old Catton.<ref name=Norwich/> He left property worth about £120,000 (probate granted 15 February 1875).<ref>''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref>
Bignold's fourth son, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Bignold (1831–1895) served as Mayor of Norwich between 1894 and 1895, Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk, and leader of the Conservative Party in that city after 1875.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=F6Q0AQAAMAAJ&dq=charles+bignold+norwich+obituary&pg=PA105 Obituary of Charles Edward Bignold], ''The Banker's Magazine'', vol. 60, p. 105 (1895).</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
==External links== *{{Hansard-contribs| sir-samuel-bignold | Samuel Bignold}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef| before = Edward Warner<br />Morton Peto }} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Norwich | with = Edward Warner | years = 1854–1857 }} {{s-aft| after = Henry Schneider<br />Viscount Bury }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bignold, Samuel}} Category:1791 births Category:1875 deaths Category:Deputy lieutenants of Norfolk Category:Knights Bachelor Category:UK MPs 1852–1857 Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Politicians from Norwich Category:Mayors of Norwich Category:Aviva people Category:Businesspeople from Norwich