(1687 - 1757) of Upton, Northants, o. s. of Sir Thomas Samwell; suc. fa. 1694 as 2nd Bt.; Corpus Camb. 1704; m. 1 1710 Millicent Fuller (d. 1716), 2 1721 Mary Clarke, wid. of William Ives; MP 1715 - 22.
1706 - 8 [dep. Augsberg 9 Nov. 1706] Venice (Nov. 1706), Padua (9 Dec. 1706), Florence (by Nov. 1707), Rome (by 3 Dec. 1707), Genoa, Turin (by 31 Mar. - 7 Apr. 1708)
On 9 November 1706 Samwell, with his tutor Fran?ois Grimaudet, left Augsburg for Venice with Humphrey Chetham.1 On 9 December Samwell and Grimaudet were in Padua (the same day as the Blathwayt brothers).2 On 22 November 1707 the antiquary Magnolfi in Florence told Sir John Perceval that Samwell had taken 'a set' of twenty-four heads and three statues [presumably referring to engravings].3 On 3 December James Gibbs noticed Samwell was in Rome, and described Grimaudet as 'a French gentleman'.3 In March 1708 Samwell was in Turin, where the Blathwayt brothers were proposing to travel back through Germany with him. On 31 March their tutor de Blainville wrote that, besides two French valets, Samwell had with him 'un tr?s habile musicien' whom the younger Blathwayt had met in Rome; 'Mr Le Chevalier, qui aime cette science ? la folie, a persuad? cet homme de le suivre en Angleterre ... Mr B, ... Sir Thomas et le musicien font souvent tr?s beaux trios'.4 The musician was almost certainly the 'Roberto Valentine inglese', flautist and composer, whose op.2 flute sonata, published in Rome in 1708, was dedicated to Sir Thomas.5 The Blathwayts left Turin on 7 April, presumably with Samwell.
1. Chetham jnl.MSS. 2. Brown 1296 - 7. 3. HMC Egmont, 2:218. 4. Blathwayt letters MSS. 5. See Il Seicento a Roma, exh. cat., Rome [1959], no.1662.