Samson (bishop)

Samson (died 5 May 1112) was a medieval English clergyman and bishop.

Life
Samson was a Royal Chaplain and a canon and Treasurer of the diocese of Bayeux.

In the Domesday Book Samson is referred to as the chaplain and is recorded as holding St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton and considerable properties in southern Staffordshire, most of which he sublet to either the canons of St. Peter's or to other clergy.

In 1096 Samson was elected Bishop of Worcester, he was ordained a deacon and priest on 7 June 1096 and consecrated bishop on 8 June 1096. Being a bishop did not prevent him from fathering a daughter, Isabelle of Douvres, known for her later liaison with Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester. The son of Robert and Isabelle was Richard who was Bishop of Bayeux from 1135 to 1142. Samson had two sons who also became bishops. Richard was Bishop of Bayeux from 1108 to 1133, and Thomas was Archbishop of York from 1108 to 1114.

Samson has been suggested as possibly the scribe who oversaw the compilation of Domesday Book by the historian V. H. Galbraith.

Samson died on 5 May 1112.