John Sampson

John Sampson (1719–1784) was a politician in North Carolina during and after the American Colonial era. After immigrating to the colony from northern Ireland, he settled near Wilmington. He was appointed to local offices, raised a militia to defend against the Spanish Alarm, and served as a Revolutionary War Patriot militia officer. He was an early settler in Duplin County, North Carolina. He served as mayor of Wilmington, North Carolina starting in 1760. Sampson County, North Carolina is named in honor of him. Early life John Sampson was born in 1719 and grew up in northern Ireland, and was likely of Scots-Irish or Border English descent. He immigrated as a youth or young man to the colony of North Carolina in North America in the 1730s or 1740s, settling in the Wilmington, North Carolina area. He appeared to have become established before the Spanish Alarm of 1747. He developed a farm there, and married and had a family. Military career The War of the Austrian Succession brought military battle close to Sampson in 1747. He was called upon to raise a militia company of men in New Hanover County to protect against any Spanish raids or invasions from Florida. Spanish forces raided the coastal towns of the Carolinas and Georgia during the period known as the Spanish Alarm, extending into the 1740s.