Savage, Samuel

honorific(s): Mr.
Death: After 1775
Affiliation

English Trust

Faith

Christian

Nationality

English

Occupation

Weaver

Residence(s)
  • Gun Street, Spitalfields
Biography

Samuel Savage was a London merchant and a member of the English Trust, the body formed to oversee money raised by Samson Occom and Nathaniel Whitaker in England between 1766 and 1768. His shop was on Gun Street, in Spitalfields, and he was likely a weaver. Few other personal details are known. Like most of Eleazar Wheelock’s English contacts, Savage was a follower of the evangelical George Whitefield, transatlantic celebrity of the First Great Awakening, and it was through Whitefield that Savage became involved in Wheelock’s initial attempts to gain a charter in the 1760s. Once Occom and Whitaker arrived in London in February 1766, Savage was part of the informal committee that handled their correspondence and suggested targets for fundraising. He was also made a member of the Trust when it was formally established in 1766. Savage, like John Thornton, continued to provide Wheelock with financial support after the fund was exhausted in 1775. Although most of the Englishmen who worked with Whitaker and Occom found Whitaker insufferable and praised Occom, Savage displayed a marked preference for Whitaker. Like Wheelock, he was worried that Occom would become prouder than he thought was appropriate for an Indian, and he expressed concerns that Whitaker had not been paid enough to compensate for his long absence from his family (no similar concerns about Occom’s family were voiced). Since Savage’s views on Occom were very close to the New England norm and represent a deviation from most Englishmen’s views, one is tempted to conclude that he had spent time in America or had been born there, but that is pure conjecture.

Sources

Barnard, Henry ed. Barnard's American Journal of Education, Volume 9. Hartford: F. C. Brownell, London: Trubner & Co., 1860. Accessed via GoogleBooks. Dartmouth College Library. A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Papers of Eleazar Wheelock. Hanover: Dartmouth College Library, 1971. London Hospital. An Account of the Rise, Progress, and State of the London Hospital. London 1775. Accessed via GoogleBooks. Richardson, Leon. An Indian Preacher in England. Hanover: Dartmouth College Press 1933. Wright, John. The American Negotiator, or the Various Currencies of the British Colonies. London: J. Everingham, 1761. Accessed via GoogleBooks.