Samuel Griffin

Samuel Griffin (April 20, 1746November 23, 1810) was a lawyer, soldier and politician from Virginia. Following his service during the American Revolutionary War as a Continental Army officer, Griffin served as mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia, as well as represented the former state capitol in the Virginia House of Delegates, then (with surrounding areas) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Early and family life Born in Richmond County in the Colony of Virginia to Leroy Griffin and his wife, the former Mary Ann Bertrand. His slightly younger brother Cyrus Griffin would likewise become a Virginia lawyer and patriot, serving as a Continental Congressman representing Virginia's Northern Neck region (where they were raised) and later as federal judge, for what was then the U.S. District Court for the District of Virginia. Another brother Corbin Griffin (d.1813) received a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh before setting up a practice in Yorktown and became chief surgeon during the Revolutionary War before his imprisonment by the British, and later served as a Virginia state senator. Earlier, the Griffin boys received a private education appropriate to their class, including classical studies and law. Samuel Griffin married Elizabeth Corbin Braxton, daughter of prominent Virginia planter and patriot Carter Braxton, likewise of the First Families of Virginia. They had only one child, Elizabeth Corbin Griffin Stewart (1779-1853), who survived two husbands (including a Williamsburg physician) and ultimately died in Philadelphia. Continental Army officer During the Revolutionary War Griffin accepted a commission as a colonel in the Continental Army. An aide-de-camp to English-born General Charles Lee, he was wounded at the Battle of Harlem Heights on September 16, 1776.