Samuel Anderson (politician)

Samuel Anderson (1773–1850) was an Adams member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. He was also a lieutenant colonel in the Pennsylvania militia.

Samuel Anderson was born in Middletown, Pennsylvania. He studied medicine and was admitted to practice in 1796. He entered the United States Navy as assistant surgeon in 1799, and was promoted to the rank of surgeon in 1800. He resigned his commission and in 1801 settled in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he practiced his profession. During the War of 1812, Anderson raised a body of volunteers known as the Mifflin Guards. He was commissioned captain on September 10, 1814. He served in the Pennsylvania Militia and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the One Hundredth Regiment, Second Brigade, Third Division, on August 3, 1821.

Anderson was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1815 to 1818 and 1823 to 1825. He served as sheriff of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, from 1819 to 1823. He again entered the naval service in 1823 as special physician, but was soon forced to resign because of ill health.

Anderson was elected as an Adams (that is, a supporter of John Quincy Adams) to the Twentieth Congress.

He was again a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1829 to 1835 and served as speaker in 1833. He was appointed inspector of customs in 1841. He was elected justice of the peace in 1846 and served until his death in Chester in 1850. Interment in Middletown Presbyterian Cemetery, near Media, Pennsylvania.