Samuel Giles

Samuel Giles (b. 1809) was a calico printer in Great Cheetham Street, Manchester. His father, William Giles (1771-1845), was a Baptist minister at Dartmouth (where Samuel was born), Lymington, Chatham, and Preston (Lancs.) from 1833 to 1842. Rev. Giles spent most of 1842 in Manchester, then preached at Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, in 1843-1844 just before his death in 1845. Samuel was educated at John Hinton’s academy at Oxford; his brother, John Eustace (1805-1875), would gain considerable recognition as pastor of the Baptist congregation at South Parade, Leeds, 1836-1846, followed by pastorates at Bristol, Sheffield, and at Clapham Common. Samuel’s oldest brother, William Giles, Jr. (1798-1856) would become a schoolmaster at Chatham, 1817-1821, where Charles Dickens was one of his students. Giles, Jr., would move to Lancashire in the early 1830s, where he operated schools at Barton Hall and Patricroft; he also ministered to the Baptist meeting at Barton Lane, Eccles. He later opened a school at 38 Ardwick Green, Manchester, c. 1837, but in 1842 resigned from the church at Eccles and moved his school to Seacombe House, Ashton, Cheshire. He served as pastor of the Baptist church there from 1843 to 1845. In 1848, he moved again, this time to Netherleigh House, Chester, continuing as both a schoolmaster and pastor until his death in 1856, by which time he had become F.R.G.S. For a brief time during 1842 (the date of letter 172), all three Giles—William, Sr., William, Jr., and Samuel—lived in or near Manchester. In fact, in 1843, William, Jr., and Samuel entertained Dickens at William’s home at Ardwick Green. See “Giles, Father and Sons,” Baptist Quarterly 4 (1928-1929), 333-336; Pigot and Slater’s Directory of Manchester and Salford, 3 vols. (Manchester: Pigot and Slater, 1841), 1:104.