Sampson Blowers was born on March 10, 1742, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Lieut. John and Sarah (Salter) Blowers. He was a descendant of Pyam Blowers who settled at Cambridge, Massachussets, toward the end of the seventeenth century.
Educated at the grammar school, Boston, and at Harvard College where he graduated in 1763, Sampson Blowers studied law with Lieut. Gov. Hutchinson, was admitted to the bar at Boston in 1766.
Sampson Blowers commenced practise of law in Boston. In 1770 the so called "Boston massacre" occurred, in which a party of British soldiers under Capt. Preston fired on a mob in the streets, killing and wounding a number of citizens. The soldiers were subsequently tried for murder. Blowers was retained for the defense, in association with John Adams and Josiah Quincy, and an acquittal was secured in all but two cases wherein verdicts of manslaughter were returned. Thus brought into public notice, Blowers was thereafter known as a strong supporter of the royal administration and incurred the active enmity of the local patriots. In 1774 he went to England, becoming in 1776 a member of the New England Club of Loyalists which was formed in London during that year. Returning to Boston in 1778, he found that his name was in the Proscription Act as an enemy of the new state. He was arrested and imprisoned for a short time, and on his release went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, whither a large number of Loyalists had preceded him, and commenced the practise of law there.
From Halifax Blowers returned to Newport in April 1779; and was there appointed judge of the Rhode Island court of vice admiralty. On the evacuation of Newport by the British, in October 1779, he sailed for England to seek compensation for his financial losses. The next year he came back to America, this time with the appointment of solicitor-general for New York. Early in September 1783 he sailed for Halifax with his wife and her sister. In September 1784 the province of New Brunswick was formed by dividing Nova Scotia, and on December 24, 1784, Blowers was appointed attorney-general of Nova Scotia as reconstituted. He was also elected from Halifax County to the new House of Representatives in the following year, and when the Assembly met at Halifax, December 5, 1785, he was elected speaker, continuing as such till his appointment, January 3, 1788, as a member of the legislative council, when he vacated his seat in the House and the speakership. In the council he was distinguished for the broad-minded nonpartisan manner in which he discussed all matters which came up for consideration, and his varied experience and robust patriotism combined to give him great influence.
Blowers was appointed chief justice of Nova Scotia and president of the council, September 9, 1797, and occupied this position for thirty-six years. He was an excellent, conscientious judge, and performed his duties "with great assiduity. " At the same time he had a proper appreciation of the dignity of his office, as was evidenced by his abstention from attendance at Council during the absence of Sir George Prevost on the expedition to Martinique in 1808-1809, his reason being that he was senior to the Hon. A. Croke who had been appointed ad interim president of the province during the Lieutenant-Governor's absence. He retired in 1833; and died at Halifax, October 25, 1842, having thus passed the century by more than five months.
Sampson Blowers married in 1774 Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Kent of Boston, who was himself a Loyalist and refugee.
