Samuel Blodget was born on April 1, 1724, in Woburn, Massachussets, United States, the son of Caleb and Sarah (Weyman) Blodget. Caleb was an innholder, moderator of "proprietor's meetings, " and the promoter of the first stage line between Haverhill and Boston.
Very little is known of the early life of Samuel though his subsequent attainments indicate that he received the limit of the education then available.
Samuel Blodget served in the French and Indian Wars and was at Louisburg in 1745. He then bought and worked a farm in Goffstown for a short time before returning to the army as sutler to the New Hampshire Regiment, seeing action at Fort William Henry (1757). Shortly after this he successfully engaged in general merchandising in Boston, later manufacturing potash and pearl-ash, which part of his business he extended to Hempstead, Goffstown, New Boston, and other places, with his main establishment at Haverhill (1760). In these places he continuously expanded his activities, establishing stores for his employees, purchasing lands and timber, and erecting sawmills. His lumber was sold in Haverhill and Newbury and his potash and furs in London where he had profitable business arrangements with Sir William Baker.
In 1769 Blodget moved with his family from Boston to Goffstown to be more conveniently located for business. Here he was prominent in the community and was given the first appointment of justice of the inferior court for the County of Hillsborough. About this time he began to consider the construction of a canal around the Amoskeag Falls of the Merrimac, to more conveniently connect his timber lands with the markets. But then the Revolutionary cause attracted him and in 1775 he joined Gen. Sullivan's Brigade as a sutler, remaining with it until the army left Boston when he returned to his farm. During the latter part of the war he developed a device for raising sunken ships, in the operation of which he spent four years in Europe with very little success. Returning to Amoskeag and his plans for the canal, he commenced actual construction on May 2, 1794. The work progressed rapidly to the point of the building of the locks, for which Blodget had an original design, but here he met repeated failure and in 1799 an unusually high freshet carried off the locks and ruined the work of five years, with a personal loss to Blodget of $20, 000.
In 1798 Blodget had obtained a charter and now after agreeing to adopt a proven type of lock he was able to sell stock to raise funds. He then appealed to the legislature of New Hampshire and was authorized to raise $9, 000 by lottery, but after expending $12, 000 and failing to complete the canal he received another lottery grant of $12, 000, with the managers of which he became involved in such a legal tangle that the project would have failed had not the Massachusetts legislature now aided him with lottery grants in that state. The locks were completed in December 1806, and the canal was officially opened on "May Day, " 1807, to render valuable service to the community until supplanted by the railroad many years later (1842). He died September 1, 1807, at Derryfield, Massachussets.
Blodget married Hannah White of Haverhill in 1748.
