Background
Samuel Meredith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Reese Meredith, a merchant, and Martha (Carpenter) Meredith.
Samuel Meredith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Reese Meredith, a merchant, and Martha (Carpenter) Meredith.
Samuel attended private schools in Philadelphia and Chester, Pennsylvania, then entered his father's business.
Meredith took an active part in ante-Revolutionary affairs, was one of the signers of the non-importation resolutions adopted in Philadelphia on November 7, 1765, and attended, as a deputy from Philadelphia, the Provincial Convention held in that city from the 23rd to the 28th of January, 1775. During the war he served as a major and then as lieu-tenant-colonel of the 3rd Battalion of Associators, known as the Silk Stocking Company. He distinguished himself in the battles of Trenton and Princeton and on April 5, 1777, was promoted to brigadier-general of Pennsylvania militia for gallant services in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. He resigned from the army January 9, 1778, and resumed his business connections. He served three terms in the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly (1778-79, 1781 - 83) and on November 26, 1786, was elected to the Congress of the Confederation, serving until 1788. In August of the following year he was appointed surveyor of the Port of Philadelphia. He resigned this post to accept an appointment, urged upon him by George Washington, as treasurer of the United States, the first appointed under the Constitution. Meredith entered upon his new duties September 11, 1789, at a time when the treasury needed conservative management. He lent the government more than a hundred thousand dollars which it was unable to repay upon his retirement from office. He remained in office until October 31, 1801, when, owing to the state of his health and finances, he retired. With his brother-in-law, George Clymer, he had purchased large amounts of wild lands in western Virginia, eastern Kentucky, Delaware and Sullivan counties, New York, and in all the northeastern counties of Pennsylvania. In 1796 he began to make improvements at a place in the township of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, which he afterward named Belmont. In 1802 he moved to this place and devoted the last years of his life to the management of his land, dying in the manor house of the estate.
Meredith had married, on May 19, 1772, Margaret Cadwalader of Philadelphia, daughter of Dr. Thomas Cadwalader. They had seven children.