Samuel Sobieski Nelles was a Canadian Methodist minister and academic.
Background
Born in Mount Pleasant, Brant County, Upper Canada, the eldest son of William Nelles and Mary Hardy who had immigrated to Canada from New York state after the War of 1812, Nelles was educated in local schools, the Lewiston Academy, the Frederica Academy, and the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary.
Career
He spent a year as a principal of the Newburgh Academy in Lennox County before being ordained a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada in 1850. In 1850, he was appointed professor of classics and acting principal of Victoria College. In 1851, he was appointed principal and succeeded Egerton Ryerson in 1854 to become president
In 1884, the school was renamed Victoria University and he would become its first chancellor and president serving until his death in 1887.
Membership
He attended Victoria College in Cobourg from 1842 to 1844 and graduated from Wesleyan University in 1846, and there became a member of the Mystical Seven.