Sampson Michell

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Sampson Michell (1755–1809) was a British naval officer who later became commander of the Portuguese Navy in exile. He was born in Truro, Cornwall, the son of Dr Thomas Michell and Jane Sprey. His mother died when he was four, and he followed his paternal uncle Admiral Reynell Michell into a naval career. He joined the Royal Navy and served as a lieutenant in Admiral Howe’s fleet starting in August 1778. In 1790 he was aboard the 98-gun HMS St George under Sir George Collier. That year he left the Royal Navy with permission to join the Portuguese Navy and settled in Lisbon with his family.

When the French invaded Portugal in 1807, he briefly returned to Cornwall and then accompanied the Portuguese royal family to Brazil, where he was made an admiral and based in Rio de Janeiro. He sailed with the flotilla carrying the king and leaders, which left Europe in December 1807 and arrived in Brazil in January 1808. In exile he was promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Portuguese Navy. Michell died in Rio de Janeiro on 20 January 1809, aged 53, and was buried in the Bastion.

Family: He married Ann Shears in 1787, and they lived at Croftwest in Cornwall. They had two sons, Admiral Sir Frederick Thomas Michell and Charles Collier Michell, and four daughters, including Emma Caroline Michell, who married Rev. John Stuart Wood in 1820 (their children included Henry Evelyn Wood VC), and Anna Marie Michell (1791–1889), who married Sir Benjamin Wood MP.