Samuel Andrew Peters was born in Hebron, Connecticut, in late 1735, the son of John Peters and Mary Marks. After graduating from Yale College in 1757, he traveled to England, where he was ordained in the Church of England. He returned to Hebron as a commissioned missionary in 1760 and became rector of St. Peter's Church. During the early 1770s, Peters publicly supported British rule; increasing tension led him to leave for England in October 1774. He then lived in London, where he wrote his controversial General History of Connecticut (1781). He was elected bishop of Vermont in 1794, though he was never consecrated. Peters and his family returned to the United States in 1805, where he attempted to obtain a land grant that he had been promised by American explorer Jonathan Carver. He briefly lived in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, before moving to New York City, where he died on April 19, 1826. Peters and his first wife, Hannah Owen (d. 1765), married on February 13 or 14, 1760; they had one daughter, Hannah (d. 1845). After her death, Peters married Abigail Gilbert on June 25, 1769, who died soon thereafter. He married his third wife, Mary Birdseye, in April 1773, and they had one son, William Birdseye Peters (1774-1822), before her death in 1774. Samuel Andrew Peters died in 1826.
Samuel P. Bell, a lawyer, lived at 234 West 23rd Street in New York, New York, in the late 19th century. He corresponded with various persons about the genealogy of the Peters family.
From the guide to the Samuel Peters family collection, Peters, Samuel family collection, 1767-1889, 1887-1889, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
