Samuel Backhouse (sometimes Bacchus or Bakehouse;^[2] bapt. 18 Nov. 1554 – 24 June 1626) was an English merchant who later became a country gentleman based in the county of Berkshire. He was a member of Parliament (MP) twice early in James I's reign, first for New Windsor in 1604 and then for Aylesbury in 1614.

Backhouse was brought up in the prominent Backhouse family of the North of England, son of a wealthy London Alderman and Grocer. Educated at Oxford, he first came into a sum of land upon his father's death, in 1580. The next sum came after marrying Elizabeth Borlase, member of the Buckinghamshire gentry, as he purchased the manor of Swallowfield in order to reside closer to his new affinial relatives. Here Backhouse lived the life of a country gentleman, fulfilling several minor municipal duties and, in 1600, entertaining the Queen as Sheriff of Berkshire.

Perhaps emboldened by his successes as a country gentleman in Berkshire, Backhouse entered parliament. His first stint in parliament, during the Blessed Parliament of 1604–10, saw him nominated to fifty committees, though he was not recorded as giving any speeches. In the much shorter Addled Parliament of 1614, Backhouse was nominated to another nine committees, but again remained a silent MP.

After the Addled Parliament, Backhouse did not seek reelection, and soon returned to Swallowfield. It is known that he became a shareholder of the New River Company in 1619 and engaged in a minor familial dispute regarding the parish church; he perhaps also cultivated associates interested in esotericism.

Following his in death 1626, Backhouse's lands passed to his eldest son John, and when John died without heirs, to his youngest, William. William's only child to not predecease him—Flower—died childless, thus ending Backhouse's line.

Samuel Backhouse was baptised on 18 November 1554, the son of Nicholas Backhouse and his first wife, Anne (daughter of Thomas Curzon of Croxall).^[2] Samuel was born into the wealthy Backhouse family of Northern England. Its earliest known member, was one Thomas Backhouse of Cumberland, Samuel's grandfather. Nicholas Backhouse was granted a confirmation of arms on 27 March 1574, which stated the family "lange tyme past did come out of Lancashere where they were of worshippful degree". Nicholas Backhouse was a merchant and is referred to in this grant as "of London Grocer". In 1578, he became a Sheriff and Alderman of London, leading historian C. H. Josten to conclude that he "must have been a man of considerable wealth and standing".^[3]

Backhouse was brought up in Hampshire, located near a manor of Nicholas'. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he matriculated in 1569, and obtained his BA in 1573. Backhouse entered Gray's Inn in 1572.^[2]

Backhouse's first large sum of property came upon his father's death in June 1580, when he inherited his father's Hampshire lands. The next came after Backhouse married Elizabeth, daughter of John Borlase of Little Marlow, on 6 September 1581, thus ingratiating himself into the Buckinghamshire gentry. That year, he proceeded to acquire the Berkshire manor of Swallowfield, a purchase which ensured his proximity to his new affinial relatives.^[2] Backhouse grew into "a man of considerable wealth" who, alongside his property in Swallowfield, held over 70 acres in Clerkenwell and Islington.^[4]

In Swallowfield, Backhouse abandoned his father's mercantile lifestyle for that of a country gentleman. His brother Rowland took up the family's commercial helm. He did, however, make an investment of £240 into the East India Company in 1600, following his brother's example. Backhouse did not immediately accustom himself to this new way of life. His Oxford peer John Chamberlain wryly reported that in 1600-01 Backhouse, as the county's newly made sheriff, was "almost out of heart" after being informed Queen Elizabeth I was visiting, as he felt himself "altogether unacquainted with courting", though he ultimately performed "very well".^[2]

In Berkshire, Backhouse occupied several municipal offices. He was justice of the peace in the county from 1593 until his death; sheriff of Berkshire, in 1600-01; commissioner of recusants in Berkshire, 1602; joint collector of aid in Berkshire, 1613; and commissioner of sewers in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, 1622.^[2]

After Backhouse's parliamentary career had finished, he reentered commerce with the incorporation of the New River Company in 1619.^[2] Backhouse was among the "Adventurers" (shareholders) named in the incorporation charter, alongside his son John, several other kinsmen, and Sir Hugh Myddelton (with whom he had worked in parliament).^[2][10] Prior to this, in early 1614 and while attending parliament, Backhouse and three others investors had paid a small fee to acquire a portion of land in Ware, at the source of the New River.^[11] Around the same time, Backhouse had been paid a fee of £65 by Myddelton to use his property in Clerkenwell for the New River head.^[2]

Samuel and Elisabeth Backhouse had eight children, four sons and four daughters (one of whom predeceased him).^[2] The sons were born John (b. 1584), Nicholas, Samuel, and William (b. 1593).^[13] In the autumn of 1607, a visitor to Swallowfield reported Backhouse proposed a marriage between one of his sons and one of Henry Neville's daughters. This offer reportedly fell through, leaving Backhouse "not a little perplexed", though the rebuffed proposal apparently led to no enduring antipathy between the families, as Backhouse was made godfather to Neville's child the following year.^[2] In 1618, Backhouse and his family became involved in a quarrel over the ownership of some pews in Swallowfield church, which was ultimately brought in front of the Star Chamber.^[2] In the course of this dispute, Backhouse's son John attacked one John Phippes with a spear.^[14]

Backhouse drew up his will on 8 June 1626, "weak of body", and died shortly after, on 24 June 1626. He was buried at Swallowfield. The news of his death apparently did not travel as far as Whitehall as, in February 1627, he was named to the Berkshire commission for the Forced Loan there.^[2]

Samuel's eldest child, John, subsequently inherited his father's estates, including Swallowfield,^[15][16] and followed his father into parliament from 1625 to 1629, as the member for Great Marlow.^[14] John married in 1615, but died childless in 1649, passing Swallowfield to his youngest brother, William.^[14][17] Little is known of Samuel's middle sons, Nicholas and Samuel, who were both alive by 1628, when they are mentioned in their mother's will, but apparently both died unmarried before 1649, neglected in their elder brother's will.^[13] William was the only son of Samuel's to have progeny: two sons and a daughter, Flower. Both sons predeceased William, leaving Flower his sole heir upon his death in 1662. Despite three marriages, when Flower died in 1700, none of her children had survived her, ending Samuel Backhouse's direct line of descendance.^[18][19]

Samuel's son, William, became a "most renown'd chymist, Rosicrucian, and a great encourager of those that studied chymistry and astrology", as Anthony à Wood put it,^[20] later working as the tutor of Elias Ashmole.^[21] C. H. Josten, in a biographical sketch of William, hypothesises that William's ancestors were also interested in alchemy. To this end, he cites an Ashmolean manuscript which records Sir Edward Dyer enlisting the aid of Cornelius Drebbel and one "Sir S. Backus" in translating and deciphering an enigmatic "Dutch Cypher". If this "S. Backus" can be identified with Samuel Backhouse, this document puts him as an acquaintance of two prominent English mysticists, suggesting his own interests in that area.^[22]