SAMPSON (St.), a parish in the N E of Guernsey; 2½ miles N N E of St. Peters. It has a post-office under Guernsey. Acres, 1, 435. Pop. in 1851, 2,006; in 1861, 2, 781. Houses, 418. Sampson, a fugitive British bishop from York, landed here in the 6th century, and built a chapel opposite Vale Castle; and Sampson d' Anneville got the manor from William the Conqueror. St. Sampson's harbour is a considerable sea-inlet, penetrating nearly at right angles with the coast-line; appears to have been, in early times, the only harbourused in the island; and is now of secondary consequence, and used chiefly for the exportation of granite. That rock here is of excellent building quality, and is extensively quarried and exported. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £165.* Patron, the Governor. The church is said to have been rebuilt in 1111, on the site of the original chapel; and has undergone so many alterations and enlargements as to retain little of its original masonry. There are a French Methodist chapel and several schools.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))