Samuel, an English divine, famous for compiling a valuable collection of voyages, was born in 1577, at Thaxted in Essex. After studying at Cambridge, he obtained the vicarage of Eactwood in his native county; but leaving that cure to his brother, he settled in London, in order to carry on the great work in which he was engaged. He published the first volume in folio, 1613, and the four last, 12 years after, under the title of Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the world, and the Religions observed in all ages and places. Meanwhile he was collated to the rectory of St Martin's, Ludgate, in London, and made chaplain to Dr Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury. His Pilgrimage, and the learned Hackluyt's Voyages, led the way to all the other collections of that kind, and have been justly valued and esteemed. But unhappily, by his publishing, he involved himself in debt: he did not, however, die in prison, as some have asserted; but at his own house, about the year 1628.