Dashwood's father was a farmer of the excise, and he himself became a commissioner of excise in 1683.[5] An alderman in 1687, he was removed by James II for refusing to countenance the suspension of the Corporation Act.[6]
In 1702, a colonel in the Lieutenancy of the City, Dashwood was made a Justice of the Peace, based on his willingness to use judicial powers.[6] In that year Dashwood was Lord Mayor of London, and entertained Queen Anne at the London Guildhall as part of the lavish show that he organised. It was authored by Elkanah Settle, and marked the final pageant of the old tradition.[7][8]
Personal life
Portrait of his wife, Anne Dashwood (née Smith), by Peter Lely
On 17 May 1670, Dashwood was married to Anne Smith, a daughter of John Smith of Tedworth. Her brother was politician John Smith, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.[9][10] Together, Samuel and Anne were the parents of four sons and ten daughters, including:
Sarah Dashwood, who married Richard Crawley, Registrar of the Admiralty.[16]
Annabella Dashwood (d. 1771), who married Thomas Medley, of Buxted.[17]
Samuel's heir was George, the fourth son but the oldest who survived his father. His commercial success had enabled him to buy properties in Buckinghamshire and Surrey, but he continued to live in the capital until his death on 12 August 1705. He was buried at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. He left an estate reportedly valued at £100,000, which was shared among his surviving two sons and five daughters.[18]
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume I, page 188.
^Sir Bernard Burke, C.B. LL.D., A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, new edition (1883; reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1978), page 10.