Sampson Salter Blowers
(1743-1843):

Born in Boston, Blowers was educated at Harvard and thereafter admitted to the bar where he gained a reputation as a good trial lawyer. When the trouble between Great Britain and the colonies sprang up, particularly at Boston, Blowers retreated with his wife to England, returning, however, to Rhode Island in 1777. With British reverses mounting, Blowers, like many of the loyalists, went to the safety of New York where he was appointed its Solicitor General. With the final evacuation of New York by the British forces in 1783, Blowers came to Halifax.

Blowers sought to practice law at Halifax but things were slow at first, as, "there was no need of lawyers." His loyalty to the crown, however, was to pay off. In December, 1784, Blowers, in view of his experience at New York, was appointed the Attorney General for Nova Scotia. Uniacke expected that he should have gotten the position as Attorney General; but all Uniacke got at that time, in compensation, was the position as advocate general of the Vice-Admiralty Court, an appointment, incidently, that Blowers thought he should get in addition to that of Attorney General. Sufficient to say, at this place, that there was to be animosity between Uniacke and Blowers.

In 1797, Blowers was appointed the Chief Justice of Nova Scotia. Doubtlessly, such appointments as Blowers did receive during his career, came about because of his connections; but, Blowers was a very talented lawyer. As Justice Marshall wrote: Blowers was "truly eminent for a high standard of legal knowledge, logical skill, and power of argument and chasteness and attractiveness of language ..." In his retirement, Blowers spent his summers at Windsor (like so may of the élite of Halifax) and his winters at his townhouse at Halifax. Blowers died at the grand old age of 100.1

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