Samuel Wydown (d. 1823), merchant and clergyman, was a native of England. He was ordained and became pastor of an independent Nonconformist church in the city of York in 1797. Wydown left this post by 1799 and evidently engaged in mercantile activity on the continent, possibly around Antwerp, before immigrating to the United States. In December 1805 he filed for citizenship in Baltimore, and by 1807 he was working as a merchant there. An ordained Baptist minister by 1809, Wydown successively served congregations in Woburn and Malden, Massachusetts, and in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1817 he applied to the vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church in Newport for testimonials to be used in obtaining orders in that denomination. After an initially favorable report, Wydown’s application was rejected the following year due to questions about his character. Nevertheless, the Episcopal bishop of Virginia, Richard Channing Moore, ordained Wydown as a deacon in 1818 and a priest in 1820, by which time he was serving Saint Martin’s Parish in Hanover County. He died in Albemarle County (An Introductory Discourse, by Joseph Cockin … April 18, 1797, at the Public Separation of Samuel Wydown, to the Pastoral Office, in the Independent Church, Jubber-Gate, York [Leeds, (1797)]; William Ellerby and James Pigott Pritchett, A History of the Nonconformist Churches of York, ed. Edward Royle [1993], 25, 27–8; Christian Witness, and Church Member’s Magazine 4 [1847]: 582; Madison, Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson, Robert A. Rutland, John C. A. Stagg, and others, eds., The Papers of James Madison, 1962– , 43 vols.: Congress. Ser., 17 vols.: Pres. Ser., 11 vols.: Retirement Ser., 3 vols.: Sec. of State Ser., 12 vols. description ends , Sec. of State Ser., 6:35; DNA: RG 21, NPM; James McHenry, Baltimore Directory, and Citizens’ Register, for 1807 [(Baltimore, 1807)], 136; Minutes of the Warren Association, held at the Baptist Meeting-House in Haverhill, Sept. 12th and 13th, 1809 [Boston, 1809], 4; Minutes of the Warren Association, held at the First Baptist Meeting-House in Providence, Sept. 11th and 12th [Boston, 1810], 3; D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts [1890], 3:514; John Overton Choules, A Sermon, Preached November 26, 1829, being the Day of Thanksgiving; containing A History of the origin and growth of the Second Baptist Church in Newport, (R.I.) [1830], 17; George Champlin Mason, Annals of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island. 1698–1821 [1890], 318; George Burgess, List of Persons admitted to the Order of Deacons in the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the United States of America, From A.D. 1785, to A.D. 1857 [1874], 10; Journal of the Proceedings of the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church [1820]: 94; Christian Journal and Literary Register 7 [1823]: 255; Richmond Enquirer, 4 Mar. 1823).