Samuel Eccleston, P.S.S. (June 27, 1801 – April 22, 1851) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the fifth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland from 1834 until his death in 1851. Biography Early life and education Samuel Eccleston was born near Chestertown, Maryland, to Samuel and Martha (née Hyson) Eccleston and raised Episcopalian. His grandfather, John Eccleston, was from Preston in North West England, and came to the Colony of Maryland in the middle of the 18th century. His father, who had three children from a previous marriage, died when Samuel was a young boy. Following his father's death, his widowed mother remarried a Roman Catholic gentleman surnamed Stenson. Young Samuel Eccleston was sent to St. Mary's College in Baltimore, run by the Sulpician Fathers, to be educated. There he converted to Catholicism. Ordination and ministry Following his conversion, Eccleston decided to enter the priesthood, and enrolled at St. Mary's Seminary in July 1819. He was ordained a priest by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal on April 24, 1825. Later that year, he entered the Sulpicians, and continued his studies at the Grand Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. After visiting England and Ireland, Eccleston returned to Baltimore in July 1827. He became a faculty member and Vice-President at his alma mater, St. Mary's Seminary, and the institution's President in 1829. Archbishop of Baltimore On March 4, 1834, Pope Gregory XVI appointed Eccleston Coadjutor Archbishop of Baltimore and Titular Archbishop of Thermae Basilicae. He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 14 from Archbishop James Whitfield, with Bishops Benedict Joseph Flaget, S.S., and Francis Patrick Kenrick serving as co-consecrators, in the old Baltimore Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary. Upon Archbishop Whitfield's death on October 19, 1834, Eccleston succeeded him as the fifth archbishop of Baltimore. At the age of 34, he became the youngest cleric to become archbishop in the archdiocese's history. In 1835, the Holy See appointed Eccleston Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, an office which he held until the appointment of Richard Vincent Whelan in 1840. Because Richmond was thus a subordinate diocese, Eccleston received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, on November 1, 1835, as his predecessor had six years earlier in 1829. Eccleston encouraged religious orders to establish houses in his diocese, particularly those who could provide social services