SAMSON (1135-1211)  , abbot of St Edmund's, was educated in Paris and became a teacher in Norfolk, the county of his birth . In 1166 he entered the great Benedictine abbey of St Edmund's as a monk and was chosen abbot in February 1182 . He was a careful and vigilant guardian of the property of the abbey, but he found time to attend royal councils and to take part in public business; also he was frequently entrusted with commissions from the pope . During the absence of Richard I. from England he acted with vigour against John and visited the king in his prison in Germany . He did some building at the abbey, where he died on the 3oth of December 1211 . Samson is famous for the encouragement which he gave to the town of Bury St Edmunds, the liberties of which he extended in spite of his own monks . His name is most familiar owing to the references to him in Carlyle's Past and Present . See the chronicle of Jocelyn of Brakeloud in vol. i. of the Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey, edited by T . Arnold (189o) ; and J . R . Green, Stray Studies (1892) .