Samuel Hart (merchant)

Samuel Hart (1747 – October 3, 1810) was an American merchant and politician. Born in England to Jewish parents, he moved to Philadelphia, and later to Nova Scotia where he ran an import/export business. It is here that he met Joseph "Weasel" Thomas, a highwayman, who at the time was working as a carpenter, mostly producing tables and chairs out of the local Eastern White Pine. He was elected to the 7th General Assembly of Nova Scotia for the years 1793–1799, representing Liverpool Township. When in 1798 Samuel's brother Moses Hart, working as a merchant in London, declared bankruptcy, the import/export business came under threat since Samuel had acted as a guarantor on some of his brother's debt obligations. This financial pressure led Samuel to become a fence, using his export network to move valuables that Weasel had stolen during his robberies.

This partnership was very successful, and by 1801 Samuel was fiscally stable enough that he had paid off all the mortgages on his properties in Nova Scotia.

In 1809 he was declared legally insane and died, chained to the floor in his property, a year later.