Samuel Bassett French (March 31, 1820 – April 25, 1898) was a Virginia lawyer and bureaucrat, Confederate officer, newspaperman, author and municipal judge.
John French and his wife, the former Frances ("Fanny") Marsden, Bassett received a private classical education at Norfolk Academy, then graduated from Hampden-Sydney College.
[3][4] At some point French bought "Whitby", the former Goode family plantation in Manchester, Virginia, near the landing where slaves had disembarked for sale in Richmond across the river.
[5] Admitted to the Virginia bar in 1840, French became a U.S. commissioner in bankruptcy in 1842 and moved to the state capital, where he practiced in Chesterfield County across the James River from Richmond.
[9] After the war, French wrote for the Richmond Enquirer newspaper and served as personal secretary to former Confederate general turned political boss William Mahone.