Samuel Augustus Barnett (8 February 1844 – 17 June 1913[1]) was a Church of England cleric and social reformer who was particularly associated with the establishment of the first university settlement, Toynbee Hall, in east London in 1884.

Later that year, the Barnetts moved to the impoverished Whitechapel parish of St. Jude's intent on improving social conditions in one of London's worst slums.

His chief assistants were Leonard Montefiore, a young Oxford man, and Frederick Rogers, a member of the Vellum (Account Book) Binders' Trade Society.

[6] In 1888 American reformer Jane Addams visited the settlement, and was inspired to create similar facilities in the United States—the first Hull House opening in Chicago a year later.

[8] The Barnetts worked to protect part of nearby Hampstead Heath from development by Eton College,[9] as well as beginning in 1904 established trusts which bought 243 acres of land along the newly opened Northern line extension to Golders Green.

Henrietta Barnett broke ground for the development on her 56th birthday, and while it never was completed to the plan of architects Raymond Unwin and Sir Edwin Lutyens, it achieved worldwide acclaim.

[13] Samuel Barnett died in 1913 at 69 Kings Esplanade in Hove,[14] and is buried with his wife in the churchyard at St Helen's Church, Hangleton, East Sussex.

[16] A Greater London Council blue plaque unveiled in 1983 on Heath End House on Spaniards Road, Hampstead commemorates Barnett and his wife.