Samuel Bridgen was born in England in about February 1686 and arrived in New Hanover County, North Carolina by 1739. In 1741 Bridgen filed a lawsuit against James Campbell, a merchant in Wilmington, claiming that Campbell had allowed two of Bridgen's enslaved people to escape. If the enslaved people were ever located, Bridgen was no longer in possession of them by the time of his death in New Hanover in about 1758.