Joseph Sampson was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1768, the son of John and Margaret Sampson. When he was ten years old, he was taken prisoner by Indians and taken to Niagra Falls, Canada, where he was held for five years. He married Elizabeth McClelland (d. 1829) in Pennsylvania in 1790. They had seven children. The family migrated to Columbia, Ohio, in 1792, and in 1798, moved to a farm near Pleasant Ridge, Ohio. He married 2) Mary Patmore in 1730. He died in 1848. Descendants listed lived in Ohio, Illinois, and elsewhere.