Samuel Myers was one of twelve children born to Eliza Judah and Moses Myers of Norfolk, Virginia, and brother to John and Myer Myers. His was a wealthy family, which sat at the pinnacle of Virginia society. He attended William and Mary College from 1807 to 1810, becoming the first Jewish graduate, after which he briefly studied law in Richmond, before returning to Norfolk to work in his father’s company.

In May of 1811, Samuel shot and killed Richard Bowden, a former business partner of his father, who had beaten Moses in the market square, claiming he had been cheated. Charged with manslaughter, Samuel was released on bail, and he stayed with friends in Philadelphia as he awaited trial. Acquitted a year after the shooting, Samuel went with his sister Adeline to upstate New York in the summer of 1812 to recover from the ordeal.

Samuel spent the next two years abroad, representing the family business. Upon his return, in 1816, he married Louisa Marx, daughter of Joseph and Richea Myers Marx, a distant cousin. His younger brother Myer would later marry Louisa’s sister Judith. Their first child, Moses Myers II was born in 1817, followed by two more children in 1818 and 1822. The Myers family business suffered tremendous losses in the Crash of 1819, and though he did not end up in debtors prison like his brother John, Samuel did have to close his office. He took Louisa and the Children to Pensacola, Florida, to try to make a fresh start. There he successfully had a legal practice for several years, before retuning to Virginia.