The son of Isaac Hays and Rebecca Judah, Samuel Hays was born in New York but lived most of his adult life in Philadelphia. Before striking out on his own as a merchant trader, Hays apprenticed with Haym Salomon. He subsequently established himself in the East India trade and as his mercantile success increased so too did his connections to Philadelphia’s mercantile elite, Jewish and non-Jewish.

In 1793, the twenty-nine-year-old Hays courted nineteen-year-old Richea Gratz, the second daughter, and fourth of twelve children, of Philadelphia’s leading Jewish merchant, Michael Gratz, and his wife, Miriam Simon, the first Jewish woman to attend college in the United States. Samuel and Richea, married in January of 1794, would go on to have ten children, including Isaac and Sara Ann.

In1805 Hays became the first Jew to serve on the trade claims committee of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, a body that convened once a month to settle disputes. He was an observant Jew and a devoted member of Congregation Mikveh Israel, serving as a trustee of the congregation in the 1790s.