He served as Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire from 1770 to 1780, Midhurst from 1780 to 1784, Coventry from 1784 to 1796, and Wallingford from 1796 to 1802.

Sampson Gideon (as he then was) was created a baronet in 1759. In 1768, he married Maria Wilmot, the daughter of Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and adopted the name Eardley as his surname. In 1789, he was created an Irish peer, with the title of Baron Eardley of Spalding in the county of Lincolnshire. An Irish peerage carried no seat in the House of Lords and thus did not disqualify him from membership of the British House of Commons.

As they had no sons, the peerage became extinct on Eardley's death.

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