Sampson Mordan was a British silversmith and a co-inventor of the first patented mechanical pencil. During his youth, he was an apprentice of the inventor and locksmith Joseph Bramah, who patented the first elastic ink reservoir for a fountain pen. Upon Mordan’s death in 1843, his sons Sampson Junior and Augustus inherited the firm. S. Mordan & Co. continued to make silverware and brass postal scales until 1941 when their factory was destroyed by bombs during the London Blitz in WWII.