Samuel Oakes was the son of Fairley Oakes who had helped found The Stag Brewery alongside William Fairhurst in 1781.
Samuel was taken on as a partner at the brewery when Fairhurst died in 1824. Samuel oversaw the opening of the brewery's first public house The Stag Inn in 1848, that same year his father died and he took on his eighteen-year-old son Percy as a partner. Together they oversaw the opening of several pubs including The Flying Dutchman (later renamed The Flying Horse). Due to the fact that Percy had no children of his own, he and Percy took on Joan's husband Aubrey Newton and Leopold Ridley as partners in 1879.