Family and Education

b. c.1657, 1st s. of George Saunderson, 5th Visct. Castleton [I], by 1st w.; bro. of Hon. James Saunderson. m. c. Dec. 1674, Elizabeth, da. and h. of Sir John Wray, 3rd Bt., of Glentworth, 1s.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Yorks. (N. Riding) 1679-80, Lincs. 1689-90; steward of Kirton-in-Lindsey 1689-d.2

Biography

Saunderson was brought up by his uncle, Sir William Frankland and consequently, according to another uncle Lord Fauconberg, ‘very well-known and esteemed’ in Thirsk, although an impartial observer described him as ‘a rough squire who hath been almost spoiled by his uncle’. Returned for Thirsk on Frankland’s interest at both elections of 1679, and marked ‘honest’ on Shaftesbury’s list, he was absent from the division on the first exclusion bill, served on no committees, and made no speeches. He may have come to oppose exclusion, like his father, for in 1681 he was replaced by a stronger country candidate, Sir William Ayscough. But it was probably as a Whig and on the Pierrepont interest that he was elected for Newark in 1689. In the Convention he was named to the committee to consider the balance of trade between England and France on 29 Jan. 1689, and probably voted against agreeing with the Lords that the throne was not vacant, since his brother was made commissioner of alienations, and he was himself given the stewardship of a crown estate. He left no further trace on the records of this Parliament, but he was re-elected in 1690. He died in December 1692. Under his will, Lord Kingston (Evelyn Pierrepont) was to be his son’s guardian, if he should be left an orphan. But the child died young, and the title went to his brother James.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. Marvell ed. Margoliouth, ii. 316, 332b.
• 2. Cal. Treas. Bks. ix. 19, 93, 1957.
• 3. HMC Var. ii. 165; Spencer mss, John Millington to Ld. Halifax, 4 Oct. 1682; CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 25; PCC 45 Coker.