was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1808 and also became a fellow of the Royal Society. Saunders published in 1805 a valuable paper on ‘Brick Bond as practised at Various Periods,’ and others on ‘The Origin of Gothic Architecture’ and ‘The Situation and Extent of the City of Westminster at Various Periods’ were printed in ‘Archæologia’ in 1811 and 1833. He died at his residence in Oxford Street, London, in July 1839. A marble bust of him by Cheverton, after Chantrey, belongs to the Royal Society of British Architects.
[Dict. of Architecture; Gent. Mag. 1839, ii. 321; Edwards's Founders of the British Museum, 1870, p. 392; Papworth's Views of London, 1816.]
SAUNDERS, HENRY (1728–1785), local historian, the son of Henry Rogers Saunders by his wife Rebecca (Hawkes), was born at Dudley in 1728. His father's mother, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Rogers, a Stourbridge glass dealer, was of Huguenot descent, and this same Thomas Rogers was an ancestor of Samuel Rogers the poet. Henry was educated partly at the expense of his father's elder brother, Thomas, a surgeon who was patronised by ‘the good Lord Lyttelton’ [See Lyttelton, George, first Baron], and much esteemed for ‘his success in inoculation.’ On leaving Dudley grammar school, he matriculated from Oriel College, Oxford, on 19 June 1746, being entered on the college books as a servitor on 18 July 1746, and graduating B.A. 31 May 1750. In 1754, having been ordained, he was appointed curate of Wednesbury at a stipend of 36l., upon which he married. After two years of semi-starvation he was transferred to Shenstone in Staffordshire, where he served as curate for fourteen years. His amiable qualities enabled him to make influential friends there, and he always expressed the liveliest gratitude towards the place and its people. His last entry in the Shenstone register is dated 22 Jan. 1770. Shortly afterwards he accepted a fairly lucrative ushership at King Edward's School, Birmingham. By the favour of his uncle's patron, Lord Lyttelton, Saunders was in 1771 appointed to the mastership of Hales Owen school in Shropshire (now Worcestershire), to which was added, by the good offices of an early preceptor, Dr. Pynson Wilmott, the perpetual curacy of Oldbury. He died at Hales Owen in January 1785, and was buried by his special request in the churchyard of Shenstone on 4 Feb. 1785. By his wife Elizabeth (Butler), who died at Shenstone in 1759, he left an only son, John Butler Saunders (1750–1830), curate of St. Augustine and St. Faith, and of St. Martin's, Ironmonger Lane, London, and an untiring supporter of the Royal Humane Society. At Birmingham Saunders devoted his spare time to the composition of ‘The History and Antiquities of Shenstone’ (published with a short account of the author by his son, John Butler Saunders, London, 1794, 4to, and also printed in Nichols's ‘Topographica Britannica,’ ix. ‘Antiquities,’ vol. i.). It is a model parish history, containing elaborate accounts of the local manors, hamlets, farms, genealogies, and assessments. The work is extensively used by Stebbing Shaw in his ‘History of Staffordshire’ (vol. ii. pt. i., 1801, folio).
[Gent. Mag. 1830 i. 473; Introduction to the History of Shenstone; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1881; Chambers's Worcestershire Worthies, p. 452; notes kindly supplied by C. L. Shadwell, Esq. B.C.L. of Oriel College, Oxford, and the Rev. A. F. Powley, vicar of Shenstone.]
SAUNDERS, JOHN (1810–1895), novelist and dramatist, born at Barnstaple, Devonshire, on 2 Aug. 1810, was the son of John Saunders, bookseller and publisher, of Exeter, London, and Leeds, by his wife Sarah Northcote of Exeter. The family had long been established in Devonshire (Vivian, Visitations of Devon, p. 669). After being educated at Exeter grammar school, Saunders went to live at Lincoln with his sister Mary (b. 1813), and there he published in 1834, in conjunction with her, ‘Songs for the Many, by Two of the People.’ They won the commendation of Bulwer Lytton and Leigh Hunt, and were republished in 1838 under the title of ‘Songs, Sonnets, and Miscellaneous Poems.’ Mary Saunders afterwards collaborated with her husband, John Bennett, in several works of fiction and other literary undertakings. She survived her brother.
Removing to London, Saunders in 1840 edited William Howitt's ‘Portraits and Memoirs of Eminent Living Political Reformers,’ the portraits being by Hayter. About this time he began a connection with Charles Knight (1791–1873) [q. v.], for whom he wrote the greater part of ‘Old England’ and much of ‘London.’ A series of articles on Chaucer, which appeared originally in the ‘Penny Magazine,’ formed the basis of an introduction to an edition of the ‘Canterbury Tales,’ published in 1846. This admirable piece of work was reissued in 1889, in the form of ‘a modernised version, annotated and accented,’ with illustrations reproduced from the Ellesmere MS.
In 1846 Saunders founded ‘The People's
