Colonel Alexander Saunderson (1783–1857) was a
Whig MP for
Cavan
Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Ba ...
1826–1831. He was a landed gentleman with 12,000 acres. Although from the Protestant planter tradition, he supported
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restrict ...
.
Alexander Saunderson was a keen racing yachtsman on Lough Erne and a founder member c. 1818 of the group that became Lough Erne Yacht Club. He designed and built fast sailing boats at
Castle Saunderson – as did his son and successor Edward. One of his most successful boats he called Bluestocking. His mother and aunt were
Bluestockings. He may also have been a member of the Royal Dublin Society.
Family
Alexander was born to
Francis Saunderson and Anne Bassett White.
The Irish Saundersons were a 17th-century branch of an old family, originally of
Durham; a Lincolnshire branch, the Saundersons of
Saxby, held the titles of
Viscount Castleton
A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a Title#Aristocratic titles, title used in certain European countries for a nobility, noble of varying status.
In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-he ...
(Irish: c. 1628) and
Baron Saunderson
The title Earl Castleton, of Sandbeck in the County of York, was created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1720 for the 6th Viscount Castleton, who had previously been created Baron Saunderson, of Saxby in the County of Lincoln, in 1714, and ...
(British: c. 1714) up to 1723.
On 18 March 1828, Saunderson married Sarah Juliana, sister of fellow Cavan MP,
Henry Maxwell and daughter of the
Henry Maxwell, 6th Baron Farnham. They had three sons and two daughters. Their son
Edward James Saunderson
Colonel Edward James Saunderson (1 October 183721 October 1906) was an Anglo-Irish landowner and prominent Irish unionist politician. He led the Irish Unionist Alliance between 1891 and 1906.
Early life
Saunderson was born at the family sea ...
was also MP for Cavan 1865–1874 and later became MP for
North Armagh 1885–1906.
In 1947, Saunderson's great-grandson, also named Alexander, married Louise Astor Van Alen, granddaughter of
James John Van Alen and grandniece of
RMS Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unit ...
victim
John Jacob Astor IV, and the ex-wife of two different
Georgian Mdivani princes.
[Moore, Steven. ''Archives: Ulsterman to marry Georgian Princess'' The Belfast News Letter, 25 August 1999]
References
External links
*
1783 births
1857 deaths
Politicians from County Cavan
UK MPs 1826–1830
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Cavan constituencies (1801–1922)
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