Morley Saunders (1671-1737) was an Irish politician,
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
and landowner. He followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a member of the
Irish House of Commons
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...
and
Prime Serjeant-at-law. He is mainly remembered today as the builder of Saunders' Grove, the family home in Wicklow. The town of
Swanlinbar
Swanlinbar () is a small village on the N87 national secondary road in north-west County Cavan, Ireland, close to the Cladagh river and near the Fermanagh border.
The village is situated in the townlands of Furnaceland and Hawkswood, in th ...
,
County Cavan
County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...
, where he was a leading landowner, is partially named after his father.
Early life
He was born in
County Wexford
County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...
, third son of
Robert Saunders (died 1708), a wealthy lawyer and member of Parliament, who was Prime Serjeant 1703-1708; nothing seems to be known about his mother.
Morley's grandfather, Colonel Robert Saunders, had been
Governor of Kinsale
The governor of Kinsale was a military officer who commanded the garrison at Kinsale and Charles Fort in County Cork. The office became a sinecure and in 1833 was to be abolished from the next vacancy.
List of governors of Kinsale and Charles Fo ...
during the
Interregnum
An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of revolutionary breach of legal continuity, discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one m ...
, but retained his substantial landholdings in Wexford after the
Restoration of Charles II
The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland. It replaced the Commonwealth of England, established in January 164 ...
. Morley, unlike his grandfather, was described as a "passionate
Tory
A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
". He had two elder brothers, Walter and Joseph, who died without issue. His father acquired substantial
leasehold
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a Lease, lessee or a tenant has rights of real property by some form of title (property), title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold right ...
lands in
County Laois
County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...
, but his right to hold them was disputed by the Hoveden family, a dispute which involved his descendants in decades of litigation. According to
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...
, Robert lost a great deal of money by investing in an
ironworks
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''.
Ironworks succeeded bloome ...
at Swanlinbar, the village of which he was co-founder, but his losses seem to have been only temporary, as the main family estate remained intact and he left a comfortable fortune to his sons.
Career
Morley was
called to the Bar
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
, and sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for
Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the Blackstairs Mountains and Ireland's longest beach, Curracloe.
The Plac ...
from 1703 to 1714. He became Second Serjeant in 1711 and Prime Serjeant the next year. He acted as an extra judge of
assize
The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...
in 1713.
Irish judges and Law Officers did not at that time enjoy
security of tenure
Security of tenure is a term with multiple meanings according to jurisdiction. In Australia, it is used in political science to describe a constitutional or legal guarantee that a political office-holder cannot be removed from office except in ex ...
, and they were invariably appointed on a party political basis. On the death of
Queen Anne in August 1714, the new
Whig Government in England took a dim view of the overwhelmingly Tory political establishment in Ireland, and Morley, like virtually all of his colleagues, was dismissed in a "clean sweep" of the Irish judges and Law Officers later in the year.
His loss of this very lucrative office was offset by his inheritance of the family estates from his brother Joseph, who died in 1713; he had already inherited the family estates at Swanlinbar in 1708 from his father. He spent much of his later years building a new family residence, Saunders' Grove near
Baltinglass
Baltinglass, historically known as Baltinglas (), is a town in south-west County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the River Slaney near the border with County Carlow and County Kildare, on the N81 road (Ireland), N81 road ...
,
County Wicklow
County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...
. It has been described as a house of great beauty. Saunder's Grove remained in the family for several generations. The former Saunders estate is now a farm.
Morley died in 1737.
Family
By his wife Frances Goodwin, he had a single daughter and heiress Cordelia, who married George Pendred (died 1741), younger son of William Pendred of Broghillstown,
County Carlow
County Carlow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county located in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region of Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Carlow is the List of Irish counties by area, second smallest and t ...
and Elizabeth Champney. George was
High Sheriff of Wicklow
The High Sheriff of Wicklow was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Wicklow, Ireland from Wicklow's formation in 1606 until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Wicklow County Sh ...
in 1735. He belonged to an old
Northampton
Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
family which settled in Ireland in the time of
William III of Orange
William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 167 ...
. They had one daughter and three sons, of whom the eldest, the Reverend Morley Pendred Saunders, inherited the family estates from his grandfather, and at his request adopted the surname Saunders.
References
Further reading
*Burke, Bernard ''General Armory of England etc''. London 1884
*Burke, Bernard ''Landed Gentry of Ireland'' London 1912
*Hart, A.R. ''History of the King's Serjeants-at-law in Ireland'' Four Courts Press Dublin 2000
*''Saunders v. Lord Annesley'' (1804) Reports of Cases Heard and Determined in the
Court of Chancery (Ireland)
The Court of Chancery was a court which exercised equitable jurisdiction in Ireland until its abolition as part of the reform of the court system in 1877. It was the court in which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided. Its final sitting plac ...
*''Topographical Dictionary of Ireland'' 1837
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saunders, Morley
1630s births
1737 deaths
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Wexford constituencies
Irish MPs 1703–1713
Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)