Name Robert Saunders | Role Irish lawyer | |
Robert Saunders (c.1650–1708) was an Irish landowner, barrister and politician. He sat in the Irish House of Commons and was the Irish Prime Serjeant. Unusually, his youngest son, Morley Saunders, also held the office of Prime Serjeant.
He was probably born in County Wexford, the second son of Colonel Robert Saunders and his wife Sarah Fitzherbert. His father had come to Ireland with Oliver Cromwell, with whom he is said to have later quarreled. The elder Saunders became Governor of Kinsale, and received a land grant of 3700 acres in Wexford. Despite his Cromwellian past, he supported the Restoration of Charles II, (as did many Cromwellian settlers) and was allowed to keep his lands under the new regime.
The younger Robert was elected MP for County Cavan in 1692, and retained the seat until his death. He was called to the Irish Bar, and held the office of Prime Serjeant from 1703 to 1708. He went as an extra judge on assize in 1703. He is listed as one of the trustees of the King's Inns in 1706.
In 1682 he acquired from the Roman Catholic Hoveden family substantial lands in County Laois at Tankardstown, Ballyleheane and Clonpierce, which he held as a tenant of the Earl of Anglesey. During the political turbulence of the years 1688-90 the Hovedens, who now claimed that they had been wrongfully dispossessed because of their religion, briefly recovered the lands. Robert was back in possession by 1691: but the complex legal situation led to litigation between the Saunders, Hoveden and Anglesey families which dragged on into the nineteenth century.
He had three sons, Walter, Joseph (died 1713) and Morley (died 1737). Little is known about his wife, but her family name may have been Morley, as this became a common boy's name in the Saunders family. Robert's third son Morley followed him to the Irish Bar, and into the Irish House of Commons, and became Prime Serjeant in his turn. He inherited the family estate from his brother Joseph in 1713, and is best remembered for building the impressive family home, Saunders Grove, near Baltinglass, County Wicklow.