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Descendants of Nicholas & Edward Saunderson of Sheffield


Richard Axe

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Hunter produced a pedigree of the Saundersons of Sheffield in his book on Hallamshire (page 233). In it, he shows that both Nicholas and Edward, sons of Edward of Sheffield and Grimesthorpe (died 1617) had lines of descent but provides no details. Descendants ought to include Edward, Master Cutler in 1704, Samuel, a baptist minister (died Bedford 1766) and a number of tanners of Sheffield in the 1600 / 1700s. Does anyone know of these lines of descent?

Nicholas has perhaps six children between 1622 and 1636: Mary (= John Cart), John (1624-?), Elizabeth, Nicholas (1629-?), Sarah and Martha (= Gilbert Morewood).

Edward (as Hunter noted) had 'a numerous progeny' of (I make) possibly thirteen children: Edward (1624-5-?), John (1628-?), Joseph (died as a teenager 1649), Hanna (died young), Sara (died young), Samuel (1637-?; = Emotta Staniforth), Anna (= Thomas Twigg), Stephen (died as a young adult 1668-9), Mary (= John Stanniforth), Martha and another Sara (died on the verge of adulthood 1668-9), plus two likely infants.

Edward's son Samuel looks likely to be the father of another Samuel (1667-?; = Sara Wood) and Edward (1668-9-1719; Master Cutler 1704). That Edward's homonymous son (named in his father's will of 1719) ought to be the cutler who gained his freedom in 1725 and married Bright Wharton. Thereafter, nothing in Sheffield as far as I can see.

In and amongst are family members connected with non-conformism: associated with the Upper Chapel, Sheffield and Timothy Jollie, for example. Joseph & Samuel Sanderson, tanners, were trustees of the Chapel in 1704; Samuel had a son named Timothy in 1703, which was probably a nod to Timothy Jollie.

Can anyone shed any light on any of these family connections? Are there any descendants of either Nicholas or Edward still living?

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There are no pedigrees in the Familiae Minorum Gentium series.

Borthwick presumably can (eventually) supply a copy of Edward's 1670 Will which may help.

T.Walter Hall's "Sheffield Manorial Records (vol 3)"has a index of Genealogies which states that there are Saunderson "genealogies at

pages 74,76 in "Sheffield Manorial Records vol 1"  (William S marrying into Morehouse family) 1630 ish

page 160 in SMR vol 2 (same people as above)

Derbyshire Saundersons at page 147 in "The Edmunds Collection at the Public Library"1924 (not mine!)

and of Sanderson at page 196 of "Charters from the Wheat Collection" 1920

Derbyshire Sandersons at pages 99 and 119 in The Edmunds Collection.

In 1906 Charles Hall Crouch of Wanstead was compiling a pedigree of this family and was asking for assistance especially with the parentage of Samuel Sanderson, son of a tanner born about 1702 who became a nonconformist minister at Bunyan's Meeting House, Bedford from 1736 until his death in 1766. Mr Crouch was contemplating publishing a history of the family.

 

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Two relevant will extracts are below.

1     Edward Sanderson, tanner of Sheffield                    dated 28/3/1670        proved 2/5/1673

Imin, now wife

Samuell, son, the little close in Little Sheffield, after death of my wife

John, son, dwelling house & tanyard

Neices Mrs Carte & Mrs Morewood, widows

Daughters Anne, wife of Thomas Twigg & Mary, wife of John Stanniforth

Poor of Sheffield

Thomas Birbeck, Rowland Handcocke, Edward Prime & Matthew Bloome, ejected ministers of the Gospel

Samuell Birbecke & James Grantham, witnesses

My notes (to date) on this family and its connections are below.

2     Edward Sanderson, cutler of Sheffield                      dated 21/3/1718-9     proved 2/1/1719-20

Samuel, son

Samuel’s grandfather Hawley?

Edward, son, land in Little Sheffield

Elizabeth Sanderson, daughter

Samuel Sanderson, brother

Joseph Hawley, Joseph [Ault?], brothers-in-law

Benjamin Pearson, possible brother-in-law

John Unwin, tenant

John Roebuck, tenant in Little Sheffield

Josiah Twigg, Thomas Trickett & William [….]wick

John Dodworth, Josiah Twigg & Joseph Jolley, witnesses

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Notes on this family (to date) are below. People's thoughts, comments and ideas will be appreciated.

The Saunderson branch in Sheffield is discussed in Hunter’s Hallamshire and The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Blyth, by the Rev. John Raine (1865), provides details on the Saunderson family of Blyth, including the family of Bishop Robert Saunderson of Lincoln, baptised in Sheffield, in chapter IV. It includes a pedigree of that family. Hunter also provided several references to the family in his Gens Sylvestrina (1846). They include the following.

·       Edward Saunderson married twice: firstly, to Ann Barlow; secondly, to Immen Taylor, widow. He died in 1673.

·       Edward had two sons: John and Samuel. John was an Elder of Mr Jollie’s non-conformist congregation.

·       John received a bequest in the will of his uncle, Francis Barlow (written in 1689).

·       This John seems likely to be the same man who married Ann Cloudsley, widow, at some point after the death of her first husband, Jonathan, in 1680[1].

·       Joseph Saunderson married Mary Roberts, widow. Mary was the daughter of John Cloudsley, brother of Jonathan, and was born 3rd December 1669 and died in June 1735.

Like many of his family, Edward was a tanner by trade. He married Ann Barlow at Sheffield on 23rd January 1622-3; they had many children, baptised at St Peter’s, Sheffield.

·       Edward, baptised 24/2/1624-5

·       John, baptised 24/9/1628

·       Joseph, baptised 29/8/1630

·       An infant, buried 26/9/1632

·       Another infant, buried 13/12/1633

·       Hanna, baptised 22/2/1634-5 and buried there 19/3/1634-5

·       Sara, baptised 13/3/1635-6 and buried there 4/7/1636

·       Samuel, baptised 6/8/1637

·       Ann, baptised 8/9/1639

·       Stephen, baptised 2/2/1641-2 and buried there 31/1/1667-8

·       Mary, baptised 25/1/1645-6

·       Martha, baptised 4/7/1647

·       Sara, baptised 17/12/1648 and buried there 11/3/1668-9

Ann died in 1655 and was buried at Sheffield on 2nd April. Edward’s second marriage to Immin Taylor took place at Sheffield on 10th October 1659. Edward’s Hearth Tax assessment in 1672 was for three hearths before he died in 1672-3 and was buried at Sheffield on 19th February. Immin followed in 1679 and was also buried at Sheffield on 8th May.

Two of Edward’s sons went up to Cambridge, one to St John’s, the other to Magdalene. Joseph was admitted to St John’s as a sizar on 11th May 1647, having been schooled in Leeds, but must be one of the two men buried at Sheffield either 22/1/1647-8 or 21/12/1649. Stephen was admitted to Magdalene on 29th April 1659 after schooling in Sheffield but also died young in 1667-8.

That leaves Edward, John and Samuel and any adult daughters. Edward’s will of 1670 offers some answers. Firstly, no mention of Edward but John, Samuel and two married daughters (Ann Twigg and Mary Stanniforth) are named within it. That suggests that his other children might have predeceased him. Edward the son is not mentioned either in Hunter’s Gens Sylvestrina so it may be that he had no great longevity, or that nothing was known of him. Other than his baptism there is no obvious indication of him in later life, but there does not appear to be a burial record.

John is seen as a nonconformist Elder and as a beneficiary of his uncle’s will in 1689; he should also be the man marrying Ann Cloudsley after 1680. Did he produce any descendants? That is not an easy question to answer. Jonathan Cloudsley married Ann Chambers at St Peter’s, Leeds, in 1656. That being the case, one might doubt whether there would have been any children by her second marriage to John. The latter might have been married before, of course.

John had a namesake cousin, son of his uncle Nicholas Sanderson and born around 1624, but only one marriage is visible in a period when both were naturally eligible. A note of caution is in order: a John Saunderson was buried at Sheffield on 11th December 1649. If that was an adult John then it ought to be the son of Nicholas.

The one marriage evident shows a John Saunderson, of Sheffield, marrying Sarah Wetton, of Holbrooke, at Duffield, Derbyshire, on 26th March 1653. It is a reasonable surmise that John and Sarah had two children before her likely death in 1670-1 and burial at Sheffield on 25th February (uxor John). They might be as follows.

·       Mary, baptised 9/3/1656-7

·       John, baptised 3/8/1659

A Sarah, wife of John senior, tanner of Sheffield, was buried there on 13th November 1705 and a burial entry for John senior duly followed at the same place on 20th October 1714. Those two items fit together neatly but that does solve the problem of where they fit in a Saunderson genealogy. Might John senior be the man born around 1628, 1659 or someone else? Which marriage of a John and Sarah is represented here?

Samuel must be the man who married the widow Emotta Staniforth at Sheffield 23rd January 1664-5. He must also be the man taxed for four hearths in 1672. Samuel and Emotta produced children as below, baptised at Sheffield.

·       Mary, baptised 1/1/1665-6

·       Samuel, baptised 16/9/1667

·       Christopher, baptised 8/1/1668-9 and buried there 8/1/1671-2

·       Edward, baptised 8/1/1668-9

·       An infant, buried 29/9/1670

Samuel may be the man who died in 1686 and was buried at St Peter’s, Sheffield, on 8th September. Emotta is perhaps the Emma, vidua, who died in 1707 and was buried at Sheffield on 23rd November.

The will of Samuel’s son Edward (1718-9) names his brother Samuel in it so he can be presumed to be alive at that point. Might he be the Samuel of Sheffield who married Sarah Wood, of Norton, at that place on 4th September 1701? A son, Timothy, was baptised to Samuel, tanner, at Sheffield 2/12/1703 but was buried 20/1/1703-4. Another son, Edward, was buried 13/7/1705 with a third, John, buried 26/1/1711-12 – baptismal records appear to be lacking for the pair. Sarah died in 1728-9 and was buried at Norton on 27th January. Her husband might be the Samuel, tanner, who died in 1740 and was buried at Sheffield 29/5/1740. He held a tannery at Sheaf/Shear/Shire Bridge, which passed into the ownership of one John Gildom after Samuel’s death[2]. That might be the end of that line.

Joseph married Mary Roberts at St Peter’s, Sheffield, on 17th January 1697-8. His precise connection to this line also evades detection at present. He is likely to be the Joseph who was buried at the meeting house on 5th September 1706. His widow probably married a third time, to William Hart in 1709. Joseph and Mary had a number of children.

·       Sarah, baptised at Upper Chapel 2/1/1698-9

·       Mary, baptised at Upper Chapel 14/10/1700 and perhaps buried at Sheffield 23/6/1710

·       John, baptised at Upper Chapel 31/7/1702

·       Abigall, baptised at Sheffield 4/6/1705 and buried at the Meeting House 6/2/1706-7

Abigall’s baptismal record gives Joseph’s occupation as tanner and her burial record specifies her mother as a widow. Mary’s subsequent marriage to William Hart is of particular interest when connected to the apprenticeship record for one John Sanderson, son of Joseph, tanner deceased, who was apprenticed to William for 8 years and 7 months in 1714. William’s abode was given as Hagge House but his occupation is not listed with John’s entry in Leader’s work. Seeking William’s own entry as an apprentice suggests that he was a cutler and gained his freedom in 1702. William died in 1719 so John’s own apprenticeship might have been completed with another cutler, John Nutt; that John, son of Joseph, gained his freedom in 1723, a date that accords well with the original start year.

The marriage of one John Sanderson, cutler, and Sarah Tottington occurred at Sheffield on 20th October 1726.

It should be these two men, Samuel and Joseph Sanderson, tanners, who were amongst the first trustees of the Upper Chapel, Norfolk Row, Sheffield, in 1704.

Edward Sanderson became Master Cutler in 1704. He can be found as the son of Samuel, tanner, who was apprenticed as a cutler for eight years in 1684 and gained his freedom in 1692. His master was John Marsh. Edward married Dorath Hawley at Sheffield on 20th May 1697 and raised a family with her. Buried at Sheffield on 6th July 1719 Edward’s will provides some useful details on his relatives and status.

An homonymous son was apprenticed to John Smith, another cutler, and gained his own freedom in 1725[3]. His birth was probably in 1704, a year given in his application for a marriage licence of 14th March 1725-6. He married Bright Wharton, of Rotherham, the same day at All Saints, Rotherham. Shortly before that, he can be found in connection with land in Little Sheffield on 9th March 1725-6. He leased an enclosure known as Broomfield, a cottage etc. to Matthew Biggs of Moorgate and Joseph Nutt of Sheffield[4].

The marriage provides a clue as to what might have happened subsequently. Only one Bright Wharton is easily identifiable: baptised at St Giles, Pontefract, in 1702. No burial for an Edward Sanderson is known is Sheffield or roundabouts, but the burial of Mr Edward Saunderson is recorded at Pontefract on 30th March 1760.

A nonconformist minister and paedo-baptist (the practice of baptising infants), Rev. Samuel Sanderson is held to have been born in Sheffield in 1702. He is said to have been the son of a tanner although that birth year suggests the cutler Edward Sanderson might have been the father – he was of a family of tanners. A short biography of Samuel is included in a pamphlet from 1788[5]. It mentions his Sheffield birth and provides some details on his early education and career. Samuel learned grammar under Mr Clarke, of Hull, before undertaking academic studies under the noted preacher, Timothy Jolly, at Attercliffe, and finishing them under Mr Eames. Subsequently, he acted as chaplain to the house of Mr Birch, Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer[6], in London, before becoming an assistant to Mr Wood, of Eastcheap, London. He came to Bedford on 26th February 1737 as an assistant to Ebenezer Chandler, the pastor there. Co-opted as co-pastor in 1740, he succeeded Chandler around March 1744 (certainly at his death in 1747) and acted in Bedford until his death, after a short illness, on 24th January 1766[7]. He was described as a very competent and efficient man at his funeral sermon. His will was proved at Bedford later in 1766.

Samuel married Frances Woodward, the second daughter of Thomas Woodward the younger of Bedford. They married in Bedfordshire on 21st September 1738 but no children are apparent. Frances remarried, to Rev. Edward Pickard, of London. A copy of Samuel’s will resides within Bedfordshire Archives but I understand that no other Sandersons are mentioned within it.

 

 

[1] A different version can be found on Stirnet, quoting Hunter’s Pedigrees: A Continuation of FMG, Harleian Society, 1936. That has a marriage between John Saunderson and Sarah Cloudsley  (20/12/1686). https://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/zwrk/temp30.php for details.

[2] The Economic Development of Sheffield and the Growth of the Town c1740-c1820: N Flavell, University of Sheffield Ph.D, 1996, Vol. 1 p125

[3] All in Leader’s Apprenticeships

[4] SY268/Z2/1

[5] Christ, the great source of the believer's consolation; and the grand ...: by John RYLAND (D.D.) The sermon was published with an appendix on the Congregational Church at Bedford and its pastors around 1788.

[6] A judge of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas

[7] As described in, A brief history of Bunyan's Church, compiled chiefly from its own records ...: by John Jukes (of Bedford.), 1849, p32

 

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