Morley Saunders

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Morley Saunders (1671–1737) was an Irish politician, barrister and landowner. He followed his father into the Irish House of Commons and rose to the office of Prime Serjeant-at-law. He is best remembered for building Saunders’ Grove, the Saunders family home near Baltinglass in County Wicklow. The Saunders family also owned land at Swanlinbar in County Cavan, a place partly named after his father.

Morley was born in County Wexford, the third son of Robert Saunders (d. 1708), a wealthy lawyer and MP who was Prime Serjeant from 1703 to 1708. His grandfather, Colonel Robert Saunders, had been Governor of Kinsale during the Interregnum and kept his Wexford lands after the Restoration. Morley was known as a strong Tory.

He had two elder brothers, Walter and Joseph, who died without issue. His father owned substantial leasehold lands in County Laois, but a dispute with the Hoveden family led to decades of litigation. According to Jonathan Swift, Robert Saunders briefly lost money in an ironworks at Swanlinbar, but the family estate remained intact and Morley inherited a comfortable fortune.

Morley trained as a barrister and sat in the Irish Parliament as MP for Enniscorthy from 1703 to 1714. He became Second Serjeant in 1711 and Prime Serjeant in 1712, and he served as an extra judge of assize in 1713. When Queen Anne died in 1714, the new Whig government dismissed many Tory officials in Ireland, including Morley. He did not keep his lucrative office but inherited the family estates from his brother Joseph, who had died in 1713 (having already inherited Swanlinbar in 1708).

In his later years Morley built Saunders’ Grove, a house described as very beautiful, near Baltinglass, County Wicklow. The estate stayed in the family for several generations and the Saunders landholding around Swanlinbar later became a farm.

Morley Saunders died in 1737. He had married Frances Goodwin and they had one daughter, Cordelia, who married George Pendred, High Sheriff of Wicklow in 1735. George came from an old Northampton family that settled in Ireland during William III’s reign. They had one daughter and three sons; the eldest, Reverend Morley Pendred Saunders, inherited the family estates and, at his request, adopted the Saunders surname.