Saunders, John

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: W. A. Spray, “SAUNDERS, JOHN (1754-1834),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/saunders_john_6E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Judge and politician; b. 1 June 1754 in Princess Anne County (Virginia Beach), Va, son of Jonathan Saunders and Elizabeth –; m. 16 Feb. 1790, in London, Arianna Margaretta Jekyll Chalmers, daughter of James Chalmers, former commander of the Maryland Loyalists; d. 24 May 1834 in Fredericton.
    • Originally from England, the Saunders family was well established in Virginia by the mid 18th century. In the 1760s Jonathan Saunders had an estate there of 1,200 acres and a fine brick house, “the best in the County.” When he died in 1765, his wife managed the property until her own death four years later. At that time Jacob Ellegood, who in 1768 had married John Saunders’s eldest sister, Mary, became guardian of the younger children. John attended the College of Philadelphia from 1769 to 1772 and returned home without a degree to study law. In 1775 he assumed control of the Saunders estate.
    • When the American Revolutionary War broke out, loyalists were in a minority in Virginia, especially among the aristocracy. Saunders, a young man with a large estate, might have been expected to side with the rebels but he did not, and there are several reasons for his decision to remain loyal. Although a member of the planter élite, he also had ties with the commercial community, which formed the chief loyalist support in Virginia.
    • After the success of Governor Lord Dunmore in a minor skirmish with the Virginia militia in November 1775, many loyalists declared themselves openly. Later that year the Queen’s Loyal Virginia Regiment was formed with Ellegood as commander; Saunders served as a captain, having raised a troop of cavalry at his own expense. A number of the “loyalists” in this unit were to desert the cause when Lord Dunmore abandoned the colony in August 1776, but not Saunders. He went with Dunmore to New York and his property in Virginia was subsequently confiscated by the rebels.
    • Saunders had lost much in supporting the crown. His property in Virginia had been sold and he filed a claim with the loyalist claims commissioners for over £5,000. They allowed him an annual pension of £40 at first and then in 1789 gave him the sum of £4,850. These awards, combined with his salary as a half-pay captain, made him a fairly wealthy man. With his future reasonably secure, in January 1784 he entered the Inns of Court to study at the Middle Temple. He hoped eventually to acquire a government position. He also hoped to build a great estate somewhere to compensate for the one he had lost in Virginia.
    • That he did so in New Brunswick was in part the result of Jacob Ellegood’s decision to settle there. Saunders visited his brother-in-law in 1788 and made his first purchases of land in the colony. At the time property was cheap since many disbanded soldiers were willing to sell their rights to land so that they could move elsewhere. Saunders was able to purchase many of these claims and he also submitted his own application for a large grant. In 1822 he was appointed chief justice of New Brunswick on the death of Jonathan Bliss.
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7280
  • Find A Grave : https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61786896/john-s-saunders