SAUNDERSON, Nicholas (c.1562-1631), of Saxby, Lincs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1562, 1st s. of Robert Saunderson of Saxby and Fillingham by his 2nd w. Catherine, yst. da. of Vincent Grantham of St. Katherine’s, Lincoln; bro. of Robert. educ. Oxf. BA 1579; L. Inn 1579. m. (1) bef. 1593, da. of William Rokeby; (2) bef. 1599, Mildred, da. and h. of John Hiltofte of Boston, 4s. 3da. suc. fa. 2 Nov. 1583, aged 21. Kntd. 1603; cr. Bt. 1611, Visct. Castleton [I] 1627.

Offices Held

J.p. Lincs. (Lindsey) from 1591; Notts. from c.1592; commr. sewers Lincs. by 1589, sheriff 1592-3, 1613-14, commr. recusancy 1624.

Biography

One of the leading landowners—by inheritance, marriage and purchase—in north Lincolnshire, Saunderson owned estates also in south Yorkshire. His influence in the Grimsby neighbourhood in particular may have been derived from the leasehold he held in Tetney, a few miles away, possibly from his uncle, Thomas Grantham I Counted among the leading ‘depopulators by enclosure’ in the county, Saunderson lived in style, employing the musician Giles Farnaby to teach his children, two of whom married into the Rutland and Bertie families. He left no mark upon the surviving records of the 1593 Parliament, purchased a baronetcy in 1611, obtained a peerage in 1627 and died in 1631. His will was proved at Lincoln.

CP; NRA cal. Lumley Castle mss passim; Lincs. AO, LCC 1630/1, 467, Aswarby 2/5/8; Lansd. 60, f. 189; HMC Rutland, i. 463, 471; CSP Dom. 1591-4, p. 178; HMC Hatfield, xiii. 189; xi. 440; EHR, lxvii. 392-6; Music and Letters, xlii(2), pp. 151-4; Cal. Lincoln Wills (Brit. Rec. Soc. Index Lib. xli), 159.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: D.O.

Notes