SANDERSSiftings an exchange of Sanders/Saunders family research Number 54 July, 2008 four issues per year • $12 per year subscription • edited by Don E. Schaefer, 1297 Deane Street, Fayetteville, AR 72703-1544 Tobias Saunders, From Amersham, England, Don’t Shortcut Your Made His Mark on Westerly, Rhode Island Family Research; The following article, dated 21 April of the Puritan faith, apparently, as they 2008, was submitted by Paul A. continually ran afoul of the Puritan laws Utilize All Tools Saunders, 1600 Leeland Way, Knoxville, of Massachusetts, mostly involving Robert Tilman, CEO of TN 37919-2604, <snaps [email protected]>. swearing or drink. One of these cases RootsWeb, has said, “Only a small featured Tobias in a rather wild and rib- fraction of genealogy-related infor- Tobias Saunders of Westerly, R.I. ald incident involving sexually tainted mation is on the Web.” by Paul A. Saunders horseplay with two married women at the home of Lawrence Turner, where he Computers have done a fantastic My immigrant ancestor, Tobias 7 job of making more genealogy mate- Saunders, was an interesting and color- was a boarder. One of the participants rial available to researchers and con- ful man. I am not absolutely certain as in this episode was Turner’s wife, who necting even more people than we to when and where he was born, started things off by dumping a pail of would have ever thought possible. although at one time I believed him to water on Tobias from her kitchen win- RootsWeb and Ancestry.com are be the Tobias Saunders born in dow. However, this did not seem to probably the best places on the Web Amersham, have adversely affect- to get help, or receive help. I have Buckinghamshire, ed his relationship heard from individuals who were England in 1629/30.1 with Lawrence Turner, related to me on two different lines [See the April 2001 who was also a worker for which I had nearly given up issue of Sanders at Hammersmith and hope. They saw my posting on the Siftings for an article later moved with RootsWeb Surname list that had on the Saunders at Tobias to the new been there several years. Amersham.] He first colony of Rhode However, you can’t just sit at that appears in American Island. It is thus iron- computer and expect to do all your records as a member of ic that Tobias later genealogy work. I am afraid that we the militia in Taunton, became a respected are getting away from some of the Massachusetts, in official in his future traditional tasks related to sound August of 16432 and is state. family research. Subscribers to sur- thought to have been Dr. John Clarke, his name newsletters are also declining. 70 to 75 years old future wife’s uncle, Newsletters are still a very good when he died in had come to Boston in place to find other researchers and Westerly, Rhode Island, 1637 and began information not available elsewhere. in July or Aug. 1695.3 preaching as a Baptist You need to get out to those This would make his A statue of Chief Ninigret, a sachem minister in that libraries, court houses, cemeteries, birth between 1620 of the Niatis tribe, in Watch Hill, R.I. Puritan state. He was and Family History Centers. You and 1625 and he had later forced out of still need to write letters to many to have been at least 16 years old in Massachusetts and by 1638 had moved relatives and friends who may have 1643 to be in the militia. One source to Aquidneck, an island in the information you need. gives his arrival in New England as Narragansett Bay (renamed Rhode Use all the tools you can. The 1638,4 but as yet I have been unable to Island in 1644). The next year, he computer is a great one! And it is confirm that. moved to Newport and established the one of the best tools that you can He is known to have been employed first Baptist church there. By 1643, have to help write those letters. as a worker at Hammersmith, the Roger Williams had obtained a grant In our busy, busy world we all Saugus Ironworks in Saugus, from the Earl of Warwick to form the want shortcuts and time savers. Massachusetts (now a National Park), a “Colony of Providence Plantations in Don’t shortcut your family research venture begun by John Winthrop Jr., son Narragansett Bay in New England” by looking for the easy way out. of the Governor of Massachusetts.5 In which was open to all religious faiths. Keep up the traditional research. Ⅵ 1649 and 1650 Tobias appeared as a wit- There were continuing disputes with ness in two cases at Salem Court6 Massachusetts over this territory, so in Don Schaefer, editor involving some of the Hammersmith 1651 Clarke went to England with ironworkers. They were not members (Continued on page two) SANDERSSiftings No. 54 Jul/2008 Page 2 Can You Help Bill Browder Get Past His Brick Tobias Saunders Wall and Learn More About Lemuel Saunders? (Continued from page one) Roger Williams to obtain a new charter This was received from long-time Monthly Meeting, Baltimore County, for Rhode Island, where he remained for subscriber Bill Browder, 221 Steadman Maryland, “Richard Belt, son of John 12 years negotiating slowly as this was Road, Selmer, TN 38375. Belt, of Gunpowder in Baltimore County during the Commonwealth period, I have been a subscriber to Sanders married Keturah Price, daughter of John before Charles II was restored to the Siftings for several years now and have Price of Gunpowder in Baltimore County throne 29 May 1660. Williams had seen numerous queries on various on 24th day of first month called January returned to the colony in 1654 and it Saunders/Sanders lines from most of the 1760.” Among those in attendance was wasn’t until 9 July 1663 that Clarke’s U.S. and, I think, some foreign coun- a Lemuel Saunders. new charter was finally signed by the tries. In all those queries I have never Deer Creek Monthly Meeting, Harford king, establishing a “State where no con- found anything that proved any part of County, Maryland: “On third day of third straint could ever be put upon the my line. It seems as if there are hun- month, 1761 Thomas Saunders, son of human conscience and no limit to free- dreds of different lines. Surely some of Edward, hath by keeping unprofitable dom of human thought.” There could them join somewhere in the distant past. company been induced to dance.” (note: be no Royal veto of this charter. In light of that I want to lay out a theory Baltimore County and Harford County When the Saugus ironworks venture on my line and invite anyone to prove or are adjoining counties in Maryland) began to fail in the early 1650s, Tobias disprove any part of it, with theory being Was the above Thomas Saunders, son Saunders and Lawrence Turner relocated a formulation of underlying principles of of Edward, the same Thomas Saunders, to Newport, where they bought land certain observed phenomena which has son of Edward, who married Judith in together from William Jeffrey on 22 been verified to some degree. 1742, sold land in 1755 and moved to March 1653/4.8 The next year Tobias This first part is taken from records Maryland? Saunders was listed as a free man of 9 found in the book Early Settlers of North Was the Lemuel Saunders who Newport , which meant that he owned Alabama by James Edmond Saunders attended the Price/Belt wedding in land and could vote. In 1657 he and (1806-1899) but contains no proof, in Baltimore County, Maryland the same Tu rner joined with others to buy itself, connecting it to my line. Lemuel Saunders who witnessed a deed Conanicut Island (where Jamestown is 10 Edward Saunders came to the Colony in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina now located). of Virginia in 1635 on the ship “Safety” in 1767? This section of North Carolina On 29 June 1660 Tobias joined a along with his sons Thomas (13) and later became Lincoln County. Lemuel company of 76 men to buy Misquamicut Edward (9). Edward who was 9 in 1635 Saunders died there in 1795 (without a (includes present-day Westerly, later married Mary who was the widow will) and his estate settlement papers list Hopkinton, Charlestown and Rich- of John Hudnal. Mary was born Mary all his sons who were of age but none of mond) from the Indian chief Sosoa (or Elizabeth Webb. Edward and Mary had his daughters. (Note: Lemuel’s known Ninigret as he was also named).11 In two sons, Edward and Ebenezer. sons were: Thomas, Edward, Lemuel, September 1661, three members of the Ebenezer Saunders married Elizabeth Samuel and Jessee). company — Tobias Saunders, Joseph Phillips and they had at least one son Lemuel Saunders was my first known Clarke and Robert Burdick — went in Saunders/Sanders ancestor. Any help on and settled their land, which was a com- who was named Edward. Edward 12 Saunders married Winifred who was this will be appreciated. Ⅵ plete wilderness at the time. In that probably a Presley, Conway or Ball and same year, Tobias married Mary they had sons William, Thomas and Peckham, daughter of Mary Clarke and Edward. What Happened to Willis Sanders? John Peckham. It must have been a real struggle to survive, but they were helped Thomas Saunders married Judith (last Ed Sanders, PO Box 7219, Surprise by the friendly natives.