Capt. Thomas Saunders

Both the Sargent and Saunders families had accumulated significant wealth through several generations of lucrative trade in England and the West Indies. They were cultured, politically aware, and civically active.

From Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of ..., Volume 1. edited by William Richard Cutter. Page 324-328

(III) Captain Thomas Saunders. son of Captain Thomas Saunders, born March 20, 1704. died at Gloucester. October 24, 1774.

He was lieutenant on the sloop “Merry-meeting” in 1725, and during the greater part of his life commanded a government vessel. On one of his voyages to the eastward (Maine) he was taken prisoner by the French and Indians. He threw his captors off their guard by appearing happy and contented and they took but little precaution against his escape. When at Owl’s Head he took occasion, while his captors were asleep, to escape, taking with him their money, about two hundred pounds, which he hid, and made his way safely to Fort St. Georges. Many years afterward, when he was returning from the Louisburg Expedition on the same ship with General Amherst, he related this adventure and requested the general to go ashore with him and look for the treasure. Somewhat skeptical the general acquiesced and Saunders soon found his cache and corroborated his remarkable stc‘ry.

Captain Saunders addressed the governor in a memorial dated January, 1745, asking for an increased allowance for the support of his vessel, the sloop “Massachusetts” in the government service. The governor in communicating the memorial to the general court wrote: “I am satisfied with the reasonableness of Captain Saunder’s request and extremely loth to lose so faithful and experienced an officer. I must desire you would give him such relief as may make him easy in the service.” The wages and pay were: for the sloop, five shillings a ton per month; for the captain five pounds a month: for the mate a trifle less than the captain and for the sailors fifty shillings each.

Captain Saunders took part in the expedition to Cape Breton in 1745 and during the siege had command of the transports in Chapeau Rouge Bay. “He was a gentleman, well respected among those who had the honor of his acquaintance and died greatly lamented.”

He had eleven children. of whom:

• 1. Hon. Thomas. mentioned below.
• 2. Captain Joseph, married Elizabeth .
• 3. John, died January 17, 1742; his only son John.
• 4. Judith, married Winthrop Sargent.
• 5. Abigail, married William Dolliver.
• 6. Rebecca, married Captain James Babson.
• 7. Lydia, married James Prentice.
• And four others.

Sources

1. He died aged 70 years. (Vital Records of GLOUCESTER, MA to the end of the year 1849)