Thomas Saunders

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

Thomas Saunders, was born in Gloucester, March 26, 1759. He was sent to Byfield Academy to be fitted for college, but on the death of his father in 1774 he entered the counting room of Mr. Derby, of Salem, a distinguished East India merchant. Saunders finally became a merchant himself at Gloucester and he accumulated a handsome fortune. He died at Gloucester, June 5, 1844. He married, 1782, Elizabeth Elkins, an author of note in her day, a woman of admirable qualities of heart and mind. She died February 19, 1851, in her eighty-ninth year. 8 children

Notes

• From Massachusetts Historical Society - Saltonstall Family Papers - Guide to the collection Thomas Sanders [or Saunders] (1753-1844) was the son of Thomas Sanders (1729-1774) and Lucy Smith Sanders of Gloucester, Mass. Although Sanders's family could not afford to give him a college education, he nevertheless became one of wealthiest merchants in Salem, Mass. He married Elizabeth Elkins (1762-1851) of Salem, and was the father of Charles Sanders (b. 1783); Catherine Sanders [Pickman] (b. 1784); Mary Elizabeth Sanders [Saltonstall] (1788-1858); Caroline Sanders [Saltonstall] (1793-1882); Lucy Sanders (bapt. 1793); and George Thomas Sanders (b. 1804). His daughter Mary Elizabeth married Leverett Saltonstall (1783-1845), and his daughter Caroline married Leverett's brother Nathaniel Saltonstall (1784-1838). Sanders built his daughters and their husbands a double house on Chestnut St. in Salem next door to his own.