| James Saunders was born at sea, as were all his siblings. His birth was
probably registered in Stepney. He was the son of the captain of a sugar
clipper, the "Martha" which sailed between the UK and the West Indies.
His father's name may have been William. The family were based in Greenock,
Scotland. According to family legend, an Englishman called Saunders settled in Greenock in the late 18th or early 19th Century after being sent away from his family for some scandal. His family sent money, and he was once visited by a General Saunders. The website His Royal Majesty's 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Foot - Selected Biographies includes a biography of a Lieutenant General Sir John Saunders Sebright, Colonel from the end of the 18th Century, but we don't know if there is a connection. The banished Saunders lived in an inn and eventually married the innkeeper's daughter. Their children inherited the inn and other property around the town. James became a joiner and ship's carpenter and travelled the world. Once while in Australia he heard that there was a job available for a carpenter in the Solomon Islands and was intending to go there. He was waiting on the quayside with his carpenter's chest, ready to leave when the rowing boat which was to pick him up to board the ship unloaded another carpenter's chest. He enquired where the owner of the chest was, and was told that he'd been eaten by the natives in the Solomon Islands. He decided not to take the job there after all. He settled in Australia for a while and prospected for gold, probably in the 1890s (after the main goldrush of the 1860s). He made a little money and invested his savings in shares for the Queens Jubilee Goldmine, then sold the shares just before the mine struck gold and the share price went up dramatically. He bought some land beside the Murray River and settled down to be a sheep farmer. Some time after this a friend showed him a cutting from an old copy of the "Glasgow Herald" asking him to contact a firm of solicitors in Greenock. He returned to find that he was too late. He had been declared officially presumed dead and his inheritance had passed to someone else. He travelled to Ireland. He married Jane Black in Cork. Jane Black was originally from the Isle of Mull, with links to the Clan McLean but was working as a servant in Cork. James and Jane then settled in Glasgow. His land in Australia was reclaimed by the government after several years and a town called Echuca was built there. During the First World War James worked for the Glasgow Transport Corporation in the subway trains department. His son, John used to bring him his lunch at work. |