Erasmus Saunders

Who was Erasmus Saunders?

Erasmus Saunders was a Welsh priest and writer.

Saunders was born in Clydey, Pembrokeshire. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, matriculating on 20 March 1690 and gaining various degrees thereafter: BA 1693, MA 1696, BD 1705, and DD 1712. Whilst still a student, he assisted Edward Lhuyd in collecting archaeological information about Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire.

He was associated with Bishop William Lloyd, one of the Seven Bishops who had protested against the Declaration of Indulgence issued by James II in 1688. Lloyd's son was vicar of Blockley in Bishop Lloyd's Diocese of Worcester and Saunders became curate there in 1702, succeeding Lloyd's son as vicar in 1705. He also became rector of Helmdon, Northamptonshire in 1706, holding this post to 1721 in absentia. In 1709, Bishop George Bull made him a Prebendary of the collegiate church in Brecon.

Saunders was regarded as an active parish priest in Blockley. He helped institute a school in 1713, with the aid of local gentry, choosing a Welsh inscription: Aros a Llwydda. He supported the work of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge and bought fifty copies of their edition of the Welsh Bible to assist with publication. He published sermons and, in 1721, A View of the State of Religion in the Diocese of S. Davids, a book dealing with what he called "the melancholy state" of the diocese.