Details of Sculptor

Surname

Saunders

Alternative Surname

First Name

William

Initial of Surname

S

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1743-54

Year of Death

Biographical Details

When Leicester House, London, was restored for Frederick, Prince of Wales, Saunders was responsible for most of the masonry work, receiving £370 in 1743. The house must have been in a poor state of repair as the total cost of reconstruction came to £4,000, of which the Prince paid £500 and Lord Leicester the balance (Streatfield Archives). In the Westminster Poll-Book of 1748 Saunders’s address is given as Windmill Street. In 1754 he was working as a mason on repairs to Coutts’ Bank, Strand (bank archives).
He must have died before 1767, for in that year his widow and son William were noted as living in St Pancras and the son was apprenticed to John Hinchliff I (see Hinchliffe or Hinchliff family). William became free on 12 January 1775.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 340
Archival References: Masons’ Co, Freemen, fol 75; GPC