Tobias Saunders

Tobias Saunders (b. ~1620 - d. 1695) was a Deputy to the Rhode Island General Assembly (1669, 1671, 1672, 1680, 1681, 1683, and 1690), a Conservator of the Peace (1669, 1678, and 1695) and a founding settler of Westerly, Rhode Island.

Tobias Saunders was born between 1620 and 1625, the second son and fourth child of Tobias Saunders and Isabel(la) Wilde of the town of Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. His paternal grandparents were Richard Saunders and Johanna Osburne. His father owned a coaching inn and his grandfather owned the mill for the Manor of Amersham. Before emigrating to America, Saunders was a soldier in England. References indicate he was a Life Guard of Foote for King Charles I of England. Saunders likely used his inheritance to pay for his passage to America after his father's death in 1642.

Tobias Saunders first appears in the Plymouth Colony on the Company Rolls of Taunton in August, 1643. These rolls contain the names of all male persons between sixteen and sixty years, who were able to perform military duty. Between 1649-1650 Saunders lived in the home of Lawrence Turner, while working at the Saugus Ironworks in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By 1654 Saunders and Turner were purchasing property in Newport, Rhode Island. Saunders was recorded as a Freeman in the town of Newport in 1655.

With the permission of the colonial legislature, a group of Rhode Island speculators purchased a tract of land called "Misquamicut" from the Indian Chief, Sosoa (a.k.a. Ninigret), Chief Sachem of the Niantic Tribe. By 1661, Tobias Saunders had acquired a quarter of a share in a division of Misquamicut (the area which now encompasses the towns of Westerly, Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton, Rhode Island).

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