Jason Saunders (1824–1911)
Mayor of Oxford 1875/6
Jason Saunders (Picture Oxon 0655049)
Jason Saunders was born at Freeland near Eynsham in Oxfordshire on 2 September 1824 and baptised at Hanborough Church on 24 October.
His parents were Edward Saunders (born in Eynsham in 1790) and Alice Mercer (born in Hanborough in 1789), who were married at Hanborough Church on 27 October 1811. Jason’s five siblings were also baptised at Hanborough: Daniel Saunders (8 August 1819), Harriet Saunders (2 June 1822), Edward Saunders (5 August 1827), Josiah Saunders (14 February 1830), and Emma Saunders (10 June 1832).
At the time of the 1841 census Jason (16) had already left home and was living at Corn Street in Witney as the servant of the weaver Charles Brown. His parents Edward and Alice Saunders were living in Hanborough with his youngest siblings Josiah (10) and Emma (9).
By 1851 Saunders (26) was the valet of the brewer James Morrell senior (who was then 77 and died in 1855) and living at Headington Hill Hall (the old hall, which is now just a wing of the magnificent new hall built later by his son). Meanwhile his parents were living on their own in Hanborough: Edward (60) was still working as an agricultural labourer and Alice (61) as a glover.
Soon after the 1851 census Saunders moved to London, where he was employed as a railway clerk.
On 20 April 1854 at St Pancras Church, Jason Saunders, who was living at 52 Warren Street in London, married Anna Marshall, who was born in Reading in 1827 and is sometimes recorded as Hannah. They moved to Aston in Warwickshire, where Saunders continued to work as a railway clerk, and their only child was born there soon after their wedding:
- Alice Jeanette Saunders (born in Birmingham on 11 May 1854 and baptised at Aston Church on 30 July)
Middle name also spelt as Janette or Jannatte
By the time of the 1861 census the family was back in Oxford. Jason (36) was now a cartage agent for the Great Western Railway, living at 47 St Aldate’s Street with his wife Hannah (33) and their 16-year-old servant girl. Their daughter Alice (6) was paying a visit on census night to Mark Saunders (44), a farmer of 32 acres living at the Red Lion, Hanborough, and his wife and three children.
Saunders came on to the old council in 1864 as a representative of the South Ward and remained a councillor until his death over forty years later. In 1867 his address was given as North Hinksey House.
In 1869 he was elected as one of the two Masters of Ceremonies at the Alfred Lodge of Freemasons.
The 1871 census shows Saunders (46), described as a railway carter, still living at Folly Bridge Street, St Aldate’s with his wife Hannah (42) and daughter Alice (16), plus one servant.
Saunders was elected Sheriff of Oxford for 1871/2.
By June 1873 Saunders, who was very interested in stock-breeding, had moved to Medley Manor House in order to farm. His chief interest on the council was the Corporation farm at Sandford.
Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 19 September 1874 reports how Saunders got into trouble for not paying a toll at St Clement’s ten days earlier:
Mr Jason Saunders of Medley Farm was summoned by Alf Hanger, lessee of St Clement’s Toll Gate, for unlawfully passing through without paying 2d, the toll legally due on the 9th inst. for a carriage with two wheels, drawn by one horse. The Mayor said that the said Mr Saunders had discovered his error and wished to apologise and as Mr Hanger did not press charges, the summons was withdrawn.
Just a year later, in 1875, Saunders was elected Mayor of Oxford (for 1875/6). His portrait in Oxford Town Hall is dated that year.
On 8 May 1878 at St Aldate's Church in Oxford, his only child Alice Jeannette Saunders (24), described as being of St Thomas's parish (which included Medley), married the Revd Charles de Havilland (24), the Curate of Wooburn, Buckinghamshire, and an announcement was placed in Jackson's Oxford Journal.
In 1880 Jason Saunders was elevated to the Aldermanship.
The 1881 census shows Jason Saunders (56), described as a farmer etc., living at Medley Manor Farm with his wife Hannah (52) and four servants (a cook, housemaid, groom, and a laundress).
Saunders was also Chairman of the Oxford Tramways Company (incorporated in 1879) for many years.
In 1891 Jason Saunders (66), described as a railway agent and farmer, was still at Medley Manor Farm with his wife Anna (63). Their daughter Mrs Alice de Havilland (36) was staying with her parents at the farm on census night with her two young daughters Ione (5) and Gladys (2), who were born in Nuneaton. They had three servants.
Saunders was one of the directors of the Oxford Building and Investment Company,and when that company went into liquidation in April 1883, some of the blame was assigned to the directors.
Because Saunders was on the Municipal Buildings Committee when the new Town Hall was opened (1897), his head is carved in stone in the Council Chamber corridor (left).
His arms are set in a window of the Council Chamber (right)
Until 1889, Saunders ran a business as a carrier together with another Mayor of Oxford, James Stanley Lowe. A notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 3 August 1889 announced:
Notice is hereby given that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned JASON SAUNDERS and JAMES STANLEY LOWE carrying on business as Railway Contractors, Carriers, and Furniture Van Proprietors at the Mitre Office, and in St. Thomas’s, in the City of Oxford, under the style or firm of Saunders and Co., has been Dissolved by mutual consent as and from the 31st day of July, 1889.
Saunders & Co continued to operate from the Mitre Office after the split, and the advertisement below was published in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 30 March 1895:
At the time of the 1901 census Jason Saunders (76), described as a railway contractor and an employer, was still living at Medley Manor with his wife Hannah (73) plus a cook and a housemaid. Their only daughter Alice (46) was living at the Rectory, Crux Easton, Whitchurch, Hampshire with her husband the Revd Charles de Havilland and their children Ivon (21), Geoffrey (18), Ione (15), Gladys (12), and Hereward (6). They had four servants: a cook, a coachman, and two housemaids.
Below: Photograph by Henry Taunt of Alderman & Mrs Saunders in the garden at Medley Manor in 1905 (Historic England HT13750):
Another image of them in the garden, showing part of Medley Manor House, can be seen at HT13749.
Later in 1905 Jason Saunders, now aged 80, moved with his wife into Oxford to live at the Cedars (now No. 2) Park Town. In 1908 he gave his grandson Geoffrey de Havilland (26) – who was born at Magdala House, Terriers Wycombe, Buckinghamshire on 27 July 1882 and whom he probably saw while he was a boarder at St Edward's School in Oxford – £1,000 to build his first aeroplane, which eventually led to the foundation of the de Havilland aircraft company in 1920.
At the time of the 1911 census Jason Saunders (86), described as a railway delivery agent employing many hands, was living at 2 Park Town (a thirteen-roomed house then numbered 10) with his wife Hannah (83) and two general servants.
His only child Alice (56) was living at The Rectory, Cruse Easton, Whitchurch, Hampshire at the time of the 1911 census with her husband the Revd Charles de Havilland and just one of their four surviving children (Gladys Mary, aged 22) and one servant. Just over a month later, on 10 May 1911. Alice de Havilland, who had suffered from a depressive decline, died at her father's house, The Cedars (now 2 Park Town) at the age of 57 with her home address given as Crux Easton, Hampshire. Her effects came to £186 10s., and her husband, the Revd Charles de Havilland, was her executor.
Saunders himself died at this house later that year: he was still a cartage agent for the railway, and had about 40 men in his employ as clerks and carters.
† Jason Saunders died at 2 (then 10) Park Town on 24 November 1911. His funeral service was held at All Saints’ Church (at that time the City Church), and a great many people attended and also lined the pavements. Saunders’s grandsons Geoffrey and Hereward de Havilland were present. The Mayor and Corporation processed to the funeral from the Town Hall, headed by the Chief Constable and a Sergeant carrying the mace draped in black. Saunders was buried in Holywell Cemetery (Plot E.297).
His effects came to £9,732 13s. 10d., and his executors were his widow, George Claridge Druce, and Francis Twining.
His widow Anna (Hannah) Saunders died at The Cedars, the present 2 Park Town at the age of 86 on 4 December 1914. Her effects came to £4,459 17s. 5d., and her executors were George Claridge Druce and the Public Trustee.
JASON SAUNDERS, J.P.
FORMERLY MAYOR AND SENIOR ALDERMAN OF THIS CITY
BORN AT FREELAND OXON. SEPTEMBER 2, 1824.
DIED AT “THE CEDARS” OXFORD NOVEMBER 24, 1911
RESPECTED BY ALL AND BELOVED BY THOSE WHO KNEW HIM BEST.
The other side of the vault reads: “ALSO OF ANNA / THE DEVOTED AND BELOVED WIFE OF
JASON SAUNDERS / BORN FEB. 9 1826. DIED DEC. 4 1914.”, and the triangular end remembers their only daughter Mrs de Havilland: “ALSO / OF / ALICE JANNETTE / ONLY DAUGHTER OF / JASON & ANNA SAUNDERS / BORN MAY 11, 1854. DIED MAY 10 1911
The famous de Havillands
- Jason Saunders' grandson Sir Geoffrey de Havilland died in 1965. His eldest son, also Geoffrey, and his youngest son John had predeceased him, having been killed in flying accidents
- Walter de Havilland, who was the father of Olivia de Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine, was the half-brother of Alice’s husband Charles de Havilland, so they are not related by blood to Saunders.
See also:
- Oxford Journal Illustrated, 29 November 1911, p. 1 (picture of Saunders in court dress); p. 9 (obituary with pictures of Saunders in his Aldermanic robes, his coffin being borne into the city church, and Manor House, Medley); and p. 13a (obituary and description of funeral)
- Photograph of Saunders and his wife outside Medley Manor Farm in Malcolm Graham, The Changing Faces of West Oxford (p. 71)
- 1841 Census: Oxford (Witney), 872/30/34; his parents (Hanborough), 890/01/5
- 1851 Census: Oxford (St Clement’s), 1727/314; his parents (Church Hanborough), 1731/11
- 1861 Census: Oxford (St Aldate’s), 893/38
- 1871 Census: Oxford (Botley), 1264/43
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Thomas), 1504/70
- 1891 Census: Oxford (St Thomas 3), 1169/30
- 1901 Census: Oxford (St Thomas), 1386/59
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for Saunders’ grandson, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland
