Dr Robert, an eminent casuist, was born at Rotherham in Yorkshire on the 19th September 1587, and was defended of an ancient family. He attended the grammar-school at Rotherham, where he made such wonderful proficiency in the languages, that at 13 it was judged proper to send him to Lincoln college, Oxford. In 1608 he was appointed logic reader in the same college. He took orders in 1611, and was promoted successively to several benefices. Archbishop Laud recommended him to King Charles I. as a profound casuist; and that monarch, who seems to have been a great admirer of casuistical learning, appointed him one of his chaplains in 1631. Charles proposed several cases of conscience to him, and received so great satisfaction from his answers, that at the end of his month's attendance he told him, that he would wait with impatience during the intervening months, as he was resolved to be more intimately acquainted with him, when it would again be his turn to officiate. The king regularly attended his sermons, and was wont to say, that "he carried his ears to hear other preachers, but his conscience to hear Mr Saunderson."

In 1642 Charles created him regius professor of divinity at Oxford, with the canonry of Christ church annexed; but the civil wars prevented him till 1646 from entering on the office; and in 1648 he was ejected by the visitors which the parliament had commissioned. He must have stood high in the public opinion; for in the same year in which he was appointed professor of divinity, both houses of parliament recommended him to the king as one of their trustees for settling the affairs of the church. The king, too, repaid great confidence in his judgment, and frequently consulted him about the state of his affairs. When the parliament proposed the abolition of the episcopal form of church-government as incompatible with monarchy, Charles desired him to take the subject under his consideration, and deliver his opinion. He accordingly wrote a treatise entitled, Episcopacy as established by law in England not prejudicial to regal power. At taking leave, the king advised him to publish Cases of Conscience: he replied, that "he was now grown old and unfit to write cases of conscience." The king said, "It was the simplest thing he ever had heard from him; for no young man was fit to be a judge, or write cases of conscience." Walton, who wrote the life of Dr Saunderson, informs us, that in one of these conferences the king told him (Dr Saunderson), or one of the rest who was then in company, that "the remembrance of two errors did much affect him; which were his assent to the earl of Strafford's death, and the abolishing of episcopacy in Scotland; and that if God ever restored him to the peaceable possession of his crown, he would prove his repentance by a public confession and a voluntary penance, by walking barefoot from the Tower of London, or Whitehall, to St Paul's church, and would desire the people to intercede with God for his pardon."

Dr Saunderson was taken prisoner by the parliament's troops and conveyed to Lincoln, in order to procure in exchange a Puritan divine named Clark, whom the king's army had taken. The exchange was agreed to, on condition that Dr Saunderson's living should be restored, and his person and property remain unmolested. The first of these demands was readily complied with; and a stipulation was made, that the second should be observed; but it was impossible to restrain the licentiousness of the soldiers. They entered his church in the time of divine service, interrupted him when reading prayers, and even had the audacity to take the common prayer book from him, and to tear it to pieces.

The honourable Mr Boyle, having read a work of Dr Saunderson's entitled De juramentis obligationis, was so much pleased, that he inquired at Bishop Barlow, whether he thought it was possible to prevail on the author to write Cases of Conscience, if an honorary pension was assigned him to enable him to purchase books, and pay an amanuensis. Saunderson told Barlow, "that if any future tract of his could be of any use to mankind, he would cheerfully set about it without a pension." Boyle, however, sent him a present of £50, sensible no doubt, that, like the other royalists, his finances could not be great. Upon this Saunderson published his book De Conscientia.

When Charles II. was reinstated in the throne, he recovered his professorship and canonry, and soon after was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln. During the the two years and a half in which he possessed this new office, he spent a considerable sum in augmenting poor vicarages, in repairing the palace at Budgen, &c. He died January 29, 1662-3, in his 76th year.

He was a man of great acuteness and solid judgment. "That staid and well-weighed man Dr Saunderson (says Dr Hammond) conceives all things deliberately, dwells upon them dexterously, discerns things that differ exactly, pallsith his judgment rationally, and expresses it aptly, clearly, and homely." Being asked, what books he had read most? he replied, that "he did not read many books, but those which he did read were well chosen and frequently perused." These, he said, were chiefly three, Aristotle's Rhetoric, Aquinas's Summa Secundae, and Tully's works; especially his Offices, which he had not read over less than 20 times, and could even, in his old age, recite without book." He added, that "the learned civilian Dr Zouch had written Elementa juris prudentiae, which he thought he could also say without book, and that no wise man could read it too often." He was not only conversant with the fathers and schoolmen, with casuistical and controversial divinity; but he was well acquainted with all the histories of the English nation, was a great antiquary, had searched minutely into records, and was well skilled in heraldry and genealogy.

It will now be proper to give a short account of his works. 1. In 1675 he published Logicae Artis Compendium, which was the system of lectures he had delivered in the University when he was logic reader. 2. Sermons, amounting in number to 36, printed in 1681, folio, with the author's life by Walton. 3. Nine Cases of Conscience resolved; first collected in one volume, in 1678, 8vo. 4. De juramenti obligatione. This book was translated into English by Charles I. while a prisoner in the Isle of Wight, and printed at London in 1665, 8vo. 5. De Obligatione conscientiae. 6. Censure of Mr Antony Asham his book of the confusions and revolutions of government. 7. Pax Ecclesiae, concerning Predestination, or the five points. 8. Episcopacy, as established by law in England, not prejudicial to the regal power, in 1661. Besides these, he wrote two Difficulties in defence of Ulster's writings.

Saunderson, Dr Nicholas, was born at Thurlestone in Yorkshire in 1682, and may be considered as a prodigy for his application and success in mathematical literature in circumstances apparently the most unfavourable. He lost his sight by the smallpox before he was a year old. But this disaster did not prevent him from teaching after that knowledge for which nature had given him so ardent a desire. He was initiated into the Greek and Roman authors at a free-school at Penrith. After spending some years in the study of the languages, his father (who had a place in the excise) began to teach him the common rules of arithmetic. He soon surpassed his father; and could make long and difficult calculations, without having any sensible marks to assist his memory. At 18 he was taught the principles of algebra and geometry by Richard West of Underbank, Esq., who, though a gentleman of fortune, yet being strongly attached to mathematical learning, readily undertook the education of so uncommon a genius. Saunderson was also assisted in his mathematical studies by Dr Nettleton. These two gentlemen read books to him and explained them. He was next sent to a private academy at Attercliffe near Sheffield, where logic and metaphysics were chiefly taught. But these sciences not suiting his turn of mind, he soon left the academy. He lived for some time in the country without any instructor; but such was the vigour of his own mind, that few instructions were necessary; he only required books and a reader.

His father, besides the place he had in the excise, possessed also a small estate; but having a numerous family to support, he was unable to give him a liberal education at one of the universities. Some of his friends, who had remarked his perspicuous and interesting manner of communicating his ideas, proposed that he should attend the university of Cambridge as a teacher of mathematics. This proposal was immediately put in execution; and he was accordingly conducted to Cambridge in his 25th year by Mr Joshua Dunn, a fellow-commoner of Christ's college. Though he was not received as a member of the college, he was treated with great attention and respect. He was allowed a chamber, and had free access to the library. Mr Whitton was at that time professor of mathematics; and as he read lectures in the way that Saunderson intended, it was naturally to be supposed he would view his project as an invasion of his office. But, instead of meditating any opposition, the plan was no sooner mentioned to him than he gave his consent. Saunderson's reputation was soon spread through the university. When his lectures were announced, a general curiosity was excited to hear such intricate mathematical subjects explained by a man who had been blind from his infancy. The subject of his lectures was the Principia Mathematica, the Optics, and Arithmetica Universalis of Sir Isaac Newton. He was accordingly attended by a very numerous audience. It will appear at first incredible to many that a blind man should be capable of explaining optics, which requires an accurate knowledge of the nature of light and colours; but we must recollect, that the theory of vision is taught entirely by lines, and is subject to the rules of geometry.

While thus employed in explaining the principles of the Newtonian philosophy, he became known to its illustrious author. He was also intimately acquainted with Halley, Cotes, De Moivre, and other eminent mathematicians. When Whitton was removed from his professorship, Saunderson was universally allowed to be the man best qualified for the succession. But to enjoy this office, it was necessary, as the statutes direct, that he should be promoted to a degree. To obtain this privilege the heads of the university applied to their chancellor the duke of Somerset, who procured the royal mandate to confer upon him the degree of master of arts. He was then elected Lucasian professor of mathematics in November 1711. His inauguration speech was composed in classical Latin, and in the style of Cicero, with whose works he had been much conversant. He now devoted his whole time to his lectures, and the instruction of his pupils. When George II, in 1728, visited the university of Cambridge, he expressed a desire to see Professor Saunderson. In compliance with this desire, he waited upon his majesty in the senate-house, and was there, by the king's command, created doctor of laws. He was admitted a member of the Royal Society in 1736.

Saunderson was naturally of a vigorous constitution; Saunderson, but having confined himself to a sedentary life, he at length became scorbutic. For several years he felt a numbness in his limbs, which, in the spring of 1739, brought on a mortification in his foot; and, unfortunately, his blood was so vitiated by the scurvy, that assistance from medicine was not to be expected. When he was informed that his death was near, he remained for a little space calm and silent; but he soon recovered his former vivacity, and conversed with his usual ease. He died on the 19th of April 1739, in the 57th year of his age, and was buried at his own request in the chancel at Boxworth.

He married the daughter of the reverend Mr Dickens, rector of Boxworth, in Cambridgeshire, and by her had a son and daughter.

Dr Saunderson was rather to be admired as a man of wonderful genius and fidelity, than to be loved for amiable qualities. He spoke his sentiments freely of characters, and praised or condemned his friends as well as his enemies without reserve. This has been ascribed by some to a love of defamation; but perhaps with more propriety it has been attributed to others to an inflexible love of truth, which urged him upon all occasions to speak the sentiments of his mind without disguise, and without considering whether this conduct would please or give offence. His sentiments were supposed unfavourable to revealed religion. It is said, that he alleged he could not know God, because he was blind, and could not see his works; and that, upon this, Dr Holmes replied, "Lay your hand upon yourself, and the organization which you will feel in your own body will dissipate to grief an error." On the other hand, we are informed, that he had defied the sacrament to be given him on the evening before his death. He was, however, seized with a delirium, which rendered this impossible.

He wrote a system of algebra, which was published, in 2 volumes 4to, at London, after his death, in the year 1740, at the expense of the university of Cambridge.

Dr Saunderson invented for his own use a Palpable Arithmetic; that is, a method of performing operations in arithmetic solely by the sense of touch. It consisted of a table raised upon a small frame, so that he could apply his hands with equal ease above and below. On this table were drawn a great number of parallel lines which were crossed by others at right angles; the edges of the table were divided by notches half an inch distant from one another, and between each notch there were five parallels; so that every square inch was divided into a hundred little squares. At each angle of the squares where the parallels intersected one another, a hole was made quite through the table. In each hole he placed two pins, a big and a small one. It was by the various arrangements of the pins that Saunderson performed his operations. A description of this method of making calculations by his table is given under the article Blind, No. 38, though it is there by mistake said that it was not of his own invention.

His sense of touch was so perfect, that he could discover with the greatest exactness the slightest inequality of surface, and could distinguish in the most finished works the smallest oversight in the polish. In the cabinet of medals at Cambridge he could single out the Roman medals with the utmost correctness; he could also perceive the slightest variation in the atmosphere. One day, while some gentlemen were making observations on the sun, he took notice of every little cloud that passed over the sun which could interrupt their labours. When any object passed before his face, even though at some distance, he discovered it, and could guess its size with considerable accuracy. When he walked, he knew when he passed by a tree, a wall, or a house. He made these distinctions from the different ways his face was affected by the motion of the air.

His musical ear was remarkably acute; he could distinguish accurately to the fifth of a note. In his youth he had been a performer on the flute; and he had made such proficiency, that if he had cultivated his talents in this way, he would probably have been as eminent in music as he was in mathematics. He recognized not only his friends, but even those with whom he was slightly acquainted, by the tone of their voice; and he could judge with wonderful exactness of the size of any apartment into which he was conducted.