Fleming Saunders

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 6 Aug 1810, , Franklin, Virginia, USA
• Married: 18 May 1814, , Campbell, Virginia, USA
• Residence: 1840, , Campbell, Virginia, USA
• Residence: 1850, , Campbell, Virginia, USA
• Probate: 28 Nov 1856, , Campbell, Virginia, USA
• Residence: Abt 1858, , Campbell, Virginia, USA
• Residence: 1860, , Campbell, Virginia, USA

Notes:

Bleak Hill represents the rural, wealthy plantation life of a Franklin County political family during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is a brick, Italianate villa-style house set on a cleared hilltop overlooking the broad plain of the Pigg River with uninterrupted views of the Blue Ridge
Mountains to the west. Attorney-at-law Peter Saunders and his new wife Elizabeth Dabney completed Bleak Hill around 1858. Elizabeth apparently named the property after her first winter there and while reading Dickens's Bleak House. The 3,900-acre property on which Peter built belonged to his grandfather, Peter Saunders, Sr., the "Pioneer of Franklin County." When Peter Saunders. Sr., died, his son Judge Fleming Saunders inherited the property and built the first house ca. 1815-20 for his new wife, Alice Watts. Mer that house burnt in ca. 1838, his son Peter eventually inherited the property, and he enjoyed it with his wife Elizabeth until their deaths in 1904. Edward, one of their sons, followed in his father's and grandfather's political footsteps and eventually served on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Wiam "Cheese" Dabney Saunders, another son. continued to practice farming while serving as a professor of dairyiig at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI). The house remained in the Saunders family until 1946, when Dr. Henry Lee purchased it. Bleak Hill was laid out in more of a Tidewater plantation style than in a Piedmont farmstead style. It has two rows of ca. 1820 frame, brick, and log outbuildings facing the rear entrance. The house and setting appear much as they did in the nineteenth century.

Fleming married Alice Watts on 18 May 1814 in , Campbell, Virginia, USA. Alice (daughter of William Watts and Mary Scott) was born in 1778 in , Botetourt, Virginia, USA; died on 1 Jan 1867 in Flat Creek, Evington, Campbell, Virginia, USA; was buried in Evington, Campbell, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Sarah Watts Saunders was born in 1816 in , Franklin, Virginia, USA; died on 4 Nov 1832 in Otter River, Campbell, Virginia, USA.
2. Peter Watts Saunders was born on 6 Oct 1823 in Flat Creek, Evington, Campbell, Virginia, USA; died on 13 Aug 1904 in Bleak Hill, Franklin, Virginia, USA.
3. Anna Mariah Saunders was born on 19 Oct 1825 in , Campbell, Virginia, USA; died on 27 Nov 1911 in Charlottesville, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA.
4. Robert Chancellor Saunders, Maj was born on 26 May 1827 in Bleak Hill, Franklin, Virginia, USA; died on 22 Sept 1902 in , , Virginia, USA; was buried in Evington, Campbell, Virginia, USA.
5. Fleming Saunders, Cpt was born on 18 Jul 1829 in , Franklin, Virginia, USA; died on 23 Feb 1907 in Otter River, Campbell, Virginia, USA; was buried in Evington, Campbell, Virginia, USA.
6. Louisa Morris Saunders was born in October 1833 in , Campbell, Virginia, USA; died on 28 Sept 1867 in , Henrico, Virginia, USA.

Peter married Mary Sparrel on 31 Oct 1767. Mary was born on 9 Feb 1747 in London, London, England; died on 25 Nov 1790 in , Franklin, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]