Saunders, Ann Loreille 1930–

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Saunders, Ann Loreille 1930–

(Ann Cox-Johnson)

PERSONAL:

Born 1930, in London, England; daughter of George (a surveyor) and Joan Loreille (a headmistress) Cox-Johnson; married Bruce Kemp Saunders (an engineer), June 4, 1960; children: Matthew, Katherine. Education: University of London, B.A. (with honors), 1951; University of Leicester, Ph.D., 1965. Religion: Church of England.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—London, England.

CAREER:

Lambeth Palace, London, England, deputy librarian, 1952-55; British Museum, London, England, assistant keeper, 1955-56; St. Marylebone Public Library, London, England, archivist, 1956-63; British Journal of the Archaeology Association, England, subeditor, 1964-75; writer. Lecturer in history at Richardson College.

MEMBER:

Society of Antiquaries (fellow).

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(Under name Ann Cox-Johnson) Handlist to the Ashbridge Collection on the History and Topography of St. Marylebone, Borough Council, 1959.

Handlist of Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Public Libraries Committee, Borough of St. Marylebone, 1963.

Regent's Park: A Study of the Development of the Area from 1086 to the Present Day, Augustus M. Kelley (London, England), 1969.

(Editor of revision) Arthur Mee, London North of the Thames, Except the City and Westminster, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1972.

(Editor) The City and Westminster, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1975.

Art Historian's Guide to the Greater London Area, Reclam of Stuttgart, c. 1982.

The Art and Architecture of London; An Illustrated Guide, Phaidon (Oxford, England), 1984.

(Editor) Facsimiles of the Ordnance Surveyors' Drawings of the London Area, 1799-1808, London Topographical Society (London, England), 1991.

(Editor) I.G. Doolittle, The Mercers' Company 1579-1959, Mercers' Company (London, England), 1994.

St Paul's: The Story of the Cathedral, Collins & Brown (London, England), 2001.

(With Matthew Davies) The History of the Merchant Taylors' Company, Maney (Leeds, England), 2004.

Editor of Costume, 1967—, and London Topographical Record, 1975—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ann Loreille Saunders is a writer, historian, and librarian. In 2004, she and Matthew Davies published their collaborative effort The History of the Merchant Taylors' Company. The book was published in commemoration of the five hundredth anniversary of King Henry VII's granting, in 1503, of a charter to the Merchant Taylors' Company in London, England. A writer for Humanities and Social Sciences Online noted that the book is "beautifully produced" and "lavishly illustrated with some rarely seen items."

It was not until the fourteenth century that tailors began to work within organized groups, or guilds. This book explains the origins of the tailor's guild, its evolution into one of the top companies in England, and its corporate activities into the present day. The Merchant Taylors' Company began as an urban fraternity, connected with other craftsmen who produced items such as tents for royal armies and padded undergarments to be worn with armor. It was during the fifteenth century that the company's older members began to push for special status for the merchant tailors. "Setting all these antiquarian nuggets into a coherent sequence is an achievement in itself," noted James Robertson in the Historian, but he felt that the early chapters of the book were even more valuable for the way they explained how professional loyalties helped to unite citizens in a city that had a very high death rate, and a continuous influx of new citizens leaving a very different life in the country. "Institutional history offers fascinating sidelights onto what was always primarily a social institution," added Robertson.

The granting of the charter solidified the guild's position as one of the so-called "Great Twelve" companies in London, one whose wealth eventually enabled the financing of a hall and chapel. Today, the company still flourishes and has interests in property development within London. It is also known for its support of educational and charitable work. The authors' history is divided into three sections: the first covering the fraternity of St. John the Baptist, from which the Merchant Taylors' Company emerged; the years from the Reformation to the Restoration era; and the modern years. According to the Humanities and Social Sciences Online writer, it is much more than merely a company history; it is "a distinguished contribution to the history of one of the world's great cities."