Francis Saunders (fl. 1684–1699)
Francis Saunders, bookseller at the Blue Anchor on the New Exchange in the Strand, 1684–1699.
A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725, by Henry Plomer (1922)
SAUNDERS (FRANCIS), bookseller in London, Blue Anchor on the New Exchange in the Strand, 1684–99. Partner with Joseph Knight. They succeeded to the business of Henry Herringman in 1684, and were therefore the leading publishers of plays. The partnership was dissolved about 1688, when Knight moved to the Pope's Head in the New Exchange. Saunders is last met with in the Term Catalogues in Trin. 1699. [T.C. III. 149.] Dunton says [p. 214], "He lived in the New Exchange and had the honour to be personally known to very many of the Nobility and Gentry of the first rank in England," and adds that he "lived long a bachelor, being too busy to think of Love".