Born shortly after 1687, he was probably a younger son of Edmund Sawyer of White Waltham, Berkshire, by his wife Mary, second daughter of John Finch of Fiennes, Berkshire.
[1] Undertaking legal business for John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, Sawyer became through the Duke's connection gentleman-usher to the Order of the Bath in 1725, and Brunswick herald in 1726.
In 1738 he was made a master in chancery, and around this time he vacated the posts with the Order of the Bath.
[2] In 1750, Sawyer and Richard Edwards were nominated as commissioners to examine the claims of the creditors of the African Company of Merchants.
[1] Sawyer compiled Memorials of Affairs of State in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James London, 3 vols.