[2] The mural monument of John Cunningham Saunders, Senior, survives in the Church of St James the Less, Huish, displaying the arms of Saunders (Sable, a chevron ermine between three bull's faces cabossed or) impaling those of his wife (Gules, three quatrefoils or).

The will of an earlier John Cunningham Saunders "Gentleman of Great Torrington, Devon", near Huish, was proved on 14 April 1744.

[3] These are a differenced version of the arms of William Saunders (d.1481[4]) of Charlwood in Surrey, (Sable, a chevron ermine between three bull's faces cabossed argent) who married Joan Carew, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of the prominent Thomas Carew of Beddington in Surrey.

[5] In 1805, "Out of compassion for the pitiful state of many soldiers returning from the Egyptian campaign afflicted with military ophthalmoplegia and trachoma infections", he founded the "London Dispensary for Curing Diseases of the Eye and Ear",[6] a famous teaching institution, later known variously as the "Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital", the "London Eye Infirmary", today known as Moorfields Eye Hospital, of which Saunders remained the director from its founding in 1805 until he died in 1810.

He died on 10 February 1810 and was buried in St Andrew's Church, Holborn, City of London,[7] near the hospital he founded.