[1] He was born in County Wexford, third son of Robert Saunders (died 1708), a wealthy lawyer and member of Parliament, who was Prime Serjeant 1703-1708; nothing seems to be known about his mother.
[2] Morley's grandfather, Colonel Robert Saunders, had been Governor of Kinsale during the Interregnum, but retained his substantial landholdings in Wexford after the Restoration of Charles II.
According to Jonathan Swift, Robert lost a great deal of money by investing in an ironworks at Swanlinbar, the village of which he was co-founder, but his losses seem to have been only temporary, as the main family estate remained intact and he left a comfortable fortune to his sons.
Irish judges and Law Officers did not at that time enjoy security of tenure, and they were invariably appointed on a party political basis.
On the death of Queen Anne in August 1714, the new Whig Government in England took a dim view of the overwhelmingly Tory political establishment in Ireland, and Morley, like virtually all of his colleagues, was dismissed in a "clean sweep" of the Irish judges and Law Officers later in the year.