For almost 200 years there had been a doctor resident in Bow. I was the twenty-ninth
This is our story
THE MEDICAL GENTLEMEN OF BOW
Bow Church - James Lee Sanders and Maria Sanders Windows
James Lee Sanders was born in Salcombe Regis near Sidmouth in 1786, and married Maria Langdon in Tedburn St Mary in 1813. They lived in Alphington, Exeter until they moved to Bow around 1828.
In Bow he owned and ran the tannery and lived close by at Collatons.
They had two sons and two daughters.
His wife Maria died in 1844, and he erected the window (below) in her memory in 1854.
In 1845 he was appointed as a director of the Exeter and Crediton Railway.
He was a trustee of Bow Waterworks and owned several farms including Walson Barton.
He married again in 1849 to Mary Bennett nee Worthy, widow of Henry Bennett, Commandant of Ascension Island, who had died there in 1841.
In about 1860 they moved across the road to Grattons where they lived until his death aged 88 in 1874.
The window in the North aisle commemorating him was made in Exeter by RM Driffield.
Their son James Sanders was born in Exeter and married Harriet Baron in Plymouth in 1848
In 1851 whilst living in Bow they were neighbours of William and Emma Warren.
In 1855 he bought Honeylands, a mansion in Whipton, Exeter (previously owned by Emma Warren’s uncle John Bussell). His wife Harriet died there in 1856.
He was a dealer in hides and valonia, a special type of acorn imported from Smyrna (Izmir) in Turkey, used in the tanning process.
Aged 61 in 1875 he remarried to Mary Sweet Davy (40) older sister of Richard Davy FRCS.
He died in Exeter 1878.
(Right) The window at the East end of the North aisle commemorating Maria Sanders (nee Langdon) 1795-1844, erected by her husband James Lee Sanders in 1854.
