SANDERSON, ALEXANDER [SSNE 6524]
Text source
Captain Alexander Sanderson served in the Swedish army in the early 17th century and he was sent as part of King Karl IX's mercenaries to Russia. During Russian hostilities with Poland-Lithuania he was captured and then entered King Sigismund III Vasa's service when the Polish army was beseiging Smolensk. In the Desertcreat Church of Ireland church, Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, there stands a memorial commemorating a Scot who had been a soldier on the Continent, and it is possible it is this soldier. The inscription reads: "HIC JACET ALEXANDER | SANDIRSON IN SCOTIA NATUS IN BELGIA MILES IN POLONIA | EQUITUM PEDITUMQUE DUX | IN HIBERNIA JUSTITARIUS PACIS ET TER VICECOMES | I COMMIT MY WARK TO GOD | FIDELIBUS MORS FELIX | LABORUM REQUIES | OBIIT ANNO DOM | 8 DAY | 1633 DECEMBER" "Here lies Alexander Sandirson, born in Scotland, a soldier in Belgium, master of horse and infantry in Poland, a justice of the peace in Ireland and three times high sheriff. A happy death and rest from labours for the faithful, he died 8 December, in the year of our Lord, 1633"
R. Frost, "Scottish soldiers, Poland-Lithuania and the Thirty Years' War" in S. Murdoch ed. Scotland and the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 (Brill, 2001), p.200. We thank Dr William Roulston, Research Director of the Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast for passing on the information from the grave monument in County Tyrone.
Service record
- SWEDEN, RUSSIA
- Departed 1616-12-31, as OFFICER
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, SMOLENSK
- Departed 1617-12-31, as CAPTAIN, MASTER OF HORSE
- Capacity OFFICER, PRISONER, MASTER OF HORSE, purpose MILITARY, PRISONER