the second son of Robert Sanderson of Gilthwaite Hall, and Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Carr of Butterthwaite Hall, both in Yorkshire. He is commonly said to have been born in Rotherham. But a Robert, son of Robert Sanderson, was baptised at Sheffield on 20 Sept. 1587, and a local tradition fixed upon a house in Sheffield, called the Lane Head Stane, as that in which the future bishop was born (Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 26). Sanderson was educated in the grammar school of Rotherham, and matriculated on 1 July 1603 from Lincoln College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. on 3 May 1606, being made fellow of his college the same year, and proceeding M.A. on 11 July 1608, B.D. in 1616, D.D. in 1636.
