Edwin Sandys (died 1629)


Sir Edwin Sandys was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1626. He was also one of the founders of the proprietary Virginia Company of London, which in 1606 established the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States in the colony of Virginia, based at Jamestown. The parish of Sandys, in Bermuda is named after him.

Early life and career

Sandys was born in Worcestershire, the second son of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York, and his wife Cecily Wilford. He received his education at Merchant Taylors' School, which he entered in 1571, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford,. He graduated B.A. in 1579 and was admitted fellow in the same year and B.C.L. in 1589. At Oxford his tutor was Richard Hooker, author of the Ecclesiastical Polity, whose lifelong friend and executor Sandys became. Sandys is said to have had a large share in securing the Mastership of the Temple Church in London for Hooker. In 1582 Sandys' father gave him the prebend of Wetwang in York Minster, but he never took orders, later resigning both his fellowship and prebendry. In 1589 he was elected Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle. He entered in the Middle Temple in 1589. In 1593 he was re-elected MP for Plympton Erle.
From 1593 to 1599 Sandys travelled abroad. When in Venice he became closely connected with Fra Paolo Sarpi, who helped him compose the treatise on the religious state of Europe, known as the Europae speculum. In 1605 this treatise was printed from a stolen copy under the title A Relation of the State of Religion in Europe. Sandys procured the suppression of this edition, but the book was reprinted at The Hague in 1629.
After 1599, in view of the approaching death of Queen Elizabeth I, Sandys paid his court to King James VI of Scotland, and on James's accession to the throne of England in 1603 Sandys received a knighthood.

Career as MP

In 1604, he sat in James's first parliament as MP for Stockbridge, and distinguished himself as one of the assailants of the great monopolies. He endeavoured to secure to all prisoners the right of employing counsel, a proposal which was resisted by some lawyers as subversive of the administration of the law.
In 1614 he was elected MP for Rochester. He was appointed High Sheriff of Kent for 1615-1616 - his country seat of Northborne was there.
Sandys sat in the later parliaments of James I as MP for Sandwich in 1621, and for Kent in 1624.
On 16 June 1621 he and John Selden were taken into custody by order of the House of Commons, and not released until 18 July.
His tendencies were towards opposition, and he was suspected of hostility to the court; but he disarmed the anger of the king by professions of obedience. He was member for Penryn in the first parliament of Charles I in 1625 and again in 1626.

Role in the Virginia Company

Sandys had been connected with the East India Company before 1614, and took an active part in its affairs until 1629. His most memorable services were, however, rendered to the Virginia Company of London, to which he became treasurer in 1619 was one of the first colonist in Jamestown, he survived the "starving times" and later returned to England.

Theological positions

Edwin Sandys shared with his brother George a leaning toward English Arminian theology and a reject of Calvinist predestinarianism. Through his writings he also positioned himself theologically, and is described as a proto-Arminian. Because of his anti-Calvinist views, he won the attention of the leading Dutch Arminian Hugo Grotius.

Later life and legacy

Sandys died in October 1629, leaving a £1500 endowment to Oxford University to fund a lecture in metaphysics.
Sandys is buried in Northbourne Church in Kent with his last wife Catherine.

Family

Sandys was married four times:
  1. Margaret Eveleigh, daughter of John Eveleigh of Devonshire, with whom he had one daughter.
  2. * Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Wilsford of Hedding, Kent
  3. Anne Southcott, daughter of Thomas Southcott, with whom he had no issue.
  4. Elizabeth Nevinson, daughter of Thomas Nevinson of Eastrey with whom he had one daughter.
  5. * Anne
  6. Catherine Bulkeley, daughter of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Anglesey, with whom he had seven sons and five daughters.
  7. * Henry, of Wadham College, Oxford 1621 and Gray's Inn 1627, MP for Mitchell
  8. * Edwin, of Wadham College, Oxford 1621, Colonel in the Parliamentary Army, died of wounds suffered at the Battle of Powick Bridge
  9. * Mary, married Sir Richard Spencer
  10. * Richard, Colonel in the Parliamentary Army, Governor of the Bermuda Company
  11. * Elizabeth
  12. * Francis
  13. * Robert, of Corpus Christi College, Oxford 1631 and Gray's Inn 1637
  14. * Penelope, married Sir Nicholas Lechmere
  15. * Thomas, of Corpus Christi College, Oxford 1635 and Gray's Inn 1639
  16. * Catherine
  17. * Frances
  18. * a son
Sandys' great-grandson Richard Sandys became a baronet in 1684. His brother Sir Miles Sandys, 1st Baronet was also appointed a baronet, and sat as MP, and was High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.
Sandys Parish, Bermuda, which includes Somerset Village and the Royal Naval Dockyard, is named after him.

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