THE SANDYS FAMILY OF HAMPSHIRE AND SURREY 30 Sept 2023
Introduction and Explanation of Family Name
The Sandys family originated in the far north-west of England. The first identified member moved from Lincolnshire to Burgh-by-Sands west of Carlisle in about 1095. His name is not known and the first mention of the family in a written document was in 1186 when Simon de Sabluns and his son also Simon are recorded as witnesses to a transfer of land to the local church. From then on, the family appears in several documents as “del Sandes” or “de Sabulonibus” showing that they took their name from the farm now known as Sandsfield beside the River Eden north of Burgh-by-Sands.
The area suffered from frequent incursions by the Scots and the last member of the Sandys family known to have lived there was Richard del Sandes III (c1318-1382) who was chosen as Knight of the Shire representing the County of Cumberland in the Parliament of 1377. His older son Robert (born c1345) moved to St Bees on the west coast of Cumberland and was the ancestor of two branches of the family at Rottington, north of St Bees and at Esthwaite in the Furness Fells area of Lancashire north of Morecambe Bay. Both of these branches are generally recorded as spelling the family name as “Sandes” or “Sands”.
Richard’s second son John (born c1347) was recruited by Sir Matthew Redmayne of Carlisle to accompany him in a troop of reinforcements to join the army of Edward the Black Prince in Aquitaine in south-west France. John was the ancestor of the Hampshire and Surrey branches of the family. Early records about him and his successors spell the family name as “Sandes” or “Sondes”. There was a separate family of “Sondes” in Sussex and Surrey and then later in Kent, and, in many records from the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries, the two families are confused by errors in the original documents or in subsequent transcription.
From the middle of the early part of the 16th Century, the Hampshire branch of the family preferred to spell the family name as “Sandys”, while the Surrey branch continued to prefer “Sandes” or “Sands”. Unless otherwise noted, all references in this document to the family in Hampshire are shown as “Sandys” and to other branches as “Sandes”.
Sir John Sandys of East Cholderton, Hampshire (c1347-1395)
In 1367 shortly after his arrival in France, John was awarded an annuity by Edward the Black Prince at Bordeaux. This was later confirmed by King Richard II. In 1375, during a short stay in England, John married a widow Joan, daughter of Agnes (nee Fifhide), and had his first son Walter. Joan was only 24 years old but had already lost two husbands and had inherited their property at East Cholderton near Andover and in the town itself.
In 1377, John was briefly back in France and led an attack on the Spanish fleet with Thomas Woodstock. Later in 1377, he was appointed as Sheriff of Hampshire and in 1378, he was appointed as Coroner for Hampshire. In 1379, he led more reinforcements out to Aquitaine and was knighted during this final period in France.
By 1380, Sir John had settled at East Cholderton on the Hampshire-Wiltshire border west of Andover. This is where his two sons Walter and Thomas, probably born after 1381, grew up. Very little is known about Thomas, but he may be the one recorded as Thomas Sandys gent in London in 1447 and to have had two sons Christopher and John who were both apprenticed to the Mercers Company in London in the mid-1440s.
In 1380, Sir John Sandys was appointed as Deputy Constable of Southampton Castle and in 1381 he was appointed as Knight of the Shire for Hampshire in the first of his seven Parliaments. John Waweton represented Huntingdonshire in this Parliament and this created a link between the two families which would be re-forged in the next generation. In the Parliament of 1391, Sir John would have met Thomas Bray representing Middlesex but with roots in Bedfordshire and this proved to be another important link for future generations.
In 1387 on the death of Sir William Fifhide, many of his properties were inherited by his cousin Joan, the wife of Sir John Sandys. In the Post Mortem Inquisition for Sir William Fifhide, Joan is identified as being 36 years old and as being the daughter of his aunt Agnes. These properties included Catherington Fifhide and Sherborne Cowdray north of Basingstoke which Sir William’s father had bought from the Cowdrays in 1355. It was later known as The Vyne and became home for later generations of the Sandys family. The Brocas family lived at Beaurepaire a few miles north of The Vyne and Sir Bernard Brocas was joint witness with Sir John Sandys to the grant of a Manor at Burton Stacey south of Andover in 1394.
Sir Walter Sandys of East Cholderton, Hampshire (c1376-1435)
Sir John Sandys died in 1395 and was succeeded by his older son Sir Walter Sandys. Sir Walter was knighted in or before 1401 and, like his father, joined the English army in France on at least two later occasions. In 1401, Sir Walter Sandys married Agnes Warriner (or Warner) and they had three known children: Thomas, William and Joanna. Joanna married William Brocas and was granted occupation of The Vyne on the occasion of her marriage. The closeness between Sir Walter Sandys and his son-in-law William Brocas is evident from other documents showing their collaboration in 1421, 1423 and 1429. The Vyne was reclaimed by Walter’s grandson Sir William Sandys in 1488 after the death of Bernard, the son of William Brocas and Joanna Sandys.
Sir Walter Sandys’ second son William is only known through an entry in the list of Combatants in the Wars of the Roses where he is shown as living at Catherington Fifhide and as being the father of Sir John Sa(u)ndes who was knighted after the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. As its full name implies Catherington was one of the many properties inherited by Sir Walter Sandys from his mother Joan as is confirmed by a grant made there by Sir Walter in 1414. Although nothing else is known about William Sandys of Catherington Fifhide, more is known about his presumed family as described later in this document.
Sir Walters Sandys’ first wife Agnes died in 1407 and his second wife was Margaret Erleigh. She gave him a daughter Margaret (born c1409) who later became the first wife of Richard Bray. Margaret is wrongly shown in the Visitation of Cumberland in 1615 as being born into the Sandes family at Esthwaite. This marriage was brought about by Sir Walter Sandys attending the Parliament of 1414 at Leicester with Thomas Waweton who had bought Great Staughton Manor in 1406 from Alice Bray the mother of the former MP Thomas Bray. Richard Bray was Thomas Bray’s grandson and Margaret Sandys was grand-daughter of the former MP Sir John Sandys.
Thomas Sandys of East Cholderton, Hampshire (1404-1442)
Sir Walter Sandys was succeeded by his elder son Thomas. An inquisition in Hampshire in 1425 witnesses to Thomas’ coming of age. There are not many other records mentioning Thomas Sandys. In 1435, he was referred to as the son of Sir Walter and Agnes in a document about former Fifhide properties at Shermanbury, Kingston (near Shoreham) and Berkham in Sussex, and in 1442 he is recorded as owning a fulling mill at Upper Clatford, south of Andover.
Thomas Sandys married Sybil (maiden name unknown) and they only had one known child. This was Sir William Sandys (1438-1496) whose life is described below. Thomas died in 1442 and his wife Sybil died in 1445. It is presumed that their young son was brought up by his uncle William Sandys alongside his cousins at Catherington Fifhide.
Sir William Sandys of The Vyne, near Basingstoke Hampshire (1438-1496)
Records for this member of the family frequently confuse him with his distant cousin William Sandes (c1435-1515), husband of Margaret Rawson (or Rawlinson) in the Esthwaite branch of the family, or with William Sondes from the Throwley branch of that family in Kent. William Sondes was a Grocer in London and appears as either Sondes or Sandes in many records between 1449 and 1486. The first definite reference to William Sandys of Hampshire is when he witnessed a lease at Andover in 1467.
As already noted, he was orphaned at the age of seven and was probably brought up by his uncle William at Catherington Fifhide. He may have been sent as a teenager to join the household of Sir John Cheyne (or Cheney) of Shurland in Kent and to be trained in martial arts. What is certain is that he married Sir John’s daughter Margaret Cheyne in about 1464 and that they had three sons John (1465-1486), William (1470-1540) and Richard (1472-1539) and a daughter Edith. William Sandys fought in the Battle at Tewkesbury in 1471, probably alongside his brother-in-law Sir John Cheyne junior. William was knighted by King Edward IV immediately after this battle.
Sir William’s oldest son John was betrothed at an early age but died before the marriage was consummated. This led to a number of cases in the Court of Chancery in which John’s fiancée claimed unsuccessfully for financial benefits promised in the betrothal agreement. Sir William’s youngest son Richard was knighted in France in 1523 and Richard represented Hampshire in the Parliament of 1529.
Sir William recovered the former Fifhide property at The Vyne north of Basingstoke in 1488 after the death of Bernard Brocas without leaving any family. Sir William was based there for the last years of his life.
Lord William Sandys first Baron of The Vyne in Hampshire (1470-1540)
Sir William Sandys was succeeded by his second son also Sir William who had been knighted by King Henry VII in 1487 after the Battle of East Stoke where William fought alongside his uncle Sir John Cheyne junior by whom he had been trained in martial arts. Sir William Sandys junior married Margery Bray in about 1491. Like Sir William, she had Sir Walter Sandys as her great-grandfather. In 1503, she and William shared the inheritance of her step-uncle Reginald Bray with Reginald’s other nephew John Bray the younger. In 1504, Sir William formally took possession of The Vyne. Over following years, he regularly entertained King Henry VIII there. On at least two of these occasions, the King was accompanied by Anne Boleyn.
In 1510, Sir William was made Constable of Southampton Castle, echoing the appointment of his great-great grandfather Sir John Sandys there in 1380. In 1517, Sir William became Treasurer of the British enclave at Calais and Guisnes. He stayed involved with this area in various capacities for the rest of his life. In 1518, Sir William was appointed as a Knight of The Garter.
In 1523 William was elevated to the peerage as Lord William first Baron Sandys of The Vyne and in 1525 he was holding the titles of Lord Chamberlain and Deputy of Guisnes. Later in the same year he surrendered the role of Treasurer of Calais to Sir Richard Weston, the son-in-law of William’s cousin Oliver Sandys of Shere.
In 1536, Lord William was persuaded by King Henry VIII to surrender properties in Chelsea and Paddington in exchange for Mottisfont Priory and its estates which had recently been taken by the King at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1539, Lord William’s wife Margery died. In August the following year, Lord William left Calais and Guisnes for the last time and he died at home at The Vyne in December 1540.
Despite his long absences in France and at the Royal Court, Lord William and Margery had a large family including three sons: Thomas (born c1493), Reginald (born 1495) and John (born 1497). Reginald became a priest and the last record of him is in Wiltshire in 1533. John joined his father in France shortly after he became of age and served as his deputy there in the last years of his father’s life. Lord William and Margery also had four daughters: Mary, Alice, Elizabeth and Margaret. There is no pedigree for this branch of the Sandys family in any of the College of Herald’s Visitations but Lord William’s sister Edith and some of his daughters do appear in the pedigrees of their husbands’ families.
Thomas Sandys, second Baron Sandys of The Vyne (1496-1560)
Thomas married Elizabeth Manners in 1519 and they also had a large family with three sons: Henry, Humphrey and Walter. Some records suggest that they also had a son William but no evidence has been found to substantiate this. Thomas and Elizabeth also had three daughters: Margaret, Ann and Mary.
Henry Sandys of The Vyne Hampshire (1520-1555)
Henry died before his father and therefore never succeeded to the title. He married Elizabeth Windsor in about 1542 and had two known sons: William (born 1543) and Thomas (born c1545). He may also have had a third son Henry in 1549. Henry Sandys of The Vyne may also have had four other children but no evidence for them has been found.
Henry Sandys junior studied for the priesthood at Cambridge alongside Adam Winthrop, the father of John Winthrop the first Governor of Massachusetts Colony. Henry was ordained priest and appointed as vicar of Preston near Lavenham in Suffolk in 1578. However, he lost his living in 1583 when he refused to abide by new rules imposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. For the rest of his life, Henry had an itinerant preaching ministry and was supported financially by like-minded Protestants. He married three times but had no children of his own. In his Will, he left bequests for the children of two of his wives who had been widows when he married them.
William Sandys, third Baron Sandys of The Vyne (1543-1623)
William succeeded to the title on the death of his grandfather Thomas in 1560. Until he became of age, his affairs were managed by his uncle Walter. William had three wives. The first was Catherine Bray who was the daughter of Dorothy Bray a grand-daughter of John Bray the younger and therefore a cousin of Baron William. Some records suggest that Catherine was the result of an affair between her mother and the brother of Queen Katherine Parr. Dorothy Bray later married Edmund Bridges and Catherine took his surname.
Lord William and Catherine had a daughter Elizabeth (born c1570). By his second wife Christian Annesley, Lord William had a son William who was born in about 1603 and was briefly the fourth Baron Sandys of The Vyne before dying childless in 1629.
The title passed via Lord William’s daughter Elizabeth who married Edwyn, a distant cousin from the Esthwaite branch of the Sandes family. They had three sons: William (born 1591), Myles (born 1595) and Henry (born 1605). William and Myles both died before 1629 and Henry became the fifth Baron Sandys of The Vyne on the death of his uncle William.
Henry married a cousin from the Esthwaite branch of the Sandes family in 1623. She was Jane Sandes the older daughter of Edwyn’s brother William. They had three sons and three daughters. The three sons each became Barons of the Vyne in turn and each died without having any children. They were William (1635-1668), Henry (1635-1680) and Edwyn (1639-1684). After Edwyn’s death, the title of Baron Sandys became extinct for a while. It was later re-created for direct descendants of Archbishop Edwyn Sandes from the Esthwaite branch of the family.
William Sandes of Catherington Fifhide (born c1406)
William was the younger son of Sir Walter Sandys and Agnes Warriner. As already explained, very little is known about him but it is possible to deduce something about his family from incorrect entries in the College of Herald’s Visitations of Cambridgeshire, Cumberland, Surrey and Sussex. These show extra children of William Sandes and Margaret Rawson who are known to have married in 1458, but other records are only consistent with three of them being born in the 1430s and with the rest being descended from the first of these three who was also named William.
It is concluded that the children wrongly shown as children of the Esthwaite branch were actually descended from William Sandys of Catherington Fifhide and that this William had three sons William (1431-1493), John (born c1433) and Thomas (born c1435). In 1470, a John Sandes was appointed as a Clerk of the Mint in the Tower of London. He resigned this position in 1471 which is the same year that he was knighted after the Battle of Tewkesbury. Nothing is known of his later life. Thomas had a daughter Julian who married Robert Fenrother (1458-1524) a Goldsmith and an Alderman in the City of London Alderman who owned extensive properties in the Chelsea and Paddington areas of London. Robert and Julian had three daughters.
William Sandes of Harleyford, Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire (1431-1493)
This William was the oldest son of William of Catherington Fifhide. In 1481, he bought Harleyford Manor beside the River Thames a short distance west of Great Marlow. His wife was named Johanne. They had three sons: Robert (c1455-1509), William (born c1457) and Oliver (c1459-1512). Some pedigrees show William as having a son John but there are no records to confirm this. However, William did have a daughter Jane who married Robert Wintershull from south of Guildford in about 1478.
Robert Sandes of Harleyford (c1455-1509)
Robert inherited Harleyford from his father and lived here until his death. His wife Margaret re-married after Robert’s death and their son John (c1490-1555) had to bring a case against his mother and step-father in the Court of Chancery in 1529 in an attempt to claim his rights to his former grandfather William’s property at Great Marlow. Presumably this was not successful as John moved to Sonning further west along the River Thames. John’s son Henry (c1520-1570) also lived at Sonning. Henry had a brother Thomas and two sons: Richard and Gilbert and three daughters who were all alive and underage in 1560.
William Sandes of Guildford Park (born c1457)
William was the second son of William Sandes of Harleyford. In 1488, he was made deputy Keeper at Guildford and Henley Park. King Henry VII had awarded the role of Keeper to Reginald Bray for life. Reginald had served in the household of the King’s mother Margaret Beaufort at Woking just a few miles from Guildford and had played an important role in securing Henry’s return from exile in France. It is highly probable that Christopher Sandes from the Esthwaite branch of the Sandes family and who also worked for Margaret Beaufort recommended his cousin William for this deputy role.
In 1499, William was involved in a dispute with John Bourchier Lord Berners of West Horsley over the alleged killing of a deer in the Park without permission. William held his post at the Park until Reginald Bray’s death in 1503 after which he is believed to have gone to live with his son Robert at Little Pachesham.
William had a large family including four sons: Robert, William, John and Thomas, and four daughters: Julian, Alice and Jane. The name of the fourth daughter is not known.
All four girls married into local families in the Guildford area. Nothing is known about William junior apart from his name in a Visitation. John is only known as a party to an agreement over various lands in the Guildford area in 1520, and Thomas is only known as living at Shere.
Robert Sandes of Little Pachesham (aka Randalls) near Leatherhead (c1482-c1522)
Robert Sandes was the oldest son of William of Guildford Park. He appears to have had a similar stewardship role over an estate at Little Pachesham which had been owned by the d’Abernon family but had passed from them to John Agmondisham. Robert had a son Thomas (c1508-1579) who married John Agmondisham’s daughter Jane in c1540. Thomas and Jane had a son Robert (c1540-1598) who married Anne Skinner, a daughter of John Skinner of Reigate. Robert and Anne had two sons: John (1565-1625) and Robert (born c1567). John had a son Thomas (1601-1658). Thomas had three wives by whom he had two sons: Thomas (1647-1713) and John (born 1651), and two daughters: Katherine and Jane.
John sold the freehold of Randalls in 1700.
Oliver Sandes of Shere Vachery (c1459-1512)
Oliver Sandes was the third son of William Sandes of Harleyford. He was one of the first recruits to join the Yeomen of the Guard when this unit was set up by King Henry VII when he came to the throne in 1485 and his last role as such was attending the funeral of King Henry in 1509. In 1486, Oliver was made deputy Keeper at Shere Vachery Park and possibly of Baynards Park nearby when Reginald Bray was granted ownership of these estates. Oliver remained as keeper for a few years after Reginald Bray’s death in 1503, but had to move out in 1511 when Reginald’s nephew Edward decided to live there.
Oliver leased a property at Albury Gate west of Shere village. He died at Shere in 1512. Oliver and his wife Joan had one daughter Anne who became a member of the household of Elizabeth of York, the wife of King Henry VII. Anne married Richard Weston who from 1502 was also a member of Elizabeth’s household. They had a son Francis who was executed in 1536 after being accused with others of having an affair with Anne Boleyn.
Richard Weston was knighted in 1518 and in 1525 he was appointed as Treasurer of Calais in succession to Lord William the first Baron Sandys of The Vyne.
