William Sandys, of the Vyne - The first William Sandys

THE FIRST SIR WILLIAM SANDES (1439-1496) 16th November 2023
{Note: Although the Sandys family now spelling their surname with a “y”, all of the transcriptions of documents referring to the family in the 15th Century spell the surname as “Sandes” and I have kept to that convention in this paper.}
Although it is known when Sir William was born, who his parents and paternal grand-parents were, when and where he was knighted, whom he married and who his three sons were, nothing else is known about where he grew up or where he lived and what he did in adult life. Previously, I have assumed that, after he was left as an orphan with death of his mother Sybil in 1445 when he was six years old, William went to live with his uncle William Sandes, about whom even less is known, at Catherington Fifhide. In this paper, I explore the alternative possibility that William went to live with his aunt Joanna and her husband William Brocas.
The great-grandfather of William Brocas was Sir Bernard Brocas who accompanied Edward the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers in southern France in 1356. Sir Bernard Brocas’ son, also Sir Bernard, followed his father into military service and had custody of Calais Castle in 1377/8. This makes it highly likely that both father and son were known to Sir John Sandes who also served in Edward the Black Prince’s army in France from the late-1360s to about 1380.
In 1375, during a break in his military service, Sir John Sandes did not return to his native Cumberland but married Joan Fifhide, a rich widow in Hampshire, and settled at East Cholderton in a property near Andover which his wife had inherited from her previous husband. After his mother’s death in 1415, Sir Walter Sandes, the elder son of Sir John and Joan Fifhide, inherited several properties from the Fifhide family including more properties near Andover as well as The Vyne at Sherborne St John north of Basingstoke. Sir Walter Sandes had two sons, Thomas and William and a daughter Joanna.
The Brocas family had property in several counties across the south of England including Beaurepaire at Sherborne St John north of Basingstoke. Beaurepaire was within a mile or two of The Vyne and thus provided another potential link between the Sandes and the Brocas families.
Sir Bernard Brocas senior appears to have had a brother John who was Keeper of Guildford Royal Park in 1365. Sir Bernard Brocas junior had a son William (born c1375). In 1407, William Brocas leased a Manor at Ewhurst in Surrey, close to the Royal Park at Shere Vachery, and, in 1413, he obtained a licence to close the highway past Beaurepaire, and possibly The Vyne, so that he could extend the park around his house. He had to provide a new road around the edge of his extended property to compensate for this. William had two sons William and Bernard (born c1405).
In 1421, we get a definite link between the two families when Sir Walter Sandes and William Brocas (senior) made grants to enable a Chantry to be constructed in Andover. This was followed in 1423 when both men were witnesses to land being transferred to the Church at Herriard, south of Basingstoke. This relationship was sealed in 1429 when William Brocas (junior) married Sir Walter Sandes’ daughter Joanna and they were given the Vyne to live in. This concession was on the condition that, after William’s death, his brother Bernard could live there and that, after his death, The Vyne would revert to the Sandes family.
The Brocas family appear to have retained property in the Guildford area. In 1449, William Brocas senior was involved in the lease of land there and, in 1475, William Brocas junior sold land at Guildford to King Edward IV so that the Royal Park could be extended. Also, in 1449, William Brocas is noted as having been Master of the King’s Buckhounds. William Brocas senior died in 1455 and his two sons William junior and Bernard were involved in a Manor at Holybourne, near Alton, Hampshire, on behalf of their widowed mother Joan over the next ten years.
In about 1480, William and Bernard were also involved in dealing with Steventon Manor, south-west of Basingstoke which the first Sir Bernard Brocas had acquired with his wife Mary back in 1361. William Brocas junior died in 1483 and, as agreed back in 1429, The Vyne went to his brother Bernard. Bernard died in 1488 and, again as previously agreed, The Vyne reverted to Sir William Sandes, the subject of this paper, who made it his home.
Given all of the above, I now think it most likely that, after his mother Sybil died in 1445, William Sandes was taken in by his aunt Joanna and her husband William Brocas junior and that he grew up at The Vyne north of Basingstoke. If The Vyne was indeed his childhood home, this would explain his desire to establish his own family there.
The earlier military links between the Brocas family and the Royal family and their later commercial transactions with King Edward IV could explain how William Sandes came to marry Margaret Cheyne, the daughter of Sir John Cheyne senior, in about 1464 and to be in King Edward IV’s army at Tewkesbury in 1471, after which battle William was knighted. Sir John Cheyne was Master of the Horse to King Edward IV and later became personal body-guard to King Henry VII.
Sir William Sandes’ second son, also William, was trained in military arts by his uncle Sir John Cheyne junior and this resulted in him being knighted by King Henry VII after the battle of East Stoke in 1487. In about 1490, Sir William Sandes junior married Margery Bray, the niece of Reginald Bray who was a Chief Counsellor to King Henry VII.
In 1486, Oliver Sandes became one of the first members of the Yeomen of The Guard created by King Henry VII shortly after he came to the throne. In the same year, Oliver was also made deputy keeper of Shere Vachery Park when this was awarded to Reginald Bray. In 1488, Oliver’s brother William was made deputy keeper of the larger Guildford Park when this too was awarded to Reginald Bray. Oliver and William were sons of Sir William Sandes’ cousin William who had bought Harleyford Manor at Great Marlow in 1481. Their sister Jane had married Robert Wintershull from south of Guildford in 1478.
It is frustrating that there are no documents in any of the National or County Archives in which Sir William Sandes and his contacts with the royal court are recorded. However, his definite links with the Brocas and the Cheyne families give strong indications of what those contacts might have been.

Footnote:
The properties inherited by Joan Fifhide, wife of Sir John Sandes, from her cousin Sir William Fifhide, included Kingston-by-Shoreham and Shermanbury in Sussex, and Andover, Catherington, Elsefield, Faccombe, Holybourne, Langstoke, Sherborne and Winchester in Hampshire. Sir William Fifhide’s father had bought The Vyne at Sherborne St John in 1355.