SANDYS, William (1607-29)

Very little is known about Sandys’s early life. No information has emerged concerning his mother beyond her Christian name, and the fact that she died while he was relatively young. His father, William Sandys^*, 3rd Lord Sandys, spent his later years living in retirement, and Sandys probably saw little of the world beyond the family’s estates in Hampshire and Berkshire. He is not recorded as having attended either of the universities. Sandys was still a minor when he succeeded his father as 4th Lord Sandys in September 1623. Under a deal brokered with the crown in 1621 by Thomas Howard^*, 21st (or 14th) earl of Arundel, his wardship was granted to his stepmother and two of his father’s associates, Francis Windebank^‡ and Dr John Gifford.7 PROB 11/142, ff. 318-21; C142/402/131. However, Arundel himself evidently arranged Sandys’s marriage to Alathea Panton; the girl’s mother is thought to have served in the earl’s household, and Alathea herself was doubtless named after Arundel’s own wife.8 HP Commons, 1604-29, v. 599; CP, i. 257.

Sandys’s principal home was The Vyne, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, the grand Tudor mansion built by his great-great-grandfather, William Sandys^†, 1st Lord Sandys. In addition, he owned a smaller seat, Foxleys, in Berkshire, formally assigned to his stepmother as her dower house. It was at this latter property that John Williams^*, bishop of Lincoln (later archbishop of York), a kinsman of Sandys’s wife, was staying in September 1625 when he learnt that he was to be dismissed as lord keeper.9 VCH Hants, iv. 160; C142/402/131, J. Hacket, Scrinia Reserata (1693), pt. 1, p. 35; pt. 2, p. 20. Sandys came of age three years later, and was therefore qualified to sit in the Lords during the 1629 parliamentary session. His name was added to the list of members, but he never attended. On 9 Feb. he was formally recorded as absent, on the grounds that he ‘hath not his writ as yet’. Given that another, slightly younger peer, Robert Greville^*, 2nd Lord Brooke, also failed to receive a writ for this session, the probable explanation in each case was clerical oversight, as, by this date, any deliberate withholding of writs from peers would have been automatically challenged by the Lords. It is not known whether Sandys’ missing writ was dispatched prior to the end of this session.10 LJ, iv. 25a.

Sandys died at The Vyne in November 1629, childless and intestate, administration of his estate being granted to his widow. His principal heir was his half-sister, Elizabeth Sandys, though in his inquisition post mortem she was overlooked in favour of the nearest male heir, Thomas Twyne, another descendant of the 1st Lord Sandys. The barony was initially deemed to have become extinct, on the grounds that it had been created by patent. However, this verdict was successfully challenged in 1660 by Elizabeth’s grandson, William Sandys^†, who was thereafter deemed to have succeeded his great-uncle as 6th Lord Sandys.11 Coll. of Arms, ms. I.8, f. 22; PROB 6/13, f. 128; WARD 7/83/105; CP, xi. 446-7.