Edwin Sandys (died 1629) - Biography

Biography

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, (from 1577). He graduated B.A. in 1579 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. In 1589 he was elected Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle. He was 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. 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.

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 (succeeding Sir Thomas Smyth). He promoted and supported the policy which enabled the colony to survive the disasters of its early days, and, he continued to be a leading influence in the Company until it was dissolved in 1624. He was a supporter of indentured servitude, which enabled many plantations to thrive. Sandys also strongly supported the headright system, for his goal was a permanent colony which would enlarge English territory, relieve the nation's overpopulation, and expand the market for English goods. Also accredited to Sandys is an increase in women sent to the colonies, for the purpose of encouraging men to marry and start families, which ostensibly would motivate them to work harder.

Sandys sat in the later parliaments of James I as MP for Sandwich in 1621, and for Kent in 1624. 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.

Sandys is buried in Northbourne Church in Kent with his last wife Katherine, the daughter of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Anglesey.