Edwin Sandys (Parliamentarian)
Edwin Sandys (1612 – December 1642) was an English Colonel[1][user-generated source] in the Parlmentarian Army under Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex at the start of the First English Civil War. He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford[2] and lived at the family seat in Northbourne, Kent. He is known for leading troops in the Iconoclasm and Looting of Canterbury Cathedral and Rochester Cathedral, which were the first attacks on cathedrals by parliamentary soldiers.[3][page needed] Sandys was also a key leader in fighting in the first battle of the First English Civil War.
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There have been two baronetcies created for members of the Sandys family, both in the Baronetage of England. Both creations are extinct.
Family
[edit]Edwin Sandys was the son of Edwin Sandys (died 1629)
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His father was an English politician, famous for coining the phrase 'honesty is the best policy',[4] younger brother of Henry Sandys (MP) and grandson of former Archbishop of York Edwin Sandys (bishop). When his father died Henry Sandys was executor of his fathers will, which was problematic as his father left significant debts. Despite significant share holdings in the Virginia Company and the Somers Isles Company, now better known as Bermuda. Their father's profits from these ventures were much less than what was owed. Edwin Sandys (died 1629) specified in his will that the profits of his estate should pay his debts, until 1633. Henry Sandys gained control of the estate in 1634 on the death of his mother. Henry had incurred significant debts having had no income from the estate. As a result, Henry Sandys invoked a clause in his farther's will that allowed him to delay the release of parts of the estate to his younger brothers. In 1638 Edwin undertook litigation against his brother, but was unsuccessful.
In 1637 Henry Sandys drew up his own will and also, following his father, made provision for his debts to be paid. It appears he did not trust Edwin to be the executor of his will, as he chose his younger brother Richard. On Henry's death Edwin again litigated, but also took direct action. In the autumn of 1640 he descended on Northbourne with an armed gang and evicted his brother Richard at gun point.[5] Edwin's behaviour with his own family was a precursor to his subsequent actions.
First English Civil War
[edit]Sandys was commissioned a deputy lieutenant of Kent by Parliament in July 1642[6] to raise troops in Kent. By early August 1642 he was directed to seek out supporters of Charles I of England[7][8][user-generated source?][9][better source needed] and collect arms and plate to finance and to arm the Parliamentarian Army.
Parliament first instructed Sandys to intercept Sir John Sackville, factor of Royalist Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset of Knole. They apprehended him on his way to church in Sevenoaks on Sunday 14 August 1642.[10] Sir John was transported to Fleet Prison and five wagon loads of food, valuable items and weapons were confiscated.[10] Sandys claimed to have recovered enough arms to support 500-600 troops, however a subsequent report to the House of Lords stated an inventory of what had been take showed it was a fifth of that amount. Sandys then moved to confiscate the arms of George Stewart, 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny at Cobham Hall and John Tufton, 2nd Earl of Thanet from Hothfield, both prominent royalists. The soldiers then moved on to ransack the houses of Sir Edward Dering, 1st Baronet, Sir William Butler and Robert Filmer.[11]
On 23 August 1642 Sandys troops arrested Christopher Roper, 4th Baron Teynham in Rochester, the following day Sandys' soldiers took part in Looting and defilement of Rochester Cathedral.[12]
Sandys then led his soldiers to Canterbury Cathedral where they arrived on 26 August 1642 in search of gunpowder held in the cathedral and to arrest the Dean of Canterbury, Isaac Bargrave. The Dean was absent and Sandys arrested him in Gravesend and transported him to Fleet Prison. Bargrave had previously saved Sandys from execution, intervening after he had been indicted for rape in Maidstone.[13][14]
The following day Sandys troops combined with those of Michael Livesey and locked the Cathedral chapter out. By the account of Sub Dean Thomas Paske the soldiers set about the cathedral and seemed to be in a fight with God himself.[15][16] In Bruno Ryves account of the destruction of the cathedral, in Mecurius Rusticus, published in 1643, he charged Sandys with overseeing wholesale destruction inside the cathedral listing stalls, velvet, tables, books and altar rails destroyed. He outlines the destruction of windows, monuments of the dead and destruction of images of Christ, which included firing 40 volleys of gun fire at the image of Christ on the main gate to the cathedral.[17] Bruno Ryves was Chaplain to King Charles I and Thomas Paske credited Sandys with halting the destruction of the cathedral. Paske, is the only primary source, but also would have known Sandys and been under the risk of his potential retribution when he wrote his letter. Ryves faithfully follows Paske's account, and only differed on blaming Sandys, not Sergeant-Major Cockaine. It is unlikely a Sergeant-Major would have undertaken the destruction of the founding cathedral of English Christianity without his Colonel's permission, and the precedent of Rochester Cathedral had been set. William Somner's account of the state of the Cathedral at the Stuart Restoration outlines the damage done to the cathedral, which were perilous.[18]
Death
[edit]On 23 September 1642, barely a month after the defilement at Canterbury and Rochester Cathedrals, Sandys was a leader at the disastrous rout for the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Powick Bridge.[19][20] Sandys was mortally wounded having bravely[21] led an ill-fated charge against forces commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine, in the first skirmish of the Civil War, but did not die until December 1642. Rumours emerged that he had resiled his support for Parliament and regretted his disloyalty to the King. Sandys wrote a letter to Parliament decrying the rumours as lies and his response was read out on Tuesday 7 October October 1642 and accepted by Parliament.[22][23][24]
References
[edit]- ^ "Colonel Edwin Sands' Regiment of Horse". wiki.bcw-project.org. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015.
- ^ "Sabery-Saywell | British History Online".
- ^ Spraggon, Julie (2000). "Puritan Iconoclasm in England 1640-1660" (PDF). discovery.ucl.ac.uk.
- ^ "'Honesty is the best policy' - the meaning and origin of this phrase".
- ^ "SANDYS, Henry (C.1607-1640), of Northbourne, Kent. | History of Parliament Online".
- ^ "House of Commons Journal Volume 2: 06 July 1642 | British History Online".
- ^ "Timeline". northbourneblog.wordpress.com. 14 July 2016.
- ^ "Parliamentarian:horse-regiments:col.-edwin-sands - BCW Project Regimental Wiki". wiki.bcw-project.org. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021.
- ^ "Civil War in the South-East, 1642". bcw-project.org. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023.
- ^ a b Phillips, Charles J. (1918). "Arms and Armour seized at Knole during the Civil War". Archaeologia Cantiana. 33: 125–130 – via Kent Archaeological Society.
- ^ County Council, Kent (England) (2001). Government and Politics in Kent, 1640-1914. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9780851155869.
- ^ "Timeline 1642". bcw-project.org. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023.
- ^ The General Biographical Dictionary:: Containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in Every Nation; Particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time. J. Nichols and Son [and 29 others]. 1812.
- ^ Walton's Lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Dr. Robert Sanderson. Wm. Veazie. 1865.
- ^ "The copy of a letter sent to an honourable lord, by Doctor Paske, subdeane of Canterbury" (PDF). durobrivis.net.
- ^ Spraggon, Julie (2003). Puritan Iconoclasm During the English Civil War. Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851158952.
- ^ Hearne, Thomas (1704). Ductor Historicus: Or a short system of Universal History, and an Introduction to the study of it. The second edition, very much augmented and improved.
- ^ Robertson, J. Craigie (1876). "The Condition of Canterbury Cathedral at the Restoration in AD 1660". Archaeologia Cantiana. 10: 93–98 – via Kent Archaeology Society.
- ^ "UK Battlefields Resource Centre - the Civil Wars - the Edgehill Campaign - the Battle of Battle of Powick Bridge".
- ^ "Battle of Powick Bridge (1642) | First English Civil War | Wars of Three Kingdoms".
- ^ "Hume Texts Online". davidhume.org.
- ^ "House of Commons Journal Volume 2: 15 October 1642 | British History Online".
- ^ A vindication from Colonell Sands: Being the true copie of a letter sent from Colonell Sands to His Excellence the Earle of Eseex [sic] from Worcester the 8. Of October. Wherein Colonell Sands doth declare his resolution to maintaine the cause hee hath begun, with the hazard of his life and fortunes. Also manifesting to the world, that those reports of his being slaine, with the contents of the Lord Faulklands letter, to be false and scandalous. With his humble desire to his Excellence, that the coppie of his resolution might be presented to the Parliament, that they might be satisfied concerning his fidelity. Read in the audience of both Houses of Parliament, and by them approved of. Whereunto is annexed seven articles of impeachment of high treason, exhibited in Parliament, against Sir Edward Heron, High Sheriffe of the county of Lincolne. quod.lib.umich.edu.
- ^ Memorials of the Civil War Between King Charles I. And the Parliament of England as it Affected Herefordshire and Adjacent Counties. Longmans, Green, and Company. 1879.