suc. bro. Apr. 1682 as 8th Bar. SANDYS
Never sat.
b. 29 Apr. 1638, 4th but 3rd surv. s. of Henry Sandys (d.1644) and Jane, da. of Sir William Sandys of Musarden (Miserden), Glos.1; bro. of William Sandys, later 6th Bar. Sandys, and Henry Sandys, later 7th Bar. Sandys. educ. ?Balliol, Oxf. MA 2 Dec. 1642. unm. d. by 27 May 1684;2 will 14 May 1684.3
Associated with: Mottisfont Abbey, Hants.
Little is known of Edwin Sandys prior to his accession to the peerage, and he is easily confused with Edwin Sandys of Ombersley in Worcestershire, who also died in 1684. Sandys was apparently awarded a degree by Oxford when only four years old (perhaps in acknowledgement of his father’s services in the royalist cause). However, it seems most unlikely that he was the Edwin Sandys, ‘placed at school in Essex’ and ‘seduced, by the insinuation of his schoolfellows, to forsake his book and run away into the king’s quarters’, who was fined £40 by the committee for compounding in May 1646 when aged just eight.4
Before inheriting the barony, Sandys’ relations with his brother, the 7th baron, had deteriorated to such an extent that between 1676 and his brother’s death in 1682, he was systematically disinherited.5 The reason for this feud is unknown. An Edwin Sandys married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Blundell, in 1676, but it is unlikely that this man was the subject of this piece.6 Whatever the cause, the brothers’ dispute seems to have descended into an acrimonious lawsuit.7
Sandys succeeded to his diminished inheritance in April 1682. There is no indication that he commanded any parliamentary interest and, although only 44 at the time of his succession, within two years he was sufficiently unwell to make his will leaving what remained of his estates in Hampshire and Wiltshire to his nephew, Sir John Mill, besides a modest annuity to his sister, Elizabeth Gofton. Sandys died towards the end of May 1684 (Morrice records his death in an entry of 27 May), and he was buried in the Holy Ghost Chapel at Basingstoke on 3 June.8 On his death the peerage fell into abeyance between his six sisters, while his estates passed to his great-nephew, Sir Richard Mill.9
R.D.E.E.- 1 The Gen. n.s. xxxi. 218.
- 2 Verney ms mic. M636/38, J. Stewkeley to Sir R. Verney, 29 May 1684; Morrice, Ent’ring Bk. ii. 478.
- 3 Hants RO, Barker Mill of Mottisfont mss 23M58/33.
- 4 CCC, 1274-5.
- 5 Hants RO, Barker Mill of Mottisfont mss 23M58/32, 33.
- 6 TNA, E135/24/76.
- 7 Hants RO, Barker Mill of Mottisfont mss 23M58/35.
- 8 Morrice, i. 437.
- 9 Verney ms mic. M636/38, J. Stewkeley to Sir R. Verney, 29 May 1684; The Gen. n.s. xxxi. 220.