The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.48 No.1 | June 2021

Member’s article

The Sandys Family of Hampshire and Surrey

For the purposes of this report, the family name in the south of England after about 1400 will be shown as Sandys, but many of the documents on which this report is based show it as Sandes. Some of these documents spell the name as Sondes, but this was a separate family originating in the Tithing of Sonde near Pulborough in Sussex. The earliest record of the SANDYS family dates from 1185 when Simon de Sabluns and his son, also Simon, are included in the list of witnesses to the transfer of land adjoining their property to the church in Burgh-by- Sands, west of Carlisle. It is followed by an agreement in 1234 by Simon de Sabulonibus to allow monks from Holm Cultram Priory to store fishing gear on a piece of his land at Sandsfield. In 1332/3, the Lay Subsidy Tax records for Burgh-by-Sands include three members of the family: Michael del Sandes, Richard del Sandes and Gilbert del Sandes. Richard and Gilbert are thought to be brothers with Michael, who is shown separately in the Lay Subsidy record, being a cousin. Richard, or possibly Gilbert, had two sons: Michael and Richard, both born c1320. Michael had a son, Thomas, born c1345, who became a lawyer and represented the County of Cumberland in Parliament between 1391 and 1395. In 1382, Thomas was involved in a dispute over his uncle Richard’s Will. At about the same time, Thomas bought Redmain Manor near Cockermouth from Sir Matthew Redmayne who had returned from his first period supporting Edward the Black Prince in the wars in Aquitaine.

Richard del Sandes junior had three sons: Robert, who abandoned the family home at Sandsfield and moved to St Bees on the west coast of Cumberland; William who became the priest at Kirkbride (or possibly Bridekirk, a few miles from Redmain): and John del Sandes who became the founder of the Sandys family in Hampshire and Surrey. John del Sandes was born c1347 and travelled out to Aquitaine with Sir Mathew Redmayne in 1367. In 1375, he was knighted by the Black Prince as Sir John Sandys. On his return to England, Sir John Sandys married Joan Bridges (nee Fifhide) and settled in her part of Hampshire instead of returning to the north- west of England. In 1377, John was appointed as Sheriff of Hampshire, but soon returned to France to serve in the army of the Black Prince’s younger brother Thomas of Woodstock. Back in England once again, Sir John Sandys was appointed as Deputy Constable of Southampton Castle in 1380 under Thomas Holland, the 2nd Earl of Kent. John represented the County of Hampshire in seven Parliaments between 1381 and 1393. In 1391, a fellow MP was Thomas Bray of Chiswick, representing Middlesex. In 1386, John’s wife, Joan, inherited The Vyne, near Basingstoke and many other properties from her uncle William FIFHIDE and they moved to East Cholderton, near Andover. Sir John Sandys died in 1395 and his widow, Joan, died in 1415 with their combined estate passing to their son, Sir Walter Sandys, who had been born c1377. Walter represented the County of Hampshire in the Parliament of 1414 and may have broken his journey to and from London with the Brays at Chiswick. Sir

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