Edwin Sandys (died 1629)

Sir Edwin Sandys (/ˈsændz/ SANDZ; 9 December 1561 – October 1629) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1626. He was also one of the founders of the proprietary Virginia Company of London, which in 1606 established the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States in the colony of Virginia, based at Jamestown. The parish of Sandys, in Bermuda (the Virginia Company's second colony) is named after him.

Sandys (pronounced Sands) 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 was admitted fellow in the same year 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, later resigning both his fellowship and prebendry. 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. Edwin's brother Thomas Sands (Sandy) was one of the original settlers of Jamestown. He survived the "Starving Times" and returned to England. His grandson later permanently settled in Virginia.

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 1615-1616 - his country seat of Norbourn was there

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 Thomas Smythe. 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.

On 16 June 1621 he and John Selden were taken into custody by order of the House of Commons, and not released until 18 July.

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 died in 1629, leaving a £1500 endowment to Oxford University to fund a lecture in metaphysics.

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

Sandys' grandson, Richard Sandys became a baronet in 1684. His brother Sir Miles Sandys, 1st Baronet was also appointed a baronet, and sat as MP, and was High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.

Edwin Sandys was one of the men instrumental in establishing the first representative assembly in the new world at Jamestown by issuing a new charter calling for its establishment. In addition, he assisted the Pilgrims in establishing their colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts by lending them 300 pounds without interest.

In addition to seeking profits for the company's investors, history records that his goal was a permanent colony which would enlarge English territory, relieve the nation's overpopulation, and expand the market for English goods. In 1619, Sandys became the treasurer of the Virginia Company and instituted a program designed to give investors and settlers incentive to emigrate to the New World. His program granted some of Virginia's land to the people who chose to live there, providing planters who had arrived before 1616 with one hundred acres each with settlers coming after 1616 getting fifty acres. He also sent several hundred tenant farmers to world land set aside for the company while urging the production of more than just tobacco for export. In order to increase labour in Virginia, his program also promoted indentured servitude for the poor of England who could try to make a better life for themselves in the colony. These policies created a boom period of growth for Virginia. The large amount of labour available and the condition by which they made the journey led to exploitation of servants and tenants while allowing large farmer owners to also exploit the Virginia Company. He never travelled to Virginia, but worked tirelessly in England to support the effort. Although the Virginia Company ultimately failed financially by 1624, Sandys' other visions for the Colony prevailed. It eventually grew and prospered until achieving independence late in the 18th century following the American Revolutionary War.

Additionally, in the process of sending additional supplies on the Third Supply mission to Jamestown, in 1609 the Virginia Company of London inadvertently settled the Somers Isles, alias Bermuda, the oldest-remaining English (since 1707, British) colony, following the shipwreck of the Virginia Company's new flagship, the Sea Venture. Sandys Parish, which includes Somerset Village and the Royal Naval Dockyard, is named after him.