He was educated at New College, Oxford, matriculating in 1711 aged 16.[3] He left Oxford in 1715 without graduating, and embarked on a Grand Tour of Continental Europe.[4]
Opposition
In 1718, at the age of 22, Sandys was elected MP for Worcester, as a Whig. He represented the seat for 25 years.
In February 1730 Sandys introduced the Pension Bill, to bar from sitting in the House of Commons anyone with any pensions or offices held in trust for them from the Crown. The bill passed through the House of Commons but was rejected by the House of Lords; he reintroduced the bill several times in subsequent sessions, with the same result. Sandys opposed the government's economic policy: in 1733 he opposed both the motion to take £500,000 from the sinking fund and the Excise Bill to tax tobacco and wine imports; in February 1736 he called attention to the increase of the national debt.[1]
On 13 February 1741, Sandys moved a motion to call upon King George II to dismiss Walpole. The Tories did not support the motion, which was defeated by 290 votes to 106;[1] the Tory Jacobite William Shippen commented of Walpole and the opposition Whigs that "Robin and I are two honest men: he is for King George and I for King James, but those men in long cravats only desire places under either one or the other".[5]
Chancellor of the Exchequer
This impression that senior opposition Whigs were motivated by self-advancement rather than by opposition to the government gained substance when Walpole fell in February 1742. Pulteney (created Earl of Bath that year) brokered a deal with the Court, without consulting opposition parties. The new ministry led by Lord Wilmington was a continuation of Walpole's ministry with few personnel changes, but with Sandys appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sir John Rushout and Phillips Gybbon appointed Lords of the Treasury.[2]
Pulteney and Sandys supported the appointment of a secret committee to investigate Walpole's conduct in office; Sandys was elected a member of the committee. They opposed the repeal of the Septennial Act 1716, and objected to the rejection by the Lords of the Indemnification Bill to recompense witnesses against Walpole. In December 1742 Sandys opposed a Place Bill (to limit the capacity of parliamentarians to hold other paid positions, especially in the military), although he had proposed several such bills when in opposition.[1][2]
Wilmington died in July 1743, succeeded as First Lord of the Treasury by Henry Pelham. On 12 December 1743, Pelham took the Chancellorship himself.
On 9 June 1725 Sandys married Letitia, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas TippingBtMP and his wife Anne Cheke. They had seven sons and three daughters:[6][7]
Edwin Sandys (28 April 1726 – 11 March 1797), MP, succeeded as the 2nd Baron Sandys in 1770
Cheek Sandys (1727–1737)
Thomas Sandys (born 30 September 1728, London, died in infancy)
Martin Sandys (baptised 24 November 1729, Ombersley – 26 December 1768), Colonel, Equerry to the Duke of Cumberland
Martin's daughter Mary (wife of Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire) inherited the Ombersley estates upon the 2nd Baron's death in 1797, and was granted a new Sandys barony in 1802.
Letitia Sandys (baptised 25 August 1731, Ombersley – 10 January 1784)
William Sandys (baptised 5 August 1732, Ombersley – 31 October 1749)
Anne Sandys (born 10 January 1734 – 1797) married Christopher Bethell
John Sandys (baptised 31 October 1735, Ombersley – 1758), soldier, died in Germany
Katherine Sandys (baptised 25 September 1736, died in infancy)
Henry Sandys (baptised 4 July 1737, Ombersley, died in infancy)
Cokayne, George E. (1896). "Sandys of Ombersley". Complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Vol. VII, S to T. George Bell & Sons. p. 54.
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