Sandys, George (1578 -1644)

George Sandys was the seventh, but sixth surviving son of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York, and Cicely daughter of Sir Thomas Wilford. He was educated at St Mary's Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated 5 December 1589, and at the Middle Temple, to which was admitted in 1596. In the wake of his mother's death in 1610 he travelled in Europe and the Levant, and published A relation of a journey begun An: Dom: 1610. Foure bookes. Containing a description of the Turkish empire, of Ægypt [etc.]. (London, 1615). He was one of the Undertakers mentioned in the third Virginia Charter of 1611, and took shares in the Bermudas Company, but disposed of them when he was unsuccessful in his application for the Governorship. He was Treasurer of the Virginia Colony from 1621 1625, and sailed to America with Sir Francis Wyatt, the new Governor. On the ship out he wrote paraphrases of the Psalms, and other Biblical songs. He had a plantation there , and served on the Council of the colony, but quarrelled with his neighbours. Returning from Virginia about 1631, he was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to the King. He used the Motto `Habere eripitur / habuisse nunquam / G Sandys' in his books.