Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/35

Rh as a member for Andover. From the first he took an active part in its proceedings and repeatedly served on committees. In the parliament for 1588-89 he sat for PlymptonPlymton [sic], Devonshire, for which he was reelected in 1592-93. Soon after the dissolution of parliament in 1593 he traveled abroad and was at Paris in 1599. when he prepared an account of the state of religion in Europe which he entitled "Europae Speculum," which is remarkably tolerant for the times. Sandys returned to England the same year, and in 1602 resigned his prebend at Wetwang. He was knighted by King James at the Charter House, May 11, 1603, and was returned March 12, 1604, to James I.'s first parliament as member for Stockbridge, Hampshire. Sandys had imbibed from Richard Hooker, who had been his tutor and afterwards his intimate friend, the ideas of a liberal government, and in parliament he assumed a leading part in opposing all exactions and monopolies. He attempted to have abolished all the royal tenures and to throw trade open, instead of confining it to the great trading companies. In the parliament of 1607 he urged that all prisoners should be allowed the benefit of counsel, and in the same session he carried a resolution for the regular keeping of the journals of the House of Commons, which had not been done before. With a view to placating him, Sandys was granted by the King a moiety of the manor of Northbourne, Kent, but when parliament met on April 5, 1614, Sandys maintained his old attitude. He opposed Winwood's demand for a supply and was the moving spirit on a committee appointed to consider taxes. In a remarkable speech on May 21 he declared that the King's authority rested on the consent of the people, and that any King who ruled by any other title ought to be dethroned. All this exasperated James against him, and on the adjournment of parliament he was summoned before the council and punished by being ordered not to leave London without permission, and to give bonds for his appearance whenever he was called upon.

No parliament was summoned for more than six years after this, and meanwhile Sandys turned his attention to colonial affairs. He was a member of the Somers Island Company and of the East India Company, and in both he took an active part. But his energies were especially devoted to the Virginia Company, of which he had been appointed a member of the superior council in 1607, and he had the greater part in drafting the charters of 1609 and 1612, which vested the power of government in the company instead of the King as hitherto. Then in 1617 he was chosen by the company to assist Sir Thomas Smythe in his management of Virginia affairs. In this capacity he warmly supported the request of the Leyden exiles to be allowed to settle in the company's domains, and it was largely owing to him that a patent was granted them. On April 28, 1619, a combination of parties in the company resulted in the almost unanimous election of Sandys as the successor of Sir Thomas Smythe in the office of treasurer. He made a complete departure from the old method of government, and each colonist was given a dividend of land and invited to share in the government. Acting on the company's instructions, Yardley was sent over as governor and summoned an assembly of burgesses to meet in the church at Jamestown. July 30, 1619, It was the first representative body assembled in America. On June 6, 1619, Sandys obtained the company's sanction to a college at Henrico, and during the same year procured the transshipment of a number of