SANDELL, Leonard (by 1533-70), of Hatfield Peverel, Essex.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1533. educ. I. Temple, adm. 1548 or 1550. m. Elizabeth, da. of John Roper of St. Dunstan’s, Canterbury, and Eltham, Kent, wid. of John Pilborough (d.1548), s.p.2

Offices Held

Jt. (with Miles Sandys) clerk of the crown and King’s attorney KB 1559-d.3

Biography

Leonard Sandell appears to have been returned for Orford to Mary’s third Parliament, although on the list of Members of that Parliament his name has been struck through. Since his fellow-Member John Harman, whose name has also been deleted, is known to have been prosecuted for quitting the Parliament early without leave, it is likely that both deletions were made in error and that Sandell also sat. If so, he probably owed his return, as did Harman, to the patron of Orford, William Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby of Parham; he may already have been related to Willoughby through the Tyrrells of Little Warley, Essex, or have been brought into contact with him through a brother-in-law, (Sir) Edward Madison. Sandell’s legal training could have been a recommendation, as Willoughby was to introduce a bill into this Parliament to confirm his title to the inheritance of the Duchess of Suffolk if she died childless. On 16 Jan. 1555 this bill was defeated in the Commons on a division, Sandell being doubtless one of its 73 supporters.4

Apart from the grant of his office in the King’s bench, little has come to light about Sandell’s career. In 1561 he bought the manor of Woodham Mortimer, Essex, from Sir Andrew Corbet, but less than three years later he sold it. In 1562 a list of names for a crown loan included him among the ‘new’ men who had not contributed to a previous one under Mary but were judged capable of lending to Elizabeth. Details of his family are found in his will, drawn up in August and proved in November 1570. In a devout preamble he dedicated his soul to the Trinity and looked towards a joyful resurrection. He left legacies to the poor in a large number of Essex parishes and 40s. to those at Fairford, Gloucestershire, ‘where I was born’. He bequeathed 20s. to each of five London prisons, smaller sums to his household servants, and money, rings or clothes to six of his wife’s children by her former husband and to his own brothers Edmund and Robert. Several leases in Essex were to go to his brothers and other relatives. His widow and residuary legatee was joined in the executorship with John Ivie, ‘secondary of my office’, and Thomas Ivie, ‘my clerk’.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

  • 1. Huntington Lib. Hastings mss Parl. pprs.
  • 2. Presumed to be of age at election. I.T. Adm. 5, 9 (Leonard Randell of Hatfield Peverel); PCC 33 Lyon; Foss, Judges, v. 317.
  • 3. CPR, 1558-60, p. 107.
  • 4. CJ, i. 41.
  • 5. CPR, 1560-3, p. 137; 1563-6, p. 135; Osborn collection. Yale Univ. Lib. 71.6.41; Morant, Essex, i. 341; PCC 33 Lyon.