9C
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
reached a seventh edition. Sandys and mem-
bers of his family were connected with the
X'irginia Company in the capacity of stock-
holders during the whole of its existence. He
was a friend of Southampton, v/ho, upon his
resignation as treasurer of Virginia in 162 1,
recommended his election to fill the vacant
ofihoe. He was forthwith elected and later,
on April of the same year, his election was
confirmed. He shortly after went to the col-
ony where there was granted him 1500 acres
v.-ith fifty tenants for the maintenance of his
rfiice. Shortly after his arrival, he received
a rhymed letter from his friend, Michael
Drayton, the poet, urging him to continue his
poetic and literary efforts, but truly Virginia
at the time seemed hardly a fit dwelling for
(he muse. It was unable to raise enough food
for its own subsistence and had to depend
upon a disappointed and unwilling mother
country. Education was also in a most rudi-
mentary state, but in the autumn of 1621, iioo
were subscribed by members of the ship's com-
pany of the "Royal James," an East Indian-
man, to be expended for a church or free
school. The latter was erected accordingly
V/ith a thousand acres for its maintenance and
called the East India School after its donors.
It was the first free school in the country. In
the early part of the following year there was
established, on account of the scattered popu-
lation, which rendered it difficult for persons
in the outlying districts to reach easily a court
of law, a system of precinct courts, which
afterwards took the form of county courts. It
was in 1621 that the great dispute in England
between King and commons began which threw
the country into a ferment which led even-
tually to civil war. It happened that many
prominent members of the Virginia Company
took sides in this dispute with the people so
that the ill will of the King became directed
against the whole company to a degree most
prejudicial to the colony. In addition to this
the relations with the Indians were daily be-
coming more strained, and altogether the
period was a stormy one for the colony. The
Indian trouble culminated in the dreadful
massacre of March 22, 162^, an account of
which Sandys sent home to England. He also
took an active part in the operations which the
English set on foot against the red neighbors
for the purpose of revenge and chastisement.
The reputation of the treasurer seems to have
been unassailed. In none of the old records
is there to be found an adverse criticism of
him and he unquestionably enjoyed the re-
spect of all. He spent some time in the colony
but eventually returned to England, though
the precise date is unknown, and was made a
"Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber."
In 1636 he published a "Paraphrase upon the
Psalms of David and upon the Hymns disper-
sed throughout the Old and New Testaments."
Sandys was a fruitful author and after his
return published a considerable volume of work
which met with the hearty approval of the
critics and literateurs of the day. Among others,
Pope declared in his notes to the "IHad" that
"English poetry owed much of its present
beauty" to Sandys' translations. He was very
popular and enjoyed the friendship of the great
authors of his time, and seems to have been
noted as much for the sweetness of his' char-
acter as for his scholarship. He spent the last
years of his Hfe at Boxley Abbey in Kent, the
home of Gov. Wyatt, whose wife was Sandys'
niece. Here he died in March, 1643.
Faulett, Robert, came to Virginia in Janu- ary, 1 62 1, as preacher, physician and surgeon
to the "adventurers" at Berkeley Hundred,