Edwin Sandys (bishop) - Early Years and Education

Early Years and Education

Edwin was born in 1519 at Esthwaite Hall, which is 1 mile south of Hawkshead, Cumbria, on the road to Newby Bridge. The Hall nestles in the valley and overlooks Esthwaite Water. Today it is still a family home, although the Sandys family now reside in the grander Graythwaite Hall a few miles further south. He was the son of William Sandys and Margaret Dixon, a descendant of William I of Scotland it is claimed.

Whilst there is a theory that young Edwin received his early education at Furness Abbey, it is believed by Collinson that both Edmund Grindal and Edwin Sandys shared a childhood, quite probably in St Bees, and were educated together. A branch of the Sandys family lived at Rottington Hall hear St Bees. The heralds in 1563 knew the family as"...of St Bees in the County of Cumberland", and Sandys himself has recalled that he and Grindal had lived "familiarly" and "as brothers" and were only separated between Sandys's 13th and 18th Years. The St Bees registers are full of Sandys, and it thought likely that Sandys grew up at Rottington. However, his place of education is not recorded, though it is known that the Marian martyr John Bland was the schoolmaster of Sandys. Edwin Sandys kept one step behind Edmund Grindal in his subsequent career, succeeding him as bishop of London, and then archbishop of York.

He went up to St John's College, Cambridge graduating BA in 1539 and then a Doctor of Divinity ten years later. In 1547 he was elected master of Catharine Hall and by the death of Edward VI in 1553 he was Vice Chancellor of the University.