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| Grave marker for James Sands |
Captain James Sands is the 5th great-grandfather of Belle Champlin. (James Sands, Mercy Sands, Elizabeth Raymond, Edward Champlin, John Champlin, Erastus Champlin, Henry Champlin, Birdie Belle Champlin).
Captain James Sands was born in 1622 in Reding, Berkshire, England, son of Reverend Sandys and Elizabeth Goffe, great-grandson of Archbishop Edwin Sandys. He died in 1694, and is buried on Block Island, Newport, Rhode Island. He married in 1645 to Sarah Walker. They had 6 children.
James Sands landed at Plymouth in 1638. Lands were granted to him in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. In 1657, he was Commissioner from Portsmouth to the General Court. He was one of the 16 who purchased Block Island from the Indians in 1660, and the leader of the settlers there. Appointed constable by the Rhode Island legislature, his dwelling was used as a stronghold in later Indian attacks. His wife, Sarah Walker, was the only doctor on the island for many years.
"As their 'belief' at that time was very uncongenial to the prevailing 'belief' in Massachusetts whence they emigrated, and where there was an abundance of land for them, we find the probable reason for their going to a remote Island then inhabited only by savages. There they were safer than in the colony from which they saw others banished. There they could enjoy more in the possession of 'soul libery' than they could a Braintree and Boston where men and women were persecuted for their religion." -Block Island, by Samuel Truesdale Livermore
James Sands bought a 1/16 share in Block Island in 1660, and settled there. He turned his house into a fort and garrisoned it. It was the Company headquarters during King Philip's War. James Sands served the communites of Portsmouth and Block Island in various capacities.
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| James Sands' grandfather, Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York |
The Sands family is traceable back into English history seven or eight centuries, and at various times some of that name acted conspicuous parts in national affairs, especially in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Sir William Sands, at that time, had much to do in securing the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey, and in sustaining charges against Pope Clement the VII. According to The New York genealogical and biographical record, he is the grandson of Archbishop Edwin Sandys.
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| Archbishop Edwyn Sandys tomb, Nottinghamshire |
James Sands was a young man at the time the noted Ann Hutchinson made so much disturbance among the good people of Massachusetts, who banished her from the colony on account of Antinomian preaching.
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| Banishment of Ann Hutchinson |
She went to New York, there settled, and employed Mr. Sands in the building of a house, the following account of which is given by the Rev. Samuel Niles, who was the grandson of Mr. Sands:
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| Death of Anne Hutchinson |
A short time after his return from that undertaking to Massachusetts, he became identified with the enterprise of settling Block Island, three years after his arrival from England. His lots were numbered 12, and 14, and 15, the latter two owned by him and John Glover. He erected his own house of stone, close to the mill and bridge on the road from the Harbor to the Center, or Baptist church. James Sands mentioned as a freeman in 1655, and as a representative of the General Court of Commissioners, held at Newport, May the 19th, 1657. He was engaged as Constable in 1664. In May, 1664, Mr. Sands with Mr. Joseph Kent, presented to the General Assembly of Rhode Island, a petition in behalf of the Islanders that 17 might be admitted as freemen. Capt. James Sands, with Thomas Terry, was the first representative from Block Island to sit in the General Court of Commissioners of Rhode Island, admitted such in 1665. In 1672, he was foremost in presenting the petition to have the Island incorporated under the name of New Shoreham, and the General Assembly granted the request, but in so doing preserved. the old name Block Island, the chartered name being "New Shoreham, otherwise Block Island." He represented Block Island in the Rhode Island General Assembly in the years 1678, 1680, and 1690.
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| Block Island, Rhode Island |
His descendants are very numerous, and some of them distinguished. Three of his four sons, during the French privateering on the Island removed to Cow Neck, now Sands Point, on Long Island. At the same time they retained their farms and cattle on Block Island, to which they annually returned in the summer. Their kinsman and intimate acquaintance, Rev. Samuel Niles, says of them: " Captain John Sands, Mr. James, and Samuel Sands, each of them leaving a farm at Block Island, which they stocked with sheep, were wont to come once a year at their shearing-time on the Island, to carry off their wool and what fat sheep there were at that time and market at New York."
Mr. Sands was brave, humane, and a devoted Christian as well as an enterprising citizen. Mr. Sands’ courage is seen in the following extract concerning the Indians here and the few settlers:
" The English, fearing what might be their [the Indians’] design, as they were drinking, dancing, and reveling after their usual customs at such times, went to parley with them and. to know what their intentions were. James Sands, who was the leading man among them, entered into a wigwam where he saw a very fine brass gun standing, and an Indian fellow lying on a bench in the wigwam, probably to guard and keep it. Mr. Sands’ curiosity led him to take and view it, as it made a curious and uncommon appearance. Upon which the Indian fellow rises up hastily and snatches the gun out of his hand, and withal gave him such a violent thrust with the butt end of it as occasioned him to stagger backward. But feeling some thing under his feet, he espied it to be a hoe, which he took up and improved, and with it fell upon the Indian."
In another connection Mr. Wiles says of him:
"He was a benefactor to the poor; for as his house was garrisoned, in the time of their fears of the Indians, many poor people resorted to it, and were supported mostly from his liberality. He also was a promoter of religion in his benefactions to the minister they had there in his day, though not altogether so agreeable to him as might be desired, as being inclined to the Anabaptist persuasion. He devoted his house for the worship of God, where it was attended every Lord’s day or Sabbath."
"Anabaptist" was then a term used to designate such as are now called Baptists, and Mr. Sands’ powerful influence did much to establish Baptist sentiments on the Island.
That he was an enterprising citizen is evident from the simple statement: " Mr. Sands had a plentiful estate, and gave free entertainment to all gentlemen that came to the Island." To this it is added: "When his house was garrisoned it became a hospital, for several poor people resorted thither."
Such are the facts that furnish the outlines of one of the noblest characters of New England. An intimate friend of Roger Williams, the first freeman on the Island, the Orson representative from it in the Rhode Island Assembly, the one who procured the citizenships to the Islanders as freemen and presented to the State the petition for the chartered rights of a township; making his house the hospitable home of visitors from abroad, the garrison, and the place of worship for the Islanders, and a hospital for the poor and suffering.
"He died in the 72d year of his age," (Niles) and instead of the humble slab, from which the letters and figures are so worn by time, in the Block Island cemetery, lying over his grave, there should be erected a monument more expressive of his great excellences. His simple epitaph reads:
