The most important branch of the Sandford family which settled outside Westmorland was that of Thorpe Salvayn, co. Yorks. This branch ended in a Hercy de Sandford, who died in 1582 leaving three daughters. His epitaph In Thorpe Salvayn church says that his ancestors “came forth of Westmorland in the year of our Lord 1420’.
The connection of the Westmorland family with Thorpe Salvayn however, dates back considerably prior to this, for as we have seen, William de Sandford founded a chantry there in l380. (a) A pedigree of this family amongst the Harleian MSS.(b) deduces its descent from John de Sandford of Thorpe Salvayn, younger son of ‘Sir’ Edmund de Sandford his wife ‘Alice’, daughter of Sir Thomas English. Now Idonea (Lengleys) wife of Edmund de Sandford of Askham, in her first will dated 1414 left her furniture in York to her son John, (c) and it seems very probable that this John was founder of the Thorpe Salvayn family, having obtained the lands through the agency of his uncle William. According to the pedigree he married Isabel, daughter and heiress of John Norwicke, and had a son Sir Edmund de Sandford of Thorpe Salvayn, Knight, who married Joan, daughter of Sir Thomas Ughtred. It will be remembered that after the death of Edmund de Sandford at Askham his widow Idonea married Sir Thomas Ughtred, so it looks possible that the pedigree is more or less correct. So far as this generation is concerned, though the earlier generations given, seven in number, are obviously apocryphal. Sir Edmund de Sandford was High Sheriff of York in 1410. In 1405 he had a grant of lands in Wellandmells, co. Yorks, formerly the property of Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal1 of England,(d) and in the as year is a grant for life to Edmund de Sandford, the King’s Esquire, at £18 per annum from the issues of the manor Donyngton, co. Yorks, in the King’s hand, forfeited by the rebellion of Thomas Mowbray, deceased, late Earl Marshall.(c) This is cancelled by a similar grant in 1409 to the King’s Esquire, Edmund Sandford and Katherine his wife. (f) Possibly Katherine was his second wife, his first wife, Joan Ughtred, having died. He was evidently knighted the same or the following year, for he is described as ‘Knight” when appointed High Sheriff of York on 29th November, 1410. (g) From him the descent of the Thorpe Salvayn family is clear.
The most outstanding member of this family was Bryan Sandford of Thorpe Salvayn, who fought at Bosworth field in 1485 and was rewarded by Henry VII with the stewardship of Castre, co. Lincs. A long article on the descent of this branch from the Westmorland family will be found in “The Sheffield Daily Telegraph” of 1st August 1927. (see below)
The two Bryan Sandfords
From the 1575 Yorkshire Visitation. Reprinted in the Publications of the Surtees Society 1932
From The Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 3rd June 1927
THORPE SALVIN.
Fresh Points About the Old Village.
“A.S.M.” sends the following interesting communication to the Editor of the “Sheffield Daily Telegraph”:–
The mention of Thorpe Salvin in the obituary notice of the late Duke of Leeds recalls the connection between the Osborn family and this beautiful little village. I have a few idle jottings which may prove readable.
Thorpe Salvin - (Salvin or Sylvanus – a sylvan country) – near Sheffield was formerly Rykenild Thorpe (from Rykenild Street, the Roman highway). The Norman family of Salvin were here soon after the Conquest, probably with de Busli, the overlord, owner of Tickhill, Sheffield, and scores of other manors. Ralph (de) Salvin appears in the reign of Edward II, holding Rykenildtorp, followed by Anketyne Salvin, both holding a sub-infeudatories of the Honour of Tickhill. The Salvins were followed, through marriage, by the Ughtreds, and, an heiress of the Ughtreds marrying a Sandford, carried Thorpe Salvin into the latter family about the end of the fourteenth century.
The Sandfords were an ancient knightly family, seated in Westmorland. The Thorpe Salvin branch left Westmorland in 1420 (Hunter’s “South Yorkshire”), a statement taken from Hearcy Sandford’s tomb in Thorpe Salvin church – a tomb, by the way, which I have not seen. Hopkinson states that Sir Edmund Sandford obtained Thorpe Salvin by marriage with Joan, daughter of Sir Thomas Ughtred. My own investigation leads me to believe that Sir Edmund Sandford married Keteren Owtred (or Ughtred), died 1425. The Harleian MS. 4630, in a somewhat doubtful pedigree as regards accuracy, states that Sir Edmund Sandford married Joan, daughter of Sir Thomas Ughtred. The point is somewhat obscure. Was this Sir Edmund Sandford the High Sheriff of York in 1410, dying in 1430?
However the Sandfords had a long and honourable tenure of Thorpe Salvin. We find one of them, Sir Bryan Sandford, figuring gallantly at Bosworth (1465). It was, apparently, his grandson, Hearcy Sandford, who, in 1570, built the manor house locally known as the Castle, whose ruins may yet be seen at Thorpe Salvin. Only the front (complete) and the beautiful gate house now remain. The shields, very badly decayed on the latter, are Sandford impaling Copley.
Hearcy Sandford married Margaret Copley. He died in 1582, and was, incidentally, the last of the Sandfords to inhabit the Manor House. He left issue – Bryan of Sprotborough (d.s.p.), Mary (married Sir Roger Portington), Ellen (married Henry Nevile of Chevet), and Elizabeth (married Robert Rogers of Everton). It was Ellen’s son, Francis Nevile, who sold the lands of Thorpe Salvin to the Osbornes (Sir Edward Osborn) in 1636. This, of course, brings in the connection of the Leeds family.
The Manor House was held by the Royalists in the Civil War, and fell to the Parliamentarians. Today it stands in empty beauty – a mere façade, yet admirably preserved and well kept.
Thorpe Salvin is well worth a visit, and is easily accessible by taking the Corporation bus from Sheffield to Kiveton Park. Beyond it and within easy walking distance is Steetley Chapel, that exquisite gem of Norman architecture. Also within easy reach is Whitwell, with the mother church of Steetley, containing an unspoiled Norman interior, and, incidentally, the tomb of Dorothy Vernon’s son. The whole of the district abounds with interesting houses, while its churches, culminating in the stately glory of Worksop Priory Church, are a choice and rare possession.
A letter to Sheffield Telegraph from WAC Sandford-Thompson which appeared on 1 August 1927:
A YORKSHIRE FAMILY.
Its Connection With Thorpe Salvin.
The following interesting communication from a correspondent, “C. S. T.,” has been addressed to the Editor of the “Sheffield Daily Telegraph,” and will be read with pleasure by subscribers over a wide area:—
My attention has been called to the interesting article by “A. S. M.” in your issue of June 3rd, concerning the family of Sandford of Thorpe Salvyn. There is a good deal of obscurity about the first appearance of this family in Yorkshire, but the following may be of interest.
One of the oldest manorial families in Westmorland was that of Sandford of Sandford, near Warcop, which was held by them as mesne lords from the Vitinponts (and lager from the Cliffords) as early as 1170 at least. The seventh lord of Sandford was a Robert de Sandford, who died in 1356-7, leaving four (and possibly five) sons. The eldest son who inherited Sandford, and had an only son, who was the last of the leder line, his family consisting of two daughters only. Two of the other sons were William and Edmund. William was in Holy Orders, and in 1354 was appointed Keeper of Writs in the King’s Bench. He was a prominent man at Court, and in the Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, Lord High Treasurer of England, is a repayment to him on July 17th, 1370, of £20 which he had lent the king (Edward III). This would equal £500 in our money. Of him more anon. The other brother, Edmund, married, before 1362, Idonea, sole daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Lenglys (or English, i.e., l’Englys) of Helton Flechan and Little Asby, in Westmorland. He and his wife added to the estates inherited from his father-in-law by the purchase of Askham, in Westmorland, from the Swinburnes in 1372, and thus founded a family which held Askham till the death of William Sandford in 1730, and his sister, Catherine, in 1773, when the estate passed to daughters and was eventually bought by the Earl of Longdale.
Amongst the interim foefees in the sale of Askham, appear Edmund’s brother, William de Sandford, clerk, and a certain Thnomas Daunay, of whom later Edmund died shortly after 1382, and his widow Idonea married Sir Thomas Ughtred, who held Kyllyngwyk, Towerthorp in the Thisteles, etc., in Yorkshre, under William Lord Latymer, and Thomas Lord Mowbray. Two her wills are in existence, and in them she names her eldest son (Sir) William de Sandford (who inherited the Westmorland lands), her son Robert de Sandford, and her son John de Sandford, leaving the last-named her furniture at York. She also left issue by her second husband.
To return to William de Sandford, the Keeper of Writs in the King’s Bench. This individual obtained on November 12th, 3 Rcd. II (1379) a licence from the King for the alienation to him and others, in mortmain of a messuage in Thorp Salvayn, co. Yorks, held by John Duke of Lancaster (John of Gaunt) as of the honor of Tykill, together with £10 of rents from property in London, for a chaplain for celebrating divine service daily in the chapel of St. Mary in Thorp Salvayn, the others associated with him being Thomas Daunay, William de Hornby, and Thomas de Hornby. Then on Monday after St. Barnabus, 3 Rcd. II (1380) the same people (except Thomas Daunay) founded a chantry of one chaplain in the chapel of St. Mary on the north side of Thorp Salvayn, co. Yorks., granting him 15 marks yearly from the London property referred to in the 1379 licence, to pray for the souls of various deceased relatives and for the good estate of various well-known people and living relatives of the founders, including William de Sandford’s “brothers and sisters.” This is the first mention of the Sandford family in connection with Thorp Salvayn.
The identity of William de Sandford with William, brother of Edmund de Sandford of Askham, is pretty evident from the following:—
(1) Thomas Daunay joins William de Sandford in the 1379 licence for Thorpe Salvayn, and also acts as interim feofee with William de Sandford in the transfer of Askham to Edumund de Sandford in 1372.
(2) He again appears in conjunction with William de Sandford and Edmund de Sandford in 1375 as a reconveyance of the manor of Askham to the last named.
(3) Thomas de Hornby, who joined William de Sandford in founding the chantry at Thorpe Salvayn in 1380, leaves in his will proved P.C.C. 8th November, 1401, a vestment to each of the churches of Warcop in Westmorland (in which parish was situated the manor of Sandford, from which Edmund de Sandford came) and of Thorpe Salvayn in Yorkshire, and mentions “William de Sandford my deceased uncle.”
(4) William de Hornby, who joined William de Sandford in founding the chantry at Thorpe Salvayn in 1380, held the manor of Bampton Cundale in Westmorland in 43 E. III. (1369-70). Bampton is the next parish to Askham, where Edmund de Sandford settled in 1372.
Now in Harl MS No. 4630, fol. 514, at the British Museum, is a long pedigree of Sandford of Thorpe Salvayn. The earlier generations are obviously apocryphal, but the eighth generation is John de Sandford, of Thorpe Salvayn, younger son of “Sir” Edmund de Sandford and his wife, “Alice,” daughter of Sir Thomas English. Now Idonea Lenglys (or “d’English”), wife of Edmund de Sandford, of Askham, in her will dated 1414 left her furniture in York to her son John, and it looks as though this John was the founder of the Thorpe Salvayn family, having obtained the lands through the agency of his uncle William. According to the pedigree he married Isabel, daughter and heiress of John Norwicke, and had a son, Sir Edmund de Sandford, Knight, who married Joah, daughter of Sir Thomas Ughtred, so it is possible that here the pedigree is more or less correct. Sir Edmund de Sandford was High Sheriff of York in 1410. In 1406 he had a grant of lands in Wellandwells, Co. Yorks, formerly the property of Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal of England, and in the same year is a grant for life to Edmund de Sandford, the King’s Esquire, of £18 per annum from the manor of Donyngton Co. Yorks, forfeited by the rebellion of Thomas Mowbray, deceased, late Earl Marshal. He was evidently knighted between then and November 29, 1410, when he was appointed High Sheriff of York as “Sir Edmund de Sandford, Kt.” From him the descent of the Thorp Salvayn family is clear.
The family had several cadet branches. One of these settled at Tickill, close by, and an offshoot of him was living at Bakewell at the Visitation of Derbyshire in 1611. Another branch settled at High Ashes and Nuthurst, Co. Lancs., and recorded a pedigree of six generations at Dugdale’s Visitation of Lancashire in 1664-5, showing its descent from Brian Sandford of Thorpe Salvayn. This family threw off offshoots to Gloucestershire and various other parts of England.
The Aksham (Westmorland) parent family divided in the 16th century into three branches. The eldest branch continued at Askham and (as stated above) became extinct in 1773. The second brother founded a family which lived at Helton and elsewhere in Westmorland till quite recent times, and the third brother founded the family of the Sandfords of Howgill Castle, Co. Westmorland, who were created baronets by King James I., and became extinct in 1723.