Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/293

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parently be corrected to 13 Edw. I, comp. ib. p. 17, and Liber Custumarum, i. 292), the king took the mayoralty and liberties of London into his own hand, he appointed Sandwich, whom he made constable of the Tower, to be warden of the city, charging him to govern it according to the customs and liberties of the citizens. He was succeeded as warden by John Breton in February 1286, was again appointed warden on 20 July 1287, and again apparently succeeded by Breton in February 1288, when he was also removed from the constableship of the Tower (ib.) He was, however, reinstated in both offices in 1290, but was not warden after 1295. The years in which these changes were made are difficult to ascertain owing to differences in computation in the lists of mayors and wardens, and because, even when not holding the wardenship, Sandwich would, as constable of the Tower, act in some matters in conjunction with the warden, and he is therefore in one list (ib. pp. 241–2) stated to have been warden from the 14th to 21 Edw. I. (1285–6–1292–3). As warden he appears to have acted with impartiality and regard for the liberties of the city. One of his regulations, committing the custody of certain of the gates to the men of certain wards, who were to furnish guards provided with two pieces of defensive armour, led to the definition of the city's ward system (Loftie, London, pp. 68–71).

In Michaelmas term (1289) a fine was levied before him, but it is doubtful whether he ever filled the office of a judge at Westminster. Probably during the period, and certainly later, he was a justice for gaol delivery at Newgate (Liber Albus, i. 406). As constable of the Tower he joined with the warden, John Breton (they are both styled wardens in the account of the meeting, Liber Custumarum, i. 72–6) in persuading the Londoners in 1296 to obey the king's precept that they should furnish men for the defence of the south coast, and the proceedings afford an example of the moderation with which both acted in their dealings with the city (Loftie, u.s. p. 70). In that year also he received for custody in the Tower the earls of Ross, Atholl, Menteith, and other Scottish lords taken at Dunbar (Fœdera, i. 841). When the royal treasury at Westminster was robbed in 1303, he was appointed along with Roger le Brabazon [q. v.], chief justice of the king's bench, and other judges, to make inquisition into the affair in Middlesex and Surrey (ib. p. 960). He was one of the commission of judges that tried and condemned William Wallace on 23 Aug. 1305 (Annales London. pp. 139–40), and in September 1306 he judged and condemned Simon Fraser and two others (ib. p. 148). On the accession of Edward II he was confirmed in the constableship of the Tower, and on 8 Feb. 1308 was summoned, with his wife, to attend the coronation. He doubtless died soon afterwards; in the following May John de Crumbwell appears as constable of the Tower (Fœdera, ii. 45).

[Foss's Judges, iii. 150–1; Reg. J. Peckham, Arch. Cant. iii. 1005, 1077; Ann. Wigorn. and Wykes, ap. Ann. Monast. iv. 168, 450; Liber Albus, i. 17, 401, 406, and Liber Cust. i. 71–6, 186, 241–2, 292–3, 336, ap. Mun. Gildh. London., Ann. Londin. ap. Chr. Edw. I and Edw. II, i. 132, 139, 148 (these three Rolls Ser.); Abbrev. Rot. Orig. i. 21 (Record publ.); Madox's Hist. of Excheq. i. 71, 270; Rymer's Fœdera, i. 563, 598, 841, 914, 956, 960, ii. 31, 45 (Record ed.); Hasted's Kent, ii. 529; Loftie's London, pp. 67–71, 82, 101 (Historic Towns Ser.); Sharpe's London and the Kingdom, i. 122, 126.]

W. H.


SANDWITH, HUMPHRY (1822–1881), army physician, born at Bridlington, Yorkshire, in 1822, was eldest son of Humphry Sandwith, surgeon. His mother was a daughter of Isaac Ward of Bridlington. His father eventually became one of the leading physicians in Hull. After being at several schools, where he learnt little, Sandwith was apprenticed at the age of sixteen to his uncle, Dr. T. Sandwith, at Beverley. There he spent five unhappy and unprofitable years, making up prescriptions. He managed, however, to find some scope for his love of adventure in shooting wild ducks on winter nights.

He left Beverley in 1843, had a little systematic teaching in the medical school at Hull, and spent a few months at Lille to learn French. He was then entered as a student at University College, London, and in the autumn of 1846 he passed the examination of London University and that of the College of Surgeons, and was qualified to practise. He was appointed house surgeon to the Hull Infirmary in 1847, but ill-health obliged him to resign. He had already made a voyage to the Levant, and, finding no work in England, he now determined to try his fortune in Constantinople.

He went out in March 1849 with letters of introduction to Sir Stratford Canning, the English ambassador. He made warm friends at the embassy, though his relations with Canning were never very cordial. In August he accompanied Canning's protegé, Austen Henry Layard, in his second archæological expedition to Nineveh, and spent nearly two years in Mesopotamia. He meant to have travelled in Persia, but an attack of fever obliged