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Joshua Sands (politician)

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Name
  
Joshua Sands

Party
  
Federalist Party


Joshua Sands (politician) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Role
  
Former U.S. Representative

Died
  
September 13, 1835, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States

Previous office
  
Representative (NY 2nd District) 1803–1805

Member of congress start date
  
March 4, 1803

Joshua Sands (October 12, 1757 – September 13, 1835) was an American merchant and politician. He was a U.S. Representative from New York.

Contents

Biography

The Sands family was one of the original three families that settled in and owned what is now Sands Point, New York. Born in Reading, Berkshire, England, James Sands (d. 1695) immigrated to Plymouth, MA with his wife Sarah and their children, circa 1658. Along with several other men, James Sands obtained what is now Block Island, Rhode Island from the original inhabitants of the island, the Narragansetts, in 1660. In 1661, Sands sailed from Taunton, MA and moved his family to Block Island. James and Sarah had six children.

Their eldest son, John (d. 1712), married Sybil Ray (d. 1733), also of Block Island, and in 1691, they purchased farmland in Cow Neck, Long Island, N.Y., now Sands Point, New York John Sands also bought a family burying ground where many of the Sands family are now buried. John and Sybil lived out the remainder of their lives in Cow Neck and had eight children. Their eldest child, John (1683-1763) married Catherine Guthrie (1690-1769) in 1706. John and Catherine lived on Block Island directly following their marriage but moved to Cow Neck around 1716. They had 13 children between 1708 and 1735 including their eldest son, John (1708-1760), and their youngest son, Benjamin (1735-1824).

In 1736, John (1708-1760) married Elizabeth Cornwell (1711-1782), who also descended from one of the three original families who owned Cow Neck. There they had eight children, several of whom served on the side of the colonists during the American Revolutionary War. John Sands (1737-1811), their eldest son, served as a colonel during the Revolutionary War and was also a member of the New York State Assembly for Queens County, 1784 to 1785. He married Elizabeth Jackson of Jerusalem, Long Island, and they had 10 children. John's younger brothers, Comfort Sands (1748-1834) and Joshua Sands (1757-1835), also served on the side of the colonists during the Revolutionary War. Joshua and Comfort went on to become merchants, bankers, and politicians.

Life

He was born in Cow Neck which is now in the Village of Sands Point, located then in Queens County but since 1899 in Nassau County, New York. He was the son of John Sands and Elizabeth Cornwell. He received a limited schooling, served as a captain in the 4th New York Regiment during the American Revolutionary War, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. He soon prospered in the West India trade. During the Revolutionary War, he served on several influential committees and led protests against the Crown. He also served as the auditor general of New York from 1776 to 1782. In 1783, he and his brother Joshua formed a business partnership dealing in foreign trade and land speculation. He was one of the founders and directors of the Bank of New York, along with Alexander Hamilton.

On March 9, 1780, Sand married Ann Ayscough (1761–1851), the daughter of Richard Ayscough, a surgeon in the British Army. St. Ann's Church, the first Episcopal church in Brooklyn, was named in her honor. Among their twelve children was Joshua R. Sands (1795–1883), who served as a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy.

He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1792 to 1797, and of the Council of Appointment in 1796. President John Adams appointed him Collector of the Port of New York on April 26, 1797. He held this office until July 9, 1801, when he was removed by President Thomas Jefferson.

He was elected as a Federalist to the Eighth Congress, and served from March 4, 1803 to March 3, 1805. He was President of the board of trustees of the Village of Brooklyn in 1824. He was again elected to the 19th United States Congress, and served from March 4, 1825 to March 3, 1827.

Joshua Sands married Ann Ayscough (1761-1851) and they had 12 children. In 1786, Joshua moved his residence from Pearl Street in lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. Following the purchase of the land along the Brooklyn waterfront in 1784, Joshua had a three-story Federal style mansion built at 31 Front Street in what is now the Sands Point neighborhood of Brooklyn. At the time of its completion in 1787, it was the largest mansion in Brooklyn. As a resident of Brooklyn, Ann Sands is accredited as being a founding member of St. Ann's Church (originally known as The Episcopal Church of Brooklyn), the oldest Episcopal parish in Brooklyn, incorporated in 1787. Ann Sands hosted weekly church gatherings in the family home for many years. Ann Sands died in Brooklyn in 1851. Joshua sand also died at Brooklyn, and was buried at St. Paul's Church Cemetery in Eastchester, New York. In 1852, he was re-interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Legacy

Comfort and his brother Joshua became business partners. Their partnership included real estate ventures and a rope making manufacturing business in Brooklyn. In 1784, the Sands brothers purchased 160 acres of land along the Brooklyn waterfront for $12,000. They acquired the land, originally owned by the Rapelje family (also spelled Rapelye), early Dutch settlers of Brooklyn, under the 1779 New York State "Act for the Forfeiture and Sale of the Estates of Persons who Have Adhered to the Enemies of this State." The land acquired in the purchase included what is now the location of the Brooklyn Navy Yard (previously the New York Naval Shipyard), as well as the DUMBO and Vinegar Hill neighborhoods bordering the East River in Brooklyn. The waterfront area was to be the site of a new, planned community, called Olympia. It was to be divided into both commercial and residential properties and would be connected to Manhattan via the nearby ferry service. Though the land was surveyed, Olympia was never completed. There are several places that hold the Sands family name in New York; Sands Point, New York and Sands Street in Brooklyn. Further, St. Ann's Church, in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, was reorganized, renamed, and reincorporated in 1795, honoring Ann Sands for her contribution to the founding of the church.

References

Joshua Sands (politician) Wikipedia