The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Sanford : This name was certainly to be found in Normandy, for it is several times entered in the Exchequer Rolls of the twelfth century. But the ancient Shropshire family of Sandford, though no doubt of Norman lineage, did not derive it from thence. They, like so many others, adopted the name of their English manor. In Domesday, Gerard de Tornai holds Sanford under Earl Roger; and it is believed that his son-in-law, Hamo Peverel, enfeoffed their ancestor Sir Richard in the time of Henry I. It has never since changed hands. "Sanford Manor is one of the very few Shropshire estates which may be said to be held by the lineal descendant, in the male line, of its earliest known Feoffee."—Eyton's Salop. As a local English name, first borne in the. twelfth century, it cannot, however, claim a place here.

Other Sandfords there were, not included in the Shropshire pedigree, that may possibly have imported the name from Normandy. Jordan de Sandford, in 1165, held four knights' fees de veteri feoffamento of the Abbot of Abingdon, and one of the Bishop of Ely in Cambridgeshire.—Liber Niger. John de Sanford (perhaps his son?) held the manors of Hormede, Fingrie, Ginges, and part of Wulfmeston, in the time of King John, "by serjeanty of service in the Queen's chamber;" and his son Gilbert, succeeding to the office, was Chamberlain to Queen Eleanor in the ensuing reign. He died in 1250, leaving a daughter and heiress, Alice, married to Robert de Vere, third Earl of Oxford. "By virtue of her inheritance, she carried the office of Chamberlain to the Queen into the Vere family, which before was the King's hereditary Great Chamberlain."—Banks. The name was then sometimes written Samford (though it is always Sanford in the earlier records v. Lib. Rub. Scacc. fol. 137, and Lib. Foed. vol. ii. p. 243), and Dugdale styles her father "Gilbert Lord Samford." "From thus obtaining the Samford estate, the subsequent Veres, Earls of Oxford, added the title of Samford to their baronial honours, but with what degree of propriety is somewhat questionable. There is no record to demonstrate that the Samfords were ever summoned to parliament as barons, or that they held their lands in capite of the Crown, per baroniam; and the mere serjeanty of the bedchamber is no proof that the manors to which that serjeanty was attached were ever erected into an hereditary baronial dignity."—Banks. Nicholas Sanford, who held Aston-Sanford of Richard Earl of Cornwall in Buckinghamshire, "a man not so memorable for his wealth as famous for his valour" (v. Matthew Paris) is conjectured to have been Gilbert's brother. He died two years after him, it is said of grief at the loss of his sister Cecilia, "the most beautiful woman of her day," who was the wife of Sir William de Gorham, and governess to Henry III.'s sister, Princess Eleanor. A Thomas de Samford, tenant of the Abbey of Abingdon at the same date, was probably likewise a member of this family.

Henry Sanford—of unknown lineage—was consecrated Bishop of Rochester in 1227, and died 1235. "Thomas Saunford was one of those who 24, Ed. I., had summons to attend at Newcastle upon Tyne, well furnished with horse and arms, for an expedition into Scotland, and to obey such orders and directions, as by the great council, which was commanded then to assemble, might be ordained: but, on this occasion, he is not mentioned in the capacity of a baron. He probably is the same who died 27 Ed. I., leaving Alda his sister heir to his lands in Chester and Devon."—Ibid.

Lastly, the old Somersetshire family of Sanford, seated at Ninehead Flory since the early part of the seventeenth century, bears arms that entirely differ from those of the Shropshire house. Henry Sanford, who died in 1644, married the heiress of Ayshford in Devonshire, and adopted her name in addition to his own.