Joshua Sands

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

In 1783, Sands and his brother Comfort Sands formed a business partnership dealing in foreign trade and land speculation. 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. 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. the daughter of Richard Ayscough, a surgeon in the British Army. St. Ann's Church, the first Episcopal church in Brooklyn incorporated in 1787, was named in her honor. In 1786, Joshua from Pearl Street in lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. He bought land along the Brooklyn waterfront in 1784, and built a three-story Federal style mansion at 31 Front Street in what is now the Sands Point neighborhood of 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.