William Sandys

William Sandys ( – December 1669), known as Waterworks Sandys, was an English politician. He was MP for Evesham in three Parliaments from 1640 until 1669. During the English Civil War he lived as an exile in France, procuring arms for the Royalist cause. He was a notable waterworks engineer, who improved the River Avon and the River Wye, and who was involved in various ways in several other river navigation schemes.

Sandys family William Sandys was born at Fladbury, Worcestershire, the second son of Sir William Sandys (later also of Miserden, Gloucestershire) and his second wife Margaret, daughter of Walter Culpeper. Sandys was the younger brother of Sir Miles Sandys , the grandson of Miles Sandys , and the great-nephew of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York.

Sandys is sometimes confused with two of his cousins, William Sandys nicknamed Golden Sandys (son of Sandys' uncle Sir Edwin Sandys ) and William Sandys of Ombersley (son of Sir Samuel Sandys , son of Archbishop Sandys). All three were at the University of Oxford in the early 17th century. The nickname Waterworks Sandys distinguishes the subject of this article from Golden Sandys and Sandys of Ombersley.

Biography Sandys entered Gloucester Hall, Oxford in 1623, aged 16 – matriculating at Oxford on 13 June 1623, the same day as his cousin William Sandys of Ombersley. He entered the Middle Temple as a student in 1626. After his death Cicely had difficulty in recovering the interest (as jointure in the manor of Fladbury, which she thought she had retained under arrangements made in the 1630s.

Note Alumni Oxonienses confuses the two, wrongly identifying William Sandys of Ombersley, not Waterworks Sandys, as MP for Evesham.