SONDES, Sir Michael (c.1546-1617), of Throwley, Kent; formerly of Eastry and Sheldwich, Kent.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
Available from Cambridge University Press

Family and Education

b. c.1546,1 2nd s. of Anthony Sondes (d.1575) of Throwley and Joan, da. of Sir John Fyneux, c.j.k.b. 1495-1525, of Herne, Kent. educ. L. Inn 1564. m. (1) by 1571, Mary (d. 23 Sept. 1603), da. and h. of George Finch of Norton, Kent, 6s. (4 d.v.p.) 6da. (1 d.v.p.);2 (2) Nov. 1610, Anne (d. 9 Jan. 1616), da. of Richard Wright*, Merchant Taylor, of London, wid. of Reginald Barker, Merchant Taylor (d.1610) of Chatham, Kent, s.p.3 suc. bro. Sir Thomas 1593;4 kntd. 18 June 1598.5 d. 10 Nov. 1617.6

Offices Held

J.p. Kent 1579-at least 1613,7 Surr. 1599-1603;8 sheriff, Kent 1584-5, 1593-4;9 commr. defence, Isle of Sheppey 1585;10 master of ordnance, Kent by 1589;11 commr. to inquire after Catholic missionaries, Kent 1592,12 sewers, Kent and Suss. 1602-d., Kent 1603,13 E. Kent 1604,14 Teynham and Tonge, Kent 1607-d.,15 subsidy, Kent 1608,16 Admlty. causes 1608;17 compounder and collector (jt.), purveyance, lathe of Scray, Kent 1614;18 commr. charitable uses, Kent 1616.19

Cttee. Virg. Co. 1609.20

Biography

Sondes’s family originated near Dorking, in Surrey, and acquired Throwley by marriage in the 1470s.21 Although a second son, Sondes acquired a considerable estate in Kent in the 1570s and 1580s, and succeeded to Throwley itself in 1593.22 However, excessive litigation may have weakened his finances, as by 1608 he seems to have been borrowing heavily.23

Returned to his sixth Parliament in 1604, Sondes received only six committee appointments over all the sessions. On 28 Mar. 1604 he was one of those Members who accompanied the Speaker to explain to the king the proceedings of the Commons over the Buckinghamshire election case. He was subsequently named to the committee for a private bill to allow John Theobolds, a Kent man, to sell land to pay his debts (22 May 1604).24 During the recess he was involved in another suit in Star Chamber against various tenants in Puttenden, Surrey for threatening his witnesses.25 After the recess he was named to two committees for the fuel bill (8 Apr. 1606) and an invective sermon at Paul’s Cross (26 May 1606).26

In the third session Sondes was ordered to attend the conference of 25 Nov. 1606 with the Lords on Union with Scotland.27 In February 1607 a former servant who had become an attorney of the Court of Common Pleas was granted privilege after Sondes affirmed that he had lain ‘in his house, solicited his causes and received wages’.28 On 1 May 1607 he was appointed to the committee for a naturalization bill. In the fourth session as a Kent landowner and magnate he was appointed to the Rochester bill (22 June 1610).29 He was not re-elected to the Addled Parliament. In 1615 he was again involved in litigation, over the non-payment of his daughter’s dowry. On becoming a widower for a second time in 1616, he brought another action in Star Chamber, this time over his late wife’s house in Chatham.30 He died on 10 Nov. 1617; no will or administration has been found. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Richard, who represented Gatton in 1601.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Peter Lefevre / Andrew Thrush

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth calculated from entry to L. Inn.
  • 2. Gent. Mag. (1802), p. 906; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 105; O. Manning and W. Bray, Surr. i. 567; LI Admiss.; HP Commons, 1558-1603, sub Sondes, Richard.
  • 3. STAC 8/273/31; 8/276/9; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. lxxv), 81.
  • 4. Gent. Mag. (1802), p. 906; PROB 11/181, ff. 88-90v.
  • 5. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 95.
  • 6. C142/661/79.
  • 7. Cal. Assize Recs. Kent Indictments, Eliz. ed. J.S. Cockburn, 165; Cal. Assize Recs. Kent Indictments, Jas. I ed. J.S. Cockburn, 113, 121.
  • 8. C231/1, f. 73; Cal. Assize Recs., Surr. Indictments, Eliz. 477, 519.
  • 9. List of Sheriffs comp. A. Hughes (PRO, L. and I. ix), 69.
  • 10. Add. 38823, ff. 34-44v.
  • 11. CSP Dom. 1581-90, p. 606.
  • 12. Staffs. RO, D593/S/3/3/6.
  • 13. C181/1, ff. 28v, 63v; 181/2, ff. 88, 247v.
  • 14. C181/1, f. 100.
  • 15. C181/2, ff. 45v, 271.
  • 16. SP14/31/1.
  • 17. HCA 14/39/217.
  • 18. Cent. Kent. Stud. U1115/013/6.
  • 19. C93/7/7.
  • 20. Virg. Co. Recs. ed. S.M. Kingsbury, iv. 363, 369.
  • 21. Hasted, vi. 450-1; VCH Surr. iii. 144; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 105.
  • 22. Hasted, vi. 403, 441-2, 464477; vii. 42, 44; 443-4, 553.
  • 23. For his borrowing, see LC4/196, f. 360v; 4/197, f. 8. For his Jacobean lawsuits, see STAC 8/255/25; 8/260/27; 8/263/21, 22; 8/273/31; 8/276/9.
  • 24. CJ, i. 157a, 222a.
  • 25. STAC 8/260/27.
  • 26. CJ, i. 295a, 312b.
  • 27. Ibid. 324b.
  • 28. Ibid. 332a, 334a-b.
  • 29. Ibid. 365b, 442b.
  • 30. C2/Jas.I/P17/49; STAC 8/276/9.