George Sondes, 1st Earl of Feversham

George Sondes, 1st Earl of Feversham KB (Nov 1599 – 16 April 1677) was an English peer and member of the House of Lords.

Life

He was born at Lees Court, in the parish of Sheldwich, near Feversham in Kent, the son of Sir Richard Sondes (1571–1645) of Throwley, by his wife Susan, daughter of Sir Edward Montagu (1532–1602) of Boughton. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he entered in 1615, and where his tutor was John Preston; but he does not appear to have proceeded to a degree.

Sondes was created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles I on 2 February 1626. He sat in the House of Commons for Higham Ferrers from 1628 to 1629 and was High Sheriff of Kent in 1636. He was made a deputy lieutenant of Kent in 1642. On the outbreak of the First English Civil War he was named a deputy lieutenant for Kent, and was on the royalist committee for the county in 1643. When the parliamentary side proved triumphant, he suffered greatly in his estate, and was imprisoned from 1645, first in Upnor Castle and then in the Tower of London.

He was released from the Tower in May 1650, but not finally discharged until 25 June following, after compounding for his estate by a payment of £3,350. On his release he began rebuilding Lees Court from the plans of Inigo Jones. On 7 August 1655 in that year, his younger son, Freeman, aged eighteen or nineteen, apparently actuated by jealousy, killed his elder brother George, while asleep in an upper room in Lees Court, by a blow on the back of the head with a cleaver. The murderer, who at once told his father of his crime, was taken to Maidstone next day and arraigned at Maidstone assize on 9 August. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to death, and was hanged at Maidstone on 21 August. The fratricide proved a theme for the pulpit: Robert Boreman at once issued ‘A Mirrour of Mercy and Judgment, or an exact true narrative of the Life and Death of Freeman Sonds, Esq.,’ 1655. Other ministers blamed Sondes's own moral remissness. He had failed (it was said) to continue the endowment of Throwley free school as purposed by his father, had improperly executed the will of his father-in-law, Sir Ralph Freeman, and had generally mismanaged his sons' education. Sir George answered the charges in a ‘Plaine Narrative to the World, of all Passages upon the Death of his Two Sonnes’ (London, 1655). There followed from other pens ‘The Devils Reign upon Earth, being a Relation of several sad and bloudy Murthers lately committed, especially that of Sir George Sonds his son upon his own brother ....’ London, 1655; and ‘A Funeral Elegie upon the Death of George Sonds, Esq. … by William Annand Junior of Throwllgh, whereunto is annexed a Prayer compiled by his sorrowful Father,’ 1655..

At the English Restoration in 1660, he was again made deputy lieutenant of Kent, and in 1661, was returned to the House of Commons for Ashburton. He sat for that constituency until 1676, when he was created Earl of Feversham, Viscount Sondes, and Baron of Throwley. He died at Lees Court, without male issue, on 16 April 1677. Thomas Southouse dedicated his Monasticon Favershamiense to Sondes in 1671.

Family

He was succeeded in his titles by special remainder by his son-in-law, Louis de Duras, 2nd Earl of Feversham, the husband of his daughter, Lady Mary Sondes. His other daughter, Lady Catherine Sondes, married Lewis Watson, 1st Earl of Rockingham.

Feversham was twice married: first, in 1632, to Jane, daughter and heiress of Ralph Freeman of Aspeden, Hertfordshire, Lord Mayor of London in 1633–4, by whom he had three sons: Freeman, who died an infant, and the George who was murdered by his younger brother, also named Freeman. He married, secondly, on 25 February 1656, at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, Mary, daughter of Sir William Villiers, of Brooksby. By his second wife he had two daughters: Mary, baptised in Sheldwich church on 15 March 1656–7, who married, on 9 March 1675–6, Louis Duras, baron Duras of Holdenby, and subsequently Earl of Feversham; and Katharine, baptised on 20 April 1658, who married, on 17 July 1677, Lewis Watson; the latter in 1689 became Baron Rockingham, and upon the death of the second Earl of Feversham, was created Baron Throwley, Viscount Sondes of Lees Court, and Earl of Rockingham (19 October 1714).

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Sondes, George". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

Parliament of England
Preceded by Sir William Courtenay John Fowell	Member of Parliament for Ashburton 1661–1676 With: John Fowell	Succeeded by William Stawell Rawlin Mallock
Peerage of England
New creation	Earl of Feversham 1676–1677	Succeeded by Louis de Duras