Kitty Fisher, James Gandon the architect, Allan Ramsay the poet, George Morland the painter, and Jonathan Wild, several of himself and his wife, and many others of persons of distinction both male and female. Many of Sandby's drawings, as those of the ‘Encampments in Hyde Park’ (1780), which are also at Windsor, are enlivened by groups of well-known characters of the time. Several interesting portraits are also included in the large collection of the works of both the Sandbys which has been formed by Mr. William Sandby, their biographer, and the last of the family to bear the name. Many of his works are at the South Kensington Museum and in other public galleries throughout the country. A large collection of the works of Paul and Thomas Sandby was exhibited at the Nottingham Museum in 1884.
[Thomas and Paul Sandby, by William Sandby (1892), contains an exhaustive account of the lives of both brothers.]
SANDBY, THOMAS (1721–1798), draughtsman and architect, was born at Nottingham in 1721. His father, Thomas, is described in Thomas Bailey's ‘History of the County of Nottingham’ as ‘of Babworth in this county,’ but he appears to have taken up his residence at Nottingham early in the eighteenth century. Paul Sandby [q. v.] was his brother. The Sandbys of Babworth are said to have been a branch of the family of Saundeby or De Saundeby of Saundby in Lincolnshire (see Thoroton, History of Nottinghamshire). As a draughtsman and architect Sandby was self-taught. At the Nottingham Museum is a drawing by him of the old town-hall at Nottingham, dated 1741, and a south view of Nottingham, dated 1742; and Deering's ‘History of the Town’ contains engravings of the castle and town-hall, after drawings executed by him in 1741.
According to the ‘Memoirs’ of James Gandon the architect (Dublin, 1846), he and his brother Paul kept an academy in Nottingham before they came up to London in this year. They were then of the respective ages of twenty and sixteen. According to Antony Pasquin (John Williams), in his ‘Memoirs of the Royal Academicians’ (1796) Thomas Sandby came to London for the purpose of having a view of Nottingham engraved, which had been executed on principles of perspective perfected by himself, and had won him reputation in his native town. According to Gandon, on the other hand, both he and his brother left Nottingham in order to take up situations in the military drawing department at the Tower of London, which had been procured for them by John Plumptre, the member for Nottingham. In 1743 Sandby was appointed private secretary and draughtsman to William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, and accompanied him in his campaigns in Flanders and Scotland (1743–1748). Sandby was at the battle of Dettingen in 1743. Pasquin says that he was appointed draughtsman to the chief engineer of Scotland, in which situation he was at Fort William in the highlands when the Pretender landed, and was the first person who conveyed intelligence of the event to the government in 1745. He accompanied the duke in his expeditions to check the rebels, and made a sketch of the battle of Culloden which is now in the royal library at Windsor Castle, together with three panoramic views of Fort Augustus and the surrounding scenery, showing the encampments, in 1746, and a drawing of the triumphal arch erected in St. James's Park to commemorate the victories. In this year the duke was appointed ranger of Windsor Great Park, and selected Sandby to be deputy ranger; but Sandby again accompanied the duke to the war in the Netherlands, and probably remained there till the conclusion of the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in October 1748. In the British Museum are four views by Sandby of the camps in the Low Countries, covering extensive tracts of country, and another inscribed ‘Abbaye près de Sarlouis.’ Two of the former are dated 22 June 1748, and in the royal collection at Windsor is a very elaborate drawing of ‘Diest from the Camp at Mildart, 1747.’
His appointment as deputy ranger of Windsor Great Park, which he held till his death, placed Sandby in a position of independence, and afforded scope for his talent both as an artist and as an architect. The Great Lodge (now known as Cumberland Lodge) was enlarged under his supervision as a residence for the duke. The lower lodge (of which two rooms are preserved in the royal conservatory) was occupied by himself. His time was now principally spent in extensive alterations of the park, and in the formation of the Virginia Water, in which he was assisted by his younger brother, Paul, who came to live with him (see Hughes's History of Windsor Forest). A number of his plans and drawings illustrating these works are preserved in the royal library at Windsor Castle and in the Soane Museum. In December 1754 a prospectus, etched by Paul Sandby, was issued for the publication of eight folio plates, dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland, illustrating the works at Virginia Water. They were drawn by
