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Jacobean Gentleman: Sir Edwin Sandys, 1561-1629. By THEODORE K. RABB. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. xiii, 412 pp. $55.00.
READERS of this magazine recognize the name of Sir Edwin Sandys. As treasurer of the Virginia Company of London, Sandys promoted the massive effort to salvage the Jamestown venture. The Great Charter of 1618 redirected the struggling settlement as it laid the groundwork for the emergence of the General Assembly. Sandys's bail-out scheme failed in its purpose, the company bankrupted, and the colony passed under Crown control. So, even though Sandys never alighted on colonial soil, he clearly affected the outcome of Virginia. And yet, apart from his setting these familiar events in motion, how much have readers of early Virginia history really known about Sir Edwin? Not a lot, at least until the appearance of this book.
Theodore K. Rabb is quick to point out the reasons Sandys has long been neglected. Sandys was so versatile a man that he is difficult for a biographer to apprehend. More perplexing...