Reference: Adrian Sandes - Chapter 1 Annex A, Part 2, Page 1, 2

William (0907) of Carrigafoyle, Co. Kerry was baptised at St Bee’s in 1597. He was encouraged by his elder sister Dorothy to seek his fortune in Ireland, and became a Captain in the Army. In recognition of service in the Irish Wars before 5 June 1649, in the reign of King Charles I, he was named as one of the ‘Forty-Nine Officers’ in the Inrolments of the Adjudications in favour of Officers, being one of the Arrear of Commissioned Officers on the waiting list for a grant of lands from the Crown, and presumably received his estate at Carrigafoyle as a result. According to Prendergast, there were two classes of ‘Forty-Nine Arrears’. Firstly, men who had served under Colonel Jones, Sir Charles Coote, and Colonel Mark for eight years in Ireland were allocated land elsewhere than in Kerry. Second, the old Protestant Army of Munster, comprising the garrisons of Cork, Youghal, Kinsale and Bandon, were also given lands in other counties than Kerry. So it is not clear how William obtained lands in the latter county as a ‘Forty-Niner’, but if he did it may not have been until 1655/56, when the Army was disbanded and its land allocations assigned. According to Holly however, William was installed west of Tarbert in the early 1650s as an officer in Cromwell’s army. He also applied for lands by virtue of service in Ireland during the Commonwealth period, between 1649 and 1660, and possibly as a result was granted lands under The Act of Settlement of 1668. A portrait of him was held by Mr William Sandes Boxley of East Molesey, Surrey, before about 1930, but its present location has yet to be traced.

William married Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Launcelot Fernley, by whom he had six children. Her family must have been important, as the names Charles and Lancelot were to be used by the Sandes of Carrigafoyle for many generations.

William is recorded by Burke as ‘of Carrigafoyle’, but may not have lived there for long, as Lancelot described himself in the same way in 1661, and there is no record of William’s involvement in local affairs or landholdings. Possibly he may have lived mainly in Dublin, where his wife died on 28 December 1658 and was buried at St Michan's Church. However, Holly states that his family successfully survived the Restoration and went on to acquire property in Moyvane, Listowel, Tralee and other places.

William probably died in late 1668, for he was granted land in that year as mentioned above, was referred to in a letter by his son Lancelot in the same year, and is quoted by King as having died then.