Edward Ayshford Sanford
(1794-1871)
19 March 1861

Volume 2, page 329, sitting number 2607.

[Identified as 'Mr Sanford' in the Silvy daybooks, the sitter was identified as 'E. Ayshford Sanford' on the album page. From an album compiled by Elizaberth Van de Weyer, the American wife of the Belgian ambassador to the Court of St James.]

Born on 23 May 1794, Edward Ayshford Sanford was the only son of William Ayshford Sanford of Nynehead Court, Somerset. He inherited his seat, which had been in his family since 1599, on the death of his father in 1833.

He was educated at Eton and at Brasenose College, Oxford. He represented the Whig interest as the Member of Parliament for Somerset from 1830 to 1832 and for Somerset West from 1832 to 1841. He was later High Sheriff of Somerset 1848-49.

He married, firstly, on 4 November 1817, Henrietta Langham, daughter of Sir William Langham, 8th Bt. and Henrietta Elizabeth Frederica née Van. After the death of his first wife in 1835, he married, secondly, on 21 June 1841, Lady Caroline Anne Stanhope, daughter of General Charles Stanhope, the 3rd Earl of Harrington. His first marriage produced at least six children. 

Edward Ayshford Sanford died, aged 77, at Nynehead Court on 1 December 1871, leaving an estate valued at £12,000. 

According to his obituary in the Illustrated London News (16 December 1871), he was 'the head of two very ancient houses - Sandford, [sic] of Nynehead, in the county of Somerset, and Ayshford, of Ayshford, in the county of Devon.' [He was] personally very popular [and he] held a leading position in the county in which he resided.' [Note that his obituary gives the date of his second marriage incorrectly as 1 August 1842].