In the Norman survey Sandwich is described as a borough. It rose into importance on the decline of the Portus Rutupensis, its name denoting the situation on the sands. The Danes frequently attacked it in the 10th and 11th centuries; and it was repeatedly plundered by the French in the 15th century. It was fortified by Edward VI. Sandwich was incorporated by Edward the Confessor, and received its last charter from Charles II.

SANDWICH, Edward Montagu, Earl of (1625— 1672), general and admiral, was the son of Sir Sidney Montagu, youngest brother of Edward Lord Montagu of Boughton, and was born 27th July 1625. In August 1643 he raised a regiment in the service of the Parliament, with which he specially distinguished himself at Marston Moor, Naseby, and the siege of Bristol. He was a member of the “Little Parliament” (1653), and one of the committee for regulating the customs. In November he was elected to the council of state. In the first Protectorate parliament he sat for Huntingdonshire. In January 1656 he succeeded Penn as admiral, and he was associated with Blake in his expedition to the Mediterranean in the same year. After the treaty with France against Spain in 1657 he held command of the fleet sent to prevent the relief of the three coast towns—Gravelines, Mardike, and Dunkirk—besieged by the French, and was successful in defeating an attempt by a great Spanish force to retake Mardike. After the death of Cromwell he was sent with a fleet to the North Sea to enter into negotiations with the Northern powers, but, communications having been opened with him on behalf of Charles II., he returned to England only to find that the conspiracy of Sir George Booth had miscarried, whereupon, after a lame explanation, he was dismissed from his command. At the Restoration, having commanded the fleet which conveyed the king to England, he was made Knight of the Garter, and soon afterwards elevated to the peerage as Baron Montagu of St Neots, Viscount Hinchinbroke, and Earl of Sandwich. During the war with the Dutch in 1664-65 he commanded the Blue squadron under the duke of York, and specially distinguished himself in the great battle of 3d June 1665. After his return to England he was sent to negotiate a peace between Spain and Portugal, and also a treaty of commerce with Spain. On a renewal of the war in 1672 he again commanded the Blue squadron under the duke of York, and during the fight in Southwold Bay, on the 28th May, his ship, the Royal James, was set on fire by the Dutch, when he leaped overboard and was drowned. His body was found a fortnight afterwards, and was interred in Henry VII.’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey.

Lord Sandwich’s translation of a Spanish work on the Art of Metals by Alvaro Alonso Barba (1640) appeared in 1674. Several of his letters during the Spanish negotiations have been published in Arlington’s Letters, and various letters to him by Cromwell will be found in Carlyle’s Cromwell. See also Original Letters and Negotiations of Sir Richard Fanshawe, the Earl of Sandwich, the Earl of Sunderland, and Sir William Godolphin, wherein Diverse Matters between the Three Crowns of England, Spain, and Portugal from 1603 to 1678 are set in a clear light.

SANDWICH, John Montagu, Fourth Earl of (1718-1792), was born 3d November 1718, and succeeded his grandfather in the earldom, 20th October 1729. He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1735. After a voyage round the Mediterranean, he returned to England and began to take an active interest in politics as a supporter of Sir Robert Walpole. A clear and lucid rather than a brilliant debater, his style of address always won the attention of his audience, and his accurate knowledge secured their respect. The high opinion the Government entertained of his judgment and his diplomatic abilities was evidenced by his appointment in 1746 as plenipotentiary to the congress at Breda, which was continued till peace was negotiated at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. On his return he became first lord of the admiralty, retaining the post until June 1751. He held the same office from 1763 to 1765, and again from 1771 till the dissolution of Lord North’s administration in 1782. He died 30th April 1792. His Voyage Pound the Mediterranean was published posthumously in 1799, accompanied with a memoir.