SONDES, Sir Michael (c.1546-1617), of Throwley, Kent; formerly of Eastry and Sheldwich, Kent.

Sondes’s family originated near Dorking, in Surrey, and acquired Throwley by marriage in the 1470s. Hasted, vi. 450-1; VCH Surr. iii. 144; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 105. Although a second son, Sondes acquired a considerable estate in Kent in the 1570s and 1580s, and succeeded to Throwley itself in 1593. Hasted, vi. 403, 441-2, 464477; vii. 42, 44; 443-4, 553. However, excessive litigation may have weakened his finances, as by 1608 he seems to have been borrowing heavily. For his borrowing, see LC4/196, f. 360v; 4/197, f. 8. For his Jacobean lawsuits, see STAC 8/255/25; 8/260/27; 8/263/21, 22; 8/273/31; 8/276/9.

Returned to his sixth Parliament in 1604, Sondes received only six committee appointments over all the sessions. On 28 Mar. 1604 he was one of those Members who accompanied the Speaker to explain to the king the proceedings of the Commons over the Buckinghamshire election case. He was subsequently named to the committee for a private bill to allow John Theobolds, a Kent man, to sell land to pay his debts (22 May 1604). CJ, i. 157a, 222a. During the recess he was involved in another suit in Star Chamber against various tenants in Puttenden, Surrey for threatening his witnesses. STAC 8/260/27. After the recess he was named to two committees for the fuel bill (8 Apr. 1606) and an invective sermon at Paul’s Cross (26 May 1606). CJ, i. 295a, 312b.

In the third session Sondes was ordered to attend the conference of 25 Nov. 1606 with the Lords on Union with Scotland. Ibid. 324b. In February 1607 a former servant who had become an attorney of the Court of Common Pleas was granted privilege after Sondes affirmed that he had lain ‘in his house, solicited his causes and received wages’. Ibid. 332a, 334a-b. On 1 May 1607 he was appointed to the committee for a naturalization bill. In the fourth session as a Kent landowner and magnate he was appointed to the Rochester bill (22 June 1610). Ibid. 365b, 442b. He was not re-elected to the Addled Parliament. In 1615 he was again involved in litigation, over the non-payment of his daughter’s dowry. On becoming a widower for a second time in 1616, he brought another action in Star Chamber, this time over his late wife’s house in Chatham. C2/Jas.I/P17/49; STAC 8/276/9. He died on 10 Nov. 1617; no will or administration has been found. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Richard, who represented Gatton in 1601.