merchant statesman Revolutionary
He was born on February 26, 1748 on the Cowneck, now Sands' Point, Long Island, New York, United States, fifth of the eight children of John and Elizabeth (Cornell) Sands. He was descended from James Sands who emigrated from England to Plymouth, followed Anne Hutchinson to Westchester County and Rhode Island, and in 1661 settled on Block Island.
He had a good elementary schooling.
Comfort started at twelve as a clerk at Cowneck, went to New York City as a clerk for his brother, and in May 1769 opened a store of his own in Peck Slip. He prospered rapidly in the West Indian business and within six years was credited with a considerable fortune.
He identified himself prominently with the Revolutionary movement in New York from the outset. In 1765 he was in the group that seized and burned ten bales of stamped paper from a brig. He participated in the non-importation agreements and served on most of the important committees. He was a member of several of the provincial congresses and state assemblies, and he sat in the New York constitutional convention. In 1776, as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, he sent three vessels to the West Indies for supplies.
He did not remain in New York City during the British occupation. In 1776 he and his family barely escaped capture, when the redcoats destroyed the fine new home he was building near New Rochelle. For the next seven years, he was steadily on the move, sometimes in or near Philadelphia, at other times at Poughkeepsie, and other places in upstate New York.
He served steadily as auditor-general of New York, province and state, from 1776 to 1782. His functions included the analysis of claims against the state. In 1778 he served on a commission at New Haven to regulate the price of labor and commodities for the army, and at the close of the war he was, with two others, in charge of the exchange of state and federal securities. His fortunes, somewhat disturbed by the Revolution, were soon restored.
He and his brother Joshua formed a partnership for foreign trade and also purchased, at the sales of confiscated Loyalist property, an extensive tract in Brooklyn. In 1784 he worked with Alexander Hamilton. The Anglo-French wars were not an unmixed blessing, however, and so many of his ships were seized by the French and British that in June 1801 he was declared a bankrupt, but the final settlement left a surplus of $118, 000.
He later retired to a country estate in New Jersey. He died in Hoboken, N. J.
He was a member of the New York State Assembly from New York County in 1784-85, 1788 and 1788-89.
Quotes from others about the person
He was described as "tall, of a clear florid complexion and prominent features; in character he was firm, open and unsuspecting, generous to friends, relatives and dependents, and liberal of his time and property in all matters pertaining to the public good" (Wilson, post, p. 198).
On June 3, 1769, he was married to Sarah Dodge and, after her death, he was married on Dec. 5, 1797, to Cornelia Lott who survived him. He had eighteen children: ten sons and five daughters by the first marriage, and one son, Robert Charles Sands, and two daughters by the second.
