He was born on October 4, 1745 at Cowneck, Long Island, New York, United States, the son of Nathaniel and Mercy Sands, who were members of the Presbyterian Church. When David was fourteen the family moved to Cornwall on the Hudson, at that time a sparsely settled farming community.
He seized every opportunity to promote his education, often studying by firelight in the evening.
At about twenty years of age, with his father's help, he started a mercantile business in Cornwall, which took him frequently to New York City.
He began to give religious messages in Quaker meetings in 1772. He was officially recorded a minister in the Society of Friends in 1775 and immediately began what proved to be a life-long itinerant service.
The most effective contribution he made was on his second journey through the New England colonies. The first preparatory journey was in 1775-76. This was followed in 1777 by extensive services in the New England sections, where there were settled Quaker meetings, followed by a journey into pioneer sections of what is now the state of Maine. Much of his pioneer work was in the regions bordering on the Kennebec River, two years after Benedict Arnold's famous expedition.
During the years 1777-79 Sands traveled on horseback four successive times through the Kennebec settlements, often cutting the paths for his horse to travel in. He paid a fifth visit to the Kennebec Valley in 1795 continuing through the settlements in northern and eastern Maine and sailing from Halifax for England.
The years from 1795 to 1805 were spent in itinerant ministry in Europe. He visited during these ten years many groups of Quakers in Great Britain and Ireland and on the Continent. He was permitted to have an interview with King George III and was received with much kindness and friendly feeling. He was in Ireland in the agonizing period during the "Great Rebellion. " His travels in Germany and France were also extensive and were marked by profound religious influence. In his old age he made a final journey through New England and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. He died in his own home.
He is historically the founder of Quakerism in central Maine. His numerous visits to New England likewise led to an expansion of Quakerism in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He represented in the later part of the eighteenth century a strong reaction against Quietism and in the direction of an evangelical awakening. There was an evangelical note in his preaching that was at that time new in Quaker circles.
He had come under the influence of itinerant Quaker preachers and members of the Quaker Society in Cornwall and in New York City. In his twenty-first year he became a member of the Society of Friends, joining the meeting at Nine Partners, N. Y.
He had a strong human sympathy for slaves and a passion for the overthrowing of the system of slavery.
He possessed a keen mind, had a rare gift for public speaking.
He was married in 1771 to Clementine Hallock of Nine Partners, and they settled for life in Cornwall.
