Alexander Hamilton Sands

Born in Williamsburg, Virginia, Sands could trace his ancestry to Thomas Sands of Williamsburg, who married Mary Gilliatt, the daughter of the superior court clerk in Richmond. When he was ten years old, Sands began attending the College of William & Mary, and four years later moved to Richmond. The death of his father in 1842 prompted the move, and he entered the law office of his brother William G. Sands, who was the clerk of the Superior Court of Law and Chancery in the City of Richmond. He read the law under the tutelage of his brother and Superior Court Judge Robertson.

Admitted to the Virginia bar on April 13, 1849, at the age of twenty-one, Sands eventually became a prominent lawyer in the Commonwealth of Virginia, particularly in the intricacies of chancery practice. During the American Civil War, he served as a judge-advocate.^[3]

Sands and John Howard shared a practice known as Howard & Sands. This founding law practice eventually became the law firm of Sands Anderson PC.^[4]*Sands Anderson PC Law Firm Founded by A. Scott Anderson and Alexander Hamilton Sands

Just before the American Civil War Mr. Sands was ordained as a Baptist minister, and he established churches in Ashland and Glen Allen for African Americans and served as their pastor.^[5] For the rest of his life he preached on Sundays and practiced law during the week. Mr. Sands was a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention (held in 1861). In the early 1880s, Mr. Sands practiced law with his son Conway in a firm known as Sands & Sands, and he continued the practice of law up until shortly before his death on December 22, 1887.^[6]