SANDS, Joseph [1772-1825] --

About the year 1796, when America was at war for a few weeks with the French Consulate, Joseph Sands was supercargo on an American vessel when the ship was captured by the French and Joseph was taken prisoner. He was incarcerated in the Conciergerie. The Governor of the prison was an Austrian Major, Mathias Kampfel, whose daughter Maria Theresa, was an attractive girl of fifteen. Joseph promptly fell in love with her. After his release, they were married in Paris in 1801 by Tallyrand, Bishop of Autun. A fellow prisoner was John Vanderlyn, 1775-1852, American artist, b. Kingston, NY, studying in Paris at the time. From the back of a portrait of Joseph Sands is the following:

This crayon [pencil] portrait of Joseph Sands, son of ¤Comfort Sands, was drawn by [John Vanderlyn] in Paris in 1797, out of gratitude, Joseph Sands having paid the artist's debts and procured his release from a French prison. Joseph Sands left this portrait to his daughter Mary, wife of Francis Griffin. She gave it to Joseph Sands, eldest son of her brother, Charles Edwin Sands of Annandale, Dutchess Co, NY, with the express wish that it descend in the male line of Charles E. Sands' family.