[1] Sandars entered his father's trade but at the age of 20 moved to Liverpool where he continued as a corn merchant.
Sandars was one of the wealthy merchants who in 1819 purchased 37 artworks from the estate of the bankrupt William Roscoe on behalf of the gallery of the Liverpool Royal Institution.
As a merchant, Sandars was dissatisfied with the cost and speed of transport of goods between the port of Liverpool and the major industrial centre of Manchester.
James was contracted to survey the proposed line but failed to deliver the necessary reports in a timely fashion and was replaced as engineer in 1824 by George Stephenson.
Sandars played a key role in compiling the prospectus for the railway and in assembling the committee that would eventually pilot the necessary legislation through parliament.
While keeping a presence in Liverpool he also joined with Stephenson and others in developing mining and industrial interests elsewhere, first at Snibston in Leicestershire and subsequently at Clay Cross in Derbyshire.
The original artwork was destroyed by bombing in Liverpool during World War 2 and only monochrome photographs remain.
[11] His later years are poorly documented and his history readily confused with that of one of his sons, another Joseph Sandars, who became MP for Great Yarmouth in 1848-52 and was involved in the Clay Cross operations.
[14] At the time of Anna-Louisa's marriage, Sandars lived in Johnstone (nowadays Johnson) Hall, Eccleshall, Staffordshire.