Lieutenant-Colonel Walter Sneyd (11 February 1752 – 23 June 1829), of

Keele Hall Keele Hall is a 19th-century mansion house at Keele, Staffordshire, England, now standing on the campus of Keele University and serving as the university conference centre. It is a Grade II* listed building. History Early history The manor of Ke ...

was an English politician who served in the

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a new unified Kingdo ...

and as

High Sheriff of Staffordshire This is a list of the sheriffs and high sheriffs of Staffordshire. The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. The sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities ass ...

Early life

Sneyd was born on 11 February 1752 in an old Staffordshire parliamentary family. He was a son of the former Barbara Bagot and Ralph Sneyd of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. His younger brother, the Rev. Ralph Sneyd married Penelope Moore (a daughter of the Hon. Sir John Moore and granddaughter of Henry, Earl of Drogheda) His paternal grandfather was

Ralph Sneyd Ralph Sneyd (1564 – 7 April 1643) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1642. He was a colonel in the Royalist army in the English Civil War and was killed in action on the Isle of Man. Sneyd wa ...

, MP for

. His maternal grandfather was

Sir Walter Bagot, 5th Baronet Sir Walter Wagstaffe Bagot, 5th Baronet (3 August 1702 – 20 January 1768) of Blithfield Hall, Staffordshire was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1724 and 1768. Early life Bagot was the eldest surviving son of ...

and Lady Barbara Legge (daughter of

William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth (14 October 1672 – 15 December 1750), was Lord Privy Seal from 1713 to 1714. He was a Hanoverian Tory, supporting the Hanoverian succession following the death of Queen Anne. Life The only son of George ...

). He was educated at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

, 1769.

Career

He was admitted to

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1771 and held a commission in the

Staffordshire Militia The Staffordshire Militia was an auxiliary military force in Staffordshire in the West Midlands of England. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1572 and their reorganisation in 1662 and 1777, the Militia regiments of Staffordshire se ...

, eventually rising to the rank of

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

and being appointed Lt-Col Commandant of the Northern Regiment, Staffordshire Local Militia on 1 March 1809. He was a

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

for

Castle Rising Castle Rising is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is situated some north-east of the town of King's Lynn and west of the city of Norwich. The River Babingley skirts the north of the village separating C ...

beginning in 1784. His return was arranged by his uncle Richard Bagot (1733–1813), whose wife, Frances Howard (a daughter of

William Howard, Viscount Andover William Howard, styled by courtesy Viscount Andover (23 December 1714 – 15 July 1756), of Elford Hall, Staffordshire, was British Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1737 to 1747. Early life Howard was the eldest surviving so ...

and granddaughter of

Henry Howard, 11th Earl of Suffolk Henry Bowes Howard, 11th Earl of Suffolk, 4th Earl of Berkshire (1686 – 21 March 1757) was an English peer. He was the son of Craven Howard and Mary Bowes. He married his full cousin Catherine Graham, daughter of Colonel James Grahme and Doroth ...

, who controlled one seat in the borough). Sneyd voted with the Opposition on Pitt’s Irish propositions, 13 May 1785, but with Administration on the Regency, 1788-9. He is not known to have spoken in the House, nor did he stand again in 1790. Upon his father's death on 10 February 1793, he succeeded to Keele Hall. From 1814 to 1815, he was the

Personal life

On 9 May 1786, Sneyd was married to his cousin, the Hon. Louisa Bagot (1764–1834), a daughter of

William Bagot, 1st Baron Bagot William Bagot, 1st Baron Bagot (28 February 1728 – 22 October 1798), known as Sir William Bagot, 6th Baronet, from 1768 to 1780, was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1754 to ...

and the former Elizabeth St John (the eldest daughter of

John St John, 2nd Viscount St John John St John (3 May 1702 – 1748) of Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1734. St John was the second surviving son of Henry St John, 1st Viscount St John MP, and his second wife Ang ...

and sister of

Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, 3rd Viscount St John (21 December 1732 – 5 May 1787), was a British Viscount and landowner. His father was John St John, 2nd Viscount St John, half-brother of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke ...

and Gen. Henry St John). Together, they were the parents of two sons and six daughters, including: *

Ralph Sneyd (1793–1870) Ralph Sneyd (1793–1870) was an English landowner in Staffordshire, now best known for the rebuilding of Keele Hall. He was also an ironmaster, coalowner and railway developer, and was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1844. Early life He was the ...

, who died unmarried. * Harriet Sneyd (1796–1867), an artist. * Frances Sneyd (1798–1884), who married William Arundell Bouverie, the

Archdeacon of Norfolk The Archdeacon of Norfolk is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Church of England Diocese of Norwich, who exercises supervision of clergy and responsibility for church buildings within the geographical area of their archdeaconry. The current a ...

who was a son of Bartholomew Bouverie and grandson of

William Bouverie, 1st Earl of Radnor William Bouverie, 1st Earl of Radnor FRS (26 February 1725 – 28 January 1776) was a British peer, styled Hon. William Bouverie from 1747 until 1761. He was the eldest son of Jacob Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone and Mary Clarke, and was edu ...

, in 1831. Frances was

maid of honour A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts. Role Traditionally, a queen r ...

Queen Adelaide , house = Saxe-Meiningen , father = Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , mother = Princess Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Meiningen, Saxe-Meiningen, Holy Rom ...

. * Charlotte Augusta Sneyd (1800–1882), also an artist. * Elizabeth Sneyd (1806–1869) * Rev. Walter Sneyd (1809–1888), a bibliophile and antiquarian. He married his cousin, Henrietta Elizabeth Sneyd (1829–1913), a daughter of Richard Malone Sneyd of Cherryvale. He died 23 June 1829. His widow died in 1834.

Legacy

His eldest son Ralph inherited Keele Hall and rebuilt it, as it is today, to the design of

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations. He restored castles and country ho ...

at a cost of about 80,000 pounds. On his death, the estate passed to his younger brother Walter. His son, Ralph Sneyd (1863–1949), took little interest in the Sneyd estate since his appointment as a Colonel of the

Staffordshire Yeomanry The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) was a unit of the British Army. Raised in 1794 following Prime Minister William Pitt's order to raise volunteer bodies of men to defend Great Britain from foreign invasion, the Staffordshir ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He died childless in 1949, and his successor, Maj. Henry Ralph Mowbray Howard-Sneyd (the son of Ralph's elder sister Louisa Georgina (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Sneyd) Howard and Robert Mowbray Howard MP, a son of Henry Howard of

Greystoke Castle Greystoke Castle is in the village of Greystoke west of Penrith in the county of Cumbria in northern England. (). Details In 1069, after the Norman conquest the English landlord Ligulf de Greystoke was re-granted his land and he built a woode ...

) died the following year, which reduced the family fortune by three quarters due to the doubling of death duties going to the Exchequer. The remaining, unsold, parts of the estate were broken up by his heirs.

References

;Notes ;Sources

External links

Sneyd Family Papers
at Keele University Archives and Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Sneyd, Walter 1752 births 1829 deaths People from Keele British MPs 1784–1790 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Staffordshire Militia officers