Ralph Sneyd (1793–1870)

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ralph Sneyd
Stipple engraving portrait, bust length, facing right, of Ralph Sneyd in jacket and high neckcloth
Engraved portrait of Ralph Sneyd from 1842
Born1793
Died1870
Occupationlandowner
Parents

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.[1]

Early life

He was the eldest son of

George III of the United Kingdom who showed a high regard for this unit which had the task of guarding his residences.[4] Lord Ronald Gower
wrote:

Mr. Sneyd had been a great courtier when he was a boy at Eton. His parents lived at Windsor when his father was attached to the court. George III. had given him a Latin Grammar, and he was quite an ardent admirer of that Monarch.[5]

Sneyd matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1811.[3] A friend from school and college days was John FitzGibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare, with whom Sneyd kept up a long and active correspondence.[6] Sarah Wedgwood, widow of Josiah Wedgwood, encountered Sneyd socially in 1813, and wrote in a letter

We had a good deal of literary conversation, as Mr Sneyd has a very pretty smattering of literary topics and a good deal of taste, though a little affected [...][7]

In 1817,

Rogers upon the body of a wasp that is the best thing I ever saw."[8]

In an 1823 by-election for

George Agar-Ellis and George Fortescue were both in parliament, with more liberal views.[11][12] Sneyd did, however, favour Catholic emancipation.[13]

Landowner

Sneyd arms, used decoratively on buildings in Keele, on a panel from 1829 at Keele Hall

Sneyd inherited the Keele Hall estate from his father in 1829. Walter Sneyd had brought down a heavy burden of encumbering debt on the land from the beginning of the 19th century.[14] Ralph brought in Edward Blore to work on buildings that are now part of Keele University, in 1830–1833.[15] He developed the garden from about 1830, planting on a large scale, and was noted particularly for his use of crosses of Rhododendron arboreum.[16][17] He brought in William Sawrey Gilpin from the start to advise on his gardens, as he wrote to Agar-Ellis in September 1829.[18]

Keele Lodge, 2015 photograph, showing the RS monograph of Ralph Sneyd on one gable, and the Sneyd arms just visible on the right-hand gable
Keele University Lodge, with the Sneyd arms on the left side of the gable

Sir Charles Bagot, of "most highly cultivated and refined companions".[19]

Buying further land, Sneyd had purchased over 2,000 acres (810 ha) by 1848, taking on debt.

Silverdale Colliery.[23]

In 1848 Sneyd on the recommendation of

Trentham Hall, the Sutherland property some 5.5 miles (8.9 km) away.[26] He also backed out of active management of business, as an ironmaster.[27] In 1848 he leased to Francis Stanier the older (died 1856), a solicitor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, his coal mines and ironworks. Stanier went on to develop them at Apedale, Knutton and Silverdale.[28] Sneyd as landlord built a private railway line from Silverdale to Newcastle, in 1849. Then in 1852 the North Staffordshire Railway built a line that made a junction with Sneyd's at Knutton.[29]

Sneyd had Anthony Salvin remodel Keele Hall over the period 1854–1860, a well-regarded conversion in line with Sneyd's bachelor tastes.[30] In 1858 he recommended Wheatstone's House Telegraph to a friend.[31]

Collector

Sneyd was a client of the antique furniture dealer

Johnson's Dictionary, a sought-after first edition that later went via Maggs Bros Ltd to the collector Richard Gimbel.[33] At the Strawberry Hill House sale in 1842, he bought Horace Walpole's copy of William Maitland's History of Edinburgh.[34] He was a keen collector of manuscripts.[6]

National Gallery, London, came from the Sneyd family collection, and its acquisition is tentatively dated to a journey by Sneyd in France and the Netherlands in 1828[35]

In common with

Lord Francis Egerton and Richard Ford, Sneyd used the art dealer Alessandro Aducci in Rome.[36]

Legacy

Sneyd was unmarried, and on his death, the Keele Hall estate passed to his brother Walter; and then to his nephew Ralph Sneyd (1863–1949).[37] The Hall was rented by Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia from 1901 to 1910.[38]

The Keele Hall library was put up for auction in 1903, as Walter Sneyd's collection of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books. Many of the manuscripts passed to Charles Fairfax Murray.[39][40] The Johnson's Dictionary came up for sale in 1927.[41]

Notes

  1. doi:10.7227/BJRL.38.2.12
    .
  2. History of Parliament Online
    . Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  3. ^
    Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource
    .
  4. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle. E. Cave. 1829. p. 84.
  5. ^ Bowles, T. G.; Fry, O. A. (1882). Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair. p. 5.
  6. ^ a b John Rylands Library (1970). Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. Kraus Reprint. p. 297.
  7. ^ "RECORD: Litchfield, H. E. ed. 1904. Emma Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin. A century of family letters. Cambridge: University Press printed. Volume 1". darwin-online.org.uk. pp. 76–77.
  8. ^ Granville, Countess Harriet (1894). Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville, 1810-1845. Longmans, Green. p. 133.
  9. ^ "Staffordshire 182-1832, History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  10. ^ "Honiton 1820-1832, History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  11. ^ "Agar-Ellis, Hon. George James Welbore (1797-1833). History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  12. ^ "Fortescue, Hon. George Mathew (1791-1877). History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  13. ISBN 978-0-19-821313-0
    .
  14. JSTOR 2596010
    .
  15. ISBN 0-7195-3328-7
    .
  16. ^ Keele University. "Grounds". Keele University.
  17. ^ Gardeners' Chronicle. Haymarket Publishing. 1875. p. 622.
  18. ^ Goodway, Keith (1986). "Landscapes and Gardens at Keele 1700-1900" (PDF). keele.ac.uk. University of Keele. p. 13.
  19. ^ Childe-Pemberton, William Shakespear (1909). Life of Lord Norton (Right Hon. Sir Charles Adderley) 1814-1905, statesman & philanthropist. London: J. Murray. p. 35.
  20. JSTOR 2596010
    .
  21. ^ "A Closed Village, Keele Parish Online". keeleparish.org.
  22. ^ Keele University. "Brief history". Keele University.
  23. ISBN 978-1-4456-7788-0
    .
  24. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52538. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  25. JSTOR 40273204
    .
  26. ^ Goodway, Keith (1986). "Landscapes and Gardens at Keele 1700-1900" (PDF). keele.ac.uk. University of Keele. p. 19.
  27. doi:10.7227/BJRL.38.2.12
    .
  28. ISBN 978-1-4456-2742-7
    .
  29. ISBN 978-1-4456-2742-7
    .
  30. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24585. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  31. JSTOR 3825912
    .
  32. ISBN 978-1-60606-641-6
    .
  33. S2CID 164095355
    .
  34. JSTOR 40859513
    .
  35. JSTOR 42616206
    .
  36. JSTOR 41829587
    .
  37. ^ "Sneyd Family Papers - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk.
  38. ^ University, Keele. "A Romanov love story at Keele". Keele University.
  39. ^ "Sales of Books and Pictures". London Evening Standard. 21 December 1903. p. 6.
  40. ISBN 978-0-521-15646-2
    .
  41. ^ "Johnson's Dictionary". Staffordshire Sentinel. 3 November 1927. p. 7.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ralph_Sneyd_(1793–1870)&oldid=1179218593"