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Ralph Sneyd (landowner)

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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

[edit]

He was the eldest son of Walter Sneyd, Member of Parliament for Castle Rising, and his wife Louisa Bagot, daughter of William Bagot, 1st Baron Bagot. He was educated at Eton College.[2][3] During the early part of the Napoleonic Wars, his father was an officer in the Staffordshire Militia, from 1805 the King's Own (1st Staffordshire) Militia, a name it received from 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, Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville wrote to Georgiana Morpeth that "Ralph Sneyd is very entertaining. He has drawn me a head of Rogers upon the body of a wasp that is the best thing I ever saw."[8]

In an 1823 by-election for Staffordshire, Sneyd was pressed by Lord Dudley to stand as a Tory. His father was unconvinced of the wisdom of the move, and in the end Sir John Wrottesley was elected unopposed.[9] In Honiton in the 1826 general election, Sneyd did stand in a tight politically complex contest, with the backing of local independents Christopher Flood and Philip Mules. He came third in the two-member constituency, to John Josiah Guest and Harry Baines Lott.[10] At this period his friends George Agar-Ellis and George Fortescue were both in parliament, with more liberal views.[11][12] Sneyd did, however, favour Catholic emancipation.[13]

Landowner

[edit]
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

Charles Adderley encountered Sneyd around the end of 1840 as a guest at Sandon, at the time when he was recruited as a candidate for North Staffordshire. He commented on the Tory trio, made up by Lord Sandon and 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.[20] The land of the village of Keele was all in his hands by 1841, and he embarked there on building, displaying a monogram RS on works.[21] He went into business mining coal, but without financial success.[22] The death in 1848 of his agent Samuel Peake revealed poor administration of the coal company, which supplied Sneyd's ironworks at Knutton Heath, and a fresh start was made for the Silverdale Colliery.[23]

In 1848 Sneyd on the recommendation of Charles Arbuthnot hired Andrew Thompson to run his estate, who over the following 21 years introduced improved farming methods.[24] Mid-century, he spent on "seeding down" — the process of investing in turf better for cattle grazing — by providing seeds to his tenants.[25] In 1850 he hired William Hill as head gardener, on the advice of George Fleming 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

[edit]

Sneyd was a client of the antique furniture dealer Edward Holmes Baldock of London.[32] He bought around 1835 an annotated copy of 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]

The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Four Angels by Quinten Massys, now in the 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

[edit]

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

[edit]
  1. ^ Spring, David (1956). "Ralph Sneyd: Tory country gentleman". Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 38 (2): 535–555. doi:10.7227/BJRL.38.2.12.
  2. ^ "Sneyd, Walter (1752–1829), of Keele Hall, Staffs". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  3. ^ a b Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Sneyd, Ralph (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. ^ Machin, G. I. T. (1964). The Catholic Question in English Politics, 1820 to 1830. Clarendon Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-19-821313-0.
  14. ^ Cannadine, David (1977). "Joint T. S. Ashton Prize Essay for 1977. Aristocratic Indebtedness in the Nineteenth Century: The Case Re-opened". The Economic History Review. 30 (4): 630. doi:10.2307/2596010. ISSN 0013-0117. JSTOR 2596010.
  15. ^ Howard Colvin (1978). A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. John Murray. p. 117. 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. ^ Cannadine, David (1977). "Joint T. S. Ashton Prize Essay for 1977. Aristocratic Indebtedness in the Nineteenth Century: The Case Re-opened". The Economic History Review. 30 (4): 641. doi:10.2307/2596010. ISSN 0013-0117. JSTOR 2596010.
  21. ^ "A Closed Village, Keele Parish Online". keeleparish.org.
  22. ^ Keele University. "Brief history". Keele University.
  23. ^ Harwood, Helen (15 November 2018). Staffordshire Coal Mines. Amberley Publishing Limited. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-1-4456-7788-0.
  24. ^ Phillips, A. D. M. "Thompson, Andrew (1824?–1870)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/52538. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  25. ^ Sturgess, R. W. (1966). "The Agricultural Revolution on the English Clays". The Agricultural History Review. 14 (2): 113. ISSN 0002-1490. JSTOR 40273204.
  26. ^ Goodway, Keith (1986). "Landscapes and Gardens at Keele 1700-1900" (PDF). keele.ac.uk. University of Keele. p. 19.
  27. ^ Spring, David (1956). "Ralph Sneyd: Tory country gentleman". Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 38 (2): 553–555. doi:10.7227/BJRL.38.2.12.
  28. ^ Lancaster, Tony (15 November 2012). Chesterton, Apedale, Knutton & Silverdale Through Time. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-4456-2742-7.
  29. ^ Lancaster, Tony (15 November 2012). Chesterton, Apedale, Knutton & Silverdale Through Time. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-4456-2742-7.
  30. ^ Holder, Richard. "Salvin, Anthony (1799–1881)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24585. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  31. ^ Franklin, Jill (1975). "Troops of Servants: Labour and Planning in the Country House 1840-1914". Victorian Studies. 19 (2): 231. ISSN 0042-5222. JSTOR 3825912.
  32. ^ Davis, Diana (7 July 2020). The Tastemakers: British Dealers and the Anglo-Gallic Interior, 1785-1865. Getty Publications. p. 248. ISBN 978-1-60606-641-6.
  33. ^ Kolb, Gwin J.; Sledd, James H. (1960). "The History of the Sneyd-Gimbel and Pigott-British Museum Copies of Dr. Johnson's "Dictionary"". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 54 (4): 286–289. doi:10.1086/pbsa.54.4.24299529. ISSN 0006-128X. JSTOR 24299529. S2CID 164095355.
  34. ^ Jestin, Catherine; Sammons, Christa; Gallup, Donald; Walker, R. Gay; Witten, Cora Williams; Witten, Laurence; de Rachewiltz, Mary; Sammons, Jeffrey L.; Needham, Wesley E.; Samuel, Harold (1981). "Marginalia". The Yale University Library Gazette. 56 (1/2): 60. ISSN 0044-0175. JSTOR 40859513.
  35. ^ Dunkerton, Jill (2008). "The Technique and Restoration of "The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Four Angels" by Quinten Massys". National Gallery Technical Bulletin. 29: 60–75. ISSN 0140-7430. JSTOR 42616206.
  36. ^ Ford, Brinsley; Avery, Charles; Mallet, John (1998). "Richard Ford (1796-1858)". The Volume of the Walpole Society. 60: 42. ISSN 0141-0016. 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. ^ Ricci, Seymour De (3 February 2011). English Collectors of Books and Manuscripts: (1530-1930) and Their Marks of Ownership. Cambridge University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-521-15646-2.
  41. ^ "Johnson's Dictionary". Staffordshire Sentinel. 3 November 1927. p. 7.
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