William SNEYD

  General Notes:

WILLIAM SNEYD, 1613-1695, married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir Robert Audley of Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire, (see the summary on Audley). Historians have not been able to establish the early relationship of this branch of the Audley family to the senior branch, or to the Audley's of Audley End in Essex, although a portrait of Sir Robert hangs in the Main Hall. Earlier generations were seated at Houghton Conquest, in Bedfordshire. Sir Robert is buried by the altar rail at Oakington Parish Church in Cambridgeshire.



William Sneyd was M.P. for the County of Stafford, and High Sheriff in 1676. He and Elizabeth had two sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Ralph, succeeded to the Keele
estates, which remained the seat of the senior branch until 1947. The younger, second son, William, was the first of the branch which settled at Ashcombe, also in Staffordshire, and which in turn gave rise to other branches in later generations.

The later Sneyd's of Keele restored their fortunes by investment in the growing mining industry, but this in turn led to losses later. They were in attendance at the Courts of King George III and King William IV, at some cost, but did not gain entry to the Peerage. They were connected to the neighbouring Leveson--Gower family who became Dukes of Sutherland by marriage to a Countess of Sutherland in her own right which led to further ennoblement by reason of the extent of their estates.

The later years of the 19th Century saw the replacement of the Old Hall by the New Keele Hall in the 1850's. But the cost of the New Hall and the attempt to maintain position amongst the wealthy took its toll. Diminishing resources and increasing debts led
the family to move. Keele Hall was let to the Grand Duke Michael Romanov of Russia, and the family lived elsewhere. Later in 1947 Keele Hall and Estate was sold cheaply by Colonel Ralph Sneyd to the Staffordshire County Council. It became a University College, and then in 1962 Keele University.

Colonel Ralph Sneyd was the last in the male line of the senior branch of the family, and preferred to spend his time on the Cote d'Azur in the South of France. During the final negotiations there was an adjournment to allow the Colonel to listen to the commentary on a horse race in which he had an interest. In the Senior Common Room, there is a portrait of the Sir William Sneyd who bought the Keele Estate in the 1540's. No doubt he looks down with interest on the Marxist-Leninist members of the academic staff discussing the role of expropriation as a necessary condition of the workers revolution.

William married Elizabeth AUDLEY.