[Illustration] "The noble race of Sneyds, of great worship and
account,"* appear to be denominated from Snead, a hamlet in the
parish of Tunstall, in this county, where they were seated as early
as the reign of Henry III. By marriage with the heiress of Tunstall
they had other lands in that parish, and for two descents were
called Snead alias Tunstall. Bradwell, the former seat of this
family, was purchased in the reign of Henry IV. The fine old house
at Keel, lately taken down and now rebuilt, was erected by Ralph
Sneyd, Esq. in 1581. During the Usurpation, the Sneyds being on the
loyal side, Keel house narrowly escaped destruction, and many of the
ancient evidences were plundered and lost at that time.
Younger Branches. Sneyd of Ashcombe, and of Loxley in this county,
descended from the second son of William Sneyd, of Keel, who died in
1694: and the Sneyds of Ireland, descended from Wettenhall,
Archdeacon of Kilmore, younger brother of the ancestor of the
preceding branches.
See Erdeswick, pp. 20, 25; Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et
Genealog. iii. 342; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxi. p. 28; and Ward's History
of the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent.
ARMS.--_Argent, a scythe, the blade in chief, the sned and handle in
bend sinister sable, on the fess point a fleur-de-lis of the
second_. This fleur-de-lis is said to have been assumed by Richard
de Tunstall, alias Sneyd, after the battle of Poictiers.
Present Representative, Ralph Sneyd, Esq.
* King's Vale Royal, b. ii. p. 77, who would derive them from
Cheshire.