Sneath History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Early Origins of the Sneath family

The surname Sneath was first found in Yorkshire where they held a family seat in the West Riding in a village a few miles from Goole. 1

In 1191, Henry Snayth was a Freeman of York. The Saxon influence of English history diminished after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The language of the courts was French for the next three centuries and the Norman ambience prevailed. But Saxon surnames survived and the family name was first referenced in the year Ithelard Snayth held estates in the year 1250. Later, William de Snayth was listed in the Feet of Fines for Yorkshire in 1338 and Henry Snayth was listed in Cheshire in 1381. 2

The Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 list: Ricardus de Snayth; Thomas de Snayth; and Alicia de Snayth. 3

Today Snaith is a market-town and parish, in the union of Goole, chiefly in the Lower division of the wapentake of Osgoldcross. "This place is of considerable antiquity, and at a very early period a priory for Benedictine monks was founded here as a cell to the abbey of Selby, to which establishment the church of Snaith had been given by Girard, Archbishop of York, in the year 1106. The priory flourished till the Dissolution, and was granted by Edward VI. to John, Earl of Warwick." 4

Early History of the Sneath family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Sneath research. Another 114 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1381, 1455, 1487, 1645, 1721, 1751 and 1798 are included under the topic Early Sneath History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Sneath Spelling Variations

Spelling variations of this family name include: Snaith, Snayth, Sneith, Snathe, Sneath and others.

Early Notables of the Sneath family

Another 32 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Sneath Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Sneath migration to the United States +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Sneath Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Edward Sneath, who arrived in Virginia in 1658 5
Edward Sneath, who landed in Virginia in 1663 5

Sneath migration to West Indies +

The British first settled the British West Indies around 1604. They made many attempts but failed in some to establish settlements on the Islands including Saint Lucia and Grenada. By 1627 they had managed to establish settlements on St. Kitts (St. Christopher) and Barbados, but by 1641 the Spanish had moved in and destroyed some of these including those at Providence Island. The British continued to expand the settlements including setting the First Federation in the British West Indies by 1674; some of the islands include Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Island, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica and Belize then known as British Honduras. By the 1960's many of the islands became independent after the West Indies Federation which existed from 1958 to 1962 failed due to internal political conflicts. After this a number of Eastern Caribbean islands formed a free association. 6

Sneath Settlers in West Indies in the 17th Century

Hugh Sneath, aged 28, who landed in Barbados in 1684 5

Contemporary Notables of the name Sneath (post 1700) +

Mervin G. Sneath, American Republican politician, Alternate Delegate to Republican National Convention from Pennsylvania, 1960 7
Jacob Sneath, American politician, Burgess of Columbia, Pennsylvania, 1881-83 7
William Edward Sneath (b. 1977), English cricket player

Citations +

Harrison, Henry, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary Baltimore: Geneological Publishing Company, 2013. Print
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_West_Indies
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, January 25) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html