SNELLINGE, George (?1604-51), of St Olave’s, Southwark, Surr.

This MP was plausibly a kinsman of the Snellings who were noted by heralds in visitations of London and Surrey, and probably the son of George Snelling, ‘strong water’ man, baptised at St Olave’s in November 1604.23St Olave, Southwark, par. reg.; Vis. Surr. Harl. Soc. xliii. 160-1, 167; Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xvii), 248; Beaven, Aldermen of London, ii. 59. Several Snellings – including Suffolk-born Robert Snelling† – had interests in overseas trading companies in the first two decades of the seventeenth century.24T. K. Rabb, Enterprise and Empire (1999), 379; HP Commons 1604-1629. By about 1634 the future MP (who signed his name with a final e) or his father was in partnership with leading merchants Maurice and Edward Thomson; the trio petitioned the privy council for permission to transport shoes and weapons for the defence of plantations in the Caribbean.25CSP Col. 1574-1660, p. 195; R. Brenner, Merchants and Revolution (2003), 579. A gap in the parish records contributes to uncertainty about the MP’s early life, but he certainly married and was likely to have been the father of Mary Snelling, baptized at St Olave’s in January 1640.26St Olave, Southwark, par. reg.

As a prominent burgess of the borough, Snellinge’s name appears on Southwark election indentures for the Short and the Long Parliaments. In May 1640 he was noted among six defaulters in the parish on coat and conduct money.27SP16/453, f. 42. As the country descended into civil war, on 18 July 1642 George Snelling of St Olave, ‘merchant’, registered a horse, arms and a buff coat worth £18 for military purposes.28SP28/131, pt. 3, p. 20. Like Peter De Lannoy*, he was among inhabitants named by Parliament on 6 August 1642 to take charge of the defence of Southwark and at a subsequent meeting of its militia sub-committee was made accountant for ‘the fortification money’; on the 17th he was appointed an officer in the trained bands.29CJ ii. 707a, 725a; SP28/131, pt. 13. By June 1643, when he received the first of many nominations as a local assessment commissioner, he had the rank of captain; by September he was captain of the fourth company under Philip Skippon* and as ‘a distiller of strong waters’ was noted as one of the ‘violent o[?fficers]’.30A. and O.; Archaeologia, lii. 141; Emberton, Skippon’s Brave Boys, 33, 53. Like his business partner Maurice Thomson and the latter’s brother George Thomson*, who became fellow officers respectively in the Tower Hamlets and Southwark militias, Snellinge was part of a powerful interest group around the City, which in time emerged as notably radical.31Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 514, 579.

Given their local influence, it can have surprised no-one when on 11 September 1645 Snellinge was elected with George Thomson to Parliament, following vacancies arising in Southwark from the death of John White II* and the disablement of Edward Bagshawe*. He had taken his seat by 30 September, when he was added to the committee to examine petitions from discharged officers.32CJ iv. 295a. Perhaps this is an indication that, even at this date, Snellinge had support from elements in the army who perceived him as one liable to promote their interests in Parliament as well as counteract the Presbyterian dominance of the City militia. On 14 and 16 October the novice Member, together with Samuel Vassall* and Colonel John Venn*, was entrusted with ensuring that the militia of London complied with orders to recruit soldiers for the New Model.33CJ iv. 307b, 311b. He took the Covenant on 29 October.34CJ iv. 326a. Fairly swift promotion to insider status is suggested by Snellinge’s appointment to committees examining captured enemy correspondence (4 Nov.), investigating the bribery of MPs to promote particular business (1 Dec.), chasing absentees (17 Jan. 1646) and probing Members’ tenure of government office (16 Mar.).35CJ iv. 332a, 362a, 409b, 477a.

On the other hand, during his first 18 months as a Member Snellinge was not prominent in the Journal. Between the end of April 1646 and the beginning of April 1647 he received only two committee nominations. However, the characteristic features of his parliamentary service were already apparent and he clearly occupied a significant niche. Occasional nominations before Pride’s Purge testified to his mercantile interests: those to the committees for the ordinance for foreign plantations (for which he was also appointed a commissioner; 16 Mar. 1646); for considering a petition from the Weavers’ Company (27 Mar. 1647); for investigating the soap monopoly (14 Dec.).36CJ iv. 476a, 477a; v. 187a, 383a. A long-time investor in Ireland, he was with George Thomson named to the committee deputed to hear the petition of poor Irish Protestants (20 Apr. 1647).37CJ iv. 516b; K. Bottigheimer, Eng. Money and Irish Land, 191. There were glimpses of a religious commitment that was to become more apparent later – he was one of two Members designated to bring in a bill to enable justices of the peace to punish those who failed to observe fast days (29 Apr.) and was made a commissioner for scandalous offences (3 June) – and a hint of engagement with social issues when he was added to the committee for hospitals (6 Jan. 1648).38CJ iv. 526b, 562b; v. 421a.

Snellinge’s appearances in the Journal often related to the Southwark militia, its relations with London and the security of the capital. In 1646, as well as submitting a petition regarding his militia (27 Jan.), he was added for specific purposes to the committees of the Tower (7 Jan.) and of the army (1 Oct.).39CJ iv. 399a, 420a, 679b. Appointed to the committee for the ordinance to curb the power of the London militia (2 Apr. 1647), he was named to prepare a declaration against the engagement of the Presbyterian-led trained bands (22, 23 July), and with George Thomson rallied the Southwark militia to assist the army in putting down the Presbyterian coup (6, 11 Aug.).40CJ v. 132b, 254a, 255b, 268b, 271a; LJ ix. 383b. Relatively noticeable in the House for a few weeks thereafter he received several appointments, including to committees repealing acts passed during the coup (11, 18 Aug.), investigating absent Members (9 Oct.), considering the latest peace propositions to be offered to the king (16 Oct.) and securing soldiers’ arrears of pay (22 Oct.).41CJ v. 272a, 278a, 327b, 329a, 336a, 340a. With Thomson, John Goodwyn*, Samuel Hyland*, Peter De Lannoy and others, he was granted enhanced powers over the Southwark militia, itself put on a higher footing (9 Sept.).42CJ v. 299b; LJ ix. 431a.

Usually in concert with Thomson but also sometimes alongside Westminster grandees and fund-raisers William Wheler* and Sir Robert Pye I*, Snellinge played an important part in the marshalling of Southwark and London forces against the royalist insurrections of the spring and summer of 1648.43CJ v. 527b, 575b, 583b, 630a, 678a. The House registered particular approval of the Southwark Members for securing the ordnance normally kept at Woolwich in the Tower (26 May).44CJ v. 574b. Snellinge was nominated to the committees investigating the Surrey rising (11 July) and added to those delegated to prepare a declaration on Parliament’s victories over the rebels (12 July).45CJ v. 631b, 633a.

By this time he was also assuming a role, later to become more significant, in the area where taxation and commerce intersected. As early as March 1646 he had been placed on a committee reviewing the accounts of commissioners and auditors of the excise, and that August had been added to those raising money to pay of the Scottish army, for the specific purpose of negotiating with merchants with overseas interests.46CJ iv. 472b, 650b. In the midst of his flurry of 1647 appointments was one related to the ordinance for preventing the clipping of coinage (2 Sept.).47CJ v. 289b. In January 1648 he and George Thomson were added to the committee for excise itself and to a committee charged with devising more equitable rates of taxation.48CJ v. 416b, 434a; LJ ix. 639b. Both joined the Committee for the Admiralty and Cinque Ports on 4 March and were nominated three weeks later to work on the ordinance settling the jurisdiction of the admiralty court.49CJ v. 476b, 505b. Snellinge was also among those named to consider the accounts of the customs commissioners (4 Mar.).50CJ v. 480a.

In the autumn of 1648, as negotiations for the treaty of Newport were at their height, Snellinge’s name disappeared from the Journal. Between late August and 6 December he appeared only on 25 November, when he and Thomson were instructed to bring in Southwark assessments.51CJ vi. 88a. Twelve days after Pride’s Purge, Snellinge was given care with William Monson*, Baron Monson, of deliberations over the appointment of a sheriff for Surrey (18 Dec.), while on 2 February 1649 he and Thomson were among those nominated to bring in an ordinance for the settlement of the Westminster and Southwark militias.52CJ vi. 99b, 129b. But these appointments may have represented anticipation that he would sooner or later accept the new regime rather than actual attendance in the House. It was only on 22 May that he was formally admitted to the Rump.53CJ vi. 214a.

Conceivably, while broadly sympathetic to the army, Snellinge required certain assurances before committing himself fully. Although he was included on the committee to devise a suitable acknowledgement from the House for the respect shown by the City when MPs were entertained to a celebration of the suppression of the Levellers (8 June), it was not until the autumn that he appeared to be regularly engaged in Commons business.54CJ vi. 227b. Added to the Committee for Plundered Ministers on 5 September, he was subsequently named also to committee for presentations to benefices (8 Feb. 1650) and to advance the gospel in Bristol (15 Feb.1650), Coventry (23 Aug. 1650) and St Albans (5 Sept. 1651), suggesting that he subscribed to the Rump’s religious agenda.55CJ vi. 290a, 359a, 365b, 458b; vii. 12b. In that he was nominated (on two of the three occasions with Thomson) to committees devising means for setting the poor on work (24 May 1650) and devising means to keep down the prices of beer and corn (5 Sept. 1649; 17 July 1650), he also seems to have had some interest in social reform.56CJ vi. 290b, 416a, 441b. But it may well be that his primary concern was commercial and financial, perhaps mixed with local considerations, and that a role in determining related issues was the price of his allegiance.

Snellinge has been identified as a member, with the Thomson brothers, of a cohesive mercantile network which came to exercise a powerful influence in the Rump in the direction of revolutionary Independent politics at home and a vigorous pursuit of overseas affairs.57Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 579; Worden, Rump Parliament, 31. On 24 October 1649 he was appointed to a committee to consider how to present for public consumption the history of past engagements to successive governments; a fortnight later he was also among those who were to work out how to impose the latest Engagement.58CJ vi. 312b, 321b. By this time, doubtless building on his previous experience, he was informally attending the excise committee, being certainly present three times in November. There is no evidence to connect him with meetings that December, but he was a regular attender at least between January and September 1650; while he was not as prominent as George Thomson, he was occasionally the first signatory to its orders and memoranda.59Bodl. Rawl. C.386. His reward was to be first in the poll for excise commissioners on 18 July 1650, an appointment re-affirmed two months later.60CJ vi. 443a, 443b; A. and O. Thereafter he seems to have retreated from committee work, but he did put in appearances that November and December, and was recorded as present on 6 May and 22 July 1651.61Bodl. Rawl. C.386.

Alongside this, Snellinge had a handful of other committee appointments relating to money including those investigating abuses in accounts (9 Feb. 1650), reviewing the ordinance for assessments for the army (18 Feb.), selling lands (25 Apr.), raising money (28 Aug.) and (temporarily) the revenue committee (30 Aug. 1651).62CJ vi. 360a, 368a, 403b, 448b, 459b, 469a; vii. 12b. He still had some involvement in London affairs and on 13 February 1650 reported a nominee for the place of sheriff of Surrey.63CJ vi. 351a, 364b. With Thomson, he continued to be a trusted local agent of the commonwealth.64SP25/64, f. 457. It has been suggested that, following the Commons’ agreement to the repayment of a debt due to him on 20 September 1650, there was ‘a sudden and permanent halt’ to his participation in Rump politics. 65CJ vi. 471a; Worden, Rump Parliament, 99. However, this not only coincided with his appointment as an excise commissioner but was also succeeded by occasional appearances at the excise committee and by two committee nominations in 1651. It may be that Southwark distractions rather than the attainment of a goal of personal satisfaction partly explain his inactivity: on 29 October 1650 the council of state ordered three of its members to speak with Thomson and Snellinge about resolving a ‘difference’ between them and other Southwark inhabitants regarding preaching in the militia hall.66SP25/12, f. 20.

Perhaps Snellinge was suffering from a prolonged illness late in 1650 and through months of 1651. He was presumably alive on 5 September 1651, when he and Thomson were named to the committee for preaching in St Albans, but he had died before 21 October, when the Commons resolved that the five remaining commissioners for excise should share his work for the remainder of the year, that the dividend arising should go to his widow, and that the aforementioned debt of £500 should also be paid to her.67CJ vii. 12b, 29b, 30a; CCAM 1403. Elizabeth Snellinge received a grant of the administration of his estate nine days later.68PROB6/26, f. 160. It is not known if there were any surviving children, but no close relatives sat in future Parliaments.