where she died on 8 Feb. 1792, at the age of sixty-nine. By her own desire she was interred in the burial-ground of Chelsea hospital (Faulkner, Chelsea, ii. 282).
The military portion of Hannah's career finds a striking parallel in that of Christian Davies [q. v.], while her nautical experiences were probably eclipsed by those of ‘William Brown’ (a negress, so rated on the books of the Queen Charlotte), who was proved to have served eleven years when that ship was paid off in 1815, and was conspicuous for her agility as a captain of the maintop no less than for her partiality for prize-money and grog. The outlines of Hannah Snell's story are therefore by no means incredible; but, on the other hand, it is clear that many of the details supplied in the ‘Female Soldier’ are the embellishments of a hand well skilled in the resources of imaginary biography. The bombastic opening, the description of the latent heroism of the father (the hosier) and the mythical exploits of the uncles, the impossible incidents of the floggings (which the editor of the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ vainly sought to extenuate in an explanatory footnote), and the circumstantial account of the last moments of Hannah's criminal husband, all attest the workmanship of an experienced literary hand, to whose identity no clue exists.
Hannah's portrait was thrice painted in 1750, by J. Wardell, by R. Phelps, and another; the engraving by Faber, after Phelps, is the best; others are by J. Johnson and by J. Young (1789) (cf. Bromley, Cat. pp. 456–7; Evans, Cat. p. 323).
[Gent. Mag. 1750, pp. 283, 291 sq.; Scots' Mag. 1750, pp. 330 sq.; Caulfield's Memoirs of Celebrated Persons, iv. 178; Wilson's Wonderful Characters, pp. 1, 21; Kirby's Wonderful Museum, ii. 450; Granger's Wonderful Museum; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. iii. 113, 280, v. 457 (a list of British Amazons), 8th ser. ii. 88, 171, 455; All the Year Round, 6 April 1872; Lysons's Environs, ii. 164; Cromwell's Clerkenwell, p. 254; Wroth's London Pleasure Gardens, p. 36; Addit. MS. 5723 (Biographia Adversaria).]
SNELL, JOHN (1629–1679), founder of the Snell exhibitions in Balliol College, Oxford, born in 1629, was the son of Andrew Snell, smith at McCalanstone in the parish of Colmonell, Ayrshire, by Margaret, daughter of John Carnahan. In 1643 he studied at Glasgow under James Dalrymple, one of the regents of that university, afterwards first Viscount Stair [q. v.] In the civil war he sided with the royalists, and was present several engagements, including Worcester (3 Sept. 1651). Narrowly escaping from that battle, he too refuge in the family of a person of quality in Cheshire, where he became acquainted with Sir Orlando Bridgeman [q.v.] Possibly he was related to George Snell, archdeacon of Chester, who had married Lydia Bridgeman Sir Orlando's aunt. During the Commonwealth and procetorate he was clerk to Sir Orland, then practising in London as chamber counsel and conveyancer. On Bridgeman's elevation to the bench in 1660 Snell became crier of his court. In 1667 he was made seal-bearer on his patron's appointment to be lord-keeper, and continued to hold that office during Shaftesbury's chancellorship. He was afterwards secretary to the Duke of Monmouth, and one commissioner for the management of the duke's estates in Scotland. He died at Oxford on 6 Aug. 1679, and was buried
in the church of St. Cross, Holywell. He was ‘much esteemed for his great diligence and understanding.’ The second volume of Sir Orlando Bridgeman's ‘Conveyances’ was printed in 1702 from his manuscript.
By his wife Johanna, he left a daughter Dorothy, who was married in 1682 to William Guise of Winterbourne, Gloucestershire; from her is descended Sir William Guise, bart., of Elmore Court, Gloucestershire.
By his will, proved 13 Sept. 1679, Snell bequeathed the residue of his estate, including his manor and lands of Ufton, Warwickshire, to be administered by three trustees—the provost of Queen's, the president of St. Jihn's, and the master of Balliol— with a view to the education at some collee or hall in Oxford University of scholars from his own college of Glasgow, to which his letters and benefactions show him to have been warmly attached. By decree of the court of chancery in 1693, it was appointed that the scholars should go to Balliol College. A provision in the will that they should enter into holy orders and return to Scotland for preferment has several times given rise to litigation. In consequence of the disestablishment of episcopacy and the ‘settlement of presbyters’ in Scotland, this provision was held to be ineffectual. The foundation has been one of great value, and the list of scholars or exhibitioners contains among other eminent illustrious names those of Adam Smith and John Gibson Lockhart, and John Wilson (‘Christopher North’).
