he believed had pointed out to him the true route. The idea took so firm a hold on him as to dominate his whole life. He served through the summer of 1850 as purser, doctor, and chief officer of the Prince Albert, a small vessel of about 90 tons, fitted out at the expense of Lady Franklin, under the command of Commander Forsyth of the navy. On his return Snow published ‘Voyage of the Prince Albert in search of Sir John Franklin’ (1851, post 8vo), an interesting and moderate little book: but he was convinced that success had been hindered by Forsyth's refusal to go on, and during the following years he constantly but vainly memorialised the admiralty to send him out again in command of any vessel, however small.
In 1854 he went out to Patagonia in command of the South American Missionary Society's vessel Allen Gardiner, and for two years he was employed in carrying missionaries and their stores between Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, and different stations on the mainland. The service ended in a disagreement between him and the society's agent at the Falkland Islands, who, assisted by the magistrate, deposed Snow from his command for disobedience to orders, and left him and his wife to find their own way to England. On his arrival Snow published ‘A Two Years' Cruise off Tierra del Fuego. … A Narrative of Life in the Southern Seas’ (1857, 2 vols. post 8vo), which had some success, and might have recouped his expenses had he not brought an action against the missionary society, which, after dragging its way through the courts for the next three years, was decided against him. Left penniless, he went to America, where he declined a commission in the confederate navy, and for some years lived in the neighbourhood of New York, working for the booksellers. Among much that was published anonymously he edited, and practically rewrote, Hall's narrative of ‘Life with the Esquimaux’ (1864, 8vo); and he compiled ‘Southern Generals: their Lives and Campaigns’ (1866, 8vo).
On his return to England he still brooded over the fate of Franklin, and during the last twenty or five-and-twenty years of his life spent his whole time in compiling volumes of indexes of Arctic voyages, of notes and biographical records of Arctic voyagers, which he called the ‘Roll of Honour.’ He received towards the end of his life some pecuniary assistance from the Royal Geographical Society and from a few friends. He died on 12 March 1895. He left a mass of manuscripts, which was purchased by the Royal Geographical Society.
[Review of Reviews, April 1893 (a character sketch, with a portrait, apparently from a photograph); ‘In the Ice King's Realm’ in Winter, 1894; Sir Clements Markham in the Geographical Journal, 1895, i. 500; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
SOAMES, HENRY (1785–1860), ecclesiastical historian, son of Nathaniel Soames, shoemaker, of Ludgate Street, London, was born in 1785 and educated at St. Paul's school, whence he proceeded to Wadham College, Oxford, matriculating on 21 Feb. 1803. He graduated B.A. in 1807, M.A. in 1810. He held the post of assistant to the high master of St. Paul's school from 1809 to 1814, and took holy orders. In 1812 he was made rector of Shelley, Essex, and at this time, or later, rector of the neighbouring parish of Little Laver. From 1831 to 1839 he was vicar of Brent with Furneaux Pelham, Hertfordshire. In 1839 he became rector of Stapleford Tawney with Theydon Mount, Essex, where he remained till his death. He was Bampton lecturer in 1830, and was appointed chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral by Bishop Blomfield in 1842. He died on 21 Oct. 1860.
Much light was thrown by Soames's labour and learning on English ecclesiastical history in Anglo-Saxon times and in the sixteenth century. His more important works are: 1. ‘The History of the Reformation of the Church of England,’ 4 vols. 1826–8. 2. ‘An Inquiry into the Doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon Church,’ Oxford, 1830 (Bampton lectures). 3. ‘The Anglo-Saxon Church: its History, Revenues, and General Character,’ London, 1835; 4th edit., revised, augmented, and corrected, 1856. 4. ‘Elizabethan Religious History,’ London, 1839. 5. ‘Mosheim's Institutes of Ecclesiastical History. … Edited, with additions, by James Murdock and H. Soames,’ &c. 1841. This was re-edited in 1845, 1850, and finally by Bishop Stubbs in 3 vols. in 1863. In the latter's preface a high tribute is paid to the value ‘of the notes and additions made to the work by my late venerable friend, Mr. Soames’ (Preface, p. ix). 6. ‘The Latin Church during Anglo-Saxon Times,’ London, 1848. This work was criticised by J. D. Chambers in ‘Anglo-Saxonica; or Animadversions on some positions … maintained, &c. by H. Soames,’ London, 1849. 7. ‘The Romish Decalogue,’ London, 1852.
[Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1860; Foster's Alumni Oxon. (1715–1886); St. Paul's School Register, p. 219; Wright's Essex, p. 357 n.; Cussans's Hertfordshire, Hundred of Edwinstree, p. 145.]
