People & Organisations

Thomas Snow (1748 - 1832)

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Thomas Snow (1748-1832) was a neighbour of Towne's friend John Merivale. Snow "with his wife and three daughters, contemporaries of Nancy and Fanny Merivale, lived at Cleve near Exeter; whilst his eldest daughter, the wife of Captain, afterwards Admiral Bond, living at Starcross, had frequent intercourse with Dr and Mrs Drury at Cockwood, their elder children being playfellows with my brothers." (see 881b). As well as Snow's four daughters, Sophia (1781-1870; married Admiral Bond in 1801), Juliana (1783-1878), Lavinia (1785-1859), Marianne (1878-1865) and Sophia, there was one son, also Thomas (1791-1875). Three of the daughters remained unmarried and lived at Cleve; the son became a banker and wine merchant, living at Franlkyn House, near Exeter. His son was Thomas Maitland Snow (1817-1899), mentioned in a 1890 biography of Towne: "Mr.T.M.Snow, of Cleeve, has a good painting of a part of Rome, taken from the opposite bank of the Tiber, and eleven of his [Towne's] water-colour views in Rome". At least two of the eleven descended to Mrs S Llewellyn, probably Thomas Maitland Snow's great-neice Beatrice Stella Llewellyn (b.1893; FT426, FT431), and two others to her cousin Audrey Wilmot Snow (1891-1972; FT432, FT428), Thomas Maitland Snow's granddaughter (the Fine Art Society's stock book records that her two watercolours were "from the collection of Miss A.W.Snow, Cleve House, Exwick nr. Exeter"). Of the four watercolours that survive, two are dated 1785 (FT426, FT428) and two 1786 (FT431, FT432). It seems likely that Towne's works remained at Cleve well into the 20th century, as the house was only sold in 1952 by Audrey Snow's brother, also Thomas Maitland Snow (1890-1997). Perhaps Cleve's contents, including the Townes, were dispersed among the family c.1950 in anticipation of the sale.

Historically related works

FT426 , 1985
[?] FT427a
[?] FT427b
[?] FT427c
[?] FT427d
[?] FT427e
FT428
FT431
FT432