Simon Snow (MP)

Simon Snow (1600 – February 1667) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1640 to 1648. He supported the Parliamentarian side during the English Civil War

Snow was the son of Thomas Snow of Exeter and his wife Grace Vilvayne.^[1] He became a merchant of Exeter and was an alderman of the town. He was a puritan and benefited by acquiring building materials from the dismantled houses belonging to the cathedral clergy.^[2]

In April 1640, Snow was elected Member of Parliament for Exeter for the Short Parliament. He was re-elected in November 1640 MP for Exeter for the Long Parliament.^[3] In December 1648 Snow was named as one of the Commissioners for settling Militia throughout England and Wales for Exeter.^[4] He was excluded from parliament under Pride's Purge in 1648.^[5]

In 1653 Snow was Mayor of Exeter.^[6] He also benefited from the will of his uncle Robert Vilvayne who left various charitable foundations.^[7] Snow inherited a brewhouse and malthouse, called the Common Brewhouse, "lately erected near the Duckingstool Mills, in Exe Island" which he also devised for charitable purposes.^[8] In 1657 Snow was one of a group of citizens who contributed to the building of a wall within the cathedral to separate presbyterian and independent worship.

References

1. Nonconformity in Exeter 1650-1875
2. The Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology
3. Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
4. December 1648: An Ordinance for the setling the Militia in the severall Counties, Cities and places within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, and Towne of Barwick upon Tweed., Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 (1911), pp. 1233-1251. Date accessed: 27 October 2010
5. The parliamentary or constitutional history of England;: being a faithful account of all the most remarkable transactions in Parliament, from the earliest times. Collected from the journals of both Houses, the records, ..., Volume 9
6. Eight Hundred Years of Exeter's Mayors and Lord Mayors
7. House of Commons papers
8. The History of Exeter's Breweries