See Erdeswick, p. 167.
Arms.—Sable, a chevron between three battleaxes argent. This is, says Erdeswick, the coat of Campion.
Present Representative, William Walter Congreve, Esq.
Sneyd of Keel.
"The noble race of Sneyds, of great worship and account,"* appear to be denominated from Snead, a hamlet in the parish of Tunstall, in this county, where they were seated as early as the reign of Henry III. By marriage with the heiress of Tunstall they had other lands in that parish, and for two descents were called Snead alias Tunstall. Bradwell, the former seat of this family, was purchased in the reign of Henry IV. The fine old house at Keel, lately taken down and now rebuilt, was erected by Ralph Sneyd, Esq. in 1581. During the Usurpation, the Sneyds being on the loyal side, Keel house narrowly escaped destruction, and many of the ancient evidences were plundered and lost at that time.
Younger Branches. Sneyd of Ashcombe, and of Loxley in this county, descended from the second son of William Sneyd, of Keel, who died in 1694: and the Sneyds of Ireland, descended from Wettenhall, Archdeacon of Kilmore, younger brother of the ancestor of the preceding branches.
See Erdeswick, pp. 20, 25; Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealog. iii. 342; Gent. Mag. vol. lxxi. p. 28; and Ward's History of the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent.
Arms.—Argent, a scythe, the blade in chief, the sned and handle in bend sinister sable, on the fess point a fleur-de-lis of the second. This fleur-de-lis is said to have been assumed by Richard de Tunstall, alias Sneyd, after the battle of Poictiers.
Present Representative, Ralph Sneyd, Esq.