Miss Honora Sneyd was the youngest daughter of Edward Sneyd, who was the youngest son of Ralph Sneyd of Bishton, in Staffordshire. She was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Seward and brought up by them as one of their own children.
Edward Sneyd was a Major of the Royal Horse Guards (blue), and became a widower early in life. The death of his wife was a great affliction, but his relations and friends, who were numerous, proved eager to take charge of his daughters. Nothing could have exceeded the kindness and care
with which Mrs. Seward executed the trust that she had undertaken. Indeed, none could have singled out Honora from Mrs. Seward’s own daughters by the light of anything in Mrs. Seward’s treatment or conduct. Honora was very beautiful and accomplished, and had attracted many admirers, as well as lovers. Anna Seward relates a whimsical story of an “oddity,” an “awkward pedantic youth, once resident for a little time at Lichfield, who, when asked how he liked Honora, replied, ‘I could not have conceived that she had half the face she has,’ adding that Honora was finely rallied about this imputed plenitude of face. The oval elegance of its delicate and beauteous contour made the exclamation trebly absurd.” But her first real lover was the “ill-fated” Major André. He first met Honora at Buxton, or Matlock, and, falling deeply in love with her, became a frequent visitor at the Palace. He writes, “How am I honoured in Mr. and Mrs. Seward’s attachment to me!” An engagement followed, but the marriage was prohibited. The reason, it would seem, was that André had
not sufficient means to support a wife. André wrote to Honora, “But oh! my dear Honora! it is for thy sake only I wish for wealth,” which wealth, indeed, he called “vile trash” in another of his letters.
The story of the young soldier is truly a sad one. In 1780, while serving in America, André was entrusted with secret negotiations for the betrayal of West Point to the British forces, but was captured by the Americans. In spite of his petition that General Washington would “adapt the mode of death to his feelings as a man of honour,” he was hanged as a spy at Tappan. General Washington was unable to listen to strong appeals for clemency, for, though commander of the American armies, his voice counted but one on the court martial. André was of French descent, and has been described as high-spirited, accomplished, affectionate and merry-hearted. Anna Seward tells us that he appeared to her to be “dazzled” by Honora, who estimated highly his talents; but the poetess adds that he did not possess “the reasoning mind” Honora required. In 1821 his body was, on the petition of the Duke of
York, brought to England. “The courtesy and good feeling,” remarks Dean Stanley of the Americans, were remarkable. The bier was decorated with garlands and flowers, as it was transported to the ship. On arrival in England the remains were first deposited in the Islip Chapel, and subsequently buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey, where the funeral service was celebrated, and where a monument was erected to his memory.
Washington, Anna Seward records, did her the honour to charge his aide-de-camp to assure her that no circumstances of his life had given him so much pain as the necessary sacrifice of André’s life.
Thomas Day, the author of “Sandford and Merton,” who spent a good deal of his life in hunting for a wife, made love to Honora. She, however, refused to marry him; and small wonder, for the conditions he wished to impose on her were ridiculously stringent and restrictive, and she, not unnaturally, refused to entertain the prospect of the unqualified control of a husband over all her actions, implied by his requirements. Later on Day wished to marry Honora’s
sister, but she also refused his offer. It may be added that he eventually succeeded in marrying a Yorkshire lady, who became devoted to him, and was inconsolable on his death, in 1789, from a kick by a horse.
The Earl of Warwick, when Lord George Greville, met Honora at some race-meeting, and was, we read, much fascinated with her. A Colonel Barry also was her lover, and once stated, “she was the only woman he had ever seriously loved.”