Ralph Sneyd of Keele

Chronicle of this board

Scythe (sned) and the fleur-de-lys of Poitiers

The Sneyds are a thirteenth-century cadet of the Audleys — visitations, not a writ. In 1540 they bought Keele from the Crown after the Hospitallers. Ralph built the first Keele Hall in 1580. Their scythe is a pun on sned; their fleur-de-lys is a battle honour claimed for an ancestor who fought at Poitiers beside James, 2nd Baron.

This is heraldry as affidavit of proximity, not a summons to Parliament. The 1313 writ does not sit at Keele. A petitioner reads the deeds because the cadet kept paper on dirt the senior line had already turned into a dignity.

Keele University now keeps those uncalendared deeds. Sporting Ralph, last of the hall, died childless in 1949. The house became a campus. The name walked west and was written Snead. Keziah Snead is the spelling-bridge into the Watkins marriage. The scythe did not become a coronet.

Cadet proxy. Not the Barony of Audley of Heleigh.

Wardrobe

Elizabethan forest-green velvet, gold scythe brooch, a fleur-de-lys of ivory at the cap, riding boots of Staffordshire clay. Not a baron's parliament robe — a gentry coat on a meadow that used to be Audley's.

Weapons · animals · lands

Hunting sword. The Keele deeds are the real blade.

Keele park deer; a hawk as the Poitiers honour's cousin.

• Keele, purchased from the Crown 1540 after the Hospitallers