# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Snape, Andrew

​SNAPE, ANDREW, D.D. (1675–1742), provost of King's College, Cambridge, born at Hampton Court, Middlesex, in 1675, was son of Andrew Snape, jun., serjeant farrier to Charles II. The father published in 1683 a fine folio on ‘The Anatomy of an Horse,’ with many copperplate engravings, a portrait of the author, drawn and engraved by R. White, and a dedication to the king, in which he speaks of ‘being a Son of that Family that hath had the honour to serve the Crown of this Kingdom in the Quality of Farriers for these two Hundred Years.’ The son was admitted to Eton in 1683, and was elected to a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, in 1689. He graduated B.A. in 1693, commenced M.A. in 1697, and was created D.D. comitiis regiis in 1705 (Graduati Cantabr. ed. 1823, p. 438). He became lecturer of St. Martin's, London, and was chaplain to Charles Seymour, sixth duke of Somerset [q. v.], chancellor of the university, by whom he was presented in 1706 to the rectory of the united parishes of St. Mary-at-Hill and St. Andrew Hubbard (Malcolm, Londinium Redivivum, iv. 416). In 1707 he was deputed by his university to represent, on its behalf, the faculty of theology at the jubilee of the foundation of the university of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, and during his stay on the continent he preached a sermon before the Electress Sophia. He became one of the chaplains in ordinary to Queen Anne, and held the same office under George I. In 1711 he was appointed headmaster of Eton, which flourished greatly under his management. He was one of the principal disputants in the famous ‘Bangorian Controversy,’ and in numerous pamphlets he attacked with great vehemence the principles upheld by Bishop Hoadly [see Hoadly, Benjamin, 1676–1761]. The first of his ‘Letters to the Bishop of Bangor’ passed through no fewer than seventeen editions in the year of its publication (1717). As the part which he took in the controversy gave offence at court, his name, like that of Dr. Thomas Sherlock [q. v.] (afterwards bishop of London), was removed from the list of king's chaplains (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. iii. 211).
On the death of Dr. John Adams he was chosen provost of King's College, Cambridge, in February 1719. He was vice-chancellor of the university in 1723–4. Early in 1737 he became rector of Knebworth, Hertfordshire (Clutterbuck, Hist. of Hertfordshire, ii. 380), but resigned that living in August of the same year, when he was presented by the chapter of Windsor to the rectory of West Ildesley, Berkshire. The latter benefice he held till his death, which happened in his lodgings in Windsor Castle on 30 Dec. 1742. He was buried in the south aisle of St. George's Chapel.
He married Rebecca, widow of Sir Joshua Sharp, knight, sheriff of London, and daughter of John Hervey, merchant, of London.
The sermons which he published separately were, with some additions, printed in a collected form, under the title of ‘Forty-five Sermons on several Subjects,’ 3 vols. London, 1745, 8vo, under the editorship of John Chapman, D.D., and William Berriman, D.D. The claims of lunatics on the humanity of the public were nobly stated by him in two Spital sermons preached in 1707 and 1718. He contributed verses to the university collections on the death of Queen Mary, the peace of Ryswick, and the accession of Queen Anne. Snape was the editor of Dean Moss's ‘Sermons’ (1732); but the preface, ‘by a Learned Hand,’ was contributed by Zachary Grey (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ii. 539, iv. 236).
There is a good mezzotinto print of him, engraved ‘ad vivum’ by Faber (Bromley). A smaller print was also published, but the printsellers fraudulently reissued it as a portrait of Orator Henley [see Henley, John] (Granger Letters, p. 323).
[Cole's Hist. of King's College, iv. 106; Cooke's Preacher's Assistant, ii. 312; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ii. 423, 3rd ser. vi. 309, 404, 6th ser. viii. 7, 136, 213, 274, 7th ser. ix. 48, 115, 197, 257, 9th ser. i. 323; Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, pp. 48, 274; Addit. MS. 5880, f. 67; Swift's Letters, 1766, ii. 55, 125; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy); Whiston's Memoirs, i. 245; Pote's Antiquities of Windsor, p. 365; Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England; Noble's Contin. of Granger, iii. 117; Georgian Era, i. 492; Monk's Life of Bentley, i. 191.]
T. C.