Charles Snell Chauncy ne Snell

London merchant, father of Charles Snell Chauncy and Nathaniel Snell Chauncy (each of whom q.v.), son of William Snell and Martha Chauncey. Left £125,000 at death. The family were major slave-owners in the Windward Islands. Charles Snell Chauncy and his brother William Snell Chauncy (d. c. 1832) both added Chauncy as their surname under the will of their maternal grandfather Charles Chauncey: their brothers John Snell (q.v.) and Nathaniel Snell did not.

1. Will of Charles Snell Chauncy of Theobalds Hertfordshire proved 18/07/1809. It appointed his brothers Nathaniel Snell and John Snell with John Holt of Tottenham as trustees of £50,000 in consolidated bank annuities for the benefit of his wife Amelia provided she renounced her entitlement to property under the will of her father Nathaniel Chauncy (which was subject to proceedings in Chancery). He left his estates called Snell Hall and Broomfield on Grenada 'with all the negro and other slaves, stock and appurt[enanance]s thereto belonging' and all the other estates and slaves in Grenada, Dominica and elsewhere to which he was entitled under the will of his father William Snell, to Nathaniel Snell and Robert Lang in trust until his sons Charles Chauncey and Nathaniel Chauncey reached the age of 24, when they were to receive the estates as tenants in common. He left £100 to his brother William Snell Chauncey, who otherwise played no role in the will. In a codicil he added legacies of £50 to John Dean the former book-keeper of William Snell & Co. and of £50 and £20 to the clerk and book-keeper of Messrs Lang Turing & Co.

2. Born 08/04/1759, married Amelia Chauncey in 1781.

W.D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? Vol. 1 (2009) p. 32, reference 1809/18.

1. PROB 11/1500/155.

2. Findmypast.co.uk Boyd's Inhabitants of London & Family Units 1200-1946 [database online].