Copyright notice

This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Printer-friendly page

Snoden, Thomas

by William S. Price, Jr., 1994

D. Ca. March 1714

Thomas Snoden, attorney and colonial official, first appears in the records of North Carolina in November 1693 as a minor. He had been apprenticed to one Thomas Hassold by his stepfather, Edmond Pirkins, and was to remain an apprentice until Pirkins returned for him or until he reached the age of twenty-one.

How Snoden rose from those humble beginnings to become a reasonably well-educated attorney is not known, but he began arguing cases before the General Court in July 1702 and practiced law until his death. A young man of obvious talents (court minutes surviving in his hand are the best written of the period), Snoden rose quickly in North Carolina government. From service as clerk of the General Court and Court of Chancery (as well as the General Assembly in 1703) during March 1703–July 1705, Snoden went on to become attorney general from July 1705 to 1708. In 1712 he represented Perquimans Precinct in the lower house and was chosen speaker of the Assembly by his peers.

Snoden was scheduled for appointment as a justice of the General Court when he died suddenly early in 1714. He left a wife Constance and son Thomas.

References:

J. R. B. Hathaway, ed., North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, 3 vols. (1900–1903).

William S. Price, Jr., ed., North Carolina Higher-Court Records, 1702–1708 (1974) and North Carolina Higher-Court Minutes, 1709–1723 (1977).

Additional Resources:

Search results for Thomas Snoden in Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Documenting the American South, UNC Libraries: https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/search

History Of Perquimans County, North Carolina: As Compiled From Records Found There And Elsewhere. Genealogical Publishing Com, 2009. http://books.google.com/books?id=eU8d_Q2V90cC&dq=Thomas+Snoden+1714&source=gbs_navlinks_s&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed May 9, 2013).

Subjects: 
Biographies
Lawyers
Public officials
Authors: 
Price, William S., Jr.
Origin - location: 
Coastal Plain
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1994 | Price, William S., Jr.