There are records of the Snowden Family living in Edwinstowe from the 1500s. They had strong links with the Hooten family.

John Snowden was born at Worksop in 1584. He married Dorothe Wilkes (b 1580) also from Worksop. They had 11 children. John died in 1648 and Dorothe died in 1653.

Elizabeth was born in 1600. Edwinstowe Church documents that they had a son called William baptised in 1603.  In I653, on the 5th May, William and Anne Smith also of Edwinstowe were married. Their first child, John was baptised, 18th February, 1654. In December 1656, Ruth was born. William died in 1677 and was buried in Edwinstowe graveyard.

In 1639, John Snowden and Thomas Oldham, Churchwardens, were cited to the Archdeacon’s Court by the vicar,

“... for not presenting the decaye of the revestrie house belonging to the said Church of Edwinstowe, Clipston, and Budbye, whereby the goods of the said Church were last yeare stolne away to the value of about ten poundes, and the chest wherin they doe lay certain writings and other things belongoing to that church is without locks and keyes for the preservation of those goodes.”

In 1641, John signed, as church warden, the church register ‘for items’ which included, ‘writing parchment, table cloth and washing of surplus’. He was reimbursed for the purchases.

In 1647, there was a court case involving the Revd. George Rigge v Thorpe. The subject was property and John Snowden was a defendant.

St Mary’s Church registry records:

Thomas Snowden was buried on the 14th June, 1651. On 24th September, 1648 John Snowden Junior died. In 1653, 8th of September Jony w. John Snowden. Materfamiliari (the female head of a family) was buried. Jony is an old Hebrew name meaning “God is gracious”. On the 19th August 1664, Timothie and Judith Snowden were married. In 1668, on the 20th of August, John was born, son of Thomas and Anne Snowden. Sadly, he died on the 24th September.

Oliver Hooton’s first wife was Elizabeth Hooton nee Carrier. She and their first new born son died in 1629. They were buried at Ollerton. Elizabeth Snowden then became Oliver Hooton’s  second wife. They married at St Mary’s Church, Edwinstowe on the 17th  July 1632 .

Elizabeth and Oliver’s first child, Samuel, was born a year later and baptised at Ollerton and their next son, Oliver the year after that. Oliver, the father, died at Skegby, where they had moved to, on the 30th April 1657.

Elizabeth Hooton (nee Snowden) was a Quaker. She was the first woman to become a Quaker minister. She was beaten and imprisoned for propagating her beliefs;  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Hooton

Elizabeth was an immigrant Quaker.  She and other Quakers settled in New Jersey, Pennsylvania USA and were part of the new Quaker organisation.

She died in 1672. George Fox, founder of the Quakers, wrote of her death,

“Elizabeth Hooton, a woman of great age, who had travelled much in Truth’s service, and suffered much for it, departed this life. She was well the day before she died, and departed in peace, like a lamb, bearing testimony to Truth at her departure.”

                                                                   

George Fox Quaker Leader – courtesy Creative Commons           Elizabeth Snowden – Wikipedia

Other Snowden family members also lived in the area and there are church records at Ollerton, Laxton and Woodhouse.

In the 1700s, John Bellamy’s Will, makes reference to Snowden Meadow, ‘ a schoolhouse and closes called Snowden Meadow and Wood Meadow in Edwinstowe in trust for the schoolmaster school house.’  The school was sited at the Cross Roads. The Snowden Meadow is listed at the National Archives from 1546 – 1756.