Background
Born on 26 December 1756, he was the third son of Miles Barne of Sotterley, Suffolk, and his second wife, Mary Thornhill, a daughter of George Thornhill of Diddington, Huntingdonshire.
Born on 26 December 1756, he was the third son of Miles Barne of Sotterley, Suffolk, and his second wife, Mary Thornhill, a daughter of George Thornhill of Diddington, Huntingdonshire.
He was educated at Westminster School and then matriculated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1776, gaining Bachelor of Laws in 1781 and then becoming a fellow in 1786.
Family and Early He was admitted at the Inner Temple on 11 June 1773 and then migrated to the Middle Temple at that date in 1782, having been called to the Bar in 1781, from which time he began practising on the Western circuit. He later became a Bencher of the Inner Temple, in 1816. Given that the elder brother, Barne Barne, had been appointed Commissioner of Taxes in 1791, it fell upon Snowdon Barne, who had not been “making that progress in his profession which … might have been expected”, to take over the seat.
He gave silent support to Pitt the Younger’s administration, but tended to oppose Addington’s, voting with the opposition on the defence questions that brought down that ministry in 1804.
He continued to support Pitt when he became Prime Minister after Addingtion’s defeat. He voted against censuring Lord Melville in 1805 and sat on a Committee to investigate the Eleventh Naval Report, both acts allowing him to obtain a reward for his service from Pitt, who had him appointed Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer in 1806.
He declined the offer from Spencer Percival to be Secretary to the Treasury, citing the workload, but was made a Lord of the Treasury in 1809 and being reappointed each year thereafter until 1812. During that time, he voted in favour of the Government, making clear his desire for a place on the Custom Board.
His support in several Bills during 1811 and 1812 saw this realised and he was appointed to that Board in 1812.
With the retirement of the joint Chairmen of the Commissioners of Customs, William Roe and Francis Fownes Luttrell, in 1819, Richard Betenson Dean became Chairman and Barne was appointed Deputy Chairman. He suffered from a “stoke of the palsy” in 1822 and, although recovering to some degree, decided to resign that office in 1823 and died, unmarried, on 3 July 1825 and was buried at Sotterley. Bibliography
The Gentlemen’s Magazine, volunteer xcv (1825, pt ii)
J. C. Sainty, Office-Holders in Modern Britain, volunteer
1 (Treasury Officials 1660-1870), 1972
West. Stokes, “Barne, Snowdon (1756-1825), of Dunwich, Suff.” in R. Thorne (ed), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, 1986
J. Venn and Judge-Advocate Venn (eds), Alumni Cantabrigienses, volunteer ii, part i, 1940.
1st United Kingdom Parliament. 2nd United Kingdom Parliament. 3rd United Kingdom Parliament.
4th United Kingdom Parliament.
18th Parliament of Great Britain.
