Thomas Snagge

Sir Thomas Snagge (1536–1593) was a Member of Parliament, barrister and landowner who served as Speaker of the English House of Commons, Attorney General for Ireland and as Queen's Sergeant.

Snagge was born in 1536 in Letchworth. He was the son of Thomas Snagge, the prosperous lord of the manor of Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire. He studied law at Gray's Inn, and after being called to the bar in 1554 practiced law in London.

Snagge was elected as a knight of the shire for Bedfordshire in 1571. He was chosen by Queen Elizabeth to be Attorney General for Ireland and held this appointment from 1577 to 1580. The Queen chose him because "the public service had been not a little hindered through the default and insufficiency of the law officers" and "her Majesty thought that a person well-chosen in England might be sent over". Snagge in fact was not particularly well-chosen: he disliked living in Ireland and, according to a modern writer, his official correspondence is simply a long list of complaints. In particular, he complained of the inefficiency of the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Nicholas White, and went so far as to make an official complaint against him to the Privy Council of England. In 1580 he was appointed a Serjeant-at-law.

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