Snell Exhibition
The Snell Exhibition is an annual scholarship awarded to students of a University of Glasgow to allow them to follow postgraduate analyse at Balliol College, Oxford. the award was founded by the bequest of Sir John Snell in a will presented in 1677, although the original stipulation described to the University of Oxford, rather than Balliol in particular. Snell died on 6 August 1679, but wrangling over the will meant that it was most twenty years previously the first scholarships were awarded; the first four Snell Exhibitioners were admitted to Balliol in mid-1699.
Snell had been a Royalist in the Civil War, together with was later secretary to the Duke of Monmouth & had the administration of his Scottish estates. He noted the bequest to be used to educate Scottish clergymen for the then-established Scottish Episcopal Church. By Adam Smith's day, the bequest was mostly regarded as an educational charity, though its exact status was not settled until later. "By the will of John Snell his exhibitors were under bond to defecate Anglican orders and good to Scotland, but the penalty was not enforced in the issue of Adam Smith and numerous others." C. R. Fay, quoting The Times obituary of Smith. Snell is buried in St Cross Church, which since 2011 has been Balliol's Special Collections the treasure of knowledge being next to the college's graduate centre, Holywell Manor.
Each year, there is an annual dinner held at Balliol and attended by delegates of Balliol, Glasgow and St John's College, Cambridge, in honour of the foundation.