Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 105:
Fr Joseph Snell CP

Joseph Snell was born of French Protestant parents at Lyons in 1802. At the age of twenty-three he became a Catholic and was ordained in 1830.(1)

Fr Snell was one of the priests of the Passionist Congregation that Bishop Polding brought to establish a mission to the indigenous people on Stradbroke Island in May 1843. He was the first of the four to arrive with Archbishop Polding on 13 May. Dr Gregory VG accompanied Fathers Maurice Lencioni, Luigi Pesciaroli and Raymond Vaccari, arriving aboard the Sovereign on 4 June. The following day, Dr Polding took these three priests, accompanied by provisions for the mission, to join Fr Snell at Dunwich on the island.

By 1846 the missioners were frustrated and depressed by the progress they were making and so decided to abandon the mission.(2) In June of that year, Fathers Snell, Lencioni and Pesciaroli set out in a small rowing boat for Brisbane, from where on 25 June they sailed for Sydney, aboard the schooner William. Owing to strong southern gales the little ship was wind-bound along the coast, and did not reach its destination until 22 July. Two weeks later they boarded the schooner Sister, reaching Adelaide on 1 September 1846.(3) Father Vaccari, who had been appointed Prefect Apostolic of the Mission, before they left Rome, remained on Stradbroke until he left, arriving in Sydney on 20 July 1847.(4)

The Adelaide Catholic paper published some memories of Fathers Lencioni and Snell in 1925:

Father Snell was Swiss, a convert, and the son of a rich banker, and gave up all worldly advancement when he entered the Church.
Father Snell, or Dr Snell, for he was a doctor by right, a missionary apostolic and an MA, was a most accomplished man. He spoke German, French, Italian, English and Turkish fluently. He acquired the latter in Bulgaria, where he had been stationed for some years before he came to Australia.
Bishop Murphy sent him to Morphett Vale. How he managed to subsist in that small mission was a mystery to everyone, because there were certainly no more than 150 Catholics in his entire district. But Father Snell was accustomed to poverty, and lived as economically as, I suppose, a human being could. The difficulty he used to say was to adjust the balance between food and clothing, for an excess on one side led to a privation of the other. He lived in the sacristy of his church and managed to subsist – aye and to build a school, the ruins of which may still be seen by the old stone chapel.
In 1861 his health gave way. He went to Melbourne for change of air, and died suddenly. The Very Rev Father Reynolds, his successor at Morphett Vale, and afterwards the Archbishop of Adelaide, erected a memorial window to his memory in the little church.(5)

The difficult years began to tell on Fr Snell and his health began to fail. Early in 1861 he was ordered to take a long holiday. He went to Melbourne, Launceston and Hobart and was in Bendigo in June. Fr Snell was living at Carisbrook, a little town about a hundred miles from Melbourne when he had a serious heart attack. Bishop Geoghegan went up from Melbourne to see him and said Mass at his bedside. Fr Joseph Snell died on 13 July 1861 and was buried in the Carisbrook cemetery.(6)

Footnotes
1. Denis W Martin, The Foundation of the Catholic Church in Queensland, 1988 edition, p. 25.
2. Ibid. pp. 27 to 47.
3. Ibid. p. 38 – quoting Osmond Thorpe.
4. Ibid. p. 39.
5. Southern Cross, Adelaide, 17 Jul 1925, p. 19.
6. Denis W Martin, Op. Cit. P. 47.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.

---

Shipping Intelligence. Cleared Out. Saturday, April 6, South Australian Register, Adelaide, 8 April 1861, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50016049:

Aldinga, steamer, 500 tons, H. McMeikan, master, for Melbourne. Passengers— Rev. J. Snell, [...]

---

Died, South Australian Advertiser, 23 July 1861, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article875617:

Snell.—On the 13th July, at Carisbrook, Victoria, the Rev. Joseph Snell, C.C., of Morphett Vale, in this Province, aged 59 years. R.I.P.

---

The Argus, Melbourne, 7 August 1861, p 8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5702778:

In order to suit the convenience of the Catholic clergy, the Month's Mind for the Very Rev. Joseph Snell, late pastor of Morphett Vale, Adelaide, who died at the Rev. Father Fennelly's residence, Carisbrook, on the 18th ult., will be held in St. Mary's Church, Castlemaine on the 8th inst.

---

Public Notices, South Australian Advertiser, Adelaide, 15 August 1861, p 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article876451:

All parties Indebted to the Estate of the late Rev. Joseph Augustus Snell, of Morphett Vale, Roman Catholic Clergyman, are requested to pay the same immediately and all parties having claims against the said Estate will please forward a statement of the same to the undersigned.
Dated this 12th day of August, 1861.
Belt, Cullen, & Wigley, Solicitors for the Executor, Green's Exchange, Adelaide.