Snodham was the son of a
draper. In 1595 he was apprenticed to his uncle, the printer
Thomas East. East had started as a general printer, but from the 1580s he specialised in music printing after acquiring
music type from the business of
Thomas Vautrollier, a deceased printer. He printed works by well-known composers such as
William Byrd,
John Dowland, and
Orlando Gibbons.
Early printing career Snodham became a freeman of the
Stationers Company in 1602. He printed his first book the following year,
King James his entertainment at Theobalds, which was sold from East's premises. Later in his career Snodham was involved in another project of interest to King James, the atlas of his realm compiled by John Speed. When East died in 1608, he left a will making clear that he wanted Snodham to take over his business, while at the same time he made provision for the financial security of his widow Lucretia. Snodham acquired East's printing equipment. His later imprints place him in the parish of
St Sepulchre, near Aldersgate — consistent with East’s likely location. He also worked with some of the same composers such as
John Wilbye. For a while, the business continued to use the old name, presumably in the expectation of benefiting from
goodwill. For example, the second set of Wilbye's 'Madrigals' (1609) is stated to be printed by "Thomas East, alias Snodham". While sales of Wilbye´s
madrigals appear to have been respectable, the English craze for such compositions was waning by 1609. Madrigals continued to be published (for example
Vautor´s "First set" of 1619, possibly printed by Snodham) but Snodham was taking an interest in new areas of publishing such as cartography. ==Snodham and English drama==