Robert Snelling was one of the two MPs for Ipswich in a number of English parliaments between 1614 and 1626.
He was the only son of a merchant, Robert Snelling, of Whatfield and Ipswich and his wife Alice, the daughter of John Bacon, yeoman, of Great Blakenham. Alice had previously been married to Henry Cutting, yeoman, of Ringshall, Suffolk.