| Notes |
- From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:
Saltonstall, Sir Richard (1521?–1601), merchant and local politician, was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, the second son of Gilbert Saltonstall, a yeoman, and was apprenticed to Richard Stanfield, a prosperous member of the Skinners' Company, of which he became free in 1551. By 1571 he was well established as one of the leading exporters of cloth to the Low Countries, but his activities extended beyond their traditional bilateral trade with northern Europe, making it serve broader multilateral interests. He became one of the largest traders with Spain, and elbowed his way into membership of the Spanish Company in 1577. His partnership's imports from Iberia were valued at £2956 in 1584, but he continued to import large quantities (as much as £6000-worth from Hamburg and Stade in 1587–8) from northern Europe in the later 1580s. Saltonstall was also a member of the regulated companies trading to Turkey (1580), Russia (1586), and the Levant (1592), although it is not clear whether he was an active trader in these areas. In later years he became involved in customs administration, securing the lucrative post of customer of London by 1598, in which he was assisted by his son Samuel. His subsidy assessments suggest that he was numbered among the top seventy-five citizens in terms of his wealth, and he was reported to be worth £20,000 in the 1590s. [...]
He was active in both the management of the Company of Merchant Adventurers and the Skinners' Company and in the government of the city. He assisted John Marsh, governor of the merchant adventurers, in negotiations with Alva's government in the Netherlands in 1570, and was himself acting as governor of the company by 1585, and undertook the delicate negotiations with Stade and Hamburg over the location of the English staple in 1587 and 1588. First elected warden of the Skinners' Company in 1568, he served as its master four times (1589–90, 1593–4, 1595–6, and 1599–1600), though on the last occasion he required a deputy because of his deteriorating health. He was a common councillor from 1571, and served as a governor of St Thomas's Hospital from 1571 to 1578 and as its treasurer from 1575 until 1577. His business acumen ensured that he was frequently called on by the privy council to arbitrate commercial disputes and (especially in the 1590s) to assist in the provision of exchange facilities for the crown. He also served as MP for the city of London in 1586. He was elected alderman of Aldgate ward on 26 September 1588 and moved to Tower ward in 1592, where he served until his death. He held the office of sheriff in 1588–9 and of lord mayor in 1597–8. By the time of his mayoralty the worst of the difficulties of the 1590s had passed, and he oversaw the implementation of the new poor law legislation which led to a doubling of the rates in London. However, the war in Ireland continued to make demands on the city's resources, and much of the administration's energies during this time was consumed in the pursuit of tax defaulters.
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
Abt 1522 - 1601 (~ 79 years)
[2]