Peter Saltonstall

Peter Saltonstall (1577-1651), was an English courtier and lawyer.

Peter Saltonstall, circa 1610

He was the fourth son of Richard Saltonstall, Lord Mayor of London and Susan Saltonstall, from whom he inherited the manors of Barkway in Royston.[1]

He visited Scotland with the poet Benjamin Rudyerd, a friend from the Middle Temple in October 1601. They were tricked, and marked to be robbed, then imprisoned. Saltonstall and Rudyerd wrote to the resident diplomat in Edinburgh, George Nicholson, explaining their predicament. They had come to Scotland as innocent tourists. They crossed the border with a potential thief Robert Bruce alias Peter Nerne without any licence or passport and Sir Robert Ker arrested them. They were detained at Floors Castle. They were freed and met James VI in Edinburgh, who "used them with good countenance". Nicholson sent them back to London to see Sir Robert Cecil.[2]

In 1602 the lawyer John Manningham met the Scottish refugee Barbara Ruthven and wrote, "I sawe this afternoone a Scottishe Lady at Mr. Fleetes in Loathebury; shee was sister to Earl Gowre, a gallant tall gentlewoman, somewhat long visage, a lisping fumbling language. Peter Saltingstone came to visit hir".[3]

He was knighted in 1605. At court he became an equerry, escorting diplomats and ambassadors. His sister Anne Saltonstall married James Douglas, a grandson of George Douglas of Parkhead.

A list of equerries to King James in 1625 includes Peter Saltonstall with a fee of £20. The other equerries were; Robert Osbourne, Thomas Metham, Sigismund Zinzan, John Carelton, George Digbie, Roger Fielding, Gabriel Hippisley, and William Sanderson. The equerries of the late Anne of Denmark were Edward Bushell (who married a sister of Mary Gargrave), John Gill, Gregory Fenner, and Maurice Drummond.[4]

Marriage and family

Peter Saltonstall married Christian Pettus (1586-1646) on 10 May 1607.[5] Their children included:[6]

  • Susannah Saltonstall (d. 1633), who married Robert Castell.
  • Ann Saltonstall (1617-1647), who married Sir Edward Chester.[7]
  • Christian Saltonstall
  • Bridget Saltonstall (1624-1639)
  • Elizabeth Saltonstall (1623-1640)

The family monuments with verse epitaphs are in Barkway church.

References
  1. Henry Chauncy, Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, vol. 1 (London, 1826), pp. 108, 205.
  2. John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1597-1603, 13:2 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 884-6, 900.
  3. John Bruce, Diary of John Manningham (London, 1868), pp. 156, 168.
  4. HMC 6th Report: R. Graham (london, 1877), p. 324 now British Library.
  5. Henry Chauncy, Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, vol. 1 (London, 1826), p. 207.
  6. Henry Chauncy, Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, vol. 1 (London, 1826), p. 206.
  7. Henry Chauncy, Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, vol. 1 (London, 1826), p. 207.
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