Richard Saltonstall (mayor)

Sir Richard Saltonstall (1521-1601) was an English politician and Lord Mayor of London.

Richard Saltonstall was descended from Robert de Saltonstall who held lands in Warley, near Halifax, Yorkshire in 1274. He was the son of Gilbert Saltonstall, a cloth merchant of Halifax, who owned lands in Hipperholme. For a time, Richard lived in the Netherlands, where he was a member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London; by 1585, he had become the director of the company. He was also affiliated with the Muscovy Company, the Levant Company, and the English East India Company. Richard had a long political career serving the city of London. He was a member of the city council by 1583, a Member of Parliament in 1586, and an alderman by 1588. He served as Sheriff of the City of London for 1589 and was elected Lord Mayor of London for 1597. He served as master of the Skinners Company in 1589, 1593, 1595–6, and 1599–1600. He was knighted in 1598. Sir Richard's mansions were at "Mynchenlane," London, Moorhall in Hertfordshire, and South Ockendon near Romford in Essex.

He married Susannah Poyntz, only daughter of Thomas Poyntz, Esq. of South Ockendon; together they had seven sons and nine daughters (in addition to at least one illegitimate daughter fathered by Richard). He was the uncle of New England colonist Sir Richard Saltonstall, father-in-law of Richard Wyche (a director of the English East India Company) and Sir Thomas Myddelton (a later Lord Mayor of London), and grandfather of Sir Peter Wyche (Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire), Nathaniel Wyche (president of the English East India Company) and Sir Thomas Myddelton (a general in the English Civil War).