Person:Charles Saltonstall (6)

Saltonstall, Charles (bap. 1607, d. 1665), naval officer and teacher of navigation, was baptized on 27 January 1607 at St Dunstan-in-the-East, Middlesex, the third of five children of Sir Samuel Saltonstall (d. 1640). In November 1627 Saltonstall was the owner, sole merchant, and captain of a merchant ship which arrived at St Kitts, ‘who brought with him good store of all commodities to relieve the plantation’. However, he found that some Dutch had been there before and carried away all the tobacco, so ‘he was forced to put away all his commodities upon trust until the next crop’. In the meantime he decided to stay at St Kitts ‘and employ himself and his company in planting Tobacco, hoping thereby to make a voyage’. But before he was ready to sail for England ‘a Haricon’ [hurricane] hit the island and ‘his ship was split to his great loss, being sole Merchant and owner himself’ (Travels and Works of Captain John Smith, 2.902). In 1629 Saltonstall commanded the Susan and Ellen, of nearly 300 tons, and sailed to Barbados, with Sir William Tufton, governor, ‘and divers gentlemen, and all manner of commodities fit for a plantation’ (ibid.).

It was probably in the early 1630s that Saltonstall served with the Dutch West India Company in the Caribbean. He seems to have returned to England by 1636, the year he published his navigational textbook based on wide reading and his own experience; he was then living near the Postern Gate on East Tower Hill, calling himself ‘A Public Professor of Mathematics’ and teaching the art of navigation. In 1642 he was appointed captain of the Swallow as part of the fleet commanded by Captain William Jackson on his privateering voyage, during which he captured Cartagena de las Indias and held it for eighteenth months. In 1648 when the fleet revolted Saltonstall, who was captain of the Hind, signed the pledge of loyalty to parliament.

In 1649 Saltonstall was appointed captain of the John (30 guns) and in 1650 was part of the fleet under Robert Blake which pursued Prince Rupert and his fleet of privateers to Lisbon. When Blake learned in October that Rupert was at Alicante, he went after him. On 4 November Saltonstall chased the Black Prince and overhauled her. To avoid capture the ship ran ashore off Cartagena and the captain blew her up. On 9 November Blake sailed in pursuit of the rest of Rupert's fleet and left Saltonstall at Cartagena as commander-in-chief with the John and two French prizes. Saltonstall also told Robert Cotymor, the admiralty committee secretary, on 22 November 1650: the Lord hath proved us exceedingly since we have had little of the arm of flesh amongst us … since our great and powerful fleet … were reduced only to a little squadron of ten ships, for … we have taken the Brazil fleet, and … our squadron being now but three ships and four frigates … we have taken three French ships and destroyed all Rupert's ships … and thus hath God owned us in the midst of our implacable enemies, so that the terror of God is among them. (Letters of Robert Blake, 90–91) In January 1652 Saltonstall was appointed captain of the hired merchant ship Lion and served under Blake at the battles of Kentish Knock (28 September) and Dungeness (30 November 1652). Saltonstall was then arrested and committed to the Fleet ‘in order to his trial for his defect and neglect of his duty … for not engaging in the last fight against the Dutch’ (Gardiner and Atkinson, 3.163–4). He was later freed after giving a personal bond with two sureties. On 2 April 1655 he married Elizabeth Howell at St Brides's, Fleet Street; they had two sons, Thomas and Charles. Saltonstall probably went back to teaching navigation. He issued the third, enlarged, edition of his book on navigation in 1660. He died in 1665, by which time ‘he had instructed many expert navigators, some of them now officers in the Navy’ (Taylor, 211). He was survived by his wife.

1.   .

   Peter Le Fevre, ‘Saltonstall, Charles (bap. 1607, d. 1665)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 30 Dec 2013
   
   Charles Saltonstall (bap. 1607, d. 1665): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24579

2. ↑ Hollowak, Thomas L., and Robert Barnes. Maryland Genealogies: A Consolidation of Articles from the Maryland Historical Magazine. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1980)
   2:136.
3. ↑ England. Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991. (FamilySearch, Ancestry.com).
4. ↑ England. Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. (FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, Findmypast).