SALTBY, Robert, of Lincoln.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Feb. 1383

Family and Education

m. Joan (d.1408/9), wid. of Alexander Herlley of Lincoln, at least 1s.1

Offices Held

Mayor, Lincoln Sept. 1383-4.2

Collector of a tax, Lincoln Dec. 1385, Nov. 1386.

Biography

Nothing is known about Saltby before the date of his first return to Parliament in February 1383. The Commons was still sitting when he offered securities in Chancery on behalf of Thomas Horncastle, a local merchant who was then being sued for averring threats. Another of his friends was William Belay of Lincoln, whose will, drawn up in the following October, he agreed to execute. Saltby had by then been elected mayor, and while in office he allegedly helped to lead armed raids upon the property of two neighbouring landowners, both of whom accused him of assault and robbery. Royal commissions of oyer and terminer were set up to investigate the charges laid first by Katherine Swynford (the then mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt) and afterwards by Roger Langford. The outcome of these inquiries is not recorded, but Saltby suffered little, if anything, as a result of his reputed misdemeanours. Indeed, he went on to serve twice as a tax collector for the Crown in Lincoln.3

Understandably, Saltby was one of the leading citizens who were required, in March 1388, to take the general oath in support of the Lords Appellant. His position in the community also led to his involvement in a protracted dispute between the civic authorities and the dean and chapter of Lincoln cathedral over their respective jurisdictions; and in May 1390 he was charged by the dean of conspiring with other former office-holders to undermine ecclesiastical privileges. Rather less is known of Saltby after this date. In 1391 he witnessed a deed in Lincoln, and four years later he obtained a royal pardon for any illegal transactions in wool. The alnager’s accounts for 1397 and 1398 show that he also had fairly extensive dealings in the cloth trade, as did his wife and their son, Peter. The latter, who became mayor of Lincoln in 1414, was, in fact, one of the richest and most influential merchants in the city.4

Saltby died well before July 1408, when his widow, Joan, drew up her will. She had by then married Robert Appleby*; and she made provision for one of her tenements in Lincoln to be sold so that masses could be said for each of her three husbands, of whom Saltby was the second.5

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

Variant: Sultby.

  • 1. Reg. Repingdon (Lincoln Rec. Soc. lvii), 144.
  • 2. Assoc. Archit. Socs. Reps. and Pprs. xxxix. 230.
  • 3. Lincs. AO, Reg. Buckingham XII, f. 281v; CCR, 1381-5, p. 289; CPR, 1381-5, pp. 503-4.
  • 4. E101/339/29, 30; RP, iii. 403; CPR, 1388-92, pp. 270-1; 1391-6, p. 627; Lincs. AO, St. Mark’s deeds FL2/6.
  • 5. Reg. Repingdon, 144.