The Origin Legend of Edward Salt in America – 52 Ancestors # 33

Since I have written about Edward (my emigrant Salt ancestor) a couple of times before, I will try not to repeat myself too much.  There are two parts to the legend of Edward and how he came to be in America that I want to focus on in as much detail as I can muster.  The basic family legend says that he came from a variety of places in England, married an Irish lady and so was disinherited by his (wealthy) parents, and ran away to the colonies in the middle of the 18th century as a result.   His parents are never named, his birth date is never reported nor is how old he was when he died (in 1813).  I’m hoping, by organizing what I have seen or heard, I can come up with an action plan for how and where to look next for the real facts.

Places Edward was said to have been born:

Berkshire, England

West Riding of Yorkshire, near Bradford or Saltaire

Birmingham, Warwickshire or Birmingham, Yorkshire

Saltayre, Yorkshire

Although I have seen it said that our Edward was the descendant of Titus Salt who was a wool manufacturer in Yorkshire and built a village for his workers called Saltaire, this is not possible since Titus wasn’t born until 1803.  Edward was already in America, married with children older than this Titus.  Titus Salt’s grandfather, also called Titus Salt, would have been born around 1725, so it is just possible that he might have been a relative (perhaps a brother of Edward’s father).  I need to see if I can discover who the elder Titus’s parents were (action plan #1).

Birmingham in Warwickshire is geographically possible, and was another early manufacturing center.  At the time Edward would have been born and left home (most likely) Birmingham was in Warwickshire although that has changed more recently.  I have just found a baptism record for an Edward in Wolverhampton in 1750, and a marriage between an Edward and an Ann Bentley in 1772 in Birmingham that could conceivably be the right Edward (although there is some reason to think his wife was called Mary).  I need to see each of these records to see if there is more that isn’t indexed (action plan #2).  Because there is evidence that Edward Salt and his family were in Virginia by 1776 or so (daughter Innocent was born in Virginia and likely between 1776-1778), if the family legend is correct that he married prior to coming to Virginia, he would have had to marry in the range of 1772-1775 (there is no sighting of any child with his family born prior to Innocent or in England).  The only marriage between an Edward and a Mary (Mary Meanley) is in the right time frame but the later birth of a child in England rules this Mary out as our ancestor.¹

Yorkshire or Warwickshire look promising as general locations to look for Edward, rather than Berkshire which is south of London.  As a surname Salt is most common in Staffordshire which is between Yorkshire and Warwickshire.  Historically there is a small town in Staffordshire called Salt and the name goes back to the Domesday Book.

The other part of the legend is the mysterious Irish lady and being disinherited by his wealthy family.  It sounds so romantic but no one seems to know where the information came from.  It does make some logical sense that Edward Salt had some money when he came to Virginia.  He bought land.  On the other hand he apparently couldn’t sign his name to records but used a mark (which sometimes looked like a “C” and sometimes like an “E”).  I would have thought that a family with some means would have educated him to read and write.

The question of who the Irish lady was, if she was Irish, is difficult to answer.  I have a vague notion that there were certainly times in the history of the two countries when a marriage between Irish and English might have been frowned on (or worse).  I don’t yet know if there is actual support for this notion.  Action plan #3 involves my trying to find out.  Unfortunately the family legend doesn’t include any inkling of how Edward was supposed to have met this Irish lady, Mary, or where they met, or where they married.  The implication is that it was England and that they married there.  It’s too bad that the children of Edward and his wife don’t seem to have left any help for us – no family Bible going back to England, no diaries or even letters addressing any history about their parents.