Saltonstall, Sir Richard

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Sir Richard Saltonstall (sôl´tənstôl), 1586–1658, early English colonist in Massachusetts. Of a prominent Yorkshire family (he was knighted in 1618), Saltonstall became a member and was appointed an assistant of the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629. With his five children he accompanied John Winthrop (1588–1649) to America in 1630 and was a founder of Watertown, Mass. In 1631 he returned to England, where he helped secure the grant at the mouth of the Connecticut River that led to the settlement of Saybrook.