throughout was spent unsparingly, and Saltaire became, through the care of its owner and originator, the most complete model manufacturing town in the world.
In 1856 Salt was elected president of the Bradford chamber of commerce, and at the general election in April 1859 he was returned to represent Bradford in the House of Commons. Though holding strong liberal and nonconformist opinions, he was no active politician, and retired from the representation in February 1861. He was created a baronet in September 1869.
Salt will be remembered in the history of British commerce as the establisher of a new industry and the founder of a town, and as one of the first of great English manufacturers who recognised to the full the requirements of those employed by them, and who made the cost of providing for the sanitary and domestic welfare of the wage-earners a first charge on the profits of the concern.
He died on 29 Dec. 1876, and, at the request of the corporation of Bradford, was accorded a public funeral; he was buried in a mausoleum at Saltaire.
He married, in 1829, Caroline, youngest daughter of George Whitlam of Great Grimsby, by whom he left a family of eleven children. Lady Salt was always interested in his benevolent undertakings, which she continued after his death. By his will she and her eldest son had the disposal of the almshouse, hospital, institute, and schools at Saltaire, and of an endowment fund of 30,000l. They created the Salt trust in 1877, and left the institute and high schools to the control of the governors of the Salt schools. In 1887 they also transferred to the governors the hospital, almshouse, and endowment fund of 30,000l. Lady Salt died at St. Leonard's on 20 April 1893, and was buried at Saltaire.
There is in the possession of the family a portrait of Sir Titus Salt, by J. P. Knight, R.A., presented to him by public subscription in 1871; and a bust by T. Milnes, presented by the people of Saltaire in 1856. A statue, by Adams Acton, was erected in 1874, and stands near the town-hall, Bradford.
[Times, 30 Dec. 1876; Illustrated London News, 2 Oct. 1869 (with portrait); Leeds Mercury, 30 Dec. 1876 and 22 April 1893; Balgarnie's Life of Sir Titus Salt; Holroyd's Saltaire and its Founder; Reports on Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, vol. vi.]
SALT, WILLIAM (1805–1863), the Staffordshire antiquary, born in 1805, was third son of John Stevenson Salt of 9 Russell Square, London, and Weeping Cross, West Staffordshire, a member of the firm of Stevenson Salt & Sons, bankers in Lombard Street. In due course he became a junior partner in that firm, his leisure hours being devoted to archæological pursuits. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an active member of the Royal Society of Literature. At the reading-room of the British Museum he was a constant visitor, and he presented many valuable works to that institution. The only work he printed was ‘A List and Description of the Manuscript Copies of Erdeswicke's Survey of Staffordshire, which, after careful inquiry, have been traced in Public Libraries or Private Collections,’ sine loco aut anno, 1842–3. Only twenty copies of this work were issued in a separate form, but it was included in the 1844 edition of Harwood's ‘Erdeswicke,’ pp. lxxix–ci. Salt spent thirty years in the collection of books, pamphlets, maps, drawings, and manuscripts illustrative of the history of Staffordshire. Another of his undertakings was the proper alphabetical arrangement of wills in the probate office at Lichfield. This work was highly commended by Lord Romilly in a speech in the House of Lords. Late in life he married Miss H. Black, and he resided in Park Square East, Regent's Park, where he died on 6 Dec. 1863.
Salt's archæological collection was valued at 30,000l., and after his death was catalogued for sale by Messrs. Sotheby. Sufficient funds were, however, collected to secure it for the county, and in 1872 it was located at Stafford in a house purchased by Mrs. Salt at a cost of 2,000l. To provide for the proper keeping of the collection, and for the salary of a librarian, the county subscribed 6,217l., of which sum 2,000l. was contributed by Salt's nephew, Thomas Salt, M.P. The collection consists of more than seven thousand volumes, 2,300 deeds, eight or nine thousand drawings and engravings, with numerous autographs and other manuscripts; and it is being gradually augmented by appropriate donations.
In memory of him the ‘William Salt Archæological Society’ was established at Stafford, 17 Sept. 1879. Its object is the editing and printing of original documents relating to the county of Stafford, and it has published (1880–94) fifteen volumes of collections for a history of Staffordshire.
[Private information; Publ. of the William Salt Archæol. Soc. vol. i. pp. i–vii; Calvert's Hist. of Stafford (1886), p. 70; Examiner, 12 Dec. 1863, p. 796; Gent. Mag. 1864, i. 133; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vi. 359, 378, 584, viii. 429, ix. 251; Simms's Bibl. Staffordiensis
