Samuel Salt

Samuel Salt (died 1792) was an English lawyer and politician, known also for his connection to the family of author Charles Lamb.

The son of John Salt, vicar of Audley, Staffordshire, he was admitted at the Middle Temple in 1741, at the Inner Temple in 1745, and was called to the bar in 1753. In 1782 he was raised to the bench at the Inner Temple, became reader in 1787 and treasurer in 1788. Through the influence of the Eliot family, he was returned to parliament in 1768 for their pocket-boroughs of St Germans and Liskeard, and preferred to sit for the latter. He represented Liskeard during the three parliaments from 1768 to 1784 (with from 1774 to 1780 Edward Gibbon as colleague). In politics he was a Whig.

Breaking with his patron, Salt sat for Aldeburgh in Suffolk from 1784 to 1790. His introduction there is thought to have been through Philip Champion Crespigny.

John Lamb, father of Charles Lamb, was Salt's clerk for nearly 40 years; Charles was born in Crown Office Row, where Salt owned chambers, and it was the home of the Lamb family until 1792. Salt procured the admission of Charles to Christ's Hospital; and through his influence as a governor of the South Sea Company, Charles and his elder brother obtained clerkships under the company.

Salt died at his chambers in Crown Office Row, Inner Temple, on 27 July 1792, and was buried in a vault of the Temple Church. A shield with his coat-of-arms was placed in the sixteenth panel (counting from the west) on the north side of the Inner Temple hall. He was unmarried.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "". Dictionary of National Biography. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

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