CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Thomas Salt

British politician (1830–1904)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ7793759 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sir Thomas Salt, 1st Baronet (12 May 1830 – 8 April 1904), was a British banker and Conservative politician.

Career

His grandfather John Stevenson Salt, (High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1838), married Sarah Stevenson, the granddaughter of John Stevenson, founder in 1737 of a banking company in Stafford. Salt became a partner in the firm of Stevenson Salt & Co which had opened in Cheapside, London in 1788 and which in 1867 merged with Bosanquet & Co and later with Lloyds Banking Company. Salt went on to be a director, and later chairman, of Lloyds from 1884 to 1896. He was also chairman, from 1883 to 1904, of the North Staffordshire Railway. He was also chair of the New Zealand Midland Railway Company in 1889.

He was returned to Parliament for Stafford in 1859, a seat he held until 1865, and again from 1869 to 1880, 1881 to 1885 and 1886 to 1892. From January 1876 to April 1880, he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, a junior post, in the second ministry of Benjamin Disraeli's government. In 1899 he was created a Baronet, of Standon, and of Weeping Cross in the County of Stafford. His estates included Baswich House, built by his father in 1850, and Standon Hall, which his son later rebuilt in 1901.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Thomas Salt” as british politician (1830–1904). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1830, 1904, 1838, 1737—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1830-05-12. The account is most persuasive where Thomas, Salt and British can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british politician (1830–1904). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7793759. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1830, 1904, 1838 and 1737.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Thomas Salt”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Thomas Salt primary sources, Thomas Salt archive and Thomas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thomas Salt”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Salt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.