Sir Richard Saltonstall (baptised, 4 April 1586 – October 1661)[1] led a group of English settlers up the Charles River to settle in what is now Watertown, Massachusetts in 1630.

[2] Before leaving England for North America, he served as a Justice of the Peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire and was Lord of the Manor of Ledsham,[3] which he got from the Harebreds and later sold to the Earl of Strafford.

[3] After Grace died in 1625, Sir Richard married Lady Elizabeth West, with whom he had daughter Anne and son John.

[1][3] They boarded the Arbella in April 1630 at Yarmouth,[8] off of the southern coast of England, with the Winthrop company and arrived in Salem, Massachusetts on 12 June 1630.

On 29 March 1631, Sir Richard and his family, less two sons, travelled to Boston where they lodged at Governor Winthrop's house.

[3] In 1631, Sir Richard, and several other English gentlemen and lords, were granted a patent of Connecticut by the Plymouth Council in England.

[11] In 1635, he organized and funded[12] a party of over 20 men, led by Francis Stiles, to prepare a settlement in Connecticut for the arrival of the patentees.

[3][11] Sir Richard Saltonstall appears to have been in Newtown, Montgomeryshire (Powys), Wales at the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660.