SALTASH, a borough and market-town and chapelry,
in the parish of ST-STEPHEN,
having separate jurisdiction,
though locally in
the southern division of the
hundred of East, county of
CORNWALL, 21 miles (S.S.E.)
from Launceston, and 220
(W.S.W.) from London, containing
1548 inhabitants.
This is a place of considerable
antiquity, the county
assizes having been held here so early as 1393. In the
civil commotions between Charles I. and the parliament,
its local importance was evinced in the repeated contests
for possession by both the conflicting parties, which terminated
in its final abandonment by the royalists in
1646; during this collision the town was fortified. It
is pleasantly situated on a steep rocky elevation rising
from the western bank of the river Tamar, and consists
principally of three narrow streets irregularly formed;
the houses in general are of ancient appearance. The
market is on Saturday; and fairs are held on Candlemasday,
and July 25th, for cattle; there are likewise four
quarterly shows for cattle. The inhabitants are, for the
greater part, fishermen, or persons connected with the
docks of Devonport. The first charter of incorporation
was granted in the reign of Henry III., which was confirmed
by Richard II., and renewed, with additional privileges,
by Charles II., in 1682, under the provisions of
which the municipal body consists of a mayor and six
aldermen, styled "the council of the borough," with an
indefinite number of free burgesses, assisted by a recorder
and other officers. The mayor is chosen annually
from among the aldermen, by the aldermen and free burgesses
the aldermen out of the free burgesses, and the
town clerk by the aldermen. The property of the oysterfishery,
to the mouth of the Tamar, except between Candlemas
and Easter, with river dues for anchorage, buoyage,
and salvage, and a right of ferry, are vested in the
corporation, and their coroner sits upon all bodies found
drowned in the river. Holding the manor under the
duchy of Cornwall, they are empowered, by the charter,
to hold a court of admiralty for the borough, and liberty
of the river Tamar. A court of record, established
by charter of the 35th of George III., for the recovery
of debts to any amount, is held every week, at which
the mayor and aldermen, or any two of them, preside.
Sessions for the division are held quarterly in the
guildhall: the assizes have not been held here for
many years. Saltash first returned members to parliament
in the reign of Edward VI.: the elective franchise
is in the freeholders of the borough possessing burgage
tenements, about seventy in number: the mayor is the
returning officer. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the
archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter, and
in the patronage of the Mayor and Corporation. The
chapel, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is an ancient structure,
with a fine massive tower: in the interior is a magnificent
monument to the memory of three brothers who
were drowned. There is a place of worship for Baptists.
Here are endowments of uncertain date; one by
John Francis Buller, to the amount of £ 15 per annum,
for the instruction of poor children at the National
school, and the other by the Crown,'of £6.17. 2. per
annum, in aid of the grammar school.