SALWEY, Edward (1631-c.66), of Stanford-on-Teme, Worcs.

Edward Salwey was the grandson of Humphrey Salwey*, who was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1652 as a respected Rumper, lay member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines and ally of his fellow knight of the shire, John Wylde. On his mother’s side of the family, Edward Salwey’s most celebrated relation was his uncle, the poet John Dryden. Edward Salwey has been confused with his father, also Edward, who after education at Brasenose, Oxford, and the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar in 1635, died in March 1639.5Al. Ox.; HP Commons 1660-1690, ‘Sir Francis Winnington’; Stanford-on-Teme par. reg. In 1655 the family was threatened by Gilbert Cornwall, of Burford in Oxfordshire, who claimed small sums of money due to him from the period when Edward Salwey junior was his ward.6BRL, Hanley Court mss, box 4, 398547. After Humphrey Salwey’s death, the leading political figure of the family was Richard Salwey*, Edward Salwey’s uncle, who was out of sympathy with the protectorate, and who retired from politics while both Oliver Cromwell* and Richard Cromwell* were heads of state. After coming of age in 1652, Edward Salwey seems to have lived the life of the country squire at Stanford, appearing on local assessment commissions only from 1657, suggesting that he was no more enthusiastic about the protectorate than his uncle, Richard. In 1655, he was described as supporting at Stanford ‘an able preaching minister’, Thomas Stedman.7Soc. Antiq. Prattinton Coll. Top. xxxi, p. 2. He seems only to have become a justice of the peace on the eve of the Restoration, and then inevitably briefly, given his anti-monarchical family background.

Edward Salwey’s appearance in the Parliament of Richard Cromwell* almost certainly owed everything to John Wylde, who was the most important figure in Droitwich, and who took the borough’s other seat. Wylde had lost ground in the county to Nicholas Lechmere* and the fabulously wealthy businessman, Thomas Foley*, so was retreating somewhat to safe home territory at this election. The choice of Salwey as a partner was a natural acknowledgement of the successful political partnership between Wylde and Salwey’s grandfather. Given his complete inexperience, Salwey did well to be named to the committee for elections, albeit 89th out of the total of 148 so nominated.8CJ vii. 594b. This was in fact his only committee appointment, but he seems to have had few inhibitions in contributing to debate on the floor of the House. His first intervention, on 1 February, was to move that the question be put on the bill for recognising the lord protector. That this should not be taken as any indication of Salwey’s loyalty to Richard Cromwell, but rather as a tactical move, is suggested by his association on 9 February with the republican Sir Arthur Hesilrige on a motion to adjourn the House until the following day.9Burton, Diary, iii. 29, 194.

On 5 February, using his position as a member of the elections committee, Salwey denounced the crypto-royalist, Thomas Street* as ‘a common swearer’, elected in Worcester by a rabble.10Burton, Diary, iii. 69-70. On the 14th, Salwey called for an overnight adjournment of the debate on the recognition of the protector, and on 4 March, again in concert with Hesilrige, suggested wording on a motion about recognising the Other House.11Burton, Diary, ii. 284; iv. 17. On 21 March, when Hesilrige argued against recognising the legal rights of Scots, attempting to revert to Rumper attitudes towards their defeated enemy, Salwey ‘snarled’ in support.12Burton, Diary, iv. 218. Neverthless, when the final vote on recognising the Other House was taken, Salwey seems to have opposed the intransigence of Hesilrige and those who sought to continue to defy the protector.13Burton, Diary, iv. 293. On 2 April, Salwey seconded a motion by Job Charlton on the taking of oaths in legal cases, and with some insight noted in the House on 14 April that members of the Other House were not in their chamber but at Wallingford House, headquarters of senior officers of the army.14Burton, Diary, iv. 333, 426. A week later the Parliament was dissolved, and the military assumed power.

Edward Salwey’s life and career after the dissolution of Richard Cromwell’s Parliament remain a mystery. It can only be assumed that he returned to Stanford, and died at some time before December 1666, when his cousin, Thomas Salwey, released his executors and co-heiresses from paying arrears of a rent-charge.15Soc. Antiq. Prattinton Coll. Top. xxxi p. 145. In October 1669 his brother-in-law, Sir Francis Winnington†, was installed at the family home.16Stanford-on-Teme par. reg. Winnington was of a thoroughly different political outlook, and a much more compliant figure, becoming solicitor-general to Charles II in 1674. It is certainly possible that Salwey, who was of much the same outlook as his uncle, Richard Salwey, was bought out by his unsympathetic brother-in-law.17HP Commons 1660-1690, ‘Sir Francis Winnington’. In either case, Edward Salwey was the last at Stanford to bear his surname.