JIM GREENHALF tells the story of the meeting of the Saltaire wool magnate and the woman who ran his home and bore his children

It was on a Saturday 183 years ago that Titus Salt, from Morley, junior partner in his father’s woolbuying company Daniel Salt & Son, married Caroline Whitlam at Grimsby’s 12th century parish church.

He was 26, she was 18, the daughter of a prosperous sheep farmer whose home, the Manor House, was posh enough for Salt to prove to his father’s large family that he was stepping up in the world.

The wedding on August 21, 1830, changed both their lives. Caroline moved from the East Riding to the West Riding, sharing a house with her industrious husband on North Parade in Bradford. Her sisters Lucy and Amelia, who both married Bradford woolmen, had their marital homes nearby. Salt, of course, went on to become one of the 19th century’s pioneering entrepreneurs.

Both bride and groom came from large families. Salt, born in September 1803, the year that Beethoven composed his epic Eroica Symphony, was one of a family of seven. Caroline was one of eight.

Together they had 11 children and remained a couple of 46 years until Salt’s death on the eve of 1877. She died in 1893 at the age of 81, having left the world an authorised biography of her husband’s life and achievements by the Rev Robert Balgarnie.

Salt himself was a man of few words for a public man, in spite of the eight years he served as a Bradford alderman, Mayor and Liberal MP. When he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1869, his wife became Lady Salt. But what do we really know about them? Saltaire historian Dave King in a 2010 issue of the Saltaire Journal wrote: “The main source of information about the Whitlam family is to be found in the Reverend Balgarnie’s book Sir Titus Salt, Baronet: His Life And Its Lessons, first published in 1877, shortly after the death of Sir Titus.

“Here we learn that Titus was in the habit of travelling to Lincolnshire to purchase fleeces in connection with the Salt’s family business as woolstaplers in Bradford. Titus was the junior partner in the firm of Daniel Salt & Son whose main activity at that time was the buying of raw wool for resale to the many textile firms in Bradford.

“At that time the county of Lincolnshire was by far the largest producer of British wools. The story goes that during the course of his business travels in Lincolnshire Titus was accustomed to visit George Whitlam, a wealthy wool producer.

“We are told that George Whitlam resided at the Manor House, Grimsby.”

He and his wife Elizabeth were said to have had 18 children in all, eight of whom survived birth; but Dave King’s researches among parish records reveals the names of 14.

As to Salt’s wooing, Dave King added: “Balgarnie relates that, rather than being struck by the beauty of the daughter he had originally intended to court, he was immediately attracted to Caroline, the youngest. At this stage Caroline was only 16 or 17 years old. However, their courtship prospered and Caroline was a little over 18 when they were married in 1830.

“The final piece of information provided by Balgarnie is that, at the time his book was published, Caroline was the last survivor of the children of George Whitlam. This was more or less the sum total of our knowledge of the Whitlams until Jack Reynolds published his book The Great Paternalist in 1983.

“Reynolds does not add much more to the story, but he does tell us that Amelia Whitlam married George Haigh in 1820 and Lucy Whitlam married Charles Timothy Turner in 1833. Titus and Caroline were at North Parade, Bradford, and the Turners and Haighs were next door to each other in Manor Row.

“At this time North Parade and Manor Row were the recently-developed, smart part of Bradford, just out of the town centre, yet close enough to business warehouses and offices. Many substantial houses were built here, some of which remain to this day.

“The only further piece of information given is that Titus Salt’s first daughter was named Amelia after her aunt, Caroline’s sister.”

The names of Salt, his wife and their children and the architects of the mill and Saltaire, Henry Lockwood and William Mawson, are commemorated by street names in the village.