Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/314

Cotton 1852 to 1856 he was vice-chancellor of the university, and it was during his term of office that the first university commission—whose inquiries he merely acknowledged but did not answer—substantially changed the old Oxford into the new. Cotton published in 1837 ‘The Way of Salvation plainly and practically traced,’ and in 1849 ‘Lectures on the Holy Sacrament.’ He also printed some funeral sermons. He married (1839) Charlotte Bouverie, a sister of Dr. Pusey, and left one daughter. All who knew him loved and respected him, for his kindness was unfailing and his piety sincere. He died 8 Dec. 1880. His ten brothers [see ] gained high distinction in the army, the navy, and the church.

 COTTON, ROBERT (fl. 1340), school-man. [See .]

COTTON, ROBERT BRUCE (1571–1631), antiquary, was eldest son of Thomas Cotton of Connington, Huntingdonshire (M.P. for Huntingdonshire in 1557), by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Shirley of Staunton-Harold, Leicestershire. Thomas Cotton was a rich country gentleman, descended from a family of well-ascertained antiquity, originally settled in Cheshire. In the fourteenth century William, son of Edmund Cotton or de Cotun, acquired by marriage the extensive Ridware estates in Staffordshire, which descended to the eldest branch. In the fifteenth century a younger son of this branch, William, was slain at the second battle of St. Albans in 1461, and lies buried in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. He married a wealthy heiress, Mary, daughter of Robert de Wesenham, and from this marriage the antiquary was directly descended. Mary de Wesenham was granddaughter and ultimate heiress of Sir John de Bruis or Bruce, who claimed descent from the Scottish kings and owned the manors of Connington, Huntingdonshire, and Exton, Rutlandshire. Sir Robert always insisted with pride on his ancestral connection with the royal line of Scotland, and added his second name of Bruce to keep it in memory. Mary de Wesenham married a second and a third husband, Sir Thomas Billing [q. v.] and Thomas Lacy, and died in 1499, but was buried at St. Margaret's with her first husband, and bequeathed the estates of Connington, Huntingdonshire, and Exton, Rutlandshire, to Thomas Cotton, her eldest son by him. In 1500, 1513, and in 1547, the antiquary's immediate ancestors, all named Thomas Cotton, were high sheriffs of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire.

Sir Robert was born at Denton, three miles from the family seat at Connington, on 22 Jan. 1570–1, and was baptised five days later. Soon after their marriage his parents had removed to a small house at Denton, which was pulled down early in this century, in order ‘to be more at liberty from the incommodiousness of their own seat arising from a great accession of new domestics’ (, Baronetage, 1720, p. 187; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vi. 449–51). A younger son, Thomas, born a year later, was always on most affectionate terms with the antiquary. His sisters were named Lucy, Dorothy, and Johanna. The mother died while her children were young, and the father married as his second wife Dorothy, daughter of John Tamworth, of Hawsted, Leicestershire, by whom he had six other children—three sons, Henry (d. 1614), Ferdinand, and John; and three daughters, Catherine, Frances, and Rebecca.

Robert, the eldest child, was sent at an early age to Westminster school, where [q. v.] was second master, and under his influence Cotton doubtless first acquired his antiquarian tastes. On 22 Nov. 1581 he matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and proceeded B.A. in 1585. Former accounts represent Cotton to have taken his degree at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1575, when his age could not have exceeded four years! A student named Robert Cotton undoubtedly graduated at Trinity in that year, but it is obvious that the entry in Jesus College register can alone refer to the antiquary ( in Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vi. 533). Subsequently Cotton settled in a house in Westminster, near Old Palace Yard, with a garden leading to the river. Part of the House of Lords now occupies its site (, Antiquities of Westminster). Cotton's passion as a collector of manuscripts, coins, and all other kinds of antiquities, soon manifested itself here. With conspicuous success he engaged in this pursuit throughout his life, and the library of Cotton House became the meeting-place of all the scholars of the country. When about twenty-two years old he married Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of William Brocas of Thedingworth, Leicestershire. His eldest child, Thomas, was born in 1594.

In early life Cotton took no part in public affairs. He joined about 1590 the Antiquarian Society (founded 1572), which met at stated intervals for learned discussion. There he renewed his intimacy with Camden, and made the acquaintance of 