the audiences in time grew weary of laughing at him, and at last took to hissing him, and ultimately the management declined to lend him the use of the stage. As an actor, he was by competent judges considered to he contemptible. His performances were, however, often given for charitable purposes. He was much laughed at for being made the victim of a hoax by Theodore Hook with respect to an invitation to a ball given at Carlton House in 1821 in honour of the Bourbons. During all these years his great friend was the well-known Baron Ferdinand Geramb. By lending and spending money in a reckless manner he at last fell into difficulties, and was obliged to retire to Boulogne, where he soon after married. He came to an arrangement with his creditors, and returning to England lived respectably on the wreck of his fortune. On 15 Feb. 1848 he attended Allcroft's grand annual concert at Drury Lane, and after the performance, while crossing Russell Street, was crushed between a hansom cab and a private carriage, and died from erysipelas and mortification at his residence, 28 Montagu Square, London, 21 Feb. 1848, aged 76. His widow, Emma Anne, married, secondly, on 23 Dec. 1848, Mark Boyd [q. v.]
[Gent. Mag. lxxviii. 1188 (1808), and May 1848, p. 557; European Mag. March 1813, pp. 179-83, portrait; Morning Herald, London, 11 Dec. 1811 ; Genest, viii. 207, 337, 556, 627-630; Era, 27 Feb. 1848, p. 12; Once a Week, 19 Aug. 1865, pp. 235-46; St. James's Mag. v. 489-99 (1862); Gronow's Reminiscences (2nd edit. 1862), pp. 64-71; Kent's Birmingham (1880), pp. 382-3, 386.]
COATS, THOMAS (1809–1883), thread manufacturer, was born at Paisley 18 Oct. 1809. He was the fourth of a family of ten sons. His father, James Coats, was one of the founders of the thread industry of Paisley. In the hands of Thomas and his surviving brother, Sir Peter Coats, the Ferguslie Thread Works became one of the largest in the world. Coats was distinguished for the interest he took in the public welfare, and for many private acts of unostentatious generosity. In 1868 he presented to the town of Paisley a public park, called the ‘Fountains Gardens,’ the first place of recreation for the poor of the town. He took great interest in education, and in 1873 was elected chairman of the school board, an office he continued to hold with credit until his death. He gave large sums to improve the school accommodation, and provided a playground for the scholars. From 1862 to 1864 he was president of the Paisley Philosophical Institution, and in 1882 he presented to the society the observatory situated on Oakshaw Hill; he furnished it with an equatorial telescope and other costly instruments, and provided a residence and endowment for the curator.
For several years Coats was an enthusiastic collector of Scottish coins, and his collection became the largest and most valuable of its kind. He was desirous of making a catalogue of the various specimens, and entrusted the work to Edward Burns, a well-known Scottish numismatist. But in Burns's hands the catalogue swelled into an elaborate ‘History of the Coinage of Scotland,’ and was unfinished at the time of Coats's death. Burns himself died suddenly in the midst of his labours, and the task of completion was entrusted to other hands. The work is now (1887) in the press.
In November 1881 Coats and his brother Sir Peter were entertained at a banquet at Paisley, and presented with their portraits, painted by Sir Daniel Macnee, P.R.S.A. Coats died of an affection of the heart on 15 Oct. 1883. His funeral was attended by a large concourse of people. A statue was recently erected at Paisley to his memory. In religion Coats was a baptist, and in politics a liberal.
[Glasgow Herald and Glasgow News and Scotsman, 17 Oct. 1883; Paisley and Renfrewshire Gazette, 20 Oct. 1883; Paisley Daily Express, 22 and 25 Oct. 1883.]
COBB, JAMES (1756–1818), dramatist, entered in 1771 the secretary's office of the East India Company, in which he rose to the post of secretary. He sent anonymously, for the benefit of Miss Pope (Drury Lane, 30 March 1773), an occasional prologue, which was recited with some slight alteration by Garrick, to whom it was submitted. For the benefit of the same lady he produced at Drury Lane, on 5 April 17/9, his first dramatic piece, ' The Contract, or Female Captain,' which all the popularity of the actors could not galvanise into life, but which under the second title was acted at the Haymarket on 26 Aug. 1780. This was followed by many operas, farces, preludes, and comedies, most of which served, more or less, a temporary purpose, and are now forgotten. Such interest as any of Cobb's pieces possess arises generally from association with actors or composers. In the ' Humourist ' (Drury Lane, §7 April 1785), which owed its production to the application of Burke to Sheridan, John Bannister made a great hit as Dabble, a dentist. This piece was burned in the fire at Drury Lane in 1809. Genest, not too good-naturedly, says that if the whole of Cobb's pieces— about twenty-four in number— had
