claiming to be a lineal descendant of Brian, king of Ireland [q. v.], and to have ‘in his person and appearance all the similitude of that great and grand potentate.’ Until the last two years of his life he continued to travel throughout the country exhibiting himself. In 1804, having realised an independence, he retired into private life, and died at his lodgings in the Hotwell Road, Clifton, on 8 Sept. 1806, in the forty-sixth year of his age. He was buried in the jesuit chapel in Trenchard Street, Bristol, where a tablet to his memory states that he was eight feet three inches in height. The inscription on his coffin-plate, however, was ‘Patrick Cotter O'Brien of Kinsale, Ireland, whose stature was 8 feet 1 inch. Died 8 Sept. 1806, aged 46 years.’ It is impossible to reconcile the numerous discrepancies with regard to his height. According to Mr. Blair's account, written in 1804, Cotter ‘could not have been more, on the whole, than 7 feet 10 inches’ (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxiv. pt. i. pp. 420–1); while the catalogue of the contents of the Royal College of Surgeons (pt. v. 1831, p. 51), in the description of a plaster cast of one of his hands, states that his ‘height in the year 1802 was 8 feet 7 inches and a half.’ An engraving by T. Smith of the giant was published in 1785, and another by A. Van Assen, dated 1804, is given in the second volume of Kirby (opp. p. 332). There is also a curious etching by Kay done in 1803, when Cotter was in Edinburgh (vol. ii. No. 210). The giant is here portrayed in the act of being measured for a great coat by a little tailor standing on tiptoe on a chair, while one of Cotter's arms rests carelessly on the top of the roomdoor. Cotter has often been confused with Charles Byrne [q. v.], another Irish giant, who died in London in 1783.
[Wood's Giants and Dwarfs, 1868, pp. 166–187, 375, 385, 457–8; Kirby's Wonderful and Scientific Museum, 1804, ii. 332–7; Gent. Mag. 1806, vol. lxxvi. pt. ii. p. 983; Wilson's Wonderful Characters, 1821, i. 415–22; Kay's Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings, 1877, ii. 115–17; Chambers's Book of Days, 1864, ii. 326–7; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii. 436, xi. 369, 396.]
COTTERELL, Sir CHARLES (1612?–1702), master of the ceremonies and translator, born in 1612, was son of Sir Clement Cotterell of Wylsford, Lincolnshire, groom-porter to James I for twenty years, who was appointed muster-master of Buckinghamshire by the influence of Villiers in December 1616 (Egerton Papers, Camd. Soc. 484). In early life Charles was able to speak and read most modern languages, and in 1641 succeeded Sir John Finet as master of the ceremonies. His closest friend at court was William Aylesbury [q. v.], whom he assisted in translating Davila's ‘History of the Civil Wars in France.’ On Charles I's execution, Cotterell, as a royalist, fled to Antwerp, and in 1650 entertained at his house there many royalist fugitives, including Dr. George Morley [q. v.] and Dr. John Earle [q. v.] About 1652 he was appointed steward to Charles I's sister, Elizabeth, titular queen of Bohemia, and lived in her house at the Hague for the two following years. He is frequently mentioned in the letters addressed by Elizabeth to Sir Edward Nicholas, and was in the confidence of Sir Edward Hyde and others of Charles II's advisers (Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 310, 333, 339; cf. Sir G. Bromley, Coll. Letters, 1787). In September 1655 Cotterell became secretary to Henry, duke of Gloucester. At the Restoration he returned to England; was reinstated master of the ceremonies; was from 6 April 1663 to 1678 M.P. for Cardigan; lived at Westminster, and was a prominent figure in all the court ceremonials of Charles II's reign. Wood complains that by persistently worrying Archbishop Juxon in 1661 he foisted his brother-in-law, Dr. Thomas Clayton, into the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford, against the wish of the fellows. In 1663 he was sent for a short time as ambassador to Brussels. In 1670 he was nominated master of requests, and in December of the same year the degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him at Oxford, when he accompanied Prince William of Orange on a visit to the university. Cotterell was permitted by James II to resign his offices at court in December 1686, and the mastership of the ceremonies was bestowed on his eldest son, Charles Lodowick, while his grandson, John Dormer, became assistant master. He was created LL.D., Cambridge, 1682. Sir Charles apparently died in the following year (Fuller, Worthies, ed. Nattall, ii. 309).
Cotterell translated: 1. ‘A Relation of the Defeating of Card. Mazarin and Ol. Cromwell's design to have taken Ostend by treachery in 1658, from the Spanish’ (London, 1660 and 1666). 2. ‘The Famous Romance of Cassandra,’ from the French of G. de Costes, Seigneur de la Calprenède; Cotterell's dedication to Charles II is dated from the Hague, 5 June 1653; a first edition of a part of the work appeared in 1652, and the whole was issued in 1661, 1676, and (in 5 vols.) 1725. Pepys read ‘Cassandra’ and preferred it to ‘Hudibras’ (Diary, 16 Nov. 1668 and 5 May 1669). 3. ‘The Spiritual Year, or a Devout Contemplation digested into distinct arguments for every month of the year, and for every week in the month,’ from the
