possession of Sir Charles Isham, bart., at Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire.
Whatever interest attaches to Cotta's writings is dependent on the matter contained in them, his literary style being, as he himself seems to have been aware, singularly cumbrous and far from lucid.
[Add. MS. 5866, fol. 223; Masters's Hist. of C. C. C. C. p. 272; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
COTTAM, THOMAS (1549–1582), jesuit, was a native of Lancashire, being son of Laurence Cottam, gentleman, of Dilworth and Tarnaker, by his wife Anne, daughter of Mr. Brewer, or Brewerth, of Brindle, who after her husband's death married William Ambrose, gentleman, of Ambrose Hall in Woodplumpton (Gillow, Bibl. Dict. of the English Catholics, i. 575). He entered at Brasenose College (B.A. 23 March 1568–9; M.A. 14 July 1572), and on the completion of his academical studies he undertook the direction of a noted free grammar school in London (Dodd, Church Hist. ii. 116). He was converted to the Roman catholic faith by Thomas Pounde, esq., of Belmont (afterwards a jesuit), and proceeded to Douay College, where he studied philosophy and theology for some years (Morus, Hist. Missionis Anglicanæ Soc. Jesu, p. 127). Ardently desiring to take part in the mission to the East Indies, he left Douay for Rome, where he received the two lower sacred orders, was admitted to the Society of Jesus, and entered the novitiate of St. Andrew on 8 April 1579 (Foley, Records, ii. 148). In the sixth month of his noviceship he was attacked by violent fever, and was sent by his superiors to Lyons for change of air, but the sickness increasing, he appeared unfit for the society, and therefore was dismissed from the novitiate (Challoner, Missionary Priests, ed. 1741, i. 103). Cottam then went to the English college of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims, was ordained priest, and sent to England on the mission. On his arrival at Dover in June 1580, he was immediately arrested, having been betrayed by a spy named Sledd. Eventually he was committed to the Marshalsea prison, where he was tortured, and thence he was removed on Christmas day to the Tower of London, where he underwent the most terrible tortures of the rack and the ‘Scavenger's Daughter’ (Tanner, Societas Jesu usque ad sanguinis et vitæ profusionem militans, pp. 18, 19; Foley, Records, ii. 159).
On 14 Nov. 1581 he was arraigned at Westminster Hall with Father Edmund Campion and others, and condemned to death on account of his priestly character (Howell, State Trials, i. 1078); Simpson, Life of Campion, p. 281 et seq.). His execution was deferred for state reasons until 13 May 1582, when he was drawn on a hurdle from Newgate to Tyburn, with his companions William Filbie, Luke Kirby, and Laurence Richardson, priests, and was hanged, disembowelled, and quartered (Historia del glorioso Martirio di diciotto Sacerdoti macerati, 1585, p. 149). It is said that he was readmitted to the Society of Jesus shortly before his execution. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 29 Dec. 1886.
His portrait has been engraved (Granger, Biog. Hist. of England, ed. 1824, i. 274).
[Authorities cited above.]
COTTENHAM, Earl of. [See Pepys, Charles Christopher, 1781–1851.]
COTTER, GEORGE SACKVILLE (1755–1831), poet and translator, was the fourth son of Sir James Cotter. He was educated at Westminster School, of which he was captain in 1770, and in 1771 he was elected to St. Peter's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1775 and M.A. in 1779. Having taken holy orders he became vicar of Kilmacdonough, and rector of Kilcreddan-Garrivoe and Ightermorragh, diocese of Cloyne. In 1788 he published two volumes of ‘Poems,’ dedicated to Lady Shannon, and consisting of a poem in two books, entitled ‘Prospects,’ and a collection of odes and other fugitive pieces. In 1826 he published a translation of Terence for the use of schools, in the preface to which he states that when at Westminster School he had been an actor in three of Terence's comedies. In the following year he printed seven of the plays of Plautus, ‘translated literally and grammatically, and cleared of objectionable passages.’ The later years of his life were spent at Youghal, Cork, and he died in 1831. By his wife, a daughter of Bayley Rogers, physician and banker of Cork, he left, with other issue, four sons.
[Welch's Alumni Westmonasterienses, ed. 1852, pp. 383, 393, 394, 534, 536, 573; Foster's Baronetage and Knightage.]
COTTER, PATRICK (1761?–1806), Irish giant, was born at Kinsale, co. Cork, in or about 1761, of poor parents of ordinary stature. He was brought up as a bricklayer, but at the age of eighteen was hired by a showman for exhibition in England for the sum of 50l. for three years. Soon after his arrival at Bristol, owing to a disagreement with his master, he was thrown into the debtors' prison for a fictitious debt. Upon his release he established himself at the Bristol fair, and earned 30l. in three days. After the manner of Irish giants he changed his name to O'Brien,
