COTTON. 485 COTTON. cruiser Harvard, and after tlie war ho became coniiii;iii(lant of the Xavy-yard at Norfolk, Va. COTTON, George Edw.vrd Lynch (1813- GOi. All English divino and educator. He was born at Chester and educated at Canibrid^'e. From 1S37 to 1852 he taught at Kugliy, being the "young master* mentioned in Tom Broim's School nai/s. He was for six years principal of JIarlborougli College, and in 1858 was made Bishop of Calcutta. In that office he founded many scliools and ell'eeted great improvement in llie education of the poorer classes of the Anglo- Indian population. COTTON, John (1oS5-16o2) . An eminent Puritan divine, known as 'The Patriarch of New England.' He was liorn in Derljy, England, and was educated at Trinity College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, at' the latter of which he was successively a fellow, head lecturer, dean, and catechist. Inclining toward Puritanism, he left Cambridge about 1612, and for the next twentv years, with one short intermission, he had charge of the Church of St. Botolph's, at Boston, in Lincolnshire, where he had an extraordinary inlluence over his congregation, gained a wide reputation for learning and godliness, and trained many young men for the ministry. When Arch- bishop Laud became primate of England (in 1033), Cotton was summoned to appear before the Court of High Commission, but escaped the pursuivants sent to apprehend liLm, and, after lying in concealment for some lime in London, embarked for Boston. New England (which had been named in compliment to him), where he landed in September, 1033. Almost immediately thereafter he was chosen as teacher of the First Church in Boston, of which the Rev. John Wilson was then pastor, and he continued to act in this capacity until his death. Here, as in England, he had a wide reputation for learning and piety, and soon came to wield a powerful influence over ati'airs both ecclesiastical . and secular in New England, and especially in Massachusetts. According to William Hubbard (q.v.), a eonteni- porary historian, whatever he "deliered in the pulpit was soon put into an order of court . . . or set up as a practice in the Church." and the enthusiastic Cotton ilather, speaking of his learn- ing, says that he was "a most universal scholar, and a living system of the liberal arts, and a walking library." "He was." says Tyler, "the nnmitred pope of a pope-hating commonwealth." He took an active part in the Antinomian contro- versy, first supporting and afterwards opposing Anne Hutchinson (q.v.), and conducted an ex- tended controversy with Roger Williams, whose expulsion from JIassachusetfs he approved. He was a voluminous writer and puldished as many as fifty volumes, the most important of which are: fiet Forms of Praner (10421 ; The Keys to the Kingdom of Ucareii and the Poircr fhercof (1004); The Bloodii Teneiit Washed and Made White in the Blood of the Lamb (1047), written in answer to a letter from Roger Williams; .1 Brief Exposition upon Eeclesiastes; A Brief Ex- position upon Cantieles: A Treatise of the Cove- nant of Grace as It Is Dispen.sed to the Elect Seed : A Treatise Concerninfi Predestination : and the famous catechism, entitled Hpiritnal Mill: for Babes, Dnin'n Out of the Breasts of Both Testa- ments, Chieflii for the Hpiritual Nonrishment of Boston Babes in Either Enqland (1040). A part of the controversy between him and Roger Wil- liams may be found in the Publications of the arragansett Club, vols. i. and ii. (Providence, 1800-07). Consult: JMcClure, The Life of John Cotton (Boston, 1840) ; Norton, Abel Being Dead, Yet Speaketh: or, the Life and Death of That Deservedly Famous Man of (lod, Mr. John Cotton (London, 1058: republished, Boston, 1834) ; an interesting sketch in blather, Magnalia (London, 1702); and a critique of Cotton's writings in Tyler, .1 History of American Literature (New I'ork, 1878). COTTON, NAtHANlEl, (1705-88). An Eng- lish physician and poet, the friend of Young, author of Night Tliouglits, and of the poet Cow- I>pr, whom he cared for in 1703-05 in his sana- torium, or, as he rather grandihxiuently styled it, "Collegium Insanorum," at Saint Albans, Hertford- shire, where he treated mental diseases with success. His Visions in Verse (1751) is his best known volume, and anioiur his shorter poems, ""The Fireside," and ""To a Child Five Years Old," are still found in anthologies. COTTON, Sir Robert Bruce (1.571-1031). A distinguished English antiquarian, founder of the Cottonian Library, now in the British JIuseum. After his education at Westminster School under the famous Camden, and at Canilnidge, where he took a B.A. degree in his sixteenth year, lie began those archa!ological pursuits which made his name famous, and which proved of immense value to historians. As the dissolution of the monasteries, about half a century before, bad disjierscd many valuable collections of manuscripts among private persons. Cotton sought out and purchased these documents wherever practicable. On account of his ability and knowledge, he was freijucntly con- sulted b}' ministers of State on dillicult constitu- tional points and international questions. In 1000, at the request of Queen Elizabeth, who desired antiquarian authority on the matter, he wrote A Brief Abstract of the Question of Pre- cedency Between England andtipain. King James, who knighted him in 1603 and gave him a baro- netcy in 1011, employed him to vindicate the conduct of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and also to examine whether the Roman Catho- lics, on account of whom some alarm was then felt, should be imprisoned or put to death. Cot- ton advocated tolerance. His intimacy with the Earl of Scmerset led him to be suspected of com- plicity in the death of Sir Thomas Overbury, and in consequence he was imprisoned for about eight months. ly 1029 a tract entitled A Project How a Prince May Make Himself ati Absolute Tyrant was obtained from his library, the ten- dency of which Charles I. and the Star Chamber considered dangerous to the liberty of the State. His library was accordingly declared unfit for public inspection, and he himself was denied all use of it. Depression at this edict caused his death, less than two years aftcrwiirds. His son, Sir Thomas (1594-1062), regained possession of the library, and his grandson Sir .John (1621- 1701), and great-grandson Sir John (1079-1731), added to it considerably. The latter bequeathed it in public trust to the nation. In 1730 the liljrary was lodged with the royal collection in Ashburnham House, Westminster. The following year a fire occurred in which 114 nut of 958 MS. volumes were reported as '"lost, burned, or entirely destroyed : and 98 damaged so as to be defective." Fortunately, a great number of these injured vol- umes were skillfully restored, so that the library
