250 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[2nd §, No13., Mar. 29. °56. 
a horseman in the equestrian costume of George 
Il. brought to a dead stop by a sudden precipice, 
all beyond being very downy-looking ether. 
V. T. STERNBERG. 
Queries, 
MILTON } SUPPOSED SONNET. 
Mr. C. Howarp Kenyon asks (1° S. iii. 37.) 
if the sonnet printed below, extracted from A 
ite of Recente and Witty Pieces by several 
‘ands. London, printed by W. 8. for Simon 
Waterfou, 1628, can be by Milton. A subsequent 
Query addressed to Mr. Kenyon, asking if the 
book was,in his possession, seems to have escaned 
his notice, as there isno reply. It is a question 
of some literary interest, and I should therefore 
be glad to have, through your columns, the 
opinion of competent persons on the subject. 
Also to know if any of your correspondents have 
seen the book referred to. 
© On the Librarie at Cambridge. 
“Tn that great maze of books I sighed and said, 
‘It is a graveyard, and each tome a tombe ; 
Shrouded in hempen rags, behold the dead 
Coffined and ranged in crypts of dismal gloom ; 
Food for the worm and redolent of mold, 
Traced with brief epitaph in tarnished gold. 
Ah, golden lettered hope! ah, dolorous gloom! 
Yet ’mid the common death, where all is cold, 
And mildewed pride in desolation dwells, 
A few great immortalities of old 
Stand brightly forth—not tombes but living shrines, 
Where from high sainte or martyr virtue wells; 
Which on the living yet work miracles, 
Spreading a relic wealth richer than golden mines. 
“J. M. 1627.” 
399 
THE COTTON FAMILY. 
T am desirous to perfect a pedigree of the family 
of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, the distinguished an- 
tiquary, and find difficulties in more than one 
quarter. I wish to ascertain who was the first (or 
second) wife of Sir Robert’s son and_ successor, 
Sir Thomas Cotton, Bart. There is to his me- 
mory, in the south aisle of Conington Church, 
Huntingdonshire, a handsome medallion monu- 
ment (similar to that erected to his father), which 
gives us the following information with regard to 
his wives and children : 
“Dvas vxores lectissimas Foeminas sibi sociavit ex 
priori 
Filium Joannem Filias Luciam et Franciscam suscepit 
ex Posteriori Tres filios (vno prerepto) et duas filias 
Superstites reliquit.” 
The “ filium Joannem” was the Sir John Cotton* 
* There is a monument in Conington Church to Eliza- 
beth, the second wife of this Sir John Cotton, in which 
her virtues are quaintly proclaimed. “ She was a lady of 
true and solid piety, of an excellent understanding and 
who was the donor of the Cottonian Library, and 
whose medallion monument is in the north aisle of 
Conington Church ; but the inscription does not 
record the name of his mother. I have carefully 
looked through the registers of Conington, and 
the following is the sole entry (that I have found) 
in which a wife of Sir Thomas Cotton is men- 
tioned : 
* Anno dni. 1642. ; 
“ Frances, the daughter of Sir Thomas Cotton, by Dame 
Alice his wife, was baptized August 28, 1642.” 
This Frances is probably the “Francisca” of the 
inscription, for I infer that the “‘Dame Alice” 
ore Jirst wife. What was her maiden name, 
xc. F 
I had no clue to the other wife until a few days 
since, when, in looking over the pedigree of the 
Howards, in Hodgson’s Northumberland (part 1. 
vol. ii. p. 381.), I found that the third daughter of 
Lord William Howard (‘“ Belted Will”) and 
Elizabeth Dacre, of Naworth, was Margaret 
Howard, who “married Sir Thomas Cotton, of 
Conington, Bart.” As this lady was born in 1593, 
and as there is at Castle Howard a portrait of her 
by Cornelius Jansen, taken at the age of seventy- 
three, she must have survived her husband; 
“argal,’ Dame Alice. (whoever she may have 
been) was the first wife of Sir Thomas. I think 
it probable that the following entry in the Co- 
nington register refers to this Margaret Howard: 
“Mrs. Margaret Cotton, buryed Febr. 12, 1688.” 
At any rate, I cannot affix it to any other member 
of the Cotton family. Thomas Cotton, a second 
son of Sir Thomas, is buried at Steeple Gidding. 
Required — particulars and names of the other two 
sons, and of the two daughters. Is Francis 
Amyand, Esq., M.P., the present lineal repre- 
sentative of the elder branch of the Cottons? If 
not, who is ? 
“ The male line of the ancient, honourable, and 
loyal family of the Bruce Cottons” ended in 1749, 
in the person of Sir John Cotton, as is set forth 
in his monument on the north wall of the church 
of Steeple Gidding, Huntingdonshire ; the church 
to which Nicolas Ferrar went, until he and the 
church of Little Gidding were ready for each 
other. Curneert Bepe. 
sharpness of wit, a most loving and tender wife, an indul- 
gent and carefull mother, obliging in her deportment to- 
wards her neighbours and friends, and bountifull and 
charitable to the poore.” The monument to her daughter 
Mary, who married Roger Kinyon, Gent., records that 
“she was graceful and modest, wise and innocent; her 
duty and love in every relation were sincere and eminent. 
Her religion was pure and undefiled. It was charity to 
the afflicted; piety to God; and obedience for conscience 
sake to her superiors, spiritual and civil.” 
