COTTON, CHARLES. 



COTTON, SIR ROBERT BRUCE, 



CuTTOX. CHARLES, WM bora in 1630, at IWranfonl Hall in 

 StaflbnUhire, the feat of bit father, which WM afterward* hi* own 

 property and the ehi.-f place of hii residence. Ha wa* educated at 

 t ambri.'u-e, and travelled on the Continent, after which ha married 

 and IITB.I principally in tha country. Ha died at Westminster in 

 1637. Hia nun* it beat secured sgauiat forgetfulnes* by his friend- 

 hip for Iiaak Walton, and hit co operation in the later editiona of 

 the 'Complete Angler.' [\V ALTOS, IXIAK.] But ha waa an active 

 translator from the French, of Montaigne s ' Essays,' of historical and 

 other proae works, and of Coruaille'a tragedy ' Horace ; ' and ha pub- 

 lished aim various productions in rent, both aerioua and comic. His 

 moat ambitious poem of the former claaa is ' The Wonders of the 

 Peak ;' but non* of his serious poems hare kept their ground even 

 la tha favour of studious critic*, while by all other readers they are 

 oompl-tely neglected. He is perhaps more generally known as the 

 author of ' Soirronides, or Virgil Travestie," a burlesque imitation of 

 three books of the jEoeid coarse in taste, and weak in wit, as well 

 aa low in its tone of moral feeling. His prose imitations of Lucian, 

 and his Voyage to Ireland' in Terse, are better specimens of his 

 talrnta for humour. There are several incomplete collections of his 

 works. 



Tha translation of Montaigne has great merit Cotton's genuine 

 version was afterwards spoiled, or, as it is expressed in the preface to 

 the edition of 1759, "it was polished or rather modernised in some 

 l-afcrs of our Isst edition ; but in the present one (1759), it is corrected 

 ami improved throughout, besidea the rectifying of many mistakes, 

 which Mr. Cotton probably would not have bean guilty of, if he bad 

 1 by thoae dictionaries published since hU time, that are 



the best explainers of tho Gascon language, which. WM Montaigne's 

 mother tongue." If this second translation has corrected mistakes, 

 it has certainly not improved the style of Cotton's version, which had 

 considerable merit of ita own, as well M affinity to the manner of 



V ' . BW 



COTTON, SIR ROBERT BRUCE, an eminent English antiquary, 

 descended from an ancient family, WM the son of Thomas Cotton, Esq., 

 and born at Denton, in Huntingdonshire, January 22, 1570. He WM 

 educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of 

 B.A. in 1585. Hia taste for antiquarian studies induced him to 

 repair to London, where he became a member of a society of learned 

 men attached to similar pursuits. He soon distinguished himself M a 

 diligent collector of records, charters, and instruments of all kinds 

 relating to the history of his country. The dissolution of monasteries, 

 half a century before, hod thrown so many manuscripts of every 

 description into private hands, that Mr. Cotton enjoyed peculiar advan- 

 tages in forming his collection. In 1600 he accompanied Camden, tho 

 historian, to Carlisle, who acknowledges himself not a little obliged to 

 him for th<? assistance he received from him in carrying on and com- 

 pleting his ' Britannia.' The same year Cotton wrote ' A Brief Abstract 

 of the Question of Precedency between England and Spain.' This was 

 occasioned by Queen Elisabeth desiring the thoughts of the Society of 

 Antiquaries already mentioned upon that point, and is still extant in 

 the Cottonian Library. (' JuL' C. ix. fol. 120.) Upon the accession of 

 King James L he received the honour of knighthood, and during this 

 reign was not only courted and esteemed by the great, but consulted 

 M an oracle by the privy councillors and ministers of state upon very 

 difficult points relating to the constitution. In 1603 he WM appointed 

 one of tha commissioners to Inquire into the state of the navy, which 

 hod been neglected after the death of Queen Elizabeth ; and he drew 

 up a memorial of their proceedings to be presented to the king, a copy 

 of which Is also preserved in the Cottonian Library. (MS. JuL' F. 

 ill) Iu 1609 he wrote 'A Discourse of the Lawfulness of Combati 

 to be performed in the Presence of the King, or the Constable and 

 Marshall of England,' which WM printed in 1661 and in 1672. He 

 drew up also in the same year, ' An Answer to such Motives M were 

 offered by oertein Military Men to Prince Henry, to incite him to affect 

 Arms more than Peace.' ThU WM composed by order of that prince, 

 and the original manuscript remains in tha Cottonian Library. 

 (' CVaop.' P. vL fol. 1.) New projects Wing contrived to fill the royal 

 treasury, which hod bean prodigally squandered, none pleased the 

 king, it is said, so much M the creating a new order of knights, colled 

 baroneta ; and Sir Robert Cotton, who had been the principal .uggeater 

 of tUa scheme, WM in 1611 chosen to be one, being the thirtysixth on 

 the IU. Hia principal residence WM then at Great Connington, in 

 Hnnttafdooahira, which ha soon exchanged for Halley St George, in 

 CambridgMhire. Ha WM afterwards employed by King James to 

 vindicate the conduct of Mary, queen of Soote, from the supposed 

 mierepremiteUuns of Buchanan and Thuanus. What he drew up on 

 this subject is thought to be interwoven In Comden's Annals of Queen 

 Uaefcsth.' or alee printed at the end of Comden'e ' Epistles.' In 1616 



th. king ordered bin to examine whether the PapUte, whose numbers 

 then made the nation uneMy, ought by the laws of the land to be put 

 to death, or to be Imprisoned. This task he performed with great 

 learning, and produced upon that occasion twenty four argument*, 

 which were pablUbed afterwards, la 1672, among Cotton! Posthuma.' 

 It WM probably th-n that ha wrote a piece, still preserved in the 

 Royal Library, entitled 'Consideration, for the repressing of the 

 Increase of Priesta, Jesuits, and Kecuaant., without drawing of blood.' 

 He WM also employed by the Hones of Common* when the match 



between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain was In agitation, to 

 show, by a short examination of the treaties between England and the 

 House of Austria, the unfaithfulness) and insincerity of the litter, and 

 to prove that in all their transactions they aimed at nothing but uni- 

 versal monarchy. Sir R ibert Cotton wrote various other works, many 

 of them small pieces in the shape of dissertations, too numerous to be 

 mentioned here ; some of them are among his ' Posthuma,' others are 

 printed in Heorne'a ' Discourses,' and a few more still remain in 

 manuscript 



As early as 1615 Sir Robert Cotton's intlma-y with Ctrr, carl of 

 Somerset, laid him under suspicion with the court of having some 

 knowledge of the circumstances of Sir Thomas Overburys death. Ho 

 WM even committed to the custody of an alderman of London ; nor 

 although nothing could be proved against him, was he released fom 

 this confinement till the end of five months, during which time he 

 appears to have been interdicted the use of his library. The perfidy 

 of Oondomar, the Spanish ambassador, about the name time, draw 

 upon him another imputation, his name having been, without founda- 

 tion, inserted in a list suffered to go abroad of persons who had 

 secretly received gratuities from the Spanish ambassador for sinister 

 purposes. From this however his honour was perfectly vindicated. 



Being a member of the first parliament of Charles I., Sir Robert 

 Cotton joined in complaining of the grievance which the nation was 

 said in 1628 to groan under; but he was always for mild remedies, 

 and zealous for the honour and safety of the king. In the next year 

 an occurrence took place, tha consequences of which shortened his 

 days. A tract was handed about in manuscript, entitled ' A Project 

 how a Prince may make himself an absolute Tyrant' The inquiries 

 that were immediately made for the author of so pernicious a per- 

 formance led at length to the Cottonian Library. Sir Robert, perfectly 

 conscious of his innocence, made strict inquiry into the transaction, 

 and soon found that a copy of this tract, written at Florence in 1613 

 by Robert Dudley, duke of Northumberland, under the less exception- 

 able title of ' Propositions for his Majesty's Service to bridle the Iiuper- 

 tinency of Parliaments,' had, unknown to him, found its way into hU 

 library, and that, equally without hU knowledge, his librarian or 

 amanuensis, as was suspected, for a pecuniary consideration, had 

 suffered one or more copies of it to be taken, under the former of 

 these titles. Although Sir Robert Cotton completely vindicated his 

 innocence of having written or disseminated this tract, so destructive 

 to the liberties of the people, yet under tha renewed pretence that his 

 library was not of a nature to be exposed to public inspection, it waa 

 again put in sequestration, and himself once more excluded from all 

 access to it He died at his house in Westminster, May 6, 1631. A 

 short time before his death he requested bir Henry Spelman to signify 

 to the Lord Privy Seal, and the rest of the lords of the council, that 

 their so long detaining of his books from him, without rendering any 

 reason for the same, had been the cause of his mortal malady. From 

 this, as well as other circumstances, it appears that his library was 

 never restored to his possession. He was buried on the south side of 

 the church of Connington, where a suitable monument wag erected to 

 his memory. 



By his will Sir Robert Cotton directed that his library should not 

 be sold, but should pass entire to hii heirs ; and it was much aug- 

 mented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton, and his grandson, Sir John 

 Cotton. In 1700 an act of parliament passed for the better securing 

 and preserving this library iu the name and family of the Cottons, for 

 the benefit of the public ; the mansion house, in which the library waa 

 contained, to be preserved for the use of the descendants of Sir Robert 

 Cotton, the founder, for ever, and the library to be made publicly 

 accessible ; and to be vested after Sir John Cotton's death in trustees. 

 Sir John Cotton died in 1702. Another act of parliament was then 

 framed, which passed in 1706, by which the purchase of the house was 

 effected for the sum of 4500/., and that and the library vested thence- 

 forth iu the queen, her heirs, and successors for ever : the management 

 of the library being still settled iu trustees. Whether it WM for the 

 purpose of erecting a new building for the reception of the library on 

 the site of the said house which indeed WM directed by the last- 

 mentioned act or for what other reason, does not at present appear ; 

 but we are informed in a subsequent report of a committee of the 

 House of Commons, that the library was in the year 1712 removed to 

 Essex House, in Kescx-street, Strand, where it continued to the year 

 1730, when it WM conveyed back to Westminster, and deposited in a 

 house in Little Dean's Yard, purchased by the crown of the Earl of 

 Ashburnham. Hare, shortly after, on the 23rd of October 1731, u 

 fire broke out, in which 111 manuscripts (many of them of tho 

 greatest interest) were lost, burnt, or entirely defaced, and 91) rendered 

 imperfect It had indeed nearly proved fatal to the whole library. 

 What remained were removed, by permission of the dean aud chapter, 

 into a new building designed for the dormitory of Westminster school. 

 IB 1763, when the legislature was induced by tho will of Sir Hans 

 Sloane to found tha British Museum, the Cottonian library was 

 included in tha act under which that institution was founded, and 

 WM transferred to the British Museum in 1757. The act directed 

 that two trustees, to be nominated in succession by the representatives 

 of tha Cotton family, should be for ever added to those appointed by 

 tha aame act for the general execution of its purposes. 



Betides the library of manuscripts, the Cottonian collection con- 



