clxiv LIFE OF 



Elvaston in Derbyshire, by his first wife Olive, daughter and 

 heiress of Edward Beresford, of Beresford in Staffordshire, and of 

 Bentley in the county of Derby, he succeeded to those estates in 

 her right, and settled at Beresford. Mr Cotton was distinguished 

 for his talents and accomplishments, and was the friend and 

 companion of many of the most eminent of his contemporaries, 

 including Ben Jonson, Sir Henry Wotton, Dr Donne, Selden, 

 Fletcher, 6 Herrick, 7 Carew, Lovelace, Davenant, and May, the 

 Lord Chief Justice Vaughan, and the great Lord Clarendon. Some 

 of those writers celebrated his merits in their verses ; and Lord 

 Clarendon has particularly mentioned him in his well-known 

 autobiography. 8 



Mr Cotton's marriage connected him with the families of Stan- 

 hope, Cokayne, Aston, Port, and others of the highest rank in the 

 counties of Derby and Stafford. Mrs Cotton died at Beresford 

 between 1650 and 1658, in the thirty-eighth year of her age; 

 and her cousin, Sir Aston Cokayne, wrote some verses to her 

 memory. 9 



6 Vide Cokayne's Poems, p. 91, and the Apology to the Reader. 



7 Herrick inscribed one of his poems to the elder Cotton, 8vo, 1648, p. 352. 



8 " CHARLES COTTON was a gentleman born to a competent fortune ; and so qualified 

 in his person and education, that for many years he continued the greatest ornament of 

 the town, in the esteem of those who had been best bred. His natural parts were very 

 great, his wit flowing in all the parts of conversation ; the superstructure of learning not 

 raised to a considerable height : but having passed some years in Cambridge, and then 

 in France, and conversing always with learned men, his expressions were ever proper 

 and significant, and gave great lustre to his discourse upon any argument ; so that he was 

 thought by those who were not intimate with him, to have been much better acquainted 

 with books than he was. He had all those qualities which in youth raise men to the 

 reputation of being fine gentlemen ; such a pleasantness and gaiety of humour, such a 

 sweetness and gentleness of nature, and such a civility and delightfulness in conversation, 

 that no man, in the court or out of it, appeared a more accomplished person : all these 

 extraordinary qualifications being supported by as extraordinary a clearness of courage 

 and fearlessness of spirit, of which he gave too often manifestation. Some unhappy suits 

 in law, and waste of his fortune in those suits, made some impression on his mind ; 

 which, being improved by domestic afflictions, and those indulgences to himself which 

 naturally attend those afflictions, rendered his age less reverenced than his youth had 

 been, and gave his best friends cause to have wished that he had not lived so long." 



Clarendon's Life, vol. i. p. 36, ed. Oxford, 1827. 



9 Cokayne's Poems, 8vo, 1658. " On the death of my dear cousin germane Mrs 

 Olive Cotton, who deceased at Beresford the 38th year of her age, and lyes buried at 

 Bently by Ashbourne." He also wrote verses "To my cousin german Mrs Olive 

 Cotton," p. 138 ; and " Of my staying supper with my cousin Mrs Olive Cotton," p. 139 ; 

 and the following 



EPITAPH ON MY DEAR COUSIN GERMAN MRS OLIVE COTTON. 



Passenger, stay, and notice take of her 

 Whom this sepulchral marble doth inter: 

 For Sir John Stanhope's daughter and his heir, 

 By his first wife, a Beresford, lies here. 

 Her husband of a noble house was, ona 

 Every where for his worths belov'd and known. 

 One only son she left, whom we presage 

 A grace t' his family, and to our age. 



