clxxxviii LIFE OF 



Lord Halifax's letter, that Cotton was living at Beresford so lately 

 as 1684 or 1685, though it is said that he surrendered that estate 

 to Joseph Woodhouse, of Wollescote, in Derbyshire, gentleman, 

 on the 26th March 1681, who sold it in the same year to John 

 Beresford, Esq., of Newton Grange, in that county. 2 It is also to 

 be observed that Dr Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, 

 which was licensed to be printed in April 1686, repeatedly men- 

 tions his " worthy, learned, and most worthy friend, the worship- 

 ful Charles Cotton, of Beresford, Esquire ; " 3 to whom he inscribed 

 one of the plates in that work " in memory of his favours," and 

 he speaks of " his pleasant mansion at Beresford." 4 



After the publication of the translation of Montaigne's Essays, 

 Cotton employed himself in translating the Memoirs of the Sieur 

 de Pontis, and he was engaged on that work at the time of his 

 death, which event is said to have occurred on the I3th of Feb- 

 ruary 1687. It is also stated that he was buried at St Martin's 

 Church, 5 but no entry of the fact occurs in the Register of St 

 Martin's-in-the-Fields, or of St Martin's, Ludgate. That he died 

 in or before that year is however certain, as on the I2th of Sep- 

 tember 1687 letters of administration of the effects of Charles 

 Cotton, late of Beresford, in the county of Stafford, deceased, with- 

 in the parish of St James, Westminster, were granted to " Eliza- 

 beth Bludworth, widow, his principal creditrix, the Honorable 

 Mary Countess-Dowager of Ardglass, his widow, Beresford Cotton, 

 Esq., Olive Cotton, Katherine Cotton, Jane Cotton, and Mary 

 Cotton, his natural and lawful children, first renouncing." 



As he died of a fever, his death was probably sudden ; and it 

 is not known whether his last hours were cheered by the presence 

 of his family, or in what condition as to personal comforts he 

 expired. Soon after his decease, a hasty and imperfect edition of 

 his poems was published, without a preface, or a single word 

 respecting the author. Of that volume the following information 

 occurs in the publisher's preface to Cotton's translation of the 

 Memoirs of the Sieur de Pontis ; whence it seems that he had 

 prepared an edition of his poems 6 for the press, and that the 



2 "Blore'sMS. Collections for a History of Staffordshire, late in the possession of 

 William Hamper, Esq." 3 P p . 4 8, 89, 115. 4 Pp. 165, 276, 396. 



5 "18 February 1687, Charles Cotton, died in London on Sunday last, of a feaver, 

 and buried at St Martin's Church." MS. Diary. 



fi The MS. copy of some of Cotton's poems which has been before mentioned (p. 

 clxv.) contains the following title : . 



Under which is written : 



"EITA "APFA 



Oiiantis Opera. 



