sporting ami Runil Records of the Cheveley Estate. I'J 



sons and two daughters died in their nonage ; three sons, John, Cheveley. 

 Robert, and Edmond, were all knighted. Sir Robert, the second 

 son, was seated at Woodditton, and his sister Alice was married to 

 Sir Thomas Revet, of Chippenham. 



His eldest surviving son, Sir John Cotton, of Landwade, Sir John 

 married three times, and had no surviving issue by his first and 

 second wife ; but by his third spouse, Anne, daughter of Sir 

 Richard Houghton, Bart., of Houghton Tower, Lancashire, he had 

 issue James, John, and Catherine. He was Lord-Lieutenant and 

 Custos Rotulorum for Cambridgeshire, and served for many years 

 as Knight of the Shire for that county, and was knighted by 

 James I. at Whitehall, July 23, 1603. He is said to have built or 

 enlarged Cheveley Hall about this time, and to have made it his Cheveley Hall, 

 principal residence. He died in 1620, aged seventy-seven, and 

 was buried in Landwade Church, leaving John, his son and heir, 

 who was created a baronet by Charles L in 1641. In March, 

 1639, he obtained jointly with Richard Holford, at the nomination 

 of Henry Jermyn, certain lands within the soke of Somersham, 

 CO. Huntingdon, at the yearly rent of £20, and a confirmation of 

 a lease of the same formerly made to Sir Thomas Jermyn for sixty 

 years. He was High Sheriff of Cambridge when the rebellion 

 broke out, and, adhering to the cause of Charles I. and the 

 Cavaliers, proclaimed the Earl of Essex a traitor in every market 

 town in the county. Sir John took up arms for his Sovereign, 

 and, according to Wotton, " was instructed to carry the plate of 

 the University of Cambridge to the King at Oxford, which he 

 safely delivered, through many difficulties, being followed by a 

 body of Cromwell's horse."* This account of the transaction The 



cannot be substantiated. By another version it appears that in ^f™ " ^'^ 



'^ ' University 



August, 1642, Sir John Cotton, then High Sheriff of Cambridge- Plate, 



shire, was ordered by Charles I. to proceed to Cambridge, 



* Compare Cooper's "Annals of Cambridge,' Vol. III., pp. 327-330, where it 

 is stated that Cromwell succeeded in preventing part of the University plate being 

 conveyed to the King. 



D 2 



