HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [237 



which have been preserved, that he was not only a skilful but a 

 benevolent physician. It does not appear that Dr. Caldwell was 

 married. He died in London in 1585, aged seventy-three years, 

 and was buried in the Church of St. Bennett, near Paul's Wharf. 



CHARLES COTTON. 



This eccentric genius was the son of Charles Cotton, Esq. of 

 Beresford or Barrisford, a manor on the banks of the Dove, in 

 Staffordshire. He was born at Beresford on the 28th of April 

 1630, and was educated at the University of Cambridge. His ac- 

 quirements while he continued at College, are stated by different 

 biographers to have been very great, particularly his knowledge of 

 the Greek and Roman classics. He also became master of the 

 French and Italian languages. He did not however take a de- 

 gree, or study with a view to any of the learned professions, but 

 contented himself with those acquisitions as a scholar which should 

 enable him to shine as a gentleman. The improvidence or impru- 

 dence of his father, who had wasted a considerable part of his pa- 

 trimony in unsuccessful litigation, prevented him from the full in- 

 dulgence of youthful curiosity by making the grand tour; but 

 when he completed his education, he travelled into France and 

 some other parts of the Continent. He did not continue long 

 abroad; and soon after his return to England in 1656, he married 

 Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomas Hutchinson, knt. of Owthorpe, 

 in Nottinghamshire. With this lady he resided in the family- 

 mansion during the remainder of his father's life, as his income did 

 not enable him to keep up a separate establishment. His father 

 died in 1658, and he came into possession of the estate of Beres- 

 ford, in the twenty-eighth year of his age ; but a considerable 

 part of this estate had been mortgaged, and he was not blest with 

 sufficient prudence and self-denial to recover it. 



Mr. Cotton's first original production was " A Panegyric to the 

 King's Most Excellent Majesty," written in the year 1660, at the 

 time of the Restoration. It is preserved in the British Museum. 

 In 1664, he published a translation from the French of M. de 

 Vaix's "Moral Philosophy of the Stoics;" and in 1665, he trans- 

 lated the works of Horace from the French of Corneille, for the 

 amusement of his sister. 



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