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Cotton, John (1585-1652), learned and popular Puritan preacher, born in Derby, England; pastor in Boston, England, until forced to flee to Boston, New England; became pastor of First Church of Boston; known as "patriarch of New England"; author of several religious books
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BIOGRAPHY: Cotton, John 1584-1652 English-born American cleric who was vicar of Saint Botolph's Church in England until he was summoned to court for his Puritanism. He fled to Boston, Massachusetts, where he became a civil and religious leader. Some New England children learned the rudiments of reading not only from their parents but also in dame schools, conducted by women in their own homes. Until the 1640s many were taught to read from The English School Master (1596) or an English catechism; later, colonial catechisms, such as John Cotton's Milk for Babes, appeared in editions of the New-England Primer. In the Southern colonies, where there were few significant concentrations of people in cities or towns, private schools were uncommon, and primary education was given in the "petty school," in which families employed a tutor or assigned a servant to teach their children and a few others from the area in a private house. (1) Richard Mather (see MATHER family) and John COTTON provided clerical leadership in the dominant Puritan colony planted on Massachusetts Bay. Thomas HOOKER was an example of those who settled new areas farther west according to traditional Puritan standards. Even though he broke with the authorities of the Massachusetts colony over questions of religious freedom, Roger WILLIAMS was also a true Puritan in his zeal for personal godliness and doctrinal correctness. Most of these men held ideas in the mainstream of Calvinistic thought. In addition to believing in the absolute sovereignty of God, the total depravity of man, and the complete dependence of human beings on divine grace for salvation, they stressed the importance of personal religious experience. These Puritans insisted that they, as God's elect, had the duty to direct national affairs according to God's will as revealed in the Bible. This union of church and state to form a holy commonwealth gave Puritanism direct and exclusive control over most colonial activity until commercial and political changes forced them to relinquish it at the end of the 17th century (The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia for Macintosh).
BIOGRAPHY: John Cotton, b. Dec. 4, 1584, d. Dec. 23, 1652, was a leading spokesman for early New England PURITANISM. Born in the English Midlands, he attended Cambridge University, was ordained a priest in the Church of England, and was for 20 years rector of a church in Boston, Lincolnshire. His rigorous Calvinism eventually brought him into conflict with church authorities, and in 1633 he emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he became minister of the only church in Boston. In subsequent years Cotton defended the doctrinal foundations of CONGREGATIONALISM against all opponents. Those who saw bishops as essential to church life found him arguing that true churches needed no such supervisors, only liberty for each congregation to control its own affairs. On the other hand, those championing complete freedom of conscience found that Cotton insisted on a Puritan monopoly. His ideas were an essential feature of early Puritan attempts to establish a holy commonwealth in Massachusetts. The first generation of settlers wrote sermons, religious tracts, diaries, and histories of their undertakings. The leading religious controversialists were John COTTON, Anne HUTCHINSON, Roger WILLIAMS, and John WINTHROP. Winthrop's Journal, originally printed as a History of New England from 1630 to 1649, remains a major historical source. It was followed by William BRADFORD's History of Plymouth Plantation (pub. 1856); Edward Johnson's History of New England (1654); and Thomas MORTON's New English Canaan (1637), which stands out for its irreverence and hints of bawdiness. Histories of the South with enduring literary qualities were Capt. John SMITH's The General Historie of Virginia (1624) and, much later, William BYRD's History of the Dividing Line (composed and reworked from 1728 but not published until 1841). Puritan writers stressed religious and didactic themes. The first book published in America was the Bay Psalm Book: The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre (1640). Michael WIGGLESWORTH continued in the Puritan vein, exhorting aGeorgiainst sin in his popular poem, Day of Doom (1662). Meanwhile, poetry of genuine accomplishment and a less stern, Puritan emphasis was written by Anne BRADSTREET in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) and by Edward TAYLOR, whose poems were not discovered until 1939. More in accord with the Puritan temperament are the spiritual autobiographies, which describe the Puritan experience of conversion. Thomas Shepard's The Sincere Convert (1640) is one of the first; Jonathan Edwards's "Personal Narrative," first published in 1765 in the Life of the Rev. J. Edwards by the theologian Samuel Hopkins, is one of the last. The Dorchester Company founded a colony at Gloucester (1623) on Cape Ann and, after Gloucester's failure, at Naumkeag (SALEM, 1626). In 1628 a party of Puritans led by John ENDECOTT settled at Salem under the auspices of the New England Company. The following year the MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY was chartered as a successor to the New England Company; its first large group of Puritan settlers arrived in 1630 under the leadership of John Winthrop (see WINTHROP family). Winthrop established Boston as the capital of the colony and, together with cleric John COTTON, dominated its affairs for the next two decades. Another significant family member was Cotton Mather, b. Boston, Feb. 12, 1663, d. Feb. 13, 1728, son of Increase, named for his maternal grandfather, John Cotton. Cotton graduated from Harvard in 1678, was ordained in 1685, became assistant minister in his father's church that same year, and later succeeded him (1723). Of all colonial Massachusetts Puritans, Cotton was the most prolific and creative. During his 43 years as preacher and pastor he wrote 450 books on a variety of topics. His long history, Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), is a classic memorial to early Puritan efforts to establish their version of Christianity in the Western Hemisphere. Cotton also helped initiate the Salem Witch Trials, but later he criticized the executions.
BIOGRAPHY: John Cotton was the most distinguished divine that came from England in the first age. He was born at Derby on 4 Dec 1585, the son of Rowland Cotton, Esquire. He attended University of Cambridge when he was 14 years old. He then went to Trinity College where he got his A.M. in1606. He became Fellow of Emanuel after spending as he says 14 years at Cambridge. He was preacher at Boston, Lincolnshire 21 years from 1612. Being by the choice of the Corporal made Vicar. He came over with several of his parish in the Griffin and arrived 4 Sep 1633 with wife Sarah and their first child named Seaborn (named such since he was born at sea). Record of attendance at church shown for the first time on 8 Sep 1633. He was ordained teacher of that church on 10 Oct 1633. He died 23 Dec 1652. His death insued on his taking cold in crossing the ferry as he went to preach a few days before at Cambridge. His will of 30 Nov 1652 mentioned the four children Seaborn, John, Elizabeth, and Mary as well as wife Sarah. "The house and gardens in the market-place of Boston, in Lincolnshire" as well as "The small part of my house who Sir Henry Vane built while he sojourned with me" and at his departure gave by deed to son Seaborn. Also mentioned was cousin Henry Smith and Cousin John Anzier with his wife and children all living at his house and kinswoman Martha Mellowes who I judge to be the widow of Abraham. The name of grandchild, Betty Day, can only be explained by supposing that his wife had by former husband a daughter who had married a Day and had this child. We know she was not a grandchild by natural descent (The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia for Macintosh).
BIOGRAPHY: John Cotton lived 18 years with wife Elizabeth Horrocks and had no children, by second wife, widow Sarah Story, who outlived him and married Richard Mather on 26 Aug 1656. Sarah Story died 27 May 1676. The children of John Cotton and Sarah Story were: Seaborn b. 12 Aug 1633 baptized 4 days after reaching port, Sarah b. 12 Sep 1635 married Jonathan Mitchell she died of smallpox 20 Jan 1650, Elizabeth b. 9 Dec 1637 married Jeremiah Egginton on 12 Oct 1655 she died 31 Aug 1655, John b. 15 Mar 1640 graduated from Harvard College in 1657 married Joanna Rossiter on 7 Nov 1660 he was preacher at Wethersfield and was excommunicated by Father's Church for 3 aggravated offenses he died of yellow fever in Charleston South Carolina on 18 Sep 1699. (There was a plaque brought from Barbados that killed hundreds in two weeks). Next child was Mary or Maria b. 16 Feb 1642 married Rev. Increase Mather on 6 Mar 1663 she died 4 Apr 1714. The last child was Rowland b. 18 Dec 1643 died of smallpox 29 Jan 1650 (Genealogical Directory of the First Settlers of New England, Volume I, page 462).
Sources:
!BIOGRAPHY: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia for Macintosh, Release 6, 1993, Grolier Inc. Henry Warner Bowden Bibliography: Emerson, E.H., John Cotton (1965); Morison, S.E., Builders of the Bay Colony (1930; repr. 1982); Ziff, L., The Career of John Cotton (1962)
!BIOGRAPHY: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, 1992, by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from InfoSoft International, Inc. All rights reserved.
!PARENTS-SPOUSE-CHILDREN: Family tree chart prepared by Stanwood E Flitner, Englewood, New Jersey, 1934 for Orlando Nelson Dana and Clara H. Lequin. Copies in possession of Diane Blanton Bargeron and June Blanton.
!BIOGRAPHY-SPOUSE-CHILDREN: Genealogical Directory of the First Settlers of New England, Volume I, by James Savage, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1990, page 462, (Tifton Tift County Public Library, Tifton, Georgia).
!VARIOUS: Broderbund World Family Tree Archive, CD ROM, Volume 3.
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!IMMIGRATION-SPOUSE-CHILDREN-DEATH: Genealogical Directory of the First Settlers of New England, Volume I, by James Savage, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1990, page 462, (Tifton Tift County Public Library, Tifton, Georgia) Sarah Story married John Cotton (second wife) in England and they came over on the Griffin and arrived 4 Sep 1633. Children are listed. After the death of John Cotton in 1652 she married Richard Mather 26 Aug 1656. She died 27 May 1676.
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