Joseph Cotton (mariner)
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Joseph Cotton FRS (7 March 1745 – 26 January 1825), was an English mariner and merchant, a director of the East India Company and deputy-master of Trinity House.
Cotton was born at St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, the third son[1] of Dr. Nathaniel Cotton. He entered the Royal Navy in 1760 and passed the examination for lieutenant, but left the navy and joined the East India Company.
He made a fortune from two voyages as captain of the Royal Charlotte,[2] an East Indiaman. He then retired and lived the rest of his life in Leyton, Essex, living at Leyton House from 1789 to 1803,[3] and in Walnut Tree House (today Essex Hall) beginning in 1813.[4]
In 1788, he was elected an "elder brother" of Trinity House, and in 1803 became deputy-master, holding the latter post for about twenty years. He published a memoir about the origin of Trinity House in 1818.[5]
He was a director of the East India Company from 1795 to 1823; he was also a director of the East India Docks Company (chairman in 1803), and a governor of the London Assurance Corporation, and the English Copper Company.
He attempted to introduce ramie, a fibre plant, for use in manufacturing, and was awarded a silver medal for this in 1814 by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures; however, the fibre found little commercial usage.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1810.
He died in Leyton in 1825 and was buried at the local parish church.
Family
[edit]He married Sarah Harrison in 1779, and they had 10 children, including William Cotton (a governor of the Bank of England)[2] and John Cotton, who became Chairman of the East India Company.[6]
He was also grandfather of Henry Cotton (appeals court judge), William Charles Cotton (apiarist) and William Cotton Oswell (explorer) and the great-grandfather of Henry John Stedman Cotton (civil servant in India and Governor of Assam).
References
[edit]- ^ "Nathaniel Cotton 1705–1788". Halhed genealogy & family trees. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- ^ a b Oswell, William Edward (1900). William Cotton Oswell, Hunter and Explorer, p. 1. London, U.K.: Heinemann.
- ^ David Ian Chapman (2007). "Leyton House and the Walthamstow Slip" (PDF). Leyton & Leytonstone Historical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- ^ "Walnut Tree House". The Shady Old Lady's Guide to London. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- ^ Cotton, Joseph (1818). Memoir on the Origin and Incorporation of the Trinity House of Deptford Strond. London, U.K.: J. Darling.
- ^ "Sir John Cotton". The Telegraph. 4 February 2002. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
- "Joseph Cotton 1746–1825". Halhed genealogy & family trees. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
. Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1746 births
- 1825 deaths
- People from St Albans
- People from Leyton
- 18th-century English people
- 19th-century English people
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Directors of the British East India Company
- Nathaniel Cotton family
- Members of Trinity House
- British merchants
- Royal Navy officers
- 18th-century Royal Navy personnel
- Military personnel from Hertfordshire