COTTON, Rev. Richard Lynch (brother of Francis Vere Cotton 1799–1884). b. Woodcote 14 Aug. 1794; ed. at Charterhouse and Worcester coll. Ox., B.A. 1815, M.A. 1818, B.D. and D.D. 1839; scholar of Worcester coll. 8 May 1815, fellow 7 May 1816, tutor, dean and bursar, provost Feb. 1839 to death, resided continuously in Worcester coll. 1815 to 1880; V. of Denchworth near Wantage 1823–39; vice chancellor of Univ. of Ox. 1852–57; promoted building of Shippon, Dry Sandford and Headington Quarry churches; author of Scriptural view of the Lord’s Supper 1837; The way of salvation plainly and practically traced 1837; Lectures on the holy sacrament of the Lord’s Supper 1849. d. Oxford 8 Dec. 1880. bur. Holywell cemetery 14 Dec. Guardian 29 Dec. 1880 p. 1, 819.
COTTON, Sir Saint Vincent, 6 Baronet (eld. son of admiral Sir Charles Cotton, 5 baronet 1753–1812). b. Madingley hall, Cambs. 6 Oct. 1801; succeeded 24 Feb. 1812; ed. at Westminster and Ch. Ch. Ox.; cornet 10 light dragoons 13 May 1827, lieut. 13 Dec. 1827 to 19 Nov. 1830 when placed on h.p.; distinguished himself in the hunting, shooting, racing and pugilistic world; played in Marylebone cricket matches 1830–35; a great player at hazard; dissipated all his property; drove the ‘Age’ coach from Brighton to London and back for some years from 1836. d. 5 Hyde park terrace, Kensington road, London 25 Jany. 1863. New sporting mag. xii, 81, 421 (1837), portrait.
COTTON, Sir Sydney John (brother of Rev. Richard Lynch Cotton 1794–1880). b. 2 Dec. 1792; cornet 22 dragoons 19 April 1810; lieut. col. 28 foot 8 Jany. 1843; lieut. col. 22 foot 2 Dec. 1847; lieut. col. 10 foot 14 Dec. 1854 to 26 Oct. 1858; commanded the troops on north west frontier of India during Indian mutiny 1857–58; col. 10 foot 5 Feb. 1863 to death; L.G. 20 April 1866; governor of Chelsea hospital 10 May 1872 to death; K.C.B. 24 March 1858, G.C.B. 24 May 1873; author of Remarks on drill 1857; Nine years on the north west frontier of India 1868; The Central Asian question, a prophecy fulfilled 1869, reprinted 1878. d. Chelsea hospital 20 Feb. 1874. F. Brodigan’s Historical record of 28 Foot (1884) 94–9; Kaye’s Sepoy Mutiny ii, 453, et seq.; I.L.N. xxxii, 489 (1858), portrait; Graphic ix, 314, 328 (1874), portrait.
COTTON, William (son of Wm. Cotton of the Customs, who d. Balham hill near London 27 Oct. 1816 aged 58). b. 1794; made a special study of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s works; F.S.A.; author of A graphic and historical sketch of the antiquities of Totnes 1850; Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Gleanings from his diary 1856; Some account of the ancient borough town of Plympton St. Maurice or Plympton Earl 1859; gave a fine collection of books, prints and drawings to the Plymouth public library which erected a building for their reception and opened it to the public 1 June 1853. d. 8 West Hoe terrace, Plymouth 22 Jany. 1863. G.M. xiv, 520–22 (1863).
COTTON, William (3 son of Joseph Cotton of Leyton, Essex 1745–1825, deputy master of the Trinity house). b. Leyton 12 Sep. 1786; partner in firm of Huddart and Co. manufacturers of registered cables at Limehouse, London 1807; one of founders of National Society 1811; a director of Bank of England 1821–66, governor 1843–45, invented automatic weighing machine for gold 1844, still in use and called after him ‘the governor’; member of S.P.C.K. 50 years, treasurer; F.R.S. 21 May 1821; sheriff of Essex 1837; built and endowed St. Thomas’s church, Bethnal Green 1844 and St. Paul’s church, Bow Common 1847. d. Walwood house, Leytonstone, Essex 1 Dec. 1866, a painted memorial window to his memory was placed by public subscription in St. Paul’s cathedral. G.M. iii, 111–13 (1867); I.L.N. v, 20 (1844), portrait.
COTTON, Sir Willoughby (only son of Rowland Cotton, admiral R.N., who d. 3 Nov. 1794). b. Upper Grosvenor st. London 1783; ed. at Rugby where he was leader of a rebellion Nov. 1797; ensign 3 foot guards 31 Oct. 1798; lieut. col. 47 foot 17 May 1821, lieut. col. 14 foot 13 Oct. 1828 to 22 July 1830; commanded forces in Jamaica 1829–34 where he put down an insurrection of the slaves 1831; commanded first division of Bengal army in Afghan war 1838–39; commander in chief at Bombay 8 April 1847 to 30 Dec. 1850; colonel of 98 foot 1 Aug. 1839 to 17 April 1854, and of 32 foot 17 April 1854 to death; general 20 June 1854; C.B. 26 Dec. 1826, K.C.B. 19 July 1838, G.C.B. 21 Jany. 1840; K.C.H. 1830; knighted at St. James’s palace 17 July 1830. d. 15 Lowndes sq. London 4 May 1860.
COUCH, Jonathan (only child of Richard Couch of Polperro, Cornwall 1739–1823). b. Polperro 15 March 1789; surgeon at Polperro 1810 to death; F.L.S. 6 April 1824; contributed to T. Bewick’s British Quadrupeds and W. Yarrell’s British Fishes; author of Cornish Fauna 3 parts 1838–44; Illustrations of instinct deduced from the habits of British animals 1847; A history of the fishes of the British islands 4 vols. 1860–65; translated Pliny’s Natural history 3 vols. 1847–50, published by the Wernerian Club. d. Polperro 13 April 1870. The history of Polperro by the late Jonathan Couch, with a short account of his life by T. Q. Couch 1871; Life of a Scotch naturalist Thomas Edward (1877) 292, 296, 333–49.
COUCH, Richard Quiller (eld. son of the preceding). b. Polperro 14 March 1816; ed. at Guy’s hospital, London; M.R.C.S. 1838, L.S.A. 1839; surgeon at Polperro; practised at Penzance 1843 to death; a sec. and curator of Penzance Natural history and antiquarian soc. 1845 to death; curator of Royal Geol. Soc. of Cornwall 1848 to death; contributed the third part (on the Zoophytes) to his father’s Cornish Fauna 1844, and an account of natural history of West Cornwall to J. S. Courtney’s Guide to Penzance 1845. d. Penzance 8 May 1863. G.M. xv, 106–8 (1863).
COUCH, Thomas Quiller (brother of the preceding). b. Polperro 28 May 1826; L.S.A. and M.R.C.S. 1852; surgeon at Bodmin 1855 to death; F.S.A. 26 March 1870; a constant contributor to Notes and Queries, from which two series of his articles The folklore of a Cornish village 1855 and 1857 have been incorporated in his father’s History of Polperro 1871; published in the Journal of the Royal instit. of Cornwall 1864 and 1870 lists of local words afterwards included in a Glossary of words in use in Cornwall issued by the English Dialect Society 1880. d. Bodmin 23 Oct. 1884.
COULSON, Walter (2 son of Thomas Coulson, master painter in Devonport dockyard, who d. 1845). b. Torpoint, Cornwall 1794; amanuensis to Jeremy Bentham; parliamentary reporter on the Morning Chronicle; editor of the Traveller 1822, of the Globe and Traveller 1823; barrister G.I. 26 Nov. 1828, bencher, Nov. 1851; recorder of Penzance 18 July 1836 to Jany. 1838; Q.C. July 1851; parliamentary draughtsman for the home office; member of Political Economy club, June 1821; a registration and conveyancing comr. 1847; member of royal commission for Great Exhibition 1851. d. North bank, St. John’s Wood, London 21 Nov. 1860. Leigh Hunt’s Correspondence i, 98, 120, 126–34.