Rev. John Cotton

1640 - 1699  (59 years)

• Name	John Cotton  [1, 2]
  Prefix	Rev.
  Birth	15 Mar 1640	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [3, 4, 5]
  Baptism	22 Mar 1640	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [4, 5]
  Gender	Male
  Alternate death	17 Sep 1699	Charleston, South Carolina   [5]
  Death	18 Sep 1699	Charleston, South Carolina   [3, 5]
  Siblings	2 siblings
  + 1. Rev. Seaborn Cotton ,   b. 12 Aug 1633, At sea d. 20 Apr 1686, Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire  (Age 52 years) ▻ Dorothy Bradstreet ,  m. 14 Jun 1654 + 2. Rev. John Cotton ,   b. 15 Mar 1640, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts d. 18 Sep 1699, Charleston, South Carolina  (Age 59 years) ▻ Joanna Rossiter ,  m. 7 Nov 1660 + 3. Maria Cotton ,   b. 16 Feb 1642, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts ▻ Increase Mather ,  m. 6 Mar 1662
  Person ID	I13908	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of JTS
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2023

  
  

  Father	Rev. John Cotton,   b. 4 Dec 1585, Derby, Derbyshire, England d. 23 Dec 1652, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts (Age 67 years)
  Mother	Sarah Hawkredd,   b. Abt 1601   d. 27 May 1676 (Age ~ 75 years)
  Marriage	25 Apr 1632	Boston, Lincolnshire, England   [6]
  Family ID	F16137	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Joanna Rossiter,   b. Jul 1642   d. 12 Oct 1702, Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts (Age ~ 60 years)
  Marriage	7 Nov 1660	of Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut   [4]
  Children	+ 1. Rev. Rowland Cotton,   b. 27 Dec 1667, Plymouth, Plymouth Colony d. 18 Mar 1722, Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts (Age 54 years) + 2. Josiah Cotton,   b. 8 Jan 1679, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts d. 19 Aug 1756, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts (Age 77 years)
  Family ID	F8784	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	19 Nov 2017

  
  

• Notes

  "John Cotton Jr. (1639–1699) was the second son of one of the most famous clergymen of New England’s founding generation. At the age of twenty-two, already the pastor of the church in Wethersfield, Connecticut, he lost his ministry as a result of a sexual scandal. Disgraced and jobless, Cotton moved his family to distant Martha’s Vineyard to start anew as a missionary to the Indians. Within a few years, Cotton had managed to rehabilitate his reputation, and he accepted a call to the church in Plymouth. He kept the Plymouth pulpit for nearly thirty years before losing it, once again to scandal and factional church politics. Cotton retired to Cape Cod for a short time before accepting one final call, this time to Charleston, South Carolina, where he died in less than a year of yellow fever." [Descriptive copy for The Correspondence of John Cotton Jr. ed. Sheila McIntyre and Len Travers, 2009.] Here's a very interesting interview, about the life and letters of John Cotton, with the two editors in the citation above.

  
  

• Sources

  [S1585] Ancestry and Descendants of Sir Richard Saltonstall by Leverett Saltonstall. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1897. [S6777] The Descendants of Dr. Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill, Massachusetts by Scott C. Steward. Boston: Newbury Street Press, 2013. [S1582] John Wingate Thornton, "The Cotton Family." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 1:164, April 1847. [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England,1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011. [S756] Early New England Families Study Project: Accounts of New England Families from 1641 to 1700 by Alicia Crane Williams. Online database, New England Historic Genealogical Society. [S843] John Anderson Brayton, "Additions to the Ancestry of Sarah (Hawkredd) (Story) (Cotton) Mather of Boston, Lincolnshire." The Genealogist 21:108, Spring 2007; 21:191, Fall 2007.