Dorothy Cotton 1572-1647

Dorothy COTTON 1572-1647

Biographical Note

Born at Combermere, Cheshire, daughter of Richard Cotton and sister of Andrew Cotton; the Cottons were a gentry family who acquired the Combermere estate after the dissolution of the monasteries.

Books

Andrew Cotton’s probate inventory lists “his books”, valued at £20, from a total estate valued at £330. In his will, he directed that all his Latin books be given to his cousin Thomas Cotton, and his large English Bible to Thomas’s new wife Frances, “in confidence that she will daily bestow some time in reading and serious meditating thereon”. The fate of any other books is not specified but some may have passed to Dorothy, who was named as his executor. Her probate inventory lists “her books” valued at £3 6s 8d, from a total estate valued at £374. Her will directed that “all my English books, which I have usually kept in my new cupboard” be given to her cousin William Massie, although a number of specific titles were to go to her cousin George Mainwaring (“Mr Perkins works in 3 volumes, Mr Grantam’s works, the Doctrine of the gospel, two of Dr Preston’s books and Mr Balls treatise of faith”).

Sources

• Pixton, P. Wrenbury wills and inventories 1542-1661, 2009, no.122.