Category: Storytelling

LANCASHIRE CONNECTIONS

Posted onLeave a comment

Members of Family 11 of the Cotton DNA Project include the surnames COTTON, COTTAM AND COTHAM. The Cotton surname has been proven back to Roland Cotton born London, England 1558. The Cottam surname shows a lineage back to St. Michael on Wyre, Lancashire, England to a Thomas Cottam circa 1740 and a William Cottam born 1779.

The Cotton DNA Project attempts to bridge genealogical proofs with DNA Test results. Fortunately for Family 11, the Cotton surname genealogical proof has been confirmed by a large number of prestigious lineage and hereditary societies. In addition, the Family DNA Big Y test is the most extensive DNA test available. Shown above in yellow highlight, the Cotton line’s placement has been further defined several more subclades or subgroupings under Haplogroup R-ZZ7. To my surprise, a link between the Cottam and the Cotton surnames has been revealed in results of my recent Big Y Test and is displayed on the Big Tree .

The subclade DYS435=12 groups the Cotton line solidly with the Irish Sea or Leinister Modality as the group is dominated by Z16430 and the Clan O’Byrne. The Byrne family is named after the King of Leinster “Braen mac Máelmórda”, who was deposed in 1018. However,  along with the Clan Byrne subclade Z16430 is the subclade BY2573 containing a Byrne ,two Singletons and a Cotton (me). Further research seems to indicate that the Singletons took their name from the Lancashire township of Singleton. Later, in the early 12th Century,  a Singleton purchased land in the nearby township of Cottam and took the surname “de Cottam”. As a result, it seems that a potential nexus of historical and DNA data exists showing that Cottam and Cotton surnames derive from the Singleton family of Lancashire early in the 14th century.

“The Lancashire Chartulary, Series XX. Charter No. II (A.D. 1153-1160 Stephen to Henry II) shows the confirmation of William Warren, Count of Mortain, to Ughtred, son of Huck de Singleton, of the village of Broughton in Amounderness. “ A note by the Chetham Society, XXX. Page 5, in their Latin comments about the Charter state, “Broctun, now Broughton, in the parish of Preston, was assessed to Danegeld in 1066 as on teamland, and was a member of Earl Tostig’s great manor of Preston in Amounderness. Hucca or Uck is the Anglo-Saxon Hoc, a tribal name retained in the place name “Hucking”. The individual so named in the charter seems to have been the successor of the preconquest thane or drengh of Broughton, and Singleton. He was the ancestor of the Singleton family, which with its various offshoots at one time held estates in Amounderness. Ughtred, son of Huck, is frequently mentioned in charters and other records of the time of Henry II. At Michaelmas, 23 Henry II, 1177, he rendered account at the Treasury of 5 marks to have the King’s confirmation or warranty of land which he held by the gift of Geoffrey de Valoiness…” Based on this charter and the notes of the Chetham Society, the following lineage has been established.⁠1

Huck (Ecke) de Singleton (lived about 1125)

†

Ughtred (Uctred) de Singleton (lived about 1153)

†

Robert de Singleton (lived about 1180)

†

Richard de Cottam (lived about 1204)

Richard, son of Robert, owned land in the village of Cottam and thus changed his surname to conform to the common practice “of being from a place” i.e. Robert de Singleton and Richard de Cottam.  (Pipe Roll, No. 71, m.I.) From the Cockersand Chartulary it appears that Richard de Cottam was son of Robert, son of Ughtred, who was brother of Richard de Singleton (1180-1212)⁠1  Geoffrey de Glazebrook and Edith his wife in 1227 released to Richard de Cottam an oxgang of land in Bilsborrow; Final Conc. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), i, 47. He is believed to be the Richard son of Robert who granted land to Cockersand Abbey (Chartul. [Chet. Soc] i, 269), Robert being son of Uctred and brother of Richard de Singleton, also benefactors of the abbey; ibid. 264, 268. John de Cottam was plaintiff in 1304 and William de Cottam defendant in the following year; De Banco R. 152, m. 22 d.; 155, m. 144. William de Cottam was again defendant in 1311; ibid. 184, m. 23 d. He contributed to the subsidy of 1332; Exch. Lay Subs. (Rec. Soc. Lancs, and Ches.), 60. Sir Adam de Hoghton (as guardian of Thomas the heir of Sir Adam Banastre) gave Adam de Singleton the wardship of John son and heir of John de Cottam of Bilsborrow, the tenure being of Banastre by knight’s service; Dods. MSS. cxlix, fol. 118. The Cottams then fall into obscurity, but from a pleading of 1570 it appears that in the time of Henry IV Richard son of William Cottam married Margaret daughter of John de Fleetwood and then had land in Bilsborrow settled on him. The descent continues: s. Oliver -s. Richard -s. John -s. Richard -sons Richard (who had a son John), Nicholas and Henry. Henry’s daughter Elizabeth married Christopher Parkinson, and these were plaintiffs in 1570, Joan Topping, widow, being defendant; Pal. of Lanc. Plea R. 228, m. 10 d. The duchy rent was claimed by the king’s bailiff in 1522; Ducatus Lanc. (Rec. Com.), i, 212.⁠4

† Geoffrey de Cottam

† John de Cottam

† Richard de Cottam

Writ dated at Westminster, June 10th, 21st year of Edward I (1293), directed to the sheriff of Lancaster and his coroners, reciting the same terms as the previous writ (No. LXXI) the petition of the venerable father R. Bishop of Coventre and Lichfield respecting the lands and chattels of Richard de Cotton, clerk, which had been taken into the King’s hands owing to a charge against the said Richard, of the death of William le Paumere, and directing the sheriff to make inquiry as to the said Richard’s conversation and reputation….. By the oath of 12 free and liege men of the neighborhood of Amundernesse, who say that Richard de Cotton is of good and honest conversation and of good report nor was he ever a public or notorious malefactor except for the death of William le Paumere of which he was accused (arectatus) before the Justices in the last year at Lancaster, of which he afterwards solely vindicated (expurgavit) his innocence.⁠5

† John de Cottam (lived about 1344)

SOURCES

1 Cheshire, Record Society of Lancashire and. Record Society for the Publication of Original Documents Relating to Lancashire and Cheshire, 1903.

2 Farrer, William, and J Brownbill. The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, 1908

3 Singleton, Sam, Singleton Family Association. A History of John Singleton of American Fork, Utah, His Ancestors and Descendants, Spanish Fork, Utah: JMart Publishing Company, 1973.

4 Cheshire, Record Society of Lancashire and. Record Society for the Publication of Original Documents Relating to Lancashire and Cheshire, 1903.

5 Ibid.

4TH OF JULY 2016

Posted onLeave a comment

Plymouth RockPlymouth Rock is one of America’s most visited historic sites, but this famous chunk of bedrock wasn’t always the shrine it is today.  The first settler made no mention of it in historical accounts about the famous landing on December 21, 1620. In fact, before going ashore to the mainland, they took refuge that first night at Clark’s Island, just across from the harbor.

Focus on the Rock as a historic site was first documented by James Thatcher in his History of Plymouth (1832). Thatcher writes that when the town announced plans in 1741 to erect a wharf in Plymouth Harbor, Elder Thomas Faunce, 95, a Mayflower descendant and third ruling elder of the Plymouth Church, identified the rock as the very one the forefathers had set foot upon their arrival. The wharf was built without covering the rock.

As revolution against mother England became inevitable, Plymouth Rock drew more public attention in 1774 when members of the Old Colony Club, who had established ‘Forefather’s Day’ found themselves so divided politically that they disbanded. The observance of Forefathers’ Day that year took place without them and the legend of Plymouth Rock spread.

Edward Winslow, however, had marked the rock’s location on a British survey map of Plymouth made in 1774. Later that year, with the sides now drawn in the coming struggle, the Sons of Liberty (called by Winslow the “Sons of Licentiousness”) were the first to appropriate the rock’s burgeoning symbolism. Militia Colonel Theophilus Cotton and a band of Liberty Boys appeared on the wharf on December 22 with a carriage and thirty yokes of oxen, prepared to take the rock away. They dug down and managed to elevate it from its bed with large screws, but as the attempted to move it onto the carriage it split in two. Some of the more patriotic present saw the split as symbolic of the division between England and the colonies – or so they said afterward. Colonel Cotton and his boys then let the bottom section drop back into its bed, where it remained a few inches above the earth. The top segment, weighing four or five tons, was carted to the Town Square and placed ceremoniously beside a large elm used to support the newly erected Liberty Pole which flew their “Liberty or Death” flag.
In 1834, the rock fragment was removed from Town Square to Pilgrim Hall. Preservation of Plymouth Rock was one of the main goals of the Pilgrim Society, founded in 1820 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing. America’s new shrine was enclosed in an iron fence.

In 1880, the two parts of the rock were joined and the entire rock was moved back to the harbor to be placed under the shelter of a monumental Victorian canopy. The date “1620” was carved into the rock at this time. Here the rock rested until 1920.

During Plymouth’s Tercentenary Celebration, the rock was again moved while waterfront renovations took place. During the summer of 1921, it lay in an empty lot on the waterfront awaiting its new resting place under a portico donated by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. The redesign of the waterfront was planned so that when the Rock was placed on the edge of the shore, the high tide would surround it and it would appear as historians of the day thought it did in 1620. Plymouth Rock was dedicated November 29, 1921. The Rock and its surrounding grounds were donated by the Pilgrim Society to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

KNITTING EYEBROWS

Posted on2 Comments

“Cotton’s conversion by Sibbes and his shift to Sibbes’ plain evangelical style of preaching was affirmed when John Preston knocked on his door to tell Cotton how his sermon had enabled “God to speak effectually unto his heart”. Prior to his conversion, Preston studied music, medicine and astronomy and “thought it below him to be a minister” as he “held the study of Divinity to be a kind of honest silliness”.6 After his conversion, Preston and Cotton became friends for life and Preston, later, made annual trips to Boston, Lincolnshire to visit Cotton and regularly sent him near fledgling students for finishing.

“In light of the tenets of Calvinism, conversion surpassed ordination in importance for Preston, Cotton, Sibbes and Baynes. Their mutual affirmation of election to sainthood reinforced each individual’s conviction of his election and sustained their advocacy of Calvinist principles. Thus, Baynes, Sibbes, Cotton and Preston formed a successive line of spiritual kinship or godly mafia in which Paul Baynes begat Richard Sibbes, who with William Perkins, begat John Cotton, who begat John Preston, who begat Thomas Shepard and so on. Francis Bremer writes, “Knit together by the thread of grace and a legacy of shared experiences, members of this communion formed a network of friends who were determined to maintain their unity as they labored together to advance the reform cause. Brought together by shared doctrines or temperament, the Puritans of early Stuart England formed a fellowship of faith that set them apart from their peers.” from JOHN COTTON An Intimate Investigation of His Life and Times by Barry Arthur Cotton.

Understanding an ancestor who lived in the 17th century is not easy in today’s world. John Cotton was born in 1584 and attended Cambridge University- first a Trinity College and then Emmanuel College. In 1610, Cotton was ordained a priest of the Church of England and in 1612 he reported that he had been converted under the guidance of Richard Sibbes and, in turn, he inadvertently converted John Preston.

To understand John Cotton’s “conversion”, it has been necessary to understand that in the 17th century, the Church of England adhered to the doctrine of predestination.  “Between 1560 and 1625 the doctrine of predestination was accepted without question by virtually all of the most influential clergymen in England, Puritan and nonpartisan alike.”1 As a result, most people lived in angst over election to salvation. Unconditional election is one of five tenets of Calvinism- the other four are: total depravity of the human condition, limited atonement, conversion by irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints. The Church of England’s position on predestination, authored by Archbishop John Witgift in the Lambeth Articles of 1595, affirmed Calvinism. Both the Church of England and its attendant Puritans embraced the teachings of John Calvin and the concept of predestination.

EMERSON FAMILY 3

Ironically, the 3rd great granddaughter of John Cotton, Lydia Cotton Jackson, married Ralph Waldo Emerson, junior pastor of the Second Church of Boston and father of Transcendentalism. In contrast to Calvin’s doctrine of Predestination, Transcendentalism taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity and transcendentalists held progressive views on feminism and communal living. At the time, both the First and Second Church of Boston were Unitarian and rejected the traditional Calvinist doctrines of original sin, total depravity, predestination and the trinity as unbiblical. Unitarians asserted the unity of God and rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. Under the influence of Transcendentalism, they also adopted positive doctrines of the nature of humanity and the possibility of continuing moral, spiritual and intellectual growth.

Equally ironic is the fact that although John Cotton is attributed as one of the founders of the Congregational Church, the First Church of Boston and Harvard College, the Unitarian movement split these institutions as some 250 of New England’s original parish churches formally took the name Unitarian, having been in fact Unitarian already for 50 or 75 years. By mid 19th century the Calvinist and the Unitarian heirs of the Puritans had gone their separate ways. In general, the church was called Unitarian if its members now had a Harvard graduate in their pulpit. It was called Calvinist if its minister was a graduate of Andover or Yale.

1 Durston, Christopher, and Jacqueline Eales. 1996. The Culture of English Puritanism, 1560-1700. Edited by Christopher Durston and Jacqueline Eales. Macmillan. 7