James Sutherland Cotton

“ When quite a young man (1811) he was one of the founders of the National Society, formed for establishing schools in which the principles of the church of England should be taught. He was on the original council of King's College, and a governor of Christ's Hospital from 1821. ”

“ After two voyages in command of the Queen Charlotte, East Indiaman, he retired on the fortune thus acquired, and lived for the rest of his life at Leyton in Essex. In 1788 Captain Joseph Cotton was elected an elder brother of the Trinity, and in 1803 deputy-master, which office he held for about twenty years. In 1803 the Trinity House raised a corps of volunteer artillery 1,200 strong, of which Pitt (as master) was colonel and Captain Cotton lieutenant-colonel, to safeguard the mouth of the Thames against a foreign fleet. ”

“ Adam cancelled Buckingham's license, without which no European could then reside in India, and passed regulations restricting newspaper criticism. Buckingham appealed to the court of proprietors at home, to the House of Commons, and to the Privy Council; but the action of Adam was sustained by each of these three bodies. Another unpopular act of Adam's governor-generalship was to withdraw official support from the banking firm of Palmer, who had acquired a preponderant influence with the Nizam of the Deccan. ”

“ If the ‘Academy’ has not consistently carried out the ambitious programme with which its founder started, it has at least continued to live to the present time without more vicissitudes than are common to newspaper enterprise. On 16 Nov. 1872 the first meeting was held in London of the ‘Association for the Organisation of Academical Study,’ in which Appleton again was the prime mover. ”

“ Cotton was also the friend of another poet. Dr. Edward Young, whom he attended in his last illness, and of whose deathbed he has left an interesting account.
In his own day Dr. Cotton was himself a popular poet. He contributed to Dodsley's ‘Collection.’ His best known volume of poems, ‘Visions in Verse, for the Entertainment and Instruction of Younger Minds,’ was published anonymously in 1751 ”

“ He will do whatever can be done by bribery and intrigue; he has no other resource.’ And this character seems to be the more accurate. A scandalous story is told of him in a rare book entitled ‘The Intrigues of a Nabob; or Bengal the fittest Soil for the Growth of Lust, Injustice, and Dishonesty. By H. F. Thompson. Printed for the Author, 1780.’ It appears that Barwell had enticed away the writer's mistress, who passed at Calcutta for his wife, and then discontinued an annuity promised to the writer as the price of his acquiescence. ”

“ The doctor was as ready to administer relief to me in this article likewise, and as well qualified to do it, as in that which was more immediately his province.’ And again: ‘He is truly a philosopher, according to my judgment of his character, every tittle of his knowledge in natural subjects being connected in his mind with the firm belief of an omnipotent agent.’ Dr. ”

“ ANSTRUTHER, Sir JOHN (1753–1811) , politician and Anglo-Indian judge, was the second son of Sir John Anstruther, bart., of Elie House, Fifeshire. He was born 27 March 1753; educated at Glasgow University under Professor Millar ”

“ He died off Madagascar on 4 June 1825. Though some of his public acts involved him in unpopularity, his personal character had won him almost universal goodwill. His portrait was painted by G. Chinnery for the Calcutta Town Hall. ”

“ He died at Leyton on 26 Jan. 1825, and is buried, with his wife and many others of his family, in a vault in the churchyard of the parish church. His son William is separately noticed.
[Personal information; Gent. Mag. 1825, i. 189.] ”

“ Shortly after taking his bachelor's degree, he travelled on the continent, and studied for about two years at more than one German university. In 1867 he returned to Oxford, and was appointed lecturer in philosophy at St. ”