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Born: March 15, 1639/40 Boston, Massachusetts |
Died: September 18, 1699 Charleston, South Carolina |
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Father: John Cotton (Reverend) Mother: Sarah Hawkridge |
Brothers and Sisters: Rowland Cotton Seaborn Cotton Maria Cotton Sarah Cotton Elizabeth Cotton |
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Spouse: Joanna Rossiter m. November 7, 1660 Wethersfield, Connecticut |
Children: Josiah Cotton Mariah Cotton John Cotton Sarah Cotton Rowland Cotton Samuel Cotton Theophilus Cotton Elizabeth Cotton |
Additional Information:
Wife was the daughter of Dr. Brian Rossiter of Guilford, Connecticut. She was born July 1642, and died at Sandwich, Massachusetts, October 12, 1702.
"He was graduated from Harvard in 1657, studied theology with the Rev. Samuel Stone of Hartford, Conn., and from 1659 to 1663 preached at Wethersfield, Conn. In 1664 he learned the Indian tongue, and preached to the Indians at Martha's Vineyard for two years. In September, 1666, he was invited to become pastor of the church at Plymouth, Mass., and the following year removed thither, being ordained June 30, 1669. He preached at Plymouth until 1697, when a dissension arose between him and his congregation, and on Sept. 30, 1697, after unsuccessful efforts to effect a reconciliation the council 'advised the pastor to ask a dismission and the church to grant it.' He was dismissed Oct. 6, 1697, and after remaining about a year at Plymouth, accepted in November, 1698, a call to Charleston, S.C., where he preached with great success until he died. He was married at Wethersfield, Conn., Nov. 7, 1660, to Joanna, daughter . . . of Dr. Bray, and had eleven children, of whom John, Rowland, and Theophilus were graduates of Harvard, and ministers; Josiah (Harvard, 1698) compiled the manuscript history of the Cotton family; and Elizabeth married, first, the Rev. James Alling, and afterward Caleb Cushing (Harvard, 1692). His edition of Eliot's Indian Bible was published in 1685. He died of yellow fever at Charleston, S.C., Sept. 18, 1699."
--From The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume II