Combermere Papers

Combermere Papers is in Stewart Books.

In 1685 Sir Robert (age 50) was committed to the Tower [Map] on a charge of treasonable correspondence with the Electress Sophia (age 54). The following is a copy of the warrant for his committal:

Robert Earl of Sunderland Baron Spencer & c & c

These are in His Majesty's name to authorize and require you to receive into your custodie the bodie of Sir Robert Cotton of Cheshire (age 50) herewith sent to you for dangerous and treasonable practices !Keep him safe and close till he be discharged by due course of law for which this shall be your warrant.

Given at the Court at Windsor the 23rd daye of September 1685

SUNDERLAND [Robert Spencer 2nd Earl of Sunderland (age 44)]

To the Lieutenant of the Tower

After 23 Sep 1685. By an act of kindness unusual on the part of James II Sir Robert (age 50) was allowed the society of one of his family within the Tower He chose his fourth son Thomas (age 13) a boy of eleven years old and beguiled the tedium of captivity by teaching him to read. Lady Cotton (age 48) not being allowed to share her husband's imprisonment used to walk every day at a certain hour on Tower Hill till she learnt by an agreed signal hung out from a window that her husband was well. After a short delay Sir Robert was released the charge made against him having been found to be groundless. That there were however letters although perhaps not treasonable from the Electress Sophia (age 54) we learn from Mrs Piozzi who when a child saw some of this correspondence. She was too young to recollect anything about the contents but was afterwards told that they were full of Latin quotations. In accordance with what seems to have been a family mania for the destruction of papers Lord Combermere's father burnt the letters in question

1689. When Sir Thomas Cotton (age 17) reached the age of seventeen his father (age 53) received a most extraordinary proposal from Admiral Sir George Herbert (age 41) [Note. George a mistake for Arthur?] afterwards Lord Torrington which he seems to have accepted without the slightest misgiving as to its morality. George (age 41) was uncle and guardian to Philadelphia (age 13) daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Lynch twice Governor and Captain General of Jamaica who had died possessed of large estates in the West Indies a share in which Sir George coveted He therefore agreed to marry his ward though only thirteen years old to young Thomas Cotton on condition that his consent was purchased by a portion of the property. The marriage actually took place and the terms were duly carried out. Eventually Thomas though only a fourth son succeeded through the death of his elder brothers to the title and estates but did not enjoy them long dying in 1715 after only a three years tenure. His widow (age 13) shortly afterwards married a Mr King on whom she bestowed the whole of her large fortune to the entire exclusion of her nine sons and six daughters. In the parish register of Wrenbury Church [Map] near Combermere the birth of a young King is recorded who soon after was christened there by the name of Cotton a novel compliment to the memory of the lady's first husband. Sir Thomas Lady Cotton survived her second partner for some years and lived at East Hyde a fine place in Hertfordshire where her four magnificent horses were the objects of great attention to her little niece Hester Salusbury afterwards Mrs Piozzi. The stately old lady was in the habit of driving about in the neigh bourhood of her country place in a ponderous anti quated coach drawn by four black horses as solemnly grand as herself The animals were the delight of her little niece who in her autobiography thus fondly alludes to them:

At East Hyde I learned to love horses and when my mother hoped I was gaining health by the fresh air I was kicking my heels in a corn bin and learning to drive of the old coachman who like everybody else small and great delighted in taking me for a pupil. Grandmamma kept four great ramping war horses chevaux entiers for her carriage with immense long manes and tails which we buckled and combed and when after long practice I showed her and my mother how two of them poor Colonel and Peacock would lick my hand for a lump of sugar or fine white bread much were they amazed and more when my skill in guiding them round the court yard on the break could no longer be doubted or denied though strictly prohibited for the future.

1745. Sir Thomas was succeeded by his son Sir Robert (age 49) who married Lady Betty Tollemache (age 63) daughter of the Earl of Dysart and dying in 1748 without issue was succeeded by his brother Lynch (age 40). He married his cousin Miss Cotton of Ethwall (age 32) and died in 1775 leaving behind him besides other issue Robert (age 6) who succeeded him and was the father of Lord Combermere Roland an Admiral in the Royal Navy and father of General Sir Willoughby Cotton GCB at one time Commander in Chief at Bombay; Lynch; George, Dean of Chester; Thomas; William; Richard, an officer in the Army killed in action; Henry; and Calveley, Captain 1st Life Guards who married Miss Lockwood by whom he had Major General Sir Sidney Cotton KCB Admiral Frank Cotton and Major General Sir Arthur Cotton Kt., Madras Engineers, celebrated for his irrigation labours in India.