THE

LIFE OF COTTON.

BY MR. CHALMERS.

OF Dr. Cotton's early history no account has been given by his numerous relations.

From a passage in one of his letters that will be mentioned hereafter, it may be concluded with some degree of probability, that he was born in the year 1707, but in what county, or of what family, is not known. He studied physic under the celebrated Boerhaave, at Leyden, and it is supposed he took his degree at that university, which was then the first medical school in Europe, and the resort of all who wished to derive honour from the place of their education.

On his return, he endeavoured to establish himself as a general practitioner, but circumstances leading him more particularly to the study of the various species of lunacy, he was induced to become the successor of a Dr. Crawley, who kept a house for the reception of lunatics at Dunstable in Bedfordshire; and having engaged the house-keeper, and prevailed on the patients' friends to consent to their removal, he opened a house for their reception at St. Albans.

Here he continued for some years, adding to his knowledge of the nature of mental disorders, and acquiring considerable fame by the success and humanity of his mode of treatment. When his patients began to increase, he found it necessary to have a larger house, where he formed a more regular establishment, and dignified it by the name of The College. His private residence was in St. Peter's-street, in the town of St. Albans, and was long known as the only house in that town defended from the effects of lightning by a conductor.

The cares of his college, and the education of his numerous family, occupied near the whole of his long life. His poems, and prose pieces, were probably the amusement of such hours as he could snatch from the duties of his profession. He carried on also an extensive correspondence with some of the literary characters of the day, by whom, as well as by all who knew him, he was beloved for his amiable and engaging manners; among others, he corresponded with Dr. Doddridge', and appears to have read much, and thought much on subjects which are usually considered as belonging to the province of divines.

1 Among Dr. Doddridge's Letters, published in 1790, is an affecting letter from Dr. Cotton, on the death of his first wife. C.

He is not known to have produced any thing of the medical kind, except a quarto pamphlet, entitled Observations on a particular kind of Scarlet Fever that lately prevailed in and about St. Albans, 1749. The dates of some of his poetical pieces show, that he was an early suitor to the muses. His Visions in Verse, were first published in 1751, again in 1764, and frequently since. He contributed likewise a few pieces to Dodsley's collection. A complete collection of his productions, both in prose and verse, was published in 1791, 2 vols. 12mo. by one of his sons, but without any memoir of the author. For much of what is now given, I am indebted to a correspondent in the Gentleman's Magazine, who appears to have known Dr. Cotton, and kindly and readily answered the inquiries I sent to that never-failing source of literary information.

Dr. Cotton was twice married; first, about the year 1738, to Miss Anne Pembroke, sister to George Pembroke, esq. formerly of St. Albans, receiver-general for the county of Hertford, and to Joseph Pembroke, town-clerk of St. Albans. By this lady, who died in 1749, he had issue; 1. Mary, who became the second wife of John Osborn, esq. of St. Albans, and died without issue, Nov. 2, 1790; 2. Anne, who became the second wife of major Brooke of Bath, and died July 13, 1800, leaving a son and daughter, since dead; 3. Nathaniel, who was entered of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B. A. 1766, and M. A. 1769, and is now vicar of Wilford or Welford, in Northamptonshire; 4. Joseph, now a director of the honourable East India Company; 5. Phebe, married to George Bradshaw, esq. since dead; 6. Katharine, who died unmarried, Dec. 2, 1780, and is buried under an altar tomb in the church yard of St. Peter's, St. Albans, with the two following lines under her name:

Time was, like thee, she life possess'd,

And time shall be, that thou shalt rest.

He had also by his first wife, a son and daughter, who died in infancy. He married, secondly, in 1750, or 1751, Miss Hannah Everett, who died May 1772, leaving a son, now living, and two daughters, since dead.

From his letters it appears, that about the year 1780 his health was greatly impaired. He was much emaciated, and his limbs so weak, as to be insufficient to support his weight. The languors, likewise, which he suffered, were so frequent and severe, as to threaten an entire stop to the circulation, and were sometimes accompanied with that most distressing of all sensations, an anxiety circa præcordia. His memory too began to fail, and any subject which required a little thought was a burthen hardly supportable. He died August 2, 1788, and we are told his age was so far unknown, that the person who entered his burial in the parish register, wrote after his name, "eighty-eight at least." From the letter, however, alluded to in the beginning of this memoir, we may attain rather more certainty in this matter. That letter was written on the death of his daughter Katharine, in 1780, when he says, "he had passed almost three winters beyond the usual boundary appropriated to human life, and had thus transcended the longevity of a septuagenarian." This, therefore, will fix his age at eighty-one, or eighty-two.

He was interred with his two wives in St. Peter's church-yard, under an altar-tomb, between those of his two daughters, Mary, and Katherine, on which nothing more is