COTTON, GEORGE EDWARD LYNCH, only son of Capt. Thomas D’Avenant Cotton, 7th Foot, and Mary Headley Burnley, Halifax, Nova Scotia; grandson of George Cotton (qv); b. 29 Oct 1813; adm. (G) 17 Jan 1825; KS 1828; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1832, adm. pens. 11 Jun 1832, scholar 1833, matr. Mich. 1832; 8th Classic and 40th Senior Optime 1836; BA 1836; MA 1839; DD 1858 (incorp. Oxford 3 Jun 1858); Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll. 1838, Major Fellow 1839; Assistant Master, Rugby School, 1837-52 (the “young master” of Tom Brown’s Schooldays); Headmaster, Marlborough Coll., 1852-8; ordained deacon 1 Feb 1839, priest 9 Jun 1839 (both Worcester); Bishop of Calcutta from 1858; consecrated in Westminster Abbey 13 May 1858; established schools for the education of poor European and Eurasian children; m. 26 Jun 1845 his cousin Sophia Anne, dau. of Rev. Henry Tomkinson, Reaseheath Hall, Cheshire, Vicar of Acton, Cheshire; accidentally drowned in the Ganges at Kushtia 6 Oct 1866. DNB.

COTTON, RICHARD WILLIAM, second son of Henry Cotton (qv); b. 23 Jun 1829; adm. 10 Feb 1842 (Benthall's); QS 1843; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1847, matr. 27 May 1847, Westminster Student to 1861; BA 1851; MA 1854; coxed Oxford Eight against Cambridge Dec 1849, 1852, and at Henley and Thames Regatta 1850; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 10 Nov 1849; of Kilbree, Cappoquin, co. Waterford; [m. 1875 Catherine Power ?]; d. 27 May 1919.

COTTON, STAPLETON, 1ST VISCOUNT COMBERMERE, second son of Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton, Bart. (qv); b. 14 Nov 1773; adm. 28 Jan 1785; at school four years; 2nd Lieut., 23rd Foot, 26 Feb 1790; 1st Lieut., 13 Apr 1791; Capt., 6th Dragoon Guards, 28 Feb 1793; Maj., 59th Foot, 1794; Lieut. -Col., 25th Light Dragoons, 9 Mar 1794; Brevet Col., 1 Jan 1800; Lieut. -Col., 16th Light Dragoons, 14 Feb 1800; served in Flanders 1793-4, at Cape Town 1795, in campaign against Tippoo Sahib 1799, and in Dublin during Emmett’s insurrection 1800; Brig. -Gen., 11 Feb 1804; Maj. -Gen., 30 Oct 1805; commanded allied cavalry during part of Peninsular War; wounded at Salamanca 1812; Lieut. -Gen., 1 Jan 1812; Col., 20th Light Dragoons, 27 Jan 1813 – Jan 1821 [check]; took part in Pyrenees Campaign, 1813-4; commanded allied cavalry in France, 1815-6; Governor of Barbados 1816-20; Col., 3rd Dragoons, 25 Jan 1821 – Sep 1828; Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, 1822-5; Gen., 27 May 1825; Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, 9 Feb 1825 - 1 Jan 1830; captured city of Bhurtpore, 28 Jan 1826; Col., 1st Life Guards, from 16 Sep 1829; Constable of the Tower (and Lord Lieut., Tower Hamlets) from 11 Oct 1852; Field-Marshal, 2 Oct 1855; MP Newark 1806 - 17 May 1814; succ. father as 6th baronet 24 Aug 1809; KB 21 Aug 1812; created Baron Combermere 17 May 1814, with annuity of £2000 p. a. for two generations; GCB 2 Jan 1815; GCH 1817; Governor of Sheerness 25 Jan 1821 – still 1829; Privy Councillor (I) 21 Nov 1822; created Viscount Combermere 8 Feb 1827; DCL Oxford Univ. 23 Jun 1830; Privy Councillor 16 Dec 1834; KCSI 19 Aug 1861; m. 1st, 1 Jan 1801 Lady Anne Maria Pelham-Clinton, eldest dau. of Thomas Pelham-Clinton, 3rd Duke of Newcastle, Major-Gen. in the Army; m. 2nd, 22 Jun 1814 Caroline, second dau. of Capt. William Fulke Greville RN; m. 3rd, 2 Oct 1838 Mary Woolley, dau. of Thomas Gibbings MD, Gibbings Grove, co. Cork; d. 21 Feb 1865. DNB.

COURTENAY, WILLIAM REGINALD, 11TH EARL OF DEVON, elder son of William Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon (qv); b. 14 Apr 1807; adm. (G) 16 Sep 1818; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 30 Mar 1824; President, Oxford Union 1827; 1st cl. Classics 1827; BA 1828; BCL 1831; DCL 1838; Fellow, All Souls Coll., 1828-30; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 22 Mar 1828, called to bar 27 Jan 1832; MP (Cons) South Devon 1841 - Feb 1849; a Poor Law Inspector 1849-50; Secretary, Poor Law Board 1850-9; succ. father as 11th Earl of Devon 19 Mar 1859; took Conservative whip in House of Lords; member, Public Schools Commission, 1862; Chancellor, Duchy of Lancaster, Jul 1866 - May 1867; Privy Councillor 10 Jul 1866; President, Poor Law Board, May 1867 - Dec 1868; known in Devon as “the good earl”; Chairman, Devon QS, for fifty-two years; DL JP Devon, JP co. Limerick; Busby Trustee 11 May 1861; member governing body, Westminster School, from 1869; edited with others vol. 6 of Cases decided in the House of Lords on appeal from the Courts of Scotland, 1832-3; m. 27 Dec 1830 Lady Elizabeth Fortescue, seventh dau. of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue; d. 18 Nov 1888. DNB.

COVENTRY, HON. THOMAS HENRY, fourth son of George William Coventry, 7th Earl of Coventry (qv) and his second wife; b. 18 Sep 1792; adm. 18 Jan 1805; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 17 Oct 1811; BA 1815; MA 1827; ordained deacon and priest, 1816; Rector of Pirton with Croome D’Abitot, Worcs., 1 Nov 1816-33; Rector of Hill Croome, Worcs., from 19 Feb 1827; Rector of Severn Stoke, Worcs., from 2 Mar 1833; d. 20 Aug 1869.

COWLEY, ABRAHAM, seventh and posthumous child of Thomas Cowley, St. Michael Le Querne, London, citizen and stationer; b. 1618; adm.; Min. Can. 1630; KS; author, Poetical Blossoms, dedicated to his schoolmaster Lambert Osbaldeston (qv) and published 1633; while in College he also wrote Love’s Riddle, a pastoral comedy, not published until 1638; failed to obtain election to either university 1636; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 21 Apr 1636, scholar (by dispensatory letter from King) 14 Jun 1637; his Latin play, Naufragium Joculare, was played before the University by members of Trinity Coll. 2 Feb 1638; BA 1639/40; MA 1643; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll., from 30 Oct 1640; ejected by Parliamentary Visitors 1644 and went to Oxford, taking up residence in St. John’s Coll.; went abroad 1646; employed in diplomatic services by exiled Royalist court; returned to England as Royalist spy 1656; author, Miscellanies, 1656; MD Oxford 2 Dec 1657 (incorp. Cambridge 11 Jul 1664); withdrew to France, but returned at Restoration; applied for Mastership of Savoy 1661, unsuccessfully; one of original fellows of Royal Society; his works were first published in a collected form in 1668, when Several Discourses by way of Essays in Prose and Verse appeared for the first time; some hitherto unpublished Verses on the Happy Birth of the Duke of York are printed in the Elizabethan, v, 54-5, viii, 281; d. 28 Jul 1667, and buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

COWPER, WILLIAM, son of John Cowper (qv), and his first wife; b. 15 Nov 1731; adm. Apr 1742 (Playford's); left 1749; articled to a solicitor 1750-2; adm. Middle Temple 29 Apr 1748, called to bar 14 Jun 1754; fell in love with his cousin Theodora, but the marriage was forbidden by her father; contributed verses to various papers; a member of the Nonsense Club, chiefly composed of Westminster men who dined together weekly; migrated to Inner Temple, adm. there 17 Jun 1757; owned chambers Inner Temple 1757 - still 1781; a Commissioner of Bankrupts (occurs in annual lists 1758-65); Clerk of Journals, House of Lords c. May - Nov 1763; the stress brought on by his acceptance of the appointment caused a suicide attempt and nervous breakdown; an inmate of Nathaniel Cotton’s private lunatic asylum at St. Albans, Dec 1763 - Jun 1765; lived with the Unwins at Huntingdon 1765-7 and subsequently with Mrs Unwin at Olney, where he was employed by the Rev. John Newton as a sort of lay-reader and district visitor; composed hymns, a number of which are printed in Newton’s Olney Hymns, 1779; became engaged to Mrs Unwin; again deranged 1773-5 and for part of that time a guest in Newton’s house; occupied himself in gardening and writing verse; published Anti-Thelypthora, 1781, an anonymous attack on the defence of polygamy written by his cousin Martin Madan (qv) in the previous year; published Poems, Feb 1782; wrote the famous ballad of John Gilpin, first published in The Public Advertiser, Nov 1782; began translating Homer 1784; published The Task, 1785; removed to Weston, Nov. 1786; again became insane 1787; published his translation of Homer, 1791; undertook to edit Milton; removed in 1795 to East Dereham, Norfolk, where Mrs Unwin died in the following year; a complete edition of his works was published in 15 vols. by Robert Southey (qv) in 1834-7; Cowper’s schooldays, to which he frequently refers in his correspondence, were probably the happiest days of his life, and his recollections of them afforded him much pleasure; he appears to have enjoyed playing cricket and football; his favourite friend was Sir William Russell, Bart. (qv), but he was “much intimate” with Walter Bagot (adm. 1739/40, qv); he had a “particular value” for Warren Hastings (qv), to whom he addressed some lines on his impeachment, and he showed his friendly feeling for Robert Lloyd (qv) in the verse epistle which he addressed to him in 1754; his poem Table Talk contains an interesting allusion to the custom in his time of awarding pieces of Maundy Money for a good copy of verses (lines 507-11); d. unm. 25 Apr 1800. Memorial window in baptistery of Westminster Abbey. DNB.

COX, THOMAS, son of Rev. James Cox, St. James’s, London, and Eleanor ---; b.; adm.; BB; KS (aged 13) 1763; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 1 Jun 1768, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1768 - 26 Mar 1777 (expiry year of grace as Vicar of Badby-cum-Newnham); BA 1772; MA 1775; ordained; Vicar of Badby-cum-Newnham, Northants., from 11 Mar 1776; FSA 1798 [check]; m. 2 Mar 1783 Jane, eldest dau. of Robert Clavering (adm. 1737, qv); d. 3 Feb 1816.

CRAWLEY, RICHARD, second son of Rev. Richard Crawley, Rector of Rotherfield, Sussex, and of St. Mildred Poultry, London, and Mary, dau. of Owen Clutton, Greenwich, Kent; b. 31 May 1791; adm.; KS (aged 14) 1806; elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1810, adm. pens. 7 Jun 1810, scholar 1811, matr. Mich. 1810; BA 1814; migr. to Magdalene Coll. Dec 1814; MA 1817; Fellow and Tutor, Magdalene Coll.; Proctor 1823-4; ordained deacon 19 Mar 1815, priest 29 Sep 1816 (both Ely); Vicar of Steeple Ashton cum Semington, Wilts., from 12 Jun 1828; Prebendary of Salisbury from 25 Feb 1843; d. unm. 9 Dec 1869.