Edward Cottle Jr.
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Edward Cottle Jr. (abt. 1628 - aft. 1710)

Edward Cottle Jr. [uncertain]
Born about in Landford, Wiltshire, Englandmap [uncertain]
Son of and
Brother of
Husband of — married 1650 in Amesbury, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Husband of — married about 1669 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Father of , , , , , , , and
Died after after about age 82 in Chilmark, Dukes, Province of Massachusetts Baymap [uncertain]
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Profile last modified | Created 27 Aug 2012
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Contents

Biography

Edward Cottle was born in England about 1628, based on a Massachusetts court record of 1667 in which he gave his age as 40[1]; Charles Edward Banks, in his “History of Martha’s Vineyard”, thought it likely Edward was born at Landford, in Wiltshire, where the Cottle name was well-established,[2] though there exists the record of an Edward, son of Edward and Elizabeth Cottle, born at Siston, Gloucestershire, in 1626.[3] It has been surmised, though visible proof is lacking, that he was either a brother, or a close cousin, of Great Migration emigrant William Cottle,[4] whose sailing for Massachusetts was recorded in 1638.[5] No known record of Edward Cottle’s presence in New England, however, exists prior to the birth of his first recorded child with wife Judith, at Salisbury (their residence was in the part that became Amesbury) in 1651; Edward and Judith may have married either at Salisbury about 1650-51,[6] or in England, prior to their emigration.[7]

Disputed Origin

NEHGS shows (with an image of the original text) an 1852 entry for Edward in the NEHGR article "Early Settlers of Essex and Old Norfolk" that includes the statement, "Edward, ae. 50 in 1667." If accurate, this would place his date of birth (DOB) at about 1617, rather than circa 1628 as claimed elsewhere.[8] However, its source is almost certainly a Salem court record of 1667 that is an _inaccurate copy_ of one from Salisbury, in which Edward states his age as _40_.[9] His death is not recorded, but Banks -- in his "History of Martha's Vineyard" -- notes that it occurred after 1710, when he signed an Essex County deed but noted himself a resident of Chilmark on the Vineyard. Banks -- perhaps skeptical that Cottle could have lived past 90 -- aligned himself with the slightly later statement of Charles Hoppin, in a 1932 sketch of Cottle family history, that "[a]bout 1650" Edward was "aged twenty-two years",[10] regarding a 1628 birth as more probable than one a decade earlier despite noting "a discrepancy... in the records". He thus overrode the notion of Edward's nativity dating to about 1617.[11]

Banks quotes a statement of Edward’s, made decades after he had removed from Salisbury, in which the early settler noted that at Amesbury, he had “built a sufficient house sd lands possessed many years”, but that this dwelling had been “providentially burnt together with my goods”. He next

“built a small house att a place called Jamaica, w'thin same township, w'ch being burnt by the Indians (1668) & not being so able in estate as some other of my associates in said parts was necessitated to try what success I might have by removing to the southwardly part of New England, hopeing the Eastern parts might in time obtain a settled peace that I might then Return, to my inheritance again”.[12]

The Cottle family moved from Nantucket to the mainland — to “Manamoiett”, presumably modern Monomoy, at the remote end of a spit south of Chatham, on Cape Cod; another possibility might in theory be the town of Manomet, but this is surprisingly close to Plymouth (about five miles) for someone like Edward who is thought to have been less than comfortable with the strictures of puritan authority. In fact, he and Dorothy ran afoul of Plymouth jurisprudence in 1677: caught up in a contretemps between the Manamoiett landowner, William Nickerson, from whom they rented acreage, and another party who claimed rights in the land, the two found themselves charged in the Plymouth court for having profaned the Sabbath — a charge evidently based on their having argued, on a Sunday, with the plaintiff when he tried to evict tenants from the disputed property. While they remained on the land (the result of a separate court case), they and other tenants were fined for this significant alleged breach of puritan decorum.[13]

Children

Edward and Judith Cottle had at least eight children at Salisbury prior to the move to “the southwardly part of New England”. A ninth child, James, is reported in Banks’s “History”; but where he was born is an open question: the birth does not appear in the Salisbury records, nor is it shown on Nantucket, where Edward is next found by 1670, with the birth of a daughter, Judith… whose mother is named, in a private record (and the private record of her next three children’s births), as Dorothy. Although Banks — presumably unaware of the private record — thought Judith the mother of these offspring, it thus appears likely that Judith Cottle died at some point between the recorded births of the last child at Amesbury — son Edward, in late September of 1666 — and the first child on Nantucket, who was named after the lost spouse. Banks estimates that James’s birth came in, approximately, 1668; if accurate, James might therefore have been either the last child of Judith, or the first of Dorothy. Possibly he was born at some unknown location where the family may, briefly, have resided en route to the islands. In fact, we know of his existence thanks to Banks’s awareness of land records at Chilmark, on the Vineyard; as Edward also resided there in his last years, Banks supposes that by 1710, the father was likely living with the son.[14]

The following list of his offspring, slightly differing from Banks and arrived at after extensive analysis of the records -- or lack thereof -- is believed to be accurate (a detailed summation of this research is available, on request, from descendant Christopher Childs):

Edward Cottle (1652–1653)
Shown by Banks as 1st child, born 17 Jan. 1652, died young.
Birth record (Salisbury Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS; death record (Salisbury Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Mary Cottle (1653–1706)
Shown by Banks as 2nd child, born 1 Nov. 1653; married Samuel Bickford.
Birth record (Salisbury Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Marriage to Samuel Bickford, 1668, appears on FamilySearch.
Benjamin Cottle (1655–1710)
Shown by Banks as 3rd child, born 2 Mar. 1655; likely died young and unmarried.
Birth record (Salisbury Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Sarah Cottle (1657- ? )
Shown by Banks as 4th child, born Mar. 1657.
Birth record (Salisbury Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Judith Cottle (1659–1659)
Shown by Banks as 5th child, born 5 Mar. 1659; died young.
Birth record (Salisbury Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Hannah Cottle (1661–1728)
Shown by Banks as 6th child, born (1661); married John Hillman
Birth about 1661 is based on Banks and his unspecified sources.
Marriage “by 1682” to John Hillman appears on NEHGS, relying on Banks's “Martha’s Vineyard” Vol. 3 and on a Hillman genealogy.
Not shown on FamilySearch.
Elizabeth Cottle (1663–1670)
Shown by Banks as 7th child, born 19 Apr. 1663; "bound out" to Thomas Barnard.
Birth record (Salisbury Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Edward Cottle (1666–1751) [second child of that given name]
Shown by Banks as 8th child, born 28 Sept. 1666.
Birth record (Salisbury Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.

As noted above, Edward and Judith lived within Salisbury until “about 1668-69” (Banks), when they moved to Nantucket. The family were there when the birth of daughter Judith — a daughter of Edward’s second wife Dorothy (see notes below) — was recorded in 1670. It is most likely that son James was born during this unrecorded period; to which mother, we do not know: proof of James’s existence relies significantly on Banks and on reports of his marriage on Martha’s Vineyard, prior to 1693, and of his subsequent residence at Chilmark, where his father evidently joined him in Edward's last years.

James Cottle (1668–1750)
Shown by Banks as 9th child, born (1668).
His birth in ?1668 is based on Banks and his (unspecified) sources, and a genealogy of the Towne family.
His marriage to Elizabeth Look “by 1693” appears on NEHGS, relying on Banks's "History of Martha’s Vineyard”, Vol. 3, and on the Towne genealogy.
Not shown on FamilySearch.
He may have been either the last child of Judith (Unknown/?Osgood) Cottle — or the first child of Dorothy (Unknown) Cottle.
Judith Cottle (1670– ? )
Shown by Banks as 10th child, born 13 Apr. 1670; mother, Dorothy (private rec.)
Birth record (Nantucket Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Lydia Cottle (1672– ? )
Shown by Banks as 11th child, born 17 May 1672; mother, Dorothy (private rec.)
Birth record (Nantucket Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Ann(e) Cottle (1673–1727)
Shown by Banks as 12th child, born 3 Mar. 1673; mother, Dorothy (private rec.); married Isaac Robinson; "d.s.p." (Banks; "decessit sine prole" = died without offspring)
Birth record (Nantucket Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS.
Not shown on FamilySearch.
John Cottle (1675–1705)
Shown by Banks as 13th child, born 7 Sept. 1675; mother, Dorothy (private rec.)
Birth record (Nantucket Vol. 1) appears on NEHGS and FamilySearch.
Samuel Cottle (?1676-7-?bef. 1698)
Shown by Banks as 14th child, born 1676-7; as living at Tisbury in 1685; and as “late deceased” (1698)
Birth ??1676-7, based only on Banks.
No records found on NEHGS.
Not shown on FamilySearch.
Not included in the NHA’s Barney Genealogical Record.
Accepted on the basis of confidence in Banks. His (unnamed) source(s) need to be identified and verified for actual proof of Samuel's existence and parentage.

ELIMINATED AS OFFSPRING OF EDWARD COTTLE:

William Cottle (??1652–)
Not shown by Banks, and there is absolutely no primary evidence of him as part of this family; he is shown exclusively as of _Newbury_. Neither his birth, nor his marriage, nor his death as a son of Edward are shown on NEHGS (searched using both exact name, and Soundex) or FamilySearch.
Conclusion: This is a “manufactured” misidentification and/or conflation of the “William Cottle deceased” at Newbury; and/or his son William, born at Newbury after the father's death (birth, 23 Nov. 1668); and/or “William Cottles Negro” who died at Newbury on 20 Oct. 1667... for whom the FamilySearch transcript unfortunately shows only "William Cottles" and neglects to show the essential identifier "Negro".
Ezra Cottle (1668–1749)
Not in Banks and not shown in any primary record as part of this family.
Conclusion: He is the _Ezra Cottle of Newbury_ who married Mary Woodbridge at Newbury, 16 Jul. 1695; Ezra & Mary Cottle had children at Newbury from 1696 onward. His will was made 17 May 1748, and proved 25 Dec. 1749.
As in the case of William above, this is a member of the family/household of William Cottle of Newbury and wife Sarah, as shown by the inventory of William’s estate: it is known that the couple's first children were two daughters; the inventory notes a son and an unborn child. As it is now known that the then-unborn child was William, born after his father’s death, the one remaining candidate as the then-living son is Ezra.
Mary Cottle (1680–)
Not shown in Banks.
Conclusion: Not a reasonable candidate for this family, which already has a child named Mary. Possibly, she is the “Mary Cetill” born in 1682, at Taunton.[15]

Disputed Second Marriage

Despite being aware that Edward Cottle had lived for several years on Nantucket, and had fathered four children there, Charles Edward Banks, when writing his "History of Martha's Vineyard", may initially have been unaware that there exist private birth records (in "P.R. 38", a source held by the Nantucket Historical Association) of all four showing a different mother -- Dorothy -- from that of Edward's children born at Salisbury. Alternatively, he may simply have chosen to override the private record and ignore the discrepancy (as he did on the question of Edward's date of birth)... offering in Volume 2 of his "History" the summary that Edward with "his wife Judith, of whom nothing further is known... had fourteen children".[16] In the later-published Vol. 3 (see Sources), however, in a footnote, Banks acknowledged: “A Dorothy Cottle died at Nantucket 1 Oct. 1681, who may have been his daughter or his second wife.” The private record with which he was possibly unacquainted, as published by NEHGS, states that it was the latter: the indexed NEHGS record of the death -- combining the town record and the private one -- reads, "COTTLE... Dorothy, Oct. 1, 1681. [w. Edward, P.R. 38.]".[17] As if to underscore the relationship, Volume 1 of Nantucket's Vital Records, among the “Nantucket Births”, cites that same private record in offering the somewhat unusual entry, “Edward 1st, h. Dorothy, ———-, P.R. 38” -- evidently an effort to enter in Nantucket records a placeholder both for the marriage, and for the senior Edward’s birth, date uncertain, in England.[18]

This question of whether the private record, or Banks's speculation about Dorothy as a daughter, is correct, is debated extensively in descendant Henry E. Cottle's ca. 1950 "Edward Cottle, Emigrant" (see Sources), but as there is no record whatsoever of a birth, marriage, death, or any other event pertaining to a daughter Dorothy, the simplest and most obvious solution is to accept the private record as accurate -- and to accept Dorothy as a second spouse. A record of her death in 1681 exists in the public register, as well as the private one; and it is difficult to imagine what would motivate the author of "P.R. 38" to manufacture a second wife, in that record and in all four records of her children's births, out of whole cloth.

Dorothy Cottle ([??1678]-1681)
No birth or marriage record; the only Nantucket public entry is of her death. The private record P.R. 38, however, names Dorothy as the mother of four of Edward Cottle's children.
Conclusion: _This is Edward’s second wife, not a daughter_. Dorothy appears in Banks as a possible 15th child, and in a footnote: “A Dorothy Cottle died at Nantucket 1 Oct. 1681, who may have been his daughter or his second wife.” _The latter identification is accepted in The Barney Genealogical Record of the Nantucket Historical Association_, which the Association characterizes as the “most reliable genealogy for Nantucket’s families of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries[19].
NEHGS also shows Dorothy as a wife, indexing a private death record alongside a public one, “COTTLE... Dorothy, Oct. 1, 1681. [w. Edward, P.R. 38.]”, as well as another public registration, “Dorothy Cottle died ye first day of October—1681”[20][21]
As noted in "Disputed Marriage" above, Nantucket Vol. 1, in “Nantucket Births”, includes the unusual entry, “Edward 1st, h. Dorothy, ———-, P.R. 38”; this is apparently an effort by the author of the private record -- evidently originating with Benjamin Franklin Folger (1777_1859)[22] -- to set down at least a placeholder for the marriage, for the name of the second wife, and (though the writer/recorder evidently did not know the date) for Edward’s 1628 birth in England.

Death

There is no known record, on Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, or elsewhere, of Edward Cottle’s death, although it is known that it occurred later than 1710 — when, age about 82, he described himself as “grown aged” and a resident of Chilmark. He is thought to have come to the Vineyard about 1680, albeit with presumably at least a brief return to Nantucket, as evidenced by the record there of Dorothy’s death in 1681; Banks notes that Edward was a freeholder at Tisbury by 1683, adding,

“He was chosen one of a committee to procure a new town charter in 1687; to divide proprietors' lands in 1688; a fence viewer in 1688; a constable in 1689, and surveyor of highways in 1699. It is not known where he lived before 1688, but in that year he bought of Thomas Mayhew the eastern half of the home lot of Josiah Standish, consisting of twenty-four acres…. It is probable that this had been the site of his residence for some years prior to that date.”[23]

Sources

  1. ↑ The Washington ancestry, and records of the McClain, Johnson, and forty other colonial American families, by Charles Arthur Hoppin, Greenfield, OH : privately printed, 1932, “The Cottle Family”, p. 447; see footnote; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058526948&view=1up&seq=519
  2. ↑ The History of Martha’s Vineyard, by Charles Edward Banks, Vol. 2 reprint, Edgartown : Dukes County Historical Society, 1966, “Annals of West Tisbury”, p. 44; orig. also accessible online [digitized p. 282] at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058456815&view=1up&seq=282
  3. ↑ Edward Cottle (father shown as "Cottle", mother Elizabeth; father's given name, Edward, shown in records of several other children of this couple); "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N1WP-9S9 : 18 September 2020), Edward Cottle, 1626.
  4. ↑ Edward Cottle, emigrant, by Henry E. Cottle, Bristol, Conn., p. 1; https://archive.org/details/edwardcottleemig00cott/page/n9/mode/2up
  5. ↑ ”Passengers for New England, 1638”, NEHGR Vol. 2, 1848, p. 109; The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/i/11715/109/245416571 (subscription)
  6. ↑ "COTTLE, Edward (?1627-1710+, Nantucket) & Judith ____; by 1651(2?); Salisbury {Chatham Hist. 111; Salisbury Fam. 67, 114-115; Martha's Vineyard 3:106; Essex Ant. 2:14, 3:43, 110, 172, 4:11, 6:84, 134, 176, 179, 8:177, 9:134, 10:109; Sv. 1:415, 461; Fellow" -- Torrey, Vol. 1, p. 381, New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/i/21174/381/426882088 (by subscription)
  7. ↑ Hoppin, as above, p. 441; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058526948&view=1up&seq=513
  8. ↑ NEHGR Vol. 6, July, 1852, p. 249; Vital Records from The NEHGS Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/i/21070/249/1426619458 (subscription)
  9. ↑ The Washington Ancestry, and Records of the McClain, Johnson, and Forty Other Colonial American Families, prepared by Charles Arthur Hoppin, Greenfield, OH, privately printed, 1932; Vol. 3, pp. 437-463; footnote, p. 447; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058526948&view=1up&seq=519
  10. ↑ The Washington Ancestry..., Hoppin, as above; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058526948&view=1up&seq=509
  11. ↑ History of Martha's Vineyard, Vol. 2, by Charles Edward Banks; see Sources; p. 43, https://books.google.com/books?id=7ZAlAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA43
  12. ↑ Banks, as above, p. 42; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058456815&view=1up&seq=280
  13. ↑ Cottle, as above, p. 6; https://archive.org/details/edwardcottleemig00cott/page/n19/mode/2up
  14. ↑ Banks, as above, p. 43; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058456815&view=1up&seq=281
  15. ↑ See Taunton, Vol. 1, “Taunton Births”; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7808/85/141519734> (subscription)
  16. ↑ Banks, Vol. 2, as above
  17. ↑ Nantucket, Vol. 5, “Nantucket Deaths”; Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7761/220/141149729 (subscription)
  18. ↑ Nantucket, Vol. 1, "Nantucket Births"; Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7757/387/0 (subscription)
  19. ↑ See https://genealogy.nha.org/getperson.php?personID=I17846&tree=barney
  20. ↑ See: — Nantucket, Vol. 5, “Nantucket Deaths”; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7761/220/141149729
  21. ↑ See: “Births, Deaths, & Marriages on Nantucket”, https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/i/21071/261/1427099066 (subscription)
  22. ↑ Nantucket Historical Association, “A Walking Genealogical Tree”: Benjamin Franklin Folger, Nantucket’s First Genealogist, by Nathaniel Philbrick; https://nha.org/research/nantucket-history/history-topics/a-walking-genealogical-tree-benjamin-franklin-folger-nantuckets-first-genealogist/
  23. ↑ Banks, as above, p. 43; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058456815&view=1up&seq=281

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Comments: 5

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Childs-1516 Christopher Childs
The large section of the Biography that is taken directly from Banks needs to be redrafted in original language... I am working on that while simultaneously researching the exact evidence for Edward's (actual) children, as compared to the two differing lists above... which is taking longer than expected. Your patience is appreciated. (Edward is an 8th gg.)
posted by Christopher Childs
Childs-1516 Christopher Childs
Draft Bio just added; will be editing further shortly.
posted by Christopher Childs
Childs-1516 Christopher Childs
NEHGS's database "New England Marriages to 1700", shows the maiden surname of the (1st) wife of my ancestor Edward Cottle, Jr. -- Judith -- as unknown (see https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/new-england-marriages-to-1700/image?volumeId=21174&pageName=381&rId=426882088 ; subscription required). Dorothy (surname also not known) appears to be a 2nd wife. Unless a primary source can be cited, the wife's profile should either be amended to "Judith Unknown", or detached; a second, separate profile for "Dorothy Unknown" would also be justified by the primary records.
posted by Christopher Childs
Ashley-1950 Chase Ashley
What sources are their for his parentage? The only sources I found are Savage, who says he was the son of an Edward Cottle and whose theory the author of "Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury" viewed as "entirely unreliable", and family trees that say (without any supporting sources) that he was the son of a George and Christian Cottle who were supposedly married in New Jersey.
posted by Chase Ashley
Ashley-1950 Chase Ashley
What source says that his middle name was George?
posted by Chase Ashley

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