Transcript

Of

William Cotton [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. XXXV, (1903), pp. 34-36.

by

J. Brooking-Rowe (Ed.)

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1903 Sidmouth meeting. Mr Cotton was member of a respected Barnstaple merchant family, with predecessors who were Mayors of the ancient borough. An obituary for his recently decreased brother Richard William Cotton is available here. Mr Cotton’s fulsome obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Although William Cotton had not, after his retirement from active life in 1895, taken any part in the proceedings of the Association, his loss will not be the less regretted by the older members. He and his brother Robert W. Cotton, whose death we had so recently to record, did good and valuable work. The story of the life of William Cotton was well told in the notice compiled for the Western Morning News soon after his death, which we have made use of in the following memoir. William Cotton was born at Barnstaple in 1832, his father being a well-known wine and spirit merchant in that town. He entered as a clerk in the National Provincial Bank, and while still young became the manager of the branch at Bath. There he married, but his wife died in childbirth, and very soon after he was transferred to Exeter to take charge of the branch of the bank there, a position he occupied for more than thirty years, during which time he vastly increased the business, and, by many important measures associated therewith, assisted materially in matters of finance. Notably was that the case when the West of England Bank failed. He then offered, on behalf of the firm, to make advances to depositors up to a large proportion of their deposits in the bank which had ceased payment, thus securing a large accession of custom to the National Provincial. In 1870 Mr. Cotton was elected from twenty-four candidates county treasurer, an office he held for twenty-five years.

In matters of finance Mr. Cotton had rendered national service, for it is claimed that the postal order was due to his suggestion; and when a presentation was made to him in 1894, in recognition of his services to the city for a period of thirty years, the Mayor (Mr. E. J. Domville) remarked that Mr. Cotton's connection with that inception "had hardly received that recognition at the hands of the Government which the citizens would have liked to have seen." Mr. Cotton filled the office of Sheriff of the city with credit and distinction, and it is a coincidence that he took the oath as a magistrate at the same time he became Sheriff. He took a large share in the building of the Royal Albert Memorial. He was also for many years treasurer of the Science and Art Department, an active member of the committee, and one of the most ardent workers for its improvement and extension. For the whole period of his bank connection at Exeter and later to the time of his death, he was treasurer to the Diocesan Board of Education, as well as for many years treasurer of the Diocesan Conference. To the Exeter Diocesan Training College he was a never-failing friend. To him the credit was largely due for facilitating financially the very large and costly improvements in recent years, and in many cases he took steps on his own responsibility, involving the immediate disbursement of large sums of money, relying solely on the wisdom of his action for later endorsement by the governing body. Further evidence of his interest in this institution is to be found in the fact that he was the first captain in the Training College Volunteer Corps. Mr. Cotton was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was a good archaeologist and antiquary. He took an active part as treasurer of the fund for the restoration of Exeter Cathedral, and at the time he obtained much information relative to the structure of the fabric and its adornment while the high scaffolding was erected, which had never previously been available, and his book on the bosses of the Cathedral, as well as others on cognate matters, have been regarded as safe and intelligent guides. Especially valuable is his book. An Elizabethan Guild of the City of Exeter: and Gleanings from the Municipal and Cathedral Records of Exeter relative to the History of the City of Exeter by him and the late Archdeacon Woollcombe, contains much valuable matter. Mr. Cotton was an earnest worker in the improvements of the dwellings of the poor, and the City of Exeter Improved Industrial Dwellings Co. and his codirectors marked their sense of the value of his services by associating his name with a block of their buildings. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also had Mr. Cotton as their hon. treasurer, the Exeter Dramatic Society found in him a dramatic author of no mean talent, and there are many other works of utility of a minor character with wliich he was associated; in fact, it was seldom that his name was absent from the list of those taking part in Exeter and the locality in good and useful works.

On leaving Exeter Mr. Cotton settled down at his house near the moor at Bridestowe. Some two years before his death, while at Teignmouth, he had a paralytic stroke. Towards the end of last year there was another seizure, from which he never rallied, and he passed away on the 13th November, 1902. He had been a member since 1868.