Author: Cotterill, Thomas
Biography:
COTTERILL, Thomas (1779-1823: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 1 Dec. 1779 and baptised on 25 Feb. 1780 at St. Luke’s, Cannock, Staffordshire, the second son of Charles Cotterill, woolstapler, and his wife Dorothy Greensill, who had married in 1768. He was educated at Birmingham Grammar School and St. John’s College, Cambridge (matric. 1797, BA 1801, MA 1805, Fellow 1806-9). Ordained deacon (1802) and priest (1804), he served as curate of Tutbury (1803-5) before becoming perpetual curate of Lane End (Longton), Staffordshire (1805-17), where he also established a Sunday school. He married Ann Robotham on 17 June 1808 at St. Werburgh’s, Hanbury, near Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. They went on to have about eight children. He was perpetual curate of St. Paul’s, Sheffield (1817-23), and died there on 29 Dec. 1823, aged 44. He left an estate of £2000 and a widow with five children. Ann Cotterill died on 25 Sept. 1831, aged 53, and was also buried at St. Paul’s. Despite chronic ill-health in her final years, three of her sons were educated at St John’s College Cambridge: Thomas (1828), Charles (1830), and Henry Martyn (1833). Cotterill’s Selection of Psalms and Hymns (1810) which included several of his own original hymns was enlarged in the 8th edition (1819) with the help of James Montgomery (q.v.); in that edition, thirty-two of the hymns or versions of the psalms were his work. John Julian (1892) states that all editions after the 9th in 1820 are reprints. The numbering of editions, by different publsihers, is confused; unfortunately, no extant copies of editions earlier than 1814 have been found. Another work, Family Prayers (1816), was also popular, reaching a 6th edition in 1824, but was not as influential. A pamphlet, Testimonies of Pagans, of Infidels, of Christian Fathers . . . On the Nature and Tendency of Theatrical Amusements (1819) adds little to a well-worn topic. (ancestry.co.uk 20 June 2023; findmypast.co.uk 20 June 2023; “Memoir,” Yorkshire and Derbyshire MagazineJan. 1824, 7-10; Sheffield Independent 3 Jan. 1824, 1 Oct. 1831; GM Mar. 1824, 282; Edwin F. Hatfield, The Poets of the Church: A Series of Biographical Sketches [1884], 156-58; Julian, 263-4; Simms [1894], 122; N&Q 12 Nov. 1881, 384-6) AA