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- Married to Ann Graves bef. July 10, 1637, Northampton Co., Va., Rev. William Cotton, Rector of Hungar's Parish, and who, on that date was granted, "350 acs. called the old mans neck, bet. two maine branches of Hungars Cr., Ely. into the wiods, Wly. down sd. Cr. & N. upon land of Capt. William Stone, parted from same by one of the sd. branches. 100 acs. for his own & the per. adv. of his wife Ann Graves & 250 acs. for trans. of 5 pers: Elianor Hill, Richard Hill, Edward Esson & 2 Negroes..." [Nugent, op. cit., p. 59.]
The Rev. William Cotton d. in Northampton Co., Va., aft. Aug. 20, 1640 (date of his will). In the will he requested burial by my towe little children." He also named "my child (nowe unborne) . . . my mother Joane Cotton in Bunbury in Cheshire . . .my well beloved wife Ann Cotton (whom he constituted his Executrix) . . . my beloved ffriends and Brothern in Lawe Capt. William Stone and Capt. William Roper". On Apr. 30, 1640, William Cotton, together with his brothers-in-law, Capt. William Stone and Capt. William Roper, relinquished their Administration on the Estates of "John and Thomas Graves" [Northampton Co. Orders, Wills, etc., No. 2, p. 281].
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While it had been organized earlier, our first reference to Hungar's Parish in the county records is on Feb. 19, 1633/4 (Accawmacke Rec. 1632-40, p. 11). At this time Mr. Wm. Cotton, minister, complained in court "that tho he had often desired the church wardens to gather or levy his duties of tobacco & corn due him from his parishioners of Accawmacke yet the church wardens have not gathered the same. John Major in behalf of the church wardens doth answer & depose that he, this deponent, hath three several times required warrant of Mr. Robins for the levying of the Minister's tythes, and that he the sayd Mr. Robins hath delayed to give any such warrants. Walter Scott Prost. [Provost] Marshall sayeth that he brought such warrants to Mr. Robins to signe and he tore the same." From this we see that Mr. Robins did not believe in a state-supported church and that whatever general views Mr. Cotton might hold on the subject, his particular one was that he wanted what was legally his. Presumably, the tithes were paid, for he remained rector, and on July 10, 1637, we find him patenting 350 acres on Hulgar's Creek, 100 acres of which was "for his own and the personal adventure of his wife Ann Graves" and the remainder for the transportation of Eleanor Hill, Rich'd. Hill, Edward Eason, and Domingo and Samso, negroes. (Nugent's "Cavaliers & Pioneers," vol. 1, p. 59) Mr. Wise, in his "Early History of the Eastern Shore," p. 286, makes the statement that these West Indian negroes brought over by Mr. Cotton are the first slaves mentioned in the old records.
Wm. Cotton was the son of Andrew and Joane Cotton, of Bunbury, Cheshire, and brother of the Virlinda Cotton (d. 1675) who married Wm. Stone. Wm. Stone (b. in Northamptonshire. Eng., 1603, d. in Md. 1660) was the son of Capt. John Stone who had interests both in Mass. and on the Eastern Shore of Va. and who "was killed by the Pequods on the Connecticut River while returning to his home in Va." William Stone came to the Eastern Shore about 1632, was a justice in 1633, member of the first recorded Vestry of Hungar's Parish in 1635, and in 1648 was commissioned Governor of Maryland, to which colony he then removed. (Wise, pp. 106-7, Md. Hist. Mag., vol. 16, p. 191). Mr. Wise (p. 258) states that Wm. Cotton died 1640.
So far as the writer knows, Wm. Cotton left only one child, a daughter Verlinda, who on Sept. 1, 1658, entered into a marriage contract with Thos. Burdett (Northampton Rec. Book 9, p. 19).
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