Joseph Cotton (mariner)

Joseph Cotton (1745–1825) (William Ward, 1808)

Joseph Cotton FRS (7 March 1745 – 26 January 1825), was an English mariner and merchant, a director of the East India Company and deputy-master of Trinity House.

Cotton was born at St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, the third son[1] of Dr. Nathaniel Cotton. He entered the Royal Navy in 1760 and passed the examination for lieutenant, but left the navy and joined the East India Company.

He made a fortune from two voyages as captain of the Royal Charlotte,[2] an East Indiaman. He then retired and lived the rest of his life in Leyton, Essex, living at Leyton House from 1789 to 1803,[3] and in Walnut Tree House (today Essex Hall) beginning in 1813.[4]

In 1788, he was elected an "elder brother" of Trinity House, and in 1803 became deputy-master, holding the latter post for about twenty years. He published a memoir about the origin of Trinity House in 1818.[5]

He was a director of the East India Company from 1795 to 1823; he was also a director of the East India Docks Company (chairman in 1803), and a governor of the London Assurance Corporation, and the English Copper Company.

He attempted to introduce ramie, a fibre plant, for use in manufacturing, and was awarded a silver medal for this in 1814 by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures; however, the fibre found little commercial usage.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1810.

He died in Leyton in 1825 and was buried at the local parish church.

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