COTTON, Sir STAPLETON (1773 - 1865), 6th baronet, afterwards 1st viscount Combermere, field-marshal

Name: Stapleton Cotton
Date of birth: 1773
Date of death: 1865
Parent: Frances Russel Cotton (née Stapleton)
Parent: Robert Salusbury Cotton
Gender: Male
Occupation: field-marshal
Area of activity: Military
Author: Robert Thomas Jenkins

came of the house of Salusbury of Llewenni - pedigree in J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees, 222. Sir John Salusbury (died s.p. 1684) left the estate to his sister HESTER (died 1710), who married Sir Robert Cotton, 1st baronet, of Combermere (died 1713); their son Sir THOMAS COTTON, 2nd baronet (died 1715), married Philadelphia Lynch. They had three children, of whom the youngest, Hester, married John Salusbury of Bachygraig, and was the mother of Hester Lynch Piozzi. The eldest, Sir ROBERT SALUSBURY COTTON, 3rd baronet, died 1748; his brother, Sir, Lynch Salusbury Cotton, 4th baronet (died 1775), had a son, Sir ROBERT SALUSBURY COTTON, 5th baronet (died 1807), who married FRANCES RUSSEL STAPLETON, co-heiress of the house of Bodrhyddan, Flintshire (J. E. Griffith, op. cit., 260-1). Their son, born 14 November 1773 (at Llewenni), is the subject of the present notice. His very distinguished military career is described fully in the D.N.B. He served in Flanders, at the Cape, and in India, where he came to the notice of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who used him as cavalry commander in the Peninsular War, and would, if he had had his way, have chosen him to command the cavalry at Waterloo. He was afterwards governor of Barbados (1817-20), Com.-in-Chief in Ireland (1822-5) and in India (1825-30), and became field-marshal in 1855. He was raised to the peerage in 1814 and created viscount in 1827. D. 21 February 1865. His younger grandson, Col. R. S. G. Cotton, of Llwyn Onn, Llanfairpwll (1849 - 1925), presented the library of the University College of North Wales with an interesting collection of manuscripts relating to the family estates in the West Indies. James Henry Cotton, dean of Bangor, was the field-marshal's first cousin, their fathers being brothers.

Author

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/

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