There has been much speculation about Rev. John Cotton’s ancestors. Many published John Cotton genealogies are based on The English Ancestry of Rev. John Cotton of Boston by Horatio Gates Somerby published in 1868, which first documented two parallel lines branching in the third generation. Rev. John Cotton’s line is shown below on the left, and what is known as the ‘Landwade/Madingley Line’ is shown below on the right.
To date, Rev. John Cotton’s line has been genealogically proven through his grandfather, George Cotton and for years, however, no conclusive genealogical proof linking the two lines yet exists. Recent DNA testing, however, proves that the two lines are not connected and that Horatio Gates Somerby’s work has been proven wrong.
The following 16 Generation Chart illustrates the full parallel lines of Cottons as H.G. Somerby proposed.
LINKS TO THE PARALLEL COTTON COTTON LINE