Plymouth is the one place John Cotton’s decedents have lived the longest (1620 to 1870); and though my line migrated to the Ohio Territory soon after the American Revolution in 1778, I have fifty-eight (58) of Cotton ancestors interred on Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts (shown right).
In 1668, Rev. John Cotton’s son, John Cotton Jr., was asked to head the Plymouth Church, and for the next 250 years, someone from the Cotton Line has lived in Plymouth. The most significant Plymouth inhabitants in my Cotton line were:
- Josiah Cotton, son of Rev. John Cotton.
- Colonel Theophilus Cotton, son of Josiah Cotton,
- Lieutenant John Cotton, son of Col. Theophilus Cotton.
Rev. John Cotton Jr. was the second born son of John & Sarah Cotton of Boston and was accused of having sexual relations with woman in Wethersfield, Connecticut where he had married and was preaching. The details of the case are not clear. Though he was not convicted, on May 3, 1664, he was excommunicated, for immoral conduct, from the church of which his father had been minister. After a penitential acknowledgment, John Jr. was restored to the church a month later.
For an excellent overview of Rev. John Cotton Jr., CLICK on this link to the CSAPN 3 History Channel.