Nathaniel Cotton

Nathaniel Cotton (1707–1788) was an English physician and poet.

Cotton is thought to have studied at Leiden University, possibly under Herman Boerhaave.^[1] Cotton specialised in the care of patients with mental health issues, maintaining an asylum known as the Collegium Insanorum, at St Albans. William Cowper was one of his patients^[2] and held Cotton in high regard.^[3]

Cotton was also a published poet, whose poems were described by Cheever as "full of good sense, benevolence, and piety"^[3] although not works of genius. He was the author of Visions in Verse, first published in 1751; and a two volume complete collection of his works was published in 1791.^[1]

He was married twice, first in 1738 to Anne Pembroke, with whom he had eight children, six of whom survived past infancy and one, Joseph Cotton, who became a director of the Honourable East India Company. His second marriage in 1750 or 51 was to Hannah Everett, with whom he had a son and two daughters. He died at St Albans on the 2nd August 1788 and is buried in St. Peter's churchyard.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Gay's Fables and Other Poems: Cotton's Visions in Verse; Moore's Fables for the Female Sex, 1826
2. ^ Campbell, Thomas; Specimens of the British Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices volume VII, 1819
3. ^ ^{a b} Cheever, George B; Studies in Poetry, 1830
4. ^ Johnson, Samuel; The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, volume XVIII, 1819

External links

• Visions in Verse, in an 1826 anthology
• "Nathaniel Cotton 1705 - 1788". Halhed genealogy & family trees. http://www.halhed.com/t4r/getperson.php?personID=I8072&tree=tree1. Retrieved 2011-02-24. 

Persondata
Name	Cotton, Nathaniel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1707
Place of birth
Date of death	1788
Place of death