Coton, Shropshire

Roadside pond in Coton near Hollinwood.

Coton is the name of two hamlets in the English county of Shropshire:

• One Coton lies near the road from Whitchurch to Wem about one mile southeast of Hollinwood. Coton Hall, home of Viscount Hill, is an important English heritage site. In the early nineteenth century it belonged to Admiral George Bowen. It eventually passed to the Honyman family; Admiral Bowen's youngest daughter, Elizabeth Essex Bowen, married Sir Ord John Honyman, Bt. Their sons, Sir George Essex Bowen (d. 1875) and Rev. Sir William Macdonald Honyman (d. 1911) lived there in succession but they both died without issue and from Rev. Sir William it passed to his niece, Elizabeth Hester Georgina Marie Ord Bearcroft, daughter of Rev. Thomas Bearcroft of Fitz, Salop and his wife Mary Hester Lilly Rosalie Honyman, sister of Sir George and Rev. Sir William. Elizabeth married Captain Robert Charles Dighton Wilson in 1891 and they adopted the additional surname of MacQueen in 1912 when Elizabeth inherited entailed estates in Scotland. The Wilson-MacQueens sold Coton Hall to Sir Alexander Maguire, the match manufacturer (qv), who was living there by 1920. He then sold it to Viscount Hill in 1924. (Ref. 'The History of the Longcroft Family' by James Phillips-Evans)
• A second hamlet named Coton is located northeast of Alveley and was associated with the manor Coton Hall. The ancestors of General Robert E. Lee left Coton near Alveley during the 17th century. At that time the Lee family had been there for some six centuries, and another branch of the Lee family remained in Coton until 1821.

External links

• Coton and the Lee family