Josiah Cotton

Josiah Cotton (1679/80–1756) was an Indian missionary, Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Register of Deeds and Plymouth Colony civil magistrate. He was a grandson of John Cotton (1585–1652) and a cousin of Cotton Mather. His father John Cotton Jr. was a pastor of the First Church in Plymouth Colony from 1669 to 1697. Cotton was the maternal grandfather of William Cushing, one of the first six Supreme Court justices appointed by George Washington and also the longest served of those original jurists. Life and death Born in 1680 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Josiah Cotton was the son of Jane (née Rossiter) and John Cotton Jr. (1639–1699), a prominent Indian missionary and son of John Cotton, a leading Puritan clergyman in New England. His father was the town's fourth minister and the eldest son and namesake of Boston's most venerable pastor and theologian. He had ministered to well-established communities of Native Christians on Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod. Virtually all of Cotton's uncles, brothers, and cousins pursued successful ministerial callings, while aunts and sisters married eminent country clergymen. In 1698, Cotton graduated from Harvard College. 1698–1707, he served for several years as schoolmaster in the fishing community of Marblehead before returning to his native Plymouth. In 1707, he married Hannah Sturtevant, the only child of a prosperous Pilgrim family. He also petitioned the New England Company for an appointment.