Henry Cotton (divine)

Henry Cotton (1789 – 3 December 1879) was an Anglo-Irish churchman, ecclesiastical historian and author.

He was a native of Buckinghamshire. Beginning in 1803, he spent four years at Westminster School and then in 1807 he entered Christ Church, Oxford. He obtained a B.A. in classics in 1811 and a M.A. in 1813. He would later dedicate his work on Bible editions to the memory of Cyril Jackson, dean of Christ Church.

He was sub-librarian of the Bodleian Library from 1814 to 1822. In 1820 he received a D.C.L. from Oxford.

His father-in-law Richard Laurence was appointed Archbishop of Cashel, Ireland in 1822, so in 1823 Henry Cotton moved there to serve as his domestic chaplain. The following year Henry became archdeacon of Cashel. In 1832 he became treasurer of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; in 1834 he became dean of Lismore Cathedral.

His eyesight began failing, causing him to retire from active duties of the ministry, and he gave up the deanery of Lismore in 1849. In 1872 he became almost totally blind. He died at his residence in Lismore 3 December 1879, and was buried in the graveyard of Lismore Cathedral.

He wrote extensively, and among his works is the six-volume Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, a compilation of brief biographical sketches giving "the succession of the prelates and members of the cathedral bodies in Ireland".

He also compiled A List of Editions of the Bible in English from 1505 to 1820, with Specimens of Translations, &c. (Oxford, 1821, second edition, corrected and enlarged, 1852).

Cotton's other works (not including occasional sermons and articles in periodicals) are:

On the death of Archbishop Laurence in 1838 Cotton superintended the publication of Laurence's reproduction of the first ‘Visitation of the Saxon Reformed Church in 1527 and 1528,’ and he reissued the privately printed poetical pieces of Archbishop Laurence and his brother, French Laurence.

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