Roswell F. Cottrell

Roswell F. Cottrell
Roswell Fenner Cottrell
Born	(1814-01-17)January 17, 1814 Brookfield, New York
Died	March 22, 1892(1892-03-22) (aged 78) Ridgeway, New York
Occupation	Minister/Preacher, Writer and Poet.
Spouse(s)	Catherine Harvey

Roswell Fenner Cottrell (January 17, 1814 – March 22, 1892) is a preacher, counsellor, writer, hymnist and poet who came from a family of Seventh Day Baptists. He was the son of John Cottrell (1774–1857) and Mary Polly Stillman (1779–1852) After joining the sabbatarian Adventists who eventually organized the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he became one of their leading advocates.

The Cottrell family come from a long line of Seventh Day Baptists. The family traces their sabbatarian roots back to the Seventh Day Baptists of seventeenth century England or even earlier.

Nicholas Cottrell arrived from England to locate in Rhode Island. He was one of a company who purchased land in Westerly and vicinity. The records reveal that his descendants settled in Westerly and that this settlement became the principal center of the Seventh-Day Baptist Church in New England.

Rosswell's father, John Cottrell, was born 1774 in Westerly, Rhode Island. He was a Seventh-Day Baptist preacher. But he did not agree with the Baptist teaching on the immortality of the soul. He owned and worked a small farm woodware shop. These activities provided a source of income. He was not paid as a preacher. Along the intervening years several prominent members of the Cottrell family have become Seventh-Day Baptist preachers.

James White visited John Cottrell in 1853 at Mill Grove, New York. He reported the meeting in the Review and Herald:

Calvert B. Cottrell established a printing press manufacturing plant in Westerly. He practiced the Seventh Day Baptist faith and never operated on Saturdays in those early years. The branch of the Cottrell family living in Westerly, Rhode Island, have been observers of the Seventh-day Sabbath for more than three centuries.

John Cottrell and family moved to New York and lived for many years in Brookfield. In 1833 he moved his family again. This time they settled at the hamlet of Mill Grove, some twenty miles east of Buffalo.

Roswell, at 19 years of age, accompanied his parents to Mill Grove. They travelled much of the way on the then newly constructed Erie Canal. Roswell helped drive the team of horses along the towpath. At Mill Grove, Roswell married Catherine Harvey. He taught in the public schools for ten years.

Soon after arriving at Mill Grove, he was one of those who witnessed the notable meteoric shower of November 13, 1833. With his father and other members of the family, Roswell was deeply interested in the message of William Miller, but did not identify himself with it, believing that when God would herald His second coming, the messengers would be observers of the seventh-day Sabbath.