garden, should be purchased of Sir John Cotton for 4,500l., and vested in the queen and her successors for ever, and a new building should be built for the library. The new building was never erected, and the ruinous condition of Cotton House necessitated the removal of the library to Essex House in the Strand in 1712. It remained there till 1730, when Ashburnham House in Little Dean's Yard, Westminster, was purchased to receive it, together with the royal library. On 23 Oct. 1731 the Cottonian library was partially destroyed by fire (Gent. Mag. 1731, p. 451). Exaggerated reports of the damage done were circulated, and Hearne speaks of the irreparable loss in the preface to his ‘Benedictus Abbas’ (p. xiv). The House of Commons ordered a committee to examine the remains of the library in the next year, and their valuable report, published in 1732, states that out of a total of 958 volumes of manuscripts, 746 were unharmed, 114 totally destroyed or injured, and 98 partially injured. Some measures were taken to repair the injured volumes, which were deposited with the rest of the library in a new building intended to be a dormitory for Westminster School, but nothing very effectual was done. In 1753, on the foundation of the British Museum, the library was removed to its present home in Bloomsbury. In 1824 a new attempt was made to restore the burnt fragments, but it was not till 1842 that a successful method of repairing them was applied. Under Sir Frederick Madden's care 100 volumes on vellum and 97 on paper were renovated, and among them the valuable fourth-century manuscript of Genesis, and the chronicle of Roger of Wendover, both of which were assumed to have been destroyed.
The first catalogue of the library drawn up by Dr. Thomas Smith was published in 1696. It does not fully describe the contents of all the volumes, and the 170 volumes of state papers and small tracts are practically overlooked. A history of the library is added, and some notices of it are given from learned works. An unprinted class catalogue of about the same date is in MS. Harl. 694, No. 21. A more satisfactory catalogue than either of these was issued with the parliamentary report of 1732. But the one now in use was compiled by Joseph Planta, librarian of the British Museum, in 1802. The books were arranged in the original library in fourteen presses, each of which was surmounted by a bust. The busts included the twelve Roman emperors, together with Cleopatra and Faustina, and each press was named after one of these personages. This nomenclature is still retained. Humphrey Mosley drew up several papers of rules for the guidance of students, which are extant in the Lansdowne MSS. (814, No. 56; 846, Nos. 65, 70; 841, No. 28).
[Cotton's life has never been fully written. Dr. Thomas Smith prefixed a memoir to his catalogue of 1696, and he received some assistance from Sir Robert's grandson, but although interesting, it is not complete. The notices in the Biog. Brit. (Kippis) and in Hearne's Curious Discourses are not more satisfactory. The contemporary authorities are Sir Symond D'Ewes's Autobiography (ed. Halliwell, 1845, 2 vols.); the Calendars of State Papers, 1591–1631; the Parliamentary Journals; Nichols's Progresses of James I; the letters addressed to Cotton on antiquarian topics, many of which are printed in Letters of Eminent Lit. Men (Camd. Soc.), and the official lists of members of parliament. Valuable notices appear in Gardiner's Hist.; in Forster's Life of Sir John Eliot; in Spedding's Bacon; and in Nichols's Leicestershire, ii. 835–8. Mr. Sims gives a general account of the library in his Handbook of Brit. Mus.; the catalogues mentioned and the Calendars of Treasury Papers, 1702–19, supply details. Nichols's Anecdotes and Illustrations give some facts. Collins's Baronetage, i. 128–41, Luttrell's Relation, Aubrey's Letters, and Dugdale's Autobiography, are useful for the lives of Sir Robert's descendants.]
COTTON, ROGER (fl. 1596), poet, was the fifth son of Ralph Cotton, esq., of Alkington, in the parish of Whitchurch, Shropshire, by Jane, daughter and heiress of John Smith, alias Tarbock, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. He had five brothers, most of whom were patrons of literature; and Allen, the youngest, became lord mayor of London and received the honour of knighthood. Roger was born at Whitchurch and probably educated in the newly founded free school there. He settled in London and carried on the business of a draper in Canning Street, having been admitted a member of the Drapers' Company. His mind became deeply imbued with the religious sentiment in consequence of his friendship with the celebrated Hugh Broughton [q. v.] He proved to be ‘a true scholar of such a master, and so constantly plied the Scriptures, according to the admonitions he had received from him, that he read over the Bible twelve times in one year’ (Lightfoot, Life of Broughton). The Cotton family esteemed Broughton so highly that when he was abroad they sent him frequently large tokens of their love—occasionally 100l. at a time. The date of Roger Cotton's death is not recorded, but by his will he bequeathed 50s. to be annually paid by the Drapers' Company for the use of the poor of Whitchurch. He married Katherine [Jenkes] of Drayton, Shropshire, and left two sons, Samuel and Alexander.
He was author of the following rare works:
