An outline history of some branches of the Cotes family Done for no particular reason, beyond the fact that a certain Everard Charles Cotes mentioned his brief visit to Korea in 1906 in a book he published the next year, and nobody knows who he was or where he came from. The family goes back about as far as it is possible to go, if in fact they are descended from the Thomas de Cotes who is recorded in the Domesday Book as possessed of duas partes (half a knight's fee) in the manor of Cotes. Sir Bernard Burke. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland (1879) Cotes is a small township a few miles from Eccleshall (Staffordshire) and in 1896, “Charles Cecil Cotes esq. M.A., D.L., J.P. of Woodcote, Salop, in whose family the manorial rights have been vested since the time of the Domesday Survey, was lord of the manor of Cotes” Extract from: Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1896 The descent of the main Cotes line and of the title to the Lordship of the Manor of Cotes The bare descent to the end of the 19th century is traced as follows by Sir Bernard Burke (with dates etc added from elsewhere): Burke begins the line with Humphrey (died at Bosworth (22 August 1485) but before him there are other possible generations listed in searches in Ancestry.com Sir Robert DeWoodcote married Helen de Woodcote (one record says Milisent de Longford) their son Sir Robert Cotes of Woodcote was born in Sussex in 1225 and married Elizabeth their son Sir John Cotes of Woodcote was born in Sussex in 1265 his son Sir Robert Cotes of Woodcote was born in Sussex in 1295 and married Alice Knightly their Sir Robert Cotes of Woodcote was born in Sussex in 1345 and married Isabella their son Sir Thomas Cotes of Woodcote was born in Sussex in 1395 and married Elizabeth Their son Humphrey Cote, of Cotes and Woodcote, was born in Sussex in 1435 and was slain at the battle of Bosworth Field (22 August 1485) He married Eleanora, daughter of Sir Humphrey Blount, Knt., their son John Cotes, Esq., married Ellen, daughter of Richard Littleton, Esq of Pillaton, co. Stafford, their son, John Cotes, of Woodcote, born c.1509, married Mary, daughter of Sir Anthony Colclough, Knt. their son, John Cotes, of Woodcote, born 1560, married Mary, daughter of Walter Bagot, of Blithfield, co. Stafford, their son, John Cotes, of Woodcote, born 1632, married Dorcas, daughter of Sir George Clarke, Bart, of co. Northumberland their son, Charles Cotes, of Woodcote, born 1655, married Lettice, daughter of Kildare, Lord Digby, Their children were John Cotes (born 1681, see here for details of his family); Digby Cotes (born 1683) and Charles Cotes (born 1687) See below . . . Continuation of the line of those inheriting the Manor title. The eldest son John Cotes, of Woodcote, married Dorothy Shirley, daughter of Robert, Earl Ferrers, their son, James Cotes, Esq. of Woodcote, Col. married Frances, daughter of William, Lord Digby, and dying was succeeded, by his brother, Thomas Cotes, Esq. of Woodcote, Admiral R.N., and he dying was succeeded by his brother, ' Rev. Shirley Cotes, M.A., of Woodcote, Rector of Wigan, Lancashire, who married. Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Chambré, Esq. of Petton, Salop, their son was John Cotes, of Woodcote, M.P. for Wigan 1782-1806, and for Shropshire from 1806 until his death, 1821. He married 1st, 1777, Lucy, daughter of Viscount Courtenay, then 2nd 1794, Maria, daughter of George Harry, 5th Earl of Stamford and Warrington, the son born of Mary, John Cotes, Esq. of Woodcote, J. P. and D.L., born. 17 July, 1799; was High Sheriff 1826; M.P. for North Shropshire 1832-34; he married 5 Sept. 1839, Lady Louisa Harriet, 3rd. daughter of Charles Cecil Cope, 3rd Earl of Liverpool their son Charles Cecil Cotes, of Woodcote. held the Lordship of the Manor in 1896 |
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From Digby Cotes to Everard Charles Cotes Digby Cotes was born in 1683, went up to Oxford very young, matriculating at Magdalen Hall on 31 May, 1698, aged 14; he became fellow of All Souls' College & B.A. in 1707, M.A. 1711, he was public orator 1712-45; he served as Principal of Magdalen Hall 1716-45, held the title of rector of Hempstead, Gloucestershire, 1715, vicar of Coleshill, co. Warwick, 1716, then canon of Lichfield from1734 until his death on 11 January, 1745. He married Elizabeth Bannister and they had many (12) children: among them were Digby Cotes (born c.1717); Edward Cotes (born c. 1724); Robert Cotes (born c.1726); William Cotes (born 1728); Catherine Elsmere; Frances (married Rev. James Hallifax) who died 1795, aged 60, so born 1735; and Lettice/Laetitia Cotes (born in 1733, her mother died in childbirth and her father remarried) who married the Dutchman Joan Gideon Loten. A recently published biography of Loten gives additional information about Rev. Digby Cotes and his family:
[To show how intensely the family depended on obtaining positions in the church for their financial survival, it is worth noting that their first son, Digby, who matriculated at Magdalen Hall in March 1734, aged 16, B.A. 1738; M.A. 1741, was for 52 years the Rector of Dore and Vicar of Bromyard, Herefordshire, and died on 4 March 1794. The second son, Edward Cotes B.C.L., was instituted to the parish of Caundle Bishop (Dorset) on 30 Aug., 1748, on the presentation of Wm., Lord Digby (keeping things in the family!). He matriculated. at Oxford, aged 15, as son of Digby Cotes of Coleshill, Count. Warwick, clerk., 9 Apr., 1739, from Magd. Hall. B.C.L. 1746. Vicar of Haydon, Vicar of Sherborne 1773, and for many years chaplain to his great-uncle, William, Lord Digby.. Buried at Sherborne 11 July, 1780, aged 56.] Their third (?) son, Reverend Robert Cotes (1726 - 1781), Doctor in Divinity, was baptized 2 April 1726 at Coleshill, Warwick. He matriculated at Oxford (Trinity College) on June 3 1742 aged 16; B.A. 4 February 1745/6; M.A. 1748; B.D. 1756; D.D. 1760. He was ordained Deacon 29 September 1748 and Priest 22 December 1751. was instituted as Vicar of Hornsea, Rector of Long Riston (Yorkshire) and Rector of Rise (Ryse) on 4 August 1759. These were all extremely small villlages not far from Beverley. He resided in the parsonage at Rise, where the church had been completely rebuilt in 1844-5. He also served as domestic chaplain to the widowed Anne Shirley, Countess Ferrers from 19 January 1779 until his death. He resided at Rise/Ryse. His wife’s name was Elizabeth, she survived him after he died on 25 June 1781. The copy of the will deposited at the National Archive is dated 25 August 1781, the date on which 2 witnesses swore that they recognized the handwriting of the original as that of the late Dr Cotes. Probate was granted 4 September 1781. In his will he mentions no property or goods except for a house (with garden, coachhouse, stables and outbuildings) he had recently purchased in Ladygate, Beverley, which he leaves to his wife Elizabeth and after her to their 2 children who are not named. The rest of his goods were covered by the marriage settlement to which he refers. On 31 August 1786, his widow surrendered her share in the property to 3 other part-owners for the sum of 550 pounds. The will makes it clear that their "2 children" were not yet 21 when he made the will. Peter Cotes Esq. was born in Winchester in 1771, according to the 1851 Census, when he was living at Newington with his son Septimus, the son of Rev. Robert Cotes and Elizabeth. He did not have a very eventful life. After his father's death (when he was only 10) he clearly continued to live in the house built at Tickton by his father, since in 1803 he was appointed major-commandant of the Beverley voluteer corps, at which time he was mentioned as living at "Tickton-lodge." His sons Peter and Septimus are both recorded as having been born at Tickton. He was the father and Jane (Keld, born in Beverley in 1775) the mother of (1) Christopher (1794-1855), (2) Peter (c1803-1865), (3) George (c1805-1831), (4) Charles (c1809-1866), (5) Septimus (c1811-1893), (6) Digby Octavius (c1815-1879) and some daughters. Christopher Keld Esq. was a town clerk of Beverley whose daughter Jane (born 1776) married Peter Cotes, who was the son of Dr. Robert Cotes, of Rise, "who built the house then at Tickton." Clearly, from what follows, he could not (or did not want to) stay in Yorkshire once his son Peter was ordained and had a benefice. He moved first to live with him in the recory of Litchfield parish in Hampshire, then when Septimus moved to Newington, he, his wife and their unmarried daughters went to live with him there, until they died. Their grave is in Newington St Giles Churchyard (1) Christopher Cotes did not attend any university but the book by Colyer Meriwether, History of higher education in South Carolina, with a sketch of the free school system; (1889) contains a detailed account of the Classical School that he ran in Charleston between 1820 and 1850. He suffered a mild stroke in 1848/9 and finally returned to live with his brother Septimus in the Rectory of Newington. He was an invalid for some years before his death in 1855. A gravestone in Newington St Giles Churchyard mentions him, together with his parents and sister. (2) Peter Cotes, "son of Peter of Tickton" matriculated in Wadham College at Oxford on 20 October 1820, aged 17 and was elected Scholar of Wadham College on June 30, 1822. Peter took his M.A. in May 1827 and was ordained priest at Fulham Palace on 7 October 1827. In 1832, the Rev. Peter Cotes M.A., and (presumably) his father Peter Cotes Esq. are listed as living in North Sidmonton (Sydmonton), Hampshire, both being subscribers to “Translations of the Oxford and Cambridge Latin Prize Poems” (1833). Rev. Peter Cotes was the author of “The New Poor Law a Benefit to the Poor; being the substance of two sermons preached in Litchfield Church,” published by J. Hatchard & Son: London, 1835, by which time he was already Rector of Litchfield, Hants. having been instituted there in 1832. Sidmonton is a village a short distance to the north of St. James the Less church, Litchfield. Rev. Peter Cotes died on 3 August, 1865, aged 62. At some point, Rev. Peter Cotes married Caroline, the daughter of Rev. Robert Symonds, Rector of Hinton, Berks, and they had 3 daughters, the last of whom, Anna, baptized on 19 March, 1839, married her cousin Thomas Powell Symonds (born 1817) at Litchfield on 5 Jun, 1862. He rose to be J.P; D.L. and High Sherrif of Herefordshire in 1874 before dying in 1876. The witnesses were Anna’s father and her sister Emily. This marriage ended badly in 1872; Anne having been divorced for adultery vanished with their child, Caroline Elizabeth, of whom the father had custody and there was further litigation concerning the property her parents had settled on her. Rev. Peter Cotes’s daughter Emily Josephine was baptized on 10 May, 1841. She married William Jephson on 21 April, 1870, in Hornchurch, Essex. The oldest of Rev. Peter Cotes’s daughters, Julia Harriett, died on 22 November, 1864, aged 32, suggesting that she was born in 1832. Rev. Peter Cotes followed her soon after, dying on 3 August, 1865, aged 62. Both are buried in the churchyard of St. James the Less Church, Litchfield. (3) George Cotes began as a commoner at Brasenose College early in 1825, but on May 30 that year he became a scholar at Trinity College. George Cotes was given an honorary M.A. by Oxford on 30 October 1828, as “the successful candidate for a Writership in India, given by the Rt. Hon Charles Watkins Williams Wynn, as a prize for competition among the junior members of the University.” He took up that position on 30 April, 1829. He served first as Assistant to Magistrate and Collector of Land Revenue at Meerut starting on 24 November 1829, then from June 25, 1830, he was Junior Assistant to Agent to Governor-General Saugor and Nerbudda Territories in central India. Alas, George died on 14 November, 1831, aged 25. (5) Septimus Cotes (see below), who was born at Tickton, Yorkshire, was admitted to Wadham College, Oxford, on 21 March, 1827. He took his B.A. on 18 Nov. 1830. By 1841 the Clergy List indicates that Septimus is Curate of Purton, near Swindon, Wiltshire. Septimus was Rector of Newington, Wallingford for 47 years until he died in 1893, so from 1846 or so. He must have passed Purton to his younger brother Digby Octavius when he left. [see the rest below] (6) Digby Octavius Cotes, the son of Peter Cotes Esq., was elected Scholar of University College, on the Yorkshire Foundation, on May 24, 1832, B.A. 1836; M.A. 1840. He was at the 1871 Census living at Cricklade (aged 56), with his wife Mary (Bathe, aged 50) and 2 of his wife’s sisters, Elizabeth and Anne Bathe. The Bathe family had lived in Purton for centuries. He was born in Beverley and by 1871 was serving as "curate" of Braydon, and not, as was noted in the Census of 1861, rector of the parish of Purton (Braydon is a chapel of ease of the parish of Purton, originally built by him). He died 8 April, 1879, aged 64. He is buried at Purton with a gravestone. His wife lived for a further 20 years and died 11 December 1899, aged 79. She rebuilt the chapel at Braydon in a better place. A memorial in the Braydon chapel records how he was Curate of Purton for 28 years, then served freely for his last 11 years at the chapel in Braydon that he had built. A window was placed in the main church in memory of him. A Mary Dorothy Cotes is also buried in Purton, having died 5 February 1874, aged 55. She lived next door to Digby Octavius, alone with a servant, being aged 52 in 1871. She was presumably his sister. She was born in Brabant, Belgium, in about 1819. In 1831, Caroline Elizabeth Cotes (born 1798), eldest daughter of Peter Cotes, Esq. married Rev. W. M. Pedder, Vicar of Clevedon, Somerset. They had 5 children, the first being Digby Cotes Pedder. (4) Charles Cotes, the headstone calls him the "sixth" son of Peter and Jane, formerly of Tickton Bridge Yorks, is buried at Highworth (Cricklade) He died 30 June 1866 aged 57. In 1851 he was living alone (with a housekeeper) in Highworth, aged 42, unmarried, a Solicitor; Charles Cotes married Lucy Hannah Sawyer in London on 19 Jan 1859. At the 1861 Census he was living with his wife Lucy, who was aged only 31 to his 52, and they had a 1-year-old daughter. Before Charles’s death they also had 2 sons, Charles William Cotes and Digby Francis Baynes Cotes. After his early death Lucy remarried, on July 25, 1876, George Joseph Guillaume, an Australian working in the government offices in Melbourne. The announcement indicates that she was the sister of “the late Bishop of Grafton and Armidale, Australia.” By 1897, Guillaume was dead and Carrie Cotes, the daughter, married Herbert Leslie Manton “of Tooradin (Victoria, Australia) and Brighton” at St. George’s, Malvern, Australia. From a slightly journalistic account: Their son, Charles William Cotes was born on 23 May 1861, his father died when Charles junior was still a small child. He was sent to Abingdon School and then on to Pembroke College in Oxford. It seems that there was a strong Australian connection for, on the 23rd July 1876, his mother had remarried, to Joseph Guillaume, who was from the department of the Honourable Chief Secretary, Melbourne, Victoria. The wedding notice also discloses that Lucy was the sister of the late Bishop of Grafton and Armidale in Australia. This brother was called William Collinson Sawyer who had become the first Bishop of this new diocese where he arrived in Grafton, after many months of travel on 13th March 1868. Two days later and, perhaps significantly, he and one of his sons were drowned when his boat was upset on the Clarence River on Sunday 15th March 1868. With this Australian connection it is no surprise that after being ordained first as a deacon and then as a priest by the Bishop of Llandaff and then serving his curacy at nearby Roath that he too travelled to Australia and became the curate at Christ Church in the South Yarra diocese of Melbourne. In 1891 he moved on to New Zealand where he was the incumbent at St Mary Mornington with Green Island (the parish was split soon after his arrival) and finally became vicar of Wakatipu from 1894 to 1896. It was while he was in New Zealand that he married Brenda Marian Traill on 5th April 1894 at the Holy Innocents Church in Dunedin. Charles seems to have had little home life as a child, being either at boarding school or staying with his widowed aunt and her elderly spinster sister at Purton, near Wootton Bassett. This lack of a home base may have given him a restlessness and it was perhaps this trait, or possibly illness, that brought the couple back to England in July 1897. In 1898 he became the curate at Wellingborough Parish Church and a year later was offered the living at Denford cum Ringstead. On 4 November 1900 he was found drowned in the river near his home. Depression? (http://ringstead.squarespace.com/ringstead-people/tag/cotes) Charles and Lucy’s younger son Digby Francis Baynes Cotes was born on 1 January 1863. After attending Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, for 4 terms he passed the MRCS exam in 1887 and became a doctor in Burton-on-Trent. In December 1886, he married Alice Annie M Minshull and they had a son Digby Charles Bathe Cotes in March 1889 who died the following year. On 25 January 1890 they had a daughter Mary Hannah Cotes who died in Tavistock in 1972. In 1893 they had another son who received the same name as their first (see below). Alice died in March 1901. In March 1903, Digby married Katharine Susannah Costello at Wincanton. They had one son, John Charles Digby Cotes, born January 14, 1920. They moved from Burton-on-Trent to Week St Mary in North Cornwall in 1921. Digby Francis Baynes Cotes died on 10 June 1926. His wife, Katherine Susannah, lived on until 18 February, 1961. The only son of Digby and Alice, Digby Charles Bathe Cotes, Captain in the Royal North Staffs Regiment, was severely wounded at Gallipoli, continued to serve, came home on sick leave, returned to the front and was killed on 15 October 1918, less than a month before the war ended. Septimus Cotes In the 1841 Census, Septimus (30) and his sister Caroline (40) were living in Cricklade, in the parish of Purton, where he was already a Clerk (in Holy orders) while his parents were living in Bedminster, Yatton. In the 1851 Census, Septimus, already 40 but still unmarried, already Rector of Newington with Brightwell was living in (presumably) the Rectory but the household Head is listed as his father, Peter Cotes Esq, "Fundholder" aged 79 born in Winchester and his wife Jane aged 75, born in Beverley. Then comes his son Christopher, aged 56, unmarried, also Fundholder, born in Beverley, Caroline their unmarried daughter aged 52, born in Doncaster, and Septimus aged 40, born in Ticton. A gravestone in Newington St Giles Churchyard, Newington, South Oxfordshire, commemorates Peter and Jane, Caroline Jane and Christopher. Caroline Jane Cotes died at Wallingford in 1852 as did her father Peter. Christopher followed them in 1855. Jane Cotes, Peter's wife, died at Cricklade in 1857. No wonder Septimus got married in 1858, after all those deaths. His wife, Ellen, was borm in Athlone, Ireland. Their first son, Everard Charles Cotes, was born in 1867, Everard's brother Robert Hugh Cotes was born in 1871 and might well be the same person who after attending the Royal Military College became 2nd Lieutenant and served in the York and Lancashire Regiment and the Sussex Regiment from March 25, 1891, and was on half-pay after 16 April, 1897. He resigned his commission 29 May 1901 and went to the US. He joined Union Lodge No. 172 in New Orleans just before he died. He died Mar. 7, 1903 in the US and is buried in Masonic Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans. The gravestone confirms his identity by ref to his rank and regiment. The entire life-story of Everard is related here or in his Wikipedia page. In the 1881 Census, the children listed as living at the Rectory were May 21, Rose 20, Violet 12, Robert 10, Rhoda 7. In the 1891 Census, the Rector and Ellen were living at the Rectory with unmarried daughters Rosemary A aged 29 and Rhoda F. aged 17. Rosemary Augusta is buried in the churchyard but the dates are illegible. She is registered as born in Wallingford early in 1861, their first child, then. She died on December 18, 1914. (the date alone is legible on her tombstone). Was she the author of "Dante's Garden," a book published in 1898 about the flowers mentioned by Dante? Rev. Septimus Cotes died on 10 Jan. 1893. He is buried in the churchyard at Newington Despite his long years of service, the only obituary seems to have been published in the Guardian. In the 1901 Census his widow, Ellen, aged 67 was living in the parish of St Gilles, Oxford. at 24 Leckford Rd as Head of the household together with her unmarried daughter Rose M. A. Cotes aged 38 (! = 28) and her unmarried son Robert H. Cotes aged 31, Officer In H M Army. and another (married) daughter Alice M Masterman aged 40. At the 1911 Census, Ellen Cotes, aged 77 born in Athlone Ireland was living with her daughter Rhosa [= Rhoda] Frances Hailey at 8 Bateman Street, Cambridge; Rhoda was 37, born in c.1874, and is listed as married but she is the Head of the household, no husband is present. Rhoda has 2 sons: Philip Cotes Hailey aged 8 born in Gonda U P India and John Malcolm Hailey aged 6 born in Naini Tal India as well as a daughter Alison Mary Hailey aged 3 born in Naini Tal India. Ellen Cotes died in April 1921, aged 87, and is buried with her husband. The stone is almost completely illegible. Hammett Reginald Clode Hailey was born 25 May 1869 in Newport Pagnell, where his father was a doctor. He attended Merchant Taylors' School and went up to St. John's College Oxford in 1887. He took his B.A. in 1892. He gained first place in the Indian Administrative Service exam 1892, and went to work in India. In 1893 he is listed as Asst. Commissioner., United Provinces of Agra and Oudh; in 1904 he was Settlement Officer there. In 1920 he was awarded an OBE as Director of land records and agriculture. During his years in India he published quite a number of papers and studies as H. R. C. Hailey. Rhoda Cotes married Hailey on 1 January 1902, perhaps in India? (There is no online record of their wedding in England). Their three children were born in India and the family would probably have come back to England at the first leave. Hammett then seems to have left his wife with her mother at Cambridge and returned to India, hence census 1911 has Rhoda as head of household. Rhoda died in 1943. Hammett Hailey died on Christmas Day 1960. Much later, their son Philip Cotes Hailey married Rowena Gude in 1950, so becoming the step-father of Rupert Gude (who is now (in 2015) a retired family doctor in Tavistock, Devon). Philip Cotes Hailey joined the Indian Army, he was promoted 2nd Lieutenant in 1923 and attached to the 1st Battalion 18th Royal Gharwal Rifles. In 1951, after he had retired from the Indian Army as Major with an OBE, he was appointed Major in the Intelligence Corps. His brother, John Malcolm Hailey, also followed a military career and may have been a general during the 2nd World War. |
