Cotton, John

John (1585-1652), a Puritan divine. He was born at Derby, England, and was educated at Cambridge University. In 1612 he became vicar of St. Botolph's Church in Boston, Lincolnshire, for which our New England city was named. He leaned to Puritan doctrines. In 1633 he was cited to appear before Archbishop Laud to answer for not kneeling at a certain point in the services. To escape persecution he fled to Boston, Massachusetts, where he was held in high honor as a pastor. One would think that his experience might have made him charitable toward the religious views of others, but such was not the case. He was one of the foremost to hunt Ann Hutchinson out of Massachusetts Bay. Nevertheless, now that kindlier feeling prevails the world over, it is pleasant to learn that a tablet to his memory hangs in the old English church of which he was once the vicar. See Puritans