Relhan Collection : 257 Madingley church. Mural monument to Sir Charles Cotton

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>‘Sacred to the Memory of/ Sir Charles Cotton Bart / Admiral of the White and/ Commander in Chief of the/ Channel Fleet died 23 Feb/ 1812 aged 58 years’. Admiral Sir Charles Cotton was the great great grandson of Sir John and Lady Jane Cotton (<b>256</b>), and held the Landwade and Madingley estates after the death of his father, Sir John Cotton MP (and Jacobite). He entered the Navy as a midshipman and had a long and distinguished career in active service, with frequent promotions from 1772-1812 except for a period when Britain was at peace, 1783-1793. During the peace he lived at Madingley, married and started a family, taking over running the estate from his ageing (and overspent) father. He was called back to the Navy when the French Revolutionary Wars broke out and served through the Napoleonic Wars, latterly as Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet and finally as Commander of the Channel Fleet, dying in post in Portsmouth. His marble wall monument by John Flaxman RA has a spectacular marble flag, anchor and sword and long inscription tablet, with the 10-panelled arms and crest of the family below but he was buried at Landwade (<b>238</b>).</p><p>ODNB 2008; RCHME 1968</p></p>