The Cottons were one of the leading Whig families of Cheshire, which Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Bt., represented in the last two Parliaments of Charles II and throughout the reign of William III. In 1684 they acquired by marriage the Llewenny estates of the Salusbury family, carrying considerable electoral influence in Denbighshire. In 1748 Cotton succeeded his brother Sir Robert, through whose manoeuvres in 1739-41 he had obtained the lucrative place which he held for the rest of his life. On the death of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn in 1749 he at once sent to Richard Myddelton ‘the strongest assurances ... of his firm resolution to support the measures of the present Government’, to bear ‘no grudges’, and ‘to concur heartily with you in such measures as you shall judge necessary for the common cause’.1Thos. Brereton to Rich. Myddelton, 1 Oct. 1749, Chirk Castle mss E 593, NLW. An agreement was reached under which Cotton was unanimously nominated for the county, for which he was returned unopposed, Myddelton continuing to represent the borough. This arrangement was continued till he retired in 1774.
He died 14 Aug. 1775.