John Cottrell (Gent.)

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Marriage to Elizabeth Hall of Bradford on Avon

1620 Apr 29 Groom John Cotterell aged 27 occupation gent residing at Long Ashton, Somerset, Bride Elizabeth HALL aged 22 residing at Bradford, Wilts, dau of John (Hall) Esq Bondsmen; Source: Wiltshire Wills and Administration.  John Cotterell from Long Ashton, Somerset, April 29, 1620 Salisbury, Wilts, Marriage License, Gent, AGE 27; & Elizabeth d/o John Hall of Bradford, Age 22 Reference Salisbury Mar. Lic. 

History of the Ancient Cotele/Cottrell Family of Somerset:

 http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=blackhors...

History of Long Ashton

Long Ashton was called Ashton until the 19th century. It is in the Hundred of Hartcliffe, Somerset. The manor house dates to 1265, and in the late 15th century shares in the manor where bought by one Richard Amerike (one of the possible sources of the name America). Richard Amerike sponsored the voyages of John Cabot to America. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/americaname_01.shtml#three

Previously, the manor had passed through the hands of the Lyon, Choke and finally the Smyth families. The Smyth family were the lords of Ashton for four centuries, the estate finally being sold in 1946. The parish of All Saints dates from about 1380 and the arms of it's founder, Thomas de Lyons, are on the tower and the church contains some fine tombs.

Cotterel - Crandall - Smyth connection

The village of Frampton Cotterell, Somerset ( recorded as Frantone in the Domesday Book,1086) and is a village immediately adjacent to Westerleigh. At that time it was probably just a clearing in the woods with possibly a wooden church. Westerleigh is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.

In medieval times the village would probably have been a green with the houses and church around it, and prosperous. The northern wall and porch of St James church is from the 13th century, as is the carved stone pulpit. The church was rebuilt in the perpendicular style, with the tower (once used as the village lock up) added at a later date. The 700th anniversary was celebrated in 2004. By 1600 the village supported a shoemaker, a blacksmith, a sawyer, a flour mill, a malt house and two public houses. In 1617, John Crandall was baptised to James and Eleanor Crandall at St. James the Great church, and became one of the founders of Westerly, Rhode Island, USA.

'''Frampton Cotell Manor'''

The name Cotell or Cotterell is derived from the de Cotele family, lords of Frampton Manor in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Their manor house was not at modern day Frampton Court, it was probably located behind St. James church on the east of Mill Lane, here the field names 'Hall Marsh' and 'Hall Marsh Mead' survived into the 19th Century. This family held lands in many counties, and their progenitor , Robert de Cotele,knt, a favorite of Abbot Herlewin, in the time of Henry I, entered the manor Camerton upon Herlewin's death in 1120. The continued for many generations on these lands.

• http://home.comcast.net/~wdegidio/Hall/hallfamily4.htm http://www.myhubbardmtn.com/family%20htm/hall.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/americaname_01.shtml#three

Born: 1591 Married: ? 1620, Elizabeth Hall, Holy Trinity Church, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, England Children: Nicholas Cottrell

Notes: From Hall Family History [http://www.hallfamilyname.com/] "Elizabeth Hall, Bp 1594 Holy Trinity Ch. m 1620 John Cottrell s/o John of Wingfield….The Pedigree of the Hall's of Bradford on Avon show the marriage of John Hall to Dorothy Rogers and Elizabeth Hall to John Cottrell. Rhode Island records show the Hall's, Cottrell's and Rogers were closely associated in early Rhode Island."

Sources:

http://cottrell.wikidot.com/john-cottrell-born-1591

About Richard Amerike and John Cabot and their voyages:

Descending from the Earls of Gwent, Richard Ap Meryk - in Welsh, Richard, son of Meryk - was born in 1445 at the family home, Meryk Court, Weston-under-Penyard, near Ross-on-Wye. Richard Amerike married a woman by the name of Lucy Wells (another family related to the Rhode Island colonists), living for a time at West Camel, near Ilchester, where the local assize courts were held. When Bristol grew in importance and the assizes moved there, so did Amerike, joining relatives already established in the city. When he arrived it was the second biggest port in England after London. Trade was controlled by a few energetic men and to succeed he had to make the right contacts: he did, and in time became an important and wealthy man. By 1497 he was Sheriff of Bristol and also, for the third time, King's Customs Officer for the port - an office usually held for only one year though Amerike had already been the Customs Officer twice before, in 1486 and 1490.

When Cabot's voyage of discovery was proposed, Amerike donated more money than anyone else to funding the construction of the ship. Also, as no wood was readily available nearby, oaks from Amerike's family estate were cut down and floated down the Wye from Ross to Chepstow, over the Severn and then up the Avon to the Bristol dockyard. It was probably in honour of Cabot's wife Mattea that the ship was named Matthew, but it could also have been named after Amerike himself, Matthew, one of the apostles, having been a custom's officer. But it is also probable that, as the chief sponsor of the Matthew's voyage, and with Cabot's wife and children then living, at his instigation, in a house belonging to a close friend, Amerike sought reward for his patronage by asking that any new-found lands should be named after him. (Cabot had made several voyages before this, one in which four ships had been lost never to be found.)

Since the flag of the United States of America is based on the design of Amerike's coat of arms, it is more than probable that its origins lie with Amerike and not with George Washington, whose family also bore arms of the Stars and Stripes. According to the American Flag Research Centre in Massachusetts the heraldic origin of the American flag is not positively known; archives in the British Library confirm that the Stars and Stripes was the coat of arms of the Ap Merike family - and that they pre-date Washington's connection with the continent by 300 years. Amerike's coat of arms can be seen in the Lord Mayor's Chapel on College Green in Bristol as part of the Poyntz crest, a relative having married into that wealthy, land-owning family.

Cabot must have been a very remarkable person. How else could someone of no great wealth or personal influence pursue a goal so single-mindedly and achieve it so triumphantly? How else could a foreigner convince the English king that he should give him formal backing, and hard-headed Bristol merchants that the money they were hazarding would be spent with hope of a good return? Who else, knowing just how dangerous the oceans could be, would set off again and again to risk his life and that of his crews on the quest for new places beyond the horizon?

As to Richard Amerike, the picture that emerges is of a man who was an outstanding medieval entrepreneur - defined in the dictionary as 'one who undertakes a business enterprise with chance of profit or loss'. He was very successful, but little did he know that the Stars and Stripes on his personal banner would eventually become an emblem known the world over.