William Cotton

William Cotton was the son of Sir Alan Cotton, the Lord Mayor of London. William and his bother John , were London merchants who were asst. with gorge and mason's laconia Co.

Ref, Genealogical Guide to Early Settlers of America

92 THE HAMLIN FAMILY.

https://archive.org/stream/historyofhamlinf00andr/historyofhamlinf0...

the towns of Maine were obliged to erect and maintain garrisons as
places of refuge against Indian attacks, constructed of hewn timbers,
with palisadoesof large posts set deep in the earth, closely together, out-
side of the fort or blockhouse, ten or twelve feet high. Watch boxes
were built on top of the walls, the whole bullet proof. That in Gor-
hani was on the 30 acre lot, No. 2, near the old burying ground, on what
is still called " Fort Hill," the most elevated land in the town. It had
two six pounder swivels placed at diagonal corners, for the purpose of
defence and to alarm the neighboring towns of the approach of danger.
In 174.5 the fifth Indian war broke out; at this time several families
moved into the fort, viz: Capt. John Phinuey, JACOB HAMBLEN,
Daniel Mosier, Hugh McLellan, Clement Harvey, John Reed, Edward
Cloutman, Jeremiah Hodgdon, Eliphalet Watson and Mr. Bryant.

These distresses disheartened some of the settlers, who abandoned
their homes and removed to Falmouth, or returned to Massachusetts;
those who left were: William Bote, James Irish, John Eayr (Ayer),
Caleb Cromwell, Ebenezer Hall, William Cotton, Benjamin Skillings
and Benjamin Stevens. Nearly all returned to Gorham after the war.
For nearly seven years the settlers were confined to the fort, as a
place of residence, where they suffered great privation and hardship;
they had not only the Indians, and at times nearly famine to contend
with, but a dreadful disease broke out, said to have been caused by
want of proper food, called putrid sore throat or l)lrick tongue, from
which many of the children died; and every dweller in the fort was
afllicted with it.