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Cottingham, England

At first, 'Cotyngham' was a place in old Yorkshire on the North channel coast of England. It meant the "home of Cotter's people." He, Cotter, was a Viking invader of the Middle Ages. Hoom, Hom, and Ham were old English words for home.

From the Court of Hustings, London, 1360,
of the will of Thomas de Cotyngham, a member of the clergy originally from Yorkshire: " Monday next before the Feast of Saint Margaret, virgin. COTYNGHAM, Thomas de--Rector of the Church of Worden in the diocese of LINCOLN--Bequeaths to the said Church and to the Order of Mendicant Friars i London; also (among others) to the following: Sir Nic. de Spayne, Sir Wm. de Burstall, Sir Nic. de Ravendale. Wm. de Hull and Elena wife of the same, Alice Beaufleur, Hugh de Cotyngham clerk, and Nigel West his kinsman, and Beatrix his wife, and various servants. Besides sums of money, he leaves divers robes furred with Bys, his small book called "Journal," a book of letters of Master de Pekeryng ( "de Literis de Factura Magistri de Pekeryng") and other masters: also a quire of letters of the Chancellery (" de Literis Chancellery") and the Clergy ("de Clero") abridged (" sub compendio"); his portifory and cassock ("clamida"). Certain tenements in Holbourne to be sold and a portion of the proceedstobe devoted to the good of his soul. He forgives his debtors at Worden their debts to the extent of twenty shillings each. Dated at London, 10 May --A.D. 1370."

The Historical Research Center reported that the poll tax records of Howdenshire cite one Robertus de Cotyngham in 1379.

"If your name is Cottingham your ancestors may have lived in Yorkshire and spread into Cheshire at an early date where they settled in the Chester area. In 1482, Matilda, widow of Thomas Cotyngham held some of the Spurstow land and in 1500, Thomas Cotyngham lived at Ledsham near Chester.
John Cottingham, of Yorkshire, living in 1504. Four children: John; William, d.s.p.; Robert, d. unm; and Ann, d. unm. Then John (son of the foregoing John), living in 1534, two children: James, m. Bodicea Talbot, carried on the Yorkshire line which ended when his great-grandson, John, left four daughters; and Thomas. This Thomas m. Jane Mordaunt and was living in 1577. He had four sons: John, in 1618 purchased the estate of Little Neston in Cheshire from Sir L'Estrange Mordaunt, Bart., d.s.p.; Thoms (whose descendants carried on the line of Little Neston); Robert, living in 1618, had a son, George (who some would like to think was The Immigrant); and James.

A branch of the family lived in Ireland. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, one of the Cottinghams had four sons, John, Thomas, Robert and James. John purchased the manor of Little
Neston from the Mordant family about 1628. On his death the property passed to his brother Thomas who was eventually succeeded by his son Charles Cottingham an M.A. of Oxford who married Margaret Green of Poulton Lancelyn.
Charles Cottingham was followed by his son, Thomas who in 1650, married Frances Edwards. They had two sons and four daughters. The younger son Thomas, died childless and Charles his elder brother, who was living in 1683, married Elizabeth Bennet of Willaston. They had four sons, Theodore, Charles, John and Thomas. Charles Cottingham, the second son, was an M.A. of Dublin and was father of Theodore and Charles, both bachelors. His brother Thomas succeeded to Little Neston and married Jane Simpson. They had two sons, Thomas and John. Thomas Cottingham, who succeeded to Neston, married twice. By his first wife, Elizabeth Cooper, he had three sons, Thomas, Theodore and John. By his second wife, Mary Cooper, he had four sons. Thomas the eldest son, a lieutenant in the army, sold the Little Neston estate to the Shrewsbury family. Theodore married and had a large family and John, the third son became Recorder of Chester in 1835."

COTTINGHAM, a parish town, in Hunsley-Beacon division of Harthill (Cottingham Castle, the seats of Thomas Thompson, Esq. and William Watson Wilkinson, Esq.) 5 miles from Hull, 6 from Beverley, 9 from South Cave, 35 from York. -- Pop. 2,479. The Church is a vicarage, dedicated to St. Mary, in the deanry of Harthill, value, p.r. 102L. Patron the Bishop of Chester.
Thomas Lord Wake of Lyddel, in 1322, founded a Monastery here, for black Canons, but not being able to procure a perpetual title, the monastery was removed in 1324 to Newton, since called Alta Prisa, or Haltemprice, a hamlet, about a mile further to the south. Not the smallest vestige of it is to be seen; the site is occupied by a farm, and is the property of the family of the Ellerkers of Risby. --Burton.

Cottingham was formerly the seat and lordship of Robert de Stuteville or, Estoteville, who was descended from Robert Grundebeofe, a Norman Baron. William de Stuteville, his heir, being High Sheriff of the county in 1202, entertained King John at his house here, and about the same time obtained a licence from the same King to fortify it. The estates came by marriage to the Lords de Wake, and afterwards by a daughter of John de Wake, to Edmund, Earl of Kent, from whom descended Joan, wife to Edward, the warlike Prince of Wales, who defeated the French in so many engagements. Thomas de Wake, in the 12th Edward II. obtained from that Prince, a grant for a weekly market, and two fairs annually, at Cottingham; and in the 1st of Edward III. he obtained a grant from that King to make a castle of his manor-house here, and to fortify it. Henry VIII. when on a visit at Hull, in 1541, hearing that Lord Wake of Cottingham, was married to an accomplished Lady, fixed a day for honouring them with his company; but the amourous monarch was disappointed of his visit; for his lordship, less ambitious of the honour, than alarmed for the too probable consequence of such a compliment, on the eve of the visit, set fire to his castle, and burned it to the ground. This castle, then called Baynard-Castle, is now only to be discovered by its moat and ramparts of earth, which are appropriated to a market and private garden. This ancient castle covered two acres of ground, upon the site of which the manor-house was afterwards built. The old court-house is yet standing, and in which the court is always called. -- Camden. -- Tickell.

"At the Society of Genealogists in London, in a small volume (on pp. 12/13),
There is a black-and-white sketch of an old alabaster monument or tomb of Hugh de Calvelay and wife in old Bunbury Church in Cheshire that were schetched by visitors sent from London by King Henry the 8th in the name of his new church--the English Church. Sir Hugh died in 1394. Dame Christian de Calveley had been a Cotyngham before marriage, being from that place in Yorkshire. Hugh was from a place called Calveley. People dropped the Latin preposition and eventually had a surname. "

" One of the first to do so in Cheshire was one Thomas-de Cotyngham. His widow Matild- married a Spurstowe. After Spurstowe died Matild had to sue Randle de Spurstowe for a part of her dowerey. "

"Part of Coats-of-Arms were emblazened on the sides of the Calveley monument, parts known as the shield. For the wife, there was shown a replica of two hinds-counter trippant. A hind is a female deer (without horns). Counter trippant means facing in opposite directions as they do when pursued by the hunter."

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