Background
He was a grandson of John Cotton (1585–1652) and a nephew of Cotton Mather. His father John Cotton Junior. was a pastor of the First Church in Plymouth Colony from 1669 to 1697. Born in 1680 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Josiah Cotton was the son of Jane (née Rossiter) and John Cotton Junior.
(1639–1699), a prominent Indian missionary and son of John Cotton, a leading Puritan clergyman in New England.
His father was the town"s fourth minister and the eldest son and namesake of Boston"s most venerable pastor and theologian.
Career
Cotton was the maternal grandfather of William Cushing, one of the first six Supreme Court justices appointed by George Washington and also the longest served of those original jurists. In 1698, Cotton graduated from Harvard College. 1698–1707, he served for several years as schoolmaster in the fishing community of Marblehead before returning to his native Plymouth.
He also petitioned the New England Company for an appointment.
In 1729, Governor Samuel Shute appointed him justice of the peace and quorum. As a civil magistrate, Judge Cotton rose to considerable heights, but in what he called his "Indian Business", the lay missionary labored in the long shadow cast by his father.
From the start, however, Cotton"s missionary enterprise was vulnerable. Instead, he spent the majority of this time preaching to isolated Indian families and indentured servants living in the midst of English society.
Mr. Cotton died in 1756, aged 76 years, leaving numerous progeny.
Cotton possessed a strong and sound mind, was fervently pious, and was indefatigable in the discharge of all the duties of his various and honorable stations in life. He left a diary, which he began in his youth, soon after he left college, and continued nearly to the time of his decease. Cotton wrote a supplement to the New England Memorial and "Vocabulary of the Massachusetts (or Natick) Indian language", now in the hands of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
