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Cottrell Family History, Part I

Harriet S. Cottrell³ was born around 1825 and married Orrin P. Andrews³ about 1850 in Erie County, Pennsylvania. She died the following year giving birth to their only daughter, Candace Mandana Andrews⁴. Land records of Erie and Crawford counties show significant activity by the Eber Cottrell¹ (1751-1833) family from Newport County, Rhode Island. Based on the concentration of this family in the area where Harriet married and died, this lineage assumes that Harriet was the daughter of one of Eber's five known sons.

The surname Cottrell reportedly is derived from the Old French coterel, a diminutive of cotier (cottages), which was used to denote someone under the feudal system who held his cottage by labour service rather than by paying rent. It came to England with William the Conqueror's Norman invasion of 1066.

Eber COTTRELL¹ (1751-1833)

1. Eber Cottrell¹ was born on April 13, 1751, Newport County, Rhode Island. He married Elizabeth Crandall and had at least five sons and two daughters:^{[Cens 1810]}

11.	Benjamin CottrellΔ	(1786-1787)	--	--
12.	Eber Cottrell (Jr.)	(1790)	--	--
13.	Nathaniel Ichabod Cottrell (Sr.)2	(1793-1794)	(1894)	(100)
14.	(Daughter)[Cen 1810]	(1794-1800)	--	--
15.	John Cottrell (Sr.)	11 Oct 1800	27 Feb 1874	(73)
16.	Peter CottrellΔ	(1804-1805)	1900	(96)
17.	(Daughter)[Cen 1810]	(1800-1810)	--	--

Judging from the birth places held by other researchers, the first five children were born in New York, perhaps in Argyle, Washington County, at the north end of the Hudson River Valley where they were enumerated in 1790.^{[Cen 1790]}. After the turn of the century they moved southwest into Pennsylvania where they settled in Erie County by 1810.^{[Cen 1810]}

Eber Cottrell died on July 31, 1833, in Union City, Erie County, Pennsylvania, at the age of 82. He was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Union City.

Elizabeth (Crandall) Cottrell died nine years later on October 11, 1842, in Erie County. She was also 82 years old and buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

Benjamin COTTRELL^Δ (~1787-1857)

11. Benjamin Cottrell^Δ was born around 1786 or 1787 in New York, perhaps in Washington County at the north end of the Hudson River Valley. As a teenager he and his family moved across New York to Erie County, Pennsylvania, by 1810. In 1812 he married Tamazine Bunting, a native of Bucks County, in eastern Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. They had as many as eight children, likely all born in Erie County, Pennsylvania:

111.	Septama Sophronia Cottrell	25 Jul 1817	22 Apr 1895	(77)
112.	Elizabeth Cottrell	(1818-1819)	(< 1870)	(< 51)
113.	Martha Marinda Cottrell	(1821-1822)	--	--
114.	Sarah Cottrell	(1825)	--	--
115.	Susan Jane CottrellΔ	(1827-1831)	7 Feb 1890	(65)
116.	David Hardy CottrellΔ	5 Aug 1832	7 Dec 1909	(77)
117.	Timothy S. Cottrell	12 Jul 1833	14 Feb 1908	(74)
118.	Stephen Cottrell	Dec 1836	17 Jun 1906	(69)

The family is identified in Le Boeuf Township, Erie County, as early as 1830.^{[Cen 1830]} Benjamin was granted a patent in lot "AA" of Le Boeuf Township, Erie County, by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on August 15, 1832.^{[Deed 1839,1841]} He sold a 70-acre portion of that land (perhaps the western six of the original lot) for $275 to James Blair (perhaps a relative of son-in-law Archibald Blair (Elizabeth's husband), who lived in an adjacent lot to the west) on July 22, 1839.^{[Deed 1839]}

Benjamin sold a second portion of lot "AA," 86.5 acres (perhaps another fifth of the original lot), to Seth Shepherdson for $600 on August 9, 1841, but the family remained in Le Boeuf Township through at least 1850.^{[Deed 1841,Cen 1850]}

Benjamin Cottrell died in September 1857 in Waterford Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania. He was about 71 years old.

Nathaniel Ichabod COTTRELL (Sr.)² (~1794-1894)

13. Nathaniel Ichabod Cottrell (Sr.)² was born in 1793 or 1794 in New York, perhaps in Washington County at the north end of the Hudson River Valley. As a boy he and his family moved across New York to Erie County, Pennsylvania, by 1810, where he married Elizabeth Coyle on April 12, 1817. They had as many as nine children:

131.	Amy Desire CottrellΔ	(1822)	12 Oct 1888	(66)
(132.)	Harriet S. Cottrell3	(1825)	(Nov 1850)	(25)
133.	Rosetta A. Cottrell	26 Feb (1827-1829)	10 Mar 1913	(85)
134.	Sylvanus CottrellΔ	(1831)	(1880-1890)	(50s)
135.	Benjamin W. Cottrell	(1832)	(> 1865)	(33)
136.	Merrill L. Cottrell•	1 Jan 1836	3 Aug 1921	(85)
137.	Cynthia Cottrell	4 Apr (1837)	20 Jul 1920	(83)
138.	Nathaniel Ichabod Cottrell (Jr.)	(1841)	Oct 1911	(70)
139.	Hampton/Harvey/Henry Cottrell	(1843-1844)	--	--

Nathaniel's parents settled in Erie County, Pennsylvania, by 1810. His first daughter, Amy Desire, was reported to have been born in Richland County, Ohio,^{[Mar 1867]} 175 miles to the southwest of Erie County; but the rest of Nathaniel's children were all reported to have been born in Erie County.

Nathaniel, his father, and two younger brothers were all enumerated in Waterford Township, Erie County, in 1830.^{[Cen 1830]} Later they moved northwest toward Lake Erie and just west of the city of Erie by 1850.^{[Cen 1850]}, but in 1860 Nathaniel acquired land from Benjamin Hinkson in Amity Township, east near the New York state line, and moved there.^{[Deed Index,Cen 1860]}

Nathaniel and Elizabeth later deeded property in Amity Township to their son Benjamin on April 11, 1862, and a second plot to Jacob Gilbert on March 19, 1867.^{[Deed Index]}

In their later years, the Cottrells lived with their daughter Rosetta (Cottrell Burt) Wilson in Union Mills (Union City), Union Township, Erie County.^{[Cen 1870]}

Elizabeth (Coyle) Cottrell reportedly died on March 28, 1873, at the age of 76.

After Elizabeth's death, Nathan lived with his granddaughter Rachel (Burt) Lewis and her family in Union Township (Union City).^{[Cen 1880]}

Nathaniel Ichabod Cottrell reportedly died in 1894 and was buried in Union City, Erie County. He was allegedly about 100 years old.

John COTTRELL (Sr.) (1800-1874)

15. John Cottrell (Sr.) was born on October 11, 1800, in New York. As a boy he and his family moved across New York to Pennsylvania and settled in Erie County by 1810. He is reported to have first married Mary Pratt and may have had a son and two daughters by 1830.^{[Cen 1830]} He later remarried to Mary Ann Preston on October 17, 1832. They had as many as 12 more children:

15A.	Juliet Cottrell	(1832-1833)	--	--
15B.	Philip E. Cottrell	(1833-1834)	--	--
15C.	John Esaw (W.) Cottrell (Jr.)	(1836-1837)	(1888-1889)	(52)
15D.	Eber Isaac Cottrell	(1838-1839)	1924	(86)
15E.	Esther Cottrell	(1839-1840)	--	--
15F.	Malinda Cottrell	(1841-1842)	--	--
15G.	Emeline Cottrell	(1843-1844)	--	--
15H.	Franklin Cottrell	Mar 1844	--	--
15I.	Thomas Jefferson Cottrell	12 Jun 1848	28 Jan 1920	(71)
15J.	Ellen Cottrell	Jan 1850	--	--
15K.	Lucinda Cottrell	Jul 1853	--	--
15L.	Horace Greeley Cottrell	12 Mar 1854	16 Jan 1934	(79)

The family appears to have started in Waterford Township as early as 1828 where John's father and two brothers settled by 1830.^{[Cen 1830]} John and Mary (first wife) deeded land in Waterford Township to John Kendall on January 28, 1828.^{[Deed Index]}

John acquired land in Waterford Township from his younger brother Peter Cottrell on May 6, 1853, as his brother apparently moved to Bloomfield Township in neighboring Crawford County.^{[Deed Index]} John and his family remained in Waterford Township through at least 1870,^{[Cen 1860,1870]} but sold at least three parcels over the years:^{[Deed Index]}

• Property in Waterford Township to James Cottrell (likely a relative of Mary's) on May 26, 1859;
• Property in Le Boeuf Township to Chas. R. Orcutt on August 17, 1865;
• Property in Waterford Township to Mary Kendall (perhaps related to John Kendall, as noted above) on November 17, 1873

Finally, as John entered his last days, he and Mary deeded property in Waterford Township to his son Eber on February 5, 1874.^{[Deed Index]}

John Cottrell (Sr.) died on February 27, 1874, in Erie County, likely in Waterford Township, at the age of 73. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Union City, Erie County.

A month after John's death, Mary deeded Waterford Township property to Eli R. Ormsbe on March 26, 1874. She lived with her son Horace, his wife Carrie, and her son John in Waterford Township by 1880^{[Cen 1880]} and the following year she deeded another Waterford Township parcel to Ormsbe on September 17, 1881.^{[Deed Index]}

Mary Ann appears to have leased land from her son Horace in Concord Township, in the southeast corner of Erie County, on December 14, 1888.^{[Deed Index]}

Mary Ann (Preston) Cottrell died 25 years after her husband in 1899, on either September 18 or November 7, in Erie County. She was about 88 years old. She is also buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

Peter COTTRELL^Δ (~1805-1900)

16. Peter Cottrell^Δ was born in 1804 or 1805 in Pennsylvania, likely in Erie County. He married Hannah Ormsbee, reportedy on 8 May 1828 in Waterford, Erie County. They had six children with a 14-year gap between the first three and the last three:

161.	Charles C. Cottrell	Oct 1832	(1925)	(92)
162.	Elizabeth M. CottrellΔ	27 Jan 1833	11 Mar 1915	(82)
163.	Mary Z. CottrellΔ	16 Jul 1835	24 Jun 1883	(47)
164.	Ellen Hulda Cottrell	25 Mar 1850	20 Mar 1908	(57)
165.	Amelia "Millie" CottrellΔ	26 Feb 1852	19 Jan 1929	(76)
166.	Thankful Mendana "Minnie" Cottrell	Oct 1856	9 Nov 1920	(64)

The family appears to have started in Waterford Township where Peter's father and two elder brothers settled by 1830.^{[Cen 1830]} They stayed in Waterford Township into the 1850s^{[Cen 1840,1850]} when Peter and Hannah sold of numerous parcels in Waterford Township between 1852 and 1854:^{[Deed Index]}

• to James Preston on December 23, 1850;
• to elder brother John Cottrell on May 6, 1853;
• to David Latta on February 23, 1854;
• to Andrews Middleton, Jr., on April 24, 1854;
• and to James Hare, II, on October 27, 1854

They may have moved southeast to Bloomfield Township in neighboring Crawford County where Peter later deeded properity to Juliett Warner in 1858, and to his son Charles Cottrell in 1861.

A year later Hannah acquired property in Le Boeuf Township, Erie County, from Hiram Drake on February 2, 1862. Another year later, Peter and Hannah (specifically Hannah's "estate") deeded property in Le Boeuf Township to Henry Robbins on September 11, 1863.^{[Deed Index]}

Son Charles, age 31, mustered in for service with the Union Army's 12th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment, Company B, in March 1864 at the Crawford county seat of Meadville. His regiment served under the Army of the Shenandoah and was mustered out in July 1865.

After Hannah's death, Peter lived with his youngest daughter "Minnie" (Thankful) and her family in Bloomfield Township.^{[Cen 1880]}

Peter Cottrell died in 1900 at about the age of 96.