Charles Herbert Cottrell

Charles Herbert Cottrell (1806–1860) was an Englishman who travelled to Siberia in 1840-41, produced an account of the experience, and translated plays and non-fiction works from German to English. At home, he was a magistrate of Hertfordshire and Wiltshire.

Early life and family

Monument to Clement Cottrell (died in London 26 July 1814) in St Mary the Virgin, Monken Hadley.

Cottrell was born in Monken Hadley in 1806 to Clement and Georgiana Cottrell.^[1] He received his advanced education at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, from where he received his M.A.^[2]

According to John Burke, the Cottrell family had its origins in the French Albigenses. Burke wrote that "Cotterel the Norman" was given land in Derby by King Henry III in 1235. An 1852 gazetteer reported that Charles Herbert Cottrell was descended from Sir Charles Lodowick Cotterell, who was master of ceremonies at the end of the seventeenth century, and on the maternal side from Chaloner Chute of Hampshire who was speaker of Cromwell's parliament.^[3]

Literature

Cottrell wrote an account of his travels in Siberia in 1840-41 which was published in London in 1842. The book was republished in the British Library, Historical Print Editions series in 2011.^[4] He was fluent in German and was able to translate a play by Friedrich Schiller and a work by the Prussian Egyptologist, Karl Richard Lepsius, into English.

Monken Hadley

Charles Herbert Cottrell succeeded to the Cottrell estate on the death of his uncle, Charles Cottrell of Hadley, in 1829.^[2] He probably acquired Hadley Lodge (destroyed by fire 1981) in Monken Hadley at the same time. He is recorded as living there in 1852^[3] and probably was living there at the time of his death. In 1860, Cottrell was named as the chairman of the local board of The Society of Arts for Barnet.^[5]

Death

Cottrell died in 1860.^[6]

Selected publications

• Cottrell, C.H. (1842) Recollections of Siberia, in the Years 1840 and 1841. London: John W. Parker.
• Schiller, Friedrich. (1843) Don Carlos, Infante of Spain; A dramatic poem, in five acts; translated from the German of Schiller. Barnet: J.J. Cowing. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longman.
• Lepsius, R. (1846) A Tour from Thebes to the Peninsula of Sinai, &c.. London. (Translator into English)

References and notes

1. England, Births & Baptisms 1538-1975 Transcription. findmypast.co.uk Retrieved 3 August 2015. (subscription required)
2. "Cottrell, of Hadley" in John Burke (1838). A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland &c. Vol. IV. London: Henry Colburn. pp. 745–748.
3. "HADLEY-MONKEN" in B. Clarke (1852). The British gazetteer: political, commercial, ecclesiastical, and historical; &c. Vol. II, D-L. London: H.G. Collins. p. 326.
4. ISBN 1241342342
5. "Examinations of 1860.-Local Boards." in The Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol. 8, No. 376 (3 February 1860), pp. 171-188.
6. England & Wales deaths 1837-2007 Transcription. findmypast.co.uk Retrieved 3 August 2015. (subscription required)