Cottles of Bristol

Cottles of Bristol – Grace Cottle, a cousin of Anne Steele, was originally from Trowbridge, and as a Particular Baptist, would have known the Froudes from nearby Tinhead and Erlstoke, where Edward Froude (d. 1714), Anne Steele’s grandfather, served as the Baptist minister for many years. See John Broome, A Bruised Reed. Anne Steele: Her Life and Times (Harpenden, Hertfordshire, 2007), 69. The Cottles maintained a connection with the church in the Pithay until 1808, leaving shortly after the arrival of the Rev. Thomas Roberts (whose preaching Coleridge greatly admired). During the 1790s the Cottles, however, became frequent attendants at the Baptist Meeting at Broadmead as well.  The church in the Pithay had always had close ties with their neighbor church in the Broadmead, even sharing Sunday evening services until 1759, and the ministers and members were frequent attendants at each other’s services.  The congregations were both Calvinistic Particular Baptists, except Broadmead allowed for paedobaptists to remain as communicant members, thus creating a form of mixed communion within the body of the church.  These paedobaptists formed their own Independent Congregation at Broadmead in 1757, but continued to meet with the larger church for all preaching services, observing, however, their own communion.  The pastor at Broadmead was thus pastor of two Baptist congregations within the same church, an odd circumstance for any church at that time.

     In the surviving records of the Pithay congregation, either Joseph Cottle or his father, Robert Cottle, appear in a role usually reserved for a deacon.  In 1799 the congregation decided to “suppress” instrumental music, and evidently one prominent member was threatening to leave over the decision. According to the church records,  “At a Church meeting held on Tuesday evening, February 5th, 1799, Brethren Cottle and Whittuck was commissioned to wait on Brother Stone, requesting him to fill up his place in the Church.  Accordingly they did so, and he seemed offended, and at first seemed to hint that he should not return; but after some conversation with him he said he would consider further about it.” We do not know whether Brother Stone remained in the church or not, but apparently other problems may have existed for the Cottles, for a month later, in March 1799, Joseph's two sisters, Anne and Mary, and his mother, Sarah, acquired a pew subscription at Broadmead for £2.2. Robert Cottle died c. 1799, which may have been a precipitating cause in the removal of the remaining Cottles to Broadmead, for in March 1801 Joseph's grandmother, Grace, and most likely Joseph himself, joined the others in their pew subscription at Broadmead. In 1807 the Cottle women began paying £3.3 for the pew seat, maintaining that amount until Mrs. Cottle's death in 1813, at which time the church pew subscription record ends.

    On 6 May 1801, Mary and Sarah were baptized by Dr. John Ryland, Jr., at Broadmead, but only Sarah transferred her membership at that time.  Anne and Mary signed as “Hearers” on 17 January 1802, in relation to the call of the Rev. Henry Page as Assistant Minister at Broadmead, meaning they were not members but “constant Attendants on divine Worship, at the Baptist Meeting-house, in Broadmead, Bristol, & Subscribers to the Support of the Gospel.”  On 12 September 1802, Mary became a member of the Independent Paedobaptist Congregation at Broadmead.  On 9 April 1807, Anne was baptized and became a member of the larger non-paedobaptist congregation at Broadmead.  Not until 8 November 1808, did Grace Cottle transfer her membership to Broadmead from the church in the Pithay, where she was received on the 11th.  During these years Joseph attended Broadmead, but only as a “Hearer” with the Independent Paedobaptist Church at Broadmead to which Mary belongs, signing as such on 16 April 1818, for the call of T. S. Crisp as Assistant Minister, and in 1825 for the call of Robert Hall as Pastor at Broadmead.  In 1830, during the ministry of Robert Hall, the small Independent congregation at Broadmead, having never kept its own records, “thought it advisable to choose Deacons, and to establish Rules, and Regulations, such as may improve the Discipline, and give Regularity to the Church.”  On 1 March 1830, a church record book is begun (the first eight folio pages are in Joseph Cottle's hand) for the thirty-two adult members, which includes Mary Cottle and Joseph, now a full member and deacon in the Independent church and “gentleman” in the community.  On 14 November 1831, Joseph and Mary Cottle sign as representatives of the Independent Church in the call of the Rev. Samuel Nicholson to become minister at Broadmead upon the death of Robert Hall.  However, on 7 December 1832, Joseph and his sister Mary are dismissed in good standing by the church to join their sister Anne at the Zion Chapel in Bedminster, a new Congregational church founded by John Hare, Anne's wealthy husband. See John Silas Merritt’s "A Complete History of Old King Street Baptist Church, formerly worshiping in the Pithay, originally at the Fryers. A.D. 1640 to A.D. 1933," f. 84A (this manuscript book now resides at the Bristol Record Office); also Subscription for Pew Seats 1772-1813, Broadmead Records, Bristol Record Office, Bd/A2/2.