MS. Autobiographical Sketch of Joseph Cottle, Bristol, c. 1820s.

   Mr. Joseph Cottle was born in Bristol, March 9, 1770.  C. is understood not to have received the advantages of a Classical Education.  His thirst for reading, however, was conspicuous, from early life, which was doubtless strengthened by his having been the pupil from the age of 8 to 10, and subsequently the personal friend of the late celebrated John Henderson, of Pembroke College, Oxford, one of the strongest minds of modern times, and a memoir of whom, Mr. C. has published, in the 3rd Edition of his Poems (now out of print.)

   In the year 1791, Mr. Cottle began the business of a Bookseller, in Bristol, which he relinquished in the year 1798, since which time he has been unconnected with business, except for a short period, when he purchased a share in a Printing Concern where he was an inactive partner.

   When a Bookseller Mr. Cottle was surrounded by a Constellation of Geniuses, such as Bristol is not likely soon again to Witness.  In this number were many Young Men who have since distinguished themselves; such as Mr. Coleridge, Mr. Southey, Mr. Wordsworth, Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Lovell, Mr. C. F. Williams, Mr. Davy (now Sir Humphrey)—Counsellor Gilbert—Dr. Beddoes etc. etc.   Mr. Cottle was rendered remarkable, from having been the Original Publisher of the Poems of Messrs Southey—Coleridge—& Wordsworth—three men who do honour to the literature of their country, and who derived their first encouragements from a Brother Bard.

   It has come to the Editor’s knowledge, that Mr. Coleridge presented Mr. Cottle with a copy of the 1st Edit. of his Poems, on the blank leaf of which he wrote the following:  a circumstance which reflects as much credit on the writer as on the receiver.

Dear Cottle, on the blank leaf of my Poems, I can most appropriately write my acknowledgment to you for your too disinterested conduct in the purchase of these [poems].  Indeed if ever they should acquire a name and character, it might be truly said that the world owed them to you.  Had it not been for you, none perhaps of them would have been published, and many not written.  God bless you!  Your obliged & affectionate Friend.  

         April 15, 1796                        S. T. Coleridge

Mr. Cottle, in conjunction with his friend Mr. Southey, published in 1802, the complete edition of Chatterton’s Works, in 3 Vols. 8mo, for the benefit of Mrs. Newton, Chatterton’s Sister; from the profits of which work she received between two and three hundred pounds; a sum which rendered the latter part of her life comfortable.  Till this time Chatterton’s family had never derived any pecuniary advantage from the publication of “Thomas Chatterton’s Poems.”  The Illustrative Essays, in this work, were written exclusively by Mr. Cottle (bearing the initials J. C.) and in which he appears completely to have settled the Rowley Controversy, by proving, to a moral demonstration, that the whole of the poems ascribed to “Thomas Rowley,” were written by “Thomas Chatterton.”   A Publication of this nature came well from Mr. Southey and Mr. Cottle, as they are both (as was Chatterton) Natives of Bristol.

Mr. Cottle’s various poems were published in the following order.

Poems, 12mo 1795—2nd Edit, 1796—3rd Edit, 1802—Malvern Hills 4th 1798-Alfred, an Epic Poem, 1 Vol, 4to, 1800—2nd Edit, 2 Vols 12mo, 1804—3rd Edit, 2 Vols 12mo 1816—A New Version of the Psalms of David 12mo 1801—2nd Edit 1805—The Fall of Cambria, 2 Vols 8vo 1808—2nd Edit, 2 vols 8vo, 1811.—Messiah 1 Vol. (part 1st) 1816—Part 2, 1819.—Epostulatory Epistle to Lord Byron, 1820—and Dartmoor, a Descriptive Poem, 1822.

Text: Eng. MS. 351, fol. 49b, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. The sketch is in Cottle’s hand. Others mentioned above include Charles Lloyd (1775-1839), Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829), William Gilbert (1760?-1825?), and Thomas Beddoes (1760-1808). Cottle published Coleridge’s Poems in 1796, as well as the initial copies of the first edition of Coleridge’s and Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads in 1798.