Josiah Cotton

Josiah Cotton (1679/80–1756) was an Indian missionary, Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, Register of Deeds and Plymouth Colony civil magistrate.

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.

Virtually all of Cotton's uncles, brothers, and cousins pursued successful ministerial callings, while aunts and sisters married eminent country clergymen.

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.

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.