Nathaniel Cotton

[1] Cotton is thought to have studied at Leiden University, possibly under Herman Boerhaave.

[2] Cotton specialised in the care of patients with mental health issues, maintaining an asylum known as the Collegium Insanorum, at St Albans.

[4] Cotton was also a published poet, whose poems were described by Cheever as "full of good sense, benevolence, and piety"[4] although not works of genius.

[2] He was married twice, first in 1738 to Anne Pembroke, with whom he had eight children, six of whom survived past infancy and one, Joseph Cotton, who became a director of the Honourable East India Company.

[1] After Cotton's death the asylum was run by Dr Stephen Pellet.