After education at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford he was ordained and travelled to New Zealand as chaplain to George Augustus Selwyn, its first bishop.

Later as vicar of Frodsham, Cheshire, England, he restored its church and vicarage but was limited in his activities by mental illness.

There he became an accomplished rower and had a fine scholastic record, winning the Newcastle Prize for excellence in divinity and the classics in his final year.

[6] Cotton did have some of the practical skills which would be valuable; he could use various tools, including a lathe, ride a horse, and row and sail boats.

Delayed in the English Channel by contrary winds the bee hives were so thrown about aboard the Tomatin that they were jettisoned overboard in Plymouth Sound in Cotton's absence.

The missionary party of 23 members set sail from Plymouth late on 26 December 1841 on board the barque Tomatin.

[8] From Cotton's personal hand written note book, discovered languishing and unrecognized in a New Zealand book shop in 2015: “When however I arrived in Plymouth, the Tomatin was found to be so very full that Captain Nelson begged me to have the large barrel in which I had prepared to pack them [the hives], landed again.

[9] ”Cotton's letter dated 30 December 1841, passed to a homeward bound brig on 21 January, stated the bees were safe.

In his own hand Cotton revealed the fate of his bees: “the sailors were unfortunately so very fond of honey, that many of the Hives were turned up in the night, and the combs rudely pulled out.

The boat was damaged by a rock on entering their landing place and, rather than wait for its repair, some of the party, including Selwyn and Cotton, set sail for New Zealand on the brig Bristolian on 19 May.

[14] Selwyn had decided to set up residence at the Waimate Mission Station, some 15 miles (24 km) inland from Paihia where the Church Missionary Society had established a settlement 11 years earlier.

[16] On 5 July 1842 Selwyn set out on a six-month tour of his diocese leaving the Mission Station in the care of Sarah, his wife, and Cotton.

[17] By October 1843 more missionaries had arrived at Waimate and Cotton was able to accompany Bishop Selwyn on his second tour, this time to mission stations and native settlements in the southern part of North Island.

[20] Cotton continued to work in Bishop's Auckland particularly as headmaster of St John's College, and also with ecclesiastical duties and practical tasks.

[26] There is a tradition that Cotton introduced bees to New Zealand[27] but this is incorrect, although he was largely responsible for teaching the skills of beekeeping to the immigrants and the natives.

[28] When Cotton was later appointed vicar of Frodsham he continued his interest in beekeeping and carried out experiments on bees.

On one of his trips to the Continent Cotton purchased a copy of a book called Schnurrdiburr by Wilhelm Busch which contained comical illustrated stories about a beekeeper and his bees.

[33] In the late 1870s Cotton's mental health began to deteriorate to such a degree that he became unable to carry out his duties.

In 1879 a sequestration order was obtained to allow John Ashton to take charge of the affairs of the parish; Cotton was readmitted to Manor House in the early summer and died there in June.

His funeral took place at St John the Baptist's Church in Leytonstone and he was buried in the family grave in the churchyard.