Cotgrove Family History.
Today the world population of
people with the surname COTGROVE [NOT COTGRAVE nor COTGREAVE} is about 350 and everyone
can be said to be a descendant of Benjamin Cotgrove from Leigh on Sea,
In about 1250 a certain Hugh Buran,
a land owner from the
By
1600 some members of the family
were strong Protestants and one at least may have left England to join fellow
like thinkers in Holland. By 1680 the
mood in
Family tradition states that they came to drain Canvey Island but this was 40 years too soon, It is also stated that the name was originally Coggery but there is no evidence of this. In Leigh the name was always Cotgrave, Cotgrove, Codgrove or Coggrove(by one branch only).
Only further research will prove
or disprove this theory but in the mean time let us follow Benjamin's
fortune. Several of Benjamin's and
Mary's children died at birth and it was only after Benjamin's death in 1690
that Benjamin II was born and survived. Widow Mary remarried and her new
husband owned a cottage in Leigh High Street which passed to Benjamin II. In due course the house passed to Benjamin
III, born in 1719, who worked for one of the oyster merchants of Leigh. In 1755
he was Captain of the Mayflower, not the one that went to America but a small
fishing boat collecting oysters from France.
Benjamin III and his wife Sarah Studd had eleven children but only three carried the name to the next generation. Thomas born 1765, Benjamin IV, born 1759 and Susanna, born 1761. Susanna had an illegitimate son, William born about 1777- 81. It is from these three, Benjamin IV, Thomas and William that all members of today's family can trace their descent.
Benjamin was elected Constable for
a short period and his son, Benjamin V,
followed his grand father as Captain of an oyster merchant's ship. This was the
"Two Sisters" belonging to John Osborne. When the latter went broke in 1826 as the
result of his oysters dying in the extremely cold winter, Benjamin lost his
job. William was brought up by his
grandmother but the Parish provided him with his sea boots and waterproofs when
he first went to sea as a 12 year old boy.
All three were to marry and raise families so that by 1841 there were 57
Cotgroves in ten households. Oysters
were becoming less important as the beds were polluted by the increasing
population of London and shrimps, driven down stream by the same pollution
became the main catch of the Cotgroves.
More and more had their own boats and while a few travelled down to the
Channel Islands to get oyster brood others spent the summer off Harwich where
the shrimps were better and the new railway connection made the transport to
London possible.
Benjamin IV still lived in the original house in the High Street but his will of 1822 left this to son Benjamin, specifying that his widow should live there until her death. However the son drew up a document granting his mother free tenure of one room for life and then sold the cottage over her head. Other members of the family moved in as tenants of the new owner for a short while, but by 1850 the whole house become the blacksmith's shop. Benjamin IV's boat and gear went to the youngest son another William.
In common with most other fishing villages the fishermen of Leigh used a system of nick names which were originally used to conceal a man's true identity from strangers. The early names have been lost but those from the 1880's have been handed down. Names such as Lumpy with his son Bert Lump, Cobler, Tolly with his son Billy Tolly, Snikey and Tottles with his daughter Martha Tottles. These nick names were the only ones used, that is to say, neither the normal Christian name nor the surname, Cotgrove, was mentioned. In fact in some cases the "surname" of the children was nick name of the father.
Fishing was a dangerous occupation and several Cotgroves lost their lives in the Thames. In 1874 William "Judgement" Cotgrove died with his son, also William, when their boat turned over in Woolwich Reach when returning empty after selling fish. There is a commemorative stained glass window in Leigh Church. In 1888 the GMAC capsized and George Cotgrove was drowned; his mate Alfred survived by clinging to the mast through out the night till he was rescued next morning. The opening of the railway also brought its dangers and several lost there lives on the line. The local Customs Officer was sure that with over 80 boats going to sea each day there must be some smuggling but he caught very few. One was Charles Cotgrove of the "Spray" who in 1849 climbed aboard a stranded ship to "rescue" some 200 cigars, 18 bottles of wine and 20 bottles of brandy from the Captain's cabin. Unfortunately he was seen by the Customs and fined £100. As he could not pay a sum which would have been about two years income, he served a term in Chelmsford Goal.
So far all the male Cotgroves had stayed in Leigh; some daughters had married men from near by villages, but now things began to change. A son of William I , Henry John, joined the Royal Navy and eventually became a Coast Guard in north Ireland where he married an Irish girl before retiring back to Leigh with Irish born children. Some of these moved to London. Henry served in the Mediterranean and with the Black Sea Fleet during the bombardment of Sevastopol for which he received the Crimea Medal with the Sevastopol Clasp. A grandson of Thomas, another Henry, Henry William, also became a sailor and a Coast Guard. He serve in the Baltic and in China for which he had the Baltic Medal and the rare China Medal with the clasp "Fatsham Forts 1857". His last voyage was to the St Lawrence Seaway in Canada taking the Prince of Wales to open a bridge.
In 1854 the railway arrived and
gave fresh job opportunities as porters and as well as easy access to
London. With fishing still in decline a
few turned to other trades. By 1881
there were Cotgrove fish mongers in London and in Southend, while some had
moved to non maritime jobs in Kent, over the river. Two families moved to the Isle of Wight where
they became crew men for private yacht owners and later boat builders In Leigh, Stephen, grand son of Benjamin V,
set his sons up as butchers. One of
Thomas' grandsons went to the gold
fields of South Africa. He did not make a great fortune but his rock crusher
sold well and he returned to Southend to found the business that became
Cotgroves Fish Restaurant.
The
century started with the capture of a whale in the Thames by Walter, the grand
son of Benjamin VI who now worked as a tug boat skipper for the Port of London
Authority. Although several people
raised money by charging to inspect the carcass, Walter lost his job and his health as a
result of the incident. During the First
World War 39 members of the family served
in the services but considering how many were still sea going men it is
strange that only 13 served in the Navy. William Cotgrove won the Military
Medal for bravery in France. In
Southend the grand daughter of Benjamin V, Jane, known as Minnie, married a Southend plumber. Her daughter,
The Second World War brought about another spreading of the family
leading to branches in North Wales and Devon.
The increase in University education meant that several young Cotgroves
moved to distant University towns never to return. The fishing trade in Leigh was much reduced
and was mainly for cockels. By 1980
the last Cotgrove had now left the sea although there was still Cotgroves Fish
Restaurant and a few still had boats which they used only for pleasure. However most of the family now earn a living
far removed from the sea. In spite of
all these moves most of the Cotgroves still live within 20 miles of Leigh. There are now about 8-10 families in
Australia and one in New Zealand. There
appears to be no Cotgroves in USA except for the daughter of the Isle of Wight
branch who married an American.