St Vincent Cotton - Later Life and Marriage

Later Life and Marriage

In his later years Cotton divided his time between his home in London and the Madingley estate. He was a magistrate for Cambridgeshire in the 1840s. Gambling debts forced him to sell or mortgage much of his property. After his mother's death in 1855, Cotton left Madingley and lived in London on a modest allowance from his sister. His health declined and he suffered a stroke which left him partially paralysed. He died on 25 January 1853, aged 61. The day before his death he had married his mistress, Hephzibah Dimmick. Cotton was buried in Brompton Cemetery, where he was joined by his widow ten years later. With Cotton's death the baronetcy became extinct, his younger brother, a naval officer, having died in 1828 and his uncle and heir also having died before him. Contrary to what is sometimes said, the Madingley estate had not been completely gambled away, and went to Cotton's sister Maria who was married to Admiral Sir Richard King.

In his prime, 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and of athletic build, Cotton cut a fine figure of a man. His mother and sisters remained loyal to him through thick and thin, and his nephews enquired after "dear Uncle Vinney" when writing home from the Crimea War. After his death a magazine said that "for all his foibles and weaknesses a better-hearted fellow never breathed".