Editing Cotton library (section)

===Origins===
At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, official state records and important papers were poorly kept, and often retained privately, neglected or destroyed by public officers. 

The Cotton family were prominent in [[Shropshire]], and their seat at [[Alkington, Shropshire|Alkington]], and they were connected to the polymath and sixteenth century statesman [[Rowland Hill (MP)|Sir Rowland Hill]] who published the [[Geneva Bible]];<ref>{{Cite web |last=nortoninhales |date=2017-06-02 |title=History of Norton Parish |url=https://www.nortoninhales.org/single-post/2017/06/01/history-of-norton-parish |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=nortoninhales |language=en}}</ref> and by the seventeenth century Sir Robert Cotton came to hold, and subsequently bound, over a hundred volumes of official papers. There is a theory that the curious incident of the 1643 [[Wem#Civil_war|Battle of Wem]] was the output of concerns of both sides to secure the Library of Old Sir Rowland at [[Soulton Hall]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Radio Shropshire - Listen Live - BBC Sounds |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_shropshire |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> 

By 1622, his house and library stood immediately north of the [[Houses of Parliament]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol3/pp491-502|title=Old and New London|publisher=Cassel, Petter & Galpin|year=1878|volume=3|location=London|pages=491–502|chapter=LVIII: The Royal Palace of Westminster|quote=Strype thus mentions Cotton House: "In the passage out of Westminster Hall into Old Palace Yard, a little beyond the stairs going up to St. Stephen's Chapel, now the Parliament House" (that is, the present House of Commons), "is the house belonging to the ancient and noble family of the Cottons, wherein is kept a most inestimable library of manuscript volumes found both at home and abroad." Sir Christopher Wren describes the house in his time as in "a very ruinous condition."}}</ref> and was a valuable resource and meeting-place not only for antiquarians and scholars but also for politicians and jurists of various persuasions, including [[Edward Coke|Sir Edward Coke]], [[John Pym]], [[John Selden]], [[John Eliot (statesman)|Sir John Eliot]], and [[Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford|Thomas Wentworth]].

Such important evidence was highly valuable at a time when the politics of the realm were historically disputed between king and Parliament. Sir Robert knew his library was of vital public interest and, although he made it freely available to consult, it made him an object of hostility on the part of the government.  On 3 November 1629 he was arrested for disseminating a pamphlet held to be seditious (it had actually been written fifteen years earlier by [[Robert Dudley (explorer)|Sir Robert Dudley]]) and the library was closed on this pretext. Cotton was released on 15 November and the prosecution abandoned the following May, but the library remained shut up until after Sir Robert's death; it was restored to his son and heir, [[Sir Thomas Cotton, 2nd Baronet, of Connington|Sir Thomas Cotton]], in 1633.<ref>{{Cite book|title=John Selden's Formative Years|last=Berkowitz|first=David Sandler|publisher=Folger|year=1988|isbn=978-0918016911|location=Washington|pages=268ff}}</ref>

Sir Robert's library included his collection of books, manuscripts, coins and medallions. After his death the collection was maintained and added to by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (d. 1662), and grandson, Sir John Cotton (d. 1702).<ref name=":0" />