Cotton, John, 1801-1849

He was born in Balham Hill, Clapham Common, London in 1802 and died on 15th December, 1849. Educated University of Oxford (law), he arrived in Australia in 1843. He had published books on song birds in Great Britain and continued his ornithological studies in Victoria, publishing his results as a list of Victorian birds in the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science in 1848. He was made a Fellow, Royal Zoological Society for his work on birds. His planned book on the birds of Port Phillip, illustrated with coloured plates from his own drawings, was produced in 1974 by Allan McEvey (q.v.), as John Cotton's Birds of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, 1843-1849.

John Cotton, pastoralist and naturalist, studied law at Oxford. He published "The resident song birds of England" in 1835. After arrival at Pt. Phillip in 1843, the family spent some months at Balham Hills, Goulburn River valley. Cotton acquired Doogallook in 1843 and Maintoongoon 1844. He continued his study of birds and was made a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society. He wrote a series of letters to his brother William in England. They became valuable historical documents.