31.10.1796 sup at W(ollstonecraf)t's w(ith) mrs Cotton / 21.1.1796 again / 3.11.1796 again / 7.11.1796 chez moi, mrs Cotton / 9.11.1796 dine at Wts w Cotton / 11.11.1796 chez elle, Cotton / 14.9.1797 write to mrs Cotton / 24.11.1797 Cotton & Hays call / 1.12.1797 mrs Cotton & M(arshall) dine / 14.7.1799 M Cotton H(annah) G(odwin) & L(ouisa) J(ones) dine / 29.11.1799 call on mrs Cotton, Cookham; dine w. her at mrs Wilford's (mr Mangles) Hurley Bottom / 24.1.1800 write to M Cotton / 14.5.1800 mrs Cotton & H G call n(ot in) / 15.9.1802 Newbury: call on Winter, James, Cotton & Combe / 16.10.1805 Cotton's clerk calls / 5.11.1806 write to Cotton, Newbury / 10.8.1807 call with him (Marshall?) on Cotton / 13.6.1809 call on Cotton (Limehouse & L Hl) (=Limehouse Hole?) / 15.6.1809 call on Turner, Limehouse: adv Cotton & W(illiam) G(odwin) / 26.9.1809 write to Cotton / 12.11.1809 again / 18.12.1809 Cotton calls / 1.2.1811 write to Cotton
Mrs Cotton 1798 Sonning Land Tax Redemption proprietor & occupier, which suggests she was widowed or separated. Identified in Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft and in Shelley and his Circle only as a friend of Wollstonecraft. I estimate all the entries up to and including 1800 are her whether written Cotton, M Cotton or mrs Cotton and although Cookham is some miles from Sonning. Her letter to Godwin of 18.3.00 (Abinger c5 f95-6) was addressed from Langton Cottage and mentioned Mrs Wilford (see 29.10.1799 above) and Lady Ailesbury as having invited her to stay in London. She was perhaps the Mary Cotton will PCC 1810 of Tyrone Ireland whose will mentioned a former servant to the late Countess of Ailesbury. If so I have much more information about her but I'm still trying to confirm that this was her. The two Newbury entries in 1802 and 1806 might be her or a relation. John Cotton innholder of Newbury will PCC dated 19.2.1833 proved 26.9.1833 wife Kezia sister Ann Winter / John Cotton = Keziah Purdue 21.9.1825 (FamilySearch) / Jackson's Oxford Journal 22.2.1823 died at Newbury mrs Cotton of the London Apprentice / John Cotton = Mary Purdue 13.5.1795 St Marylebone / Purdue was a Newbury family of clothiers. Winter & James both dissenting ministers at Newbury. The entries from 1807 on probably all belong to the merchant and philanthropist William Cotton DNB 1786-1866. Cotton's clerk 1805 might have been William Cotton's clerk