John COTTON & Mary Lodema FELSON

Tennessee Historical Quarterly, "The Journal of John Cotten, the "Reluctant Pioneer"--Evidences of its Unreliability, by Stanley J. Folmsbee, page 84-94
page 84
" In the Fall, 1968 (Vol. XXVII, No. 3, pp. 277-86), issue of the "Tennessee Historical Quarterly", there appeared an article by J. W. L. Matlock, "John Cotten: Reluctant Pioneer," based almost entirely on a manuscript journal in the author's possession presumably written by one of his ancestors, named John Cotten. Several years ago, in my capacity as managing editor of the annual Publications of the East Tennessee Historical Society, I received from the Reverend Mr. Matlock an edited document, "The War of the Regulators of North Carolina, From the Journal of John Cotten." This document included the section of the Journal describing the family and early life of John Cotten and also recounting the amazing story of his alleged desertion from Governor Tryon's army and affiliation with the Regulators in the Battle of Alamance, May, 1771, and his migration with his wife and children, along with John Donelson and his family to the Watauga settlement in what is now East Tennessee."

Page 85 "It should normally be taken for granted that any writer of a diary would know where he was living at the time, where he had been educated, and that he would be reasonably accurate regarding the genealogy of his family. Yet in these respects the Journal of John Cotten is seriously in conflict with known facts. In the first paragraph of the Journal, dated June 10, 1771, the writer stated that he and his family "departed from our beloved home-Barfield, on the Chowan River-at [sic] by the clock this morn..." A few paragraphs further he said he was "born 15 Feby. 1745 at Barfield..County of Hartford [Hertford], North Carolina," that his father was "Col. William Cotten," and that "After tutoring at home, I was placed in Master Earl's school at Edentown [Edenton] Church at the age of twelve. When sixteen, Father and I sailed to England at which time I was put up at Cambridge, the seat of Cotten learning for many generations." Also included in the early part of the Journal are statements about the Cotten genealogy, including his marriage to Mary Lodema Felson, "daughter of Solomon Felson, Esquire, of Edentown."
" In letters to Mr. Looney and myself, dated Feb. 22, March 27, and April 24, 1966, Professor Thomas C. Parramore of Meredith College, Raleigh, N.C., a native of Hertford County and a specialist in the history of the region, noted several discrepancies between the above statements in the Journal and known facts. In the first place, the plantation at Barfield was in 1771 in the "possession and occupation by the family of Benjamin Wynns [and] had been since perhaps the 1750's and would be until 1825." This can be proved by county deeds, now available in abstracted form, and by various entries in the North Carolina Colonial and State Records; therefore, it is practically certain that the Cottens never lived there. Also, "Parson Earl's school was not at Edenton but at Bandon plantation...15 miles north of Edenton"; and although the "Cambridge alumni director lists a John Cotton as matriculating in 1767 [six years after the Journal date]," it "makes it evident that he was a home-grown Englishman" and not a colonial. Finally, Dr. Parramore found the Cotten genealogy as given in the Journal, although partially correct, to be in serious conflict with information available in extant wills, and that it contains many obviously "invented names." Even the names of his own father, of his wife, and his wife's father do not appear in the records. Therefore, Dr. Parramore came to the conclusion that from "these and other curiosities I do not hesitate to state it as my opinion that the diary is a fabrication/" Among the "other curiosities" are references to a ferry at Barfield which did not come into existence until the nineteenth century and the use in the diary of many phrases of dubious eighteenth century usage."

Page 94 "The part of the Cotten Journal covering the period before 1779 is obviously a complete fabrication written at a later date and based on such accounts as were available at the time, such as Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee. Editor's Note: - The Quarterly is indebted to Dr. Folmsbee and his colleagues for this detailed analysis of the Cotten Journal. Any further judgment would involve examination and study of the entire document, and we hope that it will eventually become available for that purpose.
Dr. Matlock is aware of the objections raised herein. His position, briefly, is that the Journal has been in continuous family possession since its writing; that he is unable to either verify or deny any statement made therein; that his pastoral and civic duties preclude his entering into any controversy regarding it; that he has, in good faith, submitted portions of the Journal for publication as voluntary contributions to the history of Tennessee; and that, in view of these objections by Dr. Folmsbee and others, he does not intend to publicize the Journal further; and he asks that professional historians ignore his writings on the Cotten Journal. R.M.M."