Charles Herbert Cottrell (27 November 1806 – 9 November 1860) was an Englishman who travelled to Siberia in 1840-41, produced an account of the experience, and translated plays and non-fiction works from German to English. At home, he qualified as a barrister and was a magistrate of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

and Wiltshire.

Early life and family

Cottrell was born in Monken Hadley on 27 November 1806 to the Reverend Clement Cottrell and Georgiana Cottrell. Cass, Frederick Charles. (1880
''Monken Hadley''.
London: J.B. Nichols. p. 113. He received his advanced education at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, from where he received his M.A. According to John Burke, the Cottrell family had its origins in the French Albigenses. Burke wrote that "Cotterel the Norman" was given land in Derby by King Henry III in 1235. An 1852 gazetteer reported that Charles Herbert Cottrell was descended from Sir

Charles Lodowick Cotterell Sir Charles Lodowick Cotterell (10 August 1654 – 9 July 1710), was an English courtier. Biography Cotterell, the eldest son of Sir Charles Cotterell, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of LL.D.; was incorporated ...

, who was master of ceremonies at the end of the seventeenth century, and on the maternal side from

Chaloner Chute Chaloner Chute I (died 14 April 1659) of The Vyne, Sherborne St John, Hampshire, was an English lawyer, Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Commons during the Commonwealth. Origins Chute was the son of Charles Chute of the Middle ...

of Hampshire who was speaker of Cromwell's parliament.

Career

Cottrell qualified as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and was also a magistrate in Hertfordshire and Wiltshire. He wrote an account of his travels in Siberia in 1840-41 which was published in London in 1842. He was fluent in German and Italian and translated a play by

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

into English as well as a work by the Prussian Egyptologist,

Karl Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius ( la, Carolus Richardius Lepsius) (23 December 181010 July 1884) was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist, linguist and modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his magnum opus ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien'' ...

and

Baron von Bunsen Christian Charles or Karl Josias von Bunsen (25 August 1791 – 28 November 1860), also known as , was a German diplomat and scholar. Life Early life Bunsen was born at Korbach, an old town in the German principality of Waldeck. His fat ...

's ''Ägyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte'' (''Egypt's Place in Universal History'').

Monken Hadley

Charles Herbert Cottrell succeeded to the Cottrell estate on the death of his uncle, Charles Cottrell of Hadley, in 1829. He probably acquired Hadley Lodge (destroyed by fire 1981) in Monken Hadley at the same time. He is recorded as living there in 1852 and was probably living there at the time of his death. In 1860, Cottrell was named as the chairman of the local board of The Society of Arts for Barnet.

Death and legacy

Cottrell died on 9 November 1860.Cass, p. 111
/ref> His account of his travels in Siberia was republished in the British Library's Historical Print Editions series in 2011.

Selected publications

As author

*
Recollections of Siberia, in the Years 1840 and 1841
'. John W. Parker, London, 1842. *''Religious movements of Germany in the nineteenth century''. John Petheram, London, 1849.

As translator

*Schiller, Friedrich. (1843) ''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain; A dramatic poem, in five acts; translated from the German of Schiller''. Barnet: J.J. Cowing. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longman. *Lepsius, R. (1846) ''A Tour from Thebes to the Peninsula of Sinai, &c.''. London. (Translator into English) * Bunsen, Christian Karl Josias. (1848) ''Egypt's Place in Universal History: An historical investigation in five books''. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. (Translator into English)

References and notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cottrell, Charles Herbert 1860 deaths 1806 births Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Year of death uncertain People from Monken Hadley Cotterell family 19th-century British translators English barristers English justices of the peace British travel writers German–English translators History of Siberia 19th-century English lawyers