Coton is a village in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. It lies near the road from Whitchurch to

Wem Wem may refer to: * HMS ''Wem'' (1919), a minesweeper of the Royal Navy during World War I *Weem, a village in Perthshire, Scotland * Wem, a small town in Shropshire, England * Wem (musician), hip hop musician WEM may stand for: * County Westmeath ...

, about one mile southeast of Hollinwood. Coton Hall, once home to

Viscount Hill Viscount Hill, of Hawkstone and of Hardwicke in the County of Salop, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1842 for General Rowland Hill. He had already been created Baron Hill, of Almaraz and of Hawkstone in the Co ...

, is an important English heritage site. In the early nineteenth century it belonged to Admiral George Bowen but it subsequently passed to the

Honyman baronets The Honyman Baronetcy, of Armadale in the County of Orkney, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 19 May 1804 for William Honyman, a Lord of Session under the judicial title ''Lord Armadale''. The second Baronet ...

after Admiral Bowen's youngest daughter, Elizabeth Essex Bowen, married the Scottish baronet Sir Ord John Honyman. Their sons,

Sir George Honyman, 4th Baronet Sir George Essex Honyman, 4th Baronet (22 January 1819–16 September 1875) was an English judge. Life Honyman was born at Strawberry Hill, Middlesex, 22 January 1819. His father, Sir Ord Honyman, 3rd Baronet, born 25 March 1794, became lieutena ...

(1819–75) and the Rev. Sir William Macdonald Honyman (d. 1911) lived there in succession but they both died without issue and from the Rev. Sir William the estate passed to his niece, Elizabeth Hester Georgina Marie Ord Bearcroft, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Bearcroft (born Thomas Longcroft) of

Fitz Fitz (pronounced "fits") was a patronymic indicator used in Anglo-Norman England to help distinguish individuals by identifying their immediate predecessors. Meaning "son of", it would precede the father's forename, or less commonly a title held b ...

and his wife, Mary Hester Lilly Rosalie Honyman, sister of Sir George and the Rev. Sir William. As a desirable young heiress, Elizabeth Bearcroft married Captain Robert Charles Dighton Wilson in 1891 and they adopted the additional surname of MacQueen in 1912 when Elizabeth inherited entailed estates in Scotland. The Wilson-MacQueens sold Coton Hall to the wealthy match manufacturer Sir Alexander Maguire, who was living there by 1920 but sold the estate to Viscount Hill in 1924. The house has since been sold out of the Hill family. The village has a Methodist Chapel, which contained in 2013 a war memorial marble plaque to congregation members who died serving in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. Since then the chapel has closed and in 2022 the managing trustees announced they would put the chapel for sale, its graveyard being closed to new unplanned burials but stipulating the graves and gravestones would not be removed.Report by Dominic Robertson.

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Villages in Shropshire {{Shropshire-geo-stub

See also

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