Samuel Elsworth Cottam (7 August 1863 – 30 March 1943) was an English
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
.
Biography
Cottam was born in Upper
Broughton,
Salford, in 1863. He graduated from
Exeter College, Oxford, in 1885,
where he was a friend of
Edwin Emmanuel Bradford
Edwin Emmanuel Bradford (21 August 1860 – 7 February 1944) was an English clergyman and a Uranian poet and writer of stories, articles and sermons. His prolific verse celebrating the high spiritual status of love between men and boys was remar ...
. He was a lifelong
Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches.
The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...
, unlike Bradford who later became a
Modernist. Cottam and Bradford were co-Chaplains of St George's Anglican Church in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France. He was later incumbent at
Wootton, Vale of White Horse
Wootton is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse about north-west of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The parish of Wootton includes the hamlets of Whitecross ...
, where
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
and
W. H. Auden went to see him celebrate sung mass.
Will
In his will Cottam left trust funds for "the purchase of objects of beauty for the furtherance of religion in ancient
gothic church
Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It e ...
es." This trust is now administered by the
Friends of Friendless Churches and has been used to benefit many dozens of churches in England and Wales, by the addition of furnishings, stained glass and bells.
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also
*
Uranian poetry
The Uranians were a 19th-century clandestine group of up to several dozen male homosexual poets and prose writers who principally wrote on the subject of the love of (or by) adolescent boys. In a strict definition they were an English literary a ...
References
*
eath date, 30 March 1943.*
1863 births
1943 deaths
20th-century English male writers
20th-century English Anglican priests
20th-century English poets
Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford
Anglican chaplains
Anglican poets
Anglo-Catholic clergy
Church of England priests
English Anglo-Catholics
English chaplains
English male non-fiction writers
English male poets
British gay writers
LGBT Anglican clergy
English LGBT poets
writers from Oxford
People from Salford
{{LGBT-bio-stub