{{short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=December 2015}} thumb|right '''Robert Cottrell''' (15 September 1815 – 3 November 1880) was a coachbuilder and politician in the colony of South Australia. His first sojourn in Australia was in Maitland, New South Wales and his last near Maitland, South Australia.
==History== Cottrell emigrated to New South Wales, arriving in Sydney on the ship ''Orient'' in February 1839.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12856921 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Sydney Herald |date=10 April 1839 |access-date=4 June 2015 |page=3 |via=Trove}}</ref> He ran a coachbuilding business in Maitland, New South Wales from 1843 to 1845.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article660593 |title=Classified Advertising |newspaper=The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser |date=3 June 1843 |access-date=4 June 2015 |page=3 |via=Trove}}</ref> Cottrell married Abina Ledsam; their two elder sons were born in Maitland, where various members of the Ledsam family had settled from the early 1830s including poundkeeper John Ledsam and auctioneer Jeremiah Ledsam, with whom he was closely associated. <!--Ledsams of Maitland: Thomas Ledsam (1782–1854), John (1785–1856), Jeremiah (1805–1888) married Eliza ( –1878), Abina (1813–1890), John ( – ) married Martha (1815–1849) then Margaret Cusack-->
Cottrell, his wife and four children moved to Adelaide by the brig ''Phantom'', accompanied by brother-in-law John Ledsam (1785–1856), in June 1847.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article690054 |title=Sydney News |newspaper=The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser |date=19 May 1847 |access-date=5 June 2019 |page=3 |via=Trove}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48544422 |title=Shipping Intelligence |newspaper=South Australian Register |date=5 June 1847 |access-date=5 June 2019 |page=1 |via=Trove}}</ref> In 1848 he opened a coachbuilding business in Rundle Street, which prospered, enabling him to move several times, finally to Grenfell Street.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43152985 |title=Obituary |newspaper=South Australian Register |date=13 November 1880 |access-date=4 June 2015 |page=2 |via=Trove}}</ref>
He was member for East Adelaide in the South Australian House of Assembly April 1868 – February 1875, and was a protectionist.<ref>{{cite news |author=A. T. Saunders |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53612565 |title=The Imperial Hotel. |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |volume=XCIII |issue=27,244 |location=South Australia |date=8 December 1928 |accessdate=26 January 2026 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In 1875, he stood again for East Adelaide, but was defeated by William Kay.<ref name="SA parl">{{Cite SA-parl |pid=3721 |name=Robert Cottrell |former=yes |access-date=14 November 2022}}</ref>
He purchased a farm "Brook Cottage", Woodforde, near Magill around 1865, where they lived, and later moved to a much larger property at Urania, some {{convert|9|mi|km|0}} from Maitland, South Australia.
He had been an invalid for some time, and died of bronchitis.
===G. T. Cottrell=== {{redirect|G. T. Cottrell|the English rugby union and rugby league footballer|George Cottrell (rugby)}} His eldest son '''George Thomas Cottrell''' joined the second ("relief") party of B. T. Finniss's surveying expedition to Adam Bay in the Northern Territory as a labourer,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39119024 |title=Departure of the Northern Territory Expedition |newspaper=South Australian Register |date=31 October 1864 |access-date=4 June 2019 |page=3 |via=Trove}} It was not unusual for young men of well-to-do families to enlist in such expeditions, whether for the adventure, or to expand their opportunities or some other motive, perhaps sent by their parents to "toughen them up".</ref> leaving Port Adelaide on 29 October 1864. He brought with him six rabbits, a gift of land agent Samuel Pearce,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92261276 |title=Northern Territory Expedition |newspaper=South Australian Weekly Chronicle |date=5 November 1864 |access-date=5 June 2019 |page=3 |via=Trove}}</ref> later his father-in-law, but there is no record of their being released, and they certainly failed to "be fruitful and multiply". Although his contract would not expire until October 1865, he was one of those who on 6 May 1865 left Escape Cliffs on the ship ''Bengal'' for Surabaya, and with J. R. (T. R. ?) Atkinson travelled on to Singapore, while the rest transshipped via ''Douglas'' to Melbourne, and thence to Adelaide. :In the prosecution of W. P. Auld for having on 8 September 1864 shot dead a defenceless Aboriginal man, the Government's case relied on testimony from two witnesses, and had to be dropped after one witness (F. J. Packard) drowned, and the other left the country.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41026522 |title=The Parliament |newspaper=South Australian Register |date=21 December 1866 |access-date=4 June 2019 |page=3 |via=Trove}}</ref> It is possible the second witness was Atkinson, who appears never to have returned to Australia. He died of smallpox in India sometime around June 1868<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90950202 |title=News of the Week |newspaper=South Australian Chronicle And Weekly Mail |date=4 July 1868 |access-date=4 June 2019 |page=11 |via=Trove}}</ref> While in Singapore he found a shipmaster's wallet, and was able to return it to its owner, who treated him to a passage to Hong Kong. There he was introduced to the Governor, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell, who found an appointment for him with the Customs Department in Canton. Two years later he returned to Adelaide, married,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56520462 |title=Personal |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |date=10 September 1927 |access-date=4 June 2019 |page=8 |via=Trove}}</ref> and had a successful career as an accountant.
==Family== <!--Jeremiah Ledsam was in Maitland 1838; Thomas Cottrell from 1839--> Robert Cottrell married Abina Ledsam (c.1813 – 30 May 1890) around 1838. Among their children were: *George Thomas Cottrell (c. 1839 – 14 December 1917) was a student at Adelaide Educational Institution,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58867556 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Register |date=20 December 1917 |access-date=4 June 2015 |page=4 |via=Trove}}</ref> married Sarah Pearce (c. 1842 – 28 September 1930) on 21 August 1869 *Thomas Ledsam Cottrell (1841–), also an AEI student, married Martha Rebecca Galway on 1 January 1861. :*Abina Ledsam Cottrell (1863–1928) married David Halliday Irving *Robert Cottrell ( – ) married Jane Lowe on 25 December 1865 :*George Edwin Cottrell (1868– ) :*Isabella Roberta Cottrell (1870– ) married George Lionel Throssell in 1896 :*Fanny Ethel Cottrell (1873– ) *Frederick William Cottrell (1851– ) lived at Maitland, South Australia; had falling out with brother Robert.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43471744 |title=Advertising |newspaper=South Australian Register |date=16 January 1883 |access-date=4 June 2015 |page=2 |via=Trove}}</ref> He was subsequently admitted to the Lunatic Asylum<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35965879 |title=Police Court—Adelaide |newspaper=The South Australian Advertiser |date=18 August 1884 |access-date=4 June 2015 |page=7 |via=Trove}}</ref> declared bankrupt,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93964446 |title=Advertising |newspaper=South Australian Weekly Chronicle |date=19 February 1887 |access-date=4 June 2015 |page=23 |via=Trove}}</ref> and the sole executor of his mother's Will.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47274892 |title=Advertising |newspaper=South Australian Register |date=11 July 1890 |access-date=4 June 2015 |page=2 |via=Trove}}</ref> Both G. T. Cottrell and T. L. Cottrell were born in Maitland, New South Wales.
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cottrell, Robert}} Category:Coachbuilders of Australia Category:19th-century Australian farmers Category:Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Category:1815 births Category:1880 deaths Category:Politicians from the Colony of South Australia