Letter 3980

Cotton tells Sloane of the danger French forces pose to Jamaica. The island’s ministers were planning on using troops to guard plantations should the French fleet attack. Cotton thanks Sloane for all he has done and asks to be informed of anything noteworthy. Sir Robert Cotton, 5th Baronet (1669-1749) was a Jacobite and involved in the 1715 rebellion. He lived in exile in France before returning to England (Stuart Handley, ‘Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, first baronet (1571–1631)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6425, accessed 23 July 2014]; Sir Robert Cotton, fifth baronet (1669–1749): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6424).