The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

COTTRELL, Roswell Fenner (1814-1892) and Catherine M. (1818-1899)

A writer, poet, and minister, Roswell Cottrell was born into a Seventh Day Baptist home, his father being a Seventh Day Baptist preacher. At age 19 Roswell moved with his family to western New York, where he remained most of his life. About 1835 he married Catherine M. Harvey at Mill Grove, New York, and for 10 years taught in public schools in the area. Cottrell was rather ambivalent to the Second Advent preaching of the Millerites. Although personally sympathetic to much of their teaching, he could not join a movement that showed very little interest in even investigating the claims of Sabbatarians. Cottrell's dilemma was resolved when he subsequently came into contact with the Sabbatarian Adventist movement. “After some nine months [of] careful and cautious examination,” he “arrived at the decision” and joined the new movement in 1851, together with his family. 1EGWLM 814.1

Roswell Cottrell was ordained as a minister in 1854, preaching in western New York and in Pennsylvania, and pioneering in Canada West. He also served briefly as president of the New York Conference (1868-1869). But it was as a writer of articles and tracts that he made his mark. “As a speaker,” notes his obituarist, “his ability was fair. As a writer, it was … superlative.” According to one estimate, Cottrell contributed 1,692 items to the Review, ranging from theological analysis to exhortation to poetry. In 1864 the New York and northern Pennsylvania Conference voted, in view of “the labors of Bro. R. F. Cottrell in writing for the Review,” to pay his salary “the same as though he were engaged in preaching.” Of his theological contributions he is remembered most for his involvement in the debate over church organization in the early 1860s. However, the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia cites Cottrell as an important contributor to Seventh-day Adventist theological development in a wide number of areas (see, e.g., articles entitled “Covenant,” “Death,” “Humanity, Doctrine of,” “Probation,” “Religious Liberty,” “Sin”). Some of his poetry was set to music and has appeared in a range of Adventist hymnals up to the present. 1EGWLM 814.2

Roswell and Catherine Cottrell were strong supporters of the visions of Ellen White. In 1855 their names headed a list of 13 Mill Grove members who maintained that “if the visions are not of God, they will surely come to nought. … But we have not been able to discover anything in them which conflicts with … the law and the testimony.” In 1858 Roswell Cottrell wrote an introduction to volume 1 of Ellen White's Spiritual Gifts, which has remained a classic Seventh-day Adventist statement on the biblical bases for testing prophetic claims and on the continuation of the gift of prophecy beyond New Testament times. 1EGWLM 814.3

See: Obituary: “R. F. Cottrell,” Review, Apr. 19, 1892, p. 253; obituary: “Cathrane [sic] M. Cottrell,” Review, Jan. 16, 1900, p. 46; West Ridgeway Cemetery, Town of Ridgeway, Orleans County, New York, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyorlean/wridgec2.htm (Aug. 21, 2009); Raymond F. Cottrell, “The Sabbath in the New World,” in Kenneth A. Strand, ed., The Sabbath in Scripture and History (Washington, D.C.; Review and Herald, 1982), p. 255; James R. Nix, Early Advent Singing, pp. 75, 155, 157; Roy Franklin Cottrell, “The Cottrell Family Genealogy and Sketches” (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Center for Adventist Research, Andrews University), pp. 11, 12; Roswell F. Cottrell, “From Bro. Cottrell,” Review, Nov. 25, 1851, p. 54; A. Lanphear, J. M. Aldrich, “Third Annual Report of the N.Y. and Northern Pa. Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists,” Review, Oct. 25, 1864, p. 174; R. F. Cottrell, C. M. Cottrell, et al., “Letter From the Church at Mill Grove, N.Y., to Elder J. M. Stephenson,” Review, Dec. 18, 1855, p. 93. 1EGWLM 814.4