COTES, Charles (?1703-48), of Lichfield, Staffs.

Cotes’s father, M.P. Lichfield 1708-15, married the daughter of the 1st Earl Ferrers. It was to the Ferrers interest that Cotes owed his return for Tamworth in succession to George Compton in 1735. In his first Parliament he voted against the Government on the Spanish convention in 1739 and the place bill in 1740. He is reported as speaking for the universities on the mortmain bill, 5 Apr. 1736, also speaking on the gin bill, 6 Apr.HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 255, 257. Defeated in 1741, he was awarded the seat on petition, was summoned to the Cockpit meeting in October 1742 through Fox, and voted with the Government in all recorded divisions till 1746, when he was classed as Old Whig. In 1745 he introduced a bill, which passed into law, making surgeons and apothecaries two separate corporations.CJ, xxiv. 798. He did not stand in 1747, dying 21 Mar. 1748.