Representative James La Fayette Cottrell

James La Fayette Cottrell (August 25, 1808 – September 7, 1885) was a nineteenth-century American lawyer, state legislator, and U.S. Representative from Alabama. He was born near King William, King William County, Virginia, on August 25, 1808. Little is recorded about his family background, but he completed preparatory studies in his youth, laying the foundation for a professional career in the law at a time when formal legal education was often pursued through apprenticeship and independent study.

After his early schooling, Cottrell studied law and prepared for admission to the bar. He was admitted to the bar in 1830 and soon thereafter moved south, joining the many Virginians who migrated to the developing states of the Deep South in the early nineteenth century. He commenced the practice of law in Hayneville, Alabama, the seat of Lowndes County, where he established himself as a practicing attorney and entered public life in a period marked by rapid territorial expansion and intense political debate over states’ rights and economic policy.

Cottrell’s political career began in Alabama’s state legislature. He was elected a member of the Alabama House of Representatives in 1834, and, reflecting growing local confidence in his leadership, he was returned to that body in 1836 and 1837. He subsequently advanced to the Alabama State Senate, in which he served from 1838 to 1841. During his tenure in the upper chamber, he was chosen president of the State Senate in 1840, a position that placed him at the center of legislative deliberations and underscored his prominence within the state’s Democratic leadership.

Building on his state legislative experience, Cottrell entered national politics in the mid-1840s. A Democrat, he was elected to the Twenty-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy in the U.S. House of Representatives caused by the resignation of Representative William L. Yancey of Alabama. Cottrell took his seat on December 7, 1846, and served until March 3, 1847. His brief term in Congress coincided with the period of the Mexican–American War and ongoing sectional disputes, although there is limited surviving detail about his specific committee assignments or legislative initiatives during this service.

After his service in Congress and continued legal and political activity in Alabama, Cottrell relocated to Florida in 1854, joining another wave of southern migration into that state as it developed economically and politically following its admission to the Union in 1845. He settled in the region of Florida’s Gulf Coast, where he resumed his legal and public career and became involved in state politics during the tumultuous years surrounding the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Cottrell’s most enduring public role in Florida came in the state legislature. He served in the Florida Senate from 1865 to 1885, a span of roughly two decades that covered the immediate post–Civil War Reconstruction era and the subsequent period of Democratic “Redeemer” control in the state. His long tenure in the Senate suggests that he was a significant figure in shaping Florida’s legislative response to the political, economic, and social transformations of the late nineteenth century, though detailed records of his specific legislative actions are sparse.

In addition to his legislative service, Cottrell held a federal administrative post in his later years. He was appointed collector of customs at Cedar Keys, Florida, an important Gulf Coast port and transportation hub of the era. He served in that capacity until his death, overseeing customs operations at a time when maritime trade remained vital to the regional economy. James La Fayette Cottrell died in Cedar Keys, Florida, on September 7, 1885, while still in office as collector of customs and as a member of the Florida Senate. He was interred in Old Town Cemetery in Old Town, Florida, closing a public career that had spanned more than half a century in two southern states.