Josiah Cotton was born at Sandwich, Barnstable County, Massachusetts in June 1700, the son of Rowland Cotton and Elizabeth Saltonstall. Josiah was the great grandson the famous Puritan Minister, John Cotton. Josiah graduated from Harvard College in 1722 and was ordained at the First Congregationalist Church at Providence Rhode Island on October 23, 1728, the first minister selected for the church, which was built in 1723. Josiah continued his ministry in Rhode Island through 1747. On April 16, 1734, he married Susannah Salter. Josiah and Susannah had five children including Maria Cotton (born about 1736), Susannah Cotton (born September 15, 1738, in Providence, RI), Elizabeth Cotton (born November 15, 1742, in Providence, RI), Marial/Murial Cotton (born about 1743), and Abagail Cotton (born about 1744).

Josiah accepted a position at the 3rd Church at Woburn, Massachusetts, serving the congregation there through 1756. Convinced by congregants to become the minister of a new church in Sanborn, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, Josiah and his family moved there on November 27, 179l and he served there until his death on May 27, 1780. He is buried at Central Cemetery, Sandown, although his grave there is unmarked and not precisely located.

In July 1776, Josiah Cotton signed the New Hampshire Association Test, effectively an oath of allegiance to the United Colonies. In signing it, Josiah promised “We, the subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage, and promise that we will, to the utmost of our power, at the risqué of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United American Colonies.”

Josiah Cotton was the first minister to use the “Goblet Pulpit” at the Sanborn Meeting House, considered by historians to be one of the finest examples of a Colonial Meeting House in the country.