Tolman Cotton, Farmer Cotton to his neighbours, kept a farm near Bywater with his wife Lily and their children Rosie, Young Tom, Jolly, Nick and Nibs. He was a sturdy, sensible hobbit.1,2
When Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin rode back into the Shire at the end of October 1419, they found it under the rule of Lotho and Saruman's ruffians. Merry blew the Horn of Rohan to rouse Bywater, and Farmer Cotton was among the first to answer, gathering the hobbits of the village behind the four travellers.1
His farmhouse became their headquarters for the night. Over supper he told them what had happened while they were away: how Lotho, whom the hobbits called Pimple, had bought up farms and mills and sent away leaf and food, how the ruffians had come in his service, and how anyone who spoke against them was taken off to the Lockholes.1
Next morning the ruffians marched on Bywater and met the hobbits in the lane, and Farmer Cotton fought in the Battle of Bywater, the last battle of the War of the Ring and the first fought in the Shire since the Battle of Greenfields in 1147. Not long after, his daughter Rose married Sam.1,3
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
- Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
- Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 8, “The Scouring of the Shire”
- Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix C, “Family Trees”
- Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 9, “The Grey Havens”