Ursula Pricilla Cottel née Precott, 1830-1872   

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 1830, Baring, Washington County, Maine

Death:17 March 1872, Jefferson County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None

American Revolutionary War Patriots*:Unknown

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.

Ursula Cottel née Prescott was born in Baring, Maine in 1830 to David Prescott and (possibly) Sarah Sally Gardner. Further research needs to be done to confirm who exactly her mother was.

Ursula married Hampton C. Cottel on the 2nd of November 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts. This was Usula’s first marriage, and Hampton’s second. Hampton had a five year old daughter Alice from his first marriage, and she came to live in his household when he married Ursula. 

Ursula and Hampton had three children of their own: Charles (1859,born in Maine), and Angelina (1865, born in Seabeck) and Lillian Edith (1870 born in Washington, possibly in Port Townsend). The family lived in Seabeck in 1865, but they were listed in the 1870 census as living in Port Townsend. Hampton was listed as working as a farmer. In the 1871 territorial census, the family was living in Duckabush. 

On the 17th of March 1872, Ursula passed away at the age of 42. The cause of her death is unknown. She was buried in Seabeck Cemetery with a very ornate headstone. 

Notes about the headstone: Today (2023), Ursula’s headstone is badly damaged with only a fragment of her death date still showing along with a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe inscribed: Dearest Mother thou hast left us:  Here thy loss we deeply feel: But ‘tis God who has bereft us: He can all our sorrows heal. Her headstone also has the marble dealer stamp from Toledo, Washington.

Ursula’s husband Hampton died on 10 October 1884 and is buried in Toledo, Washington. His still complete headstone has the same poem inscribed at the bottom (exchange Mother for Father) and it was created by the same marble dealer.