Frederick R. Cotten was born in Tarboro (Edgecombe County), North Carolina in 1819. Cotten was a planter who relocated to Leon County, Florida around 1847 where he established Burgesstown Plantation, an 8,000 acre plantation that ran entirely upon the forced labor of close to three hundred enslaved people. He outlived his elder brother, John Whitaker Cotten, and was appointed executor of his estate. He died in Tallahassee (Leon County), Florida on July 7, 1878.