Who is Rose Cotton? Who is Lotho Sackville-Baggins?

[Boromir88]

I had been thinking about how characters like Rose and Lotho pique my interest and probably because they actually confuse me. Last time reading the books, I just kept thinking who are they? They seem randomly name dropped in the story (as if Tolkien invented them on the spot) and there's no explanation of backstory to who they are. Why is Sam sweet on Rose and wants to see her again? Why does Sam want to punch Lotho in the face?

I went back to the early chapters to see if there's any mention of it, and there's nothing. I mean Ted Sandyman makes sense to me. There's interactions with him in a pub, and he comes off as a very dislikable, trolling hobbit. So, it's no surprise when he gets mentioned again (I believe when Sam looks into the mirror of Galadriel) as Ted being up to some rotten mischief. But there's nothing prior on Lotho or Rose.

Well, there is a mention of Lotho, but that's more of just being Lobelia and Otho's son, and there is backstory on their feud with Bilbo. But it seems rather...intense just to accuse Lotho of all the evil-doing simply because of his parents.

'And something's wrong with the Southfarthing evidently,' said Merry. 'There's a shortage of pipe-weed.'
'Whatever it is,' said Pippin, "Lotho will be at the bottom of it: you can be sure of that." (Return of the King: Homeward Bound)

Pippin seems completely convinced whatever's going on in the Shire, it's that rascal Lotho's fault. It strikes me as odd that Lotho's misdeeds seem to be treated as a known thing by the hobbits, like he was a rotten scoundrel and "it is known." Later, Pippin even calls him "Lotho Pimple" and Sam expresses the desire to "punch him in his pimply face." That actually makes it sound like they dislike him because he's physically unappealing and different (like Grima being a pale, black-haired creeper in a blonde-haired sporty/war Rohan culture).

After lunch, the Sackville-Bagginses, Lobelia and her sandy-haired son, Lotho, turned up, much to Frodo's annoyance. 'Ours at last!' said Lobelia, as she stepped inside. It was not polite; nor strictly true, for the sale of Bag End did not take effect until midnight. But Lobelia can perhaps be forgiven: she had been obliged to wait about seventy-seven years longer for Bag End than she once hoped, and she was now a hundred years old. Anyway, she had come to see that nothing she had paid for had been carried off; and she wanted the keys. It took a long while to satisfy her, as she had brought a complete inventory with her and went right through it. In the end she departed with Lotho and the spare key and the promise that the other key would be left at the Gamgees' in Bagshot Row. She snorted, and showed plainly that she thought the Gamgees capable of plundering the hole during the night. (Fellowship of the Ring: Three is Company)

Lobelia's snooty unpleasantness is made evident in the early chapters, but I wouldn't say there's anything evident about Lotho, unless we just assume it's a guilt by association...Lobelia's his mother, he probably shares her same opinions?

Anyway, I doubt there is a definitive "lore" answer to be found here, unless I've missed it elsewhere? But even if there isn't, I'm kind of interested to speculate, and hear others speculation about who is Lotho? Who is Rose? What could Lotho have done previously to make our hobbit heroes utterly convinced he was the villain at fault while they've been away? What interactions did Sam have previously to be sweet on Rose Cotton? And maybe for our writers here, it will serve as inspiration in their fanfiction.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Boromir: Characters like Lobelia, Lotho, and Rose's family are true background persons and not tied to the main tale events, but a particular time and place. Hence you will find not much info on them and they remain like 2D characters instead of 3D. Who are they is up to your fantasy, if they peek your interest. They colour the tale, just as the houses and the trees around. Lobelia's greed is evident, she had to wait for a very long time. Bag End is her hot potato, if we can believe Bilbo's and Frodo's observations about her character. Lotho serves as her shadow. What he observes, we don't get to know.

For Rose we hear very little, because we have barely access to Sam as viewing character, only basically in Shelob's Lair if my memory serves me correct without the books. Who of all those fine lords in the Fellowship is interested in the lovelife of Frodo's gardener? Mithrandir the only one perhaps? I believe in her shape Rose is a very fine character to enjoy if she had a tale of her own.

I use that of another loose tie, the actual last elvenprince... in 70.Cirdan's home in Mithlond:

The Periannath wouldn’t allow them to told twice. Alagos and I followed the odd entourage toward Círdan’s house in the middle of Mithlond. Still elves lived here and the local market was alive with women gathering what they needed, or liked to have. Alagos and I were a long way from home. The rooms were spacious and pleasant with the sound of the sea close by. I remembered Galadriel’s words, but neither they awakened a longing for a strange land across the sea. We accepted the vigouring strength of miruvor under a toast to a safe journey for those who just left.

“We haven’t seen, but heard of a campaign in strange lands,” spoke Meriadoc curiously to me.
“Yes, I took Gimli with me into the southeast of Middle Earth, and raised a large army of elves and dwarves unlike there has ever been in history. We saw Cuivienen and discovered other elven realms. Gimli met with other peoples of his kind in the Orocarni, and we came into Hildorien. We killed an emperor there,” I told a bit of what we had come through.
Círdan looked with a slight frown at me.
“Great risks you took on taking on this emperor,” he said. “But not surprising for members of the Fellowship. Great and small deeds come in many forms.”
I looked aside at Alagos. He hadn’t been with me on the campaign to Palisor. It had been a dangerous journey, but I would go again if need for it. The little cakes on the table were slowly consumed by the three Periannath, very fond of food as they were. Sweets stood also on the table and a fresh bowl of water. I kept it with the water after the miruvor, but ate nothing further. Alagos grinned at something.
“We live now in quite nice times. I have a wife and daughter, the latter almost grown up. And the kingdom of Lasgalen has now a new future lord and lady. So the future is secured,” told Alagos merrily.
I could almost strangle him when he said that. And the next reaction proved that all the more.
“New lord and lady?” asked Círdan, raising his eyebrows. “I hear many matters in the east, but a little from the northeast. You mean about East-Lorien? That is the realm of Celeborn now. South-Mirkwood.”
“No, the realm of King Thranduil, where Bilbo at the time knew how to free his dwarven friends,” said Meriadoc. “Bilbo told the tale many times.”
“Him... I met him on an important meeting in Imladris, when the White Council was called together. The King brought his son secretly and had dispatched him for a skirmish in Angmar. Elrond found that out, when the son returned,” said Círdan at a tone, the memories weren’t that pleasant to recall. “We shall miss Mithrandir, for his advises and kindness.”
That meeting of the White Council in Imladris had happened before the three Periannath were born. I had been there marginally, but not involved with the discussions that took place. Lord Sauron’s growing influence was even a concern then.
“And his magnificent fireworks,” spoke Samwise for the first time. “At Bilbo’s onehundred and eleven birthday, there was this great dragon that flew over everyone, flattening all on the ground. Merry and Pippin were playing with the fireworks.”
The two named Periannath coughed at the same time. I could imagine what had happened and wasn’t much surprised, recalling the frequent jokes after we had left Imladris on the road to the gap of Rohan, between the Ered Nimrais and the Hithaeglir.
“The fireworks from that dragon was spectacular,” grinned Peregrin.
“So I have heard,” said Círdan. “But Alagos, new lord and lady in king Thranduil’s Lasgalen?”
My friend nodded.
“Some time ago Merelin and I exchanged our promises to each other in the honour of Elbereth,” I said finally.
Círdan wasn’t much surprised as he understood exactly what I said. The Periannath had yet to figure out what I meant.
“So what Iarwain said was true then,” spoke Círdan. “The last elvenprince of Middle Earth is married.”
“Elvenprince?” asked Meriadoc. “I thought all princes were dead.”
“Your companion from the Fellowship Legolas is the prince in question. His father is King Thranduil of Lasgalen. A kingdom close to Dale and Erebor,” said Círdan, putting all the puzzle pieces together for the Periannath.
“We never knew that Legolas was a prince,” spoke Peregrin. “He shot once a Nazgul from the air, and could walk over snow, while we were covered in it. I assumed him always just an elf, from somewhere in the east. Never have spoken much to him. While we stayed together, Merry, Sam, I with Aragorn, Gandalf and Boromir in Lothlorien, Legolas was off with the elves there. He took often Gimli with him. The whole month we stayed there, we saw him seldom, only at meetings we had together and then not even always.”

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Quotes on Sam:

Sam sat silent and said no more. He had a good deal to think about. For one thing, there was a lot to do up in the Bag End garden, and he would have a busy day tomorrow, if the weather cleared. The grass was growing fast. But Sam had more on his mind than gardening. After a while he sighed, and got up and went out. - In the Dragon Inn, FOTR

Possibly that the reference of more on his mind, that it is Rose Cotton?

Altogether 1420 in the Shire was a marvellous year. Not only was there wonderful sunshine and delicious rain, in due times and perfect measure, but there seemed something more: an air of richness and growth, and a gleam of a beauty beyond that of mortal summers that flicker and pass upon this Middle-earth. All the children born or begotten in that year, and there were many, were fair to see and strong, and most of them had a rich golden hair that had before been rare among hobbits. The fruit was so plentiful that young hobbits very nearly bathed in strawberries and cream; and later they sat on the lawns under the plum-trees and ate, until they had made piles of stones like small pyramids or the heaped skulls of a conqueror, and then they moved on. And no one was ill, and everyone was pleased. except those who had to mow the grass.
In the Southfarthing the vines were laden, and the yield of 'leaf' was astonishing; and everywhere there was so much corn that at Harvest every barn was stuffed. 'The Northfarthing barley was so fine that the beer of 1420 malt was long remembered and became a byword. Indeed a generation later one might hear an old gaffer in an inn, after a good pint of well-earned ale, put down his mug with a sigh: 'Ah! that was proper fourteen-twenty, that was!'
Sam stayed at first at the Cottons' with Frodo; but when the New Row was ready he went with the Gaffer. In addition to all his other labours he was busy directing the cleaning up and restoring of Bag End; but he was often away in the Shire on his forestry work. So he was not at home in early March and did not know that Frodo had been ill. On the thirteenth of that month Farmer Cotton found Frodo lying on his bed; he was clutching a white gem that hung on a chain about his neck and he seemed half in a dream.
'It is gone for ever,' he said, 'and now all is dark and empty.'
But the fit passed, and when Sam got back on the twenty-fifth, Frodo had recovered, and he said nothing about himself. In the meanwhile Bag End had been set in order, and Merry and Pippin came over from Crickhollow bringing back all the old furniture and gear, so that the old hole soon looked very much as it always had done.
When all was at last ready Frodo said: 'When are you going to move in and join me, Sam?'
Sam looked a bit awkward.
'There is no need to come yet, if you don't want to,' said Frodo. 'But you know the Gaffer is close at hand, and he will be very well looked after by Widow Rumble.'
It's not that, Mr. Frodo, said Sam, and he went very red.
'Well, what is it?'
'It's Rosie, Rose Cotton,' said Sam. 'It seems she didn't like my going abroad at all, poor lass; but as I hadn't spoken, she couldn't say so. And I didn't speak, because I had a job to do first. But now I have spoken, and she says: "Well, you've wasted a year, so why wait longer?" "Wasted?" I says. "I wouldn't call it that." Still I see what she means. I feel torn in two, as you might say.'
'I see,' said Frodo: 'you want to get married, and yet you want to live with me in Bag End too? But my dear Sam, how easy! Get married as soon as you can, and then move in with Rosie. There's room enough in Bag End for as big a family as you could wish for.'
And so it was settled. Sam Gamgee married Rose Cotton in the Spring of 1420 (which was also famous for its weddings), and they came and lived at Bag End. - Grey Havens, ROTK

Time went on, and 1421 came in. Frodo was ill again in March, but with a great effort he concealed it, for Sam had other things to think about. The first of Sam and Rosie's children was born on the twenty-fifth of March, a date that Sam noted.
'Well, Mr. Frodo,' he said. 'I'm in a bit of a fix. Rose and me had settled to call him Frodo, with your leave; but it's not _him_, it's _her_. Though as pretty a maidchild as any one could hope for, taking after Rose more than me, luckily. So we don't know what to do.'
'Well, Sam,' said Frodo, 'what's wrong with the old customs? Choose a flower name like Rose. Half the maidchildren in the Shire are called by such names, and what could be better?' - Grey Havens, ROTK

[Eldy Dunami]

Regarding Lotho, I think simply being his parents' son, and likely sharing their attitudes, can explain the main characters' dislike for him. Besides the Sackville-Bagginses simply being unpleasant people on a personal level, Pippin's comment in particular can perhaps be explained in part by the differences between his family's standing in Shire society and the standing of Lotho's. The Tooks were, of course, holders of the hereditary office of Thain, the closest thing to a ruler the Shire had after the fall of Arthedain. On the other hand, Tolkien implied in Letter 214 that the Sackvilles, although one of the Shire's "great families," were nonetheless a "famil[y] of more recent origin, without ancestral records or ancestral mansions." Otho inherited the headship of the Sackvilles through his mother (a custom associated with younger families) but held the "rather absurd ambition to achieve the rare distinction of being 'head' of two families" after Bilbo's death without children. I, perhaps cynically, find it easy to imagine Pippin looking down on the Sackville-Bagginses as nouveau riche aspiring social climbers, and therefore finding it easy to believe that Lotho, upon coming into even greater wealth, would upend the Shire's traditions and displace the Thain—Pippin's father—as leader of the Shire. Of course, Pippin was also a personal friend of both Bilbo, a half-Took whose death the Sackville-Bagginses had eagerly awaited for decades, and Frodo, who the S-Bs resented for existing and being adopted by Bilbo as his heir. It's likely that youthful interactions between Lotho and Bilbo's coterie of "younger cousins" who were his friends and mentees (LOTR, I 1) were poisoned by this rivalry, which Lotho had fully inherited by the time of the main story of LOTR, following the death of his father.