COLLINGS, Sir William (2 son of John Collings of St. Peter port, Guernsey). b. St. Peter port 1781; jurat of royal court of Guernsey 1822; knighted at St. James’s palace 2 May 1838; colonel of Royal Guernsey militia to death. d. Guernsey 18 June 1854.
COLLINS, Charles Allston (younger son of Wm. Collins the painter 1788–1847). b. Hampstead 25 Jany. 1828; practised as a painter 1848–58; contributed to Household Words; art critic to the Echo; author of A new sentimental Journey 1859; The eye-witness, seeing is believing 1860; A cruise upon wheels 2 vols. 1862; The bar sinister 2 vols. 1864; Strathcairn 2 vols. 1864; At the bar, a tale 2 vols. 1866. d. Thurloe place, Brompton, London, about midnight 9–10 April 1873. Illustrated Review v, 423–8 (1873), portrait; Graphic vii, 312, 318 (1873), portrait.
COLLINS, Charles James. On the parliamentary staff of the Sun, Daily Telegraph and Standard; edited Comic News 1 May 1847; projected and edited the Racing Times 1861; author of Kenilworth and other burlesques; Life and adventures of Dick Diminy 1854; Sackville Chase 3 vols. 1863; Matilda the Dane, a romance of the affections 1863; The man in chains 3 vols. 1864; Singed Moths, a city romance 3 vols. 1864. d. 9 Manor terrace, Brixton, London 31 Dec. 1864.
COLLINS, Edward Francis. b. North of Ireland 1807; came to London 1832 and became private secretary to Joseph Hume, M.P.; sub-editor of the Sun; edited the Hull Advertiser 1842–66; sub-editor of The Tablet 1868; author of A form of reciting the most holy rosary, compiled for the nuns of the convent of our Lord of Mercy at Hull 1859, anon. d. Upper Clapton near London 3 Jany. 1872.
COLLINS, Frances (dau. of Wm. Dunn of London, engineer). b. 1840 or 1841; author with Mortimer Collins of the novels entitled Frances 3 vols. 1874, another ed. 1880, her name is not on the original ed.; Sweet and twenty 3 vols. 1875, another ed. 1877; The village comedy 3 vols. 1878; You play me false 3 vols. 1878; author of Mortimer Collins, his letters and friendships 2 vols. 1877; A broken lily 3 vols. 1882; author with her cousin F. Percy Cotton of Mudge and her chicks by a Brother and Sister [F.P.C. and F.C.] 1880; The Woodleighs of Amscote by F. Percy Cotton and F. Collins 1881; edited with Tom Taylor Pen sketches by a Vanished Hand, from papers of M. Collins 1879; edited with Edmund Yates Thoughts in my garden by M. Collins 2 vols. 1880. (m. 4 May 1868 Mortimer Collins 1827–76). d. Pine-tree hill, Camberley, Surrey 16 March 1886, cremated at Woking cemetery 20 March.
COLLINS, Henry Powell. M.P. for Taunton 8 Oct. 1812 to 29 Feb. 1820; sheriff of Somerset 1827. d. Weston-super-Mare 22 Aug. 1854 aged 78.
COLLINS, John (eld. son of John Collins, landlord of the Lucan Spa house near Dublin). b. Lucan, Sep. 1804; a cook in his father’s hotel; first appeared in London at Haymarket theatre 29 Aug. 1832 as Captain Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera, chief tenor singer there; original actor of Paul Clifford at Covent Garden 1835; first appeared Park theatre, New York 17 Aug. 1846, the best singer of Irish ballads and humorous songs in America; acted in United States 1846–64, at Adelphi theatre, London, Oct. 1864, in Australia 1866. d. Philadelphia 13 Aug. 1874. Actors by daylight ii, 153 (1839), portrait; Belgravia xvi, 443 (1872); Ireland’s New York Stage ii, 464–5 (1867).
COLLINS, Mortimer, whose full names were Edward James Mortimer Collins (only child of Francis Collings of Kingsbridge, Devon, who d. 1839). b. Plymouth 29 June 1827; reading boy at Gilbert and Rivingtons, St. John’s sq. London 5 May to 29 June 1838; assistant in a shop in Holborn 1838; usher in Rev. Richard Harris’s school at Westbury, Wilts. 1843–5; his first poem, signed E. J. M. C. printed in Bath and Cheltenham Gazette 10 April 1844; contributed to Felix Farley’s Journal at Bristol 1847–9, Paris correspondent 1848; private tutor at Windermere 1847–8; usher at Rev. J. H. Crump’s school, Lechlade, Gloucs. Jany. to June 1849; tutor at Rothwell, Northamptonshire 1849; editor of the Lancaster Gazette, May 1850; master of a school at Launceston for 3 months in 1851; head master of lower school, Elizabeth college, Guernsey 1852–5; contributed to Dublin Univ. Mag. 1851 and to Punch 1853; started the Channel Islands Mag. 1 May 1853, 3 numbers only; opened a private school in Guernsey 1855–6; edited the Leamington Mercury 1856–7; private tutor at Carlisle 1858; edited the Plymouth Mail 1859, Nottingham Guardian 1860–1; contributed to Temple Bar 1861–7; editor of and contributed to The Owl 1864–6; joint editor of The Globe 1866; author of Windermere a poem and Sonnets, Kendal 1848; Idyls and Rhymes 1855; Summer songs 1860; Who is the heir? 3 vols. 1865; A selection from the works of Sir Walter Scott in Moxon’s Miniature Poets 1866; Sweet Anne Page 3 vols. 1868; The Ivory gate 2 vols. 1869; Letter to the Eight Hon. B. Disraeli 1869 in verse, anon.; The Vivian romance 3 vols. 1870; The Inn of strange Meetings, and other Poems 1871; The secret of long life 1871 anon., 5 ed. 1879; Marquis and Merchant 3 vols. 1871; The British birds, a communication from the Ghost of Aristophanes 1872, 2 ed. 1878; The Princess Clarice 2 vols. 1871; Two plunges for a pearl 3 vols. 1872; Squire Sylvester’s Whim 3 vols. 1873; Miranda a Midsummer madness 3 vols. 1873; Mr. Carington, a tale of love and conspiracy by Robert Turner Cotton 3 vols. 1873, pseud.; Transmigration 3 vols. 1874; Blacksmith and Scholar, and from Midnight to Midnight 3 vols. 1876; A fight with fortune, 3 vols. 1876, another ed. 1880. (m. (1) 9 May 1850 at Wargrave, Berks., Susan dau. of William Hubbard, and widow of Rev. J. H. Crump, chaplain of the Mill Hill school, Middlesex, who d. 14 Feb. 1849 aged 46, she d. 5 Aug. 1867 aged 59. m. (2) 4 May 1868 at St. Martins in the Fields, London, Frances dau. of Wm. Dunn of London, engineer, she d. 16 March 1886 aged 45). d. Nightingale hall, Richmond 28 July 1876. bur. Petersham churchyard 1 Aug. Mortimer Collins his letters and friendships, edited by Frances Collins 2 vols. 1877; Dublin Univ. Mag. xc, 340–56, 474–98, 561–93 (1877); I.L.N. lxix, 205, 206 (1876), portrait.
COLLINS, Sam, stage name of Samuel Thomas Collins Vagg (son of Samuel Vagg who d. Uxbridge 13 Feb. 1868). Comic singer at Mogul music hall, Drury lane, London where he made a great hit with the song Paddy’s Wedding; proprietor of Marylebone music hall, London and Welsh harp, Hendon; became bankrupt on his own petition 2 July 1861; sang at all the chief music halls in London and the provinces; proprietor of Lansdowne music hall, Islington green, London, afterwards known as Collins’s music hall 1862 to death. d. 10 Paradise row, Islington 25 May 1865 aged 39. Illust. Sporting news iv, 217 (1865), portrait; Era 28 May 1865 p. 10, 4 June p. 11.
COLLINS, Samuel (son of a hand-loom weaver). b. Hollinwood near Manchester 1 Dec. 1802; a hand-loom weaver; a follower of Henry Hunt and Wm. Cobbett; took part in the meeting at Peterloo 1819; wrote homely verses, some of them in the Lancashire dialect which were collected in a small vol. entitled Miscellaneous poems and songs of S. Collins with a biographical notice by B. Brierley 1859. d. Hale Moss, Chadderton near Manchester 8 July 1878.