John COLLINS (1833-1910)

Name:	John COLLINS
Sex:	Male
Father:	James COLLINS (1805-1866)
Mother:	Elizabeth ATKINS (1807-1891)

Individual Events and Attributes

Birth	10 Jun 1833	Hinckley,Leicester1
Baptism	21 Jun 1837 (age 4)	Wesleyan Methodist Hinckley
Death	27 May 1910 (age 76)	Plumstead,Kent1
Occupation		Storeholder, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich; Royal Arsenal, Woolwich

Marriage

Spouse	Eliza Lucy CURTIS (1840-1923)
Children	Alice Eliza COLLINS (1863-1953)
	Emily Elizabeth COLLINS (1866-1951)
	John Henry COLLINS (1869-1940)
	James Edward COLLINS (1878-1956)
Marriage	5 Jun 1862 (age 28)	St Margaret's Plumstead

Individual Note

John Collins and his three brothers were all educated at Hinckley school and on leaving, served apprenticeships to trades as varied as boot and shoe making (John), clock and watch making (William) and railway engine driving (James); as for Robert, he passed his Civil Service exams and became a Customs and Excise Officer. In 1851 the family were still living together, with the exception of William the eldest, above James's hairdresser's shop on the ancient street called the Borough, with 16 year old John working as a shoemaker and 14 year old Ann earning a living at dressmaking. Twelve year old James was still at school, and little Robert, at five, too young even for that. Ten years later Ann was still dressmaking at home, though recently married to William Marshall, a fitter, who in March 1861 was working in Birmingham and living in lodgings. Of her brothers, only Robert was still at home, apparently without an occupation.

Where was John Collins in 1861? Certainly not in Hinckley, as ever since 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, he had wanted to travel up to London, but it was not until the following year that he saved up enough money to make the journey to the metropolis, where he found a job at the Woolwich Arsenal. By 1861 he was lodging with Honor Barnes on Raglan Road in Plumstead, where he made the acquaintance of his landlady's orphaned niece, Eliza Lucy Curtis, who had left her home in Billericay to help her aunt with the housework. The following June John and Eliza were married at St Margaret's church in Plumstead and continued to lodge with "Auntie Barnes", bringing up their family at 31 Raglan Road.

Ethel Alice Shipman writes in her family memoir: "John Collins was a very quiet, gentle, retiring man - I never heard him say a harsh word, or knew him to lose his temper ... John was very fond of reading, especially history and poetry. He knew many poems by heart. He used to recite for our amusement the whole of William Cowper's poem 'John Gilpin' ... John Collins was brought up strictly as a Wesleyan but when he married Grandma who was a very devout churchwoman he always accompanied her to the Parish Church, although he never joined the Church of England. He was practically tone-deaf and could not sing a note; he could only grunt when trying to join in his favourite hymn 'All people that on earth do dwell'! When his eyesight was failing I used to take him for short walks across Plumstead Common where he often met some of his old friends from the Dockyard and enjoyed a chat with them."

Sources

1	"James Edward Collins' family tree".