James Collins (1756-1846)

James Collins was born on 23rd August 1756, the eldest son of John Collins and his second wife Jane Rumley. He was 19 years old when his father died in 1775. He was described as a "Yeoman" in June 1778 when he and his mother transferred over an acre of “recently inclosed land in North Field” to Reverend William Ponsonby - the local rector who played an important part in administering John Collins’s will. This was the land show on the picture at the bottom of the John Collins page.

James seems to have taken over the management of the family farm on his father's death. Over the following year, he and his mother tidied up their holdings in the village, selling another house, a barn, a stable, an orchard and a hemp garth.

King George III was on the throne at this time, which coincided with the War of American Independence. It is unlikely to have had any impact on them. Their lives were simple and parochial, and concentrated within a few square miles - totally distant from the affairs of the nation.

Less than four months after his wedding, James (and his brother Robert, who had just reached the age of 21) transferred their interest in Runner House, to a Robert Youil.

The next day, James's mother, Jane Collins, and Richard Youil married at Holme on Spalding Moor Church. This allowed James and Robert to receive their inheritance many years earlier than they were entitled, without having to wait until their mother died. The money was probably more important to them at a time when they were establishing themselves on their own farms.

James and Hannah Collins had eleven children between 1782 and 1804. Their eldest child, John Collins, our direct ancestor, was baptised in the nearby village of Eastrington on 28th November 1782. The other children were: Robert (1784), Hannah (1786), James (1788), George (1790), Henry (1792 - who died 1796), Richard (1794), Henry (1796 - who died 1797), Mary (1799), Henry (1801 - who died 1802), and Ann (1804). It is possible that seven of their children survived into adulthood. All three of their sons called Henry died in infancy.

When James and Hannah’s second child, Robert, was baptised in Howden on 2nd November 1784, the parish register gives James’s occupation as a labourer. This description is repeated over the next eight years at the baptisms of his next four children and in almost every subsequent record detailing his occupation, so it cannot be a mistake. So, in only six years, between 1778 and 1784, James’s status changed dramatically from being a freeholder yeoman farmer to an agricultural labourer.

It is possible that James was unable to manage a business by himself, or maybe he had an affliction or injury that prevented him from continuing, but we shall probably never know the real reason for his demise. This was a period when many small farmers were bankrupted as the land was enclosed and they became landless labourers. It is possible that James and Hannah suffered as a result of this, but the Collins and Walker families were prominent in the area, so it is unlikely they would have allowed this to happen and would have helped them through any difficult period.

This was also a good time for farm prices, which improved further during the Napoleonic Wars. By 1796, a contemporary source described farmers as being “generally opulent” and the small farmer was no longer only one step removed from the labourer. A farmer was beginning to be described as “a gentleman of second rank” and lived accordingly. Many of them erected large houses during this period. By 1796, James and Hannah had moved to Howden, but a year later they had moved again to Eastrington, Hannah’s home village. James was probably working for his brother Henry, who had a farm in the parish. Perhaps this is how the family helped James, by providing some sort of “sheltered” accommodation where he could raise his large family and be useful working on the farm. It is probably no coincidence that James named three of his children Henry.

The prosperity that the farmers enjoyed during the Napoleonic Wars did not last and the Farmer’s Magazine in 1808 described the outlook as: “gloomy, although less for the farmer than for anyone else”. There were good harvests in 1813 and 1814, and production exceeded demand, causing many poorer farmers to become bankrupt. More land had been brought into production during the war, and farm prices completely collapsed in 1816, the year after the end of the Wars. There was a general slump in prices across the country. In the East Riding, it was reported that there was a: “great want of employment among the labouring poor … and local farmers were living on their capital or being sold out at ruinous prices.”

Wealthier farmers reduced wages, laid off labourers, and bought out the bankrupt farmers. There is evidence that the more sucessful farmers in the Collins family added to their holdings in this period. Unfortunately, James was not able to benefit from the changes.

James and Hannah were still living in Eastrington 32 years later, when she died on 8th December 1838, at the age of 78. Her death was caused by a rare disease known as St Anthony's Fire, which is a severe, localised inflammation of the skin that produces a painful, bright red swelling. It can result from a streptococcal infection, or even an allergy to wheat products, and the affected area may become gangrenous. James was described as a labourer on her death certificate.

In April 1841, James was still described as an agricultural labourer, living with his brother Henry in Eastrington. He died there on 13th September 1848 of "old age" and was buried in Eastrington churchyard four days later. His death certificate states his occupation as a Farmer, so somebody was kind enough to restore his status at the end. It gives his age as 97, but he was actually 90 years old. It reflects a time when birthdays were not celebrated as they are today so, as people grew older, they became confused about their actual age. James did not leave a will and no gravestone has survived.