John Collins (ca1711-1775)

John Collins is my earliest proven Collins ancestor. He is first recorded, in his mid-20s, at his marriage to Mary Vardale on 26th June 1739 in the village of Holme on Spalding Moor in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. At that time, King George II was on the throne, the industrial revolution was in its infancy, and it was a period of peace and prosperity. There had never been a better time to own land, as more was being enclosed and brought into cultivation, and across the country the population was increasing to buy its produce.

John settled in Holme on Spalding Moor before 1739, as he was described as being “of this parish” on his marriage record. He was a man of substance (but not nobility) as the records indicate he owned property and land. He is not listed in the Holme Hall manorial estate records of 1735, so it is likely he moved there sometime between then and his marriage. Possibly, he inherited the land before moving to the village but there are no records in the East Yorkshire Land Registry showing any transactions in his name. He also rented land from the Lord of the Manor and by 1747 (the earliest date for which records survive) he was a leading farmer in the village. It is also possible that he farmed land in other parishes, but this has not been checked.

Documents relating to John indicate he was born about 1710-1712, but no actual record has been found. The baptism records of Holme and all the surrounding villages and towns have been searched without success, though not all records have survived. Several people named John Collins were baptised in Hull at about the time he was born, but it has not been possible to link any of them to our ancestor. John is an important member of our family and his achievements sustained his descendants for much of the period up to 1880, though nothing has survived to affect our lives.

Michaelmas (29th September) marked the end of the agricultural year and was the traditional quarter day for paying the annual rent. All the tenant farmers would have gathered to pay at Holme Hall where the Lord of the Manor probably provided beer and food to celebrate the past year and look forward to the next.

Despite being unable to confirm his origins, a possible explanation is that John was descended from one of several Collins families living in Howden and Hull. Despite the quality of the roads at the time, it is clear that there was regular communication between Holme, Howden and Hull, so there would have been many families in common. Holme is also situated only four miles from the main road from Hull to York (now the A1079) and several people from both these places (and others) owned or farmed land in Holme on Spalding Moor.

It is possible that John’s mother was called Margaret, as a Margaret Collins was buried in Holme on 3rd August 1737. Also, he may have had a sister called Issabel, as an Issabel Collins married Robert Watson on 3rd March 1736 (1737 in today’s calendar) also in Holme, and this was the earliest mention of the Collins surname in the village. John had another sister, also called Margaret, who was a beneficiary in his will.

Between 1740 and 1747, John and Mary Collins had four children but she died in about 1750 when she was only about 35 years old. The records are lost for a few years around this date, so it has not been possible to confirm the exact date. The children from this first marriage were: John (1740), Margret (1743), Mary (1745), and George (1747).

Most of the documentation on John Collins refers to him as a "yeoman farmer" - a freeholder who owned his land, employing labourers. As we have seen, he also rented additional land. It is likely, in common with the other farmers in the district at that time, that he would have also worked on the land himself.

A modern map of southern Yorkshire, showing the main places where our ancestors lived. Notice the proximity of York, Howden, Beverley and Hull - all important towns in the period. Water End is at the end of Holme on Spalding Moor village on the Selby Road, close to the River Foulness. Balkholme, Newland and Eastrington are near to Howden. Ousefleet is on the south bank of the Humber estuary. Notice that the area is sparsely populated, even today. All these places are within miles of each other, but it was probably a fair distance to travel on the poorly made roads of the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Farming in Holme on Spalding Moor was still based on the Anglo-Saxon open field system until the Enclosure of the fields in 1777. It is probable that John Collins’s rented land was in the open fields. There were three fields in Holme: the North, South and West Fields. Most of the inhabitants lived in the village in the centre. The arable land was divided into strips, or lands, of about an acre, and individual farmers had strips scattered around each field, though some consolidation of holdings had probably taken place by the mid-18th century. One field was left fallow each year and set aside for grazing, so it became fertilised. Farmers also had an allocation of meadow land in the same proportion to their arable land, and this provided hay for the winter feed for their livestock. In addition, they had rights to graze on the common land.

The whole village lived by the rules laid down and developed over generations covering: the times of sowing and reaping, ensuring fairness on the common grazing lands, dealing with stray animals, and a host of other misdemeanours. A system of fines had evolved and, by this time, were administered by officials appointed at the Easter meeting of the Vestry.

Typical farm holdings in the Vale of York were then about 25 acres of arable land, plus about the same amount of grazing land. All the evidence indicates that John Collins’s holding was not typical and he farmed much more land than this. In common with most of the larger farmers in the district, he probably also kept at least one yoke of draught oxen for ploughing and pulling wagons.

In 1741, John Collins (aged about 30) travelled to York and cast his vote for the local Tory Party candidate in the General Election. York was about 30 miles away - a long and hard day’s journey on horseback along narrow, unmade roads. Less than five percent of the male population had the vote at the time, and women weren’t allowed the vote. He was qualified because he owned land or property worth more than 40 shillings (£2.00), which indicates his status in his society.

General Elections were held every seven years then, but they were usually low key affairs and often not contested, as the constituencies were almost the “property” of the great landlords. Voting was an open declaration and not a secret ballot, so the landowners could check how their electors had voted. Despite this, electors were handsomely treated (almost bribed) to ensure their vote. Travelling expenses were usually met and free beer was provided, often for a couple of weeks as some electors had to travel considerable distances to vote. Consequently, it was usually a boisterous affair, and one that John would surely have enjoyed to the full.

On the 7th June 1756, John married for a second time to Jane Rumley. He was in his early 40s and she was about 23. Jane’s father Henry was listed as a tenant farmer in 1735, paying a rent of £1, 6 shillings and 8 pence. Their family had lived in the village for several generations, and there were several other Rumley's living in the village. They were all baptised in Holme. Jane's grandfather (also Henry Rumley) takes our family back to about 1675.

John and Jane Collins were married under licence in the village church. Some urgency was necessary. Only eleven weeks later, their first child, James Collins, was born on 23rd August 1756. James is our direct ancestor. Rushed marriages were not uncommon even in such God-fearing times - Jane’s uncle William was born in similar circumstances. It indicates something about John’s proclivities, and no doubt they were the subject of much village gossip as a result.

John and Jane had another eight children over the following sixteen years: Robert (1760), Mary (1761), Jane (1763), Henry (1766 - who died 2 years later), Dorothy (1767), Tibby (1772), and Margaret (1775). Margaret was born less than a month before John died on 4th June 1775. From his two marriages, John Collins fathered a total of thirteen children, ten of whom were beneficiaries in his will.

In the years following his marriage, there are several references to John Collins mortgaging land and property. These involved locals, people from York, and some from as far away as London. On 25th May 1769, John took out a lease on a property and its associated hemp garth (a field used for growing hemp) in the Water End area of Holme. This was probably Runner House, his home when he died in 1775.

During 1766 and probably for years around this date, John was a member of the Parish Vestry, which was elected each Easter with most of the responsibility for running the village. Vestry meetings were open to anybody in the parish, but only substantial property owners were allowed to be appointed as members. On 26th June 1766, a new Parish Clerk was appointed and the parish register records a list of members, including John Collins and John junior, his eldest son from his first marriage.

John Collins died on 4th June 1775. It is likely that most of the villagers came to pass their last respects as he lay in his coffin, as was the local custom. Two days later, his body would have been taken in the farm wagon for burial in the churchyard on the opposite side of the village, and family mourners would have ridden with the coffin, sitting on the side shelving of the wagon. In his lifetime, he amassed a substantial fortune, but it was diluted considerably when spread between his fourteen beneficiaries. His will fortunately also includes an inventory of his goods and chattels, which is shown below. It is declared to be “A true and perfect Inventory of all the Goods and Chattels of John Collins the elder of Holme in the County of York Yeoman deceased taken and made this 8th day of June 1775."

We are fortunate to have an inventory with the will of John Collins, as they had almost died out by 1775. It could represent his importance in the community. To put the figures into context: an Agricultural Labourer in Yorkshire earned about 6 shillings a week in 1775 (about £16 a year). On this basis, John's wealth was the equivalent of over £250,000 today (but worth substantially more then).

The inventory indicates how the family lived and worked their holdings. It values John Collins’s goods and chattels, plus bills and bonds worth £260. The bonds would have included leases on his land and properties, and his debts were probably mortgages on land and other properties in the area, possibly including some in other parishes.

Runner House had 6 rooms and must have been a tight fit for as many as 9 people, but much better than most other houses in the village. The activities of the family centred around the “house” (the living room) where they and their servants lived, ate, and cooked their food on the fire in the range. It was also the place to store their linens in the cloth dresser and display their pewter as a symbol of their wealth, at a time when ordinary people ate off wooden platters.

The family was probably almost self-sufficient. The churn in the kitchen was to make butter, possibly they also made the local cheese called “Old Wengby”. The boiler provided hot water for washing. The washing up was done in the lead bowls in the pantry, where pancheons (large earthenware dishes) were kept for making bread.

The downstairs bedrooms (known as “parlours” locally) were for the children and servants. The “best chamber” was John and Jane’s bedroom, and the only upstairs room. Note that this room contained two beds, which could have been expected as she was pregnant at the time when he was dying. The house was well furnished for the period, but the three bedrooms still only had four beds between them, so sharing a bed was clearly the normal thing to do, even in a wealthy household.

Rearing horses was a major part of the business, with 6 shire horses, 5 other horses and a foal on the inventory. The 9 cattle provided milk for the dairy and probably included yoke oxen, which were harder working than horses on the land. The cattle may have been fattened on the stubble, or on the ground laid fallow as part of the crop rotation. Some of the arable crops may have provided feed for the animals. The pig was probably for their own consumption.

Rearing horses was a lucrative local business. They were sold at the annual Howden Horse Fair, held in the first weeks of October. It was the largest horse fair in England at the time, renowned for the quality of the horses. These were compact hunters and coach horses of the local Holderness breed, and larger shire horses for carriage. Farmers came from all over the East Riding to sell their horses and the area for miles around became packed as they descended on the town. There were also people selling bridles, brass wares, food, produce, and all sorts of vendors and performers who were attracted to the event.

A contemporary account from 1807 describes the fair as: “The Howden Fair is indisputably the largest fair for horses in the Kingdom … attended by all the principal dealers from London, Edinburgh and from several great towns in the different counties of England. During every night not less than 2,000 horses are stabled in the inn stables or sent out to grass. The stables of the public houses in the adjoining villages to the extent of ten miles around Howden are also completely full, so that it may be estimated that 4,000 horses are exposed for sale every day, 16,000 being disposed of at the last fair.”

The Enclosure Award for Holme on Spalding Moor came into effect on 1st March 1777. Although he had died nearly two years earlier, “the heirs and assignes of John Collins senior” were allotted just over one acre of land in what had been the North Field. His eldest son, John junior, also received just over three acres, but he had already established himself in the adjoining parish of Harswell, with help from his father.

It seems that John Collins senior sold most of his land in the village and, with the proceedings, bought property and set up his sons on their own farms, whilst continuing to farm as a tenant on land owned by Lord Langdale. Perhaps he didn’t want the cost of the enclosure: fencing the newly enclosed land; paying his portion for establishing the roads and drainage, and their maintenance; and paying the legal costs of the commissioners who organised the enclosure. As it was, John and his son paid a total of £12, 9 shillings and 1 pence (£12.45) in costs for their very small share of the land, the vast proportion of which went to Lord Langdale and the church.