Robert Collins (1812-1879)

Robert Collins was the eldest surviving son of John Collins and his wife Hannah . He was baptised in Howden Parish church on 6th May 1812, presumably being born within the previous few weeks. Robert was to be a major influence on the history of our branch of the Collins family. The decisions he took during his lifetime were to have a significant effect on our future - changes so profound they can still be felt in the present day.

Robert worked for his father on the farm in Balkholme (a hamlet near Howden) until he married Hannah Major by licence in Howden on 30th April 1842. He was aged 29 and she was 21. For the third generation in succession our direct Collins ancestor married a woman with the name Hannah, though any of them may have been called Anna, Ann or Annie, and it is most unlikely that the initial aitch would have been pronounced in their north country dialect. Robert signed their marriage certificate, but Hannah only signed with her mark.

They settled in Ousefleet, a village on the south banks of the River Humber, where Hannah’s parents, Thomas and Ann, lived. Thomas Major was an agricultural labourer all his life, and this gives us another indication of Robert’s status, as most of the previous Collins wives had been the daughters of farmers, not labourers.

Robert and Hannah were a restless couple and moved house and occupation frequently during their lifetime. They had at least eight children, and it is possible to trace the family's movements by the places that they were born. Their first two children, Ann and Elizabeth, were born in Ousefleet between 1842 and 1844 and then the family moved back to Balkholme. This move was probably to live with his father, John Collins, after his mother died in 1843, to a house that would accommodate his growing family. Another two children, Jane and George, were born there. By April 1850, they had moved to a farm at a hamlet outside Balkholme, called West Linton.

On 16th April 1850, Robert Collins was called as a witness in a case against his friend Jervis Jackson just after he had stayed with him to attend the Hull Fair - one of the most significant annual events in the locality. This illustrates one of the connections he had with the town. The statement is shown below. It is a bit garbled but it gives us an example of Robert’s signature, the words he actually spoke, and of some the mannerisms of his speech.

BOROUGH OF Kingston-upon-Hull

The Examination of Robert Collins of West Linton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Farmer taken upon oath on Tuesday the sixteenth day of April 1850 at the Town Hall in the Borough of Kingston-upon-Hull, before the undersigned two of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace in and for the said Borough in the presence and hearing of William Sanders and Jervis Jackson who are now charged before us the said Justices for that they did on the ninth day of April 1850 at the said Borough the said William Sanders feloniously steal take and carry away and the said Jervis Jackson feloniously received and take into his possession well knowing it to have been stolen one barrel containing six gallons and one quart of whiskey of the goods and chattels of Richard Grimsdale.

And the informant upon his oath saith as follows: Last week I was staying at Jackson’s house. I was there last Wednesday morning and I saw him giving Sanders some money. He paid 25s. Jackson said he had some whiskey that came from Mr. Foster and he would let me taste of it. He did. I tasted that and what he bought of Sanders. That bought of Foster was much stronger than the other. I saw the whiskey measured. He put some colour into each gallon that he brought into the Dram Shop and put it into the Brandy and Rum. I saw him put about 5 gallons into the Brandy and Rum. He gave me a bottle of the whiskey. He gave a small quantity, perhaps a Jack or a Gill, to Sanders. It was in a small bottle. That left a small quantity which he put into a small keg. The prisoner asked 1s. for the cask. Jackson would not have it. Jackson gave me the cask and I took it away with me. Last Friday Mrs Jackson came to me for the cask and took it away.

Jackson said he was buying this whiskey to put into some Rum and Brandy to adulterate it, instead of doing so with water. The jug that he said held the whiskey that he bought of Foster was underneath the counter, under the taps. Sanders remained in the kitchen with the cask. I expressed some curiosity as to the colouring. He gave me a quantity coloured and not coloured and I have it now sealed up just as he gave it to me, a bottle of each.

I was present from beginning to end of the transaction. I was not present when Sanders brought the cask in. I saw Sanders come that morning between 6 and 7 in the morning, Wednesday morning. He did not bring the cask that morning, that was in the back kitchen. The whiskey was measured in the kitchen and brought into the Tap Room gallon by gallon. Mrs Jackson came for the cask last Friday. She said there was some little dispute about the cask and she wanted it back again. It was on Friday afternoon.

Jackson is a friend of mine. I staid (sic) with him 3 or 4 days from Hull Fair. Mrs Jackson came to see me in the Head(presumably another pub) about 5 or 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon. The cask was in a bag at Eastrington Station House.

By April 1851, Robert and Hannah Collins had a fifth child, John, who was just one month old when the census was taken. The farm at West Linton was substantial, extending to 228 acres, with 4 servants and labourers living-in. West Linton was listed as a hamlet only ten years earlier, which implies there were several houses there, but by 1851 it was a single farm. So it is possible Robert combined all the holdings in the hamlet into this single farm. It indicates that he had inherited the work ethic from his father, as it was a major achievement to manage such a large property before most farming methods were mechanised.

Unfortunately, his fourth child George died in1851. He was buried in Howden churchyard and his gravestone bears the inscription: “In Memory of George Collins of West Linton. Who died June 27th 1851 aged 4 years. Short be his illness long be his rest, God brought him home when he thought best.” By the first quarter of 1853, whilst still living at West Linton, they had another child and also named him George.

Then suddenly there was a major change in the life of our family. Some time between March 1853 and December 1854, our direct ancestors Robert and Hannah Collins decided to break with centuries of family tradition. They sold their farm and moved their family to live in the town of Kingston upon Hull. It is likely that it took them many years to make the decision, and they must have realised they were moving from the certainty of what they knew to an uncertain future. Possibly they were joining other members of their wider family who had already settled there. Robert had friends there, as he stayed with them when he visited the Hull Fair in April 1850. So the town was familiar to them, and they probably visited it many times.

T he birth of their next child, and our direct ancestor, Robert Major Collins on 27th December 1854 gave their address as 5, Prospect Street in the Myton district of Hull. To live in this area, Robert & Hannah must have been affluent, which implies that they received a good price when they sold up their farm.

It is difficult to understand why Robert and Hannah decided to uproot themselves from the land and move into the town. They seem to have been well established on their large farm when still in their late thirties. The economic situation had stabilised and farming was at the beginning of a prosperous period that was to continue for the next generation. It was also a time of prosperity in the country as a whole, farm prices were good, and demand for food was high, as the population was rising quickly. The advent of the railways meant that farmers could now get their produce to more distant markets, and there was not yet much competition from overseas. Their future seemed assured and there seems to be no reason why they would not want to farm their land, and follow countless generations of their forebears. Perhaps the attraction of the new, modern world of urban society was a better option than more of the same, year in and year out, stuck in the old-fashioned ways of the countryside.

One thing is certain. Robert and Hannah Collins had an adventurous spirit and wanderlust compared to their antecedents, having already moved from Balkholme to Ousefleet and back - not far by our standards, but a long distance to them - and there were several more moves to come in the future.

From this point forward the history of our branch of the Collins family was destined to be urban and not rural. In fact, our agricultural heritage became lost to our family within three generations, as Robert and Hannah’s great-granddaughter, Hilda Collins (my father's sister, born in 1908), had no knowledge of her roots in the country, or of the family’s origins in the East Riding of Yorkshire. In less than fifty years, our family were destined to become working class labourers in the city and, without doubt, their existence was much worse than it would have been had Robert and Hannah not made the decision to leave the land.

Hull was less than 25 miles away from West Linton. Despite the relatively short distance on the map, however, there is no doubt they were moving to a completely different world. The mid-19th century was a boom period in the development of Hull and this attracted many people who had been working on the land. It was the largest town in the area, though it did not become a city until 1894. Hull had been a major port on the east coast for centuries. Its trade was dominated by a few large merchant families and ship owners, and the town by warehouses for storing imports and exports. The trade was mainly concentrated along the North Sea coast of Britain and across to Europe, especially the Baltic area. The docks were being expanded and the fishing industry was growing rapidly, as the North Sea fishing grounds were developed. Some of the established families were diversifying into industry, including: ship building, engineering, milling flour and importing vegetable oils, and paint manufacture; and even cotton mills were established for a time.

The Hull to Selby Railway was the first railway to open in the area in 1840, and it ran near to where Robert and Hannah lived in West Linton. There was a station at Howden, so it is likely they used the train to remove to Hull. Shortly after their move, the Crimean War against the Russians began and the Battle of Balaklava took place, and the Charge of the Light Brigade became the main topic of conversation throughout the country.

At first, Robert established himself as a shopkeeper in Hull. In December 1854, at the birth of his son and our direct ancestor, Robert Major Collins, he was described as a tallow chandler living at number 5 Prospect Street, a fashionable shopping area. The Hull Directory of 1855 lists Collins and Jackson as tallow chandlers at 5 Prospect Street, and this was possibly a partnership with his friend Jervis Jackson.

It seems that it took some time for Robert and Hannah to settle in Hull and, by 1857, they had moved again, to become the innkeepers of the Barrel Tavern at 60 New George Street in Sculcoates, a district to the north of the old town.

Sculcoates lay to the north of the old town and bordered the River Hull. The area was developed to accommodate the influx of people into Hull before the first housing byelaws were passed in 1854, and there were no minimum standards laid down for building. Every piece of land was used and back-to-back houses, often in courts, were common. One of the courts, Nelson Square, can be seen to the right of the Barrel Tavern. Conditions were very bad with inadequate sanitation, shared cold water taps, poor drainage, and communal privies. Those close to the river bank also had to endure the noxious smells from the local bone-yards and glue-making factories. The area must have seemed a million miles away from the open air of the countryside, and a come-down after living in Prospect Street, and may be the reason why they only lived there for about a year.

By 1858 Robert Collins was listed as a guano dealer living at 4 Liddell Street in Hull. Their youngest child, Morris, was also born at about this time. Guano is the droppings of bats and sea birds that accumulates in caves, and mainly came from the Pacific Islands and Peru. It was the first artificial fertiliser, as it is rich in nitrogen, and was imported in vast amounts in the 19th century. A valuable commodity, it must have come through the port of Hull. Robert was born and bred in agriculture and knew the hinterland of the East Riding of Yorkshire and this probably helped him to become established as a dealer. But this venture didn’t last long either and, by 1861, Robert and Hannah had moved out of Hull, and also out of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Robert and Hannah Collins were very mobile people for that period. Their wanderlust had still to run its course as they still hadn’t settled in an alternative occupation to farming. Perhaps they no longer enjoyed living in a large town, but it is unlikely we will discover why they left Hull. In the April 1861 census, the family had settled at the Black Bull Inn on Hatfield Chase, which is on the outskirts of Thorne, a small town about 35 miles south-west of Hull and 10 miles north-east of Doncaster.

It is possible that Robert knew of the Black Bull Inn through his dealings in guano, and may have stayed there on his travels. The communications in the area were well developed: there was a local rail link to Hull, and the Stainforth and Kealby canal ran nearby linking Thorne to the River Trent, and on to Hull. At the time, a steamer ran along the canal daily between Thorne and Hull, and weekly to Sheffield and as far away as London.

In April 1861, Hannah and the rest of the family were listed at the Black Bull Inn as none of their seven children had married yet. On the day of the census, Robert was visiting his father’s house at Balkholme, and he was listed there as an innkeeper, age 48. Hannah was described as age 40 and a victualler, so she and Robert were running the inn together.

In the 1860s, the Black Bull was the centre of the local farming community. As recently as the 1930s, one large local farm employed about 60 people. It was the only pub for miles around, so it was probably a good business.

The current owner had seen the ledgers of the inn going back to the late 1700s when the property was built. He remembered seeing the name of Robert Collins listed, but was unable to locate the ledgers. He was also the source of the legends. One legend is that the inn was used for smuggling porcelain brought up the River Don. Hatfield Chase was a centre of deer hunting for centuries and another legend is that the inn was the clearing house for poached venison and other animals. There is a row of hooks in (what is now) a bedroom, and these were used to hang the meat.

There used to be a large blacksmith’s workshop immediately to the right of the inn (in what is now the car park). The blacksmith’s made all the plough shares for the local farms, kept all the horses shod and any other iron work needed in the area. It must have made the inn, and the area, even busier.

The Black Bull Inn was a busy place providing accommodation for travellers. In the April 1861 census, there was just one visitor staying the night, a person called Ambrose Lee, a blacksmith from Rawcliffe in Yorkshire, a town about five miles north of Thorne. He probably worked in the blacksmith’s workshop next door. Robert and Hannah’s eldest daughter, Ann, later married a Mr Lee and Ambrose could have been her future husband. Ann and her husband had a daughter, Louisa Lee, born in about 1867 and she lived with her grandparents for many years, possibly until she married.

It is possible that the remoteness of the place may have been too much for them as, by April 1871, Robert and Hannah Collins had moved again. At this time, they were living at The King's Head Inn, Church Street in Epworth, Lincolnshire, about ten miles away to the east. None of their daughters were living with them and they were probably all married by this time. The only children still at home were our direct ancestor, Robert Major Collins, a painter’s apprentice aged 16, and Morris, a scholar aged 13. Their son George was living in Thorne and was an apprentice tailor, so it seems that Robert and Hannah were making sure their sons were learning a trade that would give them a decent living in the future.

Epworth is in an area of Lincolnshire surrounded by four rivers called the Isle of Axholme. It was a small market town at the time and the capital of the area, and probably a less remote place to live for Robert and Hannah as they grew older. The population of the town was about 2100 and its main claim to fame is that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, was born there.

The King’s Head was probably a good business situated in such a central position, and would have been teeming with customers on market day. Perhaps that was the reason they left the Black Bull Inn.

There were some other interesting people also living with Robert and Hannah at the King’s Head in Epworth in 1871. Their daughter Ann Lee, now aged 29, was working for them as a general servant, with her daughter Louisa, age 4, who was born in Thorne. They also had a lodger called Ann Collins: she was an 84 year old widow, and possibly a member of the wider Collins family. Intriguingly, she was born in Warrington, Lancashire. This is on the other side of England and the first reference to any possible family members living in Lancashire. She was born in about 1787, and it is possible that a brother or cousin of James Collins (born 1756) had emigrated to Warrington, and she was his daughter. If that was the case, it demonstrates just how strong the family ties were at the time.

Also staying with them was a Louis Israel, a 19 year old pedlar, born in Prussia. An inn is a place that offers food and accommodation to travellers, as well as selling beer. His presence gives us a clear indication of the level of person staying with them, and the type of establishment they ran.

Robert Collins died 8 years later, on 7th February 1879 at 11 Walcot Street in Hull. He was 66 years old and described as a brewer’s traveller. He died of bronchial asthma, but was not listed on Hull’s electoral roll, so must have been visiting the town. Possibly it was his base when in Hull for his job as a traveller and he became too ill to return home. Unfortunately, he did not die at home, so it has not been possible to find where they moved to after the King’s Head Inn. According to his death certificate, he had been suffering from the disease for two months, but this is possibly what the doctor was told, as he must have had it for many years before. The informant on Robert’s death certificate was his eldest son George, who lived a distance away at 127 Hollings Road in Manningham, in Bradford, Yorkshire.

Asthma is a debilitating inflammatory disease of the lungs that makes it increasingly difficult to breathe. It can be inherited, develop at about age 20, or result from an allergy to pollen and other allergens. This gives us possible reasons why Robert and Hannah left the life on the farm. There is an allergic disease called “Farmer’s Lung Disease” caused by exposure to pollen and dust commonly found on farms, and it produces symptoms similar to asthma. Alternatively, it could be that running a large family farm was too strenuous for him, and life as a businessman or innkeeper would be better and less arduous . He could cope with the life of an innkeeper, using hired staff to do the heavy work. The pollution of a large industrial town like Hull would have aggravated asthmatic symptoms, and this could have forced them to move out to the country.

This rationale explains why they gave up a good living on a large farm, then left Hull to move back to the countryside, and then moved again into a small town like Epworth. Robert’s death at age 66 seems reasonable, except his father, John, and his grandfather, James, both lived to be 90 years old. It was not unusual for country dwellers to have long lives such as this before people lived in large polluted cities and began to die much younger. It is likely that Robert was never a fully well man. He even had to give up the King’s Head Inn at some time. Fortunately, he got a lighter job as a brewer’s traveller later in life, at a time when there were no welfare benefits (other than the workhouse), few pensions, and people worked until they were no longer capable, or they died.

The death of Robert Collins in 1879 marks the end of our family’s association with its agricultural heritage. After generations of farmers working the land in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the family was about to complete its transformation to become totally urban. At the same time, the wealth enjoyed by their antecedents as respected yeomen farmers had all but gone, and future members of the family were destined to become working class artisans and labourers.