COLLINS, William (by 1608-80), of King’s Norton, Worcs. and Worcester.

There were several families named Collins in seventeenth-century King’s Norton, a very large parish in the north of Worcestershire on the Birmingham plateau. Manorial tenants there in 1639 calculated that the manor, the largest in the parish, was seven miles wide and 40 miles in circumference. Farming there was a mix of arable (4,000 acres) and pastoral: there were estimated to be 8,000 sheep and 2,500 cattle on the manor.20BRL, 252474; VCH Worcs. iii, 182. Apart from the main settlement of King’s Norton village there were outlying hamlets such as Inkford and Wythall, where families called Collins were to be found. Those in Inkford were accounted parish gentlemen, and thus it is likely that William Collins was of that family.21King’s Norton par. reg. Henry Townshend, the contemporary commentator on Worcestershire in the civil war, described William Collins the county committeeman as a tanner, and certainly one William Collins junior of King’s Norton, tanner, had children baptized there between 1611 and 1614.22Diary and Pprs. of Henry Townshend ed. Porter, Roberts, Roy (Worcs. Hist. Soc. n.s. xxv), 265. The sum of the evidence provided by wills and parish register entries suggests that William Collins, the future MP, was one of six children born to William Collins the tanner, who represented at least the fourth generation of the family to live in King’s Norton.23King’s Norton pa. reg.; Worcs. Archives, Worcester consistory ct. wills of Isabel Collins (1624/56), John Collins (1618/158), William Collins (1613/7). William Collins, tenant of the manor of King’s Norton, was witnessing legal documents there from the late 1620s.24BRL, 277327, 277328. Both William Collins senior and junior were alive in 1641, the latter (probably the future MP) rated on £1 10s in the subsidy roll.25E179/201/305.

William Collins was evidently active in the manor of King’s Norton, which before the civil war was the property of Queen Henrietta Maria. Some time between 1625 and 1630, a dispute arose on the manor over its stewardship. A yeoman bailiff, accountable to the queen, seized the goods of two women, ‘attainted and executed for witches’. A struggle arose over the ownership of the goods, detained by another tenant, and after the court leet had apparently agreed to compensate the bailiff, 14 men, six of them local gentry, defaulted on their payments. Among the 14 was Collins; their leader was Sir Richard Grevis or Greaves, ‘the poor man’s friend’, from 1640 patron of the Presbyterian minister of the parish, Thomas Hall.26BRL, 252472; F.J. Powicke, ‘New Light on an Old English Presbyterian and Bookman: the Reverend Thomas Hall, BD, 1610-1665’, BJRL viii (1), 7. By May 1638, there was wider discontent on the manor, provoking the taking of depositions from tenants, and by October it had become clear that what was at issue was the proposed enclosure and improvement of the manor by the queen, to which tenants objected because there were no safeguards for their long-standing tenancies against newcomer lessees. John Wylde* acted as counsel for the tenants, which may have been where Collins first encountered him.27BRL, 252468, 252466. William Collins was one of the quorum of the tenants’ representatives at meetings in which they argued for a fair enclosure, in which the quality of lands allotted the tenants should be comparable with those designated as the queen’s.28BRL, 252474. An injuction against the tenants was obtained by the queen, but by May 1640 over three acres of enclosures had been thrown down.29BRL, 252469.

Collins disappears from public view until his appointment to the first Worcester committee in 1644, but it is unlikely that he enlisted in any of the armies at the outbreak of the civil war. His civilian status in 1644 suggests rather that he was identified as a supporter of Parliament by leaders of the parliamentary cause, and the obvious inference from the disturbances at King’s Norton was that John Wylde* was his promoter. On 7 September 1644, Collins was one of 17 non-MPs to sign a petition to the Lords entreating them to hasten their approval for an ordinance, which had passed the Commons, to establish a Worcestershire force. As well as complaining against the depredations of the royalists, they deplored the incursions by various parliamentary forces making indiscriminate forays into what they saw as hostile territory; and stressed the importance of Worcestershire as a corridor for the king’s troop movements. Among other signatories were Nicholas Lechmere* and a number of his relatives; and Arthur Salwey, the minister son of Humphrey Salwey*.30PA, Main Pprs. 7 Sept. 1644. The petition was successful, in that the ordinance was published two weeks later, on the 23rd, and Collins was named to the committee it established.

Collins became an active member of the committee for Worcestershire in its various homes: first at Warwick Castle, then from May 1645 at Evesham, and finally from July 1646 at Worcester.31SP28/188, pt. 1, ff. 77, 89-90, 140; SP28/138 pt. 9, commission of Talbot Badger. He signed the committee’s riposte to the protestation of Prince Rupert in April 1645, when the parliamentarians countered royalist attempts to suborn the population of Herefordshire and Worcestershire; the committee asserted that Rupert was ‘assuming to himself more than regal power over the consciences, lives and liberties of you the free born subjects of England’.32Webb, Memorials, ii. 163. From August 1645, Collins was signing orders for the sequestration of local royalists.33Worcs. Archives, 705:7/BA 7335/40/4/10. By February 1646, Collins was acting as deputy treasurer to the committee, under Nicholas Lechmere*, and took over as treasurer when Lechmere resigned from the post when Worcester surrendered in July 1646.34SP28/188, pt. 1, ff. 89-90; SP28/187, pt. 1, f. 38. In the build-up to the siege of Worcester, in May 1646, Collins accompanied the troops of Col. Thomas Morgan of Gloucester garrison and Col. John Birch*; on one of their expeditions, to Ombersley, near Worcester, they captured Thomas Street*.35Burton’s Diary, iii. 428-9. Collins was one of the committee which exchanged a prolonged war of words with the royalist garrison in the city prior to its surrender.36Diary and Pprs. of Henry Townshend ed. Porter, Roberts, Roy, 213, 214, 217, 229.

The county committee, dominated as it was by Lechmere and Sir Thomas Rous*, was sympathetic to conservative orthodox ministers such as Richard Baxter, and Collins signed the order installing Baxter as minister of Kidderminster, subject to the approval of the Westminster Assembly of divines, in October 1647.37DWL, MS 59, Treatises IV, 122A. He was one of the county committeemen appointed to the ad hoc committee of February 1648 charged with disposing of the leaden steeple of Worcester cathedral; he himself bought some of the timber, and the proceeds of the sales went towards a variety of charitable purposes in the city. The committee outgrew its original purpose, and by the mid-1650s was effectively the standing committee for the county and city.38Worcester Cathedral Lib. mss D247, D223, D224a, D224b, D225, D303, D605, D606, D607.

Collins was by this time resident at the College, in Worcester, but maintained contacts with King’s Norton, where he became steward of the manor where he had a decade earlier been in opposition to authority.39E317/47, survey of King’s Norton, p. 3. In the late 1640s or at the latest by March 1650 he received a military commission for the first time, as muster-master of the county force. This military status gave Collins privileged access to sales of crown lands, as an ‘original creditor’, and he was with Edward Moore, another county committee figure, able to buy King’s Norton manor for a little over £1,500 in November 1650.40E121/5/4; CUL, Dd.VIII.30.4. He was probably not the William Collins who bought another Crown manor, Ogmore, Glamorgan, in 1650, and who was more likely to have been a Londoner.41I.J. Gentles, ‘The Debentures Market and Military Purchases of Crown Lands, 1649-1660’ (London PhD thesis,1969), 268. His estate was enough to give him a social status he had not previously been able to aspire to; a position on the Worcester and Worcestershire benches of magistrates followed a few years later. In August 1651 he was one of the county committee members who had to leave Worcester when the chamber voted to allow in the forces of Charles Stuart, and returned with the troops of the commonwealth government.42Bodl. Tanner 54, f. 176.

Collins slowly acquired some status in Worcester. By 1649 he seems to have been admitted into the leading guild, the clothiers’ company, and by 1652 was making occasional appearances on the bench as a magistrate.43Worcs. Archives, 496.5/BA 9360, A13 box 1, sessions bk. 1632-55, unfol. 1652; b705:232/BA 5955/4a, unfol. 1649. Of the county committeemen of non-Worcester origin, he was more influential in the city than most, and so made a suitable pairing for Edward Elvines* as a representative in the first protectorate Parliament. His initial committee appointments, on the financing of the army and navy (26 Sept. 1654) and on Ireland (29 Sept.), were in the company of Nicholas Lechmere, but by November 1654 Collins was being named to committees without any other Worcestershire men being in attendance.44CJ vii. 370b, 371b. If this should be taken as a sign of his reliability or independence, it should also be noted that two of these committees, on improving accounting and on the future status of debentures (22 Nov.), and on paying off supernumeraries in the army (18 Jan. 1655), were important topics on which Collins had some experience.45CJ vii. 388a, 419a. He had been given wine and tobacco by the chamber of Worcester before his setting out for Parliament; on his return he was presented with wine, tobacco and sugar: surely an indication that he at least had done nothing to offend the citizens.46Worcs. Archives, 496.5/BA 9360, A10, box 3, city accts. bk. 1640-69 (vol. 3), unfol. 1655.

Like his fellow Member for Worcestershire, Talbot Badger*, Collins had no difficulty supporting the protectorate, and became a commissioner under Major-general James Berry* during the interlude of the major-generals.47TSP iv. 546; Worcs. Archives, 705:134/BA 4459/1/3. Unlike Badger, however, he returned to Parliament in September 1656, and this may have been because unlike either Badger or Edward Elvines he had made more of an impression in the House during his first period of service. He was named in September and October to a number of important committees, including those on Irish Affairs (23 Sept. 1656), sequestered land sales (4, 17 Oct.) and trade (20 Oct.).48CJ vii. 427a, 434a, 438a, 440b, 442a. The last two were subjects on which he could claim some authority. He had been involved as treasurer of the county committee and as steward of King’s Norton in the management of sequestered estates, and as a Member for an important city, was bound to be interested in matters relating to the cloth industry, in particular. Business before the committee for trade became dominated by a dispute between the Clothworkers and the Merchant Adventurers over the export of undressed white cloth. Both sides had their advocates among the MPs; Thomas Burton* commented that the Clothworkers were ‘injured and eaten up in their trade; but the merchants, by their influence and power at court, have always mastered them.’ Unsurprisingly, in that Worcester’s cloth trade was in some difficulty, its clothiers complaining of unfair competition from London, Collins supported the Clothworkers against the Merchant Adventurers’ lobby led by Alderman Christopher Packe*. On 23 December, the Merchant Adventurers won their case by nine committee votes to seven.49Burton’s Diary, i. 115, 116, 175.

During the remainder of this Parliament, Collins served on a range of committees. No particular theme was dominant, but he seems throughout his service in this assembly to have operated independently from the interest led by Nicholas Lechmere. His name was not to be found bracketed with other Members of his county on committee lists. Two of his committees dealt with Irish land (26 Dec. 1656, 19 Feb. 1657), including that bestowed on the well-affected of Gloucester.50CJ vii. 475b, 494a. He was named to committees on the maintenance of ministers (19 Nov. 1656) and the better observation of the Lord’s Day (18 Feb. 1657).51CJ vii. 455a, 493b. On 27 May 1657 he was one of a committee charged with considering additional votes on the Humble Petition and Advice; Bulstrode Whitelocke and Lord Broghill were the first-named: this might suggest that Collins was no republican.52CJ vii. 540b.

After the accession of Richard Cromwell*, when the Worcester corporation spent over £4 on wine, Collins was again chosen to represent the city. There was a ceremonial taking of wine by the mayor and aldermen and the city’s MPs, before they set off for London, but it concealed a dispute between Collins and Thomas Street, whom Collins had taken captive in 1646, which surfaced when they arrived at Westminster.53Worcs. Archives, 496.5/BA 9360, A10 box 3, city acct. bk. 1640-69, unfol. 1659. Collins was a chief promoter of a petition against Street, presented to the House on 5 February, eight days after the Parliament opened.54Burton’s Diary, iii. 69. Collins accused his fellow Member of having been in arms against Parliament, and being a ‘common swearer’. Collins had brought with him to London a range of witnesses against Street, and insisted the election had been swayed by papists, armed royalists and those who took alms.55Burton’s Diary, iii. 253, 254. In his own testimony to the committee for privileges, on 22 February, Collins recounted the story of Street’s arrest and exchange for a parliamentarian in 1644.56Burton’s Diary, iii. 428-9. Before the Worcester election, the minister Simon Moore was visited by Street, who came to persuade him that he had never been in arms. Street seemed willing to meet Collins in the interests of reconciliation, but when Moore told Street that Collins was in the next room he left in anger.57Burton’s Diary, iii. 430. An unidentified witness reported to the committee that Collins had declared himself willing to give way to any townsman, a comment on his continuing identity as an outsider.58Burton’s Diary, iii. 432. The outcome of the case was inconclusive, but it was apparently the focus of most of Collins’s activity in this Parliament: he was named only to one committee (13 Apr. 1659), on supernumerary forces disbanded in Lancashire.59CJ vii. 638a.

Under the restored Rump, Collins became the leading military figure in Worcester, and was requested by the council of state to watch the movements of known royalist sympathisers such as Sir Henry Lyttelton.60CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 15-16, 44, 79. At the time of the rising led by Sir George Boothe*, Collins arrested Lyttelton and Col. David Hyde. He was instructed to send up adherents of Charles Stuart’s interest to London, but could release those willing to undertake not to disturb the peace.61CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 47, 80, 93, 204-5. On 1 September 1659 he was given a commission in the Worcestershire militia, and was confirmed as governor of Worcester at the end of the month.62CJ vii. 772b; CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 586. In January 1660, he gave an account of his preparations to march out of Worcester to confront the enemy, but complained of his troops’ lack of pay.63CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 297-8. As one whose authority rested on government local committee appointments and military power, and not on civic status, Collins disappeared from view very quickly at the Restoration: he had been removed from the assessment commission by June 1660, perhaps a victim of his enemy, Thomas Street. Payments the corporation authorised in 1660 when Collins and the minister, Simon Moore, ‘were at the Tolsey’, may have been some last-ditch attempt on his part to urge the citizens not to accept the rapid pace of events towards a restoration of monarchy.64Worcs. Archives, 496.5/BA 9360, A10 box 3, city acct. bk. 1640-69, unfol.1660.

Although at least one William Collins is to be found in post-Restoration Worcester, this seems unlikely to have been the former MP, whose high profile during the late 1640s and 1650s must have made him objectionable to the city’s cavalier inhabitants, not least to Street, who was returned again to Parliament.65Hearth Tax Collectors' Bk. for Worcester 1678-80 ed. Meekings, Porter, Roy (Worcs. Hist. Soc. n.s. xi), 42; Worcs. Archives, Worcester consistory ct. will of William Collins, apothecary, 28 Nov. 1687; Parish Bk. of St Helen’s Church in Worcester ed. J.B. Wilson (2 vols. 1900), ii, 143, 145, 155, 157. He is far more likely to have gone back to the uplands of the large and open parish of King’s Norton, a good ride away from Worcester, where there were space and a means of making a living even after the crown reclaimed the manor from him. There is every reason to believe that he was the ‘Mr’ William Collins who was buried there on 20 January 1680.66King’s Norton par. reg.; Nash, Collections, ii. 350.