Author: Collins, John
Biography:
COLLINS, John (1742-1808: ODNB)
He was an actor and poet who became known as “Brush Collins” but his biography is complicated by his common name and the many moves he made throughout his life. He was born in Bath to William Collins (1720-74), a tailor, and his wife Elizabeth. Likely she was Elizabeth Clements who had married William Collins in St. James’s church, Bath, on 16 May 1742. Their son John was baptised in Bath Abbey on 25 Sept. 1742. He was apprenticed to a staymaker but chose to become an actor and made his first stage appearance in Bath. He may have acted in Birmingham in 1762 and likely he also performed in Ireland. He married Ann Shillard on 24 Jan. 1768 in Walcot church, Bath; he was a widower at the time but no record for an earlier marriage has been located. Ann Shillard was a portrait painter who had been an assistant in Bath to a Mrs Harrington and later advertised in newspapers as Mrs John Collins. ODNB states that she died after surgery for breast cancer; no public record has been located. The couple had no children. Collins specialised in a one-man cabaret-style performance and in humorous lectures where he acted many parts; he is known to have played these in Belfast, Dublin, Norwich, York, Birmingham, Newcastle, Cambridge, and London. His nickname came from the title of his shows which was “The Brush” or “The Evening Brush.” In London he shared premises on King Street, Covent Garden with Henry Chapman and another man, T. King; they operated as booksellers but Collins also used the location for performances. In later life he was in Birmingham where he co-owned and contributed to the Birmingham Chronicle from about 1798; it was there that his book of verse, Scripscrapologia, was published in 1804. He died in Birmingham on 2 May 1808. (ODNB 24 Jan. 2024; Highfill; ancestry.co.uk 24 Jan. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 24 Jan. 2024; Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800 [2006]; John C. Greene, Theatre in Dublin: A Calendar of Performances [2011]; Hereford Journal 11 May 1808; Oxford University and City Herald 14 May 1808) SR