Thomas Collins

Thomas was born in 1780, and was early sent to the Charterhouse, the age of 10, as a Foundationer, where he stayed until he was 17. He left for Oxford after being ” Orator” of the year. His Oratorship brought him a purse of £70. At Oxford he was elected a Scholar of University College, and took his B.A. degree when he was 21 This was before the days honours and classes, otherwise there is no doubt that his classical and other attainments would not have left him short of the highest places. When was twenty-three he was elected to a Fellowship at Magdalen College; but it being discovered that the statutes required a priest, was ousted by Ellerton, who came from Cambridge. However, the year after there was another vacancy in the same college, and he was again elected Fellow. He tutored the gentlemen commoners of Magdalen, and in 1813 he was made Public Examiner in the French. In 1815, he married Ann Bramley, with whom he had ten children, and was also elected to the rectory of Barningham. While at Barningham he acted as magistrate for the North Riding and for the county of Durham till 1829, when he resigned this rectory and came to live in Knaresborough, in his own house. He still held, however, the curacy of Farnham, a small benefice, which he continued to serve by himself, or with the help of assistant curates, up to the time of his death. Ever active in public and private charities, he took a more especial interest in the cause of education, being for many years a volunteer Inspector of the national schools in the archdeaconry of Richmond, posting in a chaise and pair from village to village in the northern dales of Yorkshire. He was made a rural dean.

He was also a good naturalist and was well up in the whole range of British botany. He was also a good musician and a good performer on the organ, piano, and violoncello. A few years before his death, he made a catalogue of his library of books, mostly collected by his own hands, and found they amounted to upwards of 4,000 volumes.