John Collins of Berners Street

'Retired planter' of Berners Street, a signatory of the 1783 address to George III by absentee owners and merchants.

1. Will of John Collins of [Berners Street] St Marylebone proved 15/03/1806. The will makes no mention of property in St Vincent or elsewhere, but his executors and trustees were William Manning (q.v.), Nicholas Richards of Cheshunt and Josias Jackson of Southampton (q.v.). He confirmed the settlement on his daughter Harriet Chastel de Boinville of an annuity of £200 p.a. and £5000 for her children at her death, and added an annuity of £500 p.a. He also left his 'unfortunate son' John Collins an annuity of £500 p.a., and his daughter Cornelia Newton wife of John Newton of Grosvenor Place £16,000 in trust. He also provided for his two children by Mrs Beaumont, Charles Beaumont Collins and Frances Beaumont Collins, and their mother, 'my friend Mrs Mary Beaumont of New Road' (although her legacy was contingent on her living at least 100 miles from London) and left £20,000 in trust for a third child, described as 'my natural son' John Beaumont Collins.

2. The daughters of John Collins, Cornelia Newton and Harriet Chastel de Boinville, appear in the circle of Shelley and Godwin in 1813: their father is described in one of the secondary sources as 'a retired West Indies planter of liberal views of 44 Berners Street.'

He was probably the John Collins of Wilsden [sic] County of Middlesex who received £30,000 in Exchequer Loans 09/07/1795 witnessed by William Manning, John Proctor Anderdon and Charles Bosanquet.

1. PROB 11/1439/198.

2. Kenneth Neill Cameron, Shelley and his circle, 1773-1822 Vol. 3 p. 254.