Like Father Like Sons

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n                         Tim Bobbin has been described asnbeing eccentric to the point of madness, but it is tragic that the eccentricitynthat was passed on to his poor sons developed into full-blown madness. 

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nHisneldest son, John Collier junior, was born at Milnrow in February 1744 and wasneducated as a painter by his father. At twelve years old he was apprenticed tona herald painter, Mr Bowcock of Chester, and after his time was served henreturned home, before moving first to York, before settling in Newcastle onnTyne in 1766 as a coach painter and heraldic artist. He prospered there,nearning a £60 profit in his first year, and sent for his younger brother,nThomas, to be a servant to him. The brothers quarrelled – John wrote to hisnfather complaining that Thomas was lazy and conceited – and in August 1767,nThomas left and was replaced by Charles, another brother. 

nAgain, John wasndissatisfied with his brother’s customs, and complained about him to hisnfather, although the fault may have been his own stubbornness. In January 1768,nJohn married Betty Ranken, youngest daughter of Robert Ranken, a well-to-donNewcastle businessman. She brought a dowry of £400, which John used to extendnhis house and studio. Unfortunately, the building extended onto land owned bynMr Drummond, who issued a writ and the extension was demolished by force. Hisncurmudgeonliness increased from then, maybe inspired by the litigation, andngrew worse when Betty died in 1777. He met and married Betty Howard, many yearsnhis younger, later in that year, although the legality of the wedding has beennquestioned, not least because she married under the false name of Forster. Johnnbegan to accuse his young wife of putting iron filings in his shirts andnstockings, and at one time he beat her with a poker so badly that it bentnacross her back. 

nIn 1778, he published “An Alphabet for the Grown-upnGrammarians of Great Britain. By John Collier, a Supposed Lunatic,” innwhich he described the alphabet as, “Fourteen vowels! six mongrels! fivenconsonants! and one devil knows what, form our present alphabet, consisting ofntwenty-six marks,” – the ‘devil knows what’ is the letter Q, which fornsome reason he took exception to. Early in the same year, he threatened thenprinter, Mr Slack, and then tried to shoot him. He was committed to an asylum,nwhere brother Thomas found him chained to his bed and had problems in gettingnthe magistrates to release him, planning to take him to Penrith, not leastnbecause John repeatedly threatened to remain in Newcastle and to shoot anynJustices who tried to prosecute him. 

nIn January 1779, Thomas secured hisnbrother’s release and they moved to Penrith, where John ran up bills of fifteennshillings for printing and parts for an electrical machine – he had becomenconvinced that one person’s thoughts could be transferred to another mynelectrical means. He went back home to Milnrow, where he was known as Jacky,nand took first to wearing an iron hood which he made for himself, and then tonwearing his clothes turned inside out, before finally settling on wearing sackcloth.nHis clogs troubled him, until he hit upon the solution of pulling them tonpieces and re-nailing the leather uppers inside out onto the soles. 

nHe ownednsome cottages in Milnrow, and deciding one day that his tenants had affrontednhim, he tried to get them evicted – but unsatisfied that the legal proceedingnwere going on too long, he fastened the doors and windows of the cottages shutnand stuffed the chimneys with grass and hay. When the tenants lit their fires,nthe cottages filled with smoke, which could not escape past the improvisednplugs; John refused to open the doors until they all agreed to leave. JohnnCollier eventually died at the home of his nephew, James Clegg, in 1809. 

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nThomas, his younger brother, although troubled by the actions of his sibling,nwas not without his own troubles. One day, when the steeple of Newcastle churchnwas being repaired, Thomas climbed up the outside of the spire but froze innpanic at the top, and had to be carried down by a steeplejack, who then beatnhim with a rope-end. He became in politics, and when he was demonstrating withnkeelers and colliers, he was attacked and almost killed by a mob. He publishedna book of political poetry, which brought him to the attention of thenmagistrates, who imprisoned him and burned his book. In later life, he becameninterested in astrology and started to describe himself as a ‘conjurer andnprofessor of mighty magic.’ His business failed and he too returned to Milnrow,nwhere he died in 1825.

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nCharles, the youngest of thenbrothers, was also a painter who also enjoyed an initial success. He married anwidow who brought with her £100 a year, and he was soon in the position to benable to buy Tim Bobbin’s cottage for his parents. The money stopped when thenwidow died, so he returned to Milnrow, where he worked as a portrait painternand flannel merchant. His love of field sports and hunting led to the failurenof the flannel merchanting, so he became an itinerant portrait painter – in anthree month tour in 1802 he visited Oxford, London, Hertford, Cambridge, Ely,nBury St. Edmunds, Norwich, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Ipswich, Harwich, Rochester,nChatham, Dover, Brighton, Portsmouth, Gosport, Salisbury, Exeter, Plymouth,nPenrhyn, and Falmouth! 

nHe was obsessed with watching soldiers and walked fromnRochdale to Dover just to witness a military review; in 1812 he slept out innthe open to be one of the first on the ground the following day for a review atnKersal Moor, Manchester. Broken by travelling and ill health, he died innpoverty in 1812.

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