Rev. Richard Collins (1794-1882)

BIOGRAPHICAL STUB
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The Rev. Richard Collins was the Vicar of Kirkburton from 1843 until his death.

Biography

Be was born on 20 March 1794 in Ireland.

He married Mary (née ?) in Lincolnshire and they had five known sons:

  • Richard Collins (1828-1900)
  • John Collins (c.1831-?)
  • Thomas Collins (1832-1891)[1]
  • William Collins (c.1834-1923)[2]
  • Henry Collins (c.1836-1921)[3]

He became a curate at All Hallows, Kirkburton, in 1837 and was appointed the vicar in 1843.

Punch (15/Jan/1876) noted that the combined ages of the vicar, clerk, sexton and verger of Kirkburton was 316 years, and that the schoolmaster, Mr. A. Hargreaves, had died only recently aged 78:

What a long-lived parish
    Must Kirkburton be!
Instances are rarish
    Of such longevity.
In rhyme 'tis hard to state years;
    But there's the Vicar, who,
Serving thirty-eight years,
    Has reached Eighty-Two!
Parish Clerk is younger:
    Still he is alive,
With a healthy hunger
    For fees at Seventy-Five.
Sexton chants a merry hymn,
    Though it be a bore.
Some boy some day much bury him—
    He's only Eighty-Four!
Verger keeps in order
    Schoolboys at their tricks,
Close on Fourscore's border—
    Being Seventy-Six.
Schoolmaster has yielded
    His ferule up to Fate,
Sceptre having wielded
    Up to Seventy-Eight.
Verger who has listened
    Threescore years and ten
To Vicar while he christened
    Babies, now old men!
Parish quite ideal
    Ruled by elders sage!
Can the tale be real
    In this headlong age?
When the ancients travel
    To another sphere,
Mysteries to unravel
    Which perplex us here,
Should the ruling prelate
    Let Kirkburton go
To a heady zealot,
    High of Church, or Low!
Full of bile and bitter hate,
    Breathing brawl and breeze,
Some raw semi-literate
    Buzzer of St. Bees.
Pace grows quick and quicker,
    Old ways youth eschew,
But give me the old Vicar,
    Hale at Eighty-Two!

The Rev. Richard Collins died on 8 March 1882, aged 88.[4]

His son Richard was appointed the next incumbent of KIrkburton by the Bishop of Ripon.[5]

Gallery

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Notes and References

  1. Born 20 June 1832 at Fleet, Lincolnshire. Died 11 April 1891.
  2. Married Eliza Edwards. Died 25 March 1923.
  3. Married Maud Mary Edwards. Died 4 August 1921.
  4. "Funeral of the Rev. Richard Collins, Vicar of Kirkburton" in Huddersfield Chronicle (13/Mar/1882).
  5. Huddersfield Daily Chronicle (16/Mar/1882).