Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Collins, John (d.1807)
COLLINS, JOHN (d. 1807), colonel, proceeded to India as a cadet in the Bengal infantry in 1769, and became an ensign in that branch of the East India Company's service in 1770, lieutenant on 17 Nov. 1772, captain on 20 Nov. 1780, and major in 1794. There can be little doubt that he served in the Rohilla war and in other campaigns of the Bengal army, and he probably acted in a subordinate capacity with some of the residents at native courts, before he was appointed by Sir John Shore in 1795 to be resident at the court of Daulat Ráo Sindhia. This young prince had only in the previous year succeeded his great-uncle, Máhádaji Sindhia, the founder of the family, and was eager to make some use of the magnificent army, disciplined by the French generals, De Boigne and Perron, which had been bequeathed to him. Major, or Lieutenant-colonel Collins, as he became on 27 July 1796, soon acquired great influence over this ambitious prince, but not enough to prevent him from desiring to try his strength with that of the company. Daulat Ráo Sindhia looked upon him as the emissary of a hostile power, but treated him nevertheless as an honourable foe. The fearless character of Collins had much to do with this involuntary respect, and it was well shown in his daring march with a small body of his personal escort under Captain (afterwards Sir Thomas) Brown, in October 1799, to Jeypore, in the heart of the then almost unknown region of Rajputana, to make a successful demand from the Máhárájá of Jeypore for the surrender of Vizier Ali, the treacherous murderer of Mr. Cherry. Lord Wellesley, when governor-general of India, had the greatest confidence in Collins, who played a most important part in the proceedings which led to the overthrow of the great Máráthá princes by Lake and Arthur Wellesley. Collins did all in his power to prevent Sindhia from coming to blows with the English, but the young prince still continued his preparations for war, and with his ally, the Bhonslá Rájá of Nagpur, persisted in his march on Poona, which was then occupied by an English army under Sir Arthur Wellesley. In June 1803 Collins was told to deliver the ultimatum of the company, that if Sindhia and the Rájá of Nagpur did not return to their own territories, the English would attack them. Collins could get no definite answer to this ultimatum. On 3 Aug. 1803 he left Sindhia's court, and the war commenced; which, after the victories of Assaye and Argaum, Laswaree and Díg, finally overthrew the power of the Máráthá princes. In Kaye's ‘Life of Lord Metcalfe,’ it is said that young Metcalfe was, through his father's influence, appointed an assistant to Collins at Sindhia's court, and joined him in April 1802 at Oojein. But he found the imperious character of Collins, which justified his nickname ‘King Collins,’ quite insupportable, and quickly left him. Collins was not sent back to Sindhia after the war, but succeeded Colonel Scott as resident at the court of the Nawáb Vizier of Oudh at Lucknow in 1804, where he died on 11 June 1807. Lord Minto issued a gazette extraordinary on the news of his death, and he received a grand public funeral, at which one of the sons of the Nawáb was present; the whole Oudh court went into mourning for him.
[Dodwell and Miles's List of Officers for the Indian Army; Wellesley and Wellington Despatches; Pearce's Life of Lord Wellesley; Kaye's Life of Lord Metcalfe; Lady Minto's Lord Minto in India; East India Military Calendar under ‘Sir Thomas Brown’ for his expedition into Jeypore; Asiatic Annual Register, 1808, for the Gazette Extraordinary on his death.]
