Obituary of

John Collier of Witney and Newbury.

1779 – 1855

Blanket Maker of Greenham and

East Woodhay Blanket Mills.

John Collier was the son of John and Anne Collier whose family had been making blankets in Witney for hundreds of years.  After his sister Elizabeth married John Coxeter their father John Collier senior had to come to John Coxeter’s rescue in 1805 when he went bankrupt while in partnership with a Richard Mason at Greenham Mill.  For the help he gave John Coxeter, John Collier junior was made a co-partner in the business at Greenham Mill.  This partnership carried on until February 1809 when presumably John Coxeter as the then junior partner had paid off most of his debts to the Collier family.  What I now realise is that he didn’t pay it all off as John Collier junior continued to hold onto at least one third of the Mill, which he kept until the mid to late 1820’s.  From here John moved to East Woodhay where it seems he stared working at the now gone Blanket Mill between East Woodhay and Wash Water.

John Collier junior was married in 1807 to Jane Baylis a widow of Little Rissington in Gloucestershire, with whom he had four children; John, Job, Jane and George Bennet Collier.  They lived in Cheap Street Newbury, but in around 1825 Jane left him taking their youngest son George Bennet Collier back to Rissington.  This was after John had taken a fancy to another lady by the name of Harriet Hamblin, with whom he six illegitimate children.

Although John Coxeter is well known for making the Newbury Coat, today nobody is told that it was probably only due to the Collier money from Witney that the Mills at Greenham were updated with the latest machinery, including the famous rag machine that John Coxeter boasted could pull apart Sir John Throckmorton’s coat and remake it in a day.  As for John Collier’s part in the amazing day, nothing is recorded about him or his part in its making, although no doubt he would have been involved in its construction even if it was just to help his nephew John Coxeter junior with weaving the cloth.

To be honest it seems that after John started his love affair with Harriett, its probably why he has been ignored by the local historians.  Although he has been cut out of the history of Newbury, he must have been quite a good businessman, for not only did he own a house in Cheap Street but also various commercial buildings behind it in Back Lane Newbury.  Add this to his blanket business which supplied the London Markets from his warehouse at 26 Broad-Street-Place London, together with blankets to Canada as well as parts of Europe, it shows he was doing very well financially.      

Derek J Collier, Thatcham March 2023.   

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