David Collins

Colonel David Collins (3 March 1756 – 24 March 1810) was a British Marine officer who appointed as Judge-Advocate to the new colony being established in Botany Bay.

He sailed with Governor Arthur Phillip on the First Fleet to establish a penal colony at what is now Sydney. Afterwards he became secretary to the first couple of Governors, later Collins started a secondary colony where he founded the city of Hobart as the founding Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land (later becoming the state of Tasmania).

Early life and military career

Collins  was born 3 March 1756 in London, the third and oldest surviving child of Arthur Tooker Collins (1718–1793).

When he was an officer of marines (later major-general) and Henrietta Caroline née Fraser (died 1807) of King’s County, Ireland.[1] His grandfather Arthur Collins (1684–1760) was author of Collins’s Peerage of England.[2][3]

The family lived in Saffron Hill, London. Until 1765 when they moved to Devon. After his father as a lieutenant colonel  made commandant of the Plymouth division of marines.[4] He  educated at Exeter Grammar School.[5] Before at the age of 14 joining the marines as an ensign in his fathers division.[6] He promoted second lieutenant on 20 February 1771.[6]  Collins was serving aboard the frigate HMS Southampton, to Denmark to retrieve King George III‘s sister Queen Caroline Matilda after she banished from Denmark for an illicit romance.[6]