Henry Collins, detail
by Robert Feke, ca. 1749
Oil on canvas, 49 5/8" x 39 3/4"
Redwood
Library Painting Collection |
Henry Collins
b. Newport, RI, March 26, 1699
d. Newport, RI, April 29, 1765
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Wealthy and distinguished merchant, philanthropist, patron of the arts.
The half-brother of Governor Richard Ward. His father, Arnold Collins,
a silversmith, designed and engraved the seal of the Colony of Rhode Island
(anchor and the motto "Hope").
At an early age sent to England for studies in mercantile career. Acquires
cultivated taste for literature and the arts.
A founding member of the Philosophical Club. Gives a deeded lot of land
to Abraham Redwood [q.v.]. This former bowling green becomes the site of
Redwood Library.
An inscription carved by John H. Benson in the paved walkway at the Redwood
reads: "through the munificence of Henry Collins, Esquire, this land, formerly
a bowling green, was given for the erection of the Redwood Library."
Two portraits of Collins at Redwood: John Smibert c. 1736 and Robert Feke
c. 1749.
Years later Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse dubbs him "the Lorenzo di Medici of
Rhode Island." William Hunter [q.v.] will state "Henry Collins loved literature
and the fine arts. He had taste, the sense of beautiful in nature, conjoined
with the impulse to see it imitated and surpassed by art..."
His art patronage included supporting local artists such as Robert Feke.
His outstanding collection of paintings included portraits by Smibert,
Feke, and Stuart.
Interested in civic affairs - a proprietor of Long Wharf, responsible for
its extension. One of two members responsible for the erection of 7th Day
Baptist Meetinghouse (the oldest of its faith in U.S.).
Engaged in the manufacture of cordage with Ebenezer Flagg. Firm name: Collins
& Flagg, subsequently, Collins, Flagg, Engs. Involved in privateering
as well, the firm in the 1760's goes bankrupt, mainly due to the trade
difficulties of the Seven Years' War and stricter enforcement of the British
Navigation Acts.
The farm and the house on Washington Street were taken over by George Rome,
the agent of Collins’s London creditors. When the British evacuated
Newport in 1779, during the Revolutionary War, the property was confiscated
from the loyalist Rome. In 1780, the house on Washington was torn
down and the wood used for fuel by the townspeople.
After losing his property, Collins lived with the Flaggs in the house he
had given them when they married. Ebenezer Flagg died in 1762.
The exact date of Henry Collins’s death is not confirmed, and has been
variously given as 1764, 1765, or 1770. It is now believed, based
on information from Flagg family papers, and the April 29, 1765 edition
of the Newport Mercury, that he died in 1765 and is buried in an unmarked
grave within the Flagg family plot at the Common Burial Ground.
Mary Ward Flagg sold her house, sometime after the deaths of her husband
and uncle, to Robert Lillibridge, who turned it into Pitt’s Head Tavern.
It was a popular Washington Square tavern for many years. The building
has been moved twice, and now stands at the northwest corner of Second
and Bridge Streets.
Henry Collins, detail
by John Smibert, c. 1736
Oil on canvas, 49 5/8" x 39 3/4"
Redwood
Library Painting Collection
Bibliography
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