John and James Collier

John Collier and his brother James are both buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey. No gravestones remain for them but there is a small white marble tablet on the wall to John, and the Latin inscription can be translated:

John Collier, eldest son of John Collier, gentleman of Hastings in the county of Sussex: died 31st day of December 1732 in the 13th year of his age: a youth dear to his parents, his friends and his teachers, because of the blamelessness of his manners, the sweetness of his character and his surpassing zeal for learning. So short-lived was this darling of his family, lest their loss should ever become insupportable

Part of the base inscription is now illegible.

John was born on 7th May 1720 and James on 21st May 1721 and both attended Westminster School in the precincts of the Abbey. Their father was Surveyor General of the Customs of Kent, Usher and Crier of the Court of the King's Bench and several times Mayor of Hastings, and their mother was Mary (Cranston). James was educated at Cambridge and was a member of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn although he was never called to the bar (to practice law). Also Mayor of Hastings he died unmarried on 30th May 1747.

Further reading

"Correspondence of Mr John Collier and his family" by C.L. Sayer, privately published 1907

The Record of Old Westminsters