Everything about David Collins Governor totally explained
David Collins (
March 3 1754 –
March 24 1810) was the inaugural Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of
Van Diemens Land, founded in 1804, which in 1901 became the state of
Tasmania in the Commonwealth of
Australia.
Born in
Exeter, he went to
Exeter Grammar School before joining the
Royal Marines as an
Ensign at the age of 14. He was promoted
second lieutenant on
February 20,
1771. He was serving aboard
H.M.S. Southampton when
Queen Matilda of Denmark was dramatically rescued.
Collins went to North America early in 1775, and fought at the
Battle of Bunker Hill, where the British suffered heavy casualties, but held the heights of
Charlestown. He was promoted to
first lieutenant the following week.
By November 1776 was stationed at
Halifax,
Nova Scotia, where he met and then married Mary (Maria Stuart) Proctor, the daughter of Captain Charles Proctor, on
June 13,
1777.
He was promoted
captain-lieutenant in August, 1779, and outright
captain by July, 1780. In February, 1781 he joined the
Courageux in the Channel Squadron, but didn't enjoy being at sea. After three years on half-pay stationed at
Chatham, he sailed on the
First Fleet and on
20 January,
1788, he became one of the founders of the
penal colony of
New South Wales at
Port Jackson, (now
Sydney), as the new colony's first
judge-advocate. Collins was responsible, under the governor, for the colony's entire legal establishment. He issued all writs, summonses and processes, retained certain fees, and with one other justice of the peace formed the bench of magistrates.
In approximately June ~ July 1788,
Governor Phillip appointed Collins as the Secretary to the Governor, or Secretary to the Colony as the position was sometimes called. For the next eight years, quietly and efficiently, he was the indispensable aide to the officer administering the Government of New South Wales.
He also established the first settlement in what later became the Colony of
Victoria at
Sullivan Bay, Victoria on
Port Phillip Bay in 1803.
Collins left no published account of his work as Lieutenant-Governor at Port Phillip nor later as the founder of Hobart. He sailed from
England in April 1803 aboard
H.M.S. Calcutta, arriving at Port Phillip in October. After landing at Sullivan Bay near present-day
Sorrento, he sent First Lieutenant
James Hingston Tuckey of the
Calcutta to explore
Port Phillip. Tuckey’s report and his own dissatisfaction with the site chosen prompted him to write to
Governor King seeking permission to remove the settlement. When King agreed, Collins decided to move to the
Derwent River. He arrived there in February 1804 and established the future town of
Hobart.
Collins has given his name to
Collins Street, Melbourne and
Collins Street,
Hobart,
Tasmania.
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