Introduction

Biography

Son of a black­smith and mill work­er, Coll­yer be­gan work­ing in the lo­cal lin­en mill at age sev­en, but short­ly af­ter was ap­pren­ticed to a blacks­mith in Ilk­ley.

Around age 21, he be­gan at­tend­ing the Wes­ley­an church in Skip­ton Road.

He mar­ried Har­ri­et Wat­son in 1847, but she died giv­ing birth to their sec­ond child two years lat­er. In 1850, Coll­yer re-mar­ried, to Ann Long­bot­tom, and emi­grat­ed to Am­er­ica.

He first set­tled in Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia, where he worked as a smithy. In 1859, he moved from the Me­tho­dist church to the Uni­ta­ri­ans.

The fa­mi­ly moved to Ch­ic­ago, Il­li­nois, where he was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter at Large for the First Uni­ta­ri­an Church.

During the Am­er­ican civ­il war, Coll­yer served with the Sa­ni­tary Com­mis­sion, an or­gan­iz­ation si­mi­lar to the Red Cross.

In 1862, Coll­yer be­came Min­is­ter in Charge at the North Side Uni­ta ri­an Church in Chi­ca­go. How­ev­er, both the church and his home burned in the Great Chi­ca­go Fire of 1871.

In 1879, Coll­yer moved to New York Ci­ty to be­come pas­tor of the Uni­ta­ri­an Church of the Mes­si­ah.

He re­tired in 1896, and Leeds Uni­ver­si­ty award­ed him an hon­or­ary LittD de­gree in 1907.

Works

• Nature and Life, 1867
• A Man in Ear­nest: Life of A. H. Co­nant, 1868
• The Life That Now Is, 1871
• The Simp­le Truth, 1877
• Ilkley: An­cient and Mo­dern, with Jo­seph Hors­fall Tur­ner (Will­iam Wal­ker & Sons, 1885)
• Talks to Young Men: With Asides to Young Wo­men, 1888
• Things New and Old, 1893
• Father Tay­lor, 1906