Meredith Collins
Revolutionary militiaman who, by the family's record, enlisted at sixteen in 1776. After years on the Russell County, Virginia, tax rolls he settled on Shelby Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky, later Pike County, where he bored for salt water; in 1838 the court called him a "poor man." Probably the father, with his second wife Polly Holloway, of Jesse Collins.
Life
- c. 1760BornVirginia
Worked back from the family record that he enlisted at sixteen in 1776. The DAR gives "circa 1760." Of militia age by 1783; 45 or over in 1810.
compiledprobableSources
- "One More Mountain to Cross: The Collins Story," by Frankie A. Blackburn et al.
- DAR Genealogical Research System, Ancestor A024535, Meredith Collins, and its descendant lists
- 1810 U.S. census, Floyd County, Kentucky, Meredith Collins household
- Mary B. Kegley, Early Adventurers on the Western Waters, vol. 2, The New River of Virginia in Pioneer Days, 1745-1800
- c. 1799Married Polly Hollowayc. 1799compiledprobable
- 1810LivedFloyd County, Kentucky
Head of household. Indexed under Harrison County; the neighbours place it in Floyd.
documentedprobable - 1820Lived
- 1830Lived
- 1841DiedPike County, Kentucky
The year is from the family record; the DAR gives "post 1841." No death or estate record found. The other sources show him living on Shelby Creek, in Pike County from 1821, through 1829-30.
compiledprobableSources
- "One More Mountain to Cross: The Collins Story," by Frankie A. Blackburn et al.
- Deed, Richard Damron to Meriday Collins, 50 acres on Shelby Creek, Floyd County, Kentucky
- Deed, Marridah Collins to Harrison Newsom, Pike County, Kentucky
- 1830 U.S. census, Pike County, Kentucky, Meredy Collins
- Pike County, Kentucky, court orders naming Meredith Collins
Family
- Father
- John Collins
Open between two of Thomas Collins's sons, John and Samuel; the book leans to John. No document names his father. His grandfather is Thomas either way.
inferredpossibleSources
- "One More Mountain to Cross: The Collins Story," by Frankie A. Blackburn et al.
- Mary B. Kegley, comp., Militia of Montgomery County, Virginia, 1777-1790
- Reasoning:
research/collins-reed/Meredith_Collins_Origin_Line_Addendum.md
Other claim · Heinegg's grouping of the New River Collins men under Samuel; the FamilySearch treeSamuel Collinspossible
Other claim · FamilySearch treeSamuel Collins (b. 1734) and Cicely Hall, son of a Thomas Collins of Hampshire, England✕disprovenThe Hampshire graft can't be right on dates or records.
Other claim · FamilySearch treeLewis Collins of the Spotsylvania Collins family (Granville will 1783; Kershaw County, South Carolina)✕disprovenA separate, English-descended planter family. His will of 1783 names his children, and no Meredith (`will-lewis-collins-1783`).
- Spouse 1
- Polly Holloway
His second wife.
- Spouse 2
- Children
Pedigree
Notes
Enlisted at sixteen in 1776 with George, David and Lewis Collins, by the family’s record; no record gives the place. On Capt. James McDaniel’s Montgomery County militia list (undated, after 1777) as “Mendaby Collens,” on the line beside “Lewies Collens,” with David and George; that is the page the DAR accepted for his service (Patriot A024535). At the Montgomery court martial of 23 April 1783 he is among the men of McDaniel’s company who had refused a tour, “under similar orders.” No pension application has been found. The War of 1812 card for a Meredith Collins in a Tennessee regiment belongs to a namesake, and the Meredith Collins born 1789 at Boones Station, Kentucky, is another man.
On the Russell County, Virginia, tax rolls 1799-1809. In Floyd County, Kentucky, by 1810, his household of ten counted white; in 1820, beside his son Bradley, his household was entered entirely in the free colored and slave columns; in 1830, in Pike County, he was counted white again. Bought 50 acres on Shelby Creek from Richard Damron in 1816; bought 30 acres there on 29 January 1818 and agreed in 1819 with William Tackitt to bore for salt water; a Kentucky act of 1825 protected the ground “where William Tackett, Jesse Hamilton, and Meredith Collins are boring for Salt Water.” His land fell in Pike County when it was formed in 1821. Petitioned for a road in 1826; sold land to Harrison Newsom in 1827; held three parcels on Shelby Creek in 1831. Exempted from county tax in January 1829. In March 1829 the Pike court summoned him with Milly Johnson, and George Collins and Martin Collins with their partners, to show cause why their children should not be bound out; in June it bound out his son by Milly Johnson, about eleven. In 1838 the court called him a “poor man” and appointed Richard P. Robinson his overseer; he accused his sons of stealing his land. Named on the bronze plaque the Pikeville Chapter DAR placed at the Pike County courthouse in 1929.
His first wife, married about 1782-85, is unnamed in every record; she was the mother of Bradley (b. 1787) and probably of a daughter, the female aged 16-25 in the 1810 household. His second wife, Polly Holloway, married about 1799, was the mother of Archibald, James, Jesse, William and Hiram. Edward “Ned,” John W. and Reuben are named as his sons only on the Conley list [?]. George and Martin Collins, grouped with him in the 1829 court order, may be kin. Griffin Collins Sr. (c. 1773-1851) was a brother or cousin, not a son.
Open questions
- His father: John or Samuel? The deciding record would be a Montgomery County tithable list of the late 1770s showing a teenage Meredith in someone’s household.
- His mother: possibly a daughter of Moses Riddle born about 1740, if she married John [?].
- His first wife’s name.
- A death, will or estate record in Pike County, c. 1841.
- Eula Conley’s DAR application (562294) and its 25 supporting documents.