page_title: John Collinson (historian)
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: John Collinson (historian) / Life
caption_attribution_description: English: All Saints' parish church, Long Ashton, Somerset, seen from the west
context_page_description: The Rev. John Collinson FSA was an English cleric, antiquarian and county historian. He is best known for his three-volume history of Somerset which he published at the age of only 34, two years before his untimely death, and which earned him the title of 'the Somerset historian'.
context_section_description: Collinson was the son of the Rev. John Collinson of Bromham, Wiltshire, where he was born on 19 July 1757. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1775, but did not complete a degree course. He was ordained deacon in 1779 with the sponsorship of the Rev. Thomas Meyler (c.1718–1786), having made further studies at The Queen's College, Oxford. He was then curate to Meyler in 1780 at Marlborough.
  Collinson moved to Cirencester where in 1781 he married. In 1782 he was appointed vicar of Clanfield, Oxfordshire. At this period he published one book, and issued proposals for county histories, firstly of Wiltshire and then of Somerset. He associated with the antiquarians Joseph Kilner and Samuel Rudder, and in 1784 was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, backed by Daines Barrington, William Boys and Edward Hasted.
  In 1787 Collinson became vicar of Long Ashton and perpetual curate of Filton (alias Whitchurch) in Somerset. He died at Hotwells, Bristol on 27 August 1793, and was buried at Long Ashton.
caption: All Saints Church, Long Ashton, Somerset, of which Collinson became vicar in 1787
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