Collier, JOHN

Collier, JOHN, known under the pseudonym of 'Tim Bobbin,' was the son of the curate of Stretford, near Manchester, and from 1739 to his death in 1786 was master of a school at Milnrow, near Rochdale. He early wrote verse and painted grotesque pictures; his rhyming satire, The Blackbird, appeared in 1739, and his View of the Lancashire Dialect (in humorous dialogue), his most notable production, in 1775. It has been often reprinted. Other works are Truth in a Mask, The Fortune-teller, The Human Passions. See Life by Fishwick, prefixed to his works (Rochdale, 1895).