Note: This biography is from "A History of Scioto Co. Ohio, Together With a Pioneer Record of Southern Ohio", by Nelson W. Evans, A.M., Portsmouth, Ohio. Published by Nelson Evans in 1903. Judge John Collins of Portsmouth, Scioto, Ohio, was the father of Mary Collins Robey. It is to be noted that the death date given for Judge John Collins is 11 years off. According to letters written by family members to William and Mary Robey the Judge died in August of 1843. His wife followed him to the grave that same year, on 7 December. R. Campbell, ed.

Judge John Collins

John Collins was born at Morgantown, Va., October, 1754. His parents, John and Elizabeth Collins, lived and died there. He obtained such education as he could at Morgantown. He married twice, first to Elizabeth Doherty, daughter of Dr. James Doherty, in Morgantown, W. Va. He was 42 years of age when he landed in Scioto County. He was a man of considerable prominence. In 1803, he was appointed one of the first three Associate Judges, and served by re-appointment until 1832. The first Court held in the County, August 9th and 10th, 1803, was held at his house in Alexandria.

He had a handsome daughter, whom everybody admired. Her name was Cynthia and she married Captain Moses Fuqua, of Virginia. She was born of his first wife, as were his sons, Thomas and John. His daughter Polly married William Roby; Nancy married William Young; and Amelia married Philip Moore. there was a son Enos. All these were of his first marriage.

The second wife was Jane Lampson. Her children were Elizabeth, married to Nehemiah Beardsley; Joseph, William, David, and Susan, married to William Nottingham. All of these are deceased, but David, who lives at Blue Creek, Ohio. John Collins was an old fashioned Democrat, without variableness or shadow of turning. There was nothing piebald about his politics. He always went to every election and voted his party ticket and he always took an active part in every political canvas. He lived to vote for Andrew Jackson in 1832 and died that same year. While a strict partisan in politics he had his friends in the other party. He took a great fancy to young Sam Tracy when he came to Portsmouth. Collins was the moving spirit in having him appointed Prosecuting Attorney by the Court and declared that, so long as he sat on the bench, Sam should have the office. He kept his word. Collins was a large, fine looking man and of a positive and peremptory turn, but he soon learned that an Associate Judge had no duty but to concur with the Presiding Judge, and he followed that out. Once in the early part of his career on the bench, the Presiding Judge was absent, and on that occasion Collins was the ruling Spirit. A party was tried and convicted of hog stealing. Collins pronounced the judgment of the Court and the criminal was ordered to be bound hand and foot, placed in a canoe and set adrift in the Ohio River. The Sentence was carried out. Judge Collins was a strict Methodist for 40 years and then left that church and went to the New lights, in which faith he died. He was buried in the Carey's Run Cemetery and his grave is unmarked. His character and course of life was remarkably fitted to the time in which he lived.