An excellent early example of Judge-Advocate Collins's handwriting and signature, written from Sydney at a time when he was one of the few senior First Fleeters still in New South Wales.

An excellent early example of Judge-Advocate Collins's handwriting and signature, written from Sydney at a time when he was one of the few senior First Fleeters still in New South Wales.

Collins stayed in the colony for such an extended period, spending the better part of a decade in Sydney, that he was always tremendously exposed to the unending complexity of managing his financial affairs from the other side of the world. He relied throughout on Cox, famously known as the banker to the Royal Marines. A small number of letters from Collins to Cox have surfaced over the last few decades, of which this is one of the earliest and fullest.

Always in financial strife, he here writes at length to Charles Cox, complaining that Cox does "not appear solicitous in writing", but Collins is so relieved by the prospect of soon leaving for England that he advises them – in rather exasperated, if understandable, tones – that "it is unnecessary for you to take any pains in the future about it. While I remain here, which I hope & expect will be but a few months longer, I shall take care, if occasions offer to send you whatever certificates may be necessary…". Collins did eventually sail for England on the Brittania in August 1796, and whatever his annoyance with Cox, the firm continued to take care of his affairs when he returned to the colony in 1802, right through until his death in Hobart in 1810.

"His debt problems plagued him to the end of his days. His banker, Charles Cox at times, would not honour Collins's bill of exchange, placing him in great embarrassment with creditors. When asked by Cox to reduce his overdraft, Collins replied, 'For heaven's sake, where do you think it is to come from?' Consequently, as soon as Cox collected Collins's marine pay for him, it as quickly flowed out again…" (Watson).

Eighteenth-century First Fleeter manuscripts are rare outside the major institutional collections: this is a fine specimen of the autograph of one of the most important figures in the early settlement. George Johnston's letter dated just sixteen months earlier, which appeared in our first catalogue of the Whitmont Collection as the earliest surviving unofficial manuscript letter written in Australia by a free settler, was also written to his bankers and military agents, Messrs Cox.

Collins is of course remembered for his magisterial two-volume Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, the fundamental First Fleet work based on his own extensive records and journals.