In 1625, William and Jane lost 5 of their children to the Plague.
William Collier is the 7th great-grandfather of Belle Champlin (William Collier, Elizabeth Collier, Mary Southworth, Elizabeth Alden, Patience Seabury, Elizabeth Latham, John Champlin, Erastus Champlin, Henry Charles Champlin, Birdie Belle Champlin).
William Collier was born abt. 1585 in England. He died abt. 1670 in Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and is probably buried at Harden Hill in Duxbury. William married on 16 May 1611 at St. Olave, Southwark, Surrey, England to Jane Clark. They had 12 children.
On 15 Nov 1627, William Collier signed as one of the Adventurers. He was a merchant in London, being a grocer and owner of a brew house there. In 1633, William sailed to Pymouth, Massachusetts. He was made a Freeman 1 Jan 1634, and was assessed in May of that year 2 pounds, 5 shillings. In 1639, he removed to Duxbury. In 1649, he made over his right to a ten acre parcel of upland in Duxbury to his kinsman William Clark. In 1662, Mr. Collyare complained that the records of his grand at the North Hill were lost and could not be found, and the court ordered that the land be viewed and the report of it be recorded. In 1667, the court agreed to a grand of thirty or forty acres of land for Mr. William Collyare's grandchild, that grand child who is now servicable unto him". In 1668, the court granted him fifty acres in the tract of land at Namassakett.
Administration on the estate of William Collier was granted 5 Jul 1671.
William Collier served as follows:
Committee to lay out highways for "Duxbury side" 1634
Assistant for Plymouth Colony 1635-1665
Committee to view farm land 1635
Committee to set bounds for Scituate 1637
Committe to view North Hill and set bounds 1638
Committee to treat with Massachusetts Bay 1642
Council of War 1642
Council of War 1643
Plymouth Commissioner, sent to 1st meeting of Congress of United Colonies 1643
Chosen to revise laws with Governor 1644
Coroner 1646
Committee to draw up the excise 1646
Signed certificate of election of William Bradford and John Browne as Commissioners 1647
Committee for the letting of trade 1649
Committee to treat with Massachusetts Bay 1650
Auditor 1656
Committee to review the laws 1657
Council of War 1658
"He was an enterprising man, and engaged much in business, and during most of his life employed in the government of the colony, as Assistant and otherwise. In 1658, 'The court ordered a servant to him, because he can not easily come to public business, being aged and having much private business...That men of the highest respectability were selected to retail the 'strong water' was certainly the case; for we find that in 1660, Mr. Collier, who was eminently distinguished in the public affairs of the colony, was licensed to sell the beverage to his neighbors in Duxbury; and it can be justly considered that one, who is well known to have been one of the wealthiest among them, would not have selected this as a means of gain, but rather at the instance of the magistrates, who well knew him to be a sober and discreet man, and one who would not be likely to sufffer any transgression of their laws."
- Justin Winsor, History of the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with Genealogical Registers
