Henry Collins, Bellman, Winchester, 1823

At the time of Dempsey’s visit to Winchester in 1823, Henry Collins was employed as the corporation’s bellman and crier. After at least 15 years in the job, Collins was certainly a familiar face in the town. The bellman’s primary task was to ring the hours at 8 am and 4 pm. For this he was paid £2, an annual salary unchanged since the middle of the 18th century.

As well as topping and tailing the working day, the bellman occasionally had additional official duties. Collins’s accounts for 1818 and 1824 have survived, and make specific mention of public announcements that he made about water use, smallpox infections and fireworks (both for Guy Fawkes and Waterloo nights); and of bills he posted, from Corn Law regulations and annual market returns to the proclamation of shop closures to mark the death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales.

These extra municipal commissions paid only a few shillings each, so it must be assumed that Collins earned much of his living from running private and commercial messages. Nevertheless, the city did supply his hat, coat and bell, and the year following his portrait also bought him a horn lantern, supplied by the flexible Winchester tradesman George Muspratt, who described himself as ‘Furnishing Ironmonger, Coppersmith, Bell Hanger, Iron and Tin Plate Worker, Smith, Lock Smith, Stove and Grate Manufacturer, &c’.

Collection: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, presented by C. Docker, 1956