Robert Collyer
(1823-1912)

Robert Collyer was born on December 8,1823, in Keighly, Eng-
land, the son of destitute parents. At the age of eight, he went to
work in a cottonmill in Yorkshire, working there as a loom-tender
until he was fourteen. He then became an apprentice to a black-
smith and followed that trade for many years.

Following the death of his first wife on February 1, 1849, leav-
ing one son, Collyer's thoughts turned increasingly to religion.
Although brought up in the Church of England, he became a
Methodist and began preaching while still working as a black-
smith. He married again on April 9, 1850, and set sail for Amer-
ica the same day. He obtained work as a blacksmith in Shoemak-
ertown, near Philadelphia, and was soon accepted as a Methodist
lay-preacher. During those years he became a strong abolitionist.

Collyer increasingly found himself out of line with the orthodox
doctrines of Hell, Total Depravity, and the Atonement, and was
expelled from the Methodist Church in January 1859. One month
later he was called to Chicago as minister-at-large to the First
Unitarian Church. There he was ordained as a Unitarian minister
and founded and became the first pastor of the Unity Church,
where he was an immediate success. Twenty years later, in 1879,
he accepted a call to a church in New York City and remained
there until his death.

Collyer was a founding member and the first president of the
Chicago Literary Club. He presented eight papers, five of them
after he had left Chicago for New York City. With only two years of
formal schooling, a child of "workhouse" parents, this one-time
blacksmith gained widespread prominence as a minister, author
and speaker. He was an outspoken advocate for social justice
throughout his life and worked tirelessly to promote the welfare of
the lower classes. His death on November 30, 1912, was cause for
great mourning in this city, where he first gained national attention.

Read before the Club: May 17, 1999

This brief biography of Robert Collyer was read at the closing meet-
ing of the anniversary year. The reading was followed by the unveiling
of the newly restored portrait of Collyer that has been in the Club's pos-
session for more than one hundred years. The restored portrait bears out
the description of Collyer contained in the Dictionary of American Bi-
ography: "Large and tall, he had a massive head crowned with an
abundance of gray hair, and his ruddy face of almost classical sym-
metry expressed the strength, sweetness, and light of his character.”