(1755 - 1830) of Gunthorpe Hall, Norf., 2nd s. of Daniel Collyer, merchant, high sheriff of London 1749, and of Wroxham, Norf.; Trin. Hall Camb. 1773; M.Temple 1776; ord. 1796; rect. of Gunthorpe with Bale, Norf. 1798 - 1830.
1779 - 80 Florence (Nov. 1779), Rome (Dec. 1779 - 13 Jan. 1780), Naples (mid-Jan - mid-Feb), Rome ( - 1 Apr.), Venice (20 - 21 Apr.), Verona, Mantua (8 May 1780)
Charles Collyer and his companion Ralph Winter ('never was a man of his bulk more active and indefatiguable') were in Florence and Rome at the end of 1779.1 In Naples they joined another Norfolkman Edward Roger Pratt, who thereafter shared Collyer's route (and later became his brother-in-law).2 Henry Bankes provided them with a letter of introduction to John Strange, the British resident in Venice,3 where they arrived in April 1780.4 Collyer had met John Soane in Rome, and with Pratt and Soane he travelled from Verona to Mantua on 8 May.5 In 1789 - 90 Soane was to build Gunthorpe Hall for him.6
1. Jones Memoirs, 92. Moore 1985, 73. 2. Jones Memoirs, 93. ASV IS 760. 3. Eg.1970, f.115 (28 Mar. 1780). 4. Bolton, Soane, 31. 5. Soane Museum, Soane's Italy and Italian Language Notebk. 6. Stroud, Soane, 140.