English-born American Unitarian minister. Keen abolitionist and orator.
 
SIG - Signature. Vintage signature on small card, accomplished in fountain pen ink, to which he has added the word "Autograph".
 
Collyer's advocacy of anti-slavery principles, then frowned uypon by Methodist authorities, aroused opposition and, eventually, resulted in his trial for heresy and the revocation of his ministerial license.  He persevered as an independent preacher and lecture and, in 1859, having joined the Unitarian Church, became a missionary in Chicago. One year later he established a Unitarian church in Chicago which grew to be one of the strongest of that denomination in the West.  Collyer was widely regarded as one of the foremost pulpit orators in the US.