William Collins, Sons & Co Ltd (publishers: 1880-: Glasgow, Scotland)

William Collins ( 1789-1853 ), the founder of Collins, Sons & Co Ltd, was born in 1789 in Glasgow, Scotland, and became a teacher. He continued his teaching until 1819 when he went into partnership with Charles Chalmers to establish a printing and publishing business. William Collins & Co handled the publishing and printing side of the business while Chalmers & Collins dealt with bookselling and stationery. However, this partnership was short lived and, in 1826 , Collins brought Chalmers out of the business with the copyright of books that had already been published passing to Collins.

In 1817, Collins and his wife, Jane Barclay, had a son, William Collins (II) ( 1817-1895 ). William (II) joined his father's business as an apprentice and in 1848 was admitted as a partner, coinciding with a general expansion of the business. The growth in the number of churches following the Disruption, the major schism in the Church of Scotland, in 1843, and the church extension scheme meant there was an increased demand for bibles and religious literature. The advent of compulsory education also meant many textbooks were required and a general increase in literacy meant that there was an increased demand for all kinds of published material.

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