He was the eldest son of John Collier, a merchant of Plymouth, formerly a member of the Society of Friends and M.P. for that town from 1832 to 1842.
He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and while there wrote some clever parodies, and published a satirical poem called 'Granta.' Ill-health compelled him to abandon reading for honours and to quit the university, to which he only returned to take the ordinary B.A. degree in 1843.