John Collins (1717 - March 4, 1795), third governor of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, was born in Newport, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Collins. He stood forth as a staunch advocate of the independence of the Thirteen Colonies. An admirer of George Washington, he was selected by the governor of Rhode Island in 1776 to carry a letter to Washington informing him of the condition of the colony and soliciting counsel upon the best method to adopt for its defense. Later (1782) he was made bearer to the President of Congress of a statement of Rhode Island's reasons for rejecting the Impost Act. During the American Revolution, Rhode Island was for the most part an agricultural area and as such opposed the restrictions of a national government. Within the state the agricultural interests vigorously advocated a paper currency. Collins espoused their cause and in 1786 was elected governor. During his term in office the issuance of paper money, which had been ceased at intervals since 1750, was resumed. It was provided by law that should any creditor refuse to accept the bills of the state the debtor might secure a discharge by depositing the amount of his debt with one of the judges of the state superior court or the court of common pleas. This law led to the suit of Trevett vs. Weeden, which resulted in a decision looking toward the right of courts to declare legislative enactments unconstitutional. In 1778, Collins represented Rhode Island in the Second Continental Congress, where he served until May 1781, when he was superseded by William Ellery. He was, however, re-elected in 1782 and held the position until 1783. Rhode Island, up to 1790, vigorously fought against the calling of a convention to decide upon entering the Federal Union, but in that year (January 17) gave its sanction to such a call by a majority of one vote in the Senate. This vote was cast by Collins, who had come to realize the importance of a Federal connection. The vote cost him his popularity and the governorship. Later, however, he was elected to the 1st Congress but did not take his seat. He was married to Mary, daughter of John Avery of Boston, and his daughter Abigail married John Warren. Collins died at Newport was buried on his farm near that city, "Brenton Neck".

John Collins (March 1 1776 - April 16 1822) was an American manufacturer and politician from Collins Mill Pond, in Nanticoke Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, who served as Governor of Delaware.

John Angus Paul Collins (born January 31, 1968 in Galashiels) is a former Scottish international footballer and former manager of Hibernian.

John Collins VC DCM (September 10, 1880 – September 3, 1951) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

He was 40 years old, and an Acting Corporal in the 25th Battalion, The Royal Welch Fusiliers, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 31 October 1917 at Wadi Saba, Beersheba, Palestine, Corporal Collins repeatedly went out when his battalion was forced to lie out in the open under heavy shell and machine-gun fire, and brought back many wounded. In subsequent operations he rallied his men and led the final assault with great skill in spite of heavy fire at close range and uncut wire. He bayonetted 15 of the enemy and with a Lewis gun section covered the reorganization and consolidation most effectively although isolated and under fire from snipers and guns.

He later achieved the rank of Sergeant.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd, Wales.

Sir John Collins (born 1941) is a British business executive and director for several corporations. He was born in Rhodesia and after attending Campbell College in Belfast, he graduated from the University of Reading in England in 1964.

He worked for the Shell Group for nearly thirty years, starting in their Agribusiness in Africa and rising to be their Chief Executive for Shell, UK from 1990 to 1993. Since then he has held a number of positions, including the chairman of the U.K's National Power from 1998 to 2000.

Sir John Collins, Chairman, DSG international (Dixons,Currys,PCWorld,The Link,Fotovista,Pixmania)

John Collins (25 March, 1625- 10 November 1683) was an English mathematician. He is most known for his extensive correspondence with leading leading scientists and mathematicians such as Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Gottfried Leibniz, Issac Newton, and John Wallis. His correspondence provides details of many of the discoveries and developments made in his time.

John Collins (1742- 2 May 1808) was an English entertainer and poet from Birmingham. He was born in Bath but traveled widely in England and Ireland to perform in plays and musical theatre. He published The Brush, a collection of songs. In 1793 he settled in Burmingham, and in 1804 published a collection of poems and lyrics in Scripscrapologia.

he was a batty boy.

John Collins is an Australian bass player known for his work as a member of Australian band Powderfinger. He is one of the founding members of the band, along with guitarist Ian Haug. Powderfinger has released six studio albums, a greatest hits album and a double CD live album, all featuring Collins' bass guitar playing. After the band released their best of album, Fingerprints in 2004, they decided to take a break. During this break, John played with fellow Powderfinger member, Darren Middleton in his new band Drag on a number of occasions, as well as performing with Ian Haug and Steven Bishop in The Predators. Collins is often referred to as "J.C." by his fellow band members, as they are his initials and to distinguish him from the group's drummer Jon Coghill. Initially, the nickname was given to him following the group's song "JC" from their second album, Double Allergic, which referred to Jesus Christ.

John Collins, (born November 27, 1961), was most recently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Browns football team until his resignation on January 3, 2006.

Growing up in the New York City area, Collins graduated from C.W. Post College, then worked in account management with DDB Needham Worldwide for six years.

From there, Collins spent the next 15 years in a variety of key business roles with the National Football League, beginning with NFL Films before becoming Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales prior to his appointment with the Browns. He oversaw all the marketing, corporate sponsorship and advertising sales functions of the NFL and was a key member of the team that launched the NFL Network.

Collins received numerous honors during his tenure with the NFL. He was selected one of the top 20 sports advertising executives in 2004 by the Sports Business Journal and was selected by Advertising Age Magazine as one of America's top 50 marketers in 2003. However, his role in the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime controversy, in which singer Janet Jackson's breast was exposed, caused many to see him as a scapegoat for the situation.

Collins was hired by the Browns in April 2004, succeeding the retiring Carmen Policy. In his first months on the job, Collins created controversy when he dismissed a number of Browns staffers, many of whom had been hired by Policy. Then, in November of that year, Browns' head coach Butch Davis resigned, necessitating a two-month search for his replacement. Working with Lerner, Collins hired Phil Savage on January 6, 2005 as general manager, followed one month later by the addition of Romeo Crennel as head coach.

What seemingly was a smooth rebuilding situation exploded in controversy on December 30, 2005, with reports that Collins was about to fire Savage. Over the next three days, the uproar by the team's fans was enough to cause Collins to resign. He is now reportedly working for one of Browns' owner Randy Lerner's holding companies.

John Collins is since 1969 active in West African popular music as a musician, bandleader, studio-owner, writer and scientist. He is currently head of the department of music-sciences of the University of Ghana in Legon. He has done some research into and documentation of Highlife, a Ghanaian popular music.

John Collins also plays in a band, called The local dimension palmwine.

John Collins (born 1913) accompanied many Swing Era names from 1935-1950, including Art Tatum, Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday, and Lester Young. His longest association was with Nat "King" Cole, 1951-1965. Known for his rhythm work, he soloed infrequently. Collins later taught music in the Los Angeles area.

He appears on the classic 1983 recording Jackson, Johnson, Brown & Company featuring Milt Jackson on vibes, J. J. Johnson on trombone, Ray Brown on bass, Tom Ranier on piano, drummer Roy McCurdy and Collins.

John Collins (born 1972) is an Irish technology journalist who is currently on staff with The Irish Times. Born in Dublin, he grew up in Tuam, Co. Galway and subsequently Carlow, before returning to Dublin to attend University College Dublin from 1989-1993, where he studied English, Phliosophy and Economics, graduating with a 2.1 (Hons). He subsequently attended DIT where he received a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Relations.

He began his career as a journalist while in UCD, contributing to the College Tribune and later editing the UCD Student Union News (later renamed the University Observer). He worked briefly as an account executive with Edelman Public Relations but left to concentrate on his career in music journalism. Since the early 1990s he had been contributing to a range of magazines including Hot Press, Muzik, the Dublin Event Guide, i-D and others as one of the only Irish journalists covering the emerging rave/electronic music scene from the inside.

In late 1995 he began to contribute to PC Live! magazine and in January 1996 took over as editor. Since then his output has been almost entirely on technology and internet-related issues.

He left PC Live! in 2000 and became a high-profile freelancer. In those years he contributed to Ireland.com, Sunday Business Post, Computerscope, Business Plus, Silicon Republic, Business & Finance, and Smart Company. He has commented on technology and business issues for a range of radio and TV programmes for both RTÉ and independent stations, as well as co-presenting the RTE2 series, TechTV which ran in 1998, with Keelin Shanley.

He was awarded the Irish Internet Association’s Net Visionary Technology Journalist of the Year in 2007.

Collins maintains his own blog at www.taggingtech.com.

Since April 2007, he has been a staff journalist with The Irish Times on its business desk.

John Cyril Collins was a Fijian cricketer. He played six first-class matches for the Fiji national cricket team on a tour of New Zealand in 1895. He scored Fiji's only century of the tour, , an innings of 128 not out against Hawke's Bay.