| abstract | - Millicent Collins Forbes (1772 - 1820s) was a cousin of the Collins family who came to Collinwood during the late 18th century. Millicent was the daughter of Theodore Collins, the elder sister of Daniel Collins and distant cousin of Joshua Collins, Abigail Collins, and Jeremiah Collins. She was therefore the first cousin, twice removed of Barnabas Collins and Sarah Collins. Millicent and Daniel were raised in New York by their parents. In 1790 their parents were killed in a carriage accident (373) that was part of the deadly curse of the Crimson Pearl. Millicent and Daniel were left as the heirs of the Collins estate in New York. It was during this time that they contacted the main branch of the Collins family in Maine. Joshua Collins was especially interested in his young relations in hopes of sustaining proper marriages for them when the time came. In October 1795, Millicent and Daniel decided to come to Maine to attend the wedding of Barnabas Collins to Josette DuPres. Joshua was especially eager for Millicent's arrival as he hoped to marry her off to his younger brother Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a widower, and was not interested in the proposed match with his flighty distant relative (372-373). He later eloped with Josette. Although the scandal shook the family, Millicent and Daniel remained at Collinwood. Millicent was never truly interested in Jeremiah, and wished to marry for love. A hypochondriac, she was easily swayed into a submissive and subdued manner by those around her. She quickly became a good friend of Josette, who introduced her to Collins Family friend Lieutenant Nathan Forbes. Forbes was a dashing naval officer whom Millicent found incredibly attractive (377). The two began a carefully arranged courtship (408). The romance ended abruptly when Millicent discovered that Nathan was already married to Suki Forbes. Despite Suki's death, Millicent was convinced that Nathan was only interested in her for her fortune. Intent upon marrying her, Nathan devised a plan with Noah Gifford to win the wealthy heiress back. Although the plan did work, it backfired on Nathan when he discovered that Millicent had signed away all of her property to Daniel. Because of this, Nathan drove Millicent insane, which was further exacerbated by becoming the victim of her supposedly dead cousin Barnabas Collins, who had been turned into a vampire by his vengeful wife Angelique. She was never able to recover from her experiences. In 1796, Millicent saw Barnabas and servant Ben Stokes taking Nathan out of the house and she followed. She subsequently visited Nathan in jail, hinting that maybe the romance was not out of her yet. He tried to get her to destroy the vampire Barnabas by driving a stake through his heart. She told Collins' family in-law Natalie DuPres, who took Nathan out of jail to try to do this, but he failed.
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