PART
ONE
The
Gloucestershire Main Line - 1830 to 1880
This
is the third of four sections of the first part of the Collett family line
Updated August 2022
Susanna Collett [1O83] was
born at Siddington on 1st April 1837 and was baptised there on 7th
May 1837, the first child born to John Collett and his wife Mary Ann Dent. She was seven years old when she died, her
death recorded at Cirencester (Ref. xi 204) during the last three months of
1844
Sarah Ann Collett [1O84] was
born at Siddington on 6th October 1839 and it was there that she was
baptised on 23rd October 1839.
She was the eldest surviving child of John Collett and Mary Ann Dent and
11 years of age in the Siddington census of 1851. Although it would appear that she never
married, she gave birth to a base-born son at Siddington, the father’s name
likely to be Haines from the name given to the child
1P53 – Edward Haines Collett was born in 1861 at
Siddington
Alice Collett [1O85] was born on 23rd
July 1842 at Siddington and was eight years old in 1851 when she was living at
Siddington with her family. It is
understood that she was later married at Cirencester during March 1862
Charles Iles Collett [1O86] was
born on 2nd August 1846 at Siddington and was four years old by the
time of the Siddington census in 1851.
His second christian name was the same as the surname of the father of
William Collett (Ref. 2N15) who was the base-born son of Elizabeth Collett (Ref.
2M9) of Bibury, who was born in 1806 and who was baptised on 11th
March 1809 in Bibury. No record of any
member of his family has been found in 1861, but by the time of the census in
1871 Charles Collett from Siddington was living and working in Wales, where he
was already married with two children.
The young family was residing at 5 Minus Road in the village of Taibach
within the parish of Margam near Port Talbot.
Charles, aged 25, was employed as a labourer in a copper works, his wife
(1) Catherine from Taibach was 33, and their two children, also born there,
were Robert Collett, who was three, and Mary J Collett, who was only eleven
months old
During the next ten years
three more children were added to the family while they were still living in Taibach,
which was where they were living in 1881, albeit Taibach within the Margam
registration district. The census that
year placed the family living at 1 Woodfield in Taibach where Charles Collett,
aged 34, was a general labourer who was curiously recorded as having been born
at ‘Sylingbury in Gloucester’, although there is no record of such a
place. Residing there with Charles was
his wife Catherine, aged 43, and their five children who were Robert Collett,
aged 13, Mary J Collett, aged 11, Hannah Collett who was eight, William J
Collett who was five, and Charles Collett who was two years old
It was at Taibach in the
parish of Margam that the family was living in 1891, at which time the family
was recorded in error under the Collet spelling of the surname. The family comprised Charles Collet, aged 42
and from Siddington in Gloucestershire, Catherine Collet, aged 53, Mary Jane
Collet who was 20, labourer Robert Collet who was 23, and Charles Collet who
was 13. During the next decade the
couple’s eldest daughter was married and the family left Margam, when they
moved to the village of Cwmdu to the east of Maesteg. According to the census in 1901 the family
was residing at 44 Castle Street in Cwmdu and had living there with them, their
married daughter Mary Jane, her husband, and their two children. Charles Collett, aged 52 and from Siddington
in Glos, was a water filter with the local council, his wife Catherine was 63,
unmarried son Robert was 33 and a labourer, while nine-year-old Alice Collett
was described as the daughter of Charles and Catherine, which seems implausible
when Catherine would have been 54 at the time of her birth. Apart from Charles, all of the other members
of his family had been born at Taibach and couple speak English and Welsh
With Charles’ wife being
that much older than him, it was inevitable that she died shortly after the
census in 1901, and it was around 1905 or 1906 that he was re-married to (2)
Jane. By April 1911 the pair was residing
at 51
Maesteg Road, Maesteg in Middle Llangynwyd,
just south of Cwmdu, the home of Thomas and Elizabeth Davies. Still with Charles was his eldest unmarried
son Robert. Charles Collett from
Siddington was 64 and a water hewerman, Jane Collett was 58, and they had been
married for five years, and with them was Robert Collett who was 43. Charles survived for another fifteen years,
when his death was recorded at Bridgend in 1926
1P54 – Robert Collett was born in 1867 at
Taibach, Wales
1P55 – Mary Jane Collett was born in 1870 at
Taibach, Wales
1P56 – Hannah Collett was born in 1872 at
Taibach, Wales
1P57 – William John Collett was born in 1875 at
Taibach, Wales
1P58 – Charles Collett was born in 1878 at
Taibach, Wales
Isabella Collett [1O87] was
born at Siddington on 25th May 1849, another daughter of John and
Mary Ann Collett. She was living there
with her family in 1851 and again in 1861, while it was just less than six
years later when the marriage of Isabella Collett and Edward Richard Law was
recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 476) during the first quarter of 1867. After their wedding day, the couple headed
west to Frampton-on-Severn, where their first child was born, and then to
nearby Eastington, where the second child was born. By 1871, the family was residing at
Frocester, a village within the parish of Stroud, just south of
Eastington. Edward R Law from Kempsford
was 25 and working as a groom, Isabella Law was 21 and from Siddington, and
their two children were Martha J Law who was three and Kate Law
who was one year old
The couple’s next child
was born at Frocester before Edward’s work took the family to Bisley, to the
west of Stroud, where three more offspring were added to the family. The Bisley census of 1881 described Edward as
being a builder’s labourer from Fairford, who was 33. Isabella was 30 and their children were
listed as Martha who was 14, Kate who was 11, Edward J Law who was nine,
Charles Law who was seven, Joshua Law who was five and Susanna
Law who was two years old. At the end of
that decade, the family was again living in Bisley, where Edward was a carter
aged 43 from Fairford, Isabella was 40, Edward was 19, Charles was 17, Joshua
was 15, Susanna was 12, Richard J Law was 10, Lucy Law was eight,
Lottie Law was four and Alice M Law, who was still under one year
old
Even though one last
child was born into the family, the number of children living with the couple
in 1901 was greatly reduced. Also, by
that time they were living in the village of Quenington, near Lechlade, where Edward
was an agricultural labourer at 53, his wife was 51 and their three children
were Richard aged 19, Alice aged 10 and George Law who was six and born
at Minchinhampton. During the next ten
years Edward and Isabella travelled westward to Edgeworth, near Bisley, and it
was there that they were residing in 1911.
Edward was 63 and a farm labourer from Fairford, Isabella was 61 and
from Cirencester, and son George William Law was 17. In the end, Isabella Law nee Collett was 88
years old when her death was recorded at Stroud register office (Ref. 6a 517)
during the last three months of 1937
Robert Collett 24, bachelor and labourer of Eastcombe
and Rose Hannah 27, spinster of Eastcombe.
Robert’s father was listed as John Collett, labourer and Rose Hannah’s
father was listed as Levi King, waterman (the Severn & Thames Canal passes
close by Eastcombe). The witnesses were
Robert’s brother William Edward Collett and Louisa King, the sister of Rosanna
and nine years her junior
All of the children came
from that first marriage, the first two children being born at Eastcombe, with
the remainder being born at Siddington.
Robert’s occupation was that of a stonemason employed on the Earl of
Bathurst's Estate at Cirencester where he worked for most of his life, building
and repairing dry stone walls. He and
his family lived in Siddington up until the death of his wife Rosanna. She was baptised Rose Anna on 29th
August 1862, when she was twelve years of age.
The census in 1881 recorded the family as living in Church Road at
Ashton Keynes, just across the boundary in Wiltshire. The family at that time comprised Robert, aged
25, who was an agricultural labourer, his wife Rosanna, who was 28, and their
two daughters Lily H Collett, who was two, and baby Alice Louisa Collett, who
was just ten months old. The place of
birth for both children was confirmed as Eastcombe, which is near Bisley. The only other person living with them at
that time was lodger William Eggleton who was 23 years old and a shepherd from
North Leach
Within the next two years
the family left Ashton Keynes and moved the four miles north, to settle in the
village of Siddington. By 1891 a further
five children had been added to the family, which then comprised Robert, who
was 36, Rose Anna, who was 38, Lillie Harriett Collett, aged 12, Alice Louisa
Collett, aged 10, John Levi Collett who was nine, William Robert Collett who
was seven, Bertie Henry Collett who was five, Ernest Collett who was three, and
Walter Collett who was one-year old. Ten
years later, some of the children had left the family home in Siddington when,
according to the census in March 1901, Robert Collett was 47 and was working as
a navvy for the Great Western Railway.
His wife was recorded as Rosannah Collett, aged 46, and just five of
their children were still living with them on that occasion. They were William, aged 17, Ernest, aged 13,
Walter, aged 11, Robert who was nine, and Mabel R Collett who was six years
old. Tragically Robert’s wife died
almost exactly one year later. Rose Anna
Collett died of cancer of the liver while still living at Siddington on 28th
March 1902
It was around one or two
years later that Robert then married (2) Annie at Stratton near Cirencester,
although no record of the marriage has been found. Following the wedding Robert moved to Albion
Street in Stratton, where he lived with Annie until they parted company prior
to 1914. According to the census in
April 1911 Robert Collett, aged 56 and from Siddington, and his wife Annie,
aged 53, were living at 49 Baunton in Cirencester, less than one mile north of
the centre of Stratton, the dwelling described as having two bedrooms and a
kitchen. The census return, which was
signed by Robert, indicated that he and Annie had been married for seven years,
and that she had been born at Sopworth in Wiltshire, while Robert’s occupation
was that of a mason
Previously, very little
was known about Robert’s second wife.
However, it is now established that she was born Annie Eliza Smith, a
daughter of Isaac and Jane Smith. Like
all her siblings, she was born at Sopworth on the boundary between
Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, with her birth recorded at Malmesbury (Ref. 5a
41) during the second quarter of 1859.
She was still living at Sopworth, with her family, in both 1861 and 1871. Further research has failed to find any
record of her first marriage, although it is understood that she was a widow
when she married Robert Collett. After
separating from Robert, Annie continued to live in Cirencester and it was there
that her death was recorded (Ref. 6a 683) during the first quarter of 1929,
when she was 69. Still living with the
couple was Robert’s son Robert Collett, aged 19 from Siddington, who was
employed as a general farm labourer. One
other person was living at the address, and that was Percy Collett who was 15
months old and born at Stratton, who was described as grandson to head of the
household Robert Collett senior. Whilst
Robert Collett junior was recorded as being married, is it known that his full
name was actually Robert Percy Collett.
Therefore, there is a strong possibility that baby Percy Collett was his
son and that the absence mother may have died during the birth. If that was proved to be true, then Robert
Percy would have been only 17 when the child was conceived. However, he was the only sibling still living
in Stratton at the time of the birth, whereas all of his brothers had long
since left Cirencester and were all married some years after 1911. It is also known that there was a rift
between Robert Percy Collett and his father, so that might have been the reason
for their disagreement which resulted in Robert Percy eventually leaving his
father when he moved to the Forest of Dean, to be with his brother Walter
The only other member of
Robert’s family still living in the Cirencester area, at Bagendon, was his
youngest daughter Mabel Rose Collett who was 16 and was confirmed as having
been born at Siddington. At the time of
the death of his son William in 1914, and according to his military records,
his father Robert Collett was living at 3 Quarry Villas in Stratton in
Cirencester, while his mother, simply named as Mrs Collett, the husband of
Robert, was residing at 171 Gloucester Street in Cirencester. Three years later in 1917, Robert Collett had
moved again, and on that occasion his address was No. 2 Quarry Villas in
Stratton. Twenty years on, in 1937, when
Robert was 82, he was living alone and, despite his advanced years, he was
still managing to continue with his work building and repairing dry stone
walls. In the summer of 1945 at 90 years
of age, he was known to have travelled from Stratton to Cinderford, on the edge
of the Forest of Dean, to attend the funeral of his ‘long lost’ son Walter
Collett who died there on the seventh of July.
By that time in his life Robert Collett was in a poor state of health
and his daughter Alice Louisa Collett, who had accompanied her father to the
funeral, persuaded him to return home with her to 7 Bathampton Street in
Swindon. And it was there that he spent
the last four months of his life, eventually dying of pneumonia on 18th
November 1945. Details of Rosanna King’s family are provided in Part 10 - Other
Branch Lines commencing with the reference 10O2/King
1P59 – Lily Harriett Collett was born in 1880 at
Eastcombe
1P60 – ALICE LOUISA COLLETT was born in 1881 at
Eastcombe
1P61 – John Levi Collett was born in 1883 at
Siddington
1P62 – William Robert Collett was born in 1883 at
Siddington
1P63 – Bertram Henry Collett was born in 1885 at
Siddington
1P64 – Ernest Collett was born in 1887 at Siddington
1P65 – Walter Collett was born in 1889 at
Siddington
1P66 – Robert Percy Collett was born in 1892 at
Siddington
1P67 – Mabel Rose Collett was born in 1894 at
Siddington
Henry John Collett [1O90] was
born at Siddington during the fourth quarter of 1865, his birth recorded at
Cirencester (Ref. 6a 311), the youngest child of John Collett and Mary Ann
Dent. He later married Martha Annie
Maisey at Black Bourton near Faringdon in Oxfordshire, with the event recorded
at Witney (Ref. 3a 1115) during the second quarter of 1886. Martha was born at Black Bourton in the first
quarter of 1862 and the birth was again registered at Witney, where she was
recorded as the daughter of James Maisey and Annie Yeatman of Alvescot. It is also possible that Henry and Martha
were perhaps married at Alvescot, where their first two children were born
before they moved to Black Bourton, where their next child was born. By April 1891 the family was living at Mill
Lane in Alvescot within the Bampton & Witney registration district and
comprised Henry John Collett aged 25, who was an agricultural labourer, Martha
Annie Collett who was 29 and most likely pregnant with her next child, and
their two daughters Alice Mary Collett who was four and Elsie Collett who was
one-year-old
The couple’s third child
was born while the family was still living at Black Bourton later that same
year, but shortly after Henry returned to live in Cirencester with his family,
where the couple’s last three daughters were born. Following a period of about five years at
Cirencester the family moved again, that time to the Bristol area. The move took place in either late 1900 or
within the first couple of months of 1901, since the census for that year
placed the family as living at The Hill in Almondsbury, just north of Bristol,
where Henry was a carter on a farm.
Henry Collett was 35 and from Siddington, his wife Martha Annie Collett
was 38 and from Alvescot, as were daughters Alice Mary aged 13 and Elsie aged 11,
Edith Annie who was nine and from Black Bourton, while the youngest three girls
were confirmed as having been born at Cirencester. They were Ethel Lilian who was six, Winifred
Maisey who was three and Elizabeth who was just one-year old. It is possible that both Henry’s wife and his
youngest daughter died shortly after the census day that year
According to the next
census, conducted for the Bristol area in April 1911, Henry J Collett of
Cirencester was 45 and a carter on a farm who was residing at a dwelling on
Harry Stoke Road in Stoke Gifford with his wife and three of their
daughters. Martha Collett from Alvescot
was 48, Elsie was 21 and also born at Alvescot, Ethel Collett was 16 and
Winifred Collett was 14, both of whom had been born at Cirencester. It is possible that the family returned to
the Cirencester area over the following couple of years, since the death of a
Henry J Collett was recorded at Northleach register office (Ref. 6a 484) during
the fourth quarter of 1914
1P68 – Alice Mary Collett was born in 1887 at
Alvescot, Oxfordshire
1P69 – Elsie Collett was born in 1889 at
Alvescot, Oxfordshire
1P70 – Edith Annie Collett was born in 1892 at
Black Bourton, Oxfordshire
1P71 – Ethel Lilian Collett was born in
1894 at Cirencester
1P72 – Winifred Maisey Collett was born in 1897
at Cirencester
1P73 – Elizabeth Collett was born in 1899 at
Cirencester
Martha Collett [1O91] was born at
Stonehouse and was baptised there on 24th May 1844, the daughter of
Martin Collett and Elizabeth Taylor.
However, she suffered an infant death shortly after
John Martin Collett [1O92]
was born at Stonehouse in 1845 and was five years old at the time of the census
in 1851, when he and his parents were living at Wheatenhurst to the south of
Gloucester. Ten years later, when John M
Collett was 15, he and his parents were living in the St John the Baptist
district of Gloucester. By 1871 bachelor
John M Collett, aged 25, was living within the census registration district of
Gloucester, Hamlet South, but four years later, during the first three months
of 1875 he married Sarah Ann Dosson at Staines in Middlesex where the event was
recorded (Ref. 3a 15). The witnesses at
the wedding were Elizabeth Edney, William Lake and Emily Steele. Just four years after they were married,
according to the Gloucester Almanac of 1879, John Martin Collett was living at
Regent Street. However, by the time of
the next census in 1881, John and his young family were living at 2 Hawkesbury
Villa, Weston Road in Longford St Mary in Gloucester. The census return recorded that J M Collett
was 35 and had been born at Stonehouse.
His occupation was that of a chemical manufacturer. His wife was confirmed as Sarah A Collett, aged
32, who had been born at Neath in Glamorganshire. Their children at that time were John
Collett, who was four years old, Agnes Collett, who was two, and Gilbert
Collett who was one-year old, all three of them having been born in Gloucester
The company of J.M.
Collett & Co Ltd, Chemical Manufacturers of Gloucester, was founded by John
in 1869. The company’s premises at
Priory Factory, appears to have been established in St. Luke's Street, just off
Southgate Street, as indicated in the 1883 Gloucester Almanac. Some years later, a subsidiary company, Malt
Products Ltd was established to produce photo-chemicals for use in
warfare. In 1898 Llanthony Abbey Farm, the former Augustinian Priory of Llanthony Secunda
at Longtown, was sold to J. M. Collett, chemical manufacturer, who intended to
build a factory there. However, the farm
was appropriated by the Great Western Railway in 1906. From around 1903-1904, the company was
base at 50 Bristol Road, on the left towards Bristol, before the canal bridge,
and three-hundred yards beyond Tuffley Avenue.
In 1922 the company of J M Collett was listed as an exhibitor at a
national show [Stand A53] where on display was such produces as Sulphite and
Bisulphite of Soda, Meta Bisulphites, Sulphurous Acid, Bisulphite of Lime, and
Glaubers Salt. It was between 1948 and
1952 that the company was sold to Associated British Maltsters Ltd, with the
site then being occupied by Contract Chemicals Ltd until 1998 to 2001, when it
was sold for redevelopment
By 1891, the census that
year revealed that two further sons had been added to the family within the
three years after previous census in 1881.
Head of the household John was listed as John M Collett, aged 45, when
he was living at South Hamlet in Gloucester with his wife Sarah who was 43,
their daughter Agnes who was 13, and their two new sons Leopold G Collett, who
was eight, and Seymour Collett who was seven.
The couple’s eldest two sons, John Henry Collett, aged 14, and Gilbert
Faraday Collett, aged 11, were attending school at Axminster in Somerset at
that time. Just after the turn of the
century, according to the next census in 1901, John M Collett was living in
Gloucester at the age of 55, where he was continuing to work as a chemical
manufacturer, while still living with him was his wife Sarah who was 53. Also, still living at the family home in
Gloucester with them was their daughter Agnes who was 23, and two of their four
sons, John who was 24 and Leopold who was 18, who were working with their
father as chemical manufacturers. Their
address was Hillfield, 101 Great Western Road, off the
London Road, the house being a Victorian-Italianate style property, standing in
its own grounds, next to the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene. In 2011 the same building, Hillfield House on
the renamed Denmark Street, is the Trading Standards Office for Gloucestershire
County Council
The couple’s second son
Gilbert F Collett, aged 21, was living and working away from home at Cowley, to
the south of Cheltenham. Upon completing
his initial education Gilbert entered Pembroke College at Cambridge University,
when his father was described as John Martin Collett of Guy’s Cliff in Wolton,
Gloucester, and later of Wynstone Place, Brookthorpe-with-Whaddon near
Gloucester. According to the Gloucester
census of April 1911, John Martin Collett of Stonehouse was 65, and his wife
Sarah Anne Collett from Neath in Glamorgan was 63. At that time the couple was living at
Kimsbury House in the parish of Upton St Leonards in Gloucester, from where
John was confirmed as a chemical manufacturer.
The census return also confirmed that the couple had been married for 35
years. Still living with John and Sarah
were two of their five children. Their
unmarried son, Gilbert Faraday Collett aged 32, was a chemical manufacturer
like his father, while their daughter Agnes Sophia Collett was recorded in
error as being only 30 years of age, when in fact she was nearer 33. Both of the children were confirmed as having
been born at Gloucester
The family of four living
at Kimsbury House was supported by three domestic servants. They were widow Rose Annie James 43 who was
from Worcester and who was the cook, Miss Alice Maud Williams from Newent in
Gloucestershire who was the housemaid aged 30, and Miss Jamie Hale who was 20
and from Taynton near Newent who was the under housemaid. John Martin Collett was residing at Wynstone Place,
Brookthorpe in Gloucestershire when he died on 25th November 1924 at
the age of 78, his death recorded at Wheatenhurt register office (Ref. 6a
371). Probate of his considerable
personal effects, valued at £88,291 14 Shillings 2 Pence, was granted jointed
to John Henry Collett CMG and Gilbert Faraday Collett DSO, chemical
manufacturers, and to the Reverend Seymour Collett, a clerk
1P74 – John Henry Collett was born in 1876 at
Gloucester
1P75 – Agnes Sophia Collett was born in 1877 at
Gloucester
1P76 – Gilbert Faraday Collett was born in 1879 at
Gloucester
1P77 – Leopold George Collett was born in 1882 at
Gloucester
1P78 – Seymour Collett was born in 1883 at
Gloucester
Sarah Ann Collett [1O93] was
born at Leonard Stanley where she was baptised on 26th December
1835. In the 1841 Census she was five
years old and living with her family at Leckhampton near Cheltenham. However, ten years later, there was no record
of her living with her family, nor has any record been found of her thereafter
Mary Collett [1O94] was born at
Leonard Stanley in later 1836 or early 1837 and was baptised there on 14th
May 1837. At the age of four years, she
was living with her family at Leckhampton but by the time she was fourteen she
and her family were living at Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire
John William Collett [1O95] was
born at Leonard Stanley on 4th January 1839 and it was there that he
died three days later on 7th January 1839, the son of George Collett
and his first wife Jane Packer
Harriet Collett [1O96] was
born in the early part of 1840 and was baptised on 1st September
1840 at Leckhampton just south of Cheltenham.
She was recorded as being aged one-year old in 1841. By 1851 she was aged 10 and she and her
family had moved to Colnbrook. It was
also at Colnbrook over six years later that she married Isaac Rendrey on 23rd
December 1857. In 1866 Harriet gave
birth to a daughter Rhoda Rendrey who was born to the couple while they
were still living at Colnbrook. However,
some major tragedy befell the family in the years after that, resulting in the
deaths of both Harriet and Isaac. By the
time of the 1881 Census, their daughter was an orphan aged 14, who was living
at St John’s Orphanage in the Clewer district of Windsor where she was being
educated by the Sisters of Mercy
Charles George Collett [1O97] was
born in 1845 at Wick in Wiltshire, where he was baptised on 25th May
1845, the son of George Collett and his first wife Jane Packer. He was six years old in the census of 1851,
by which time he and his family were living at Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire,
where he was also living in 1861 at the age of 16. He later moved to Ham in Surrey where he
married Ann who was born at Chertsey in 1837.
By the time of the next census in 1871, Charles was listed in error as
Charles G Collet, aged 26 and from Wiltshire, who was residing within the
Kingston-on-Thames registration district, which included Ham, one mile north of
Kingston. Living there with him was his
wife Ann Collet, aged 32, and their two children Walter C Collet, who was two,
and Edward Collet who was one-year old, both of them born at Ham. However, tragically the couple’s son Edward
did not survive beyond childhood since he was missing from the family by 1881,
when no record of him has been found anywhere within Great Britain
Over the next couple of
years, the family was still living in Ham, when Ann presented Charles with the
first two of their three daughters.
Sometime after the birth of the second daughter, Charles took his family
to nearby Kingston, where the couple’s last child was born. And it was at Acre Road in
Kingston-on-Thames, that the family was recorded in the census of 1881. In the census return for that year Charles
George Collett, aged 36 from Wiltshire, was a carpenter like his father and two
of his brothers. His wife Annie Collett
from Chertsey was 43 and their four children were Walter Charles Collett, aged
12, Alice Collett who was nine, Lucey Collett who was eight, and Louisa Collett
who was five years old. Living with the
family at that time, was Julie Vincent, aged 17 and from Ham, who was described
as Charles’ niece, and Frederick Trotter, aged 12 and also born in Surrey, who
was described as his nephew. It is
interesting that Charles’ father George Collett, who was widowed during the
1870s, was re-married around 1876, when he married the widow Mrs Emma McCann,
whose maiden name was Vincent. That in
itself raises the question, was the wife of Charles George Collett actually Ann
Vincent
The family of six was
once again recorded together within the Kingston registration district in 1891,
when Charles G Collett was 46, Ann Collett was 52, and their four children were
Walter Chas Collett, aged 22, Alice Collett, aged 19, Lucie Collett, aged 18,
and Louisa J Collett who was 14.
However, it was five years after that when Charles George Collett died
in October 1896 at the age of 50. At
that time, he and his family were residing at Bloomfield Road in
Kingston-on-Thames, and it was at All Saints Church in Kingston where he was
buried on 15th October 1896, burial reference P33/1/38. No record of his widow Ann has so far been
found in the census of 1901, although their two youngest children were staying
as boarders at a house in Kingston.
However, by 1911 the widow of Charles George Collett was 74 when Ann
Collett from Chertsey was still living in Kingston-on-Thames but at the home of
her married daughter Alice Daysh. Living
there with her was her youngest and unmarried daughter Louisa Collett from
Kingston
1P79 – Walter Charles Collett was born in 1868 at
Ham in Surrey
1P80 – Edward Collett was born in 1870 at
Ham in Surrey
1P81 – Alice Collett was born in 1872 at
Ham in Surrey
1P82 – Lucy Collett was born in 1873 at
Ham in Surrey
1P83 – Louisa J Collett was born in 1876 at Kingston-upon-Thames,
Surrey
Oliver Collett [1O98] was born at
Colnbrook in 1849 with his birth recorded at Eton (Ref. 6 389) during the
fourth quarter of that year. By the time
of the census in 1851 Oliver’s family was residing at Langley Marish, midway
between Colnbrook and Slough, where Oliver Collett was listed as being one-year
old. He was approaching his third birthday
when he was baptised at the Church of St Thomas in Colnbrook on 29th
August 1852, when his parents were confirmed as George and Jane Collett. Around the time of his tenth birthday Oliver
Collett suffered a premature death, that sad event recorded at Eton (Ref. 3a
235) during the last three months of 1859
Walter William Collett [1O99] was
born at Colnbrook in late 1852 or early 1853 and was baptised there on 28th
August 1853. The parish record indicated
that he was baptised as William Walter, which contradicted the name he used
during all of the later census records.
In 1861 he was eight years old, when he was living with his family at
Colnbrook, and was 18 in 1871 by which time he was still living with his family
in Colnbrook. By 1881 Walter, aged 28,
was working as a carpenter like his father before him. He was still a bachelor when he was a lodger
at the home of railway porter Ephraim Skinner at Church Lane in Edgware. Walter gave his place of birth as
Windsor. It was during that same year
that Walter became a married man for the first time. The marriage by banns of Walter William
Collett and (1) Dulcie Bella Mitchell was recorded at Fulham (Ref. 1a 384)
during the last three months of 1881, the wedding ceremony conducted at the
Church of St John on 8th October 1881. The bride and the groom were both single and
28 years of age, with Walter working as a carpenter, the son of carpenter
George Collett. Dulcie’s father was
described as William Mitchell deceased, a bootmaker. The address for both of them was 1 Whiteland
Terrace in Fulham, and they both signed the register in their own hand, with
one of the witnesses being C Collett
After nine years
together, the childless couple was residing at Coopersale Road in Hackney when
carpenter Walter William Collett from Colnbrook was 38 and Dulcie Collett was
37, her birth recorded at Northleach in Gloucestershire during the summer of
1853 under her full name. Six years
later the death of Dulcie Bella Collett was recorded at St Marylebone (Ref. 1a
328) during the second quarter of 1897 when she was 43. The second marriage of Walter William Collett
was recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 478) during the first three months of 1898,
when he married (2) Mary Ann Howlett.
That was confirmed in the next census of 1901 when Walter and Mary were
living at Northumberland Grove in the Tottenham area of London. Walter W Collett from Colnbrook was still a
carpenter at the age of 48 and his wife was described as Mary Ann Collett from Pimlico
who was 40. Ten years later the couple
had left London and had settled at Staplehurst, nine miles south of Maidstone
in Kent, where Walter Collett from Colnbrook was 58 and continuing to work as a
carpenter, while living there with his wife of thirteen years, Mary Ann Collett
who was 50 and from Pimlico. Over the
next two decades the couple returned to London, where the death of Walter W
Collett was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 559) during the
second quarter of 1930 when he was 77 years old
George Collett [1O100] was
born at Colnbrook in 1855, where he was baptised on 28th June 1857,
the son of George Collett and his first wife Jane Packer. He appeared in the 1861 Census as being six
years of age when he was still living with his family at Colnbrook. Ten years later, when George Collett was 16
years old, he was still living with his family at Colnbrook within the Stanwell
registration district. His mother died
during the 1870s, following which his father married Mrs Emma McCann nee
Vincent, while George Collett married Lucy Warrell on 13th June 1880
at Bromley in Kent, where the couple settled.
According to the census nine months later, George and Lucy Collett were
living at 8 Park End in Bromley where George, aged 26 and from Colnbrook, was
working as a carpenter like his father and older brothers Charles and Walter
(above). His wife Lucy was 27 and her
place of birth was recorded as Poyle, a village near Colnbrook. Being only very recently married, the couple
had not yet started a family by that time
It was during the
remainder of the century that Lucy presented George with two known children,
both of them born at Bromley, the first of them listed with his parents in the
Bromley census of 1891 when the family of three was residing at Park End. On that day George Collett was 36 and a
carpenter, Lucy Collett was 37, and their son Percy Collett was two years of
age. Another son was added to their
family two years later which, by March 1091 was still living in Bromley but at
Gwydyr Road. Head of the household was
George Collett, aged 46 and from Colnbrook, whose occupation was still that of
a carpenter, his wife Lucy Collett was 47 and also from Colnbrook, and their
two sons were Percy Collett who was 12 and Walter Collett who was eight years
old, both of them born at Bromley. Also
residing in Bromley at that time was George’s half-brothers Arthur Collett and
Frank Collett (below), who were living with their widowed mother Emma
The family eventually
left Bromley, when they move the relatively short distance to the village of
Dunton Green near Sevenoaks in Kent.
That was where three members of the family were recorded in the next
census of 1911. George Collett from
Colnbrook was 56, Lucy Collett who 57 and from Poyle near Colnbrook, and their
youngest son Walter Collett was 17. The
couple’s older son Percy George Collett was also living within the county of
Kent, but further south at Hawkhurst. Previously it was written here, in error,
that George and Lucy had a daughter Helen, but it is now known that she was the
daughter of George and Louise Collett (Ref. 23O1) as included in Part 23 – The Newbury & Wiltshire to
Australia Line
1P84 – Percy George Collett was born in 1888 at Bromley,
Kent
1P85 – Walter Collett was born in 1893 at
Bromley, Kent
Caroline Jane Collett [1O101] was
born at Langley in Buckinghamshire on 30th April 1859, but was
baptised at Colnbrook on 16th August 1859, the daughter of George
and Jane Collett. By the time of the
1861 Census for Colnbrook she was aged one year and ten years later, when she
was 11 years old, she was again living with her family at Colnbrook, within the
Stanwell registration district. By the
time of the census in 1881 Caroline Collett, aged 22 and from Colnbrook, was
living and working at the home of solicitor William H Withall at Hatfield
House, Portinscale Road, Wandsworth in Surrey, where she was employed as a
kitchen maid. Three and a half years
later she married William Pratt on 18th October 1884 at Kingston
upon Thames. This is the family line of Dorothy Hilda Ellis
nee Pratt, the wife of Ron Ellis, who was born at Dagenham 5th June
1930 and who died at Selby
in Yorkshire on 28th November 2014
Herbert William Collett [1O102], formerly
Herbert William McCann, was born at Kingston-upon-Thames around 1867, the
youngest child and only surviving son of mariner Herbert MacCann and his wife
Emma Vincent. Although no record of his
family has been located in the census on 1861, by 1871 and at the age of four
years, he was living with just his mother Emma McCann of Chertsey and his two
older sisters in Kingston-on-Thames. One
of his sisters, Ann McCann, was born at Ham near Kingston in 1861, and it was at
Ham that a member of the Collett family was also living in 1871, and it may
have been through that link that Herbert’s widowed mother was introduced to
George Collett who had just lost his wife.
From that chance meeting Emma McCann married George Collett around 1876,
and by 1881 Emma’s son Herbert McCann was recorded in the census as Herbert
Collett, aged 14 and from Kingston. The
census that year listed the family’s address as a large cottage called King
John’s Palace in Colnbrook, where Herbert’s father was recorded as George
Collett, aged 66 and from Minchinhampton, and his mother was Emma Collett, aged
46 and from nearby Chertsey. Also, by that time Herbert had a half-brother, who
was Arthur Collett who was three years old, who had been born at Colnbrook. His adopted father George Collett died during
the 1880s and not long after Herbert married Elizabeth Lile Mills on 21st
September 1890, by which time Herbert had already fathered a son, and his bride
was due to give birth to their second child over the coming months
The wedding took place at
the Church of St James-the-Great on Bethnal Green Road, following the posting
of banns, and the details extract from the parish register are as follows: Herbert Collett, 23 and a bachelor, married
Elizabeth Lile Mills, 23 and a spinster.
He was a baker of Bethnal Green and his father was named as Herbert
Collett deceased, while his bride, also of Bethnal Green, was the daughter of
compositor John Mills. The couple both
signed the register, and the witnesses were Alfred James Mills and Ada Jessie
Mills. It is curious that his father was
named as Herbert Collett, rather than Herbert McCann, but it may have simply
been that his gave his father’s name as Herbert and the registrar made the
mistake of assuming it was Collett. The
witness Alfred James Mills was Elizabeth’s younger brother, and in 1891 he was
still living with his family in Clerkenwell, just two doors from the recently
married young Collett couple.
Elizabeth’s parents were printer John George Mills, aged 52, and Sophia
Mills, aged 57, and living at No 23 Rounall (?) Buildings with them were their
three unmarried children Florence 21, Alfred 18, and Ernest who was 11. Sophia, Florence and Alfred, like Elizabeth herself,
were all recorded as having been born in Hertfordshire
The same census recorded
Herbert Collett, aged 24, as a pastry cook living at No 21 Rounall (?)
Buildings with his wife Elizabeth Collett, aged 23, and their son Herbert Wm
Collett who was two years old. Both
Herbert senior and Herbert junior were listed simply as having been born in
London. The registration of the birth of
Herbert’s two sons has been found at Holborn, where the birth of his daughter
Louisa May was also registered some years later – see details below. First to be registered, prior to his wedding
day, was the birth of his son Herbert William Collett during the last quarter
of 1888, around two years before he married Elizabeth, while just over five
years later the birth of his only other son Frank was also recorded at Holborn,
during the first quarter of 1894.
Between the two boys, Herbert and Elizabeth’s daughter Ada was born on
12th December 1891 and she was baptised six weeks later at St James’
Church in Clerkenwell on 24th January 1892 as Ada Elizabeth Collett,
the daughter of pastry-cook Herbert William Collett and his wife
Elizabeth. Unfortunately, the address at
which the family was living at that time is not clearly written, but looks
something like 5 Wherlin Street
In 1894 there is a record
of a son by the name of Herbert Collett attending Great Ormond Street
Children’s Hospital, while his home address was noted as being 9A Rosamund High
Street at Clerkenwell in the Holborn district of London. It was in 1899 that the couple’s penultimate
child was born, following which she was baptised as Sarah May Collett at the
Church of the Holy Redeemer in Clerkenwell on 12th November 1899,
the daughter of Herbert and Elizabeth Collett of 12 Easton Street. Sadly, she died not long after she was
baptised. By the time of the next census
in 1901 Herbert Collett from Kingston in Surrey, was living at 12 Easton Street
in Clerkenwell with his wife and their six surviving children, having already
suffered the loss of their youngest child.
Herbert was 32 and a journeyman baker, his wife Elizabeth was 36 and
from Hertford, and their children were Herbert Collett, aged 13, Ada Collett,
aged 10, Frank Collett who was eight, Annie Collett who was six, May Collett
who was three, and Jessie Collett who was three months old
According to the census
return all of the children had been born at Clerkenwell within the Finsbury
district of London. The birth of the
couple’s third daughter, Louisa May Collett, was registered on 9th
March 1898 at Holborn for the sub-district of Goswell Street, while the child
was actually born on 24th January 1898 at 23 Rawstorne Street, just
off Goswell Street [the A1]. At that
time, her parents were described as Herbert Collett, a pastry cook, and his
wife Elizabeth Collett formerly Mills, and it was the latter who registered the
child’s birth. It was also at
Clerkenwell between March 1901 and 1903 that both Herbert and Elizabeth
died. A record of the death of a Herbert
Collett has been found in London in 1902, and that may be this Herbert William
Collett. Whether it was a double-death
in some accident or other for the couple is not known.
1P86 – Herbert William Collett was born in 1888 at
Clerkenwell, London
1P87 – Ada Elizabeth Collett was born in 1891 at
Clerkenwell, London
1P88 – Frank Collett was born in 1893 at
Clerkenwell, London
1P89 – Annie Collett was born in 1895 at
Clerkenwell, London
1P90 – Louisa May Collett was born in 1898 at
Clerkenwell, London
1P91 – Sarah May Collett was born in 1899 at
Clerkenwell, London; died there in 1900
1P92 – Jessie Collett was born in 1900 at
Clerkenwell, London
Arthur Charles Collett [1O103] was
born at Colnbrook on 29th December 1879. Curiously his age in the following census
returns appears to have been incorrectly recorded, and the only one to
accurately reflect his real age was in 1911 when it was stated he was 31. In the first of them, in 1881, he was listed
as being aged three years (sic), when he was living with his parents George and
Emma Collett at King John’s Palace in Colnbrook, together with his older
brother Herbert (above). Sometime during
the 1880s Arthur’s parents took him and his younger brother Frank (below) to
live at Bromley in Kent, where they were living in 1891 when Arthur was 14
(sic). Shortly thereafter Arthur’s
father passed away, so in the census of 1901 Arthur was still living with his
widowed mother Emma and his brother Frank at Bromley. At that time in his life unmarried Arthur
Collett, aged 23 (sic) and from Colnbrook, was working as a domestic gardener
with his brother
Around 1908, according to
the census of 1911, Arthur married Laura Emma, a fact that seems not to have
been known by members of the family until the release of the census
details. In the census return the
childless couple was living at 15 Tynley Road in Bickley in Kent where Arthur
Collett of Colnbrook was 31 and a domestic gardener, while his wife of two
years was Laura Emma Collett who was 31 and from Knockholt, near Sevenoaks. What happened next to Arthur and Laura is not
known at this time, but they were either divorced, or Laura died giving birth
to the couple’s first child. What is
known for sure is that Arthur married Beatrice Isobel Manchester at the parish
church of St John in Hampstead just six months later on 8th October
1911. Beatrice was born at Chelsea on 6th
October 1884, the daughter of clicker and boot cutter William Manchester who
was born at Hamilton in Quebec in 1851 and who died in London in 1905
Her mother was Annie
Reason who was born at Twickenham in 1852 and who had died during the year
before Beatrice was married. The
Manchester family name was closely linked to the boot and shoe trade over many
generations. William’s father George
Manchester was a leather cutter in London and his uncle’s John and Henry were
both boot and shoe makers of Kensington and Hammersmith respectively. All of the children of these gentlemen also
worked in the shoe business. The
marriage certificate for Arthur and Beatrice confirmed their ages as 32 and 27
and their address at that time was stated as being 18 Gardnor Road in
Hampstead. Gardnor Road was a short distance from Hampstead Heath and still exists
in the early part of the twenty-first century.
The certificate confirmed Arthur’s father as George Collett deceased
and Beatrice’s father as William Manchester deceased. The witnesses at the marriage were Beatrice’s
brothers William and Sydney Manchester
At some time during the
first eight years of their married life together, Arthur and Beatrice moved
from Gardnor Road on the west side of Hampstead Heath the fairly short distance
to 44 Hollingsworth Street in Holloway on the east side of Hampstead
Heath. It was at that address that they
were still living at the end of the Great War, at a time when Beatrice’s
younger sister Vera Frances Louise Manchester (1896-1983) was living with the
family, immediately prior to her marriage to Mark George Penn (1897-1959). The couple’s marriage certificate in early
1919 gave 44 Hollingsworth Street as both Vera’s and Mark’s place of
residence. And it was Vera and Mark’s
son Ronald Mark Penn, born at Chiswick in 1927 and now living in Australia, who
kindly provided the vital linking information to enable this Collett family
line to be extended. New information
received from Ron in early 2017 reveals that, when his mother Vera made her
Will in 1962, she left £100 to Arthur Collett (junior) of 20 Church Lane in
Finchley. He was the only known child
arising from the marriage between Arthur Charles Collett and Beatrice Isobel
Manchester. Although the actual date of
birth of their son is not known. What is
known is that Arthur and Beatrice continued to live at Hollingsworth Street
until towards the end of the 1930s
That
fact was confirmed within the 1939 Register, which placed Arthur, with his wife
Beatrice and their son Arthur W L Collett, as living at 44
Hollingsworth Street in Islington, London.
The occupation of Arthur (senior) was that of a coal trimmer,
heavy. His nephew Ron Penn has vivid
memories of visiting the family as a child in their two-up and one-down
Georgian terrace house with an outside toilet in a small backyard. It was very likely Arthur’s work which
probably explains why Ron’s childhood impression of his uncle was of a rather
unkempt sort of man. Family
members recall Arthur having a large moustache and wearing a peaked cloth cap,
a collarless shirt, grey serge trousers, and a black waistcoat. All of that, coupled with the fact he had a
hunched-back, gave him a most fearsome appearance. His hunched-back was the result of an
industrial injury when he was seriously burnt removing ashes from a
boiler. Thanks to the aforementioned Ron
Penn, it is now known that Arthur Charles Collett died during 1946. His widow Beatrice survived him by
twenty-five years when she passed at Islington during in 1971 at the age of 87
1P93 – Arthur William L Collett was born in 1912 at
Hampstead, London
During
the information gathering process for Arthur Collett, another Collett family
has been found that was in residence at the aforementioned Gardnor Road in
Hampstead. That family comprised Henry
A Collett (q03) born at Marylebone in 1862, his wife Annie who was born in
1863 at St Pancras, and their six children.
Henry was Henry Augustus Collett and in 1940 he and Annie were living
at18 Temple Grove in Golders Green in London, where Annie Collett died on 8th
June 1940. Her estate of £444 0
Shillings 10 Pence was administered in London on 20th July 1940 in
favour of her husband Henry Augustus Collett, a retired grocer’s manager. Not long after the death of his wife, Henry
Augustus Collett was still living at 18 Temple Grove when he died there on 22nd
January 1942. Surprisingly, one month
later, his Will was proved at Llandudno on 27th February 1942 when
the executor of his estate of £578 13 Shillings 3 Pence was named as Frederick Arthur Collett (r06) a civil
servant, who was his youngest son
The
couple’s children, living at 15 Gardnor Road with them in 1901, were all born
at Hampstead and they were Henry T
Collett (r01) 16, Ethel Collett
(r02) 14, Annie L Collett (r03) 12, Daisy S Collett (r04) 10, Augustus Collett (r05) who was seven,
and Frank Collett (r06 - see Frederick Arthur above and below) who was
five. Also living with the family was
Henry’s younger brother Arthur Collett
(q09) aged 23, a goods porter who was also born at Hampstead. Further research is needed to see where this
family might be placed. Ten years later
the census in 1911 placed the family still living at 15 Gardnor Road in
Hampstead when shop assistant Henry A Collett from London was 48 and his wife
of twenty-seven years was Annie who was 47.
During their life together, the census return revealed that, they had
six children, of which five were still living with them, their eldest son Henry
having left home by that time. They were
Ethel Collett, aged 24, Lilian Collett, aged 22, Daisy Collett, aged 20,
Augustus, aged 17, and Frederick who was 15
It
has now been discovered that Henry Augustus Collett, who was born at Marylebone
in London around 1862, was the son of Thomas
Collett (p01) and Maria Louisa Bryant.
In 1871 the family was residing within the Christchurch sub-district of
Marylebone under the name of Collet, where Thomas Collet was 37, his wife Maria
Louisa was 34, and living with them and their six children was Thomas’
mother-in-law Maria Bryant aged 64. The
six children were George Henry Collett
(q01) who was 12, James Collett
(q02) who was 10, Henry Augustus Collett
(q03) who was eight, Maria Louisa
Collett (q04) who was six, and twins Thomas
George (q05) and Alfred John Collet
(q06) who were three years of age. By
1881 the family had been enlarged by the birth of a further three children,
although tragically by then the couple’s three youngest children in 1871 were
not listed with the family and may therefore have died while still very
young. Also, by 1881 the family was
living at 8 Upper Park Road in Hampstead where head of the household Thomas
Collett was a lamplighter. He was 47,
Maria L Collett was 44, Thomas G Collett was 23 and a solicitor’s clerk, George
H Collett was 22 and a goldsmith’s improver, Henry A Collett was 18 and a
porter employed by a china dealer, Albert
W Collett (q07) was six, Jane C
Collett (q08) was four and Arthur C
Collett (q09) was two years of age.
Every member of the household had been born at Marylebone
Frank Collett [1O104] was born at
Colnbrook in 1881, but after the April census day that year, and by 1891 he and
his brother Arthur (above) were living with their parents at Bromley in
Kent. His given age in the census that
year was 10 years, while after a further ten years, and following the death of
his father, Frank Collett from Colnbrook was 18 when he was still living at
Bromley with his widowed mother and his brother Arthur. The 1901 Census gave his occupation as being
that of a domestic gardener, as was his brother. Ten years later in April 1911, Frank Collett
from Colnbrook was 28 and a married man living within the Croydon area of
Surrey with his wife Annie Collett who was also 28. It is not known at this time whether there
were any children resulting from their marriage
James Nathaniel Collett [1O105] was
born at Woodchester on Saturday 1st July 1837 at ten minutes before
two o’clock in the afternoon. He was
baptised at Woodchester three weeks later on 23rd July 1837, the
eldest child of Thomas Collett and his wife Elizabeth Rogers. He was four years old in the Woodchester census
in 1841 and was James N Collett, aged 13, when he was still living with his
family at Selsey Road in Woodchester in 1851.
His father died during the cholera epidemic in 1854 and, with no further
record of James Nathaniel Collett after 1851, it is possible that he too died
from the illness. His father’s death was
recorded at Stroud where, in 1858, the deaths of two people named James Collett
were recorded
Adelaide Collett [1O106] was
born at Woodchester on Monday 17th September 1838 at twenty minutes
past seven o’clock in the morning. She
was nearly one-month-old when she was baptised at Woodchester on 14th
October 1838, where she later married Isaac James on 2nd January
1857. Adelaide was a dressmaker and
Isaac was a baker by trade. Prior to the
marriage Adelaide was living at Selsey Road in Woodchester where, in 1851, she
was listed as a dressmaker’s apprentice.
Isaac was born at Berkeley in Gloucestershire in 1835. Selsey Road was also home to other members of
the Collett family at the time of the 1851 Census – see Hannah Collett nee Land
(Ref. 1M39) - Adelaide’s grandmother, her parents Thomas and Elizabeth Collett,
Edwin Collett (Ref. 1N60) her uncle, Susannah Collett (Ref. 1N63) her aunt and
Henry Albert Collett (below) her brother
At the time of the census
in 1881, Adelaide and Isaac were still living in Selsey Road but the family had
grown to six boys and four girls, all born at Woodchester. There was also a seventh and eldest son William
James aged 20 who had left the family home before April 1881. The only other surviving family member was
Elizabeth Collett, Adelaide’s widowed mother.
She was listed as a retired landlady and was living next door to
Adelaide and Isaac at The Lodge, which was also home to five other
families. The census recorded that Isaac
was then a baker and a butcher, son Henry James was a carpenter aged 18,
daughter Louisa James was a pupil teacher aged 16, and that son Edward
James aged 14 was a baker’s assistant – presumably working with his father
in the family business. The other
children listed with them were Arthur James who was 12, Charles James
who was 11, Lavinia (Minnie) James who was nine, Catherine (Kate) James
who was six, Florence James who was five, George James who was
three and Frank James who was two years of age. Also listed with the family was Charles
Burford a 16 years old baker of Minchinhampton and 21 years old Ellen Sherborne
of Tetbury who was employed as a general servant
Just about a year after
the census Adelaide and Isaac sailed from Liverpool to America on the ship
Assyrian Monarch which arrived at New York on
Adelaide James nee
Collett died on 14th August 1907 and was buried at San Antonio in
Plot 39 in the north-north-east quadrant of the city cemetery. Just about a month after her death, Isaac
passed away and was buried next to his wife, where two of their daughters were
also buried. They are likely to have
been the missing Louisa and Florence (see above). Back in the 1880s, the couple’s eldest son
William J James married Fanny Doel who was born near Trowbridge in 1858/59. That marriage produced at least three
children, one of which was daughter Ruby Adelaide James who was born around
1891. Ruby later married Arthur Reeves
and they had a daughter Valerie. And it
was Valerie’s son Bill Radford, of Norbury in south-west London, who kindly
provided additional information relating to his ancestor Adelaide Collett
(above)
Henry
Albert Collett [1O107] was born at Woodchester on Tuesday 1st March
1842 at five minutes past eleven o’clock in the morning. It was also there that he was baptised on 27th
March 1842, the third and last child of Thomas Collett and his wife Elizabeth
Rogers. In 1851 he was nine years old
and living at home with his parents in Selsey Road. He married Mary Ann Thomas in 1865 at
Christchurch, Newport in South Wales.
Mary Ann Thomas was born in 1848, and up to 1876 their children were
born at Newport and thereafter at Weston, near Bath in Somerset, although it is
notable that the couple’s second son was born and baptised at Stonehouse, in
the area were Henry was born, and where his family was recorded for a short
time in 1871. Over the years, Mary Ann
presented Henry with a total of thirteen children of which only twelve are
listed below, the missing child presumably being an infant death. The other three not to survive, were James
who died at 18, Diana who died shortly after 1881, and Maria who died before
1891
According to the census that year, for the Stroud &
Stonehouse district, the family comprised Henry A Collett, aged 29, his wife
Mary A Collett, aged 24, and their two sons Henry T Collett, who was two, and
James E Collett who had been born at the Noah’s Ark Inn in Stonehouse during
that January. The couple’s eldest child
was Elizabeth H Collett, aged four years and born at Newport, who was staying
with her widowed grandmother Elizabeth Collett nee Rogers at Selsey Road in
nearby Woodchester. That was very
likely, so that Mary Ann could give birth to her latest son without needing to
worry about Elizabeth. Despite returning to
South Wales for the birth of their next two children around 1877, the family
left finally Wales when they moved to the Bath area of Somerset. At the time of the next census in 1881 Henry
and his family were living at 11 Alexandra Buildings in Weston with Mary’s
widowed mother Anna Thomas aged 75, a retired grocer. Henry Collett was listed as a railway porter
of Woodchester aged 39, while his wife Mary was aged 33 and from Newport, and the
absence of their son James may indicate that he had suffered an infant death
Their children living with them at that time were
Elizabeth Collett 14, Henry Collett 13, William Collett, who was nine, Robert
Collett, who was six, Frances Collett, who was three, and Diana Collett who was
just two months old. No birth record has
been found for Diana, whose name was eventually recorded as Mary Louisa M
Collett, who suffered an infant death. The
family was residing within the Batheaston district of Bath in 1891, when Harry
Collett was 49, Mary A Collett was 42, and their seven children were Elizabeth
aged 24, William aged 19, Robert aged 15, Frances aged 13, Ethel who was eight,
Lillian who was five and Nellie who was under one-year old. Twenty years later,
according to the census of 1901, Henry was aged 60 and was still working for
the Midlands Railway Company as a ticket collector, Mary Ann was 54 and the
couple still had living with them six of their children. They were William 28, Frances 23, Ethel 18, Lillian 16, Nellie 13 and
Rosaline W Collett who was eight years old.
Their son Robert was married and was also living in Weston at that
time. By the time of the census in 1911,
the family still living with seventy-year-old Henry Albert Collett at Weston
near Bath, included his wife Mary Ann who was 64, son Robert Edward 35, and
daughters Lillian May Collett who was 24 and Rosaline Winifred Collett who was
17
Just over eighteen months
later, the death of Henry A Collett was recorded at Bath register office (Ref.
5c 52) during the last three months of 1912.
Having been widowed, Mary Ann Collett nee Thomas was still alive in the
1930s, when she was living with her youngest child Rosaline and her husband Edward George Townsend
and their daughter Joan, at their home in Bath.
As the youngest of her grandchildren, Mary Ann would tell family stories
to Joan, one such story related a noble ancestor who has a stained-glass window
in the church near Stroud, although no memorial to an earlier Collett has been
found during the many visits by the family to that area. It is now believed that the person in
question was actually a member of Mary Ann’s Thomas family, and not a Collett
after all. In 1938, Mary Ann Collett may
have been in poor health, because her daughter Ethel Weaving made a visit to
England from South Africa in June that year, together with her husband and youngest
child. Ethel had left England early in
1905, with Edward Weaving of Bath, to whom she was married in South Africa
during the autumn of that year. That
would have been the last time mother and daughter were together, with the death
of Mary Ann Collett recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 83) during the
first quarter of 1940, when she was 92
1P94 – Elizabeth Hannah Collett was born in 1866 at
Newport, South Wales
1P95 – Henry Thomas Collett was born in 1868 at
Newport, South Wales
1P96 – James Edward Collett was born in 1871 at Stonehouse,
Gloucestershire
1P97 – William Albert Collett was born in 1872 at
Newport, South Wales
1P98 – Robert Edward Collett was born in 1875 at
Newport, South Wales
1P99 – Frances Adelaide Collett was born in 1878 at Weston
(Bath), Somerset
1P100 – Mary Louisa M Collett was born in 1881 at Weston
(Bath), Somerset
1P101 – Ethel Florence Gertrude Collett was born in 1883 at Weston
(Bath), Somerset
1P102 – Maria Collett was born in 1885 at Weston
(Bath), Somerset
1P103 – Lillian May Collett was born in 1886 at Weston
(Bath), Somerset
1P104 – Nellie Edith Evelyn Collett was born in 1888 at Weston
(Bath), Somerset
1P105 – Rosaline Winifred Collett was born in 1893 at Weston
(Bath), Somerset
Charles Collett [1O108] was
baptised on 3rd May 1846 at Frampton-on-Severn, the only known child
of John Collett and his first wife Sarah Harrison. In 1851 he was five years old and in 1861 he
was 15 when, on both occasions, he was living with his parents at
Frampton-on-Severn, within the Wheatenhurst & Frampton registration
district. After that he joined the navy
and was presumably away at sea when the census was conducted in 1871. On 31st August 1868, at St Mary de
Lodes in Gloucester, Charles Collett married Mary Catherine Boucher who was
born in early 1848 at Whitminster, near Gloucester, her birth recorded at
Wheatenhurst. She was the daughter of
James Boucher, while Charles was confirmed as the son of John Collett. Mary brought to the marriage her base-born son
Matthew Boucher, who was also born at Whitminster and, like his mother, his
birth was recorded at Wheatenhurst during the first three months of 1867, when
Mary was only around 19 years of age
On their wedding day,
Mary was already carrying Charles’ first child, with the birth of Henry Charles
Collett happening less than two months later.
After they were married, the couple settled in Frampton, where all of
their children were born and baptised, apart that is from their second child,
who was baptised at nearby Fretherne. In
every case, the children’s father was confirmed as Charles Collett, although
his wife was named as Ann for the third and fourth child. No record of the family has been found within
the census of 1871, but tragically, three of the couple’s first four children
died before 1881, three more passed away during the 1880s, and a further two in
the 1890s
According to the census
of 1881, the greatly reduced family of Charles Collett was living at Leather
Bottle Lane in Frampton. As Chas
Collett, aged 35 and from Frampton, his occupation was that of a mariner. His wife was named as Catherine Boucher who
was 30 and from Whitminster, who was working as a char woman. Living there with the couple was Matthew
Boucher – see note below, aged 14 from Whitminster like his mother,
and Margaret Collett from Frampton, who was two years old. Just under one year before the next census in
1891, the couple’s last child was born at Rosamunds Green in
Frampton-on-Severn, where the family was still living in 1891. On that occasion they were recorded as
Charles Collett who was 45 and a general labourer from Frampton, Mary Catherine
Collett who was 43 and from Whitminster, Margaret Esther Collett who was 12,
William George Collett who was four and Arthur Stanley Collett who was
one-year-old. On the same census return,
and boarding with the Collett family, but with the entry crossed out, was
William Boucher from Whitminster who was 28 and a bachelor and an ostler. His age suggests he was Mary Catherine’s
younger brother
Having already suffered
the loss of six of his children, Charles Collett died and was buried at
Frampton two years later, during 1893.
Sadly, his youngest daughter Margaret Esther Collett and then his wife
Mary Catherine Collett, both passed away in 1898 and were buried at
Frampton-on-Severn with him and the previously deceased six children. Nothing, so far, is known about what happened
to the couple’s youngest son Arthur Stanley Collett. In addition to the burials of five known
children of this family, plus those of parents Charles and Mary, and Charles’
mother Sarah Collett in 1874, there are also two other Colletts whose burial
took place at Frampton-on-Severn around that time. It seems highly likely that they too were the
children of Charles and Mary, all suffering infant deaths. They were ‘Albert Collett’ in 1882 and ‘John Collett’ in
1883. The dates of their passing would
appear to sit comfortably within the known eight children listed below
Interesting Note: In 1901, the couple’s
youngest child, having been orphaned by the loss of both of his parents,
ten-year-old Arthur Collett was being looked after by Matthew George Boucher
and his wife Lydia Eliza Stock, at their home in Bromley, Kent, where Arthur
Collett was described as Matthew’s half-brother
1P106 – Henry Charles Collett was born in 1868 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P107 – Sarah Ann Collett was born in 1870 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P108 – Albert James Collett was born in 1872 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P109 – Louisa Elizabeth Collett was born in 1874 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P110 – Margaret Esther Collett was born in 1878 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P111 – Albert Collett was born in 1880 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P112 – John Collett was born in 1882 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P113 – Frank Collett was born in 1884 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P114 – William George Collett was born in 1886 at
Frampton-on-Severn
1P115 – Arthur Stanley Collett was born in 1890 at
Frampton-on-Severn
William Henry Collett [1O109] was
very likely born in the Gloucestershire village of Amberley, but was baptised
in the nearby town of Woodchester on 28th October 1849, the first
child born to Edwin Collett and his wife Martha Ann Baston. Sadly, it was there also that he died during
the first three weeks of 1851, following which he was buried at Woodchester on
19th January 1851
William Edward Collett [1O110] was
born at Woodchester where he was baptised on 12th October 1851, the
second child of Edwin and Martha Collett.
He was five years old when he and his parents arrived in Australia on 9th
February 1857. Nothing much more is
known about him at this time, except that it is established that William Edward Collett
died on 15th November 1937 at the age of 86, and was buried at Stone
Quarry Cemetery within the Jeebropilly district of the City of Ipswich in
Queensland, where his parents were buried forty years earlier. The following obituary was published in the
Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser of New South Wales on 3rd
December 1937. That confirms that he was
a married man but, so far, no details regarding his unnamed widow are
known. Furthermore, there is no mention
of any further
“WILLIAM E COLLETT - Died at Rosewood (Qld) on 15th ult,
Mr William E Collett, 86, uncle of Mesdames D and S A Patch of Codrington, and
the G O M of the district, wherein he has resided for almost half a
century. He came from England with his
parents 80 years ago, 1887 was married at Ipswich and ten years later moved to
Rosewood where, with his brothers, James and Wallace, he established a
profitable sawmill. Subsequently
deceased - sold out of the mill and acquired a hall and shop, which he
conducted so successfully that inside five years he was able to retire, and
devote the rest of his life to the service of his fellow citizens. Some 66 years ago he had joined the No 2
Company of Infantry at Ipswich, and at the end of five years was given a
50-acre land order, but he continued in the service till 1891, when
retrenchment wiped out the organisation.
He was one of the founders of the Rosewood Rifle Club, and a splendid
shot as his collection of cups, medals and other trophies attests. In 1898 Mr Collett was created a J P and in
1911 he put up a local record by adjudicating 186 cases in the year. He was also honorary Inspector for the
Queensland S P C A. He was a clever
first-aid man, the first man in Rosewood to own a car, and a member of the P A
F S O A, whose members formed a guard of honor at the church and
graveside. In addition to his, widow,
one brother, Wallace, of Grandchester, survives.”
The PAFSOA is the
Protestant Alliance Friendly Society of Australia, while Grandchester
lies within the Lockyer Valley region of south-east Queensland, just west of
Rosewood and Ipswich
Wallace Edwin Collett [1O111] was
born at Ipswich in Queensland on 19th March 1857, just over a month
after his parents Edwin and Martha Collett arrived in Australia from
England. He was also known within the
family as Wallace Henry Collett, most likely in honour of his eldest brother
who died six years before Wallace was born.
All of his early life was spent at Ipswich, although he later moved the
few miles west to Rosewood. On the
occasion of the death of his brother William (above), Wallace Collett was
referred to in his obituary as Wallace of Grandchester. However, seven years later he was buried with
his parents at Stone Quarry Cemetery in Jeebropilly, just a short distance from
Rosewood. He was also known to have been
married to Harriet Perrem with whom he had at least the two children listed
below. Wallace H Collett died in Lockyer
Hospital in Rosewood on 26th July 1944 at the age of 87. His wife was also 87 when Harriet C Collett
nee Perrem passed away on 11th March 1944. Two adjacent headstones in Stone Quarry
Cemetery mark their joint grave. The
last few months in the life of widower Wallace Collett were spent living at the
home of his married daughter Mrs R Henning
1P116 – R Collett was born in 1881 at
Roselands, Queensland
1P117 – William Henry Collett was born in 1885 at
Roselands, Queensland
1P118 – Leila Collett was born during 1887 in Australia
1P119 – Ivy Collett was born during 1888 in
Australia
1P120 – Annie Collett was born during 1893 in
Australia
1P121 – Hector Elliott Collett was born during 1900
in Australia
Eliza Ann Collett [1O113] was
born at Coln Aldwyns, with her birth recorded as simply Eliza Collett at
Northleach (Ref. xi 384) during the second quarter of 1842. By the time she was baptised at Coln St
Aldwyns on 15th May 1842, shortly after she was born, she was named
as Eliza Ann Collett, the eldest child of Charles and Eliza Collett. Again, as just Eliza, she was recorded with
her family at Coln St Aldwyns in 1851 as being eight years old. No positive record of Eliza Ann Collett has
been found after that time
Charles Christopher Collett [1O114] may
have been born at the end of 1843 or very early in 1884, since his birth, as
simply Charles Collett, was recorded at Northleach (Ref. xi 409) during the
month of January in 1844, following which he was baptised as Charles Christopher
Collett on 10th February 1844 at Coln St Aldwyns, where he was
born. In the next two census returns for
Coln St Aldwyns in 1851, when he was seven, and 1861 when he was 17, he was
living with his parents Charles and Eliza Collett and the rest of the family,
when he was described as being ‘afflicted from birth’. His health issue, whatever it was, eventually
caused his premature death at the age of 26, when the death of Charles
Christopher Collett was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 295) during the third
quarter of 1870
Francis Collett [1O115] was
born at Coln St Aldwyns, his birth recorded at Northleach (Ref. xi 353) during
the last quarter of 1845. It was a Coln
St Aldwyns that he was baptised on 2nd November 1845, another son of
Charles Collett and Eliza Higgins. He
was five years old in the census of 1851 and, by the time he was 15 in 1861 he
was a carpenter working for his father at the family home in Coln St
Aldwyns. It was at Wells (Ref. 5c 881)
in Somerset during the second quarter of 1869 when Francis Collett married
Harriet Allen who was born at Butleigh Wootton, near Glastonbury, in
Somerset. Perhaps by a pure coincidence
Harriet was related to the Higgins family of Butleigh Wootton, Higgins also
being the maiden name of Francis’ mother.
All of the children of Francis and Harriet Collett were born at Coln St
Aldwyns. According to the Coln St
Aldwyns census of 1871, Francis Collett was 25 and a carpenter and a grocer,
his wife Harriet Collett was 29, and their daughter Alice Collett was one year
old and had been born at Coln St Aldwyns.
Living with them was a cousin, Caroline Higgins aged 12, who was also
born at Butleigh Wootton in Somerset.
Interestingly, Francis’ mother also had a member of her Higgins family
living with them at Coln St Aldwyns in 1871, but both his mother Eliza and her
nephew Thomas Higgins were both born at Haresfield in Gloucestershire
During the 1870s, Francis
gave up being a carpenter, when he became a draper, to coincide with his
continued occupation as a grocer. That
situation was confirmed in the next census conducted in Coln St Aldwyns. Francis Collett from Coln St Aldwyns was 35
and a draper and a grocer. Living with
him, at that time, was his wife Harriet Collett who was 40, Alice M Collett who
was 11, Lydia M Collett who was nine, Charles W Collett who was seven, Herbert
F Collett who was two and one-year old Walter L Collett. Also living with the family was general servant
Matilda Griffin 15 who may have been helping in the shop or the house. After a further eight years, the death of
Francis Collett was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 263) during the first three
months of 1889, when he was only 42. His
wife Harriet was described as a widow and a draper and a grocer in the Coln St
Aldwyns census of 1891, indicating that she had taken over the family business
from her late husband. Also, that year,
her eldest daughter Alice Collett was 21 and a school teacher, Lydia Collett
was 19 and a draper’s assistant, Charles Collett was 17 and a carpenter’s
apprentice, Herbert Collett was 12 and an errand boy for the post, Walter
Collett was 11 and a scholar, and Percy Collett was eight years old
By 1901 all of the male
members of the family had left home and did not even appear in the census for
that year, anywhere in Gloucestershire.
The only remaining members of the family still living in Coln St Aldwyns
were widow Harriet Collett from Butleigh Wootton who was 60 and her unmarried
daughters Alice M Collett who was 30 and Lydia M Collett who was 28, all three
of them described as seamstresses. Ten
years later in April 1911 Harriet Collett was seventy when, the only member of
her family still living with her at Coln St Aldwyns, was her eldest daughter
Alice Maude Collett who was still a spinster at the age of 41. The death of Harriet Collett was recorded at
Northleach (Ref. 6a 490) during the first quarter of 1918, when she was 76
years old
1P122 – Alice Maude Collett was born in 1870 at
Coln St Aldwyns
1P123 - Lydia M Collett was born in 1872 at
Coln St Aldwyns
1P124 – Charles William Collett was born in 1874 at
Coln St Aldwyns
1P125 – Herbert Francis Collett was born in 1878 at
Coln St Aldwyns
1P126 – Walter Louis Collett was born in 1879 at
Coln St Aldwyns
1P127 – Percy Allen Collett was born in 1881 at
Coln St Aldwyns
Eleanor Collett [1O116] was
born at Coln St Aldwyns, her birth recorded at Northleach (Ref. xi 379) during
the first quarter of 1848. It was at
Coln St Aldwyns where she was baptised on 21st April 1848, a
daughter of Charles and Eliza Collett.
On the day of the census in 1851, 1861 and 1871 she was three years of
age, 13 years old and at school, and 23 and unmarried respectively, when living
with her family at Coln St Aldwyns.
Eleanor Collett was 33 in 1881, when she was one of only two siblings
still living with her parents at Coln St Aldwyns. Upon the death of her mother in 1888, Eleanor
took over the role as housekeeper for her father, as confirmed by the following
census in 1891, just after which her father passed away. That year she was still a spinster at the age
of 43, as she was in 1901 when Eleanor was 53 and working as a seamstress. She continued to live in Coln St Aldwyns for
the rest of her life, where she was 63 years old in 1911. It was sixteen years
later that the death of Eleanor Collett was recorded at Northleach register
office (Ref. 6a 391) during the second quarter of 1927, when she was 79
Aaron Thomas Collett [1O117] was
born at Coln St Aldwyns in 1850, whose birth was recorded at Northleach (Ref.
xi 386) during the first three months of the year. He was also baptised used
his full name on 28th April 1850 at Coln St Aldwyns, the son of
carpenter and builder Charles Collett and his wife Eliza. At the time of the census in 1851 Aaron was
one year old and was 11 years of age in 1861, when he was recorded as Aaron
Thomas Collett, who was still attending the local school in Coln St Aldwyns,
while living there with his family. Ten
years later, at the age of 21, he was a carpenter very likely working with his
father. It was just over one year later
that he became a married man
It was as Aaron Collett
that he married the slightly older Louisa Adams at Eastleach Turville in 1872,
the marriage recorded at Northleach register office (Ref. 6a 659) during the
second quarter of that year. Louisa was
born at Eastleach Turville around 1844, where the couple settled following
their wedding day, and where all of their children were born. In 1881 Aaron Collett, aged 31, was a
carpenter by trade living at Eastleach Turville. The census return that year listed the other
members of his family as his wife Louisa who was 36, Eliza Collett who was
eight, William Collett who was six, George Collett who was four and Francis
Collett who was two years old
Aaron and Louisa were
only married for ten years when Aaron Thomas Collett died at Eastleach Turville
just over a year after the 1881 Census.
That tragic event was recorded at Northleach register office (Ref. 6a
227) during the second quarter of 1882, when Aaron’s age was once again
recorded as being 31. Around two and a
half years later Louisa remarried when, during the last three months of 1882,
she married Thomas Hall. The wedding was
recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 811) when the witnesses were named as Thomas
Margetts and Sarah Mustoe. It seems
highly likely that Louisa was already with-child on the day of the wedding
since the first of her two sons with the much younger Thomas Hall was born around
the end of 1884 or during the early months of 1885. The couple’s second son was born at Eastleach
Turville in 1886
The census of 1891 still
placed Louisa Hall of Eastleach Turville living in the village and not just
with her new husband, but also with their two young children, although none of
her Collett children were with her on that occasion. Thos Hall was 34, Louisa was 46, and their
two sons were Fredk Thos Hall who was six, and Clement Wilfred Hall who was
four, both of them born at Eastleach Turville.
On that same day Aaron’s son George H Collett from Eastleach Turville,
who was 14, was living with and working alongside his widowed grandfather
Charles Collett at Coln St Aldwyns, when he was described as a carpenter’s
apprentice. His eldest son William was
16 and was living and working in Croydon by that time, while her eldest had
become a school teacher, although not identified in the census of 1891
By the time of the census
in March 1901, Louisa Hall aged 55 and from Eastleach Turville, was living at
The Bell Inn at Langford in Oxfordshire.
Her husband Thomas Hall was only 45 and was a blacksmith with his own
account who had been born at Westwell in Oxfordshire. Her marriage to Thomas had produced a son who
was born two years after the couple had married. He was Clement W Hall who was 14 and born at
Eastleach Turville. Living with the Hall
family was the stepson of Thomas Hall, he being Francis C Collett who was 23
and a labourer also born at Eastleach Turville.
Louisa’s eldest Hall son Frederick Thomas Hall was 15 years old and was
already employed as a domestic page at a house in the village of Marcham near
Abingdon-on-Thames. It was around four
and a half years after the 1911 census that Louisa Hall, formerly Collett nee
Adams, died at the age of 70, her death being recorded at Gloucester register
office (Ref. 6a 315) during the third quarter of 1951
1P128 – Eliza Jane Collett was born in 1872 at Eastleach
Turville
1P129 – William Percy Collett was born in 1874 at Eastleach Turville
1P130 – George Henry Collett was born in 1876 at
Eastleach Turville
1P131 – Francis Charles Collett was born in 1878 at
Eastleach Turville
Raymond John Collett [1O118] was
born in 1853 at Coln St Aldwyns and it was at Northleach (Ref. 6a 287) that his
birth was recorded during the last quarter of that year. In 1861 Raymond Collett was seven years of
age and as Raymond J Collett aged 17 in 1871 he was a carpenter still living
with his family in Coln St Aldwyns. By
the time of the 1881 Census he was still living at home with his parents,
Charles and Eliza Collett, and his older sister Eleanor Collett (above), when
Raymond J Collett was 27 and a carpenter.
However, just over six year later, he became a married man, when the
marriage of Raymond John Collett and Emma Jones was recorded at Cirencester
(Ref. 6a 706) during the final three months of 1887. Emma had been born at Oaksey, south of
Cirencester, in 1849
In the next census of
1891 Raymond was 37, whose occupation was still that of a carpenter, and his
wife Emma was 42, where they were living in Coln St Aldwyns. Absent was their son Oaksey Collett, named
after his mother’s birth place in Wiltshire, who would have been around two
years of age. In addition to his
employment in carpentry, Raymond Collett was also the census enumerator for the
area of Coln St Aldwyns in 1891. It was
a similar situation ten years later, when the census conducted at the end of
March in 1901 recorded the childless couple as Raymond Collett aged 47 and a
builder and a timber merchant again living at Coln St Aldwyns with his wife
Emma who was 52
Ten years later, the
census in 1911 confirmed that Raymond Collett aged 57 and from Coln St Aldwyns,
was still living there with just his wife Emma Collett who was 62. The census return also confirmed that, by
that time, he was a wheelwright, a carpenter, and an undertaker, that he and
Emma had been married for twenty-four years and that their only child was not
living. It seems highly likely that his
slightly older wife Emma died during the next decade, when he may have taken in
his niece Alice Maud Collett (Ref. 1P122), the eldest child of his older
brother Francis Collett (above). No
death of Emma Collett has been found, nor the marriage of Raymond to Alice
Maud. However, upon the death of Raymond
John Collett of Coln St Aldwyns on 17th June 1928, his widow was
named as Alice Maud Collett during the probate for his Will. The Will was proved in London on 3rd
August 1928, when his personal effects were valued at £426 1 Shilling 6
Pence. The death of Raymond J Collett
was recorded at Northleach register office (Ref. 6a 440)
1P132 – Oaksey Collett was born in 1889 at Coln
St Aldwyns
Victoria Maude Collett [1O119] was
born at Coln St Aldwyns in 1856, with her birth as the youngest child of
Charles Collett and Eliza Higgins, recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 289) during
the last three months of that year.
Perhaps for health reasons, her baptism was delayed until she was well
over one year old, when she was baptised at Coln St Aldwyns on 11th
February 1858. As Victoria Collett she
was three years old in the Coln St Aldwyns census in 1861, but was named as
Maud V Collett aged 13 in 1871 when, on both occasions, she was living there
with her family
Thomas Collett [1O120] was
born at Eastington in 1845, the eldest child of George Collett and Harriet
Frape. Thomas was 15 when he was still
living with his family in 1861 within the Wheatenhurst & Frampton
registration district of Gloucestershire.
Not long after that it seems likely that it was his father’s work as a
carpenter that was the cause of the family’s move to Wybunbury, just south
of Nantwich in Cheshire, where Thomas’ family was recorded in the next census
of 1871. Whether Thomas initially
travelled to Cheshire with his family is not known for sure, but by the time
the census was conducted in 1871 Thomas was a married man living in London with
his with Lucy and had taken up the same profession as his father, that of a
joiner. The census for Shoreditch St
Leonards listed the couple as Thomas Collett from Eastington who was 25, while
his wife Lucy A Collett was 30 and gave birth to the couple’s first child, in
London, during the following year. The
birth of Mildred Louise Collett was recorded at Shoreditch during the first three
months of 1872
Lucy was a
daughter of Samuel Andrews Hall and she was born around 1839 being seven years
older than Thomas at the time of the marriage. The record of their marriage has been found at
Marylebone in London (Ref. 1a 934) which took place during the third quarter of
1871, when Thomas Collett married Lucy Andrews Hall in front of witnesses
William Robert Bruce and Florence Helen Osborne. Two years after the birth of the first child
Lucy gave birth to a second daughter whose birth was recorded at Hackney during
the third quarter of 1874. Clara was one
year old when Thomas and Lucy and their two daughters emigrated to New
Zealand. It was on 17th July
1875 that they sailed from England on the sailing ship Zealandia which arrived at Otago on the South Island on 27th
October that same year. The immigration
documentation confirmed that Thomas Collett was married and from
Gloucestershire, and that his occupation was that of a joiner. The family initially settled in the North
Valley of Dunedin and it was during the following year the Lucy presented
Thomas with a son, and in following year their last child was born
Tragically, Thomas had
only enjoyed less than two years in New Zealand, when he died on 2nd
May 1877 at the family home at Lambeth Road in Dunedin. Two days later he was laid to rest in Plot
17, Block 115, in the Dunedin Northern Cemetery, where he was reunited with his
eldest child almost exactly three years later.
His burial record confirmed he was a carpenter from England and a
resident of New Zealand for just two years.
Buried in the same plot are Mildred Louise Collett, aged eight years in
1880, and Susan Harris who was only four months old when she died on 31st
January 1878. She was the daughter of Alexander Joseph Harris and Mary Ann Pearce of
Union Street in Dunedin who was very likely related to Susan Harris from
Ireland, the wife of Thomas Collett (below), the two Thomas Colletts being
first cousins. In 1880, at the
time of the death of Mildred Louse Collett, the widow Lucy Andrews Collett and
her three surviving children were residing within the Kelvin Grove area of
Dunedin
The short time
Thomas was in Dunedin was not wasted as, at a dinner to celebrate the first
anniversary of the Dunedin Branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and
Joiners, where seventy members were present, it was Thomas Collett who occupied
the position of chairman, which showcased his undoubted organisational
skills. Following his death Lucy
continued to raise her three surviving children on her own, she remaining a widow
for a further forty-one years.
Little is known about
Lucy’s life after Thomas passed away, but at a meeting in January 1892 of
creditors of the estate of Charles Allen senior, settler of North East Valley,
Lucy Collett was amongst the unsecured creditors and was owed £74 15
Shillings. Perhaps her income came from
some sort of business venture. In April
1917, less than two years before she died, Lucy was living in Stoke in Nelson,
where she was recorded as the next-of-kin for her son Harry Bertram Collett in
his Army Personnel File. The
death of Lucy Andrews Collett nee Hall, at eighty years of age, was recorded at
Karori Cemetery in Wellington, New Zealand, on 6th January 1919, the
same grave being used over twenty years later following the death of her son
1P133 – Mildred Louise Collett was born in 1872 at
Shoreditch, London
1P134 – Clara Emmeline Collett was born in 1874 at
Hackney, London
1P135 – Harry Bertram Collett was born in 1876 at
Dunedin, New Zealand
1P136 – Thomasina Martha Harriet Collett was born in 1877 at
Dunedin, New Zealand
James Henry Collett [1O121] was
born at Eastington in 1853 and was seven years old at the time of the 1861
Census for the Wheatenhurst & Frampton registration district where he was
living with his family. During the next
few months the family left Gloucestershire and moved to Cheshire where they
were living in 1871. James was 17 at
that time and shortly after he left the family home and moved to Manchester to
seek work. According to the 1881 Census,
James Henry Collett aged 27 of Eastington was living at 48 Warwick Street in
the Hulme area of Manchester. He was
described as head of the house and lodger.
His occupation was that of an ironmonger’s shop-man which may indicate
that the accommodation where he was lodging came with the job, and that he was
living in rooms above the shop
Emma Collett [1O123] was born at
Nantwich in 1862 and was eight years old at the time of the census in 1871 when
she was living with her family in the Wybunbury area of Nantwich. Ten years later she had left the family home
at 35 Oxford Road in Altrincham and was living and working as a confectioner’s
apprentice in Nantwich. The 1881 Census placed
Emma, aged 18 and from Nantwich, as living at the home of twenty-nine years old
spinster Ann Fitton at 4 High Street in Nantwich. Ann Fritton, whose occupation was that of a
confectioner, had been born at Wybunbury so it seems likely that it was from
there that she knew the Collett family and so arranged the work for Emma
Reuben Henry Collett [1O124] was
born at Coln St Aldwyns in 1847 and was baptised there on 6th
February 1848, the eldest child of Edward and Sarah Collett. It was as Henry Collett aged three years,
that he was recorded with his family at Hatherop in 1851. It seems likely that he was still an infant
when his family settled in Hatherop, since he later gave his place of birth as
Hatherop, rather than Coln St Aldwyns.
Upon the death of his mother, following the birth of his sister Lucy
(below), his father remarried and took the family to live in Ireland, and it
was at Piltown in County Kilkenny that Reuben’s half-brother Edward William
Collett was born. Because the family was
residing in Ireland in 1861, there was no record of any member of the family
living on mainland Britain that year.
However, it is established that Reuben returned to England during the
latter years of the 1860s, as did his brother Thomas Collett (below)
That return journey to
England seems to the moment in his life from when he referred to himself simply
as Henry Collett. It was therefore as
Henry Collett that his marriage to the much younger Elizabeth Roach was
recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a 9) during the third quarter of 1870. Nine months later Henry Collett from Hatherop
was 23, when he was living and working as a carpenter at Upper Stratton in
Stratton St Margaret near Swindon. His
wife Elizabeth Roach, from Stratton, was only 17 and, on that census day, she
was already with-child, the couple’s first child born later that same year and
baptised at Swindon on 3rd September 1871. It was around six months later that the death
of Annie Maria Collett was recorded at Highworth in the second quarter of
1872. During the next decade Elizabeth presented
Henry with a further three children and all of them were born at Stratton St
Margaret, where the family was still living in 1881
The census that year
listed the family living at Upper Stratton where Henry Collett, aged 33, was a
carpenter from Hatherop, his wife Elizabeth was 27, and their three children
were Annie who was six, Bessie who was five, and Amy who was one-year old. All four female members of the family had
been born at Stratton St Margaret, as had Elizabeth’s widowed mother Jane
Roach, aged 54 and a laundress, who was living with the family. The couple’s eldest surviving daughter was
christened Susan Annie Collett when she was baptised in Swindon on 7th
January 1875, the child of Henry and Elizabeth Collett, as was Amy Collett who
was baptised on 23rd May 1878
Tragically, just over six
years after the census in 1881, the death of Henry Collett was recorded at
Highworth (Ref. 5a 1) during the last quarter of 1887, at the age of 40
years. Three years later, his widow and
two of his three daughters were still living at Upper Stratton on the day of
the census in 1891. Elizabeth Collett
was 37, when she was described as living on her own means, when her two girls
were listed as Susan A Collett who was 16 and Bessie Collett who was 11 years
old. Still living with the family, was
Elizabeth’s mother Jane Roach who was 66 while, living nearby at the home of
the very large Arkell family, on Highworth Road in Stratton St Margaret, was
missing daughter Amy Collett who was 15, who was working for the family as a
domestic servant and nursemaid
Just less than two years
after that, widow Elizabeth Collett married the much older Henry Carter during
the first three months of 1893, the event recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a
27). Just over one year later, Elizabeth
gave birth to a son, Henry Charles Roach Carter, whose birth was recorded at
Highworth (Ref. 5a 3) during the second quarter of 1894. He was then baptised at Swindon on 5th
July 1894. When Henry junior was four
years old, his elderly father passed away, the death of Henry Carter recorded
at Highworth (Ref. 5a 3) during the last three months of 1898, aged 60. In 1901 mother and son were living at Dore’s
Lane in Stratton, close to where her eldest daughter Susan was living with her
husband their son. Elizabeth Carter was
47 and a grocer, son Henry being six years old.
They were still there in 1911, when Elizabeth was still a grocer at
57. She died 21 years later, her death
recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 3) during the third quarter of
1932, when she was 79
It was also at Swindon,
during the second quarter of 1899, when Susan Annie Collett was married to
William Edward Franklin (Ref. 5a 73) from Wroughton, who was a chair moulder
with the Great Western Railway. That was
how he was described in the census of 1901 when he was 28, by which time his
wife Annie, aged 26, had already given birth to their first child, Norman H
Franklin aged one year and born at Stratton, like his mother. That day, the family of three was residing at
Dore’s Lane in Stratton St Margaret. One
more child was added to their family and William also became a bread baker by
1911, when they were again living in Stratton St Margaret, where William was
38, Annie was 36, Norman was 11 and Stuart was nine. The boys’ parents were still living there
when their deaths were recorded at Swindon during 1953, when William was 80,
and in 1957, when Susan A Franklin nee Collett was 83
On the day of the census
in 1901, the two youngest daughters of Henry and Elizabeth Collett were
domestic servants and together, working at the Brentford, Ealing home of the
Plaistowe family. Amy Collett from
Swindon was 25 and the cook at the house on Mount Park Road. Her sister Bessie was 21 and employed as a
parlourmaid. What happened to Amy after
that day is not known, while ten years later Bessie Collett aged 31 and from
Upper Stratton was still working as a parlourmaid for the same family at
Ealing. The marriage of Bessie Collett
and John W Oakley was recorded nine years later at Swindon register office
(Ref. 5a 112) during the fourth quarter of 1920
1P137 – Annie Maria Collett was born in 1871 at
Stratton St Margaret, Wiltshire
1P138 – Susan Annie Collett was born in 1874 at
Stratton St Margaret, Wiltshire
1P139 – Amy Collett was born in 1876 at
Stratton St Margaret, Wiltshire
1P140 – Bessie Collett was born in 1879 at
Stratton St Margaret, Wiltshire
Thomas Collett [1O125] was
born at the village of Hatherop, midway between Bibury and Fairford, during
December 1850. He was baptised at Hatherop
on 2nd February 1851, and the baptism record confirmed that he was
the son of Edward and Sarah Collett. At
the end of March 1851, the census return for Hatherop listed Thomas Collett as
being four months old, when he was living there with his carpenter father,
mother and older brother Henry (above).
When Thomas was around five years old his mother died and when he was
seven years old his father remarried, following which the family left
Gloucestershire and sailed to Ireland.
It was for that reason that no member of Thomas’ family has been found
in England in 1861. However, by 1871
when Thomas was 20, he had already joined the Royal Navy and was assigned to a
vessel based at Plymouth. It was also in
Devon three years later that Thomas Collett married Susan Harris who had been
born at Piltown in County Kilkenny, Ireland around 1850
Once married Thomas and
Susan made their way to Ireland, perhaps to be with Susan’s parents at Piltown,
where their first child was born, but who tragically died shortly thereafter. Susan’s surname was also used as a forename
for one of the couple’s later children.
It is speculated that Susan Collett nee Harris may have been related to Alexander Joseph Harris and his wife Mary Ann
Pearce of Union Street in Dunedin, since their four-month-old daughter Susan
Harris died on 31st January 1878 and was buried in the same grave as
Thomas’ cousin Thomas Collett of Eastington (above) who died in Dunedin on 2nd
May 1877. Why else would a complete
stranger being buried in the same grave, where Thomas’s eldest daughter Mildred
was buried with him in May 1880
Thomas and his wife Susan
returned to England from Ireland after their loss of daughter Lucy during the
latter half of 1870s and it was at Devonport in Plymouth that Thomas resumed
his naval career. Furthermore, it was
while he was based at Devonport that his next three children were born, before
the family settled in Swindon upon completion of his naval service some years
later. By the time of the census in 1881
Thomas was attached to HMS Royal Adelaide which was based at Devonport. He was described as being 30 years old and a
married man from Hatherop in Gloucestershire, although he was not living with
his wife and their first child. His rank
at that time was that of Ship’s Corporal First Class
On that same occasion his
wife Susan Collett, who was 29, was living nearby at 23 Clowance Street in
Stoke Damerel, a parish in Devonport, which was simply referred to as Stoke in
later years. She was described as an R N
Seaman’s wife and living with her was her son Henry J Collett who was two
months old. During the next decade a
further three children were added to the family. The first two were also born at Devonport
but, on leaving the Royal Navy around 1888, after having completed twenty years
services, Thomas and his family moved to Swindon where their last child was
born. It was probably the promise of
work and a house with the Great Western Railway that persuaded Thomas to make
the move
According to the census
of 1891, the family was living at 4 York Terrace in Swindon, where Thomas
Collett, aged 43 and of Hatherop, was a manager and a time-keeper. The census also confirmed that his wife
Susan, who was 39, was born in Ireland.
Their four children at that time were Henry J Collett aged 10, Thomas G
H Collett who was eight, Herbert E Collett who was three, and Mabel E Collett
who was one-year old. Ten years later in
March 1901 the complete family was still living together in Swindon where
Thomas Collett, aged 50 and from Hatherop, was a railway clerk working for the
GWR. His wife Susan was 49 and, on that
occasion, she stated that she was from Kilkenny in Ireland, where Thomas had
lived as a child. At that time their
children were recorded as Henry Collett who was 20, Thomas G Collett who was
18, Herbert Collett who was 13, Mabel Collett who was 11, and Frances Collett
who was six
It was also in Swindon
that the family was still living in 1911 when Thomas, aged 60 and from
Hatherop, was still
employed as a railway clerk, in addition to which he was described as a naval
pensioner. Susan from Kilkenny in
Ireland was 59 and had been married to Thomas for thirty-six years. The census returned also stated that the
marriage had produced a total of eight children, or whom only five were still
alive in 1911. Two of those were still
living with the couple, and they were Mabel, who was 21 and working as a
draper’s clerk, and Frances who was 16, both of them born in Swindon. Therefore, there are two children missing
from the list below who did not survive, since all three named sons did
1P141 – Lucy Anne Collett was born in 1875 at
Piltown, Ireland
1P142 – Henry James Collett was born in 1881 at Stoke
Damerel, Devon
1P143 – Thomas George Harris Collett was born in 1882 at Stoke Damerel,
Devon
1P144 – Herbert E Collett was born in 1887 at Stoke
Damerel, Devon
1P145 – Mabel E Collett was born in 1889 at Swindon,
Wiltshire
1P146 – Frances Collett was born in 1894 at Swindon,
Wiltshire
Lucy Maria Collett [1O126] was
born at Hatherop in 1855 and was baptised there on 22nd July 1855,
the daughter of Edward and Sarah Collett.
Her birth was recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 327) during the second
quarter of the year. It was previously
thought that her mother may have died during the birth, but that has proved not
to be the case, with the record of her passing recorded at Northleach in the
first quarter of the following year. Two
years later, her father remarried.
Perhaps looking for a new life with his second wife, Lucy’s father took
the family to Ireland, where they lived at Piltown where Lucy’s half-brother
Edward William Collett (below) was born.
When Lucy and her two older brothers Henry and Thomas were old enough,
all three of them returned to England and according to the census in 1881 Lucy
Collett from Gloucestershire was 26 and was working as a live-in general
servant at The Rectory at Ridley in Kent, the home of Thomas P Phelps of Oxford
who was the Rector of Ridley
Edward William Collett [1O127], who
was known as William, was born at Piltown in County Kilkenny in Ireland during
1859, the only known son of Edward Collett and his second wife Mary Ann
Bracknell. Piltown has a unique
place in English history as it was the location of the only battle during the
Wars of the Roses to take place on Irish soil.
The name Piltown means the town of blood, as it was the river there that
ran red with blood after the battle. In 1876 when Edward was 17 years old it seems
likely that his uncle Samuel Collet (Ref. 1N71), his father’s younger brother,
had written about how good life was in New Zealand, and that may have been
enough for Edward to leave Ireland for a new life in New Zealand. It is also interesting that when his uncle
sailed from Gravesend to Lyttelton in 1858, among the other passengers on the
sailing boat ‘Indiana’ was farmer Joseph Bates and his family, Edward’s future
employer and father-in-law. Another
passenger on board the ‘Indiana’ in 1858 was George Checkley, who together with
Joseph Bates and one other man named Newton, built the Church of St Peter in
Akaroa which is still there to this day
Edward sailed out of Gravesend aboard the
three-masted sailing ship ‘Waitangi’ on 24th June 1876 bound for New
Zealand. An uneventful journey was
enjoyed by all on board, the ship eventually arriving at Lyttelton on 16th
September 1876. The ship’s passengers
numbered 337, the majority of whom were Irish.
Edward William Collett’s occupation was recorded as being that of a farm
labourer, while his age upon departure was 17.
The ‘Waitangi’ was towed into Lyttelton by the steamship ‘Akaroa’. Six days later, on 22nd September
1876, Edward made his way to Akaroa on board the ‘SS Akaroa’ which, along with
its towing duties, was also used as a passenger service between Lyttelton and
Banks Peninsula
Upon Edward’s arrival in
New Zealand, he was offered a job working on Joseph Bates’ farm at Wainui,
Banks Peninsula, just across the harbour from Akaroa. It was therefore through that contact with
the Bates family that Edward eventually married (1) Sarah Louisa Bates the
daughter of Joseph Bates and his wife Annie Clarke. Sarah was born at Akaroa on 21st
February 1862 and the wedding took place at the home of her parents in Wainui,
Akaroa on 13th June 1882.
Once they were married the couple made their home at Akaroa, to the
south of Christchurch, where all of their children were born. One year later, during June 1883, it was
recorded that Mr Edward Collett assisted Mr Bussell and Mr Schmidt in the
sports day events at Wainui School which commenced after lunch and continued
into the evening with concert for the children’s parents. At the start of the proceedings the children
were presented with tin whistles, donated by Joseph Bates, which were described
as instruments of torture by the adults who were present
During the concert that
same evening, the parents were entertained by a number of musical turns
including a duet entitled ‘Hunting Tower’ which was performed with great effect
by Edward Collett and Miss Bates.
Although the record is not clear which Miss Bates she was, it is
possible that she was the former Sarah Bates, and therefore Edward’s wife. Exactly one year later, in June 1884, Sarah’s
parents left Wainui when they moved to Christchurch where they set up home at 450 Madras Street which
they renamed ‘Wainui’. And it was there
that Joseph Bates died on 3rd October 1892, following which he was
buried at Linwood Cemetery, Block 22, Plot 61.
The informant of his death was his son-in-law Edward William Collett,
and four months later it was his daughter Jessie
E Louise Collett who was buried in the same grave with her
grandfather. Jessie, who was also known
as Vida, was just five years old
After a time employed on the farm of his
father-in-law, Edward was leased a block of land on the property as confirmed
in the minutes of a meeting of the Akaroa and Wainui Road Board held in 1888,
when Mr Bates of ‘Wainui’ 450 Madras Street, Christchurch stated that he had
let his property in blocks to Messrs C. McDonald, Jno. Bullock, E. Collett,
Jas. Wright and August Wilson. Three
years later, on 17th April 1891, a carriers’ licence was awarded to
F. Renaud and on 10th December of that year Edward William Collett
had acquired a business from the aforementioned Francois. Renaud. Subsequently on 23rd June 1894 a
carriers’ licence was granted to E. Collett by the Akaroa Borough Council and
on 23rd November 1895 a carriers’ licence was awarded to Mrs Collett. Less than two years after that, on 1st
May 1897, two further carriers’ licenses were granted to Mr Collett by the
Council, as reported in the Akaroa Mail and Star Newspaper. It might be assumed from the above, that the
business involved the carting of people and goods, but sadly, nothing has been
found to confirm this. Instead it is
possible that the business purchased by Edward William Collett from F. Renaud
was a Drapery Shop, which later became Collett’s Store
An unexpected event took place during 1893,
when Edward disappeared, leaving Sarah Louisa on her own to support the
family. At that time, she was running a
business on the corner of Rue Jolie and Selwyn Avenue in Akaroa, which sold
mostly drapery lines, but also included knick-knacks and sweets. The business had been established as early as
1891 and the operation was certainly known as Collett’s Store by 1896. That year two adverts were placed in the
Akaroa Mail stating that David Bates, Lawyer, had sums of money for investment
at lowest rates and that Mr Bates could be consulted at Mrs Collett’s Store in
Akaroa on the first Thursday in each month and at the Somerset Hotel in
Duvauchelle the Friday following. David
Bates was the brother of Sarah Louisa Collett nee Bates
Published in the Akaroa Mail on 10th
December 1907 was the following notice. “Sale of Drapery on my premises at Jolie
Street, Akaroa. I beg to announce that I
have decided to offer my well-selected Drapery Stock at greatly reduced rates,
and invite all residents to inspect the goods and note the bargains to be
obtained. The stock includes dress
material and linings of all kinds, sateens, hollands, prints, ribbons, hats,
flowers, laces, embroidery, flannelettes (white and coloured), Christmas cards,
toys, etc, etc. All new and well
selected goods. Sale now proceeding. —
L. Collett, Drapery Store, Jolie Street, Akaroa.” Just one month later on 14th
January 1908 a further notice was published in the newspaper as follows. “Drapery
Sale: Mrs Collett, who is leaving Akaroa, is selling out at her drapery store
in Jolie Street south. As she wishes to
dispose of all her complete stock of drapery and sundries, there is an
opportunity for those who are anxious to get good materials for the most
reasonable prices. The sale, which is a
bona fide clearing one is now proceeding and will be continued for the next few
weeks”
Three months later the
following notice appeared in the newspaper on 10th April 1908. “Drapery Notice: Mrs Collett wishes to inform Peninsula
residents that her Clearing Sale of Drapery at Jolie Street North is being
continued. Genuine bargains in all
lines. An inspection is cordially invited”, which was re-printed
again in the same newspaper on 27th May 1908. Sadly for Sarah, the sale was not successful
and the shop eventually re-opened in September, following an announcement in
the newspaper on 7th September 1909.
“Notice: Mrs Collett wishes to
inform her many Peninsula friends that she will shortly re-open her shop in
Jolie Street, and hopes all her old customers will give her their patronage.” However, the shops closed two weeks later
It was on 9th May 1911 that a final
notice was printed in the Akaroa Mail on behalf of Mrs Collett by W. D. Wilkins
& Sons which stated that there would be a public auction on May 18th
at 12 noon on the premises at Jolie Street of the contents of the shop which
included stock, furniture, a safe, etc, etc.
Many decades later a public notice in the Akaroa Mail on 18th
March 1958 announced the satisfactory tender to demolish Collett’s Store on the
corner of Rue Jolie and Selwyn Avenue, following which it became part of the
Akaroa Area School playing field
The marriage of Edward
William Collett and his wife Sarah Louisa Bates ended when the Wellington Evening Post
published the following announcement on Monday 20th December
1920. The report stated that “Sarah Louisa Collett sought a dissolution
of her marriage with Edward William Collett on the ground of desertion. She stated that she married the respondent in
1882 and had continued to reside with him until 1893, when he had deserted her.
There were three children of the marriage, all of whom were now grown-up.” The reference to just three of Sarah’s five
children was because her two eldest daughters Lucy and Jessie had both died by
then. Following the judgement at the
Wellington Supreme Court, a report appeared in the local press which said “Sarah Louisa Collett (Mr. T. M. Wilford),
asked for a divorce from Edward William Collett on the grounds of
desertion. The parties were married in
June ’82, and they set up home at Akaroa.
Twenty-seven long and weary years ago it was since the day respondent
biffed off. The papers were served on
him at Maranui (Manunui near Taumarunui),
where he was living with a lady. A
decree absolute was granted on 10th November 1921”
It was at Wellington
Supreme Court on Saturday 18th December that the case of Collett v
Collett was heard, one of nineteen undefended petitions processed during a busy
one-and-a-half-hour session. In every case, the
petitioner was presented with the desired decree nisi. At the conclusion of that
particular case, it was recorded that the papers were served on Edward
William Collett at the home of Joseph Bates (deceased) with his sons David
(Bates) and Joseph William (Bates). It was five months after the divorce that Edward
married (2) Mary Jane Hamley on 18th April 1922 at the registrar’s
office in Taumarunui. According to their
marriage certificate Mary Jane was a spinster at 60 and had been born at Lifton
in Devon, England, the daughter of farmer Richard Hamley and his wife Margaret
Ann Hamley nee Uglow. The certificate
also confirmed that Edward, aged 63 and from Piltown was a timber worker and
the son of carpenter Edward Collett and his wife Mary Ann Collett nee
Bracknell. The certificate also
confirmed the date of his divorce
Back in England in 1881
Richard Hamley, aged 46 and who was also born at Lifton, was a farmer. His wife Margaret Ann Hamley from Egloskerry
in Cornwall was 45, and their daughter Margaret (Mary Jane) Hamley was 16 and
was one of eight children living with the family at Riscombe Farm in
Lifton. Her younger brother was named as
Edwin Uglow Hamley, so confirming the link to Margaret Ann Uglow. It can only be assumed that the marriage of
Edward and Mary did not endure, since a few years later a message came to David
Edward Leonard Collett of Lyttelton informing him that his father was living
rough and was in poor health. As a
consequence, Leonard travelled to the North Island to see his ailing father and
brought him back with him to Lyttelton where he and his wife Harriet nursed him
until his death in 1929. When it became
known by his former wife Sarah Louisa Collett that her son Leonard was caring
for the husband, who had deserted her and the family, she was extremely angry
and never forgave him
Exactly when Sarah Louisa left Akaroa is not
known, although it is reasonable to assume that, as her three surviving
children grew up and moved away, she would have wanted to be closer to them and
so, together with unmarried daughter Eileen, she moved to Christchurch. There she first purchased a valuable property
at 30 Armagh Street and later also acquired 28 Armagh Street. The two adjoining
properties were used as a Boarding House with Sarah Louisa and Eileen residing
at No. 30. Edward William Collett died
at Lyttelton during 1929 and was buried in the Lyttelton Anglican Cemetery. His first wife Sarah Louisa Collett nee Bates
died at Christchurch on 29th May 1941 and was buried in Bromley
Cemetery, Block 12, Plot 171, where her unmarried daughter Eileen Adele Collett
was buried following her earlier death in 1936 at the age of 44. All that is known about Edward’s second wife
is that it is believed she died in New Zealand around 1955
1P147 – Lucy May Ann Collett was born in 1883 at Akaroa, New Zealand
1P148 – David Edward Leonard Collett was born in 1884 at Akaroa, New Zealand
1P149 – Jessie E Louise Collett was born in 1888 at Akaroa, New Zealand
1P150 – Leslie Joseph Charles Collett was born in 1890 at Akaroa, New Zealand
1P151 – Eileen Adele Collett was born in 1892 at Akaroa, New Zealand
Ernest Collett [1O128], who
was one half of a set of twins, was born at Quenington on 25th June
1852, where he was baptised in St Swithins Church on 19th September
1852, the son of Samuel Collett and Elizabeth Gardner. In 1858 Ernest’s family emigrated to New
Zealand on board the barque ‘Indiana’, when he was simply recorded on the
ship’s passenger list as Ernest Collett, aged five years. Ernest later married the widow Martha Varcoe in 1874 who had been born Martha Main
on 18th September 1848. Six
years earlier, Martha
had first married Alfred Varcoe in New Zealand during 1868, but tragically he
died that same year. One of the children of Ernest and Martha was
Herbert Frank Collett, the grandfather of Brian Gregory Collett of Cairns in
Australia, who kindly provided the details of his family during 2011. Ernest
had hoped to become a doctor and was apprenticed to several early medicos,
including Doctor Turnbull in 1866, Doctor Foster in 1867 and, in 1868, he
assisted Doctor Christy who paid him Seven Pounds 16 Shillings for the three
months. However, a career as a medic was
not realised, following which Ernest took up the occupation of a maltster [a
brewer], while later in his life he was a farmer, and even later still, a gardener. He and his family lived at 15 Angus Street in
Christchurch, but around 1900 Ernest and Martha were legally separated,
following which Ernest was ordered to pay maintenance to Martha by the
Court. It was not long after that when
Martha Collett died on 27th September 1907, while Ernest survived
for another thirty-two years, when he died at Christchurch on 15th
May 1939, at the age of 86
According to his granddaughter Norma Gertrude
Collett (Ref. 1Q105), Ernest had a drink and responsibility problem, and would
often go ‘walk-about’ leaving his family for weeks or months at a time. Apparent, when his father Samuel died in
1914, the bulk of his inheritance of around ten thousand pounds was spent on
drink. Because of that, his eldest son
Ernest junior (later the father of Norma Gertrude) had to leave school when he
was only eleven years old, in order to work and help his mother support the
whole family. Ironically, when Ernest
junior became a married man, his father Ernest senior, moved in with him and
his family and was happy to spend time on his allotment garden in Beckenham,
bringing home the produce of his labours.
Another relative, Geoffrey Grenfell, Ernest’s great grandson, recalled
in his 1981 memoirs, the Ernest senior had a huge walrus moustache which
appeared not to be trimmed very often, when he was living at Strickland
Street. By contrast, his son Ernest
junior also had a moustache which was always neatly trimmed. The older man did not sleep in the house of
his son and wife Gertrude, but had a small room attached to the coal shed and
garage detached from the main house
1P152 – Ernest Walter Raymond Gordon Collett was born in 1874 at
Christchurch, NZ
1P153 – Herbert Frank Collett was born in 1876 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
1P154 – Robert George Victor Collett was born in 1878 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
1P155 – Eleanor Mabel Collett was born in 1879 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
1P156 – Arthur Samuel Gordon Collett was born in 1882 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
1P157 – Harriet Clara May Collett was born in 1884 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
1P158 – Leonard Ransome Collett was born in 1886 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
Amanda Elizabeth Collett [1O129]
was born at Quenington on 25th June 1852 and was a twin with her
brother Ernest (above). She was baptised
in a joint ceremony with her brother at Swithins Church, Quenington, on 19th
September 1852, the baptism record confirming that they were the children of
Samuel Collett and Elizabeth Gardner.
Amanda and her twin brother Ernest were both recorded as being five
years old when their parents emigrated to New Zealand on board the barque
‘Indiana’ in 1858. When she was sixteen
years of age, Amanda entered finishing school with Miss Thornton on 4th
February 1868 at a cost of Seven Pounds Ten Shillings a quarter term, payable
in advance
On completing her education and
commencing employment, it would appear that she was known as Amy Collett, with
the following recorded in a book about the settlement at Broomfield, north-west
of Amberley. "Amy Collett was employed April 10th 1869
to September 1870 at 20 pounds per annum.
She was supplied with seven pairs of boots in that time, of kid and of
leather, priced between 10/6 and 16/-; a pair of slippers at 6/-; 18 yards of
winsy; a dress 1 pound 3/4; braid 2/-; 2 dress pieces at 9/- and 7/-." It was while she was working in Broomfield
that she met (1) Robert Wilson whom she eventually married on 16th
January 1871, the event recorded at Mount Grey Downs register office and conducted
by the Deputy Registrar, although an
alternative source gives the date of their wedding as 20th March
1871
The New Zealand ‘Intention to Marry’ register
entry [Ref. BDM20/16 p439/66] states that Robert Wilson, occupation Station
Manager, was 37 years old and was living at Leithfield for one month prior to
his marriage to Amanda Elizabeth Collett, a spinster, occupation servant, aged
21 years old, who had been living at Broomfield for the previous two
weeks. Leithfield
is a small town in North Canterbury, three miles south of Amberley to the north
of Christchurch. It is worth
noting that Amanda was very likely persuaded to say she was 21, when in fact
she was only 18 and therefore could not have married without her parents’
consent. The couple’s only known child
was born nine months later and was baptised on 13th December
1871. The child’s birth certificate
confirmed that the parents of Esther Elizabeth Wilson were Amanda
Elizabeth and Robert Wilson, although the baptism record named them Robert and
Amy Wilson of The Terrace in Leithfield, Robert's occupation being that of a
shepherd. [The Terrace was later renamed Terrace Road]
The records also show that the name of Robert
Wilson was included on a Jury List in 1860 as a stockholder at Waimakariri, as
well as being on the 1860 Militia List.
He later lived at Oxford, a small town
serving the farming community of North Canterbury, about 25 miles north-west of
Christchurch in the Waimakariri District, and in the Ashley Electoral
Roll for 1865-66 Robert Wilson was a leaseholder at Woodstock Run 109. He remained on the Ashley Electoral Roll
right up until 1869, meaning that he was a land owner or lease holder, having
land in that area, although there is no evidence that he was actually living
there. It was while he was at Woodstock
that Robert was in partnership with another man but, in 1866, he left Woodstock
and settled in Broomfield Station, next to Mount Grey Downs, where he
apparently designed the Yards, and where he met his future wife
During the first three months of 1870 Robert
Wilson was involved in two court cases.
The first was brought by Harriet Ann Edlin who claimed to have had a son
by Robert Wilson who was born at Mount Grey Downs in December 1869. He admitted intimacy with the young girl but
produced another witness who also admitted intimacy with her. That case was dismissed in February 1870,
following which Robert then had Harriet charged with perjury, although the jury
found her not guilty in March that same year.
She was only 15 years old at the time and had her baby son with her in the
court. That son is now believed to be
the great grandfather of Mrs Andrea Hill of New Zealand who kindly provided
these details. Later that same year,
Harriet Ann Edlin was also involved in an inquest into the death of a baby, not
hers, at Woodend in June 1870
Robert Wilson was a very common name in
Canterbury in the 1800's, with three easily identifiable in North Canterbury.
However, Robert Wilson, a shepherd, stockholder, and a farmer with connections
to Woodstock Run, Broomfield, Glenmark, Mount Grey Downs, and Leithfield, looks
the most likely. It was in 1879 that
Robert Wilson was granted a slaughterhouse licence at Amberley. However, it seems likely that by then that
Robert and Amy Wilson had been separated for some time, with Amy entering into
a relationship with (2) William Hopkins, with whom she had ten children. Furthermore, her daughter Esther Elizabeth
Wilson also took on the Hopkins surname, most likely indicating an acrimonious
split from her father. Esther Elizabeth
Hopkins later married John Laing and, tragically,
suffered a premature death at the age of 34, just after giving birth to her
eighth child
George Collett [1O130]
was born at Quenington on 11th December 1854 and was baptised there
in Swithins Church on 14th January 1855. He was the third child of Samuel Collett and
his first wife Elizabeth Gardner. When
he was only three years old his family sailed to a new life in New Zealand on
board the barque ‘Indiana’ which arrived at Christchurch in 1858. Later on, when George was nine years old,
he attended Mr Jones’ Private School from February 1864 to August 1866, the
weekly fee being Two Shillings. Upon
leaving school George went to work for a Mr Urquhart, where he learned to be a
painter. It was in
Christchurch that George
Collett married Margaret Coutts on 26th October 1874, the
marriage producing two children for the couple.
Their grandson was
Grahame Collett who, in 2021 kindly provided some more details for this family
line. Tragically, George
Collett died in Christchurch with
peritonitis on 16th January 1878 when he was only 23 and less
than four years into his marriage and not long after the birth of his second
child Amanda Elizabeth Collett. His
widow Margaret, who was born on 25th November 1853 at Glenmuick in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland, survived him by forty-four
years, when she died at Dunedin on 7th June 1922, following which
she was buried at Andersons Bay Cemetery in Dunedin two days later on 9th
June. On 26th March
1865, and nine years before her marriage to George Collett, Margaret Coutts had
sailed from Scotland to Lyttelton in New Zealand on board the vessel ‘Rachel’
with her father and her three sisters.
Upon the death of her husband, Margaret
continued to care for her baby daughter Amanda, while her son George William
Collett was raised by his grandfather Samuel Collett and his second wife Esther
Leonard
Previously written here, it was
suggested that Margaret gave birth to a third son ‘James Mann Collett’ who was born in 1887, when the parents were
curiously recorded as George and Margaret Collett. James, who was also known as James Howard,
died in 1967 and may have been the illegitimate son of Henry Roger Howard. Lorraine Rowe in New Zealand was pursuing
this particular angle during 2014.
However, new details subsequently provided by Kelvin Parker (see Ref.
1Q97) and added here in early 2015 present a different story. Firstly, he confirms that James M Collett and
James M Howard are two different people who both served in World War One, with
the latter being killed in action in France on 21st April 1918 aged
30. Rifleman James Mann Howard, service
number 52610, served with the 3rd Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle
Brigade. Curiously both of the James'
had the same birth dates according to their respective Army Files, but
different parents. It is interesting that
the James M Howard is also listed as John in his Army Record, while there is a
John Mann Collett who was born in 1888 on New Zealand BDM Database, although
his mother is named as Mary, rather than Margaret, with the father's name ‘Not
Recorded’, perhaps suggesting he was base-born
In addition to that, when
James was married at Geraldine in South Canterbury on 2nd November
1915, he did so as James Mann Collett, his wife being Ina Myrtle Pierce, the
daughter of Leonard Pierce and Elizabeth Ann Fifield who was born in New
Zealand in 1895. But then in the Army
Personnel File of James Mann Howard, born on 18th December 1887, a
self-employed coach painter residing at Geraldine prior to enlistment, his wife
was named as Ina Myrtle Pierce. All very
confusing! One solution might be that
the illegitimate son of Mary Collett, who may have been Margaret, was raised by
Henry Rogers Howard and his wife Eliza Hannah Kirby, with possibly Henry
actually being the father of the child. The corresponding Army Personal File for James
Mann Collett can now be found under his own reference, as he has now been
placed here as the third child of the family, even though he was not the son of
George William Collett
1P159 – George William Collett was born in 1875 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
1P160 – Amanda Elizabeth Collett was born in 1877 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
The following is the possible half-brother of George
and Amanda Collett:
1P161 – James Mann Collett was born in 1887 at
Christchurch, New Zealand
Thomas John Collett [1O131] was
born at Christchurch in New Zealand on 17th October 1859, just eleven months after his
parents Samuel and Elizabeth Collett had arrived in the country from
England. Tragically, Thomas John Collett
died on 26th
February 1860, at the tender age of just four months
Edith Amy Eleanor Collett [1O132 was
born at Christchurch on 22nd May 1872, the eldest of the two
daughters of Samuel Collett and his second wife Esther Leonard.
Sadly, she died later that same year on 17th December 1872
Alice Mabel Matilda Collett [1O133] was
born at Christchurch on 16th October 1873, the second of the two
daughters of Samuel and Esther Collett.
It was during 1907 that Alice married William Benjamin Freeman who had
been born around 1870, with whom she had three children. George Randel Freeman was born in
1907, John Molloy Freeman was born in 1911 and Doris Esther Freeman
was born in 1912, whilst it is possible the family was further extended after
1913. The only other known fact about Alice
is that she died in 1954, having lost her husband twenty-two years earlier,
when William Benjamin Freeman died in New Zealand during 1932 at the age of 62
Charles Hook Collett [1O134] was
born at Kings Stanley in 1856. It was as
Charles Hook Collett that he was baptised at Kings Stanley on 26th
October 1856, the son of John and Jane Collett.
Jane’s maiden name was Partridge, so it is unclear where Hook came from,
possibly his grandmother’s maiden name.
It was simply as Charles H Collett aged four years old that he was
listed in the census of 1861, when he was living with his parents at Bell Barn
Road in the Parish of St Thomas in Birmingham.
In all of the subsequent census returns he was referred to as Charles H
Collett. He was fourteen in 1871 when
still living with his family in Birmingham St Thomas. During the 1870s his father’s work as a
builder took the family the few miles south to Kings Norton in Worcestershire,
where they were living in 1881. Charles
had obviously taken a keen interest in the type of work undertaken by his
father since, at the age of twenty-four, his occupation was that of an
architect. The census in 1881 confirmed
that Charles H Collett from Kings Stanley was still living with his family at
59 Clevedon Road in Kings Norton. By
1891, Charles H Collett was still a bachelor at the age of 34 when he was still
living with his family at Priory Road in Kings Norton, from where he was
employed as an agent
Before the end of the
century Charles left the family home in Kings Norton when he moved to nearby
Kidderminster. And it was there that he
was living in March 1901. He was still a
bachelor at the age of 43 and was still working as an architect, his place of
birth was once again confirmed as Kings Stanley. It would appear that Charles Hook Collett
never married since he was still a bachelor in April 1911, by which time he was
living in the Shirley area to the west of Solihull at the age of 54. Charles Hook Collett died just over four years
later, his death recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 40) at the
age of 58. The address where he passed
away on 4th September 1915 was 4 Coppice Road in Moseley while,
during the processing of his Will, he was referred to as being of 16 Ashfield
Road in Kings Heath and also an architect of Carlton House on the High Street
in Birmingham. Probate was granted at
Birmingham on 17th December 1915 to Joseph Jennens, a mortgage and
insurance broker, and Alfred Tidsall, a solicitor’s clerk. His personal effects were estimated to be
worth £2,440 8 Shillings 8 Pence
Amy Georgina Collett [1O135] was
born at Birmingham in 1861 and was baptised at the Church of St Thomas in
Birmingham on 13th October 1861.
It was also in the Parish of St Thomas that she was living with her
family in 1871 when she was nine years old.
A few years later her family moved to Kings Norton where they were
living at the time of the census in 1881.
At that time in her life Amy was 19 and was living at 59 Clevedon Road
in Kings Norton. It was very likely at
that address that her father died during the 1880s, and where her widowed
mother Jane spent the rest of her life.
For some reason Amy G
Collett was recorded at Stroud in the census of 1891, which was close to the
area where her father’s family originated.
The census that year placed Amy as 29 and unmarried living with the
older sister of her mother Jane Collett nee Hook. Amy G Collett from Birmingham was the niece
of Isaac and Emma Groves of Middle Yard on a farm in Kings Stanley, where Isaac
was a farmer living on his own means.
Amy’s aunt Emma Groves nee Hook was sixty-five and born at Kingswood in
Gloucester where her mother Jane had also been born.
By the start of the new
century Amy was back living with her mother Jane and sister Florence (below) at
Kings Norton. The census in 1901
confirmed that Amy G Collett from Birmingham was unmarried at the age of 39. Amy and her sister Florence were still living
with their elderly mother Jane Collett in April 1911. Apart from her baptism record, the census
return that year was the only other time that her full name of Amy Georgina
Collett was used. By then she was 49 and
still living at Kings Norton
Hubert Edward Collett [1O136] was
born at Birmingham on 11th April 1864 and was baptised there in the
Church of St Thomas on 26th June 1864, the son of John and Jane
Collett. Although he was baptised as
Hubert Edward Collett his name was more often than not recorded in error by
subsequent census enumerators as Herbert.
It was as Herbert C Collett aged six years that he was recorded with his
family in the census of 1871 when they were still living at York Road in the St
Thomas parish of Birmingham. During the
next decade his family left Birmingham and moved to Kings Norton where they
were living at 59 Clevedon Road in 1881.
Herbert E Collett was 16 by that time and had left school and was
working as a jeweller’s clerk, while he was living with his family at Kings
Norton
Over the next few years
Hubert entered into a partnership with Frank Spencer and began trading as
Collett & Company, wholesale jewellers and
factors, working out of premises at 65 Caroline Street in Birmingham. For whatever reason, the joint venture was
not successful and, according to an item in the Birmingham
Daily Post on Wednesday 20th July 1887 (issue 9067), the partnership
of Hubert Edward Collett and Frank Spencer had been dissolved on 30th
June by mutual consent. The formal
notice issued on 14th July stated that all debts due to and owing by
the said later firm will be received and paid by the said Hubert Edward Collett
It was almost two years
later when Hubert Edward Collett married Susan
(Susie) Eliza Cugley at St Luke’s Church in the City of Gloucester on 5th
June 1889, where Susan had been born on 15th January 1865. By the time of the census in 1891 Hubert and
his wife had returned to Kings Norton where there were recorded living at 23
Woodstock Road. Hubert Collett was 26,
as was his wife Susan E Collett, and by then they were wealthy enough to employ
a servant. It would appear
the couple never had any children; perhaps it was Hubert work as a diamond
merchant that took up all of his time
Six months prior to the
next census in March 1901 Hubert’s name was amongst those listed in the
Application for Debtor’s Discharge published in The London Gazette. The date of the hearing was 31st
October 1900 at 11 am and it took place at the High Court of Justice in the
Bankruptcy Buildings at Carey Street in London.
Hubert Edward Collett of 1 Holborn Circus in the City of London,
residing at Ravenspurn in Finchley was described as a Diamond Merchant and importer
of precious stones. The following census
recorded the childless couple as the only Colletts living in Finchley. Hubert E Collett from Birmingham was 36, as
was his wife Susie Collett from Gloucester
Sometime during the next
decade, the couple left London and set up home at Gerrards Cross in
Buckinghamshire, and it was there at a property named Thorncroft on Parkhouse
Road that they were living in April 1911.
On that occasion Hubert Edward Collett was 46 while his wife Susie Eliza
Collett was 45. Four years after that
Kelly’s Directory listed Hubert Edward Collett
as a resident at Uplands on Kingsway in Chalfont St. Peter,
Buckinghamshire. In 1933 Hubert was a
member of the United Preceptory of Kemeys, Tynte and Temple Cressing – the
Order of Knights Templar. At the time of
his death in June 1940 Hubert and Susan were living in Surrey, his passing
recorded at the Surrey North Eastern register office. And it was five years later that the death of
Susan Eliza Collett was also recorded there in 1945
Previously
written here in error was information about another Herbert Collett (1O136x)
from Birmingham who was married to Emily and with whom he had five children
over the next fourteen years, all of them born in Birmingham, as was his
wife. Rather curiously no record of him
and wife and family has been found anywhere in Britain in 1901. By 1911 Herbert and Emily’s eldest son had
left home to be married and had started a family of his own, also in the Aston
district of Birmingham. The rest of the
family at that time comprised Herbert Collett, who was 47, his wife Emily, who
was 48, and their children Jane Collett who was 22, Harold Collett who was 13,
Beatrice May Collett who was 11, and Frederick Collett who was nine years old. It was many years later that the death of
Herbert Edward Collett was recorded at the Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d
119) during September 1945 under the name of Herbert Collett who was 81
1P162 – Jane Collett was born in 1888 at Birmingham
1P163 – Herbert Collett was born in 1890 at Birmingham
1P164 – Harold Collett was born in 1897 at Birmingham
1P165 – Beatrice May Collett was born in 1899 at Birmingham
1P166 – Frederick Collett was born in 1901 at Birmingham
Florence Jane Collett [1O137] was
born at Birmingham in 1866. It was on 17th
February 1867 at St Thomas’ Church in Birmingham that she was baptised, the
daughter of John Collett and Jane Hook.
Florence was four years old at the time of the Birmingham St Thomas
census in 1871 and just after that it would appear that her family moved to
Kings Norton, and it was there that Florence and her family were living in
1881. Florence was 14 and was still
attending school, while living with her family at 59 Clevedon Road. She was still living with her parents in 1891
but at Priory Road in Kings Norton where Florence was 24 and with no stated
occupation. From the next two census
returns it was apparent that Florence never married and remained living with
her mother and her older sister Amy (above) until their mother passed
away. In the Kings Norton census records
for 1901 Florence J Collett from Birmingham was 34 and ten years later she was
listed as Florence Jane Collett aged 44
John Howard Collett [1O138] was
born at Birmingham in 1869, the fifth of the six children of John Collett and
Jane Partridge. His birth, using his
full name, was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 328) during the third quarter of
the year. The baptism of John Howard
Collett took place at the Birmingham Church of St Thomas on 5th June
1870, when he was confirmed as the son of John and Jane Collett. It was as John H Collett that he was recorded
as one-year-old in the Birmingham St Thomas census in 1871. Shortly after his brother Arthur (below) was
born, John’s parents left Birmingham and moved to Kings Norton, where his
mother and two sisters lived for the remainder of their life. According to the census conducted in 1881,
John H Collett from Birmingham was eleven and was living with his family at 59
Clevedon Road in Kings Norton. He was
still living in Kings Norton with his family in 1891, when the family was
recorded at Priory Road where John H Collett was 21 and a joiner, possibly
working with his father John who was a builder
It was during the twelve
months before John was born, that his future wife, Alice Tomlinson was born at
Kings Heath. She was one of the many
children of iron manufacturer George Tomlinson by his second wife Lucy. By 1891, Alice was living with her widowed mother
Lucy and three of her siblings, but at Alcester Road in Kings Norton, when her
occupation was that of a violin teacher.at the age of 21. Just under five years after that census day,
the marriage of John Howard Collett and Alice D Tomlinson was recorded at
Solihull register office (Ref. 6d 145) during the first three months of
1896. As far as can be determined, John
and Alice only had one child, with the birth of Howard Collett recorded at
Solihull register office (Ref. 6d 227) during the second quarter of 1898. Tragically, he did not survive more than a
few days, when the death of Howard Collett was also recorded at Solihull during
the same second quarter of 1898 (Ref. 6d 359).
As a consequence, the
childless couple was residing at Kings Norton in 1901, when the census return
described them as John H Collett from Balsall Heath who was 31 and a building
contractor, with Alice D Collett from Kings Heath being 32. After a further ten years, the pair of them
had moved nearer to Birmingham and were living at Moseley in 1911, midway
between Kings Heath and Balsall Heath.
On that census day, John Howard Collett was said to be 40 and from Birmingham,
who was again working as a building contractor, while his wife Alice Doran
Collett from Birmingham was also said to be 40 years old.in 1911. Still living in Kings Norton at that time,
was his mother and sisters Amy and Florence.
It would appear that John had obviously taken up the family business
there, left by his father when he died, since he was described as a building
contractor
John and Alice continued to live in the
Birmingham area of the country for the remainder of their lives. Forty-two years later, the death of John
Howard Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 119) during
the fourth quarter of 1953, when he was 84.
His widow only survived for another nine months, when the death of Alice
Collett was also recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 48) during the
third quarter of 1954, when she was 85 years old
1P167 – Howard Collett was born in 1898 at Solihull;
died there in 1898
Arthur Ernest Collett [1O139] was
born at Birmingham in 1871. However, by
the time of the census in 1881, his family was living at 59 Clevedon Road in
Kings Norton south of Birmingham where Arthur was listed as Ernest A Collett
aged nine years. Ten years later, in the
Kings Norton census of 1891, Arthur E Collett from Birmingham was 19, whose
occupation what that of a clerk, when he was again living with his family. In 1901 Arthur was at Hornsey in North
London, not far from Finchley, where his diamond merchant father was on that
occasion. With only three miles between
the two locations, it seems likely that both of them were on a business trip to
the capital. The census return described
Arthur E Collett, aged 28 and from Birmingham, as a traveller for a brass
foundry, which may indicate that he was a travelling salesman for the company
that employed him
It may have been while
Arthur was on his travels that he met Ada whom he married during the first few
years of the new century and with whom he had two children prior to the census
in 1911. At that time in April that
year, Arthur Ernest Collett from Birmingham was 39, and his wife Ada Collett
was 36. They and their family were
living within the Brentford registration district on that occasion, where their
two sons were recorded as John Arthur Collett who was five, and Charles Thomas
Collett who was three years old.
Arthur’s first son was named after his grandfather and his father, while
his second son was named after Arthur’s eldest brother, the architect Charles
Hook Collett (above)
1P168 – John Arthur Collett was born during
1905 in London
1P169 – Charles Thomas Collett was born during
1907 in London
Sarah Jane Collett [1O140] was
born at Summerside on Prince Edward Island on 5th September 1853,
and was baptised in a joint ceremony with her brother William (below) on 18th
June 1857, the daughter of James and Henrietta Collett. From her younger brother’s death notice
(below) we know that Sarah Jane had died before 1929
William Charles Collett ]1O141] was
born at Summerside on Prince Edward Island on 10th February 1855,
and was baptised in a joint ceremony with his sister Sarah Jane (above) on 18th
June 1857, the son of James and Henrietta Collett. By 1881 William C Collett, aged 25, was working as a
carpenter, while residing at Lot 27 in the Queens district of Prince Edward
Island. That same year he travelled to
Boston in Massachusetts, where he remained for the rest of his life. Later in his life William Charles Collett
became an accomplished architect in Boston.
He may also have been involved in the design and building of two
properties on Hanover Street in Summerside which were owned by the Collett
family and occupied by William Charles and his father James. Those same two houses were both destroyed by
fire in 1906
During the previous year
the following article was published in the Agriculturist magazine on 19th
August 1905. “The Boston Sunday Herald of Aug. 6th has the following
regarding a former Summerside boy:
William
C. Collett of Boston, leading candidate for the office of grand warden, was born
in Summerside, P.E.I. in 1856 [sic] of
English parentage. He received his early
education in the common schools of that place, and afterwards went to work on a
farm. He was not more than eighteen when
he began the study of various branches of the building trade. In 1881 he came to Boston to work as a
carpenter. The next year he was advanced
to the position of foreman. He attended
evening drawing school for three terms and came out at the head of the
class. In 1887 he went into the office
of Charles Brigham, the well-known Boston architect. He had the supervision of several important
public buildings in Maine, and some of the more important of the H. H. Rogers
memorial building in Fairhaven. Mr.
Collett began business for himself a few years ago, with offices of Bromfield
Street. His architectural work includes
the magnificent home of Mrs. E. Carlisle of Brookline, the school at Fairhaven,
almshouse at Essex, Sherbourne and Fairhaven, the largest apartment house of J.
W. Woodward, Mt. Pleasant Avenue, and the Rhodes Bros. building, Warren and
Copeland Streets, Roxbury. Mr. Collett
is a past grand of Tremont lodge of Odd Fellows, past chief patriarch of
Massosoit encampment, I.O.O.F.; is a member of Washington lodge of Rebekahs,
and grand herald of the grand lodge I.O.O.F. of Massachusetts
William Charles Collett died at his home in Boston on 25th
January 1929, and a month later the following tribute was printed on page eight
of the Summerside
Journal on 25th February 1929.
Tribute to Memory and Talents
of Gifted Son of P.E. Island Who Has Gone to His Rest
William Charles Collett, noted architect,
passed away at his beautiful home on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston,
Massachusetts on January 25th.
He was born in Summerside on Prince Edward Island on February 10th 1856,
and removed to Boston on May 27th 1881. Soon after he entered the office of Charles
Brigham, architect, where he was soon advanced to the position of Supervising
Architect. The early struggle of
successful men is always intensely interesting, and by some instinct they seek
the field in which their ability will find the sphere of action to which they
are best adapted
Mr Collett occupied an honoured position in his
chosen vocation and the addition to the Maine State Capital at Augusta was
constructed under his able supervision, as well as the Rogers Memorable Library
and other prominent buildings at Fairhaven in Massachusetts. In Boston and Montreal, the Walton
Restaurants are lasting monuments to his skill and ability. The beautiful scenery on the tiles of the
Boston Restaurant are sketched from the Lynn Marshes down to Maine, and in the
Montreal Restaurant the scenery is taken from the banks of the St. Lawrence
River and all carefully sketched to a scale.
In banking circles, he occupied the position of Vice-President of the
Wiley Savings Bank of Boston and was the valued appraiser of real estate for
the various Boston banks. No man ever
had keener eyes or surer judgment of men; a mind so keen, so alert, so
penetrating in the affairs that engaged his thoughts. He was, indeed, very human, but he was also
very true and gracious. Prominent in
fraternal circles, a Past Master of the Grand Lodge of Oddfellows of
Massachusetts and a Past Grand Officer of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Oddfellows;
in Masonry, a respected member of Columbian Lodge and an officer of the same at
the time of his death
His funeral was held at the chapel at Mount
Auburn on January 27th and was one of the largest for many years,
the service being conducted by Rev. Frank G. Potter, a Past Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Oddfellows and a Past Master of Columbian Lodge A.F. & A.M.
of Boston. In a very real sense he was a
credit and an honour to his native town of Summerside and departing has left
behind him footprints in the sands of time.
The immortality of his influence lives on as an inspiration and cheer to
others. He leaves to mourn his loss one
brother, Mr. J. Artemas Collett of Bedeque, the only surviving member of the
old family circle
James Artemas Collett [1O142] was
born at Summerside on Prince Edward Island in 1859, although unlike his two
older siblings, no baptism record for James has been located. James married Eveline who was much younger
than James, having been born in 1870, their wedding day being around 1890. The marriage produced three known children,
the first two prior to the end of the century.
In the Prince Edward Island census of 1901, the family of four were
recorded as James A Collett who was 42, his wife Eveline Collett was 31, son
Harry Collett was nine years old and son Earl Collett was five. Ten years later, the family living in the
Prince Edward Island sub-district no. 7-48 comprised James A Collett who was 52
and a lobster packer, Eveline Collett who was 42, Harry Collett who was 19,
Earl Collett who was 15 and Ila Collett who was seven years of age. From his later life, the only other detail
known about James is that he was still alive at the time of the death of his
brother William Charles Collett (below) in 1929, when Mr J Artemas Collett of
Bedeque was described as his only surviving family member. Bedeque was also where Harry Collett, the
eldest child of James and Eveline died and was buried in 1948. He was 56 and was buried in Lot 26 at Lower
Bedeque Cemetery
1P170 – Harry Collett was born in 1892 at
Prince Edward Island
1P171 – Earl Collett was born in 1896 at Prince
Edward Island
1P172 – Ila Collett was born in 1904 at Prince
Edward Island
William Henry Collett [1O143] was
born during 1857 at Westmorland Settlement on Prince Edward Island, and was
baptised at Crapaud on 4th May 1858, the first child born to Aaron
and Eliza Collett. In other records his
mother was referred to as Margaret and she tragically died around the end of
the 1860s or even during the birth of her fourth child in 1867. By the time of the Canadian census in 1881
William H Collett, aged 23, was one of the four children still living with his
widowed father, when he was working with his father on their farm at Lot 29 in
the Queens district of Prince Edward Island.
It was after the census in 1891 that William married Alice who was born
on Prince Edward Island, with whom he had a daughter and an adopted son by
March 1901. The census that year
recorded the family of four residing at Prince Edward Island, where William H
Collett was 42, his wife Alice was 35, their daughter Aggie E Collett was six
years old, while their adopted son was Arthur Simmons who was 12. What happened next remains a mystery, perhaps
William Collett died, because in 1910 Alice and her daughter were living in
Township 1 in Inyo County, California, where Alice Collett from Canada was the
housekeeper working for Willie and Flora Chalfont from Nevada. With Alice was her daughter Aggie E Collett
who was 15. New information now reveals
that Alice Collett became Alice Trowsdale sometime between 1910 and 1915
1P173 – Arthur Leigh Collett (formerly Simmons)
was born in 1888 at Prince Edward Island
1P174 – Aggie Eliza Collett was born in 1894 at
Prince Edward Island
Sarah Jane Collett [1O147] was
born at Richmond, west of Summerside, on Prince Edward Island during 1862,
where she was baptised on 14th April 1862, the eldest of the five
children of Charles Collett and Annie McLeod.
Sarah was nine years old when her mother died and was ten years of age
when her father passed away, in whose Will she was named together with her four
younger siblings. Upon being made an
orphan she and her brothers and sisters were placed in the care of other
families, and according to the Canadian Census in 1881 Sarah Jane Collett, aged
19, was staying with the McKinon family at Lot 29 in the Queens district of
Prince Edward Island
Eliza Caroline Collett [1O148] was
born at Richmond near Summerside on Prince Edward Island and was baptised on 21st
October 1864, the second child of Charles and Annie Collett. Her mother died in 1871 and her father died
exactly one year later during February 1872, and it was in his Will that Eliza
was named as one of his five children.
What immediately happened to her and her four siblings, when they were
made orphans, is not known, as no record of Eliza or her sister Harriet and her
youngest brother James has been found within the census of 1881. However, her other two siblings, Sarah Jane
and Charles Frederick, were living with two separate families in the Queens
district of Prince Edward Island, where Eliza and her missing siblings are also
thought to have been residing
Seven years later on 25th
August 1888 Eliza married Thomas Simmons who was born on Prince Edward Island
around 1862. It was at Queens that she
and her husband were living in 1891 when she was expecting the couple’s first
child. A total of four children were
born into the family, although by the time of the census in 1901 only three
were listed with Eliza and Thomas at Lot 29 Canton Township on Prince Edward
Island. The couple’s last child was born
towards the end of that same year. By
1911, the complete Simmons family was living at Queens, Prince Edward Island,
and they were Thomas Simmons, his wife Eliza Simmons, and their four children Wasel
M Simmons (1891-), Mildred S Simmons (1895-), Everet B Simmons
(1898-), and Lona P Simmons (1901-).
After thirty-two years of married life, Eliza Simmons nee Collett died
on 28th September 1920
Harriet Peters Collett [1O149] was
born at Summerside on Prince Edward Island during the first four months of
1866. She was also baptised there on 6th
May 1866, the third daughter of Charles and Annie Collett. She was made an orphan upon the death of both
her parents in 1871 and 1872, following which no record of her or two of her four
siblings has been located in the census of 1881, even though she is believed to
have been living on Prince Edward Island on that occasion. Harriet was however confirmed as one of the
five children of Charles Collett in his Will of 1871. New information received in March 2014 from
Pat Finkle, the great granddaughter of Harriet Peters Collett, who was known as
Hattie, has revealed that upon the death of her parents, Hattie went to live with
Walter Maxfield Lea, within whose family she was raised. It would therefore appear that it was through
her association with the Lea family that she met her future husband
Harriet eventually left
Prince Edward Island in the autumn of 1885 and arrived at Boston in
Massachusetts on 12th October 1885.
It was just over six years later that she married John Reid Lea on 15th
February 1892. He had been born in 1863
and he died in 1943. During the first
eight years of their married life together, Hattie presented John with three
sons. They were Herbert Rexford Lea, the grandfather of
the aforementioned Pat Finkle, Harry Windsor Lea and Crilly M Lea.
Tragically, it was just one year after the
birth of her third son that Harriet Peters Lea nee Collett died during
1901. Herbert Rexford Lea, known
as Rex, married Gertrude Murray and had three daughters. They were Edith Marie Lea, Dorothy Harriet
Lea, and Marjorie Gertrude Lea. Harry
Windsor Lea, known as Hal, had no children even though he was married twice,
the first time to a Mary and after to a Marion.
Hattie’s youngest son Crilly M Lea was born in 1901 and he died in 1967.
During his life he was twice married, with the first marriage producing
a son Jack. Upon later being made
a widower Crilly married Mary MacLennan
Both Rex and Hal served during World War
One, for which Rex won the Distinguished Conduct War Medal. Hal served some of his time as a pilot with
the Royal Flying Corps. Both survived
the campaign and both returned home after the conflict. Hal graduated from McGill’s engineering
School in Montreal and became a civil engineer who, in 1942, was appointed
Director of the Maritime Bureau of Technical Personnel from his position as the
bureau’s Chief Executive Officer
Charles Frederick Collett [1O150] was
born at Prince Edward Island during August 1869 and possibly at Summerside
where his three older sisters (above) were both born. Tragically it was just five days prior to the
death of his mother that he was baptised at Crapaud on 9th February
1871, the eldest of the two sons of Charles and Annie Collett. Like his four siblings, Charles too was taken
into care following the deaths of his parents in 1871 and 1872, when he too was
named in his father’s Will. However,
unlike three of his siblings Charles, and his sister Sarah Jane, have been
identified within the Canadian census of 1881.
He was 12 years old and was living at Lot 29 in the Queens district with
elderly Esther Pearson from England, aged 75, who also had living with her Mary
McKinon, aged 14, who was the eldest child of Angus McKinon. Both Charles and Mary McKinon were still
attending school within the Queens area of Prince Edward Island. The McKinon family was living nearby and had
living with them Charles’ sister Sarah Jane Collett (above)
Ten years later the
census in 1891 included Charles Collett from Prince Edward Island at the age of
21, when he was still unmarried and residing in the sub-district of Lot 29 in
Queens County. Not long after that census
day, and later that same year Charles Collett married Ella Mae MacPhee who had
been born at Prince Edward Island on 13th November 1869. Once married the couple followed Charles’
sister Harriet to Massachusetts, where they settled in Norfolk in 1893, just in
time for the birth of the couple’s first child
A further five children
were added to the family before the end of the century, although it seems
curious that the same christian name was used for more than one child. Even more curious, was the fact that five of
them were recorded in the census of 1920 in the Boston Ward 23, Suffolk in
Massachusetts, with only Florence M Collett missing. She was alive at the time of the census in
1910, so it is possible that she was married by 1920. According to the census in 1910 the family
was living in the Hyde Park area of Norfolk, Mass. Charles died there three years later in 1913,
and seven years later the remainder of his family, less his daughter Florence M
Collett, was recorded living within the Boston Ward 23 in Suffolk in 1920. Charles’ widow Ella lived a very long life
and died on 29th January 1967 at Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts
1P175 – Edla Collett was born in 1893 at Massachusetts
1P176 – Edla Collett was born in 1894 at Massachusetts
1P177 – Daisy Collett was born in 1896 at Massachusetts
1P178 – Florence M Collett was born in 1897 at Massachusetts
1P179 – Florence Collett was born in 1898 at Massachusetts
1P180 – Florence Collett was born in 1899 at Massachusetts
At the time of the US
Census in 1900 James and his wife and their first child were living in Township
1 in Inyo, where he was also living in 1910 with his family completed by
then. After a further ten years, the
1920 census placed the family as living at Warms Springs in Inyo, although some
time between then and 1936 James and Janey eventually moved to Sacramento,
where they lived out the remainder of their lives. James Bradford Collett died while a resident
of Sacramento, California on 23rd December 1944, when his parents
were confirmed as Charles Collett and Annie McLeod. It was rumoured within the family that he
died at sea – his father being a ship builder/owner, although there was no
stated cause of death on his death certificate.
His wife Janey died at Sacramento fifteen years later on 14th
July 1959. He was the great grandfather
of Cherie Mosher, the granddaughter of his own daughter Beatrice Evelyn
Collett, who was still alive and living in America in 2011. Cherie is the mother of Sarah Ahlstrom who
grew up in North California but who now lives in Utah. Sarah kindly provided additional information
that was used in updating this family line in July 2012, while in 2015 she
completed research into the Colletts of Prince Edward Island. A travelogue written by James, and now in the
possession of Cherie Mosher, mentions his visits to Prince Edward Island
to see his Uncle Aaron Collett, his sisters Eliza and Hattie, and his brother
Charles Collett (all above)
1P181 – Maudie Leona Collett was born during 1898
in California
1P182 – Florence H Collett was born during 1903
in California
1P183 – Mabel Berniece Collett was born during 1906
in California
1P184 – Beatrice Evelyn Collett was born during 1908
in California
Hannah Lowther Collett [1O152] was
born at Prince Edward Island on 6th April 1857 and was baptised at
Bedeque on 22nd November 1857, the eldest daughter of Anthony and
Mary A Collett. It is possible her
mother’s maiden name was Lowther, after whom Hannah was named
William Collett [1O153] was
one half of a set of twins born in 1866 at Prince Edward Island, to parents
Anthony Collett, a miller, and Mary A Lowther.
He and his twin sister Elizabeth were both 14 at the time of the census
in 1881 when they were still attending school from their home at Lot 29 in the
Queens district of Prince Edward Island.
It was at Lot 29 that he was again living with his family in 1891, just
prior to his wedding day, but as William A Collett aged 24, a Free Will
Baptist. Just after that census day on 6th
April, William Collett married Margaret and, by the
time of the next census in 1901, their marriage had produced five children when
the family was living with the Queens district.
William Collett was 66, Margaret L Collett was 26, and their Prince
Edward Island born children were George A Collett who was nine, William Brady
Collett who was seven, Emma J Collett who was five, Jesse F Collett who was
three and James Allin Collett who was only seven months old. It is possible that Margaret’s maiden name
was Brady, the second forename given to her second son
1P185 – George A Collett was born in 1892 at
Prince Edward Island
1P186 – William Brady Collett was born in 1894 at
Prince Edward Island
1P187 – Emma J Collett was born in 1896 at
Prince Edward Island
1P188 – Jesse F Collett was born in 1898 at
Prince Edward Island
1P189 – James Allin Collett was born in 1900 at
Prince Edward Island
Charles William Collett [1O155] was
born at Summerside on Prince Edward Island, where he was baptised on 10th
March 1860, the son of Mary Matilda Collett from England who shortly after
married Henry Croswell, or Chaswell as she was named in her father’s Will of
1861. The lack of a named father,
coupled with the fact that Mary was only 19, may suggest that he was
base-born. Once his mother was married
to Henry the couple settled in Summerside where their large family was living
in 1881 when Mary’s first-born child was named as William Charles Crowell
Frederick Collett [1P1] was
born at Highworth, either late in 1878 or very early in 1879, and was baptised
at Highworth on 27th February 1879, the only known child of
Frederick Collett by his second wife Harriet Herbert, whose birth was recorded
at Highworth (Ref. 5a 9). He was two
years old at the time of the 1881 Census when he was living with his parents at
Westrop in Highworth. Ten years later
Frederick was still living at Westrop in Highworth when he was 12 years old,
although by then his father had died a few years earlier and his mother had
married Charles Warren, with whom he was living. It would appear that, on leaving school, he
joined the Royal Navy and, by March 1901, when he was 22, he was an able seaman
based at Portland near Weymouth in Dorset.
Fred Collett from Highworth was a crew member
Less than two years
later, the marriage of Frederick Collett and Annie Louisa Martin took place at
Maiden Newton, north-west of Dorchester in Dorset, on 24th December
1902. Frederick was 23 and the son of
Frederick Collett and Annie was 27 and the daughter of John Martin, and it was
at Dorchester register office that the event was recorded (Ref. 5a 822). Over the next twelve years, Annie Collett
gave birth to five children, the first three of which were living with her at
Maiden Newton in 1911. Annie was 33 and
had been born at Marston Magna in Somerset, her daughter Margery was seven,
Percy was five and Stanley was two years of age. Whilst Annie was confirmed as married for
eight years, the census return stated that the head of the household was at sea
However, on that day her
husband Frederick Collett from Highworth in Wiltshire was 31 and recorded at an
institution referred to as the Royal Sailor’s Rest in Portsmouth. His rank in the Royal Navy was that of a
Petty Officer First Class. Although away
from his family that day, he had been home very recently, because Annie was
already pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, who was born at Maiden Newton
later that same year. Over three years
after that, the last child was added to his family. It appears that the family later settled in
Cornwall, maybe after Frederick was transferred to Plymouth, since four of
their children were married at Penzance.
Upon retiring from the navy, Frederick and his family returned to Wiltshire, with the death of Fred Collett recorded
at Swindon register office (Ref. 7c 435) during the third quarter of 1948, when
he was 70 years old
1Q1 – Margery Annie Collett was born in 1903 at
Maiden Newton, Dorset
1Q2 – Percy Frederick J Collett was born in 1905 at
Maiden Newton, Dorset
1Q3 – Stanley Martin Collett was born in 1908 at
Maiden Newton, Dorset
1Q4 – Eileen Gladys Louisa Collett was born in 1911 at
Maiden Newton, Dorset
1Q5 – Kenneth C H Collett was born in 1914 at
Maiden Newton, Dorset
Edith Emily Collett [1P2] was
born at Highworth, most likely towards the end of 1878, or very early in 1879,
and within only a few months of the wedding day of her parents Thomas Collett
and his wife Sarah Ann Comley. Her birth
was recorded there (Ref. 5a 8) during the first three months of 1879. It is possible that Edith suffered an infant
death shortly after she was born, because she was not listed with her family in
the census conducted at the start of the month of April in 1881, nor at any
other time. Furthermore, the next
daughter born to the couple was also given the name Edith, again yet another
indication that their first child had died within nine months of being born
Annie Edith Collett [1P3] was
born at Highworth in 1879, with her birth recorded there (Ref. 5a 9) during the
third quarter of the year, her second forename most likely a tribute to her
deceased older sibling. It was simply as
Ann Collett, that she was baptised at Highworth on 2nd November
1879, the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Collett.
The census in 1881 recorded her as Annie E Collett, aged one year, when
she was living with her parents at 21 Eastrop Cottage in Highworth
Harriet Ellen Collett [1P4] was
born at Highworth in 1882, the third of the four children of Thomas Collett by
his first wife Sarah Ann Comely. Her birth
was recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a 2) during the third quarter of the
year. It was also under her full name
that she was baptised at Highworth on 17th July 1882, when she was
confirmed as the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Collett. The family was living at The Gardens in
Highworth in 1891, when Harriet E Collett was eight years old and, in 1901, as
Ellen Collett who was 19, with no occupation
Sarah Ann Collett [1P5] was
born at Highworth in 1884, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 10) during the
second quarter of the year, the last child of Thomas and Sarah Collett. She was still under one year old when Sarah
Ann Collett died at Highworth on 18th March 1885, where she was
buried on 23rd March with her mother, who was buried there earlier
that same year
William Thomas Collett [1P6] was
born at Highworth in 1886, the eldest child of Thomas Collett by his second
wife Dorcas Cockhead. His birth was
recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a 9) during the first three months of 1886. It was at The Gardens in Highworth that he
was living with his family in 1891, when William T Collett was five years of
age and was 15 years old in 1901, when he was working as an ordinary
agricultural labourer with his father Thomas Collett, while still with his
family at Highworth
Ada Emily Collett [1P7] was
born at Highworth in 1887, her birth recorded there (Ref. 5a 3) during the
third quarter of the year. Ada E Collett
was three years of age in 1891 and was 13 in 1901. She had left the family home in Highworth by
1911, while it is known that she never married.
She was 37 when the death of Ada Emily Collett was recorded at Devizes
register office (Ref. 5a 95) during the second quarter of 1925
Florence Rose Collett [1P8] was
born at Highworth, either at the end of 1888 or during the first few weeks of
1889. Her birth, using her full name,
was recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a 8) during the first quarter of 1889. Florence R Collett was two years of age in
the Highworth census in 1891 and as Florence Collett she was 12 years old in
1901, when she was still living with her family in Highworth. It is possible that she was married prior to
the next census in 1911
Ernest Frank Collett [1P9] was
born at The Gardens in Highworth, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 9)
during the third quarter of 1890. He was
listed as Ernest F Collett, who was under one-year-old, in 1891 when living
with his family at The Gardens in Highworth.
Sadly, he was two years old when he died at Highworth on 13th
September 1892, following which he was buried in Highworth four days later on
17th September
Dorcas Mary Collett [1P10] was
born in 1892 at The Gardens in Highworth and was named after her mother Dorcas
Collett nee Cockhead. Her birth was
recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a 2) during the second quarter of the year. Within the census of 1901, she was listed
with her family at Highworth as Mary Collett who was nine years old. On leaving school, Dorcas travelled south to
secure work as a domestic servant and it was at East Meon to the west of
Petersfield in Hampshire that she was living and working in 1911. Dorcas Mary Collett from Highworth was 19
years of age and employed as a scullery maid.
Although not proved, Dorcas may have found herself with-child during the
following year, so returned to Swindon.
And it was there that the birth of Dorcas E Collett was recorded (Ref.
5a 11) during the last three months of 1912.
The mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett
1Q6 – Dorcas E Collett was born in 1912 at
Swindon
Eva Ethel Collett [1P11] was
born in 1894 at Highworth, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 1) during the
third quarter of the year. By 1901, Eva
E Collett was seven years of age when living at Highworth with her family. Having completed her education, she entered
domestic service and in 1911 she was living and working in nearby Swindon with
the family of butcher Fred Duedney Smith from Hampshire, where Eva Ethel
Collett from Highworth was 16 and a general domestic servant. It is interesting that, on that same day,
Eva’s older sister Dorcas (above) was also working for a Hampshire family, but
near Petersfield in that county.
Coincidence perhaps, but more likely the position was arranged by the
same source. Eleven years after that,
the marriage of Eva E Collett and William A Cole was recorded at Swindon (Ref.
5a 79) during the second quarter of 1922.
That marriage produced five children who were all born at Swindon, when
their mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett. They were Ronald E Cole who was born
very soon after their wedding day, Beatrice B Cole who was born in 1924,
Winifred P Cole who was born in 1926, Raymond A Cole who was born
in 1928 and Dennis R Cole who was born in 1929
Louisa Naomi Collett [1P12] was
born at Highworth during the second quarter of 1896, where his birth was
recorded (Ref. 5a 6). As Louisa Collett
she was five years of age in 1901 and it was as Louisa Naomi Collett, aged 14,
that she was still living with her parents, Thomas and Dorcas Collett, at Highworth
in April 1911. Just over seven years
later, the marriage of Louisa N Collett and Percival W Paul was recorded at
Devizes register office (Ref. 5a 234) during the third quarter of 1918. It seems likely that Louisa left Highworth
and travelled to Devizes with her older sister Ada (above) who died there seven
years later
Matilda Ruth Collett [1P13] was
born at Highworth on 2nd September 1898, her birth recorded at
Highworth register office (Ref. 5a 1).
It was as Matilda Collett, aged two years, that she was recorded with
her family in 1901 and as Matilda Ruth Collett, aged 12, that she was still
living with her parents Thomas and Dorcas Collett at Highworth in April
1911. It was on 21st May 1923
at Sydenham in Kent that Matilda Ruth Collett married Henry William Stroud, the
base-born son of Emily Stroud. The
original marriage record was corrected on 24th September 1924, when
W H Warren, an authorised
person for the Wesleyan Chapel, High Street in Sydenham, wrote “for Stroud read
Hobden”. It is now evident that Emily
Stroud married Henry William Hobden after the birth of her son. Matilda’s
marriage was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 2012) during the
second quarter of 1923, when Matilda Ruth Collett, a spinster and
domestic servant, residing at 34 Bishopsthorpe Road in Sydenham within the
London Borough of Lewisham, was the daughter of Thomas Collett, a farm
labourer, when the groom was grocer’s assistant Henry William Hobden. It was also at Lewisham register office that
the birth of Henry William Stroud was recorded during the third quarter of 1900
(Ref. 1d 1176)
By the time of the census
in 1911 Henry was the eldest child of the Hobden family of Henry and Emily
living in Sydenham. Henry William Hobden
was 42, Emily was 39, while their children were Henry who was 10, Walter who
was nine, Cyril who was six, Arthur who was four and Leonard who was five
months old. Also living with the family
was eighty-year-old Jane Hobden, the mother of Henry William. However, it is apparent from the later
records (below) that Henry William Hobden, the younger, eventually reverted to
his birth name As a result of that name
change the marriage of Matilda Ruth Collett and Henry William (Hobden) Stroud
produced two children, and they were Bernard Stroud and Ruth Stroud. In addition, the death of Henry William
Stroud aged 73 years was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 5d 154)
during the final three months of 1973, when his date of birth was confirmed as
18th July 1900. Matilda Ruth
Stroud nee Collett only survived her husband by a few months, when her death at
the age of 75 was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 813) during the
first three months of 1974
Bernard Charles Collett [1P14] was
born at Highworth in 1900 and was less than a year old at the time of the 1901
Census of Highworth, his birth having been recorded at Swindon register office
(Ref. 5a 4) during the second quarter of the year. Tragically, he was just six years old when he
was kicked by horse while out playing one day in the fields near Highworth and
died of his injuries on 15th October 1906, after which Bernard
Charles Collett was buried at Highworth on 22nd October. After that sad event, Bernard’s mother Dorcas
insisted that, whenever Bernard’s youngest brother, Victor Jesse Bernard
Collett (below), went out to play, that he wore something red so that she could
see him from the house. Victor was also
given the third forename of Bernard in memory of the brother he never knew
Alice Belinda Collett [1P15] was
born at Highworth towards the end of 1901 or early in 1902, while her birth was
also recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 8) during the first quarter
of 1902. It was as Alice Belinda
Collett, aged nine years, that she was still living with her parents Thomas and
Dorcas Collett at Highworth in 1911. In
her account of life in rural Wiltshire, she stated she was born in a thatched
cottage at Fresden while, previously, the family had lived at Starvall
Farm. Fresden was apparently two
isolated cottages a mile and a half from Coleshill to the east of
Highworth. A little later, she recalled
living at Eastrop Hill in Highworth. The
abridged account of her early life story is presented at the end of this
section. The marriage of Alice B Collett
and Mr Winchester was recorded at Epsom registry office (Ref. 2a 93) during the
third quarter of 1923. The fact that
Alice was married a great many miles from where she was born, may be the result
of the fact that she was heavily pregnant on her wedding day. Her daughter and only known child, Zena M
A Winchester, was also born during the third quarter of the same year, her
birth also recorded at Epsom (Ref. 2a 11), when the mother’s maiden name was
confirmed as Collett. The family of
three initially lived at Pound Street in Carshalton, where they had two rooms
in the house of widow Mrs Simmons
Gladys Elsie Collett[1P16] was
born at Highworth in 1903, her birth recorded at Swindon (Ref. 5a 7) during the
third quarter of the year. Surprisingly,
her existence was not known to the more recent members of the family members
until the release of the 1911 Census.
That census return recorded her as Gladys Elsie Collett of Highworth who
was seven years old, when she was living at Highworth with her parents Thomas
and Dorcas Collett. Why there was an
obvious lack of any knowledge of her is very curious, since she did not suffer
an infant death, as first thought but, in fact, was married many years
later. It was at Swindon during the
first quarter of 1943 that the marriage of Gladys Elsie Collett and Leslie J Wheatly
was recorded (Ref. 5a 43)
Beatrice Maria Collett [1P17] was
born at Highworth, with her birth recorded at Swindon (Ref. 5a 4) during the
third quarter of 1905. She was later
known as Beatie and Auntie Beatie by the younger members of the Collett family,
although in the story told by her sister Alice Belinda Collett (below),
reproduced in the Appendix at the end of this file, she was named as Ri, a
shortening of Ma-RI-a. It was as
Beatrice Maria Collett, aged five years, that she was still living with her
parents Thomas and Dorcas Collett at Highworth in April 1911. While still very young Beatrice and her
brother Jesse (below) were taken by their mother Dorcas, when she left the
children’s father to make a new life with a coalman at Rodbourne on the other
side of Swindon
Beatrice was twenty-five
years of age, when the marriage of Beatrice Maria Collett and Percival William
Edmonds was recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 70) during the third
quarter of 1928. Percival was a clergyman
and it was he who officiated at the Swindon funeral of Beatrice’s younger
brother Jesse (below) in 1977. However,
by that time Percival was a widower, following the death of Beatrice M Edmonds,
whose passing was recorded at the Essex register office in Brentwood (Ref. 4a
436) during the last quarter of 1963, when she was 59. Percival William Edmonds was born at Swindon
on 26th July 1906, the son of Robert and Emily Edmonds. Upon his retirement, possibly after the death
of his wife, Percival settled in a village in Oxfordshire, which was renowned
as a community for retired vicars. The
death of Percival William Edmonds was recorded at the Oxfordshire Bullingdon
register office (Ref. 20 2109) during the summer of 1986, when he was 80 years
old
Victor Jesse Bernard Collett [1P18] was
the youngest and last child of Thomas Collett and Dorcas Cockhead and was given
the additional name of Bernard in memory of his brother (above) who died two
years earlier. He was born on 30th
July 1908 at Highworth, when his birth was recorded at Swindon register office
(Ref. 5a 7). He was two years old in the
Highworth census of 1911 when he was still with both of his parents and the
rest of his family, and was listed simply as Victor Jesse Collett. At some time in his life Jesse was a fireman
with the Great Western Railway and used to drive the fire engine to crash
scenes and accidents. It was early in
1931 when he became a married man, the wedding of Victor J B Collett and Daisy
E Woodward being recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 36) during the
first quarter of 1931, their only child born around nine months later. Daisy was born at Purton, which lies
approximately four miles north-west of Rodbourne, her birth recorded at Cricklade
register office (Ref. 5a 101) during the second quarter of 1913. Their daughter Valerie is thought to be the
couple’s only child, and was born at Swindon, where the death of Victor Jesse B
Collett was recorded (Ref. 21 2395) during the last months of 1977, when he was
79. Following his death, Victor’s
funeral was conducted by his brother-in-law Percival Edmonds, the husband of
his sister Beatrice (above)
In the story of village
life in Highworth, written by his sister Alice (above), she referred to him as
Jess and during his later life he was known as Jesse, pronounced Jessie. Apart from his early days at Highworth, he
and his sister Beatrice (above) were brought up by their mother Dorcas who left
the children’s father to live with a coalman in Rodbourne. It may be of interest that Jess always
referred to the fact that he was “brought up on the wrong side of the tracks”,
his reference to Rodbourne
1Q7 – Valerie Joyce Collett was born in 1931 at
Swindon
Frederick John James Collett [1P19] was
born at Berkeley in Gloucestershire during 1895, the eldest of the four
children of John and Elizabeth Collett.
His birth was recorded at Thornbury (Ref. 6a 234) during the third
quarter of 1895. By March 1901 he and
his family were living at Tortworth near Wotton-under-Edge, where Frederick was
five years old. During the second half
of the next decade the family moved again, when they returned to Coleford,
where Frederick’s brother William had been born, where the family was living in
April 1911. The census return included
Frederick J J Collett who was still living there with his family at the age of
15, when he was a carpenter and a joiner with a local builder/contractor. Three year later at the outbreak of the First
World War Frederick was eighteen when he enlisted with the army. He was eventually assigned to the 2nd/8th
Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment where he became Corporal Collett
242131
During the period from July to October 1917
Frederick and his battalion were involved in the conflict in the area of the
Ypres Salient. And it was there on 28th
August 1917 that he died at the age of 22.
His army records confirmed that he was the son John and Elizabeth
Collett of the Post Office Christchurch near Coleford in the Forest of Dean in
Gloucestershire. The name of Frederick
John James Collett appears on the Wieltje Farm Memorial, reference B17, which
is situated within the Wieltje Farm Cemetery and which was established and used
by fighting units, in particular by the 2nd/4th Gloucestershire Regiments. There are only 115 Commonwealth servicemen
from the First World War buried or commemorated at the small cemetery. Ten of the burials are unidentified and there
are special memorials to twenty casualties whose graves were destroyed by shell
fire. The site also contains the grave
of one German soldier. An obituary for
Corporal Frederick John James Collett was printed in the Gloucester Journal on
15th September 1917, which indicated that he was 22 and from
Cheltenham, and had died on 27th August 1917, one day earlier than
the date stated in his military records
Charles Ernest Collett [1P22] was
born at Tortworth in Gloucestershire during 1904, the son of John and Elizabeth
Collett, whose birth was recorded at Thornbury register office (Ref. 6a 290)
during the second quarter of 1904. Not
long after he was born his father, a nightwatchman and former policeman,
accepted the job of sub-postmaster at Christchurch, near Coleford in the Forest
of Dean, where Charles’ mother had been born. And it was there that the family
was residing in 1911, when Charles Ernest Collett from Tortworth was six years
old. It was also at Christchurch that
the family was still living at the post office in 1917, where the family
received the tragic news of the death of Charles’ older brother Frederick
(above). Also living in Coleford was Charles’
cousin Isabel Ellen Collett, the daughter of his uncle Albert Collett, the
younger brother of Charles’ father John.
As intimate relationships between cousins were not socially acceptable,
it seems likely that the couple ‘ran away to Wales’ to be together,
since it was at Monmouth register office (Ref. 11a 16) that their marriage was
recorded during the third quarter of 1928.
That record confirmed Charles E Collett married Isabel E Collett, the
daughter of police inspector Albert Collett and his wife Elizabeth Cullis
During 2012 the Will of
the aunt of Charles Collett was discovered, in which he was named. That document, proved in Gloucester on 20th
April 1948, revealed that spinster Rosa Emma Collett of 31 Staunton Road in
Coleford, and younger sister of Charles’
father, named motor engineer Charles Ernest Collett as her sole executor. It was just over two years later that Charles
Ernest Collett died, his death recorded in the City of Gloucester register
office (Ref. 7b 444) during the last three months of 1950. Following his death on 4th
November 1950 at the Royal Hospital in Gloucester, administration of his
personal effects, valued at £4,440 9 Shillings 2 Pence, was granted to his
widow Isabel Ellen Collett and Simon Vincent William Thomas, a motor
mechanic. The couple’s address at the
time of the passing of Charles Ernest Collett was, The Post Office in
Christchurch near Coleford, Gloucestershire, and it was at Christchurch that he
was laid to rest
Isabel Ellen Collett [1P23] was
born at Coleford on 1st November 1906 after her parents, Albert
Collett and Elizabeth Cullis, were married there in 1902. She was twenty-one years of age when she
married her cousin Charles Ernest Collett at Monmouth during the summer of 1928. The death of Isabel Ellen Collett was
recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 22 87) early in 1979, when she was
72. For more details, see Charles Ernest
Collett (above)
Arthur Charles Collett [1P24] was born in 1905 at
Tewkesbury, the first-born child of Arthur Henry Collett and Emily Elizabeth King.
His birth was recorded at Tewkesbury register office (Ref. 6a 339)
during the third quarter of 1905 and, when he was around five years old, the
family moved a few miles east of Tewkesbury to Ashchurch, where Arthur Charles
Collett was five years old in 1911. No
record of Arthur ever being married or having issue has been found. However, the death of Arthur Charles Collett
was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 40) during the first quarter
of 1961 when he was 55
Christabel Beatrice Collett [1P25] was born in 1907 at
Tewkesbury, the only daughter of Arthur and Emily Collett. It was also at Tewkesbury register office
(Ref. 6a 324) where her was recorded during the first three months of
1907. Following the birth of her younger
brother Alfred (below), her family left Tewkesbury, when they settled in nearby
Ashchurch, where they were recorded in 1911.
The north-south main passes through Ashchurch (not Tewkesbury),
where Christabel’s father took a job with the Great Western Railway as a porter
shunter. By then, Christabel Beatrice
Collett was four years of age. She was
around twenty-two years old, when the marriage of Christabel Beatrice Collett
and James Albert J Card, who was born at Clutton in Somerset on 13th
January 1895, was recorded at Birmingham North register office (Ref. 6d 14)
during the first three months of 1929.
It was also at the same register office that the births of their first two
sons were recorded, with the birth of the couple’s last child recorded at
Birmingham register office. The three
sons were James E T Card, born in 1930, Gerald A J Card, born in
1932, and Robin A Card in 1939, when in each case, the mother’s maiden
name was confirmed as Collett. Very
tragically, just three years after giving birth, the premature death of
Christabel B Card was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 88)
during the third quarter of 1942, when she was only 35 years old. Eleven years after being widowed, the second
marriage of James Albert J Card and Annie Nash took place during 1953 at
Birmingham. Her was 83 years old, when
he died at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire in 1978
Alfred Gilbert Collett [1P26] was born on 14th
February 1909 at Tewkesbury, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6a 250) during
the first quarter of the year. As far as
can be determined, he was the third and last child of Arthur Henry Collett and
Emily Elizabeth King. Just like his
older brother Arthur (above), it is believed that Alfred never married and
perhaps lived with his unmarried brother in the Birmingham area, where they
both died. The death of Alfred Gilbert
Collett was recorded there (Ref. 9c 18) during the spring of 1871
Arthur Dudley Collett [1P27] was
born in Australia, where his Hartlepool father Albert Collett was married after his arrival there in 1888 at the age of
16. At this time, the name of his mother
is not known. It was also in Australia
where Arthur was married and where his only son was also born. Arthur Dudley Collett was retired and residing
at Forest Hill in Melbourne when he died on 28th October 1978, after
which his Will was proved on 9th March 1979
1Q8 – John D Collett was born on 31st
May 1940 in Australia
Emily Collett [1P30] was born at Picton
in New Zealand on 31st December 1874, the eldest child of William
Giles Collett from Cirencester and Janet McLean from Dunedin in New
Zealand. It would have been around the
end of the century that she married Robert Wallace who was born at Glasgow in
Scotland on 27th July 1878.
Emily and Robert had five children before she died at Napier in 1936,
and was followed much later by Robert who passed away on 27th April
1959. Emily and Robert’s with five
children including three sons Peat Wallace, Robert Wallace and James
Bruce Wallace who are all living in 2012.
The couple’s two daughters were Myrtle Isabella Wallace, who was
born at Whakapapa in King Country, New Zealand, on 24th July 1904, who died at
Napier on 10th October 1978, and Olive Wallace who was born
on 24th February 1912, who died at Dunedin on 17th
February 2007
Janet Collett [1P31], who was known as
Jessie, was born in New Zealand on 18th December 1876 the second
child of William Collett and his wife Janet McLean. Jessie later married Harold Percy Charles
McLean who was born at Kaituna in New Zealand on 16th September
1885, the son of Peter
McLean and Kate O’Dell. It seems highly likely that Harold was in
some way related to Janet’s mother’s family.
Janet and Harold had three known children, Peter Frederick
McLean born in 1905, Harold Bernard McLean born in 1906 and Janet
Emmie McLean born in 1910, all three being born in New Zealand, and perhaps
had more children after 1913. The
following article appeared in the Auckland Star on 12th July 1918,
with the heading “Mail Contractor Bankrupt”
“Harold
Percy Charles McLean, mail contractor and motor-car proprietor, of Te Kuiti, in
a statement furnished to the Official Assignee in Bankruptcy, says he took up a
Crown section about nine years ago, and at the end of five years he was
practically insolvent, and had to sell his farm to a brother. With the proceeds, he paid off his
liabilities excepting sums of £20 and £23, and with £100 left leased a boarding
house. He could not make this pay and
was left with £80 when he went out, being owed also about £27. Since then he had run a motor mail car
between Te Kuiti and Pio Pio for £3 12 Shillings per week. He bought a Daimler car for £300 in Auckland,
and of that money about £80 was still owing.
That was before the mail car started.
He had paid another man £57 cash for his share of the mail contract in
January this year, and took over an Overland car. He had been unable to pay £93 instalments due
on this car. The contract was in an
unsatisfactory state, and the Government subsidy was being paid to another man
for good and sufficient reasons”
Following that, in 1920, at the Hamilton
Supreme Court among the “Motions for Discharge” listed was Harold Percy Charles
McLean and it is interesting that William Henry Collett (below), Harold’s
brother-in-law, was also applying for a Discharge, both parties being
represented by Mr Hine. Harold Percy
Charles McLean died during June 1947 and was buried at Omaka Cemetery in
Marlborough on 1st July 1947.
His widow survived for a further twenty-five years, when Janet McLean
nee Collett passed away in New Zealand during 1972 at the ripe old age of 95
William Henry Collett [1P32] was
born in New Zealand on 11th February 1879, the eldest son of William
Giles Collett from Cirencester and Janet McLean from Dunedin in New
Zealand. Thanks to new information
received from Betty Florence Hobday during the summer of 2013 it is now
confirmed that William Henry Collett married Ellen Elizabeth Nettell early in
1906. William was Betty’s grandfather,
with his eldest daughter Florence Verbena being Betty’s mother. Betty has confirmed the names of the four
original children credited to William and Ellen, but also recalls an Uncle Dan
Collett, whose year of birth has been confirmed by Kelvin Parker (see Ref.
1Q97) in 2014
As with his brother, Francis Albert Collett
(below), William had trouble financially and in a report in the King Country
Chronicle on 23rd April 1910 under Local and General News it is
mentioned that “William Henry Collett,
labourer, of Six-Mile Peg, near Te Kuiti, a bankrupt, states that his
liabilities amount to £76 1s 6½d and assets £6 10s, leaving a deficiency of £69
11s 6½d. There was litigation between the brothers [himself and Francis Albert]
between December 1908 and July 1909, and bankrupt was successful on the third
occasion they went to court — once for money due to him on account of board and
lodging, then in defending an action brought by the brother for money due on an
alleged account, and again in obtaining an order on a judgment summons. The amount due to him was £27 4s, of which he
had received no part. Then his wife had
suffered from a continuous illness, and this was a source of additional expense. He was employed on road work at 8s a
day. His failure he ascribed to the loss
of money owing by his brother, who became bankrupt on being pressed to law
costs in connection therewith, and to his wife's illness”
Over six years later the New Zealand Herald,
published on 13th September 1916, reported that “The case of William Henry Collett, a farmer of Tangitu would be
further held over to enable the official assignee to obtain more
evidence”. His honour commented that the
bankruptcy was a bad one as Collett had twice been bankrupt in five years and
that his assets were nil and liabilities were £156”. No further information has been found on the
case. Later in her life William’s wife
was known as Nellie and the New Zealand Herald of 19th May 1919
reported on a libel case over a postcard sent by some residents to Mr W
Collett, Squatter, Mokauiti, a small settlement near Te Kuiti in which it was
inferred that Mrs Collett had been unfaithful to her husband. Evidence given was that feelings in the settlement
at the time were strained and, as one of the residents had had an argument with
Mrs Collett, that the sending of the postcard would be a way of getting one
back on her. The magistrate ordered
judgment in favour of Mrs Collett against all the defendants for £100 and costs
of £23
After another four years, the New Zealand Truth
of 24th November 1923, included an article headed "Curious
Collett Case" in which "Hubby Pleads Destitution" and
"Wants Wife To Support Him”. That
related to William H Collett, a farmer of Mokauiti, who had applied for a
maintenance order against his wife, Nellie Collett, on the grounds that he was
destitute and she had the means to support him.
He also applied for the custody of their 16-year-old daughter [that
would be Alice Evelyn]. He claimed that
he was unable to do more than two-days’ work a week owing to his health and,
while his wife was in the Hamilton Hospital, he had managed the farm. While in hospital, his wife had written to
him intimating that she did not intend to return. Nellie, in telling her story, said she was
milking 27 cows but could not afford to employ any labour until she had paid
off the debts and that, during the past few years, she had been forced to do
all the work, including fencing and scrub-cutting. Under cross-examination she admitted that her
husband had done a good deal of work about the farm. The Magistrate said the case was a difficult
and unhappy one, but dismissed the case and, as the husband had claimed he was
destitute, he would be refused custody of the child. In 1927 Mrs Nellie Collett applied for, and
was granted, a divorce from William and, later that year, she married Albert
Edward Williams. The only other detail known about William Henry Collett senior was that
he died during 1969, when he was 90
1Q9 – Florence Verbena Collett was born during 1906
in New Zealand
1Q10 – Alice Evelyn Collett was born during
1907 in New Zealand
1Q11 – Nellie Dorothy Collett was born during
1909 in New Zealand
1Q12 – Daniel David Collett was born during 1911
in New Zealand
1Q13 – William Henry Collett was born during
1917 in New Zealand
Francis Albert Collett [1P33]
was born in New Zealand on 1st September 1881, the fourth child and
second son of William and Janet Collett.
When
Francis was in his late teenage years or early twenties, and perhaps after his
mother had deserted the family, he left New Zealand for the homeland of his
father in England, where he married Rhoda Charlotte Simons during 1905 at West
Ham in Essex. Rhoda was also known as
Rose and was born at West Ham during 1885, the third child of William and Emma
Simons. In the census of both 1891 and
1901 the Simons family was still living in the West Ham area of London when
Rhoda Charlotte was six years of age in 1891 and was 16 years old in 1901 when
she was a factory worker with an India Rubber Company. In that latter census return her place of
birth was recorded as Silvertown in Essex, a district of West Ham. The marriage of Francis and Rhoda produced
just one child, who was born at Hamilton in New Zealand but many years after
the couple had married. Those first
fifteen years of their life were fraught with financial troubles, which may
have been the reason for the delayed start of their family
Francis was plagued with money problems and he,
along with older brother William Henry (above) was adjudged a bankrupt, as was
their brother-in-law Harold McLean. At a
meeting of creditors held at Te Kuiti in August 1909 Francis Albert Collett of
Aria, labourer, had two unsecured creditors.
They were his brother William Henry Collett, a farmer of Te Kuiti, to
whom he owed £27 4 Shillings, and his father William Giles Collett, a farmer of
Aria, to whom he owed £30 15 Shillings.
Francis returned to New Zealand from England in June 1908 (having worked
his passage out there) without paying a fare.
On his return he worked with his brother post-splitting for which he
received no wages. That did not help
them pay their way, so they then took on bush-felling. Later that same year, in December, his
brother William sued him for 17 weeks board at £1 per week, and when Francis
countered sued his brother for £6 the judgment went against him. Also, during that time, Francis had been
sending £3 a month to his wife, who was still living in England (possibly at
West Ham with her parents), and that money, together with legal and living
expenses represented all he earned
At some time after that, Francis returned to
England to be with his wife and, in April 1911, he and his wife were recorded
residing in the Woolwich district of London, just across the River Thames from
West Ham. The census that year confirmed
that Francis Albert Collett was 29 and had been born at Woodville (to the east
of Palmerston North) and that Rhoda Charlotte Collett of West Ham was 26. It must therefore have been during the next
nine years that Francis and Rhoda sailed to New Zealand where, it would appear,
they settled in Hamilton, as it was there where their only known child was
born. Rhoda Charlotte Collett nee Simons died at Hamilton on 10th
July 1945 and was buried at Hamilton East Cemetery three days after. Eight years later Francis Albert Collett was
still living in Hamilton when he died on 20th November 1953
aged 72, following which he was buried with his wife
1Q14 – Maud Alice Collett was born in 1920 at Hamilton,
New Zealand
Sarah Catherine Collett [1P35]
was born in New Zealand on 17th September 1886, the sixth child of
William and Janet Collett. She was only
three years old when she died on 3rd March 1889, although an alternative
source suggests that the year was in fact 1899, which may be just a typing
error
Mary Rebeccah Collett [1P36]
was born in New Zealand on 22nd November 1888, the daughter of
William and Janet Collett. She married
Joseph Webster Alker during 1905 when she was only seventeen, with whom she had
four children. They were Richard
Seddon Alker who was born on 21st June 1906, Ida Alker
who was born in 1907, Joseph Alker who was born on 4th
November 1908, who died on 14th August 1993, and William Robert
Alker who was born on 22nd November 1910. Mary Rebecca Alker nee Collett died at
Hamilton, Waikato in 1977 at the age of 89.
Her husband Joseph, who was ten years older than Mary, having been born
at Pemberton in Lancashire, England during 1878, had died over twenty years
earlier, when he passed away at Hamilton during 1956
Sarah Jane Collett [1P39] was
born at Swainswick, near Bath, in 1865, the eldest child of Charles Collett and
Elizabeth Sainsburys. It was at Bath
where her birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 699) during the third quarter of 1865,
with her baptism conducted at The Church of St Mary the Virgin in Swainswick on
6th August 1865. On the day
of the census in 1871, Sarah was five years of age and living with her family
in the Walcot district of Bath, while ten years later in 1881, and after
leaving school, Sarah J Collett was 15 and a servant at the home of elderly
Emily Piercy on Cleveland Place West in Walcot.
The later marriage of Sarah Jane Collett and Charles Harding was
recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 1115) during the fourth quarter of 1890
Just a few months later,
the recently married couple was living on The Paragon, a street of grand
Edwardian houses in Bath. Charles
Harding was a blacksmith at the age of 25, the same age as his wife Sarah, who
gave birth to five children during the last decade of the old century. In the next census of 1901 Charles and Sarah
were both 35, he being an engine smith who had been born at Yate in
Gloucestershire. Their Bath born
children were listed as Emily Harding aged nine, Mary Harding
aged seven, Daisy Harding aged five, Alice Harding aged two, and Beatrice
Harding who was under one year old.
Two sons were added to the five daughters over the following years and,
in the Bath census of 1911, the family comprised engine smith Charles, who was
45, as was his wife, Daisy Harding was 13, Alice Harding was 11, Beatrice Harding
was 10, Charles Harding was eight and Ernest Harding was four
years of age. The family continued to
live in Bath where, nearly twenty-one years later, the death of Sarah J Harding
was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 782) during the first three
months of 1932, when she was 66 years old
James Collett [1P40] was born at Bath,
where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 670) during the third quarter of
1867. He was three years of age in the
Walcot census of 1871 and was 13 years old in 1881, by which time he and his
family were residing at Cornwall Terrace in the Walcot district of Bath. In the weeks before the census was conducted
in 1891, the marriage of James Collett and Rosa Roberts was recorded at Bath (Ref.
5c 933) during the first three months of that year. In the census that year James was 23 and a
painter living at Fairfield in Bath with his wife Rosa who was 21. Their first two children were born at Bath
but, thereafter, the remainder of the children were born in Bristol, to where
the family moved around 1895. It was at
Florence Terrace on Devon Road in Bristol that the family was residing in
1901. James Collett from Somerset was 33
and a house painter, Rosa was 30, and their six children were Eliza Collett who
was nine and May Collett who was eight, Albert Collett who was six, Charles
Collett who was five, Rose E Collett who was three and George Collett who was
two years of age
The family was again
recorded as living in Bristol in 1911 when, once again, James Collett from Bath
was 43 and house painter and his wife Rosa was 40. Still living at the family home were five of
their children and they were May Collett who was 18, Albert Collett who was 16,
Charles Collett who was 15, Gertie Collett who was nine and Lily Collett who
was six years of age. The two eldest
children were confirmed as having been born at Bath, while the three younger
ones had been born after the family had settled in Bristol. Once their family had grown up and left home,
it would appear that James and Rosa returned to Bath since, it was there on 4th
July 1934, that James Collett passed away.
The death of James Collett was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c
520) when he was 67 years old. The
obituary for Mr James Collett was printed in the Bath Chronicle & Herald on
7th July and stated that he had been born at Bathwick. The birth of his widow, Rosa Sarah Roberts,
was recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 700) during the second quarter of 1870, the
daughter of Thomas and Georgina Roberts.
It seems very likely that it was her death at Bath that was recorded
there (Ref. 5c 1490) during the last three months of 1940, when she was 70
years old. The only caveat is that the
name given for the deceased was Rosina Collett, rather than Rosa Collett
1Q15 – Elizabeth Florence Collett was born in 1891 at
Bath, Somerset
1Q16 – May Herma Collett was born in 1892 at
Bath, Somerset
1Q17 – Albert James William Collett was born in 1894 at
Bath, Somerset
1Q18 – Charles Henry Collett was born in 1896 at Bristol
1Q19 – Rose Emily Daisy Grace Collett was born in 1898 at Bristol
1Q20 – Thomas George Collett was born in 1899
at Bristol, died there in 1910
1Q21 – Gertrude Victoria Collett was born in 1901 at Bristol
1Q22 – Lily Matilda Collett was born in 1904 at Bristol
Henry George Collett [1P41] was
born at Bath in 1869, possibly in the Walcot area of the town where Henry was
one year old in 1871. His birth was
recorded at Bath (Ref. 6c 567) during the last three months of 1869. The next census in 1881, placed Henry, aged
12, living with his family at Cornwall Terrace in Walcot. After a further ten years, Henry Collett was
the only child still living with his parents at Sydenham Road in Bath. By then he was 21 and was employed as a
smith’s labourer. Five years later he
married Harriet from Pawlett, just north of Bridgwater in Somerset, after which
she gave birth to their only known child.
It was at Bath (Ref. 5c 1001) that the wedding of Henry George Collett
and Harriet Jane Haggett was recorded during the third quarter of 1896
One the day of the
subsequent census in 1901, the family of three was settled in Bath where Henry
G Collett was 30 and a foreman at a local dairy. His wife Harriet J Collett was also 30 and
their son Charles J Collett was three years old. It was the same situation ten years later
when Henry George Collett was employed by the Bath & Somerset Dairy Company
as a dairy foreman at the age of 41.
Harriet Jane Collett was 41 and their son Charles James Collett was
13. Henry and Harriet were still
residing in the Bath area of the country when they passed away. The death of Henry G Collett was recorded at
Bath register office (Ref. 5c 605) during the final quarter of 1937, when he
was 68. After just over twelve years as
a widow, the death of Harriet J Collett was also recorded there (Ref. 7c 21)
during the second quarter of 1950, when she was 80 years of age
1Q23 – Charles James Collett was born in 1898 at
Bath, Somerset
Mary Elizabeth Martha Collett [1P42] was
born at Walcot in Bath, with her birth recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 719) during
the first quarter of 1872. It was as
Martha Collett, aged nine years, that she was living with her family at
Cornwall Terrace in Walcot in 1881
Fanny Collett [1P43] was born at Walcot
in 1874 and it was at Bath that her birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 61) during the
second quarter of the year. She was the
youngest child of Charles Collett and Elizabeth Sainsburys and was seven years
of age in 1881 when Fanny and her family at Cornwall Terrace in the Walcot district
of Bath
George Collett [1P44] was born with the
Gloucester parish of Barton St Mary in 1854, the eldest child of William and
Jane Collett. His birth was recorded at
Gloucester (Ref. 6a 1) during the third quarter of 1854. He was six years old in the Gloucester census of
1861, when he and his family were living at Barlow Street in Barton St
Mary. By 1871, George had left school and
was working as an engineer cleaner with the Great Western Railway at the age of
16, when he was still living at the family home in Barton St Mary. According to the next census in 1881, George
Collett was living at the home of his parents at 33 Barlow Street in the Barton St Mary
district of Gloucester and was a general
labourer aged 26. It was around thirty
months later, when the marriage of George Collett and Eliza Goodman was
recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 271) during the third quarter of 1883.
By the start of 1884,
Eliza was already expecting the birth of the couple’s first child. Tragically, the death of Eliza Collett was
recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 165) during the second quarter of 1884, when
she was only 27 years old. The birth and
later death of baby Frank Stanley Collett was also recorded there (Ref. 6a 54)
during the second quarter of the same year, and (Ref. 6a 287) during the third
quarter of 1884. The loss of both wife
and child, meant that George was still living with his elderly parents at 33
Barlow Street in Barton St Mary in 1891.
The census return completed that year, confirmed that George Collett,
aged 36, was a widower and a plate layer with the Great Western Railway
George’s father passed
away near the end of 1900, leaving George Collett, aged 46 and a railway porter,
the only child living with his widowed elderly mother, who passed away just
under two years later. On that census
day in 1901, George and his mother were living within the Gloucester South
Hamlet area, at Havelock
Terrace on Park Road, who had living there with them, nephew Joseph J Collett
who was 27 and a railway labourer with the GWR. By April 1911, widower George Collett
from Gloucester was 57 and was still employed by the GWR as a railway labourer,
when he was a boarder at the boarding house run by William Bellamy from
America. Eight and a half years later,
the death of George Collett was recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 6a
35) during the third quarter of 1919, at the age of 65
1Q24 – Frank Stanley Collett was born in 1884
at Gloucester and died there in 1884
Elizabeth Collett [1P45] was
born in Gloucester in 1856 and was four in 1861 and 14 in 1871 when she was
living with her family in the South Hamlet district of Gloucester. At the age of 24 she was living with her
family at 33 Barlow Street in the Barton St Mary area Gloucester from where she
was working as a dressmaker. It is
possible that she later married into the Apperley family
Mary Jane Collett [1P46] was
born at Gloucester in 1859. She was
recorded as Mary J Collett in both 1861, when she was one-year old, and again
in 1871 when she was 11. Ten years later
she was 21 at the time of the 1881 Census.
Her occupation at that time was that of a domestic servant when she was
living with her parents at 33 Barlow Street in Gloucester. Shortly after the 1881 Census, Mary married
Frank Ashmead and the couple settled in East Dean, where all of their children
were born. In 1901 the Ashmead family
was still living at East Dean and was made up of Frank, aged 44, who was a coal
miner and hewer from Upton St Leonards, Mary Jane who was 42, Harriet
Ashmead who was 16, Horace Ashmead who was 13 and an office boy, Bessie
Ashmead who was six, and George Ashmead who was five. By 1911 the couple was again living at East
Dean, where Mary Jane Ashmead from East Dean was 52, her husband Frank was aged
54, and the two children still living with them were Harriet, aged 26, and Bessie
who was 16 years of age
William Henry Collett [1P47] was
born at 33 Barton Street in Gloucester towards the end of 1862, his birth
recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 271) during the first quarter of 1863. It was as William H Collett that he was eight
years old in the Gloucester Hamlet South census in 1871. By the time he was 18 he was an engine
cleaner, most probably with the Great Western Railway, when he and his family
were still living at 33 Barton Street in Gloucester. Nine years later the marriage of William
Collett and Elizabeth Hill was recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 493) during the
third quarter of 1890. Elizabeth Martha
Hill was the daughter of tailor George Hill and his wife Elizabeth and was
baptised at Chickerell, just west of Weymouth on 8th January
1871. However, she was around one year
old on that day, with her birth recorded at Weymouth (Ref. 5a 347) during the
first quarter of 1891. The census in
1881 revealed that she and her brother Henry John Hill had been born in
Bermuda, but were described as British Subjects. It would also appear that the family returned
to Bermuda during the 1870s and, when Elizabeth was around seven years of age,
her parents made a final return to England and settled at Newent in Gloucestershire,
where her father had been born. And it
was at Watery Lane in Newent that they were living in 1881
According to the next
census in1891, William Collett was 27 and working as a mason and when he and
his young wife Elizabeth Collett, aged 20 and a tailoress, were living at 14
Nettleton Road within the Gloucester parish of Barton St Mary. Elizabeth was very likely with-child on the
day of the census, since later that year she gave birth to the first of the
couple’s two known child. Ten years
later, in March 1901, William and his wife and their two children were living
on Oxford Street in Gloucester, where William’s occupation was that of a
pavior. William from Gloucester was 36,
his wife Elizabeth from Weymouth was 30, their daughter Lilian Collett was nine
and their son William Collett was three years old, both born in
Gloucester. Staying with the family that
day was Elizabeth’s younger sister Alice Hill from Newent who was 21 and a
laundress
The birth of their son,
William Collett, at 14 Nettleton Road, was recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 274)
during the first quarter of 1898.
Tragically, he was only seven years old, when the death of William
Collett was recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 6a 205) during the
last three months of 1905. At the end of
that decade, in April 1911, the family was still living at 14 Nettleton Road in
Gloucester, where William Henry Collett from Gloucester was 46 and a paver with
the Works Department of the Midland Railway Company. His wife Elizabeth Martha Collett from
Weymouth was 40, and their daughter Lillian Violet Collett, with no occupation,
was 19 and confirmed as having been born at 14 Nettleton Road. It was just over nine years after that day,
when William died in Gloucester, the death of William H Collett being recorded
there (Ref. 6a 274) during the third quarter of 1920, when he was 55 years old
1Q25 – Lilian Violet Collett was born in 1891 at
Gloucester
1Q26 – William Collett was born in 1898 at
Gloucester and died there in 1905
Laura Collett [1P48] was born in 1871
but after the census day on the second of April. There is a slight confusion over where she
was born and even who her parents might have been. At the time of the 1881 Census, Laura was
nine years old and was described as being from Cheltenham, while she was living
at 33 Barlow Street in Gloucester with the family of William and Jane Collett,
where she was listed as niece. Ten years later, when she was 19, she was still
living with the same family at 33 Barlow Street in Gloucester from where she
was working as a laundress. On that
occasion her place of birth was given as Gloucester and she was referred to as
the daughter of William and Jane Collett, although by the time of the next
census in 1901, Laura Collett from Gloucester, aged 30, was a boarder at the Birmingham
home of the Knox family, from where she was working as a laundress
Joseph G Collett [1P49] was
born in 1873 and was the brother of Laura Collett (above). By the time he was seven years old he was
living at 33 Barlow Street in Gloucester where he was described as the nephew
of the head of household William Collett, and his place of birth was given as
Cheltenham. Ten years later in 1891,
when he was 17, he was still living with the same family at 33 Barlow Street in
Gloucester. However, on that occasion he
was described as son the son of William Jane Collett, and his birthplace was
Gloucester. His occupation was that of a
wagon fitter, probably on the railway.
In 1901, and following the death of William Collett near the end of the
previous year, Joseph was living with his older brother George Collett (above)
and was working with him on the Great Western Railway as a labourer at the age
of 27. Once again, his place of birth
was given as Gloucester. No record of
Joseph Collett of Gloucester or Cheltenham has been found living anywhere in
the United Kingdom in 1911
Esther Collett [1P50] was born at
Clydach, Llanelly in 1858 and was the eldest of the three children of George
Collett from Gloucestershire and Rachel Edmunds from Clydach, Llanelly. It seems highly likely that she was named
after her late maternal grandmother Esther Edmunds. Her birth was recorded at Crickhowell (Ref.
11b 127) during the third quarter of 1858.
Esther was two years old in the census of 1861 when she and her family
were living at Cuckoo’s Nest in Llanelly.
Ten years later the family was still residing at Cuckoo’s Nest when
Esther was 13. On leaving school she
became a dress-maker and in 1881 at the age of 22 she still living with her
family which, by then, was recorded at the Railway Inn at Clydach. Tragically it was over four and a half years
later that she died, the death of Esther Collett recorded at Crickhowell (Ref.
11b 92) during the last three months of 1885
James Collett [1P51] was born at
Clydach, Llanelly in 1860, the only known son of George and Rachel
Collett. He and his family lived their
early life at Cuckoo’s Nest in Llanelly, where they were living in 1861 when
James was one-year old, again in 1871 when he was 11 years old. By the time of the census in 1881 James was
21 years of age and was working as a coal miner when he was living with his
family at the Railway Inn at Clydach. By
the end of that same year he was a married man, with the marriage of James
Collett and Sarah Ann Morgan being recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 236)
during the last three months of 1881.
According to the following census in 1891, James Collett from Clydach
was 31 and a coalminer, his wife Sarah Ann Collett from Gloucestershire was 33
and their son Beignalt James Collett was one-year old. On that day, it was at Railway Side in
Llanelly where the family was living.
His son was just eight years old when the death of James Collett was
recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 77) during the final quarter of 1898, at the
age of 38. Thereafter, nothing is known
about what happened to his wife and their son
1Q27 – Beignalt James Collett was born in 1890
at Llanelly
Harriet Collett [1P52] was
born at Clydach, Llanelly in 1862, the youngest of the three known children of
George Collett of Painswick and Cirencester and his wife Rachel Edmunds from
Clydach. It was at Cuckoo’s Nest in
Llanelly that the family was living in 1871, when Harriett Collett was eight
years old. Rather curiously, ten years
later in 1881, when Harriet’s parents were living at the Railway Inn in Clydah,
Harriet Collett, aged 18 and from Llanelly, was working as an inn keeper at 27 New Market Inn in
nearby Brecknock St John Evangelist.
Head of the household was unmarried Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 1N15) from
Cirencester who was also described as an inn keeper. However, the relationship between the two was
given as sisters, which they definitely were not
Edward Haines Collett [1P53] was
born at Siddington on 27th October 1861, the base-born son of
unmarried Sarah Ann Collett. Where he
and his mother were in 1871 has not been discovered, while it was around 1881
that he became a married man. All
records after that time named him simply as Edward Collett. Possibly because he was illegitimate, no
baptism or marriage record has been found, but it does seem highly likely that
he married Eliza Adams who was baptised at nearby Great Barrington on 17th
April 1859, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Adams. Their first two children were born in or near
Cirencester, before the family travelled north to Staffordshire and Derbyshire,
where their subsequent children were born.
By the time the census was conducted in 1891 Edward and Eliza had four
children living with them at North Street in Winshill, just east of
Burton-on-Trent
Edward Collett from
Gloucestershire was 30 and an agricultural labourer and his wife Eliza was 31
and also from Gloucestershire. Their two
eldest children that day were Francis E Collett who was nine and Ellen M
Collett who was seven, the births of whom were recorded at Cirencester. The two younger children, both born at
Winshill, were Edith A Collett who was five and William Collett who was one
year old. To supplement their income,
Eliza had taken in a lodger Joseph Norton aged 65 from Shropshire. Four more child were added to the family, all
of them born at their North Street dwelling in Winshill, Burton-on-Trent, where
they were still residing in 1901
By that time in his life,
Edward was 39 and working as maltster at a local brewery. Eliza was 40, Frank Collett was 19 and a
labourer at the maltings where his father was employed, Ellen Collett was 17,
Edith Collett was 15, William Collett was 11, George Collett was nine, Harry
Collett was three and Albert Collett was two years old. One more child was born into the family,
either a few days before the 1901 census day, or immediately afterwards. Although no record of the death of Edward
Collett has been revealed, by 1911 Eliza Collett from Cirencester was a widow
at the age of 51, her income coming from the working members of the family
still living with her at Winshill.
However, a Francis Edward Collett, aged 45 and therefore born during
1861, was buried at Winshill on 19th September 1906, his death as
Francis Edward Collett was recorded at Burton-on-Trent (Ref. 6b 245) during the
third quarter of that year
On the day of the
Winshill census of 1911, two of Eliza’s children were absent from the family
home and they were her eldest son Francis, who was married and living in
Winshill with his family, and her daughter Edith, who may also have been
married by that time. The other children
were listed as Nellie Collett from Cirencester who was 27, William Collett who
was 21, George Collett who was 19, Harry Collett who was 14, Albert Collett who
was 12 and Alfred Collett who was 10 years old.
All of the five youngest children were recorded as having been born at
Winshill
1Q28 – Francis Edward Collett was born in 1881 at
Cirencester
1Q29 – Ellen Martha Collett was born in 1883 at
Cirencester
1Q30 – Edith Annie Collett was born in 1886 at
Winshill, near Burton-on-Trent
1Q31 – William James Collett was born in 1889 at
Winshill, near Burton-on-Trent
1Q32 – George Robert Collett was born in 1892 at
Winshill, near Burton-on-Trent
1Q33 – Henry Collett was born in 1897 at
Winshill, near Burton-on-Trent
1Q34 – Albert Stanley Collett was born in 1899 at
Winshill, near Burton-on-Trent
1Q35 – Alfred Ernest Collett was born in 1901 at
Winshill, near Burton-on-Trent
Robert Collett [1P54] was born at
Taibach near Port Talbot in Wales in 1867 and it was there also that he was
baptised on 15th September 1867, the eldest child of Charles Iles
Collett and his first wife Catherine. It
was at 5 Minus Road in Taibach that Robert, aged three years, was living with
his family in 1871, and by 1881 he and the family were living at 1 Woodfield in
Taibach, when he was 13. At the age of
23 he was working as a labourer while still living with his parents at
Cwmdu. After a further ten years he was
still unmarried at 33 when he was a colliery labourer living at 44 Castle
Street in Cwmdu with his parents. It was
later that same year when his mother passed away, following which his father
re-married around 1905. By 1911, when he
was 43, he was with his father and his stepmother when the three of them were
staying with the Davies family at 51 Maesteg Road in Maesteg in 1911. It would therefore appear that Robert never
married
Mary Jane Collett [1P55] was
born at Taibach in 1870, where she was baptised on 12th May 1870,
the daughter of Charles and Catherine Collett.
She was eleven months old when the census was conducted in April 1871
when she and her family were living at 5 Minus Road in Taibach. The family later moved to 1 Woodfield in
Taibach where they were living in 1881 when Mary was 11 years of age, and they
were still there ten years later when she was 20 when she was recorded as Mary
Jane Collett. Mary Jane Collett married
Thomas Shaw Roberts, a labourer from Taibach, around the middle of the 1890s
and in March 1901 Mary and her husband and her first two children were living
at 44 Castle Street in Cwmdu near Maesteg, the home of her parents
Thomas was a labourer at
31 years of age, Mary Ann Roberts from Taibach was 31, and their two children
were George Drew Roberts, who was two years old and born at Aberavon, and
Catherine Maria who was three months old and born at Maesley in
Glamorganshire. Sadly, it would appear
that baby Catherine did not survive, as she was not listed with her family in
1911. During the first decade of the new
century Mary Jane presented Thomas with three more children after they had
returned to live in Aberavon, where the larger family was living at 3 Isaac
Place in 1911. Thomas Shaw Roberts was
40, as was Mary Jane Roberts from Taibach, his wife of eighteen years, George
Roberts was 13, Thomas Roberts was eight, Hannah Roberts was five, and
Frederick Thomas was three years old
Charles Collett [1P58] was
born at Taibach during 1878, the youngest child of Charles Iles Collett and his
first wife Catherine, whose birth was recorded at Neath (Ref. 11a 588) during
the second quarter of the year. He was
two years old in the census of 1881 when he and his family were listed at 1
Woodfield in Taibach, just south of Port Talbot, and by 1891 the family had
settled in Cwmdu near Maesteg, where Charles was 13. The later marriage of Charles Collett and
Mary Hannah Hinkin was recorded at Bridgend register office (Ref. 11a 1200)
during the third quarter of 1899. Mary
was born at Morriston, to the north of Swansea, on 7th February
1880. It was around nine months after
her wedding day when Mary gave birth to the first of the couple’s five children
at Maesteg, after which the family settled in Nantyffyllon, to the north of
Maesteg. However, no record of the
family of three has so far been identified within the census of 1901
During the following
decade a further two children were added to their family, which was residing at
Higher Llangynwyd on the occasion of the census in 1911. Charles Collett from Taibach was 32 and a
colliery rope-smith working below ground, his wife Mary Hannah Collett from
Morriston was 30, and their three children were Dorothy Leanore Collett who was
11, Muriel Dorine Collett who was six, and Victor Campbell Collett who was two
years old. The census return also
confirmed that Dorothy had been born at Maesteg, while the two younger children
had been born at Nantyffyllon. Two more children were added to the family,
the first at the end of 1911, while their last child was born after the First
World War, which may be a sign that Charles was involved with the campaign in some
way. The birth of the couple’s second
child was recorded at Bridgend (Ref. 11a 820) during the final three months of
1905, as was Mary C Collett (Ref. 11a 1725) in 4th Quarter of 1911
and John C Collett (Ref. 11a 1622) in 3rd Quarter 1919. In each case, the mother’s maiden name was
confirmed as Hinkin
All five of their children had their births
recorded at Bridgend so, whilst the fourth child was most likely born at
Nantyffyllon, it is not yet known where the last child was actually born. Charles Collett was 74 when he died, his
death recorded at Bridgend register office (Ref. 8b 13) during the last quarter
of 1952. Twenty-one years after losing
her husband, Mary was living in Mid-Glamorganshire when she passed away, the
death of Hannah Collett, nee Hinkin, recorded there during the first months of
1973
1Q36 – Dorothy Leonora Collett was born in 1900 at
Maesteg, Wales
1Q37 – Muriel Dorine Collett was born in 1905
at Nantyffyllon, Wales
1Q38 – Victor Campbell Collett was born in 1908 at Nantyffyllon, Wales
1Q39 – Mary C Collett was born in 1911 at Nantyffyllon, Wales
1Q40 – John C Collett was born in 1919 at Nantyffyllon, Wales
Lily Harriet Collett [1P59] was
born in 1879 at Eastcombe near Bisley, the first child of Robert Collett and
his first wife Rosanna King, whose birth was recorded at Stroud. The census in 1881 recorded her and her
family living in Church Road at Ashton Keynes, just across the boundary in the
Cricklade district of Wiltshire. The
family at that time comprised her father who was an agricultural labourer, her
Rosanna, Lily H Collett who was two, and her sister Alice Louisa Collett, who
was just ten months old. The place of
birth for both children was confirmed as Eastcombe. In 1891 she was listed as Lillie Harriett
Collett, aged 12, when she was living with her family in the village of
Siddington, near Cirencester. Around the
end of the century, she married James Clifford who was born at Cricklade, the
son of blacksmith Thomas Clifford and his wife Sarah. James was a farrier, and he and his father
Thomas had already given employment to Lily’s younger brother Bertram Henry
Collett with whom he learned the trade of a blacksmith and a farrier which he
developed in his later life (see section four for details). At the time of the census in 1901 farrier
James Clifford, aged 23 and from Cricklade, was living at Tenby Villa on
Avondale Road in Bristol. Residing there
with him was his wife Lilly Clifford who was 22 and also from Cricklade. The only other people listed at the dwelling
were brothers Herbert Clifford and Sidney Clifford who were 15 and 11
respectively, who were very likely the younger brothers of James, even though
they were described as his sons. No
record of the family has been found in 1911
Appendix
Alice
Belinda Collett (Ref. 1P15) - My Early Life
The first home I really remember was at
the bottom of Eastrop Hill in Highworth.
It was two houses knocked into one, with a huge great living room,
kitchen, and a parlour. There were two
bedrooms upstairs. The front door opened
into the scullery, with a red and black tiled floor, coconut matting, a big
copper, and a big open fireplace with two hobs: one an oven and the other a hot
water tank with a tap. There was a large
pantry, a great big scrubbed table, and a whacking great dresser. The parlour became a bedsitting room for
Grandma Cockhead, the only grandparent I knew, when she came from Bishopstone
to live with us. Lighting was by oil
lamps, and sanitation was an outhouse at the end of the garden, a
one-and-a-half-holer over a pit which had to be emptied out by Father every so
often. Father had no education and could
not read or write. He was a farm labourer
and head cowman. In later years he
worked for Mr Wolfe Barry, the son of Sir John Wolf Barry the architect of the
Barry Docks and of Tower Bridge
Father wore a milking smock to work and
earned fourteen shillings a week. Mother
worked in the Vorda mat factory making coconut matting for which she received
sixteen shillings each week. She wore a
“palm” of leather with a steel patch to push the needle through the mats and
she often had to bring work home to finish off some mats and I had to help her. The mats came in rolls with lengths of the
fibre connecting the mats and that had to be cut and woven back in. When I was old enough, I had to do a dozen
before I went to bed. Food included
rabbits, chicken, meat, a weekend joint and pieces for stews. Vegetables included cabbages, savoys,
broccoli, cauliflower, parsnips, onions, turnips, swedes (from the fields),
runner beans, broad beans, peas and potatoes, all grown in the garden. For a while Father also had an allotment,
although that may have been just an excuse for him to stop off at the pub and
have a drink
In Highworth the pubs were the Fox, the
Fishes, the Red Lion, the White Horse, and the Saracen's Head. For “afters” we had tapioca and rice
puddings, pancakes, fruit and custard on Sundays, suet puddings boiled in a cloth,
either “currant duff” or plain with jam.
Jam was always home-made; plum, blackcurrant, goose-berry, redcurrant,
and rhubarb. I was twelve years of age
before I tasted marmalade. Mother went
shopping into Swindon and brought a jar back, but it was bitter and I did not
like it. She and a couple of other women
would go into Swindon on a Saturday afternoon and on one occasion they bought
some margarine at a Maypole shop and that was my first taste of margarine. I had my first tomato when I was about ten or
eleven and I did not like it
You got to Swindon on a cheap train from
Highworth by way of Hannington, Stanton Fitzwarren, and Stratton St.
Margaret. There were three houses
together where we lived. At the back,
there was a concrete yard with a big brick shed and coalhouse. In the shed, there were “prongs” - T-bar
digging forks and pitchforks, spades, dutch and draw hoes, rakes, and dibbers
including a special long one four inches in diameter with a one-inch cross grip
used for planting potatoes. There was a
large front garden and a huge back garden.
There were all flowers in the front, lilies, michaelmas daisies, and
Granny nightcaps
Father looked after the front garden and
some kids often played in the lane and kept kicking their ball into the front
garden. Eventually he would not let them
have their ball back, so young Charlie Southam went bawling home to his
father. Pretty soon the father came to
our front door saying “Please I be come
to ax thee civil, ut thee gi’e I my boy's ball” to which Father replied “No I usn’t” which was met by the retort
“Thee rotten bugger” and so on. This is the way people used to speak: “Her be a lazy wench” and “Tha’s needn't come home with that sart of
talk, tha bist the same wench as when tha went” and “Tha bisn’t in Lunnon now, tha bist at ‘ome” and one of Dad's
favourite sayings when it was raining was “There
en’t nobody out partickler while I be in”
My old Father was a plodder. He would plod on and on and do what he had to
do. He would not just knock off. If there was something on the farm, he
thought needed doing, he would stay and do it.
At the Coronation in 1911 we had Coronation mugs, a holiday from school,
and a party on the front lawn of Highworth School. We were usually only allowed onto the back
grass, sitting on the grass with bread and butter and currant buns. We were all given flags to wave. We were all lined up and we marched around
the centre of the town and then back to the school. We had combs with tissue paper and played
them going around the town. We wore red,
white and blue sashes and carried flags.
The headmaster of the school was a Mr. Booth and we used to call him
“Featherlegs” because his trouser legs used to flap as he walked. He always carried a walking stick on his
arm. He would cane children for the
least thing. I remember being caned
across both hands
Our teacher was Miss Wise. She was very short and wore high heels. She was a bitch and I hated her. In the 6th form I was top of the class. One day I was sent to buy some writing paper
and envelopes from the stationer, because I was top of the class. Mr. Gale, another teacher, and an elderly
bachelor was a very nice man. He lodged
with the Woodbridges - I think Mr. Woodbridge was a harness-maker. There were 6 or 7 classes; the infants were
in a very old-fashioned school on the other side of the road.
Now and again we used to walk to
Faringdon to Mr. Goddard's shop, the draper.
He sold clothing, materials, bed-linen, and shoes and often came around
with his van. You paid one or two
shillings a week. I can remember when
the first car drove through Highworth.
It belonged to the Pleydell-Bouveries.
People would say “People will be getting run over with these yer motors”
The shops in Highworth included Marsh's
the draper, Smith's for sweets tobacco, oil and groceries, Mr Reason the
butcher, Mr Baldwin the coalman, and Tovey's the bakers who made lardy
cake. At Christmas, or some certain time
in the year, there had been a bequest left by some lady that there should be a
pound of bread from Tovey's for each family member, and the same with a butcher
for half-a-pound of beef for each person.
That made our Christmas joint, being a big family. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve there would
be quite a to-do getting the bread and the beef. Every so often there was some money
distributed under another bequest. Our
Christmas dinner was beef and vegetables, and Christmas pudding with custard
made from packets
At teatime there would be bread, butter
and jam, Christmas cake and mince pies.
Christmas stockings were our ordinary black woollen stockings. There were always a few nuts in the toe such
as cob nuts, walnuts, almonds and Brazil nuts, then an apple and an orange and
sometimes a banana, and a little packet of fruit-drops, a small book, some pencils,
a pair of stockings, a sugar watch made of icing with a paper face on it. The main present was nearly always a doll -
eventually a china-headed one that closed its eyes when laid down to sleep,
which I thought was wonderful
My Mother was Methodist at one time, but
I suppose she rowed with some of the Methodists so we went to the
Congregational Chapel. As children, we
went to Sunday School morning and afternoon, and chapel in the evening. When Mother went off with another man, she
took Ri and Jess, the two youngest children, with her. My sister Flo then took over running the
house. Elsie and I stayed with Dad and we were far better dressed than
before. He took us to a Miss Smith in
Westrop Hill. She was dressmaker and
made us some beautiful blue dresses with a white tucked yoke - I felt quite
posh. My other sister Eva was in service
at a boys' college beyond Faringdon somewhere.
She was very good and would come home as often as she could, get clothes
for us, and must have spent nearly all her month's money on Elsie and me
I first travelled by train at about the
age of twelve years and went to Swindon for a Christmas treat given by the
Buffaloes at a swimming baths, all covered up, of course. They served the food, then cleared the tables
away and we had a film show. At school
we learned writing with copy books, lots of dictation, arithmetic (getting up
to algebra in the top two classes), history, geography, nature study and drill
(physical jerks). There was some sort of
day with tea on the grass and games at least once a year, but I could not tell
you what it was for
I
worked for a little while at Bidemill Farm in Hannington, working on the farm and in the house, including driving the horse
with a swath-turner. The farm was owned
by a Mr. and Mrs. Brinkworth. They had
cows and some hunting horses which Mr. Brinkworth bred. There was a son, Freddy, about ten years old,
and a girl of about seven. They went to
Miss Someone's School, a private school in Highworth. He was a swine, that boy. He would hit me around the legs with a riding
crop. I only stayed there a year. You had to stay in a job for a year to get a
reference
My family moved to live at Castle Eaton
after Hannington, so I left Bidemill Farm.
I then went into service at Keble House in Fairford, the home of the
deceased brother of the late John Keble.
The household was made up of old Mrs. Keble who was bedridden, two
spinsters Miss Edith and Miss Grace, and one of the daughters, Mrs Kestell-Cornish,
wife of an army officer who had two children, the boy being at Keble
College. Some people who lived next door
to us at Castle Eaton had a daughter who worked as cook at Keble College, who
told us that they needed a girl to train as parlour maid. They kept a cook, a housekeeper, a kitchen
maid, a nursemaid, and a parlour maid
I had to walk five miles home to
Fairford on half-days. I might have one
Sunday in four at home; the weekly half-days started after lunch had been
washed up, perhaps around 2 o'clock, and I had to be in by 8 or 9 o'clock. Eventually I got a second-hand bike and I
cycled both ways. There were a lot of
soldiers billeted in Fairford. The
cook's husband was overseas in the Army.
This was Ruth Card whose mother lived next door or next but one to us in
Castle Eaton. The kitchen maid had a
soldier boyfriend. I stayed there for a
year
The baker who delivered at Castle Eaton
came from Water Eaton near Oxford and had a daughter, Miss Akers, who was
housekeeper for the Swinsteads. They
needed a general housemaid at their Holmwood home at Cedar Road in Sutton. Mr. Swinstead had been art master at Christ's
Hospital in Horsham and his wife had been needlework mistress at the girls'
Bluecoat School in Hertfordshire. Cedar Road runs parallel to the railway and
is only a few yards south of Sutton station off the Brighton Road (B2230)
At Sutton the only exciting thing for me
was that in Cedar Road there were some very large houses, 10-bedroomed
houses. There were soldiers billeted in
the empty houses and they would form them up at the end of the road and then
all march down. I would often be cleaning
the hammered copper nameplate on the front door and there would be all kinds of
whistles. I gave them a wink now and
again
At Swinsteads you were lucky to get out
by 3.30 pm on your half-day and then you had to get in by 9.00 pm. I met Elsie Benham who worked in the cab
office in Sutton and used to go to her house on my half-day. She and her parents lived in Church
Lane. Mrs. Benham was very good to me,
better than my own mother in fact.
Although I was only the maid, after I had left and was working at the
Wallington County School, Mrs. Swinstead invited me to go and have a cup of tea
with her. Wallington County Grammar School is on the Croydon Road (A232)
In about 1919 I moved to a better-paid
job with Mr. and Mrs. Pope at Holland Park in Sutton. They also had a large
house in Norfolk. One daughter, an old
maid of about 50 years old, lived at home and she was exceptionally nice to
work for. Even after I was married, she
came to Carshalton to tea and to lunch one day.
I went home for a while because my Mother was ill, then I went to work
for Wallington County School for Girls.
I knew Alice Truman from Swindon who worked there and I worked there for
about two and a half years. Wallington High School for Girls is on the
Woodcote Road (A237) in Woodcote Green.
I was married
at Epsom Registry Office (south-west of
Sutton) and we lived at Pound Street in Carshalton. Today
Pound Street is a section of the A232
Written in 1982 by Alice Winchester, nee Collett, who was
born in 1902