PART
ELEVEN
The
Welford-on-Avon Line - 1680 to 1870
(including
a branch line to Canada)
Updated September 2024
This is the first of two sections of
this family line
Whilst primarily set up as the
Welford-on-Avon Line, this line now
contains many references to the Collett
families of the hamlet of Admington.
The original details in this family line
were supplied by Bob Collett (Ref. 11R36)
of Cheshire via Stephen Collett of
Solihull and are marked #1.
This was developed further by Brian
Collett and marked #2.
Further contributions received from
Desmond G Hancox (Ref. 11R42) of Australia are
marked #3, with the associated
photographs having been kindly supplied by his cousin
Anita Jeffrey (Ref. 11R47). Additional information marked #4 has been provided
by
Desmond’s sister, the late Dawn Wood
(Ref. 11R44).
The new information added for the June
2010 update was generously provided
by Daniel Richard Sylvester (see Ref.
11Q61) in Canada and is marked #7.
Other contributors have been:
Yvonne the wife of John R Collett (Ref.
11R37), the additional details being marked #5; and
Les Bradshaw (see Ref. 11P25) whose
contributions are denoted by #6
The December 2010 update included new
information received from Paul Boreham of
Arkell in Canada (marked #8), whose mother
is Gwen G Boreham nee Collett (Ref. 11R21),
and Doreen North whose late husband Tony
North was the grandson of
Florence Gertrude Ann Hall Collett (Ref.
11P12), the new details being marked #9
In February 2011 new material was
gratefully received from Linda and Paul Collett of
Wolstanton, whose grandfather was Cecil
John Collett (Ref. 11P69), about whom
nothing was previously written. That new information is denoted by #10
Other additional information was kindly
supplied by Joan Fay Robertson nee Collett
(Ref. 11R35) in Canada over many years,
as denoted by #11
Since 2020, that same reference has
represented Wendy K Crossland nee Collett (Ref. 11S14)
who took over the role of family
historian from Joan, just prior to her passing in early 2021.
And it was Wendy who generously provided
new details for the June 2021 update
New information and photographs inserted
during June 2012 were
gratefully received from Linda
Phelpstead (see Ref. 11Q10) and are identified by #12,
while other details have been supplied
by Bob Collett and Doreen North
The information marked #13 was kindly
provided by Pauline Every
from Port Macquarie in New South Wales,
Australia
The bulk of the information for the
January 2014 version of this family line
has been very generously provided by
Jennie Cordner who has been helping
and supporting webmaster Brian Collett
for many years, denoted by #14
Ian McCallum is a military researcher
and, in the autumn of 2014, he made contact
with the news that he has the medals and
death plaques for the brothers
Frederick Collett (Ref. 11P47) and
Edmund Collett (Ref. 11P52)
The new details provided by Ian are
denoted with the nomenclature #15
In 2021, Richard Alan Collett (Ref.
11R16) provided new information for Albert Collett (Ref. 11P36)
Albert was said to have married Minnie
Dyer when his wife was Gertrude Annie Dyer,
Minnie being the wife of Albert John
Collett (Ref. 45q1) with Part 45 being updated accordingly
The new details kindly supplied by Richard
are referenced #16, and were updated again in 2024
To date no connection has been made to
any other of the Collett family lines.
However, it has should be noted that Mary
Collett (Ref. 4G2),
who was born in 1616, married John
Holtham at Welford-on-Avon
This is detailed in Part 4 – The Great
Western Line
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Welford-on-Avon lies just a few miles
west of Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire.
In the very early records, the village was listed as being in the
County of Gloucestershire. The
aforementioned Admington in Warwickshire completes a triangle, being equal
distant from Stratford and Welford. |
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11J1 |
This
family line starts with THOMAS COLLETT
who is believed to have been born around 1686 at Welford-on-Avon, often spelt
as Whelford-on-Avon. He married Mary
Holtham (or Holtam or Holtom) on 15th July 1711 at
Welford-on-Avon, where Mary is believed to have been born in 1690. Mary was obviously with-child on their
wedding day, since their first child was born towards the end of that same
year. Just over two years later Thomas
and Mary produced a son who was born in 1714 who was given the name Thomas
Collett and he, like his father, also married a girl by the name of Mary
Holtham. |
#1 #2 #1 |
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His
place of birth, like that of the first four children of the family was
Weston-on-Avon which is the village closest to Welford-on-Avon. Thomas’ and Mary’s fifth and sixth children
were both baptised after the family had moved to Welford-on-Avon. It seems rather curious that the baptism
record for the couple’s last children listed the child’s name as Elizabeth
Holtam or Collett, even though the parents were confirmed as Thomas Collett
and Mary Holtam. |
#1 #2 |
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It
would be logical that further children were born into the family during the
1720s, where there is a ten-year gap between the fourth and fifth child. His youngest child was only five years old
when Thomas Collett died on 24th January 1739 at Welford-on-Avon
but, to date, no record has been found of the death of his wife Mary. |
#1 |
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11K1
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Susannah Collett
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Born in 1711
at Weston-on-Avon |
#1 |
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11K2 |
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1714
at Weston-on-Avon |
#1 |
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11K3 |
Ann Collett |
Born in 1717
at Weston-on-Avon |
#1 |
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11K4 |
Anthony Collett |
Born in 1720
at Weston-on-Avon |
#1 |
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11K5 |
Mary Collett |
Born in 1730
at Welford-on-Avon |
#1 |
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11K6 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1733
at Welford-on-Avon |
#2 |
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11K1
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Susannah
Collett was baptised at Weston-on-Avon on 7th December 1711. She later married Edwards Wells on 26th
December 1732 at Welford-on-Avon. |
#1 #2 |
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11K2 |
What
happened next is very interesting in that THOMAS COLLETT, who was born at Weston-on-Avon in 1714, married
Mary Holtham (or Holtam or Holtom) of Welford-on-Avon, who was presumably his
cousin by marriage, she being the niece of his mother Mary Collett nee
Holtham (above). |
#1 |
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Thomas
and Mary were married on 28th October 1735 at Welford-on-Avon,
having already produced their first children some seven months before they
were married. Mary is understood to
have died in August 1772 at Welford-on-Avon but, to date, no record has been
found of Thomas’ death. There is yet a
further reference to the Holtom name later in this family line. |
#2 #1 |
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11L1 |
Ann Collett |
Baptised on
21.03.1735 at Welford |
#1 |
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11L2
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Richard Collett
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Baptised on
30.04 1738 at Welford |
#1 |
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11L3 |
Thomas
Collett |
Baptised on
22.02.1739 at Welford |
#2 |
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11L4 |
Mary Collett |
Baptised on
23.05.1742 at Welford |
#1 |
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11L5 |
John Collett |
Baptised on
13.02.1745 at Welford |
#2 |
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11K3 |
Ann Collett was baptised at Weston-on-Avon on 26th
May 1717 and it was there that she married Richard Pacey on 1st
January 1744. |
#2 |
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11K4 |
Anthony Collett was baptised at Weston-on-Avon on 12th
December 1720 and he married Anne Brain of Quinton at St Swithun’s Church in
Quinton on 16th February 1747.
It was also there that their children were baptised, their only known
son being named after his grandfather. |
#1 #2 |
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It
may be of interest to note that, over many years, there had been previous
occasions when the Collett name had been linked with that of the Brain
family, although all of them had taken place in Gloucestershire. The earliest recorded event took place at
Little Rissington in 1717 when Mary Collett married Thomas Brain, followed in
1828 when Henry Collett (Ref.33L2) married Margaret Brain at Upper Slaughter,
again in 1881 when Hannah Reeson Collett (Ref. 37O4) was in service with
retired farmer William Brain of Oxford. |
#2 |
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11L6
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Mary
Collett
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Baptised on
02.04 1749 at Quinton |
#1 |
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11L7 |
Anne Collett |
Baptised on
28.06.1752 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11L8 |
Thomas Collett |
Baptised on
18.05.1755 at Quinton |
#1 |
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11K5 |
Mary Collett was baptised on 30th
December 1730 at Welford-on-Avon where she died just over a year later on 13th
February 1732. |
#1 |
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11K6 |
Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Welford-on-Avon on 13th
September 1733, the youngest and last child of Thomas Collett and his wife
Mary Holtham. |
#2 |
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11L2 |
Richard Collett was born in 1738 at Quinton south of
Stratford-on-Avon, but was baptised on 30th April 1738 at
Welford-on-Avon. Richard married Mary
Freeman on 3rd August 1773 at Willersey some miles south of
Welford-on-Avon near Broadway, Willersey being the place where Mary was born
in 1752. Shortly after the wedding the
couple produced what would have been a honeymoon baby in the form of son
Robert Collett who was also born at Willersey, as was their second son. |
#1 #2 |
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11M1
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Robert Collett |
Baptised on 27.05.1774
at Willersey |
#2 |
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11M2
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Edward
Collett |
Baptised on
30.11.1776 at Willersey |
#1 |
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11L4 |
Mary Collett was baptised on 23rd May
1742 at Welford-on-Avon, where she died a few months later on 13th
August 1742. |
#1 |
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11L5 |
John Collett was baptised on 13th
February 1745 at Welford-on-Avon. This
is the family line of John Collett of Australia who, in 2004, was living at
Mount Albert in Victoria and with whom contact has been made in an attempt to
extend this line into the 21st Century. Although not proved to be this particular
John Collett, there was the marriage of a John Collett to an Elizabeth Butler
recorded at Mickleton on 17th October 1778. |
#2 |
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11L8 |
Thomas Collett was baptised at Quinton on 18th
May 1755 and he later married Anna. It
seems very likely that they lived at Welford-on-Avon where their son John was
baptised and where their son Richard was married in 1819 and raised his own
family, as did their eldest son Thomas. |
#2 |
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11M3
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Thomas Collett |
Date of birth
unknown |
#1 |
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11M4
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William Collett |
Date of birth
unknown |
#2 |
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11M5
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John Collett |
Born in 1793
at Welford-on-Avon |
#2 |
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11M1 |
Robert Collett was baptised at Willersey on 27th
May 1774, the parish register confirming him as the son of Richard and Mary
Collett. He was 23 when he married Ann
Hughes at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 31st October
1797. Ann had been born at Quinton on
1st September 1776, the daughter of George Hughes and Anne
Rogers. See later connections between
the Collett family and the Hughes and Rogers families. |
#9 #2 #1 |
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The
couple settled in the hamlet of Admington, close by the village of Quinton
where their children were baptised since there was no church in Admington at
that time. Robert, who was a
blacksmith in 1841, died at Admington in 1848 and was buried in the grounds of
the parish church of St Swithun’s in Quinton on 25th April 1848,
at the age of 71. Presumably it was
his wife who gave his age as being 71, which was her age at that time. Ann died less than three years later in
1851, when she was buried with her husband on 23rd February 1851. |
#1 #3 #9 |
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The
inclusion of Robert’s son Thomas, who was born in 1812, is the result of an
entry on the website www.familysearch.org. However, already
included under the family of William and Ann Collett is their son Thomas who,
according to the IGI, was also baptised at Quinton on the same day. The family search website also acknowledges
the IGI record, so it is possible both are correct. |
#1 #2 |
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11N1 |
Richard Collett |
Baptised on
18.03.1798 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N2 |
Mary Collett |
Baptised on
13.10.1799 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N3 |
Nancy Collett |
Baptised on
13.10.1800 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N4 |
Robert Collett |
Baptised on
05.04.1801 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N5
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Ann Collett |
Baptised on
25.12.1802 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N6 |
John Collett |
Baptised on
14.10.1804 at Quinton |
#1 |
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11N7 |
Peggy Collett |
Baptised on
03.08.1806 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N8 |
Rachel
Collett |
Baptised on 19.09.1808
at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N9 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Baptised on
11.09.1810 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N10 |
Thomas Collett |
Baptised on
25.10.1812 at Quinton |
#1 |
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11N11 |
GEORGE COLLETT |
Baptised on
09.04.1817 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N12 |
William Joshua Collett |
Baptised on 28.11.1819
at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N13 |
Maria Collett |
Baptised on
30.12.1821 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N14 |
Sarah Collett twin |
Baptised on
12.10.1823 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N15 |
Elizabeth
Collett twin |
Baptised on
19.10.1823 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11M3
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Thomas Collett, whose date of birth is not known,
married Elizabeth just before the turn of the century and their two children
listed below were born and baptised at Welford-on-Avon. |
#2 |
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11N16 |
Thomas
Collett |
Baptised on
29.09.1800 at Welford |
#2 |
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11N17 |
Mary Collett |
Born circa
1803 at Welford-on-Avon |
#2 |
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11M4
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William Collett, whose date of birth is not known,
married Ann and their son was born at Admington and baptised at Quinton. The birth of their son was initially included
here and was obtained from the IGI.
More recently, information has been found to suggest that the Thomas
Collett baptised at Quinton on 25th October 1812 was the son of
Robert and Ann (above).
However, the same source for the new information, the website www.familysearch.org, also confirms the IGI entry, which
states that Thomas’ parents were William and Ann Collett. |
#2 |
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11N18 |
Thomas
Collett |
Baptised on
25.10.1812 at Quinton |
#1 |
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11M5
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John Collett was baptised at Welford on 14th
January 1793, the son of Thomas and Anna Collett. It is established that it was not this John Collett who married Ann
Webster at nearby Alderminster, just south-east of Welford-on-Avon, on 28th
February 1824. He was the base-born
son of Hannah Collett who later married John Eggleton at Kempsford in
1802. He was born at Cricklade in
Wiltshire, where he was baptised on 30th June 1799. That John
Collett (Ref. 1M10) was the 3x great-grandfather of Jonathan Leyland from
North Wales. |
#2 |
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11N1 |
Richard Collett was born at Admington and baptised at
the parish church of St Swithun’s in Quinton on 18th March 1798,
the son of Robert and Ann Collett. It
was also at Quinton that Richard later married Hannah Fletcher on 7th
June 1819, Hannah coming from Preston-on-Stour, just two miles north of
Quinton. Their marriage produced ten
children who were all baptised at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton. |
#2 #9 |
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By
the time of the first national census in June 1841 the family was living at
Admington Farm Fields. Richard
Collett, with a rounded age of 40, was a farm worker, while his wife Hannah’s
rounded age was 45. Still living with
the couple were six of their ten children.
Missing from the family was Richard’s eldest daughter Martha aged 20,
who was living nearby in the same registration area, and daughter Eliza who,
at the age of 14, was also working as a domestic servant by then. However, it seems more than likely that the
other absent child, Richard’s son John, who would have been 16, may have not
survived beyond childhood. |
#2 #9 |
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The
children who were still living with their parents were Robert Collett who was
20, Richard Collett who was 15, George Collett who was 11, Elizabeth Collett
who was seven, William Collett who was five, and Jane Collett who was two
years old. For whatever reason, their
daughter Ann, aged nine, was living close by at the home of elderly Ann
Savage on the day of the census, perhaps to ease the over-crowding in the
farmer worker’s cottage. It is
understood that Admington Farm Fields was very likely later referred to as
Admington Grounds. |
#2 |
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Over
the next ten years many of the children left the family home, so by 1851
Richard was 51, Hannah was 54, and on that occasion the children still living
with them were Richard who was 28, Ann who was 19, and William who was 14. It was six years later during the second
quarter of 1857 that Hannah Collett nee Fletcher died, so by the time of the
census in 1861 widower Richard, at the age of 64, had moved to Upper
Admington where he was living on his own, and from where he was working as a
carter, possibly on a local farm. |
#2 #11 |
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According
to the next census in 1871, Richard Collett aged 73 and a former agricultural
labourer, was living at The Milking Pail beer house at 5 Sheep Street in
Mickleton with his youngest son William with his wife Ann, and with them
Richard’s first three grandchildren.
It was just two years later that Richard Collett died at Mickleton in
1873. |
#2 #11 |
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11O1 |
Robert Collett |
Born in 1819
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O2 |
Martha Collett |
Born in 1820
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O3 |
Richard Collett |
Born in 1821
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O4 |
John Collett |
Born in 1823
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O5 |
Eliza Collett |
Born in 1826
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O6 |
George Collett |
Born in 1829
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O7 |
Ann Collett |
Born in 1831
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O8 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1833
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O9 |
William Collett |
Born in 1835
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O10 |
Jane Collett |
Born in 1838
at Admington |
#2 |
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11N4 |
Robert Collett was born at Admington in 1800 and was
baptised at Quinton on 5th April 1801, the fourth child of Robert
Collet and Ann Hughes. There is a
mystery surrounding Robert’s early adult years, but it seems very likely that
he married (1) Mary when he was 21 years of age. Their marriage is known to have produced at
least one child, Ann, who was born at Welford-on-Avon in 1822, although there
may have been others. |
#2 |
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It
seems likely that Mary died during the birth of a subsequent child since, it
is established that, almost ten years later, Robert at the age of 32, married
(2) Mary Hughes at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 26th October
1832. That Mary was born at Ilmington
in 1812, so could not have been the Mary that presented Robert with his
daughter Ann Collett in 1822. The
second marriage produced a further eleven children for Robert and all of them
were born at Admington and baptised at Quinton. The family did suffer the loss of one of
the twins born in 1846. It should also
be noted that Robert’s father, Robert Collett senior, married Ann Hughes at
Quinton parish church in 1797 so, it is likely that Mary Hughes may have been
her niece. |
#2 |
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By
the time of the Quinton census in June 1841, Robert’s rounded age was 35 and
Mary’s was 30. The only children
listed were them at that time were Daniel Collett who was eight, Rachel Collett
who was six, Dinah Collett who was four, and Sena Collett who was two years
old, the whole family living in the village of Admington, where the children
were all born. Three other persons
were living at the same address and they were Thomas Neal aged 30, Mary Timms
aged 14, and Lydia Hughes who was 12, the latter being the base-born daughter
of Robert’s wife Mary Hughes. It was
the record of her baptism, at the parish church in Quinton on 7th
June 1829, that confirmed she was the daughter of Mary Hughes. |
#2 |
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The
enlarged family was recorded at Admington Lane within the parish of Quinton
in the Shipston-on-Stour census registration district in 1851. Head of the household was agricultural
labourer Robert, who was 50 and from Admington. Living there with him was his wife Mary who
was 41, and their eight children, Daniel Collett who was 17 and another
agricultural labourer, possibly working alongside his father, Dinah Collett
who was 13, Sena who was 11, John Collett who was nine, Mark Collett who was
seven, Ann Collett who was five, Joe who was two and Jane who was just three
months old. Not with the family that
day, but living nearby, was their daughter Rachel Collett who was 16. Also, on that census day, Mary’s daughter
Lydia Hughes, aged 22 and from Admington, was a servant at the Halford
(Shipton-on-Stour) home of widow Ann Fincher, aged 63 and from
Stratford-on-Avon. |
#2 |
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Ten
years later in 1861, the family was still residing in Admington village, near
Quinton where Robert Collett was 61 and continuing to work as an agricultural
labourer. His wife Mary Collett from
Ilmington was 49 and the children still living with them at Admington on that
occasion were Daniel Collett who was 28 and another agricultural labourer –
most likely working alongside his father, Rachel Collett who was 25 and a
cook, Sena Collett who was 21 with no stated occupation, Joseph Collett who
was 12 and a labourer’s boy, and George Collett who was eight years old. |
#2 |
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According
to the next census, conducted in 1871, the family was living in Admington
where agricultural labourer Robert Collett was 70 and his wife Mary was
61. Working with their father, also as
agricultural labourers, were Robert’s three unmarried sons Mark, aged 26,
Joseph who was 22 and George who was 17.
Supporting their mother were unmarried daughters Sarah (sic) Collett
who was 31 and Ann Collett who was 24, both of them described as a labourer’s
daughter. Also living with the family
that day was the couple’s granddaughter Mary J Collett who was under one year
old and the base-born daughter of Robert’s unmarried daughter Ann Collett,
aforesaid. It was just under two years
later that Robert Collett died when he was 72 years of age, his death
recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 275) during the second quarter of
1873, and after he was buried in the grounds of St Swithun’s Church in
Quinton on 5th February 1873.
An alternative date for his burial was 4th May 1873, after
his death was recorded. |
#3 |
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That
loss for the family was confirmed in the 1881 Census, when Mary Collett was a
widow aged 71 living at Lower Admington with her two unmarried children Selina
(sic) Collett, who was 40 and caring for her elderly mother, and George
Collett who was 27 and employed as a carrier.
In addition to her two children, Mary had taken in a lodger, 23-year-old
Walter Hughes, an agricultural labourer, who was very likely her nephew or at
least related in some other way to Mary’s Hughes family. All four members of the household were
described as having been born at Admington.
On the day of that national
census, there were twenty-four people with the surname of Hughes living in
the village of Admington, of which twenty-one of them had been born there. |
#2 |
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After
a further ten years, the widow Mary Collett was still living within the area
of Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire.
It was recorded in the census of 1891 that Mary was 82 and an inmate
in an institution in Shipston, where she was employed as a general domestic
servant. On that occasion she was
listed as the only member of the Collett family residing in Shipston. However, it was later that same year that
the death of Mary Collett nee Hughes was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour
register office (Ref. 6d 400) during the final three months of 1891 when she
was 83. |
#2 |
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11O11 |
Ann Collett |
Born in 1821
at Welford-on-Avon |
#2 |
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|
The following
are the children of Robert Collett by his second wife Mary Hughes: |
#2 |
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|
11O12 |
Daniel Collett |
Born in 1832
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O13 |
Rachel Collett |
Born in 1834
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O14 |
Dinah Collett |
Born in 1836
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O15 |
Sena Collett |
Born in 1839
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O16
|
John Collett |
Born in 1841
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O17
|
Mark Collett |
Born in 1844
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O18
|
Martha Ann Collett twin |
Born in 1846
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O19
|
Ann Collett twin |
Born in 1846
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O20
|
Joseph Collett |
Born in 1848
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O21 |
Jane Collett |
Born in 1850
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O22 |
George Collett |
Born in 1853
at Admington |
#3 |
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11N6 |
John Collett was born at Admington and was baptised
at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 14th October 1804, the sixth
child of Robert Collett and Ann Hughes.
The first forty years of his life remain a mystery, as does any record
of his marriage to the much younger Lettice/Letticia in the later 1830s. The census for Chipping Campden, completed
in June 1841, included John Collett and his wife Lettie (as Letty)
Collett, who were residing at the High Street home of the large Griffiths
family. Every member of the household
had been born within the county of Gloucestershire, apart from John Collett,
who was born outside the county, in Warwickshire. Lettie had a rounded age of 25 years, while John who was 35, offered
his age as being only five years older than his wife. |
#1 #2 |
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However,
it was the next census in 1851 that reveals John Collett and his wife Lettie
recorded at Chipping Campden where, living with them was their niece Rachel
Collett, aged 16 and from Admington. She
was eldest daughter of John’s older brother Robert Collett (above) by
his second wife Mary Hughes. It was in a property, and shop, on the High Street in
the town that John Collett from Admington was a grocer. Once again, he gave an incorrect age when
he informed the census enumerator that he was 42, that being five years
younger than his real age. He would
have been nearly ten years older than his wife, Lettie Collett from Willersey
who was 39, and maybe embarrassed by the large age difference. In addition to their niece Rachel, the only
other person living at the address was John and Lettie’s daughter, Jane
Collett, who was one-year-old and born at Chipping Campden. |
#2 |
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|
Tragically,
for Lettie Collett, eight years later her older husband
died in 1859, with the death of John Collett recorded at
Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 351) during the last three months of that
year. Just
over one year later, his widow was still managing the grocer’s shop on the
High Street in Chipping Campden in 1861.
Prior to John’s passing, Lettie had given birth to two more
daughters, both born at Chipping Campden.
The full details therefore in the census return for 1861 recorded the
family of four as Letticia Collett from Willersey who was a widow of 49 and a
grocer, Jane Collett who was 11, Ellen Collett who was eight, and Mary Ann
Collett who was five. |
#2 |
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|
The
births of all three daughters were recorded at Shipston-on-Stour, Jane in 1850,
Ellen (Ref. 6d 495) during in the first three months of 1853, and Mary Ann in
1856. What happened to Lettie’s second
daughter is not known since, by 1871, Lettie Collett had given up being a
grocer in Chipping Campden and instead had retired to Broadway, where she was
living with her younger married sister Mary and her husband John Neal. John Neal from Mickleton was 59 and a tailor, Mary Neal
was 54 and a glove maker,
and Lettice Collett was 59 and
a widow having no occupation, with both sisters confirming their place
of birth as Willersey. |
#2 |
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A search for Lettice who was born at
Willersey around 1812 has revealed only one such person who is Lettice
Collett. She was the daughter Robert
Collett and his wife Mary and was baptised at Willersey on 9th
September 1811. Unfortunately, that is
the only record of the three members of the family that has been unearthed. |
#2 |
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|
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|
11O23 |
Jane Collett |
Born in 1850
at Chipping Campden |
#2 |
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|
11O24 |
Ellen Collett |
Born in 1853
at Chipping Campden |
#2 |
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|
11O25 |
Mary Ann Collett |
Born in 1856
at Chipping Campden |
#2 |
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11N9 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at Admington in 1806
according to later census records.
However, within the Gloucestershire IGI there are two entries for the baptism
of Elizabeth the daughter of Robert and Ann at Quinton parish church. The first took place on 11th
September 1810, and the second a year later on 11th October
1811. In addition to those two
entries, there is an unreliable pedigree on the internet that gives her date
of baptism as 19th September 1809.
It seems very unlikely that Robert and Ann would have had two
consecutive daughters named Elizabeth, unless the first had died while still
an infant, particularly since a further Elizabeth was born into the family in
1823. From the similarity in the
dates, it has therefore been assumed that the two IGI entries relate to the
same child, the actual date not clearly written in the original parish
register. |
#2 |
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|
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On
9th November 1829, Elizabeth married John Gilkes by banns, John
having been born at Great Rollright in Oxfordshire in 1803. Their wedding certificate carried the mark
of her father Robert Collett. The
marriage produced ten children for Elizabeth and John, all of whom were born
at Great Rollright between 1831 and 1852.
They were Thomas Gilkes (1831-before 1844), John Gilkes
(1833-1919), Henry Gilkes (see below), George Gilkes
(1837-1910), Mary Gilkes (1840-1900), Catherine Gilkes
(1842-1932) who may also have been known as Teresa, Thomas Gilkes
(1844-1895), Joseph Gilkes (1847-1869), Ann Gilkes (see below),
and Martin Gilkes (1852-1932). |
#5 |
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|
|
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|
Elizabeth
and John spent the whole of their married life together at Rollright, where
John Gilkes died between January and March in 1881. By the time of that year’s census,
Elizabeth was described as a widow aged 75 and born at Admington. The only member of her family still living
with her at Great Rollright was her daughter Teresa (Catherine) who was a
spinster at 38. Curiously, there was a
visitor staying with Elizabeth and Teresa, and she was spinster Eliza Ann
Holtom aged 33 and from Long Compton in Warwickshire. See earlier references to the Holtom name
and its connection to the Collett family.
There was no reference to Elizabeth in the 1891 Census, so it must be
assumed that she had died sometime after the census of 1881. |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
During
the summer of 2012, Pauline Every from Port Macquarie in New South Wales,
Australia, made contact with information regarding Henry Gilkes (1835-1917),
her great great grandfather. Henry
married Amanda Eden with whom he had a number of children, one of which was Rose
Gilkes who was born at Great Rollright in 1866. She later married printer’s compositor Sidney
Court from Mile End in London with whom she had at least three sons who were
all born in London. They were Stanley
Court (born in 1897), Frank Court (born in 1904), and Eric Court (born in 1906). Following the premature death of her
husband, Rose took the family to live in Newport, South Wales, where they
were recorded in 1911. It was Frank
Court, the grandfather of Pauline Every, who was married at Newport in 1924,
who emigrated to Australia in 1927 two years after his unmarried younger
brother Eric had moved there in 1925.
Frank’s daughter, Pauline’s mother, was born in Wales and travelled to
Australia with her mother to be reunited with her father in 1929. |
#13 |
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|
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|
11O26 |
Ann Winifred Gilkes |
Born in 1849
at Great Rollright |
#2 |
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|
|
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11N10 |
Thomas Collett was born at Admington in 1812 and was
baptised at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 25th October 1812,
the tenth child of blacksmith Robert Collett and his wife Ann Hughes. While
the IGI gives the father’s name as William Collett, Thomas was living with
Robert and Ann Collett in 1841. He
later married Elizabeth who was born at Great Wolford near Moreton-in-Marsh
in 1808, although the date does not coincide with her age in the census
returns, when she may have said she was younger than her actual age. It would also appear that the marriage may
have taken place during the early half of the 1840s, when both Thomas and
Elizabeth were into their thirties, particularly since their only known child
was born around 1846. |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
At
the time of the Admington census in 1851, Thomas Collett was 37 and his
occupation was that of a blacksmith.
Living in the village with him was his wife Elizabeth from Woolford
who was also 37 (sic), and their son Josiah who was four years old and born
at Admington. In the same census
return, and listed next to the Collett family entry, was that of county
magistrate Corbett H Corbett of Admington Hall, whose kitchen maid was
Elizabeth Collett aged 19 and from Ilmington – see Appendix for more
details. |
#2 |
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|
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|
Ten
years later, in 1861, the Collett family was still living at Admington within
the parish of Quinton, by which time Thomas was 47, Elizabeth was 47 (sic),
and their son Josiah Collett was 14.
It was the same situation again in 1871, except that William and
Elizabeth were then both 57 and Josiah was 24. It was during the following decade that
Thomas Collett died, leaving his widow Elizabeth and his son Josiah still
living in Admington in 1881. According
to the census that year, Elizabeth Collett of Great Wolford, near
Moreton-in-Marsh, was a widow and a grazier at the age of 57. Living with her at Upper Admington was her
unmarried son Josiah Collett whose occupation was that of a blacksmith, like
his father before him. He was 34 years
old and his place of birth was confirmed as Admington. |
#2 |
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|
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11O27 |
Josiah Collett |
Born in 1846
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
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|
|
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11N11 |
GEORGE COLLETT was born at Admington and baptised on
9th April 1817 at nearby Quinton.
He later married Maria Jennings at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on
20th November 1843. Maria,
who was recorded as of Snowshill, was born in 1821 at Snowshill near
Broadway, and was the daughter of Thomas Jennings an agricultural labourer
who was also born at Snowshill in 1798.
George’s and Maria’s first four children were born at Admington, but
baptised at Quinton, following which the family appears to have moved the
five miles south to Chipping Campden, where their next four children were
born. Her absence from all of the
census records may indicate that the couple’s eldest daughter suffered an
infant death. |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
The
move took place around 1850, since by March 1851 the family was living at
Back Ends in Chipping Campden. Back
End still exists as a road today, although the area and the old property
there has since been the subject of redevelopment. The census that year recorded George
Collett from Admington as a blacksmith at the age of 33, while his wife Maria
was 27. Ten years later in 1861 the family was still living in Chipping
Campden, but had moved from Back Ends to Cow Fair. Cow Fair is now known as Upper High Street
and the terrace cottage ‘The Old Bakehouse’ is reputed to be the former home
of the Collett family. |
#1 |
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|
|
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|
At
that time in April 1861, George gave his age as 40, rather than 43, Maria was
38, and their children still living with them were Robert Collett 12, Walter
Collett who was nine, Mark Collett who was six, George Collett who was three,
and Charles Collett who was one year old.
By that time George’s eldest son John had already left the family home
and was living and working in the Rugby area at the age of 16. It would appear that sometime after 1861
another family move took place and, on that occasion, it was just two miles
north to Mickleton where the couple’s last two children were baptised. It may be of interest that the two children
gave their place of birth as Admington within later census records. |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
Also
within the next ten years some of the older children had left the family
home, so by 1871 the family living at The Butts in Mickleton was reduced to
just George, who was 53, Maria who was 47, Walter 19, George 13, Charles 11,
and the couple’s two youngest children Sarah, who was seven, and Thomas who
was under one year old. Sometime
during the next ten years George and Maria moved even further north, that
time to Staffordshire, to where their sons Walter and Mark had also moved
sometime earlier. |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
According
to the Census of 1881, George aged 64, was an inn keeper and blacksmith from
Admington ‘in Gloucestershire’. He was
‘head of the house’ at The Swan Inn on Small Lane in Eccleshall which lies
eight miles north-west of Stafford.
Living with him was his wife Lydia aged 60, their daughter Sarah who
was 17 and their son Thomas who was 11, all three described as having been
born at Admington. Was the reference
to George’s wife as Lydia just a transcribing error? A thorough search of the 1881 Census has
revealed no Maria of the right age who was born in Gloucestershire. Furthermore, there is no appropriate Lydia
Collett in any of the other census records. |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
Ten
years later, at the time of the next census in 1891, George had retired and
was by that time residing alone at Cornwallis Street in Stoke-on-Trent. George Collett from Admington was a widower
of 74 who was described as a retired blacksmith. It was at 8 Cornwallis Street that his son
Henry George Collett had been living up to 1889. George’s wife Maria had already passed away
earlier that same year in 1891 when the couple had been living at Wolstanton
near Newcastle-under-Lyme. It was five
years later that George Collett died at Stoke-on-Trent during 1896. |
#2 #1 |
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|
|
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|
11O28 |
John Collett |
Born in 1844
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O29 |
Jane Collett |
Born in 1845
at Admington |
#1 |
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|
11O30 |
Louisa Collett |
Born in 1847
at Admington |
#2 |
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|
11O31 |
Robert Collett |
Born in 1849
at Admington |
#1 |
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|
11O32 |
Walter Collett |
Born on1851
at Chipping Campden |
#2 |
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|
11O33 |
Mark Collett |
Born in 1854
at Chipping Campden |
#2 |
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|
11O34 |
HENRY GEORGE COLLETT |
Born in 1857
at Chipping Campden |
#2 |
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|
11O35 |
Charles Collett |
Born in 1859
at Chipping Campden |
#2 |
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|
11O36 |
Sarah Ann Collett |
Born in 1863
at Mickleton |
#2 |
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|
11O37 |
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1869
at Mickleton |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
|
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11N12 |
William Joshua Collett was born at Admington in 1819 and was baptised
at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 28th November 1819. By 1851, William had married Caroline
Downes who was born in 1827 at Pebworth less than five miles from
Admington. The married of William and
Caroline, which was registered at Evesham during the first quarter of 1848,
very likely took place at nearby Pebworth. |
#2 #3 #9 |
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|
|
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|
The
1851 Census confirmed that William aged 29, and Caroline aged 25, were living
in the Evesham, Broadway and Weston Subedge registration district. Shortly after the census day they settled
in Admington where their ten children were born, although they were all
baptised at the parish church of St Swithun’s in nearby Quinton. In 1855 William was working as a groom, as
stated at the baptism of his son Jabez.
Five years later the family at Admington comprised William aged 41,
Caroline of Pebworth aged 35, and their first five children Alfred Collett
who was eight, Louisa J Collett who was seven, Jabeth (Jabez) who was five,
Hannah Collett who was three, and ‘Zilla’ Collett who was two years old. |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
A
further five children were born into the family over the following decade,
although by 1871 the four oldest children had left the family home which, by
then was living at Ilmington Road in Admington. William Collett aged 50 from Admington, was
an agricultural labourer William, his wife Caroline from Pebworth was 44, and
with them were ‘Zilla’ Collett who was 12, Selina who was nine, Richard who
was eight, John who was five, and Josiah who was three years old. All of the children had been born at
Admington, although no trace has so far been found of daughter Edwina who may
have died while still a child. Son
Jabey (Jabez) Collett who was 15 and his sister Hannah Collett who was 13,
were both living and working separately within the same registration district
not far from their parents and the rest of their family. |
#2 |
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|
|
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|
Just
over seven years later William died at Admington on 18th December
1878. By the time of the 1881 Census,
Caroline Collett aged 55, was listed as a widow and was head of the
household. Living with her at Lower
Admington were her three youngest sons Richard Collett, who was 18 and an
apprentice blacksmith following in the family tradition, and farm labourers
John Collett who was 15, and Josiah Collett who was 13, all three boys having
been born at Admington. Also living
with the family at that time was Caroline’s five years old granddaughter Lucy
Hannah Collett (Ref. 11P77) who was also born at Admington and was the base-born
daughter of Caroline’s eldest daughter Louisa Jane. |
#3 #2 |
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|
|
||||||||||||||
|
According
to the next census in 1891, widow Caroline Collett aged 64 and from Pebworth,
was living at Admington, where she was described as living on her own
children. Still living with her was
her granddaughter Lucy Collett who was 15.
Living in the two adjacent properties were Daniel and Sarah Collett
(Ref. 11O12), and his cousin George Collett (Ref. 11O6) and his wife Emma
Collett nee Rogers. |
#2 |
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|
|
||||||||||||||
|
Ten
years later in 1901 Caroline was 74 and still had her granddaughter Lucy
living with her. On that occasion they
were no longer living at Admington, but had moved to nearby Ilmington. Lucy H Collett of Admington was 25 and was
working as a charwoman. Also living
with Caroline and Lucy were two children, Mabel Collett who was five and of
Admington, and William Collett who was two years old and of Ilmington, who
were the base-born offspring of unmarried Lucy H Collett. A few years later in 1904 Lucy was married
and left her grandmother’s home. Sadly,
within a year, Caroline Collett nee Downes died at the age of 78 and was
buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin at Ilmington on 11th
February 1905. |
#2 #3 |
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|
|
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|
11O38
|
Alfred Collett |
Born in 1852
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O39
|
Louisa Jane Collett |
Born in 1854
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O40 |
Jabez Collett |
Born in 1855
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O41 |
Hannah Collett |
Born in 1857
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O42 |
Zillah Collett |
Born in 1859
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O43 |
Selena Collett
|
Born in 1861
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O44 |
Richard Collett |
Born in 1863
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O45 |
Edwina Collett |
Born in 1864
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O46 |
Christopher John Collett |
Born in 1865
at Admington |
#2 |
|||||||||||
|
11O47 |
Josiah Collett |
Born in 1867
at Admington |
#1 |
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|
|
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|
|
||||||||||||||
11N13 |
Maria Collett was born at Admington, but was
baptised at the parish church of St Swithun’s in Quinton on 30th
December 1821, the daughter of Robert Collett and Ann Hughes. although the
IGI incorrectly gave her father’s name as Richard. However, at the time of her marriage to
John Such at St Swithun’s Church on 17th April 1843, she was confirmed
as the daughter of Robert Collett. The
marriage produced four children for Maria and John, and they were George
Such born later on in 1843, Hannah Such born in 1845, Robert
Such born in 1847, and Sarah Ann Such born in 1850. |
#2 #9 |
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|
|
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|
Maria
Such nee Collett died during the same quarter of 1850, most likely during the
birth of her daughter Sarah. It is
interesting to note that after Maria's death, John Such married again, on
that occasion to Lucy Hughes. Lucy
Hughes was the mother of Ann Hughes, Ann being her illegitimate daughter, who
later married Josiah Collett (Ref. 11O27).
After Josiah died, Ann then married William Collett (Ref. 11O9),
following the death of his first wife Rose Ann Hall. Ann Collett nee Hughes is curiously named
as Ann Such within an old family tree held by the family. |
#9 |
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11N14 |
Sarah Collett was born at Admington and may have
been a twin sister to Elizabeth
Collett, since both of them were baptised at Quinton one week apart. Sarah was baptised first on 12th
October 1823, while Elizabeth was baptised on 19th October 1823,
both confirmed as the daughters of Robert Collett and Ann Hughes. |
#2 |
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Sarah
gave birth to a base-born daughter in 1845, and when the child was baptised
at Quinton parish church the following year, it was just the name of Sarah
Collett that was entered in the parish records as being the child’s
mother. Sometime thereafter, and
before the next census in 1851, Sarah Collett married William Mason who then
appears to have adopted the child. The
Admington census of 1851 confirmed that Sarah Mason was 26, as was her
husband William, who was working as an agricultural labourer. Living with the couple were two children,
Ann Collett Mason, who was six years old, and Leah Mason, who was only three
months old, perhaps suggesting that Sarah had only married William within the
previous twelve months. Also living at
Admington, and just two dwellings away from the Mason family, was George
Collett and his wife Emma Rogers. |
#2 |
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11O48
|
Ann Collett
(later Ann Collett Mason) |
Baptised on
14.06.1846 at Quinton |
#2 |
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11N17 |
Mary Collett was born at Welford-on-Avon around
1803 and it was there that she married William Gibbs on 24th
January 1825. |
#2 |
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11O1 |
Robert Collett was born at Admington in 1819 and was
baptised at Quinton on 2nd November 1819, the eldest child of
Richard Collett and his wife Hannah Fletcher.
As an adult, his rounded age in the 1841 Census was stated as being
20, rather than 21, in which he was recorded as living with his family at
Admington Farm Fields within the parish of Quinton. It is possible, although not proved, that
this Robert Collett died in 1849, when his death was recorded at
Shipston-on-Stour. That would then
account for his absence from the 1851 census and all later census
returns. His brother Richard (below)
was living within the Shipston registration district in 1851. |
#2 #9 |
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11O2 |
Martha Collett was born at Admington in 1820 and was
baptised at Quinton on 29th October 1820, the eldest daughter of
Richard and Hannah Collett. Like her
brother Robert (above), her rounded age in the census of 1841 was
recorded as 20, and at that time she had already left the family home in
Admington, but was living not that far away within the Quinton area. |
#2 |
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11O3 |
Richard Collett was born at Admington in 1821 and was
baptised at Quinton on 20th January 1822, the son of farm worker
Richard Collett and his wife Hannah Fletcher.
In 1841 he was living at the family home at Admington Farm Fields when
his rounded age was stated as being 15, rather than his actual age of 19. |
#2 |
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By
1851, according to the census that year, Richard Collett was 28 and was still
unmarried and was still living at the family home with his parents Richard
and Hannah, his sister Ann and his brother William (both below). It was later that same year that Richard
emigrated to America, sailing out of Liverpool on board the ship ‘John &
Lucy’ and arriving in New York on 17th November 1851. He was a farm worker and work in England
was becoming scarcer due to the gradual introduction of farm machinery. So perhaps it was the opportunity to
purchase his own land which attracted him to America, something he would not
have been able to achieve had he stayed in England. |
#9 |
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From
New York Richard very likely travelled up the Hudson River to Albany and from
there via the Erie Canal, completed in 1825, to Macedon on the canal side
only a few miles from Farmington. On
reaching Macedon he would have put up in a local inn or lodging house, after
which he soon acquired some land at Farmington in Ontario County, New York
State, which he had to clear himself and on which he built a log cabin. Some years later he replaced the log cabin
with a grander residence, which was still there in 2012. |
#9 |
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It
was during 1854, three years after arriving in America, that he married Sarah
Randall who, at 18, was considerably younger than Richard who was 33, having
been born at Great Wolford in Warwickshire, England in 1836, the daughter of
Edward and Jane Randall. Sarah Randall
had also sailed to America with her family in a party of twenty-five in 1851
on board the ship ‘Gondar’ which sailed into New York on 29th
October, three weeks before Richard.
Tragically, her father died during the sea voyage. |
#9 |
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At
the earlier time of the Great Britain census in 1851 Sarah Randall aged 14,
was living with her family at Great. Wolford.
Her father Edward was 60, her mother Jane was 58, and her three
siblings were William 23, and Ann who was 12.
Also living with the family was grandson George Randall who was four
years old. By that time Sarah’s three
older brothers John, George and Thomas had already emigrated to America three
years earlier and had settled in Farmington during 1848. |
#9 #2 |
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The
US Census of 1870 simply placed the family in New York State under the name
of Collet which, at that time comprised Richard Collet from England, who was
48, his wife Sarah, also from England, who was 34, and their four children,
who were Alfred Collet aged 14, Mary J Collet aged 13, Hiram Collet who was
six, and Lettie Collet who was four. |
#2 |
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In
a letter dated 4th February 1872 Richard informed his father that
he had just purchased another 35 acres of land, adjoining his existing plot,
making a total holding of 69 acres. He
added that his sister Eliza must be thinking he doesn’t mean to send her
money (perhaps he had borrowed some
from her) but he writes that he would have done, had he not bought the
land, and that she should be sure to have it soon. He then went on to say he had two horses,
four cows, and a yearling, and that he uses the horses to plough and can plough
two acres in a day. He also said he
has a mowing machine and can easily cut ten acres of grass in a day or
wheat. He also said that labour costs
were very high, and that they have to pay twenty shillings a day in harvest
time and a man can earn 40 pounds in English money in a year. |
#9 |
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A
map dated 1874, shows the extent of the farm of Richard Collett at Farmington
as Lot 52, alongside which runs Collett Road, which is still there to this
day. That same year Richard sent
another letter to his father in England in which he said he had five cows,
three horses, and twenty acres of wheat, but that they had had twelve inches
of snow on 26th April. By
May the weather was good and he had put in five acres of barley, sixteen
acres of oats, one acre of potatoes, and eleven acres of Indian corn. |
#9 |
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During
their life together, Sarah presented Richard with five children, as was
validated by the Farmington census of 1875 when once again the family surname
was recorded with a single t. Richard
Collet was 52, Sarah Collet was 39, Alfred Collet was 19, Hiram Collet was
11, Lettie Collet was nine, and the family’s latest addition was named as
Sydnia L Collet who was not yet one year old.
Their daughter Mary had already left the family home by then, and was
married later that same year. |
#2 |
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Five
years later the family was living at Farmington in Ontario County, New York
State, which lies south-east of Rochester on the southern shore of Lake
Ontario, and 100km west of Syracuse.
According to the census return for 1880 Richard Collett was aged 58
and a married man from England, whose occupation was that of a farmer. Rather strangely his wife Sarah Collett aged
44 and also married and from England, not described as his wife, but was
simply listed as ‘other’. |
#9 |
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That
was also the description given to the couple’s eldest child, Alfred Collett,
who was 24 and a married farm labourer, although there was no reference to
his wife. The other members of the
household were Hiram Collett aged 16 and a farm labourer, Lettie Collett who
was 13, and Sidney Collett who was five years old, and all of the children
were confirmed as born in New York State. |
#9 |
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Sadly,
during 1890, the Buffalo to Geneva Railroad cut through his land and around
that time the railroad company paid a John Young of Farmington $1,000 to
secure a right of way for the route, and in that way perhaps Richard received
some compensation for the loss of his land.
That was relayed to his family back in England via a letter sent by
Richard’s daughter Mary Jane, in which she also mentioned her younger
brothers Hiram and Sidney as earning 5 dollars a day, which was apparently
good pay. |
#9 |
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Unfortunately
the census of 1890 has not survived, so the next record of the family at
Farmington was in 1900 where they were listed as Richard, Sarah, Fred, Hiram,
Lettie and Sidney, the missing child again being the couple’s married daughter
Mary Jane. It was just three years
after that when Richard Collett died and was buried at South Farmington
Cemetery on Shortsville Road in 1903.
Seven years later he was reunited with his wife, when Sarah died in
1910 and was buried there with him. A
single headstone marks the combined grave of Richard and Sarah, which carries
the following inscription “Richard Collett 1821 – 1903, Sarah Randall his
wife 1837 – 1910”. |
#9 |
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In the same cemetery are
the graves of Richard’s and Sarah’s son Hiram and his wife Cora, who were
buried there in the 1920s. Also a
single commemorative stone for Lloyd L Collett junior and his wife Donna J
Goff who are still alive in 2010. The
inscription on the stone indicates that the couple were married on 25th
March 1955 and that they were born on 20th November 1936, and 5th
March 1936 respectively. Lloyd L
Collett senior was the youngest son of Richard’s and Sarah’s son Sidney
Collett and his wife Harriet, with the aforementioned Lloyd L Collett junior
being their great grandson (Ref. 11R3).
|
#2 |
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11P1
|
Alfred Collett |
Born in 1856
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11P2
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Mary Jane Collett |
Born in 1858
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11P3
|
Hiram K Collett |
Born in 1863
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11P4
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Lettie Collett |
Born in 1866
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11P5
|
Sidney L Collett |
Born in 1874
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11O4 |
John Collett was baptised at Quinton on 25th
April 1824 but was not listed as living with his family at Admington Farm
Fields in June 1841. He would have
been 16 years of age on that occasion and, since all of his three older
siblings were still alive and recorded in the census that year, it may be
safe to assume that John had died prior to 1841. |
#2 |
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11O5 |
Eliza Collett was born at Admington in 1826 and
baptised at Quinton on 19th November 1826, the daughter of Richard
Collett and Hannah Fletcher. By the
time of the census in 1841, when she was 14 years old, she had already left
the family home at Admington Farm Fields, and had entered into the world of
domestic service. On that particular
occasion she was a servant at the home of Robert Fletcher, a carpenter, his
wife and their four children in Preston-on-Stour. As Eliza’s mother’s maiden-name was also
Fletcher, coupled with the fact she was born at Preston, it is very likely that
Robert Fletcher may well have been an uncle to Eliza to some other relative. |
#2 #9 |
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In
1851, Eliza Collett aged 26, was employed as the housekeeper for Thomas
Slatter aged 30, and an unmarried solicitor living in the Old Stratford area
of Stratford-on-Avon. Also working at
the same house was Eliza’s younger sister Elizabeth who was 17 and employed
there as a housemaid. A third servant
at the house was a groom. It was on 4th
April in 1852 that Eliza married her employer Thomas Slatter, the marriage
taking place at the parish church in the St Marylebone in London. |
#9 #9 |
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Eliza
and Thomas were married after notice of banns, when the bride’s father was
named as Richard Collett, whose occupation was that of a land bailiff. The couple’s addresses were simply recorded
as St Marylebone, while the witnesses were Thomas Snape and Mary Nelson. With Thomas Slatter being a solicitor, it
seems highly likely that Thomas Snape was the attorney Thomas Snape from
Warwickshire who was slightly older than Thomas Slatter. Why the couple travelled to London to be
married remains a mystery, but it may have been something to do with the
stigma attached to a solicitor marrying his housekeeper. However, after they were married the couple
returned to Old Stratford, where they continued to live for the next two
decades. |
#9 |
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Over
the remainder of the 1850s Eliza presented Thomas with three children, so by
the time of the census in 1861 the family living at 7 Warwick Road in Old
Stratford comprised Thomas Slatter 40, Eliza Slatter 34, John Slatter
who was six, Katherine A Slatter who was five, and Florence S
Slatter who was two years old.
Also living at the house, as a domestic servant to the family, was
Eliza’s unmarried sister Ann Collett (below) who was 27, plus a male
servant Thomas Burman, who later married Ann Collett. |
#9 #9 |
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On
the occasion of the next census in 1871 the Slatter family was still at the
same address, but by that time no member of the Collett family was in service
with them, although they still employed three servants in a cook, a housemaid,
and a groom. Sometime before 1881 the
family left Old Stratford and by the time of the census that year they were
living at Evesham Road in Salford Priors, midway between Stratford-on-Avon
and Evesham. However, still living in
their house at 7 Warwick Road in Old Stratford was their son John with his
wife Mary, and their young daughter Marianne Katherine Slatter. John aged 26, was a solicitor employing a
cook and a housemaid. It was the same
situation ten years later in 1891, and again in 1901, when John and Marianne
were still living at 7 Warwick Road in Old Stratford with two servants. |
#9 #9 |
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While
Eliza and Thomas were still living at 7 Warwick Road, Eliza received a letter
from her brother Richard Collett at Farmington in America. The letter dated 4th February
1872 referred to the loan of some money which had been used to purchase some
land. It may have been two years after
that, when their son John was married, that the couple left Stratford and
moved to Salford Priors. |
#9 |
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According
to the census in 1881 Thomas Slatter aged 60, was a solicitor who had been
born at Salford Priors. His wife Eliza
Slatter was 56 and from Admington, and their two unmarried daughters were
Katherine Ann Slatter aged 25, and Florence Sarah Slatter who was 22, both of
them born at Stratford-on-Avon. The
family was still supported by three servants, a cook, a housemaid, and a
groom. |
#2 |
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It
was just over three years later that Eliza Slatter nee Collett aged 57, died
at Salford Priors during the June quarter of 1884, and was followed shortly
after by her husband Thomas, who died there on 1st September 1884,
at the age of 64. According to his
obituary he was very well thought of and was also generous with money,
especially to the church. He was
obviously a very successful lawyer as his probate record shows that he left a
sum of £20,002 16 Shillings and 2 Pence. |
#9 #9 |
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Thomas
Slatter, who at the time of his passing was referred to as Thomas Slatter of
Salford Priors, was born there on 1st July 1820. He was very likely the son of farmer John
Slatter and Elizabeth Brands who were married at Honington, near
Shipston-on-Stour, on 3rd November 1814, where Elizabeth was born. In 1851 widower John Slatter aged 61, was
farming 200 acres of land at Salford Priors, midway between Alcester and
Evesham, where he employed six men, two boys, and two labourers. In addition to his son Thomas, John also
had an older son, Henry Brands Slatter, who was born in 1816, whose daughter
Mary Hannah Maria Slatter, born in 1848, married her cousin John Slatter, who
was born in 1854, the aforementioned son of Thomas Slatter above. |
#9 |
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11O6 |
George Collett was born at Admington on 4th
March 1829 and was baptised at Quinton on 19th April 1829, the son
of Richard and Hannah Collett. His age
was recorded as 11 years at the time of the 1841 Census, when he was living
with his family in Admington Farm Fields.
Nine years later George married Emma Rogers at Quinton parish church
on 17th December 1850. Emma
was born at Admington in 1824, and was baptised at Quinton on 27th
June 1824, the daughter of Richard and Martha Rogers. The witnesses at their wedding were
George’s sister Ann Collett (below) and Jacob Cox. |
#2 |
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Just
over three months later, the census in 1851, recorded George aged 22, and his
wife Emma aged 25, living at the Admington home of Emma’s widowed mother
Martha Rogers. George was working as a
groom, while Emma was pregnant with the couple’s first child which was born
later that same year. All three
occupants were noted as having been born at Admington. Living next door to Martha Rogers was her
son Richard Rogers aged 38, who was a game keeper, with his family, and next
to him was the family of William Mason aged 26, and his wife Sarah, also 26
and from Admington. Living with them
was Sarah’s daughter Ann Collett Mason (Ref. 11O45) who was six years old and
of Admington, and William’s and Sarah’s daughter Leah Mason who was three
months old. Sarah was very likely
Sarah Collett (Ref. 11N14). And living
next door to them was the family of carpenter John Rogers aged 64, who was
Martha Rogers’ brother-in-law. |
#2 |
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During
the following two years Emma presented George with their second son who was
born at Admington and baptised at Quinton.
However, it would appear that he did not survive, since no further
record of him has been found to date.
According to the census in 1861, George Collett of Admington was
described as being 32, while he was working away from home, and was recorded
as a coachman, employed by Corbett Holland Corbett, County Magistrate at his
home at Arlington House in the East Ward of Cheltenham St Mary. |
#2 |
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Six years earlier, in 1855, Corbett Holland Corbett, of
Admington Hall (described as near Stratford-on-Avon), held the office of High
Sheriff of Gloucestershire, and was therefore the principal law enforcer in
the county. He was also listed in the
Warwickshire Poll Book of 1865 as Corbett Holland Corbett of Ilmington and
Compton Scorpion. |
#2 |
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At
that same time in 1861 when George Collett was working in Cheltenham, his
wife Emma Collett aged 35 and a dressmaker, was living at Admington was their
son John Collett who was 10 years old.
Interestingly, a space had been provided on the census form above
Emma’s name for her husband’s details, presumably because it was known that
he was working away from the family home on that occasion. By 1871 son John had left home and George
and Emma were living in the village of Western Subedge in Gloucestershire,
where George was still a coachman. At
that same time, John Collett aged 20, was living and working at Campden
(Chipping Campden), and it was during the following years that he became a
married man. By 1881 he was living in
Lancashire. |
#2 |
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However,
in census of 1881, George Collett of Admington was recorded as being aged 57,
a transcription error perhaps for 52, when his occupation was still that of a
domestic coachman. Living with him at
Cross Cottage in Blaisdon, within the Westbury-on-Severn area on the edge of
the Forest of Dean, was his wife Emma Collett of Admington who was 55. By 1891 the couple were once again living
at Admington where George was 62 and was still working as a domestic
coachman, perhaps even for the Corbett family. His wife Emma was 66, and living next door
to the couple was George’s cousin Daniel Collett (below) with his
wife, and in the next dwelling was the widow Caroline Collett (Ref. 11N12)
and her granddaughter Lucy Collett. |
#2 |
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It
was almost exactly three years later that George Collett died at Willcote
Grounds on 4th March 1894, his sixty-fifth birthday. Willcote Grounds is likely to have been in
Admington, since it was at Admington Grounds in the village that his parents
were living in 1851. Certainly it was
at the parish church in Quinton that George was buried on 8th
March 1894 and where a headstone marks his grave. A memorial card found by Doreen North reads
as follows: “In Loving Memory of George Collett who died at Willcote Grounds
March 4th 1894 on his birthday aged 65 years and was interred at
Quinton Church March 8th – Thy Will Be Done”. Following the death of her husband, his
widow Emma left Admington and by March 1901 she was living at the
Shipston-on-Stour Union Workhouse where she died during the following three
months. Sadly, in the census of 1901,
she was described as a pauper and a dressmaker from Admington, who was 75. |
#9 |
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11P6
|
John Collett |
Born in 1851
at Farmington |
#2 |
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11P7
|
Richard Collett |
Born in 1853
at Farmington |
#2 |
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11O7 |
Ann Collett was born at Admington in 1831 and was
baptised at Quinton on 2nd October 1831, the daughter of Richard
and Hannah Collett. She was nine years
old in June census of 1841, but on that occasion was not living with her
family at Admington Farm Fields, but was staying at the Admington home of Ann
Savage aged 70. However, she was back
with her family at Farm Fields in Admington in 1851, when she was 19, but
with no stated occupation. Just over
three months prior to the census in 1851, Ann was one of the witnesses at the
Quinton wedding of her brother George Collett (above) and Emma Rogers
which took place in December 1850. |
#2 |
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Following
the marriage of her older sister Eliza Collett (above) to Thomas
Slatter in 1853, Ann was employed as a servant at their home at 7 Warwick
Road in Old Stratford at the time of the census in 1861, when unmarried Ann
Collett was stated as being 27, rather than 29. Also working for Eliza and Thomas was
bachelor Thomas Burman who was 24 and also a house servant like Ann. Their close working relationship, over the
following six years, led to Ann Collett marrying Thomas Burman at Leamington
Priors on 19th December 1867.
Thomas Henry Burman was born at Snitterfield, just north of
Stratford-on-Avon, where he was baptised on 7th May 1836, the son
of Sarah Burman. However, in the
census of 1851, Thomas Henry Burman aged 14 and from Snitterfield, was still living
in that same village with Thomas aged 49, and Ann Burman who was 36, but at
the home of his grandmother Mary Burman who was 70 years of age. |
#9 #14 |
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Once
they were married Thomas was offered a better job, when he accepted the post
of a gentleman’s servant and, by the time of the census in 1871, the
childless couple was living at Wolverton, near Snitterfield, where Thomas was
35, and Ann was 38. Over the years,
Thomas had other jobs, and by 1881 he and Ann were living at 48 St. George's
Road in Leamington Priors, today known as Leamington Spa, where Thomas was 45
and employed as a coachman, while Ann was 48. |
#9 |
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Living
with the couple, at that time, was unmarried Cecilia Mountford, who was 19
and a dressmaker from Harbury in Warwickshire. Cecilia was the daughter of Ann’s sister
Elizabeth Collett (below) and her first husband William
Mountford. By the time of the next
census in 1891 they had moved on again.
On that occasion they were living at Garden Terrace, Wellesbourne to the
east of Stratford on Avon, where Thomas was an agricultural labourer at 54. |
#9 |
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That
was then the most stable period in their lives, since it was at Wellesbourne
where they were still living in 1901, when Thomas was employed as a labourer
on a farm. It was almost exactly four
years later that Ann Burman nee Collett died at Wellesbourne during March
1905, at the age of 73, her death being recorded at Stratford-on-Avon. According to the following census in April
1911 Thomas Burman from Snitterfield was 74 when he was still living alone in
Wellesbourne. It was there also that
he died three years later during 1914, aged 78. |
#9 #2 #9 |
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During
their life together, their marriage produced at least two children, both of
whom died in infancy. Sarah Burman
was born and died during the last quarter of 1868, while Thirza Caroline
Burman was born during the last quarter of 1876 and died during the first
three months of the following year. It
is therefore possible that they were other children born during the nine
years between those two daughters. |
#9 |
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11O8 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at Admington in 1833 and was
baptised at Quinton on 15th September 1833, the daughter of
Richard and Hannah Collett. She was
seven years of age at the time of the census in 1841 when she was living with
her family at Admington Farm Fields.
Ten years later, at the age of 17, she was employed as a kitchen maid
by bachelor and solicitor Thomas Slatter at his home in Old Stratford, where
her older sister Eliza (above) was the housekeeper, the household also
being supported by a groom. |
#2 #9 |
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It
has not been determined when exactly she left the employment of Thomas
Slatter, but it may only have been just over two years after the census day
in 1851, since it was during the second quarter of that year when her sister
Eliza Collett married Thomas Slatter in London. Three and a half years later, during the
last quarter of 1856, Elizabeth Collett was living in the Warwick area when
she gave birth to a base-born son Frank Collett. |
#2 #9 |
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Curiously,
no record of Elizabeth Collett has been found in the next census of 1861 when
she would have been 27. Instead, her
son Frank Collett was four years old and described as a visitor at the
Warwick home of elderly couple William Bromage aged 60, and his wife
Elizabeth aged 70, and their son James Bromage who was 32. |
#2 |
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It
was during the third quarter of that same year, when Elizabeth Collett
married William Mountford in Birmingham.
He was a widower with a son, Thomas Mountford, following the 1857
death of his wife Mary Sheila Brown, whom he had married in 1846. According to the census six months earlier,
William Mountford aged 37, was a widower and a carpenter, living at Mill
Street in Harbury, with his son Thomas who was 10. Once they were married, Elizabeth and
William appear to have continued to live at Mill Street, since it was there
that Elizabeth Mountford was still living in 1871, although by that time she
was a widow. |
#9 |
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Sadly,
for Elizabeth, her husband had died around the time of their ninth wedding
anniversary in December 1870, at the age of 48. The census listed Elizabeth Mountford as a
widow aged 32 and a milliner who had been born at Admington. Living with her were her two children; her
base-born son Frank Collett (recorded as Frank Mountford) who was 14, and her
daughter Cecilia Mountford who was seven years old. In addition to her own children, Elizabeth
was also looking after a baby by the name of Edith Ann Gallaway. Living very close to Elizabeth in 1871, was
Henry Verney who, had been widowed himself, following the death of wife
Elizabeth Verney during the previous year, just like Elizabeth with her very
recent loss. The census at that time
listed Henry Verney aged 33, living at Farm Street in Harbury with his four
children; Mary Verney who was 10, Caroline Verney who was eight, Jessie
Verney who was seven, and Harry Verney who was five years old. |
#9 |
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It
is interesting that ten years earlier, the census in 1861 listed the family
of Henry Verney as living in the West Ham and Plaistow area of London. Head of the household Henry Verney from
Harbury was 23, his wife Elizabeth was 25, and their two children that day
were Alice G Verney who was approaching two years of age, and Mary Sophia
Verney who was only six months old.
The information regarding the youngest of the two daughters will be
more significant later on, at the time of the death of Henry Verney (see
below). |
#14 |
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It
was therefore possibly inevitable that Elizabeth Mountford, nee Collett,
formed a relationship with Henry Verney later that same year and, during the
following year, the first of their two daughters was born. No marriage record for the couple has been
found to date, but by 1881 their combined families were living together at
Mill Street in Harbury, where Henry Verney of Harbury was 43 and a
machinist. His ‘wife’ Elizabeth Verney
from Admington was 45 (sic), and living with the couple was Henry’s son Harry
Verney who was 15, and his and Elizabeth’s two daughters Amy Mountford
Verney who was eight, and Lilley Verney, who was six, both of them
having been born at Harbury. |
#2 |
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Also,
on the occasion of the census in 1881, Elizabeth’s eldest daughter Cecilia
Mountford was living with Elizabeth’s married sister Ann Burman nee Collett (above)
and her husband, coachman Thomas Burman, at 48 St Georges Road in Leamington
Priors. Cecilia was described as being
19 and a dressmaker from Harbury, who was a visitor at their home. Seven years after that, Cecilia Mountford
married Alfred Samuel Taylor at St Pancras in London during 1888. He was a travelling sorter for the Post
Office, so very likely worked on the mail trains. |
#2 #9 |
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No
record of her son Frank has been located in 1881, although the next census in
1891 revealed that labourer Frank Collett aged 32 and an invalid, was living
at Harbury with his mother. He was
described as the son-in-law of Henry Verney who was the owner of a threshing
machine at the age of 53. His wife
Elizabeth Verney from Admington was 55, and the only other person living at
the family home was Harry Verney who was curiously 23 and from Plaistow in
Essex, rather than 25 and from Harbury.
By 1891 Elizabeth’s daughter, Amy Verney was one of three domestic
servants working at the home of retired Colonel Henry Pratt and his wife, at
36 Clarence Square in Leamington. The
couple employed a cook and a parlour maid, while Amy was the housemaid. |
#2 #9 |
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In
March 1901, Henry Verney and his wife Elizabeth were living at 28 Mill Street
in Harbury. Henry, from Harbury, was
63, and was still described as the owner of a threshing machine, while his
wife from Admington was 65. Still
living at Harbury with them was Henry’s son Harry Verney from Plaistow who
was 35 and a ‘labourer working for his father’, and Elizabeth’s son Frank
Collett who was 40 (sic) and described as Henry’s step-son, and as having
fits since childhood. |
#2 #9 |
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Elizabeth
Verney nee Collett died at Harbury during 1909 aged 74 so, by the time of the
Harbury census of 1911, widower Henry Verney aged 73, was still living there,
with just his son Harry Ernest Verney aged 45, for company. And by that time Amy Verney aged 28, was
working at The Western Hospital in Fulham, London, where she was employed as
a housemaid. Also living nearby in
Harbury was another of his sons, widower Albert Edwin Verney of Harbury who
was 48, who had living with him his three children, Victor Albert 19,
Beatrice Maud Mary 17, and Doris Verney who was 10 years old. It was in 1922 that Henry Verney died at
the age of 84. |
#2 |
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Other members of the
Collett family were living in Harbury around that time, but they were members
of an apparent unconnected branch of the family from Murcott in Oxfordshire,
as detailed in Part 46 – The Charlton-on-Otmoor (Oxon) Area Line. In addition to Elizabeth Mountford Verney
Collett, the details of another Elizabeth Collett
of Admington and Ilmington, whose origins have yet to be determined, can be
found in the Appendix at the end of this file for completeness. |
#2 |
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The
birth of the aforementioned Mary Sophia Verney of Plaistow, the second child
of Henry and Elizabeth Verney was recorded at West Ham (Ref. 4a 21) during
the last three months of 1860.
Tragically she was under ten years of age when her mother died and it
was during 1891 that she married William Sumner at Chorley in Cheshire, when her
father was confirmed as Henry Verney. Upon
the death of Henry Verney at Hatton, just north of Warwick, in 1922, administration of his estate of £670 17
Shillings and 2 Pence was granted to Mary Sophia Sumner. |
#14 |
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Jessie
Elizabeth Verney, born around 1864 at Plaistow in East London and another
daughter of Henry and Elizabeth, was married in 1885 to (1) Alfred Whitlock,
the grandfather of David Whitlock of Coventry. Once married, the couple lived in Radford
Senmele, where Jessie presented Alfred with six children. Previously, at the age of 16, Jessie had
worked as a servant with Maria Blakemore at 2 Euston Place in Leamington Spa,
David’s home town. Following the death
of Jessie Whitlock in 1921, her husband married (2) Jane Allibone, who was
about thirty years his junior. |
#15 |
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11P8
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Francis Collett |
Born in 1856 Warwickshire |
#2 |
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11O9 |
William Collett, who was born at Admington in late 1835
and was baptised at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 7th February
1836, the youngest son of Richard Collett and Hannah Fletcher. He was recorded as being five years old in
the census of 1841 for the parish of Quinton, when he was living at Admington
Farm Fields with his family. |
#2 |
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Ten
years later he was one of only three children still living there with his
parents at the age of 14. It was just
over eight years late that William, the son of Richard Collett, was working
in Leamington where he married (1) Ann Hall at Leamington Prior (Leamington
Spa) on 13th June 1859.
William was described as a labourer of Cross Street in Leamington,
while his bride gave her address as Rosefield Street in the town. The witnesses at the wedding ceremony were
William Hall, Ann’s brother, and Sarah Hall, his wife, while both they, and
the bride and groom, signed the register in their own hand. |
#2 #9 |
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Ann
Hall was born at Little Wolford in 1838 and was the daughter of the late
Edward Hall and Ann Pargeter. She was
baptised at the church of St Mary the Virgin in Ilmington on 6th
November 1836. Following the death of
her father, her brother William Hall had taken over the family carpentry
business at Campden Road in Ilmington.
It is therefore curious why Ann and William were not married at
Ilmington. |
#2 #9 |
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Once
they were married the couple initially settled in Admington where their first
child was born just nine months after they were married. By the time of the census in 1861 the
family living at Admington comprised agricultural labourer William aged 25,
his wife Ann who was 24, and their son Francis who was just one year old,
having been baptised at Quinton not long after he was born. |
#2 |
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Over
the next ten years a further four children were added to the family, and the
first of them was James who born after the family had moved to Atherstone
midway between Tamworth and Nuneaton.
However, a few years later and before the end of the 1860s, the family
moved to the village of Mickleton where all of the remaining children were
born, and where they were living at the time of the census in 1871. |
#9 |
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Up
until the move to Mickleton William’s occupation had been that of a carrier,
transporting produce and passengers to Stratford-on-Avon and Evesham, but the
move to Mickleton was the result of him appointed the landlord of The Milking
Pail beer-house at 5 Sheep Street. In
1871 he and his family were confirmed as living there when, rather curiously,
he gave his age as 31, rather than 36.
Also, rather curiously, his wife was recorded in error as Rose A
Collett of Ilmington said she was 30, and their three sons were Francis, who
was 11, James who was seven, and baby Albert who was nine months old. Also living with the family was William’s
widowed father, 73-years old Richard Collett. |
#9 #2 |
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Two
years later Ann presented William with their fourth child, their first
daughter, and four years after that she discovered she was once again
with-child, except she was expecting twins.
On that occasion she gave birth to a fourth son, Edward, and a second
daughter Agnes, both of whom were born at Mickleton, although sadly neither
of them survived the ordeal. |
#9 |
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According
to the next census in 1881, William was still a publican and a carrier in
Mickleton, where he was living with his wife Ann and their two youngest
children. The census confirmed that
William was 42 and from Admington, Ann was 41 and from Ilmington, and their
children were Albert who was 10, and Florence who was seven, both of them
born at Mickleton, and both attending the school in Mickleton. The household also included two visitors,
Alfred W. Taplin aged 31 and a timber hauler from Campden, and his wife
Ellen. |
#2 |
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Although
not specifically mentioned by name, the establishment where William was the
landlord was the beer-house known as The Milking Pail, in Sheep Street, which
today is Lawson Square in Mickleton.
Within the family, the story is that William’s wife Ann insisted on
serving each pint of beer with a piece of bread, which she thought would help
to prevent the customers getting too drunk.
Pictured here is the same property in 1900 and 2000. |
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#9 |
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The
couple’s eldest son Francis had already left home by 1881 and was working as
a footman in Devon, while son James was working as a groom in
Worcestershire. The family continued
to live in Mickleton until around 1887, when they moved to Admington. The move was confirmed by a school book
belonging to daughter Florence, on the front of which was written “Florence Gertrude Ann Hall Collett,
Admington Grounds, Quinton – 16th April 1887”. However, just three years after that,
tragedy struck the family when, on 1st February 1890, William’s
wife Ann passed away, following which she was buried in the churchyard in
Quinton, where a headstone marks her grave.
The cause of death was gout and influenza. |
#2 #9 |
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One
year later William married (2) Ann Collett on 24th March
1891. She was the widow of Josiah
Collett (Ref. 11O27), William’s cousin, and was formerly Ann Hughes. Ann was the illegitimate daughter of Lucy
Hughes who married shoemaker John Such when Ann was around two years old, and
from whence she was also known within the family, as Ann Such. In the census that year, William was 54
years of age and was living at Admington with new wife Ann, who was 42, and
his daughter Florence G A H Collett who was 17. During the following year Ann presented
William with their only child, son Thomas William Collett. This is a photograph of farmer William
Collett around the end of the century, relaxing in a hammock on the farm,
while smoking his pipe. |
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#9 |
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The
birth of their son was registered during the second quarter of 1891,
indicating that Ann Collett was well advanced in her pregnancy on the day of
the census in early April 1891. Six
years later in 1897 William Collett purchased four cottages in Admington, one
being Cider Mill Cottage which was later bought by his son Fred in 1918. By the time of the next census in March
1901 the family still living at Admington was made up of William who was 64,
his wife Ann who was 52 and their son Thomas W Collett who was nine years
old. All three of them had been born
at Admington and were residing in a property simply described as Farm House,
from where William was a farmer with his own account. |
#2 #12 |
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It
was the same situation at Admington ten years later in April 1911, when
William Collett, a retired farmer, was 76, his wife Ann Collett was 64, and
their son Thomas Collett was 19. It
was during the next year that William Collett died of heart failure on 10th
April 1912, at the age of 77, when the ownership of the four cottages at
Admington passed to his widow Ann. The
Will of William Collett was made ten years earlier during 1902 and was proved
in Gloucester but not until 25th June 1918. The Will confirmed that William was a
farmer of Admington, and that his personal effects valued at £448 10
Shillings passed to his widow Ann. The
document also included the name of his youngest son Thomas (William Thomas). It seems likely that Ann either died later
that same year or sometime after 1918.
It is also of interest that William’s third son bought the
aforementioned Cider Mill Cottage at auction in Stratford-on-Avon on 1st
February 1918 for the sum of £430. |
#2 #9 #12 |
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It
is now known that the widow Ann Collett, the second wife of William Collett
and the base-born daughter of Lucy Hughes, had a half-sister Jane Such who
was born following the marriage of Lucy Hughes and John Such when Ann was two
years old. When Jane Such was married
some years later, she had a daughter Gertrude, and it was Gertrude who later
married Thomas Henry Cockbill who was a sewage worker in 1911. So, when the death of widow Ann Collett was
recorded at the Sewerage Works in Milcote, midway between Welford-on-Avon and
Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, on 14th March 1935, she was
living with her half-sister’s daughter Gertrude Cockbill and her husband
Thomas Henry Cockbill. That situation
was confirmed at Gloucester when probate of the personal effects of Ann
Collett, amounting to £377, was resolved on 27th March 1935 in
favour of Gertrude Cockbill, the wife of Thomas Henry Cockbill. |
#9 |
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11P9
|
Francis Richard Edward Hall Collett |
Born in 1860
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P10
|
James Collett |
Born in 1864
at Atherstone |
#2 |
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11P11
|
Albert Frederick William Collett |
Born in 1870
at Mickleton |
#2 |
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11P12
|
Florence Gertrude Ann Hall Collett |
Born in 1873
at Mickleton |
#2 |
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11P13
|
Edward Shirley Collett twin |
Born in 1877
at Mickleton |
#9 |
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11P14
|
Agnes Beatrice Collett twin |
Born in 1877
at Mickleton |
#9 |
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The
following is the only child of William Collett and his second wife Ann: |
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11P15
|
William Thomas Collett |
Born in 1891
at Admington |
#9 |
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11O10 |
Jane Collett was born at Admington in 1838 and was
baptised at Quinton on 30th December 1838, the youngest child of
farm worker Richard Collett and his wife Hannah Fletcher. On the occasion of the first national
census on the sixth of June in 1841, Jane Collett was living with her family
at Admington Farm Fields when she was listed as being two years old. Sadly, it was four years later, that the
death of Jane Collett was recorded during the last three months of 1845 when
she was seven years of age. |
#2 #9 |
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11O11 |
Ann Collett was born at Welford-on-Avon and was baptised
there on 15th January 1822, the only known child of Robert Collett
and his first wife Mary. Sometime
after she was born her mother died and, when she was just ten years of age,
her father married Mary Hughes in 1832. Ann’s rounded age in the 1841 Census was 20,
when she was recorded as living in the Alcester & Stratford-on-Avon census
registration district, but not with any member of her father’s new family. |
#2 |
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11O12 |
Daniel Collett, who was born at Admington in late 1832
and was baptised at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 19th May
1833, the eldest children of agricultural labourer Robert Collett and his
second wife Mary Hughes. He was eight
years old in the June census of Admington in 1841 when he was one of four
children still living with his parents at Admington, in the parish of
Quinton, at that time. He was working
as an agricultural labourer in 1851, when he was 17 and still living at
Admington Lane with his family, as he was again in 1861 at the age of 28. It was two years later that the marriage of
Daniel Collett and Sarah Ann Bayliss was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref.
6d 537) during the first three months of 1863. Sarah Ann was born during 1836 at Aston
Magna, just north of Moreton-in-Marsh, the daughter of George Bayliss and
Fanny Hulls. |
#2 #2 #14 |
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By
the time of the Admington census of 1871, the marriage had produced two
children for Daniel and Sarah. Daniel
was 34 and an agricultural labourer, Sarah was 33 and their children were
Jane Collett who was five and William Collett who was two years old. Both of the children had been born at
Admington, as was the couple’s third child, but all of them were baptised at
St Swithun’s Church in Quinton. Ten
years later in 1881, Daniel Collett, an agricultural labourer from Admington,
and his wife Sarah from Aston Magna, were both listed as 48, when they were
living at Lower Admington. Living
there with them were their sons William H Collett, who was 12 and who had
already started work as an agricultural labourer with his father, and Dan
Collett who was six years old, both boys confirmed as having been born at
Admington. By that time in her life,
the couple’s only daughter Ellen Jane Collett was working away from home and
was in domestic service at a house in nearby Stratford-on-Avon at the age of
15. |
#2 |
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In
1891 Daniel Collett, aged 57, was an agricultural labourer still living at
Admington with his wife Sarah A Collett who was 55 years of age. Living in the adjacent dwellings on either
side of their property were other members of the Collett family. On one side was Daniel’s older cousin
George (Ref. 11O6) and his wife Emma Collett nee Rogers, while on the other
side was Daniel’s aunt Caroline Collett (Ref. 11N12) and her granddaughter
Lucy Collett. Eight years later, the
death of Daniel Collett was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 434)
during the first quarter og 1898. |
#2 |
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|
His
passing was confirmed by the census return in 1901 when, Sarah A Collett was
described as a widow who had living with her in Admington her eldest son
William H Collett and his family at their home in Admington. Curiously on that occasion Sarah was
recorded as being 67 years old and from Admington, rather than 64 and from
Aston Magna. During the next decade
her son William took his family from Admington to live in nearby
Stratford-on-Avon, where Sarah also joined them. According to the census in April 1911 Sarah
Ann Collett, aged 73 and from Aston Magna, was living there with her son
William Henry Collett, his wife Ellen Collett, and their four children. |
#2 |
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11P16
|
Ella Jane Collett |
Born in 1865
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P17
|
William Henry Collett |
Born in 1868
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P18
|
Daniel Collett |
Born in 1874
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O13 |
Rachel Collett was born at Admington in 1834 and was baptised
at Quinton on 22nd March 1835.
She was six years of age in the 1841 census when she was living with
her family, but by 1851, perhaps for reasons of overcrowding, sixteen-year-old
Rachel was not living with them, but was living nearby. On that census day, Rachel Collett from
Admington was a niece staying at the Chipping Campden home of her uncle John
Collett and his family residing at the High Street. With no stated occupation, it is likely
that Rachel was helping her aunt Lettie Collett with her one-year-old
daughter Jane, who had been born at Chipping Campden. Ten years later she was unmarried at the
age of 25 and, by then, had returned to the family home in Admington from
where she was employed as a domestic cook.
Although no record of her has been discovered in the census conducted
in 1871, just four years afterwards, the body of unmarried Rachel Collett was
buried at the parish church in Quinton on 5th May 1875. |
#2 |
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11O14 |
Dinah Collett was born at Admington in 1836 and was baptised
at Quinton on 22nd January 1837.
By June 1841 she was four years old and was living with her family in
Admington, as she was ten years later when she was still attending the local
school at the age of 13, when the family’s home was on Admington Lane. Six years later she married Thomas
Tomlinson at Pebworth on 8th April 1857. According to the census in 1871, Dinah was
referred to as Diana Tomlinson, aged 33, when she was living with her husband
Thomas Tomlinson, aged 34, at Pebworth with their four children, Joseph
Tomlinson who was 11, William Tomlinson who was nine, Caleb
Tomlinson who was six, and Jane Tomlinson who was four years old. |
#2 |
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Ten
years later Dinah and Thomas were both 44 and were still living at Pebworth,
where Thomas was born and was working as an agricultural labourer at that
time. Dinah was confirmed as having
been born at Admington and all three of their children, Joseph 21, William 19
and Caleb 16, had been born at Pebworth and were also employed as
agricultural labourers. The family’s
address was simply ‘cottage’ Pebworth.
Dinah’s daughter Jane was missing from the family home in 1881, by
which time she was already working as a domestic servant at 3 Russell Terrace
in Leamington at the home of the Thorburn family, when she was 14 years of
age. |
#2 |
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Jane
Tomlinson was 26 when she married Lewis Clifton at St Mark’s Church in Birmingham
on 16th September 1893. Her
father was confirmed as Thomas Tomlinson, while Lewis was described as being
24 and born at Mickleton, the son of William Clifton. Lewis was a dairy farm labourer at Chapel
Lane in Kings Norton and his marriage to Jane produced three children with
only one of them, surviving, Lewis Frederick Clifton. |
#2 |
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11O15 |
Sena Collett was born at Admington in 1839, her
birth recorded as Sena at Shipton-on-Stour (Ref. xi 36) during the first
three months of that year. She was the
third daughter and fourth children of Robert Collett and his second wife Mary
Hughes. When she was baptised at St
Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 10th February 1839 her name was
recorded as Senah (sic), giving rise to the thought she may have been Sara or
Sarah Collett. The later census
returns also recorded her name in many different ways, adding to the
uncertainty. At the age of two years,
Siena (sic) Collett was living with her family at Admington within the parish
of Quinton. However, ten years later,
with the family still residing in Admington, the couple’s fourth child was
recorded as Sena Collett, who was 11 years old. It was similar in 1861, when Seanah (sic)
Collett was 21 and a single lady, having no occupation, still living with her
family in Admington. Throwing the
cat-among-the-pigeons, was the next Quinton census in 1871, which listing her
as unmarried Sarah (sic) Collett aged 31, a labourer’s daughter, one of only five
adult children again living with parents Robert and Mary Collett at Admington. Following the death of her father early in
1873 at Admington, widowed where Mary and her daughter Selina (sic) Collett,
aged 40 and still with no job of work, were living at Admington in 1881. Just under four years later, the death of
Sena Collett at Admington was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 151)
during the first quarter of 1885, at the age of 45. It was also at St Withun’s Church in
Quinton, where she was buried on 17th January 1885. From those two records, together with the
registration of her birth, it can safely be assumed that she was Sena
Collett, misheard and incorrectly recorded by the various census enumerators
over the years. |
#2 |
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11O16
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John Collett was born at Admington in 1841, his
birth recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. xi 15) during the third quarter of
that year. He was nine years old in
the Admington census of 1851, when he was listed with his parents Robert
Collett and Mary Hughes and other members of his family at Admington Lane. Nearly ten years later, on Christmas Day,
John Collett married Harriet Cook Waters on 25th December 1860 at
the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Ilmington, the event recorded at Shipston-on-Stour,
when the groom’s father was confirmed as Robert Collett. Harriet was born on 25th May 1840
in the hamlet of Honington, just north of Shipston-on-Stour, the daughter of
Thomas Cook. Harriet was six months
into the nine-month pregnancy for the couple’s first child who, it seems, was
likely born at the home of Harriet’s parents in Ilmington. Although Harriet was born at Honington, it
is possible her family settled in Ilmington when she was very young, as that
where she said she born in all of the later census returns. The births of all of their children were
recorded at Shipston-on-Stour, the majority having been born in Admington and
baptised at the parish Church of St Swithun’s in nearby Quinton. |
#2 |
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Three
months after their wedding day, the young couple was recorded in the
Ilmington census of 1861, with the first of their eight known children. John Collett from Admington was 19 and an
agricultural labourer, his wife Harriet Collett from Ilmington was 20, and
their daughter Mary Collett had only just been born. By the time of the census in 1871, the
family had increased to five children.
Ag-lab John Collett from Admington was 29 and Harriet was 30, when her
place of birth was also recorded (in error) as Admington, instead of
Ilmington. The children at that time
were Mary A Collett from Admington who was 10, George Collett who was eight
and from Shipston-on-Stour (sic), Emma Collett who was five, Kate Collett who
was three, and William Collett who was still under one year old. Nine years later, the family suffered the
loser of their eldest child, Mary being only 19 years of age when she
died. According to the census undertaken
in the following year, John Collett aged 40 and born at Admington, was an
agricultural labourer. He was the head
of the house at Lower Admington, where he was living with his wife Harriet,
who was 41 and born at Ilmington, together with their eight surviving
children. |
#2 |
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The
eight children living with the couple at Lower Admington were George Collett aged
18 and from Shipston-on-Stour, who was an agricultural labourer, Emma Collett
who was 15, Kate Collett who was 13, William Collett (named as Tom) who was 11,
John Collett who was eight, Mark Collett who was five, Eliza Collett who was
three, and Annie Collett who was seven months old. With the exception of eldest son George,
all the remaining children were described as having been born at Admington. Eighteen months after the census day in
1881, Harriet was expecting the birth of the couple’s last child, who was
born towards the end of the following year.
|
#2 |
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The
next census in 1891, recorded the family as John Collett who was 49 and a
general labourer, with Harriet also listed with the same age as her husband. Living with them at Admington on that
occasion were their sons Thomas Collett aged 21 and a general labourer, John
Collett aged 18 and another general labourer, Mark Collett aged 15 and still
at school, as was James Collett who was eight years old. On that same day, the couple’s two daughters
were recorded as Eliza Collett who was 13, and Annie Collett who was 10, both
of them scholars. By the time of the
census in March 1901 John and Harriet were still living at Admington, where
John of Admington was 58, and was employed as an ordinary agricultural
labour, while his wife Harriet, from Ilmington was 59. By that time, all of their children were
then living elsewhere. |
#2 |
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Ten
years later, John and Harriet were both listed in the Admington census of 1911
as being seventy years of age. Once
again John’s place of birth was confirmed as Admington, when he was
continuing to work as a labourer on a local farm. Harriet’s place of birth was confirmed as
Ilmington. Just over six years after
that day, the death of John Collett at Admington was recorded at
Shipston-on-Stour register office (Ref. 6d 134) during the last three months
of 1917, when he was 76 years of age. His widow left Admington after that sad
event when, two years later, the death of Harriet Collett aged 79 was
recorded at Stratford-on-Avon register office (Ref. ) during the fourth
quarter of 1919. |
#2 |
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11P19 |
Mary Ann Collett |
Born in 1861
at Ilmington |
#2 |
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11P20 |
George Collett |
Born in 1863
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P21 |
Emma Collett |
Born in 1865
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P22 |
Kate Collett |
Born in 1867
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P23 |
William (Tom) Collett |
Born in 1870
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P24 |
John Collett |
Born in 1873
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P25 |
Mark Collett |
Born in 1875
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P26 |
Eliza Collett |
Born in 1877
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P27 |
Annie Collett |
Born in 1880
at Admington |
#2 |
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11P28 |
James Collett |
Born in 1882
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O17
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Mark Collett was born at Admington in 1844, his
birth recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. xi 421) during the first quarter of
the year. He was seven years of age in
the census of 1851, when he and his family were recorded at Admington Lane. At the time of the 1861 Census, he was 16
and ten years later in 1871 he was not married but was still living in
Admington with his parents at the age of 26 when he was an agricultural
labourer. It was on 2nd May
1872 at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-on-Avon that Mark Collett married
Mary Mason who was born in 1850 at Long Marston just three miles to the
north-west of Admington. Mark was
confirmed as the son of Robert Collett and Marys father was named as John
Mason. Sometime after they were
married Mark and Mary moved to Hatton to the west of the town of Warwick,
where Mark took up employment as a cowman and where Mary was a dairy maid. |
#2 |
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According
to the 1881 Census Mark Collett was 37 and his wife Mary was 31 when they
were living at Georges Farm in Hatton, not far from Leek Wootton where Mark’s
brother Joseph (below) was living at that time. The marriage had not so far produced any
children and the only person living with Mark and Mary was Mary’s younger brother
Frederick Mason aged 14, who was working as a farm servant. After a further decade, the childless
couple was residing at Ditchford Friary midway between Stretton-on-Fosse and
Tidmington within the Shipston-on-Stour census registration district. On the census day in 1891 Mark Collett was
47 and a farmer and an inn keeper, when Mary was 42. |
#2 |
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The
1901 Census placed Mark and Mary as living at Stretton-on-Fosse where Mark
aged 56, was a farmer from Admington and Mary was 51. Ten years later in April 1911, Mark and
Mary were still living at Stretton-on-Fosse where Mark of Admington was 67 and
still a farmer, while Mary Collett from Long Marston was 61. It was ten years later that Mark Collett
passed away at the age of 77, his death recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref.
6d 708) during the third quarter of 1921. |
#14 |
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11O18 |
Martha Ann Collett was born at Admington in 1846, one
half of a pair of twin sisters whose birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour
(Ref. xi 411) during the second quarter of the year. However, unlike her twin sister, Martha was
never recorded with her large family, so very likely did not survive,
although no record of her death or burial has been found to date. |
#2 |
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11O19
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Ann Collett was born at Admington in 1846, her
birth, like that of her twin sister Martha (above) recorded at
Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. xi 411) during the second quarter of the year. She was five years of age at the time of the
Admington census in 1851 when she was living there with her family on
Admington Lane. In 1861 Ann Collett
from Admington was 14 years old and a house servant at the Lower Quinton home
of the Dutton family. Around nine
years later she discovered she was with-child, the embarrassment of which
resulted in Ann fleeing to Shipton Solers, near Cheltenham, where her
daughter was born. Shortly thereafter,
she and her baby returned to her parents’ home in Admington, with the birth
of her daughter recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 621) during the first
three months of 1871. |
#2 |
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The
Admington census that year revealed unmarried Ann Collett, aged 24 and a
labourer’s daughter, together with her daughter Mary J Collett, who was only
a few weeks old, were staying with Ann’s parents Robert and Mary Collett. It was later that same year that Mary Jane
Collett was baptised at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 8th
October 1871, the baptism record confirming that she was the daughter of Ann
Collett. It is possible that baby Mary
may have been taken into the family of Ann’s married brother Joseph (below)
in the Warwick area, since it the death of Mary Jane Collett was recorded at
Warwick (Ref. 6d 348) during the second quarter of 1874. |
#2 |
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11P29 |
Mary Jane
Collett |
Born in 1871
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O20
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Joseph Collett was born at Admington in 1848, the ninth
child of Robert Collett and Mary Hughes, whose birth was recorded at
Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. xi 369) during the last three months of the year. He and his family were living on Admington
Lane in the village in 1851, when he was two years of age. It was the same situation in 1861 when he
was 12 years old, except by then, he had left school and was already working
as a labourer’s boy with his father and old brothers. Joseph Collett was again still living at the
family home in Admington in 1871, by which time he was 22, unmarried and
employed as an agricultural labourer. Amongst
his siblings, living there with him that day, was Joseph’s older brother Mark
and his older unmarried sister Ann with her base-born daughter Jane. It was just after that census day that the
brothers Mark and Joseph Collett left the family home in Admington to travel
north to eventually settle close to the county town of Warwick. |
#2 #2 #2 |
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It
was towards the end of the following year when the marriage of Joseph Collett
and Ann Neal was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 1103) during the
final quarter of 1872. The wedding
ceremony took at Quinton parish church on 18th November 1872,
where the groom’s father was confirmed as Robert Collett, while the bride’s
father was named as Thomas Neal. Ann
Neal was born at Quinton, the eldest child of Thomas and Harriet Neal, with
her birth recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. xi 380) during the third
quarter of 1848. By the time she was 12
she was already working as a servant housemaid at the Upper Meon Hill,
Quinton, home of John and Charlotte Smith.
Ten years later, and shortly before she met her future husband, Ann
was 22 and a domestic servant in Quinton, at the home of elderly couple
William and Mary Fisher. |
#14 #2 |
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It
is of particular interest that the surname Neal had other links to this
Collett family. In the Admington,
Quinton census of 1841, Thomas Neal was living with Joseph’s parents, Thomas
being around the same age as Joseph’s mother Mary. It is therefore highly likely that he was
the father of Joseph’s wife.
Furthermore, in the Broadway census of 1871, Joseph’s widowed aunt
Lettice Collett from Willersey was named as the sister-in-law of John Neal
through his wife Mary Neal, also of Willersey. Letticia Collett was previously married to
John Collett (Ref. 11N6). |
#2 |
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Joseph’s
brother Mark was also married during the early 1870s, when he and his wife
set up home in Hatton near Warwick, while Joseph and Ann made their home in
Barford, midway between Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick, where the couple’s
first two children were born. By 1876
the family had moved again, on that occasion to Leamington, where their third
child was born. A couple of years
later found the family living at Kenilworth where another child was
born. By early 1881, around the time
of the birth of their fifth child, the family were recorded at Leek Wootton
where Joseph was the storekeeper and baker of the village Cooperative
Stores. Leek Wootton is only a very
short distance from Hatton, where Joseph’s brother Mark was still living at
the start of the 1880s. |
#2 |
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The
birth of the couple’s fifth child took place in the days just before the
census day in 1881 and, on the census return, was simply recorded as ‘infant
Collett unnamed’ although it is known that the child was later named
Mary. The full family was listed as
Joseph who was 31, Ann who was 32 and described as a storekeeper’s wife,
Ernest who was seven, Louisa J Collett who was six, George R Collett who was
four and Joseph who was one year old. One
more child was born at Leek Wootton before Joseph stopped managing the shop
and moved to the village of Charlton to the west of Evesham, where the
couple’s last two children were born.
According to the next census in 1891 the family comprised Joseph 41
and an agricultural labourer, his wife Ann 42 and from Quinton, and seven of
their children. They were Ernest aged
17, George H Collett aged 14 – both working as agricultural labourers, Joseph
aged 12 and a plough boy, Mary aged 10, Florence who was six, Albert who was
two and Geoffrey who was under one year old.
The family was recorded as living at Yessell Lane,
Hinton-on-the-Green, in the village of Charlton, within the parish of Cropthorne
to the west of Evesham in Worcestershire |
#2 |
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By
1901 Joseph, Ann and three of their children were still living on Yessell
Lane (on The Green) in Charlton, where Joseph was confirmed as being 51 and a
market gardener from Admington, while Ann from Upper Quinton was 52. The children were daughter Mary Collett aged
20 and born at Leek Wootton who had no occupation, and sons Albert Collett
who was 12 and Geoffrey Collett who was 10, both born at Charlton. Just prior to that census day, the couple’s
son Joseph became a married man and he and his wife were living close by in
Charlton. It may be of interest to
note that another Collett family was also working in the market garden business
in 1901, but at Badsey also near Evesham.
They were William Collett of Willersey, and his wife Charlotte Collett
of Badsey, the details for whom can be found in the appendix to Part 57 – The
Bakers of Abbots Morton in Worcestershire Line. |
#2 |
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Six
years after the census in March 1901, the death of Joseph Collett was
recorded at Pershore register office (Ref. 6c 175) during the second quarter
of 1907, which confirmed he was 58 and a market gardener and resident of
Charlton. Upon his passing the
family’s market gardening business was taken over by his two youngest sons,
as confirmed by the next census in 1911.
According to the census return that year, Ann Collett of Upper Quinton
was 62 and a widow living at Yessell Lane in Charlton near Evesham. It also stated that she had given birth to
nine children, eight of which were still alive in 1911. Four of them were unmarried and still
living with Ann on that day and they were Ernest who was 37, Mary who was 30,
Albert who was 22 and Geoffrey who was 20, it being Albert and Geoffrey who
were described as market gardeners. |
#2 |
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11P30 |
Ernest Collett |
Born in 1873
at Barford |
#2 |
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11P31 |
Louisa J Collett |
Born in 1874
at Barford |
#2 |
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11P32 |
George Robert Collett |
Born in 1876
at Leamington |
#2 |
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11P33 |
Joseph Collett |
Born in 1879
at Kenilworth |
#2 |
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11P34 |
Mary Collett |
Born in 1881
at Leek Wootton |
#2 |
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11P35 |
Florence Collett |
Born in 1885
at Leek Wootton |
#2 |
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11P36 |
Albert Collett |
Born in 1888
at Charlton |
#2 |
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11P37 |
Geoffrey Collett |
Born in 1890
at Charlton |
#2 |
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11O21 |
Jane Collett was born at Admington in 1850, her
birth recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. xi 386) during the fourth quarter
of that year. She was under one year
old in the census of 1851 when she was living at Admington Lane with her
family, although no record of her has been found after that day. |
#2 |
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11O22 |
George Collett was born at Admington in 1853 and his
birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 488) during the second
quarter of the year. He was eight
years old in the census of 1861 and ten years later George was still living
with his parents in Admington and was listed as being 17 years old. By the time of the census of 1881, he was a
carrier at the age of 27, when he was still living at the family home in
Lower Admington with his widowed mother and older sister (Sena) Selina
Collett (above). |
#2 |
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Five
years later, on 8th February 1886, George Collett married Agnes
Skey at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton.
The parish register confirmed that they were both 31 and that Agnes’
father was James Skey, while George’s father was confirmed as Robert
Collett. One of the witnesses to the
signing of the register was George’s oldest brother Daniel Collett (above). The birth of Agnes Skey was recorded at
Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 25) during the last three months of 1854. No further record of George and Agnes after
that time has so far been found. |
#2 #3 #2 |
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11O23 |
Jane Collett was born at Chipping Campden in 1850,
the first of the three daughters of John Collett and his second wife Letticia
(Lettie). Her birth was recorded at
Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. xi 599) during in the first three months of that
year. She was one year old in the
Chipping Campden census of 1851 when living on the High Street where her
father managed a grocer’s shop.
Tragically her father died in 1859, leaving Jane, aged 11, and her two
younger sisters still living at the High Street in Chipping Campden where
their mother was continuing to run the grocer’s shop but, from where her
mother moved shortly thereafter. |
#2 |
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None
of the sisters were still living with their widowed mother in 1871 and, on that
census day, Jane Collett from Chipping Campden was 21 and working as a
domestic servant at the Chipping Campden home of the Hiran family. During the following years, both Jane and
her sister Mary (below) moved to London, where they were recorded in
the following census returns. By the
time of the census in 1881, Jane was living and working in London. It was at 34 Parkhurst Road in Islington
that Jane Collett from Chipping Campden was 31 and employed as a domestic
servant at the home of draper’s assistant William S Rush. Two other people lodging with the Rush
family were also from Chipping Campden and they were father and son Samuel J
Oberon, aged 46, and Gilbert M Oberon who was 18. |
#2 |
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Although
no record of the birth has so far been discovered, it seems highly likely that
unmarried Jane Collett gave birth to a son around 1875, whose whereabouts in
1881 have not been found. However, in
1891 mother and son were reunited and staying with Jane’s unmarried sister
Mary Ann Collett, head of the household, at Clevedon Place within the London
parish of St George Hanover Square.
Jane Collett was 41 and described as the sister and assistant to the
housekeeper-in-charge Mary Ann Collett.
Jane’s son Frank Collett was 16 years of age and a locksmith’s
apprentice who had been born in London and described as the nephew of Mary
Ann Collett. A visitor at the home was
Emily Wilkins who was 28 and from Kent. |
#2 |
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11P38 |
Frank Collett
– not confirmed |
Born in 1874
at London |
#2 |
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11O25 |
Mary Ann Collett was also born at Chipping Campden, the
youngest of the three daughters of John and Letticia Collett, her birth also
recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 538) during the first quarter of 1856. She was five years old in the Chipping
Campden census on 1861, by which time her father had died and Mary and her
two older sisters were recorded at the grocer’s shop on the High Street, run
by her widowed mother. After her
mother moved to Broadway, Mary A Collett from Chipping Campden secured work
at Handsworth in Birmingham where she was recorded in 1871 at the age of 15
as a domestic servant in a large boarding house run by elderly Caroline
Thomas. |
#2 |
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Eight
years later, a certain Mary Ann Collett, who was 22 and the daughter of John
Collett, married William Young at Bidford-on-Avon on 13th October
1879, William being 24 and the son of William Young. Whether she was the son of John and
Letticia Collett has not been confirmed and, in the following census returns,
Mary Ann Collett from Chipping Campden said she was a single lady. In 1981, Mary A Collett was 25 and a
housemaid living-in and working at Thrale Hall on Mitcham Road within the
Streatham and Morden area of South London. |
#2 |
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During
the following years, Mary was joined by her older sister Jane (above)
and by 1891, the older sister was working for the younger sibling at what may
have been a grand house within the parish of St George Hanover Square. Mary A Collett was 35 and the head of the
household at Clevedon Place, where she was working as ‘the
housekeeper-in-charge’, a position in which she was being assisted by her
sister. Also at the same dwelling was
Mary’s nephew Frank Collett of London who was 16. Over the following decade, Mary stopped
being a paid housekeeper instead, she became a shop-keeper, as confirmed by
the contents of the census return in 1901.
At that time in her life Mary A Collett from Chipping Campden was 45
and the shopkeeper of a general store on Northumberland Street in the St
Marylebone area of London. |
#2 |
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11O26 |
Ann Winifred Gilkes was born at Great Rollright in
1849. She married Valentine Pinfold
who was born at Enstone in 1846.
During his life Valentine was a shepherd and a farm labourer, who was not
listed with his wife at the time of the 1881 Census. According to the census return, Ann Pinfold
was 31 was a visitor at the Spelsbury home of shepherd William Leech and his
family. Accompanying Ann were two of
her children, Joseph Pinfold who was four years old, and Mary
Elizabeth Pinfold (see below) who was just eleven months old, both
children having been born at Chipping Norton.
Twenty years later, Ann aged 51 and from Great Rollright, and
Valentine aged 54 and from Enstone, were living at Chipping Norton with their
children including 20 years old Mary E Pinfold who was working as a domestic
cook. Valentine Pinfold died during
1914. |
#5 #2 |
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Mary Elizabeth Pinfold was born at Chipping Norton in May
1880. She was 11 months old on 3rd
April 1881 and twenty years later at the age of 20 she was still living with
her parents at Chipping Norton where she was working as a domestic cook. She later married James Reader who was a
bricklayer and builder. He was born at
Ravensthorpe in Northamptonshire in 1878 and was the son of agricultural
labourer James Reader and his wife Fanny, both of whom were born at
Ravensthorpe. In March 1901, James
Reader of Ravensthorpe was 22 and a bricklayer and was living in Rugby where
other members of his family were also living at that time. Ten years later the couple were married and
living in Coventry where James was 32 and Mary Elizabeth Reader of Chipping
Norton was 30. In her later life Mary
was employed as a dressmaker and at the time of the death of her husband in
1938 the couple was still living in Coventry.
They are known to have had one child, while Mary outlived her husband
by thirty years when she died in 1968. |
#2 #5 |
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11O27 |
Josiah Collett was born at Admington in 1846, the
only known child of blacksmith Thomas Collett and his wife Elizabeth. With no church at Admington at that time,
Josiah was baptised at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 21st
February 1847, the parish record confirming that his parents were Thomas and
Elizabeth Collett. Like his father,
and his grandfather before him, Josiah was also a blacksmith. Josiah was four years old in the Admington
census of 1851, when he was living there with his parents. Over the following decades he was recorded
as still living with his parents in Admington when, in 1861 he was 14, and
was 24 in 1871. Shortly after 1871 his
father died, at which point Josiah continued with the family business alone,
as a blacksmith. He was still a
bachelor at the time of the census in 1881, when he was 34 and was living at
Upper Admington with his elderly widowed mother. |
#2 |
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Just
a few months later the marriage of Josiah Collett and Ann Hughes was recorded
at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 79) during the third quarter of 1881, when the
witnesses were Edward John Powell and Lizzie Richmond Scampton. Ann Hughes was the base-born daughter of
Lucy Hughes who was born in 1848. Sadly,
their marriage last just eight years, when Josiah Collett died during 1889,
following which his widow Ann Collett married William Collett (Ref. 11O9),
who was Josiah’s cousin. For the
continuing story of the life of Ann Collett nee Hughes, go to Ref. 11O9. |
#14 #2 |
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11O28 |
John Collett was born at Admington in 1844 and was
baptised at St Swithun’s parish church in Quinton on 5th May 1844,
the first child born to George Collett and Maria Jennings. Sometime after he was born his family left
Admington, when they moved to Chipping Campden, where they were living in
1851. John was six years old at that
time, when he and his family were living at Back Ends in Chipping Campden. |
#1 #2 |
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During
the next ten years John’s family left Back Ends, when they moved to a new
address in Chipping Campden at Cow Fair.
However, on leaving school he became a blacksmith and initially
learned the trade with his father in the family business, before leaving
Chipping Campden just prior to April 1861.
By the time of the census that month, John Collett, aged 16, was no
longer living at his parents’ home in Cow Fair; instead, he was living and
working in the Rugby area of Warwickshire.
It was after that when he moved northwards, again, and on that
occasion the move took him into Staffordshire. And it was there that he met his future
wife Elizabeth, who is now known to be Elizabeth Hammond. |
#2 |
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The
marriage of John Collett and Elizabeth was recorded at Stafford (Ref. 6b 1)
and was conducted at Ellenhall in the Church of St Mary on 23rd
March 1869. The parish register
confirmed that John Collett was the son of George Collett, while Elizabeth
was the daughter of William Hammond, both being residents of Ellenhall. Elizabeth was born on 29th
August 1833 and was therefore around ten years older than John, a fact that
was somewhat confused in the next two census returns, when both she and John
gave conflicting ages and places of birth.
Once married, the couple made their home in Ellenhall where their
children were born and baptised, and where John and Elizabeth spent the rest
of their lives together. |
#2 |
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At
the time of the Ellenhall census in 1871, John Collett from ‘Gloucester
Campden’ was 26 and was working as a blacksmith, employing two boys, one of
which was his younger brother Mark Collett.
His wife Elizabeth was 30 and from Haughton, three miles south of
Ellenhall. By then they had already
started a family, because with them was the first of their five known
children, Annie M Collett, who was one year old. |
#8 |
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In
addition to their daughter, John and Elizabeth had four other people living
with them in 1871. The first two of
them were Fanny Hammond, who was 10 years old from Ellenhall, and Elizabeth
Hammond also from Ellenhall who was eight years old. The sisters were described as the nieces of
John Collett, and were very likely the nieces of his wife. The other two residents, were Mark Collett
aged 16 from ‘Gloucester Campden’ and Edward Tomlinson, also 16 but from
Little Haywood in Staffordshire. Both
boys were described as blacksmith’s apprentices. |
#8 |
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Living
almost adjacent to the Collett household was possibly Elizabeth’s parents,
William and Mary Ann Hammond. William
from Yarnfield in Staffordshire was 66 and an agricultural labourer, while
his wife was 64 and from High Offley in Staffordshire, and they were more
than likely the grandparents to the nieces Fanny and Elizabeth Hammond. |
#8 |
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Over
the remainder of that decade a further four children were added to the
Collett family. So, by 1881 the family
comprised John Collett aged 40 (sic) and a blacksmith from Admington,
Elizabeth Collett aged 48 (sic) of Ranton, which is midway between Haughton
and Ellenhall, and their children Annie M Collett 11, Rosa G Collett who was
eight, John A Collett who was seven, Francis E Collett who was five, and
Fanny E Collett who was two years old.
Also living with the family was niece Elizabeth Hammond, aged 18 of
Ellenhall, and the aforementioned Edward Tomlinson, who was 25, and a servant
and a blacksmith from Gayton in Staffordshire, who was continuing to work for
John Collett. |
#2 |
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The
Ellenhall census in 1891 again recorded the Collett family residing there, when
blacksmith John Collett was 47, and his wife Elizabeth Collett was 57 (sic). The children still living there with them
were their sons John H Collett who was 17, and Francis E Collett who was 15, together
with their daughter Fanny E Collett who was 12. Also living with the family that day were
Elizabeth’s father Charles Hammond who was 71, Edward Tomlinson who was 36,
and Samuel Archer who was only six years old.
All three of them were described as visitors. |
#2 |
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Ten
years later, in March 1901, John Collett was 57 and was described as a farmer
and blacksmith whose place of birth was Chipping Campden, rather than at
Admington. Similarly, Elizabeth who
was 67 (sic) stated she was born at Long Compton, which is just one mile
south of Ranton and one mile north of Haughton. Still living with them was their son
Francis Collett, aged 25, who was a blacksmith like his father, and their
unmarried daughter Elizabeth Collett who was 23. Their son John, who was 27 by then, had
left the family home to be married, and was working as a general farm
labourer at Kings Norton to the south of Birmingham. |
#2 |
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Just
less than five years later Elizabeth Collett nee Hammond passed away at
Ellenhall on 30th January 1906, following which she was buried
there where a memorial headstone marks her grave. Subsequently in the next census of 1911, John
Collett was 66 and a widower who was still living at Ellenhall with his
daughter Elizabeth Collett who was acting as his housekeeper. John survived his wife by eight years and
was 75 when he died at Ellenhall on 10th March 1919. His name also appears on the memorial stone
with that of his wife. |
#14 #2 #14 |
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11P39
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Annie Maria
Collett |
Born in 1870
at Ellenhall |
#2 |
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11P40
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Rosa Gertrude
Collett |
Born in 1872
at Ellenhall |
#2 |
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11P41
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John Harvey Collett |
Born in 1874
at Ellenhall |
#2 |
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11P42
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Francis Edwin Collett |
Born in 1875
at Ellenhall |
#2 |
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11P43
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Fanny Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1878
at Ellenhall |
#2 |
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11O29 |
Jane Collett was born at Admington and was baptised
at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 5th November 1845, the second
child, and eldest daughter of George Collett and Maria Jennings. No further record of Jane living with her
family has been found in any later census returns, so it may be correct to
assume that she died prior to the census in 1851. |
#1 |
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11O30 |
Louisa Collett was born at Admington in 1846 and was
later baptised at Quinton on 11th July 1847. By the time of the census of 1851 Louisa
and her family had moved to Chipping Campden and were living at Back Ends. Ten years later in 1861 she was the oldest
child at fourteen still living with her parents at Chipping Campden. On that occasion the family was living at
Cow Fair in the town. Five and a half
years later she and her family had moved to Mickleton where Louisa married
George Unitt on 10th September 1866. |
#2 #1 |
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George
was a labourer born at Marston in 1840 and, in 1881, he and Louisa and their
five children were living at 24 North Street in Ruston, Birmingham. The two oldest children, Annie L Unitt
who was 11, and Lily J Unitt who was nine, had been born at Northfield
in Worcestershire midway between Bromsgrove and Birmingham, while the other
three children had been born in Birmingham.
They were Fanny M Unitt who was seven, Ada Unitt who was
five, and Clara R Unitt who was one year old. |
#2 |
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11O31 |
Robert Collett was born at Admington and was baptised
at Quinton on 3rd June 1849.
Not long after he was born the family left Admington and moved south
to Chipping Campden where in March 1851 they were living at Back Ends in the
town. By the time of the census in
1861 Robert had already left school and, at the age of 12, was an apprenticed
shoemaker, while he was still living with his family in Chipping Campden,
although at that time they were living at Cow Fair in the town. During the next ten years Robert left the
family home and in 1871, when he was 22, he was living in the Kings Norton
& Edgbaston area of Birmingham. |
#1 |
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Five
years after that Robert Collett married Agnes Catherine Connolly in
Manchester (Ref. 8d 491) during the final three months of 1876 with witnesses
Philip Coploa, John Kilroy and Angelina Brown. Agnes had been born at Manchester in 1854. According to the census in 1881 Robt Collett
from Admington was 32 and a cordwainer, Agnes C Collett from Manchester was
26, and their first known child was Joseph who was five months old. That day the family of three was living in
a cottage adjacent to Gate House in the village of Ranton, to the west of
Stafford, where young Joseph had been born. That accommodation may have been a very
temporary home for the family since, by the time of the birth of the couple’s
next two children, the family was residing in Birmingham and not long after
that the family returned to Manchester where seven more children were added
to the family. |
#14 #14 |
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By
1891 the family was living at 63 Sanderson Street in Harpurhey, North
Manchester, where Robert Collett from Admington was 40 and his occupation was
that of a boot-maker. His wife Agnes
Catherine Collett was 36, and by that time she had presented her husband with
six children. George was eight-years-old,
Frederick was five, Frank was four, and Leo was just nine months old. Curiously the three missing children were
all patients in the nearby hospital within the Prestwich & Newton Heath
area of North Manchester. The two
youngest were Robert Henry Collett who was seven, and Agnes Collett who was
two years old. Both children survived
whatever illness or ailment they had been admitted for, and were back with
their family not long after. |
#2 |
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However,
the third of the three children was the couple’s eldest son Joseph Collett
who was ten years old and from Ranton in Staffordshire. However, with no apparent record of the same
Joseph Collett in 1901, it might appear that he did not survive whatever
ordeal he was going through in hospital. |
#14 |
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The
final three children of Robert and Agnes were added to the family during the
first half of the next decade.
However, before the end of the century Agnes Catherine Collett became
a widow, following the death of her husband Robert at the age of 47 during
the second quarter of 1898, which was recorded at Prestwich in Lancashire
(Ref. 8d 215). By the time of the
census conducted in March 1901 the family living at 39 Lilley Street in
Newton Heath, North Manchester, comprised Agnes Collett who was 46, Robert H
Collett who was 17, Frederick who was 15, Frank who was 14, Agnes who was 12,
Leo who was 10, Marie T Collett who was eight, Edmund who was six, and
Wilfred who was five. Sadly, just over
a year later, Agnes suffered the death of her youngest daughter Marie Theresa
Collett at the age of 10. |
#2 #14 |
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From
the census return it was evident that it was just the three oldest sons who
were in employment and therefore supporting their family financially. Robert was a warehouse maker-up, Frederick
was a dye works opener, while Frank was a commercial clerk. No record of her eldest surviving son
George has so far been found in the census of 1901 or 1911, when he would
have been 18 and 28, and when he may have been in Ireland. |
#2 |
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By
April 1911 the family’s home was at 21 Bradburn Street, Cheetham Hill in
Manchester, but by then all four of Agnes’ older sons had left to make their
own way in the world, although living nearby were her sons Robert Henry, who
was 27 and married, and Frank who was 24 and unmarried. The rest of the family was made up of Agnes
56, her daughter Agnes who was 22, Leo who was 20, Edmund who was 16, and
Wilfred who was 15. |
#2 |
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Twenty
years after the census in 1911 the death of Agnes C Collett at the age of 76
was recorded at the Manchester North register office (Ref. 8d 843) during the
first quarter of 1931. Having already
suffered the loss of first her husband and then her youngest daughter, Agnes
also lost three of her seven sons during the First World War. All of that, on top of losing her first-born
son who did not survive beyond infancy. |
#14 |
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11P44
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Joseph
Collett |
Born in 1881
at Ranton, Staffs. |
#14 |
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11P45
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George Collett |
Born in 1882
at Birmingham |
#2 |
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11P46
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Robert Henry Collett |
Born in 1883
at Birmingham |
#2 |
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11P47
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Frederick Collett |
Born in 1885
at Manchester |
#2 |
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11P48
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Frank Collett |
Born in 1887
at Manchester |
#2 |
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11P49
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Agnes Collett |
Born in 1888
at Manchester |
#2 |
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11P50
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Leo Collett |
Born in 1890
at Manchester |
#2 |
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11P51
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Marie Theresa Collett |
Born in 1892
at Manchester |
#2 |
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11P52
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Edmund Collett |
Born in 1894
at Manchester |
#2 |
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11P53
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Wilfred Collett |
Born in 1895
at Manchester |
#2 |
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11O32 |
Walter Collett was born at Back Ends in Chipping
Campden on 21st October 1851 shortly after his parents had moved
there from Admington. By 1861 he was
nine years old and was living with his family at Cow Fair in Chipping
Campden. During the next decade
Walter’s family left Chipping Campden and moved to The Butts in Mickleton
where they were living in 1871, when unmarried Walter was recorded as being
19. Later that same year Walter
married Eliza Jane Green at Shipston-on-Stour on 19th November
1871. Eliza, sometimes referred to as
Elizabeth, was born at Benson near Wallingford in Oxfordshire in June 1850
and was the daughter of Edmund Green and Alice Cooke of Swyncombe, near
Benson. It may be interesting to note
that the parents of Alice Cooke were John Cooke and Charlotte Kearsey, there
being other connections between the Kearsey and Collett families. |
#1 #2 |
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Shortly
after they were married, Walter and Eliza moved to Stoke-on-Trent where their
three surviving children were all born.
Sadly, the couple’s first-born child died while he was still an
infant, and a further tragedy struck the family seven years later during the
last quarter of 1879 when Eliza died during the birth of the couple’s fourth
child. That happened in the final
quarter of that year and left Walter as a widower with three young children
to look after, as well as needing to continue with his work as a blacksmith
to support them. |
#2 |
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As
a result of the situation, Walter moved the twelve miles south of
Stoke-on-Trent, when he and his children went to live with his father George
Collett at The Swan Inn in Eccleshall, where his father was the publican and
also a blacksmith, like Walter. That
was confirmed by the 1881 Census in which blacksmith Walter was listed as
living with at The Swan Inn on Small Lane with his daughters Alice who was
eight and Gertrude who was two, and his son Walter who was six years old, all
of them confirmed as having been born at Stoke-on-Trent. |
#2 |
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Curiously,
Walter gave his place of birth as Admington rather than Chipping Campden,
which may suggest that he was born right around the time his parents moved
from Admington to Chipping Campden. In
addition to that, his age was recorded as 43 rather than 29, but that must
surely have been an error in transcription.
It seems likely that Walter’s time living with his father may have
only been a temporary measure, since it was four years later that his
daughter Gertrude died at Stoke-on-Trent in 1885 at the age of seven. It was also at Stoke that Walter was living
in 1890 when he passed away. Walter’s
only surviving daughter Alice and son Walter were the only members of his
family that have so far been positively identified in the census of 1901. |
#2 |
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11P54
|
John E
Collett |
Born in 1872;
died in 1872 |
#2 |
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11P55
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Alice Marie Collett |
Born in 1873
at Stoke-on-Trent |
#2 |
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11P56
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Walter Collett |
Born in 1875
at Stoke-on-Trent |
#2 |
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11P57 |
Gertrude Collett |
Born in 1879
at Stoke-on-Trent |
#2 |
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11O33 |
Mark Collett was born at Chipping Campden in
1854. That may have taken place at
either ‘Back Ends’ or ‘Cow Fair’ in the town, since it was at those two
addresses that his parents were living in 1851 and 1861 respectively. In the 1861 Census for Chipping Campden,
Mark was listed as being six years of age, but ten years later according to
the 1871 Census, he had left Gloucestershire and was living in Staffordshire
where he was listed as being sixteen years old and from Chipping
Campden. The photograph of Mark Collett was kindly provided by Paul Boreham of
Arkell in Canada. |
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#1 #2 #8 |
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It
would therefore appear that, on leaving school and perhaps just prior to
April 1871, Mark had moved to Ellenhall in Staffordshire to live with his
eldest brother John Collett (above).
John was a blacksmith and, in the census of 1871, Mark Collett aged
16, was working with his brother as an apprentice blacksmith. Working alongside him was Edward Tomlinson
from Little Haywood, also 16, who was listed as a servant in the Collett
household, although he too was working with the Collett brothers as an
apprentice blacksmith. |
#8 |
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It
was while Mark Collett was living and working in Staffordshire with his
brother that he met, and later married Sarah Williams around 1874. Sarah was born at Slindon, just north of Eccleshall
in 1852, the daughter of Joseph and Sarah Williams of Eccleshall. Having served his apprenticeship with his
brother, Mark eventually became a fully-fledged blacksmith, so following in
the footsteps of his father George and his older brothers John and Walter, as
confirmed by the census of 1881, when Mark and his two brothers were all
living and plying their trade in Eccleshall. |
#2 |
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The
census that year listed Mark Collett as 29 of Chipping Campden and a
blacksmith, while Sarah his wife was also 29, their two daughters were Nelly
aged five, and Ada who was two, and their son Thomas was three years
old. All three of the children had
been born at Burslem, north of Stoke-on-Trent and, on that census day, Sarah
was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child.
Living with the family was Sarah’s widowed mother Sarah Williams aged
56 a retired farmer, and her younger sister Jane Williams who was 17 and a
dressmaker from Eccleshall who was listed as sister-in-law to head of the
house Mark Collett. |
#2 |
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It
was towards the end of June, later that same year, that Sarah presented Mark
with a second son Albert. However,
there are conflicting views as to where he was born, bearing in mind the
family had been living at Eccleshall less than two months earlier. The census returns for 1891 and 1901 state
that the birth had taken place back at Burslem, while death certificate for
Albert Collett gave his place of birth as Slindon to the north of Eccleshall,
where the couple’s next child was born. |
#2 #8 |
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The
move to Slindon seems to have coincided with Mark ceasing to be a blacksmith,
and becoming a farmer, and that may have been as a result of him taking over
the farm previously run by his father-in-law Joseph Williams, following the
death of his widow, Sarah Williams, in the mid-1880s. And it was within the Slindon area that the
family appear to have lived for many years thereafter. The census in 1891 listed the family as
Mark and Sarah Collett who were both 37, together with four of their five
children. Ellen, the absent oldest
child, had already left the family home and was working as a domestic servant
in the nearby village of Aspley. |
#2 #8 |
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The
couple’s four other children were Thomas who was 13, Ada who was 12, Albert
who was nine and Charles who was four years old. Not long after that it would appear that
Mark took over Manor House Farm at Mill Meece, less than half a mile from
Slindon, and it was there that the couple’s last child was born. This photograph of Manor House Farm was
taken in April 2015 when Mark’s great granddaughter Joan Fay Robertson (nee
Collett) visited England from Canada. |
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#2 |
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The
1901 census for Mill Meece listed Mark Collett of Chipping Norton as a farmer
of 47, his wife Sarah from Slindon who was also 47, and their sons Thomas 23,
Albert 19, and Charles 14 all of whom were described farmer’s sons, together
with daughters Ada who was 22, and Annie who was six. The census also confirmed that the couple’s
three eldest surviving children were all born at Burslem, while Charles was
born after the family had moved to Slindon, and Annie’s place of birth was
given as Mill Meece. |
#2 |
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By
April 1911 all of the children of Mark and Sarah had left the family home at
Manor House Farm, when Mark and Sarah where both still living there at the
age of fifty-seven. Living nearby in
the village of Slindon was their married son Thomas and his family, and
separately living there, their daughter Annie Elizabeth Collett. It is unclear from the census returns of
1911 as to what had happened to the three other children of Mark and Sarah,
since no record has been found for Ada, Albert and Charles, nor is anything
known about their lives after that time. |
#2 |
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Mark
Collett died on 18th August 1916, when a funeral card used on that
occasion referred to him as Mark Collett of Mill Meece. He was 62 and was buried at Cotes Heath
Church on 25th August 1916, where a headstone marks the
grave. Just over a year later his wife
Sarah was a patient at Stafford County Mental Hospital when she died on 8th
October 1917 at the age of 63. The
1917 Will of widow Sarah Collett of Mill Meece near Eccleshall was proved in
London on 8th December 1917 when her entire estate of £1,598 1 Shilling
and 3 Pence was left to her eldest son, who was described as Thomas Collett,
farmer. |
#8 #2 |
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11P58
|
Ellen Collett |
Born in 1875
at Burslem |
#2 |
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11P59 |
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1877
at Burslem |
#7 |
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11P60 |
Ada Collett |
Born in 1878
at Burslem |
#2 |
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11P61 |
Albert Collett |
Born in 1881
at Burslem |
#2 |
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11P62 |
Charles Collett |
Born in 1886
at Slindon |
#2 |
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11P63 |
Annie Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1894
at Mill Meece |
#2 |
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11O34 |
HENRY GEORGE COLLETT, who was referred to as George, was
born at Chipping Campden in 1857 and he followed in the family tradition by
being a blacksmith. In April 1861
three years old George and his family were living at Cow Fair in Chipping
Campden. It was during the following
few years that George’s parents left Chipping Campden and moved a couple of
miles to the north to settle in Mickleton.
And it was at The Butts in Mickleton that the family was living in
1871 when George was 13. However, the
family did not stay very long at Mickleton before eventually moving to
Staffordshire where most of the family was living in 1881. |
#1 #2 #1 |
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According
to the Census of 1881 George was a servant and a blacksmith at 23 who had
been born at ‘Camden’ in Gloucestershire, as in Chipping Campden. At the time of the census, he was single
and was working for blacksmith Thomas Porter and was living at his home at
Tittensor midway between Stone and Stoke-on-Trent. Three years later George married Alice Salt
of Wolstanton on 13th June 1884 at St Peter’s Church in
Stoke-on-Trent. George’s older brother
Walter Collett (above) was one of the witnesses at the wedding
ceremony, and his signature also appears on the couple’s marriage
certificate. Three years earlier
24-years old Alice Salt was working as a servant and cook at Groundslow Farm
in Stone. The census record also
revealed she had been born at Whitmore, south-west of Stoke-on-Trent. |
#2 #1 #2 |
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The
early years of their married life was spent living at 8 Cornwallis Street in
Stoke-on-Trent where their first three children were born, and where Henry’s
widowed father George Collett was living in 1891. It was around two years earlier during 1889
that the family moved to Brook Street in Burslem. The census of 1891 confirmed that the
family was living at Brook Street in Burslem and comprised George aged 33,
Alice aged 34, and their children, Henry who was six, Gertrude who was five,
Alice who was two, and baby Ada who was not yet one year old. Also living with the family at that time
was George’s youngest brother Thomas (below) who was twenty-one. |
#1 #2 |
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During
the next ten years the family continued to live in Burslem, although their
seventh and last child was born at Wolstanton. However, in April 1901 the whole family,
with the exception of eldest daughter Gertrude, was living at St Paul’s
Street in Burslem. In addition to the
couple’s six children, the house also had a boarder in William H Miller,
while Gertrude at that time was 15 living and working in nearby Tunstall
where she was a domestic servant. It
was as Henry George Collett of Chipping Campden that he was recorded in the
Burslem census of 1911. At that time
six of his seven children were still living with him and his wife in
Burslem. Only daughter Gertrude had
left home and she was living and working in Wolstanton. Henry George was 53, his wife Alice was 54,
and their children were Henry George 27, Alice 22, Ada 20, Edgar Thomas 18,
Cecil John 14, and Sydney Charles who was 12. |
#1 #2 |
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Upon
his retirement George was presented with a long service medal by the
Stoke-on-Trent Gas Department for his thirty-nine years continuous employment
with them as a blacksmith. It is
believed that George and Alice both died while they were still living at
Burslem just north of Stoke-on-Trent, where they are also understood to have
been buried. Their address from 1912
may well have been 34 Ellgreave Street in Burslem. That was the address given by their son
Edgar when he joined the army, and was also the address to which their
granddaughter Alice-Lyn Collett was sent to live following the breakdown of
her mother when she received the sad news that her husband Henry George
Collett, the couple’s eldest son, died near Poelcapelle in 1917. |
#1 #2 |
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11P64 |
HENRY GEORGE COLLETT |
Born in 1884
at Stoke-on-Trent |
#1 |
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11P65 |
Gertrude Collett |
Born in 1886
at Stoke-on-Trent |
#1 |
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11P66 |
Alice Collett |
Born in 1888
at Stoke-on-Trent |
#1 |
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11P67 |
Ada Collett |
Born in 1890
at Burslem |
#1 |
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11P68 |
Edgar Thomas Collett |
Born in 1893
at Burslem |
#1 |
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11P69 |
Cecil John Collett |
Born in 1896
at Burslem |
#1 |
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11P70 |
Sidney Charles Collett |
Born in 1899
at Burslem |
#1 |
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11O35 |
Charles Collett was born at Chipping Campden in 1859
and most likely when his parents
George Collett and Maria Jennings were residing at Cow Fair in
Chipping Campden. It was certain there
that the family was recorded at the end of March in 1861, when Charles was
one year old. Shortly after that his
family left Chipping Campden and moved north to nearby Mickleton. By 1871 part of his family was living at
The Butts in Mickleton where Charles was confirmed as being eleven years old and
attending school, having been born at Chipping Campden. |
#2 #1 |
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Unlike
most of the other members of his family, Charles appears not to have moved to
Staffordshire during the 1870s and in 1881 he was still living at Mickleton
in Gloucestershire to where his family had moved when they left Chipping
Campden when he was still an infant.
According to that year’s census for Mickleton, Charles aged 22 and of
Campden, was a shoe maker and a lodger at the home of retired boot maker and
local preacher Thomas Smith aged 83 and of Mickleton, and his wife Hannah 71
of Pilerton Priors in Warwickshire. So
perhaps, it can be assumed that the older man had been coaching Charles in
the craft of making quality boots and shoes. |
#2 |
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Nine
months later, the marriage of Charles Collett and the much older Jane Manners
was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 681) during the first three month
of 1882. Jane was the daughter of cabinet
maker John and Mary Manners of Old Gate Street in Morpeth, with her birth
registered at Morpeth in Northumberland (Ref. xxv 327) at the start of 1850,
who was baptised at Morpeth on 3rd February 1850. Just prior to their wedding day,
31-year-old Jane was employed as a domestic servant and housemaid at a large
house in Weston Subedge, just north-west of Chipping Campden. After they were married, they settled at
Mickleton, within the Shipston-on-Stour registration district, where their
sons were born and where Charles continued to work as a boot and shoe maker. That situation was confirmed in the next
census of 1891, when Charles, Jane, and their two sons, were still living in
Mickleton. The census details that
year confirmed that Charles Collett was 33 and a shoemaker, that Jane Collett
was 40, and that their sons were John M Collett who was seven, and Arthur
Collett who was six years old. |
#2 |
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According
to the next census in 1901 the family was still living at Mickleton village
with the Parish of St Lawrence’s Church, where Charles Collett from Campden
was 42 and a boot and shoe maker, his wife Jane from Morpeth was 51, and
their Mickleton born sons were 17 and 16 respectively, who were both working
as market gardeners. Just over six
years after that day, the death of Charles Collett aged 49 was recorded at
Shipston-on-Stour register office (Ref. 6d 329) during the third quarter of
1907. Less than three years later, the
census conducted in April 1911, revealed that Jane Collett was a widow aged 61,
who was a market gardener with a smallholding. On that day, she was still living in
Mickleton with her unmarried sons John M Collett who was 27 and Arthur
Collett who was 26, when they were both working with Jane as market
gardeners. |
#2 #14 |
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Although
not yet proved, it would appear Jane lived a long life, most likely with her
eldest son taking over the family’s market garden in Mickleton when it became
too much for her to continue with, as confirmed within his military
records. The later death of Jane
Collett, who was born in 1850, was recorded at Worcestershire register office
(Ref. 6c 234) in 1932, when she was 82. |
#2 |
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11P71 |
John Manners Collett |
Born in 1883
at Mickleton |
#2 |
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11P72 |
Arthur Collett |
Born in 1885 at Mickleton |
#2 |
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11O36 |
Sarah Ann Collett was baptised on 3rd July
1863 at St Lawrence’s Church in Mickleton where her family was living in
April 1871 and where she was recorded as being aged seven years. On that occasion Sarah and her family were
living at The Butts in Mickleton but around 1880 virtually the whole family
moved to Staffordshire. By 1881 Sarah
was 17 and was living with her family at The Swan Inn on Small Street in
Eccleshall where her father was the publican and local blacksmith. However, Sarah’s place of birth, like that
of her younger brother Thomas (below) was stated as being Admington
rather than Mickleton. |
#2 #1 #2 |
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Less
than eighteen months later Sarah Ann Collett married Alfred Beech in front of
witnesses Edward Currie and Martha Jane Worthington, the event recorded at Stoke-on-Trent
(Ref. 6b 339) during the third quarter of 1882. The marriage produced six children before
the end of the century, although only four survived, by which time the family
was residing in Moor Street in Worcester.
Alfred Beech was 38 and a blacksmith from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Sarah
Ann Beech was 37 and from Mickleton and their four children were Alfred Beech
who was 16 and working with his father as a blacksmith, Francis Beech who was
14 and an errand boy, Mable Beech who was 12 – all born at Stoke, and Ethel
Beech who was nine years old and born in Worcester. After a further decade just four members of
the family were recorded living at 99 St George’s Lane North in Worcester and
they were shoeing smith Alfred aged 48, Sarah Ann who was 47, Mabel who was
22 and Ethel who was 19. One of the
two children who had died was the eldest, Sarah Ann Beech, who was eight
years old in 1891 who died in Worcester. |
#14 |
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Alfred
and Sarah continued to live in Worcester for the rest of their lives. The death of Sarah A Beech was recorded at
the register office there (Ref. 6a 190) during the first quarter of 1931 when
she was 67. It was one year later that
her husband Alfred Beech died at the age of 69 when his death was recorded at
Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 179) during the first three months of
1932. |
#14 |
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11O37 |
Thomas Collett was baptised on 5th
September 1869 at Mickleton, the son of George Collett and Maria
Jennings. He and his family were
living at The Butts in Mickleton in April 1871 when he was seven months old. By the time of the census of 1881 the
family had left Gloucestershire and was living at The Swan Inn on Small
Street in Eccleshall where Thomas was 11.
Like his sister Sarah (above) his place of birth was recorded
as having been Admington. It seems
very likely that over the next ten years Thomas moved in with his older
married brother George (above) since, in the 1891 Census, he was 21
and was staying with the family at their home in the Burslem & Wolstanton
registration district of Staffordshire.
|
#2 #1 #2 |
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11O38
|
Alfred Collett was born at Admington in 1852 and was
baptised at Quinton on 20th June 1852. In the Admington census of 1861, Alfred was
eight years old, and was living there with his family. At some time in his life, he moved from
Gloucestershire to live in Birmingham, most likely for work reasons. It was while there that he met and married
Caroline Gray who was born at Harborne just to the south of Birmingham in
1856. Details of their wedding were
recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 92) during the second quarter of 1878 when
the witnesses were Edward Chamberlain and Emma Smith. According to the census in 1881 Alfred aged
28, was an F L packer, and he and his wife Caroline aged 24, were living at
Ada Terrace in Osler Street in Birmingham, the property described as ‘house
1’ in Ada Terrace. With them was their
son Arthur who had been born at Edgbaston, who was two years old. |
#2 #14 #2 |
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On
the day of the census in 1881 Caroline may well have been pregnant with
Alfred’s second child, since their daughter was born later that same year or
early in the following year. The new
arrival was confirmed in the next census in 1891 when the family of four was
still living within the Kings Norton & Edgbaston registration
district. Alfred Collett was 38,
Caroline was 33, Arthur Collett was 12, and Ada M Collett was nine years of
age. |
#2 |
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The
1901 Census for Birmingham recorded the family residing at 53 Hyde Road in
the Parish of St John where Alf Collett was 48 and a general packer who had
been born at Admington. Living there
with him was his wife Caroline Collett who was 45 and from Bricklane in
Worcestershire, their son Arthur Collett who was 21 and a domestic groom who
had been born in Birmingham, and their daughter Ada M Collett who was 18 and
a warehouse girl also born in Birmingham. According to the next census in 1911 Alfred
and Caroline were living with their married daughter at 222 Park Road in
Warley within the Bearwood district of Birmingham, while by then their son
Arthur was serving with the military and was based in Kent. Alfred was 58 and Caroline was 54. |
#2 #14 #2 |
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11P73
|
Arthur Collett |
Born in 1879
at Edgbaston |
#2 |
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11P74
|
Ada May Collett |
Born in 1882
at Edgbaston |
#2 |
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11O39
|
Louisa Jane Collett was born at Admington in 1854 and her
birth was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 512) during the first
quarter of 1854. She was baptised at
Quinton on 19th March 1854, and was seven years old in the
Admington census of 1861. When she was
only twenty-one years old, she produced a baby daughter even though she was
still unmarried. |
#2 #3 |
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Her
base-born daughter Lucy was placed in the care of Louisa’s mother Caroline
Collett where she lived until she eventually married in 1904, but not before
having two base-born children of her own.
Almost two years to the day after the birth of her illegitimate
daughter, Louisa married agricultural carter Samuel Keeley at St Swithun’s
Church in Quinton on 17th November 1877. Samuel was born at nearby Ilmington in 1851
and was a widower and the son of Samuel Keeley. Louisa Jane Collett was a spinster and the
daughter of William Collett. |
#2 #3 #2 |
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According
to the 1881 Census, Louisa, at the age of 27 had produced three children for
Samuel, they being Elizabeth Ruth Keeley who was five, and William
Keeley who was two, both born at Ilmington, and ten months old Sarah
Jane Keeley born at Admington. At
that time the family was living at Lower Farm Cottage in Quinton. Her daughter Elizabeth Ruth later married
Samuel Wells when the witnesses at the wedding ceremony were her sister Sarah
Jane and her father Samuel. |
#2 #3 |
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Louisa
Jane Keeley nee Collett died when she was residing in the Stratford-upon-Avon
area, her death recorded at Stratford register office (Ref. 6d 373) during
the last three months of 1905 when she was 53. |
#14 |
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11P75
|
Lucy Hannah Collett |
Born in 1875
at Admington |
#2 |
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11O40
|
Jabez Collett was born at Admington and baptised at
Quinton on 23rd December 1855 when his parents were named as
William Collett, a groom, and his wife Caroline. He was five years old at the time of the
Admington census of 1861, but was incorrectly recorded as Jabeth Collett, and
was named as Jabey Collett who was 15 in 1871. It is understood that he later married Jane
at Quinton although rather strangely neither Jabez nor Jane has been located
in the census of 1881 or any census record after that time. |
#2 |
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11O41
|
Hannah Collett was born at Admington in 1857 and
baptised at Quinton on 30th August 1857. In the next two national censuses for
Admington she was aged three years and 13 years. For the first of these she was living with
her family, while for the second she had left school and was working as a
servant at the home of William Harwood and his family. |
#2 |
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During
the following decade Hannah left Warwickshire and headed for London where she
may have been paid a little more.
According to the next census in 1881 Hannah Collett from Admington was
22 when she was a housemaid at the girls’ school of professor of singing Mary
Eliza Probart at 1 Grosvenor Villa in Brixton Rise within the London Borough
of Lambeth. |
#14 |
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11O42
|
Zillah Collett was born at Admington in 1859 and was baptised
at Quinton on 19th June 1859.
In the census of 1861, she was recorded as Zilla Collett aged two
years, and was 12 years old in 1871.
It was in 1880 at Quinton parish church, that Zillah Collett aged 21,
married (1) farm labourer Joseph Aston.
Joseph was the son of Richard Aston and was born at nearby Ilmington
in 1857. In the national census the
following year the couple was listed as living at Campden Street in
Ilmington, Zillah was 22 and Joseph was 23.
There were no children born to the couple at that time. |
#2 #3 #2 |
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Tragically,
Joseph died in 1892 and six years later his widow Zillah married (2) John
Alcock at the Ilmington parish church of St Mary the Virgin. John (pictured right) was a carter born in
1860 and was the son of pearl button cutter Joseph Alcock of Birmingham. The witnesses at the wedding were Richard
Aston (Zillah’s previous father-in-law) and William Collett. That William Collett may have been Zillah’s
cousin William Henry Collett, since her father William Collett had died in
1878. |
|
#3 |
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|
Zillah’s
first marriage produced two daughters, Zillah Aston born in 1888 and Selina
Aston born in 1890, both girls having been born at Ilmington. In the 1901 Census Zillah and John were
listed as living at Ilmington with stepdaughters Zillah and Selina and John’s
grandson Harry Alcock (pictured right) who was born in 1897. Harry
was the base-born son of John Alcock junior and Emma Cockbill. |
|
#3 |
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|
By
April 1911, the family was still living in Ilmington where John Alcock was
62, his wife Zillah Alcock was 52, and Zillah’s two daughters were listed as
Zillah Aston aged 23 and Selina Aston aged 21. Selina Aston went on to marry John Hawtin
at Ilmington on 22nd August 1912.
John was the son of William and Sarah Hawtin who was born at Whichford
in Warwickshire. John Hawtin was a
farrier and Corporal TS/6013 with the Eighth Horsed Transport Unit of the
Army Service Corp. Tragically he died
during the Great War when he was 33 and was buried at the Cairo War Memorial
Cemetery grave reference D.230. His
death, recorded on 23rd December 1915, probably happened during
the failed attempt by the ASC to seize control of Constantinople/Istanbul
from the combined German and Turkish forces. |
#2 |
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11O43
|
Selena Collett was born at Admington in 1861 but
after 7th April. Ten years
later in 1871 she was nine years old.
By the time Selena had reached twenty years of age she had left the
family home in Admington and had moved to Birmingham where her brother Alfred
was living. The 1881 Census confirmed
she was 21 and had been born at Admington and that she was working as a
general servant at the home of silversmith Charles Marcus of Dublin and his
wife Rose from Bristol. The household
at 20 York Road in Edgbaston comprised Charles and Rose and their three sons,
and Rose’s brother Fred Blankensis who was also a silversmith. They were supported by three general
servants of whom Selena was the youngest.
It would appear that Selena never married and in 1901 she was still
living in Birmingham. No record of
Selena has so far been found in the census of 1911, although it is known that
she died in 1947. |
#2 #3 |
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11O44
|
Richard Collett was born at Admington in 1863 and was
baptised at Quinton on 1st May 1864 in a joint ceremony with his
sister Edwina. He was confirmed as
being eight years old in the census of 1871.
By 1881 he was an apprenticed blacksmith aged 18, when he was living
at the Lower Admington home of his mother, the widow Caroline Collett. Curiously no record of Richard has so far
been found in the next three census returns in 1891, 1901 and 1911. |
#2 |
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11O45
|
Edwina Collett was born at Admington in 1864 and
baptised at Quinton on 1st May 1864 in a joint ceremony with her
brother Richard. However, no trace of
her has been found in any subsequent census record so it might be assumed
that she had suffered an infant death. |
#2 |
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11O46 |
Christopher John Collett
was born at Admington
in 1865, but was baptised as John Collett in a joint ceremony with his
younger brother Josiah (below) on 5th June 1870 at St
Swithun’s Church in Quinton. However,
it was as Christopher Collett that the birth was also registered with
Shipston-on-Stour registrar during the second quarter of 1865, between 1st
April and 30th June. As John
Collett, he was only five years old in 1871, but ten years later, at the age
of 15, he had already left school and was employed as a farm labourer, while
still living with his widowed mother at her home in Lower Admington. |
#2 |
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|
From
the genealogical research into this line of the Collett family, the son of
William Joshua Collett and Caroline Downes was only ever known as John
Collett and, for that reason, it made it more difficult to identify him in
the later census records. However, it
is now known, that once he was married, he reverted to using his registered birth
name of Christopher, thanks to information received from Doreen North of
Bushy Heath in Hertfordshire. It was
therefore as Christopher Collett that he was listed in the census of 1891, as
Christopher John Collett of Admington in the census of 1901, and as
Christopher J Collett of Shipston-on-Stour in the census of 1911. |
#2 |
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|
After
1881, John Collett left Admington, when he made the move south to
London. It was there, around ten years
later, during the first quarter of 1891, that he married Ada Stone using the
name Christopher Collett. Ada was the
eldest child of master boot-maker George Stone, who was born at Edgware in
Middlesex on 6th October 1843, and his wife Sarah Johnson, from
Elstree, who were married at Hendon during the first three months of
1867. It was also at Edgware that
their daughter Ada was born, together with her seven younger siblings. |
#2 |
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|
By
the time of the census on fifth of April in 1891, Christopher Collett and his
wife Ada were living at 4 Star Cottage in Hendon. Ada was 21 and from Edgware, while her
husband’s place of birth was recorded as Over Maston, which may have been a
misinterpretation of Lower Admington.
At that time in his life Christopher Collett was 25, and was described
as a groom, and ‘whip to hounds’, which would have been a continuation of his
earlier work as a farm labourer. |
#2 |
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During
the next ten years Ada’s father died, and it may have been that sad event,
which resulted in Christopher and Ada taking in her widowed mother and
younger siblings. Certainly, by the
time of the census in 1901, the farm at which the Colletts were living, was
also home to three member of Ada’s Stone family. According to the census return, the five of
them were residing in the Neasden-cum-Kingsbury area of Kingsbury &
Hendon registration district of Middlesex.
The name of their place of residence is almost unreadable, but it is
believed to be Fryent Farm, particularly since there is a Fryent Country Park
in Kingsbury today. |
#2 |
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On
that occasion Christopher John Collett aged 35 and from Admington, was a
huntsman and groom, who was also an employer, rather than an employee. Living with him was his wife Ada Collett aged
31 and from Edgware, the widow Sarah Stone aged 54 from Elstree, and her two
youngest children, Cecily Stone, who was 20 and working as a book-keeper, and
James Henry Stone, who was 18 and working as a clerk. Both of the Stone children were confirmed
as also being born at Edgware. |
#2 |
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It
was a similar situation ten years later in April 1911, except that by then
Christopher had given up farming and was a licenced victualler managing The
Wellington Inn on the Hatton Road in Bedfont, Middlesex. On that occasion he was listed as
Christopher J Collett aged 45, who was born at Shipston-on-Stour, which more
or less confirms him as John Collett of Admington. Still living with him, and helping him
operate the inn, was his wife of twenty-one years, Ada Collett aged 41 of
Edgware, who was described as ‘assisting with the business’. Also still living with the couple was Ada’s
mother Sarah Stone who was 64. By then
Ada’s two youngest siblings had been replaced by another of her unmarried
sisters, that being Mabel Louise Stone aged 24 from Edgware, who had no
stated occupation. |
#2 |
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11O47 |
Josiah Collett was born at Admington in 1867 and was
the youngest child of William and Caroline Collett. He was later baptised at Quinton on 5th
June 1870 in a joint ceremony with his older brother John (above). The census in 1871 listed Josiah Collett as
being three years old, when he was living with his family at Ilmington Road
in Admington. |
#1 #2 |
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By
1881 he was 13 and had joined his brother John as a farm labourer, while
living at the Lower Admington home of his widowed mother. Ten years later and Josiah had left
Admington and had made his way to Birmingham where, in 1891 he was 23 and was
living in the Lady Wood district of the city.
During the third quarter of 1894 Josiah Collett married Sarah Hooper who
was born at Dudley Port in 1858. The
marriage was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 131) when the witnesses were
Arthur Houghton and Ada Elizabeth Gardner. It was during the following year that Sarah
gave birth to the couple’s only known child, their daughter Daisy, who was
born while the couple was living in Birmingham. |
#2 #14 #2 |
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It
was also in Birmingham that Josiah and Sarah were living in March 1901, with
their daughter. Josiah Collett aged 34
and of Admington, was working as an iron casement maker, while his wife was
42 and Daisy was five years old. Their
address at that time was 5 Khartoum Place in the Rotton Park district of the
city. According to the later census of
1911, Josiah from Admington was 43, his wife Sarah was 52, and daughter Daisy
was 15. By that time the family was
living in the West Bromwich area of the Midlands. |
#2 |
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11P76
|
Daisy Collett |
Born in 1895
at Birmingham |
#2 |
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11P1
|
Alfred Collett, who was known as Fred, was born at
Farmington in New York State on 29th March 1856. He was the eldest child of Richard Collett
and Sarah Randall. In both the census
returns for 1870 and 1875 he was listed with his family as Alfred Collet,
aged 14 and 19 respectively, and for the second of them the family was
confirmed as living at Farmington, compared to simply New York State in the
first. By the time of the US Census on
1st June 1880, Alfred Collett from New York was 24 and a married
man, when he was working with his father and younger brother Hiram on the
family’s farm at Farmington in Ontario County. |
#9 #2 |
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It
is established that he had married Jennie Pratt on 24th September
1879, while the census return in 1880, which did acknowledge that he was
married, simply recorded him as ‘other’ rather than ‘son’. Where his wife might have been on that
occasion has not been discovered, but she was presumably with their daughter
Theda Collett who would have been only a few days old. It is also possible that her absence from
the census may have been due to her actually giving birth to her daughter
around that time, which was close to nine months after she had married
Alfred. |
#9 #2 |
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Unfortunately,
the census of 1890 did not survive, but in 1892 under the name of Collet,
like it had been in 1870 and 1875, the four members of the family were
recorded at Farmington. They were Fred
Collet, who was 35, Jennie F Collet, who was 36, Theda M Collet, who was 12,
and Clara J Collet who was two years old.
It was two years later that Jennie presented Alfred with their third
daughter, who sadly died when she was two years old. There is also the possibility that other
children were born into the family considering the number of years between each
of the births of their three known daughters. |
#2 |
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By
1900 only the younger of their two surviving daughters was living at
Farmington with Alfred and Jennie, following the very recent marriage of the
couple’s eldest daughter. According to
the census that year Alfred Collett aged 44 and from New York, was a farmer
at Farmington, his wife Jennie F Collett also from New York was 46, and their
daughter Clara J Collett was 11.
Supporting the family was widower and servant Charles Bumpus, who was
46 and a farm labourer from Massachusetts, while also recorded with them as a
boarder was Nathan Redfield from New York, who was 65 and a farmer. It may be of interest that Clara P Bumpus
aged 55, was living with Clara Jeffrey Allyn nee Collett at Macedon in Wayne
County during 1930. |
#9 #2 |
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It
was a similar situation ten years later in 1910. The family was still residing in
Farmington, when Fred Collett was 54, Jennie F Collett was 55, and Clara J
Collett was 20. Curiously the
previously named boarder Nathan Redfield was then described as Nathan
Collett, a widower of 75, who was still living with the Collett family, but
there is a possibility that his surname was recorded in error. Whoever Nathan was, he certainly made an
impact on the Collett family, because Alfred’s daughter Theda named her first
child Nathan Redfield Walker in 1902. |
#9 #2 |
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The
only person living with Alfred and Jennie in 1920 was Jennie’s brother Albert
A Pratt who was 61, when Alfred was 63 and Jennie was 65. It was later that same year that Jennie
Collett nee Pratt died at Farmington and was buried at South Farmington
Cemetery, while her husband survived her by eight years, when Alfred Collett
passed away during 1928, following which he was buried with his wife at South
Farmington Cemetery. |
#9 |
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11Q1
|
Theda M Collett |
Born in 1880
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11Q2
|
Clara Jeffrey Collett |
Born in 1889 at
Farmington |
#9 |
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11Q3
|
Sarah Collett |
Born in 1894;
died in 1896 |
#9 |
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11P2
|
Mary Jane Collett was born at Farmington in Ontario
County on 20th February 1858, the eldest daughter of Richard and
Sarah Collett. In 1871 she was
recorded in the census that year as Mary J Collett aged 13, when she was
living in New York States with her family.
By the time of the census in 1875, when her family was recorded as
living at Farmington, Mary had already left home to become a married lady
when she was still in her teenage years.
In was during September 1875 Mary had married William M Wells, the son
of Joseph Wells, farmer and owner of a grist-mill, a saw-mill, and a barrel
making factory at Lot 44 in Farmington.
Over the first seven years of their marriage, up to 1882, the couple
had four children, and they were Ida May Wells, who was born on 7th
June 1876, Benjamin Wells born in 1878, daughter Jessie Wells born in 1880,
and Frank Wells who was born in 1882. |
#9 |
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Ten
years after they were married Mary Jane wrote a letter on 5th
March 1885 to her Aunt Ann in Admington, who was Ann Collett nee Hall, the
wife of Mary Jane’s uncle William Collett (Ref. 11O9), her father’s younger
brother. In that letter she wrote that
their farm comprised a holding of 120 acres, which included a saw-mill and a
grist-mill, possibly taken over from William’s father. She went on to say that they made 25,000
flour barrels and 7,000 apple barrels, and employed nine men in the cooper
shop, but sometimes up to fifteen. She
continued to say that her husband cuts the staves and the headings for the
barrels and that he was more interested in working with machinery than
farming, as a result of which it her father, Richard Collett, who undertook
most of the work on their farm. |
#9 |
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It
was during January 1888 that William Wells died as the result of a tragic
accident at work. At the time of his
death it was reported that he was a well-known barrel maker in the town of
Manchester, to the east of Farmington.
It appears from his obituary, that he was using a buzz-saw when the
ladder on which he was standing became dislodged and he fell against the saw,
which was instantly thrown against his head inflicting severe wounds. He died four days later. He was a highly respected member of the
community, and left a wife, four children, three sisters and an aging
father. After the tragic accident
William’s father Joseph Wells sold off the saw-mill and cooperage. |
#9 |
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Following
the death of her husband Mary Jane and her children were still living in
Manchester at the time of the census in 1890.
In another letter written at the start of that year to her Aunt Ann
Collett in England, Mary Jane hinted that she was thinking of getting married
again during the autumn of 1890 to a gentleman who lives in the next state to
the west. She added that her folks
cannot bear to have her move away and that it may not happen anyway. Whether her aunt ever read the letter is
not known, but sadly in February 1890 Ann Collett nee Hall passed away. In any event it was later that same year at
Farmington that Mary Jane Well was married to Louis (Lewis) Leix on 16th
October 1890 by the Presbyterian minister, the Reverend J C Lenhard of
Shortsville. Lewis was the son of
German-born Ludwig Leix and Katherine Khunley and was a farmer at Mayville in
Michigan, to where Mary Jane and her Wells family moved after the
wedding. The Leix family was well
known in Mayville and there is now a road named after them. |
#9 #9 |
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That
second marriage for Mary Jane lasted only seven years, when Mary Jane Leix,
aged just 40 years, the daughter of Richard Collett, died during 1897, the
cause of death being a burst blood vessel.
However, nothing more is known about the last few years in the life of
Mary Jane Leix nee Collett, except that her mother Sarah Collett stated in
the census of 1900 that she had given birth to five children, of which only
four were still alive. As those four
can be positively identified, the missing child was therefore confirmed her
daughter Mary Jane. |
#9 |
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Lewis
Leix was born in 1854 and it was on 16th October 1879 at Fremont,
Tuscola County, that he first married May Wilcox, as confirmed in the Fremont
census in 1880. Lewis Leix was a
farmer of 26, and his wife May was 24.
Tragically it was shortly after that when May Leix died. Three years after the death of his second
wife Lewis was recorded in the census of 1900, while five years after that,
at the age of 50 and on 3rd May 1905, he was married for a third
time, to spinster Lizzie Eichemeyr who was 42. That wedding took place at Bay City in
Michigan when he confirmed that he had been twice married before, and that he
was the son of Ludwig Leix and Catherine Kunely. Lizzie’s parents were confirmed as Edward
Eichemeyr and Sabina Deneke. It was as
Lewis and Eichmur Leix that they were curiously recorded in the Fremont
census of 1910, and they were still there in 1920, when even more curiously
they were listed in that year’s census as Lewis and Louis Leix when they were
65 and 56. It was just four years
later that Lewis Leix died at Fremont during 1924, where he was buried. |
#9 #2 |
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What
is of particular interest is that it was less than three years after Mary
Jane Wells married Lewis Leix, that her eldest daughter Ida May Wells became
with-child and was quickly married to Adolph Leix on 14th August
1893 in Fremont, Tuscola County in Michigan.
Just one month later their son Theodore Leix was born on 19th
September 1893 when Adolph was 21 and Ida was only 17. Adolph was the son of Ludwig and Katherine Leix
and the younger brother of Lewis Leix.
On the day of their wedding Adolph was recorded as a farmer, while Ida
was described as a dressmaker. |
#9 |
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Mary
Jane’s second child, Benjamin Wells was born on 28th December 1877
and, according to the census in 1900, he was living with William Petty and
his family. William’s wife Mary was
Benjamin’s aunt. Benjamin was
described as a servant and a farm labourer, and also living there was his
grandfather Joseph Wells whose farm and sawmills at Farmington were recorded
as Lot 44. His whereabouts during the
next twenty years is not known, but by the time of the census in 1920,
Benjamin Wells aged 42 and with no occupation was living with his sister Ida
May Leix in Bay City, Michigan. It was
shortly after that when he died on 6th March 1920 and was buried
two days later at the Shortsville & Manchester Cemetery. The cause of death was stated on his death
certificate as ‘insanity, becoming more imbecile in the last three months of
his life’. |
#9 |
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Mary
Jane’s third child, Jessie Wells was born in 1880 and following the death of
her father in the mid-1880s, she appears not to have gone with her mother to
Michigan when she would have been around eleven years old. Instead, at the age of 12, she was living
at Farmington with her grandparents Richard and Sarah Collett and their
unmarried son Hiram Collett at the time of the New York State census of
1892. Jessie later married Charles P
Loomis during 1900 and at the time of the census that year the pair of them
were living in Farmington with Charles’ parents. Charles’ occupation was that of a farm
labourer, very likely working on his father’s farm. |
#9 |
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By
1920 the family had moved to Schenectady City in New York State where Charles
was a machinist for General Electric.
Their sole surviving daughter Marion Loomis aged 17, was still living
with them. Furthermore, Jessie and
Charles were still living in Schenectady in 1930, but later returned to
Farmington, where Jessie died on 8th February 1960 and Charles
died 11th May 1968. They
were both buried in South Farmington Cemetery. Marion Loomis married Edwin L Clark and in
1930 they were living at Haddonfield, Camden in New Jersey, whereas her
deceased sister Doris Loomis, who had been born during August 1903, was only
five months old when she died on 15th January 1904. |
#9 |
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The
last child of Mary Jane Wells was Frank Wells and he was born in 1882. After the death of his father just a few
years later, Frank very likely travelled with his mother and sister to
Michigan around 1890/91. Certainly, he
was in Michigan ten years later when he was living with his married sister
Ida May Leix and her husband Adolph Leix at Sherman Street in Bay City, East
Side, at the time of the 1900 census.
By that time in his life Frank Wells was 18, but had no stated
occupation. Adolph Leix was teamster
(a truck driver) and with him and his wife Ida May were their two sons
Theodore Leix, who was six, and William Leix who was just two months
old. It was eleven years later that
Adolph Leix died of an appendicitis on 14th July 1911 and was
buried at Elm Lawn Cemetery in Bay City. |
#9 |
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No
record of the family has been found in 1910 but by 1920 Ida May was still
living in Bay City, then aged 44 and widowed.
Her occupation was given as ‘milk station’. Her two sons, Theodore Leix aged 24, and
William Leix aged 17, were both described as milk bottlers. Her daughter Ruth Leix was 15 and a
bookkeeper in a clothes store. Also
living with them was Ida May’s aunt Rhoby Wells, her father’s sister, who was
65, together with Ida May’s unmarried brother Benjamin Wells (above). |
#9 |
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Later
that year, on 22nd December 1920, Ida May Leix married Andrew J
Rumph at Hampton Township in Bay City.
Andrew was 51 and a farmer who had been born in Canada who had
emigrated to America in 1878. His
father was from England and his mother from Canada. By 1930 Ida M Rumph was still a resident of
Bay City, where she was recorded as being married and head of the household
at the age of 54. The only people
living there with her were her daughter Ruth and a boarder John Auch who was
a labourer in the dairy. Living in the
adjacent dwelling was Ida May’s son William Leix, the owner of a dairy, with
his wife Esther and their two sons Robert N Leix, who was five, and Theodore
Leix who was four. Also living next
door to Ida May, but on the other side, was her other son Theodore Leix aged
27, the owner of a gas station, with his wife Gertrude. |
#9 |
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At
that same time in 1930 the husband of Ida May Rumph was living in Watertown,
a suburb of Bay City. Andrew Rumph
stated that he was married and was head of the household. Living with him was his sister Mary J
Freeland and her husband Albert, along with Andrew’s aunt Mary J Mallion who
was 88. So it seems likely that the
marriage of Ida May and Andrew had not lasted many years before they decided
to live apart from each other. It was
less than six years later that Andrew Rumph died at Watertown 1st
February 1936. |
#9 |
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Following
the death of her estranged husband, Ida May had reverted to her previous
married name by the time of the census in 1940 when, as Ida Leix, she was
living at Block 44, Tuscola Road in Bay City.
Also by that time, the boarder at her home in 1930, John Auch, was
then her son-in-law married to her daughter Ruth, both of whom were employed
in the dairy. On Thursday 4th
March 1965 Ida May Leix fell and broke hip and shoulder and was admitted into
the Bay City General Hospital where she died, then buried at Elm Lawn
Cemetery in Bay City on 6th March 1965. |
#9 |
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11P3
|
Hiram K Collett was born at Farmington in Ontario
County on 26th September 1863.
He was the second known son of farmer Richard Collett from Admington
in England and his English born wife Sarah Randall. Hiram Collett was six years of age in 1870
and was 11 in the Farmington census of 1875.
He was 16 years old in the US Census of 1880 when he was a farm
labourer living with his family at Farmington, south-east of the town of
Rochester. Like his father Richard and
his older brother Alfred, Hiram was also a farmer and was later recorded as
having the farm holding referred to as Lot 70, not far from his father whose
land at Farmington was Lot 52. As
Hiram Collett he was 19 in 1892. |
#9 #2 #2 |
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Hiram
helped his parents run their farm right up until he married the widow Cora B
de Rieu (nee Brulee) in 1899, when he was 33.
Cora had been born in Holland during 1868, and she brought with into
the marriage the two children from her previous marriage to the late John de
Rieu. They were Myrtle de Rieu, who
was born in 1887, and Lena de Rieu, who was born in 1889. At the time of the census in 1900 farmer
Hiram Collett aged 37, and his wife Cora aged 32, were recorded as having
been married for one year, when they had Leona (Lena N de Rieu) aged 11,
living with them at Farmington. Two
doors away, Cora’s daughter Myrtle was living with her maternal grandparents
Isaac and Magdelena Brulee. Ten years
later, and following the death of her grandparents, Myrtle and her sister
Lena were both living with Hiram and Cora, when they were both recorded with
the Collett surname. |
#9 #2 |
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On
that occasion in 1910 Hiram Collett was 47, Cora Collett was 43, Myrtle S
Collett was 22, and Leona N Collett was also 22. Five years later the Farmington census in
1915 stated that Hiram Collett was 51, and after a further five years it was
just Hiram aged 56, and Cora aged 51, who were living at Farmington in 1920. Despite Cora being a few years younger than
Hiram, they never had any children of their own, while they lived out their
lives together at Farmington. And it
was there three years later that Hiram K Collett died and was buried at South
Farmington Cemetery in 1923, where a gravestone marks the plot with the
simple inscription “Hiram K Collett
1863 – 1923”. His wife Cora died
five years later and was also buried at South Farmington Cemetery, where a
separate gravestone simply reads “Cora
B Collett 1868 – 1928”. |
#2 #9 |
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11P4
|
Lettie Collett was born at Farmington in Ontario
County on 19th June 1866, the second daughter and fourth known
child of Richard and Sarah Collett.
Lettie Collett was four years old in 1870 and was nine in 1875. By the time of the next census in 1880 she
was 13 when she and her family were still residing in Farmington. Seven years later Lettie married John
Whittaker in 1887 when she was just 21 years old. John was born in England and had emigrated
to America in 1874, while his marriage to Lettie produced just one child, Edna
Whittaker, who was born during November 1892. |
#9 #2 |
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By
the time of the census in 1900, the family of three was still living in
Farmington, where John Whittaker was 44 and his wife Lettie was 33. The census that year also confirmed that
they had been married for thirteen years and that John was a farmer. It was eleven years after that when Lettie
Whittaker nee Collett died at Farmington during 1911, following which she was
buried at South Farmington Cemetery.
In 1920, her widowed husband John was living with his daughter Edna
Whittaker at the home of De Witt van Noy, her future husband. |
#9 |
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Edna
Whittaker later married De Witt van Noy and by 1930 they were living in
Canandaigua, the nearest large town to Farmington. De Witt was a dairy farmer in partnership
with his father-in-law John Whittaker who was still living with them, and who
died in 1936 when he was reunited with his wife. The marriage provided the couple with just
one son, De Witt Edwin van Noy, who was born on 4th March
1935. De Witt van Noy died in 1948 and
was followed by Edna who passed away during 1952, following which they were
both buried in South Farmington Cemetery.
Their son De Witt Edwin van Noy married Sarah Randall and they have
two daughters, Judy Ann van Noy (born in 1961 who married John Wint), and Kay
Lorie van Noy (born in 1967). |
#9 |
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Lettie
Whittaker nee Collett was a great letter writer, and copies of three letters
that she sent to family back in England are still held by the family. In the first, dated 15th March
1881, Lettie wrote to ‘dear Aunt and Uncle’ to say she will be 15 in
June. School is now out but will begin
again in May. She explained that there
are two terms in each school year, each of sixteen weeks. She continued to tell them about the price
they were getting for wheat and eggs, and that they were making maple syrup. |
#9 |
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In
a later letter sent from Manchester, near Farmington, in 1885 to her ‘dear
Aunt’ she reported that father was sorry to hear of the death of his
sister. That was most probably Eliza
Slatter nee Collett (Ref. 11O5) who died in 1884. Lettie added that she will be going home
that same afternoon, which perhaps indicated that she was living away from
home at that time and was possibly working as a domestic servant elsewhere. The last of the three letters was dated 7th
January 1886 and was again sent to her Aunt and Uncle from Manchester in
which she said she was living with a Quaker woman of 80, for whom she may
have been a housemaid. She wrote in
the letter that she wanted to go home for the winter, but that the woman
wanted her to stay with her as she was ‘pretty weak and bent’. However, she added that she does manage to
go home every Sunday. |
#9 |
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11P5
|
Sidney Collett was born at Farmington in Ontario
County on 8th July 1874, and it was there that he was living with
his family in 1875 when he was recorded as Sydnia L Collett who was still
under one year old. He was the
youngest child of Richard Collett and Sarah Randall from England, and was
five years old in the Farmington census of 1880, and was 18 in 1892. For the first twenty-five years of his life
his continued to life and work at the family’s farm, up until he became a
married man. It was on 14th
March 1900 that he married Harriet Chilson, who was known as Hattie, and who
came from the Pumpkin Hook area of Farmington. At the time of the Farmington census in
1900, Sidney Collett aged 26, and his wife Harriet G Collett aged 22, were
living with his parents, and it was three years later that Sidney’s father
died, and two years after that the first of the couple’s children was born,
who was named after his grandfather. |
#9 #2 |
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Following
the death of his father, Sidney and Hattie continued to live with Sidney’s
mother and to manage the farm for her.
That they did for the next seven years and, upon the death of his
mother in 1910, Sidney inherited the farm where he and his family lived until
his own death thirty-seven years later.
According to the Farmington census of 1910 it was just Sidney Collett,
who was 35, and Harriet G Collett, who was 32, living on the farm with their
two children. Richard S Collett was
five, and Helen E Collett was three years of age. The couple’s last child was added to the
family within the next twelve months, and in 1915 Sidney Collett was 40 when
his three children were aged eleven, eight, and four years respectively. |
#9 #2 |
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Five
years later, according to the Farmington census of 1920 the family comprised farmer
Sidney Collett who was 45, Harriet G Collett who was 41, their son Richard S Collett
aged 16, who was employed on a work-train for the steam railroad, Helen E Collett,
who was 12, and Lloyd L Collett who was eight years old and listed as Loyde L
Collett. In 1925 Sidney Collett of
Farmington was 50, while his sons Richard and Loyde were 21 and 16, and his
absent daughter Helen was married by then.
With the passing of a further five years, it was only Lloyd who was
still living at the family home with his parents, his older brother Richard being
married by then. |
#9 #2 |
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Having
been Sidney L Collett in the census of 1875, and with no middle initial at
any other time, in the Farmington census of 1930 he was named as Sidney J
Collett when he was 55. The census
enumerator also noted his wife’s name as Harriet J Collett, who was 51, while
their son was named as Loyde L Collett who was 19. The next census in 1940 recorded that the
couple were still living in the same house where they had been residing in
1935. Sidney Collett was 65 and
Harriet was 61. Living with them at that time were their three grandchildren,
Jeanette Kipp, who was 13, Alton Kipp, who was 11 and actually William Alton
Kipp, and Francis Kipp who was nine years old, the children of their daughter
Helen. |
#2 |
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It
was seven years later that Sidney Collett died at Farmington on 15th
March 1947 at the age of 72, and for a few years his widow Hattie continued
to live there. Keeping her company was
her married daughter Helen with her children, and that arrangement continued
until around 1955 when the farm was sold out of the Collett family. After the farm was sold Hattie took up
employment as live-in carer for sick people, which she did until the 1970s. She lived for the last few years of her
life with her grandson William Alton Kipp – who was known as Bill, prior to
her death on 10th December 1979, aged 101. Following her passing she was buried at
South Farmington Cemetery, where she was laid to rest with her husband. |
#9 |
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11Q4
|
Richard S Collett |
Born in 1903
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11Q5
|
Helen Emogene Collett |
Born in 1907
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11Q6
|
Lloyd Lester Collett |
Born in 1911
at Farmington |
#9 |
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11P6
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John Collett was born at Admington after thirtieth
of March in 1851 and was baptised at Quinton shortly after on 1st
June 1851. He was the eldest child of
George Collett and Emma Rogers. He
later married Maria who was born at Southam near Cheltenham in 1848. By the time John was ten years old, the
census of 1861 placed him living with his mother Emma at Admington. At that time his father was working away
from home in Cheltenham, where he was a coachman for the County Magistrate of
Gloucestershire. |
#2 |
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Ten
years later in 1871 John Collett of Admington was a footman in the household
of the Vicar of Campden, the Reverend Charles E Kennaway. He was 20 years old, unmarried, and was one
of six servants living at the Vicarage House in Campden. It was during 1879 that John married Maria
Pullam, who was born at Southam near Cheltenham in 1848. Following their marriage at Cheltenham, the
couple moved north to Lancashire where John started a new job on the railway. According to the census in 1881, the
childless couple were living at 141 Morton Street in Gorton, to the east
Manchester, where John Collett, aged 29, was a railway guard, and his wife
Maria was 32. |
#2 |
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During
the follow two years John suffered with a terrible illness, as a result of
which the couple returned to live in Cheltenham, and it was there that he
died on 7th November 1883.
The memorial card produced by his wife read as follows: ‘In
Loving Remembrance of John the dearly beloved husband of Maria Collett who,
after patiently enduring a long and painful illness, peacefully entered into
rest of Nov. 7th 1883, age 32’.
The card also carried the following: ‘Who fell asleep in Jesus, rejoicing in the realisation of his
Saviour’s redeeming grace, whose rod and staff were his great comfort in
passing through the valley of the shadow of death’. In order to survive and make ends meet,
his widow Maria took up the post of parlour maid at Hayes Lodge, Sydenham
Road in Cheltenham, where she was working at the time of the 1891 and 1901
censuses. She died at Cheltenham
during the third quarter of 1905, aged 57. |
#9 |
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11P7
|
Richard Collett was born at Admington in 1852 and was
baptised at Quinton 29th August 1852, the second son of George
Collett and Emma Rogers. However, his
absence from the family in the census of 1861, and his non-appearance in all
later census returns, very likely indicates that he suffered an infant or
childhood death. |
#2 |
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11P8
|
Francis Collett, who was known as Frank, was born in
Warwick during the last quarter of 1856, the base-born son of Elizabeth
Collett of Admington. At the time of
the census in 1861, Frank Collett was four years old and was described as a
visitor at the Warwick home of William Bromage in Northouse Street. Following the marriage of his mother to
William Mountford later that year it would appear that Frank returned to live
with his mother and her husband at Harbury. It was at Harbury that he was living with
his mother in 1871, but by which time William Mountford had been dead for
just three months. The census return
that year recorded him as the son of Elizabeth Mountford, head of the
household, with ditto marks under her surname alongside that of Frank’s name,
which may have been an enumerator’s error.
On that occasion as Frank Mountford aged 14, he was simply described
as an invalid. |
#9 |
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No
record of him has been found in 1881, but ten years later in the Harbury
census of 1891 he was listed as Frank Collett aged 32 and a labourer. He was also recorded as an invalid and
described as the son-in-law of Henry Verney aged 53, his wife being Elizabeth
Verney from Admington who was 55 and Frank’s mother. After a further ten years the March census
of 1901 included Frank Collett aged 40 (sic), as the step-son of Henry
Verney, having ‘fits since childhood’ while he was still living at Harbury
with his mother Elizabeth Verney and his stepfather. Apart from those four census records, no
other details are known regarding the life of Frank Collett, except that he
died at Warwick during the first quarter of 1912. |
#2 #9 |
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11P9
|
Francis Richard Edward
Hall Collett, who was
known as Frank, was the eldest child of William Collett and Ann Hall. He was born at Admington and was baptised
at St Swithun’s Church in Quinton on 5th March 1860. He was one year old in the Admington census
the following year. In 1871, at the
age of 11, he was living with his family at The Milking Pail beer-house on
Sheep Street in Mickleton, where his father was the inn keeper. By the time of the next census in 1881
Frank had left the family home at The Milking Pail and was working as a
footman at the home of ‘M D’ James A Huxley at 9 Higher Terrace in Tor-Moham
in Devon, which is a parish of Torquay. |
#2 |
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Widower
James Huxley was aged 46 and was of Newport in Shropshire. He must have been a wealthy man owning his
own horse-drawn carriage since, in addition to footman Francis Collett, the
other occupants of the house were: coachman George Stoneman and his wife and
son, and servant girl and housemaid Mary Northey. It was two years later that Francis married
Jane Treeby Paige at Newton Abbot in 1883.
Jane was born at Modbury in Devon, and after two years she presented
Frank with a son Francis James P Collett while they were living in
Torquay. To avoid any confusion with
his father, he was known as Frankie. |
#2 #9 |
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Ten
years later, the census of 1891 placed Francis, recorded as Frank Collett
from Admington, as living in the Wandsworth & Streatham area of London,
when he was 31. At that time in his
life he was a servant at the home of Edmund Colthorpe at Streatham Lodge,
while Frank’s wife Jane aged 33, and their five years old son were living
nearby at 58 Colmer Road in Streatham. |
#2 #9 |
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After
a further ten years Frank Collett aged 41 from Admington, was living at 21
Beale Street in West Ham with his wife Jane Collett aged 42 and from Modbury,
although by that time their son Frank was not living with them. He would have been 15, so his absence from
any census record in 1901 may indicate that he had already joined the army
and was serving abroad. On that
occasion Frank Collett was the manager of an off licence, having his own
account. |
#2 |
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Over
the following years the couple made the short move to Plaistow, where they
were living within the West Ham registration district when the next census
was conducted in April 1911. Frank
Collett from Admington was then 51, while his wife Jane Collett from Modbury
was 53. Also living nearby within the
same area of Plaistow was their son Frank, who was married by then, with a
child of his own. Francis Richard
Edward Hall Collett, aka Frank Collett, died while he was still living in
West Ham, where his death was registered during the first quarter of
1914. He was 53, and his wife Jane
survived him by a further fourteen years when she died in 1928 at the age of
70. |
#2 #9 |
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11Q7 |
Francis James P Collett |
Born in 1885
at Torquay |
#2 |
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11P10 |
James Collett was born at Atherstone in 1864, where
he was baptised on 24th July 1864, the son of William and Ann
Collett. He was seven years old at the
time of the census in 1871, when he was living with his family at
Mickleton. Upon leaving school, James
secured work as a domestic groom with the Middlemore family of Birmingham, at
their home in Bristol Road, Northfield near Kings Norton in Selly Oak. That was confirmed by the census in 1881,
which described James Collett as a servant and domestic groom aged 16 and
from Atherstone-on-Stour. |
#2 |
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Also
working for the Middlemore family as a domestic housemaid at that time was
Sarah Evans aged 26, from Chirbury near Montgomery in Wales. Although she was ten years older than
James, it was Sarah Evans that he married some years later, although no
record of the marriage has been found to date. Once they were married the couple made
their initial home in Quinton. The
Quinton census in 1891, recorded James Collett as a farmer employing one farm
servant, living there with his wife Sarah.
They did not stay in Quinton very long, and that may have resulted
from a farming disaster, since by 1897 when their son was born, the couple
was living at Woodford, near Thrapston in Northamptonshire. However, they were not there very long,
because by March 1901 the family was living at Hitcham in Buckinghamshire. |
#9 |
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According
to the census in 1901, James Collett aged 36 and of Atherstone-on-Stour, and
his wife Sarah Collett aged 40 and from Chirbury in Shropshire, which is just
across the boundary into England from Montgomery in Wales, were living at
Hitcham in Buckinghamshire, which is Hitcham St Mary in Burnham near
Slough. James’ occupation was stated
as being that of a night watchman, a major change from the farmer he was only
ten years earlier. Living with the
couple was their son Shirley Collett who was four years old, whose place of
birth was confirmed as Woodford. |
#2 |
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During
the next few years the family of three moved the short distance from Hitcham
St Mary to Cedar Lodge in the Dropmore area of Burnham near Slough, where
they were living in April 1911. James
Collett of Atherstone aged 46, was still employed as a night watchman, his
wife Sarah Collett was 48, and their son Shirley Collett was 14. |
#2 #9 |
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And
it was at Cedar Lodge that James and Sarah remained for the rest of their
life. However, the couple may have
been visiting relatives in Gloucestershire or Warwickshire twenty-one years
later, since the death of James Collett of The Cedars in Dropmore, Burnham
was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 387) on 28th
July 1932. Probate of his personal
effects valued at £139 6 Shillings 9 Pence was granted to Shirley Evans
Collett, a railway employee, when the place of his passing was named as 20
Admington, Shipston-on-Stour. It is
therefore possible that James was visiting his stepmother Ann Collett who
died in 1935 at Milcote in Warwickshire, midway between Welford-on-Avon and
Stratford-upon-Avon. |
#14 #9 |
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11Q8 |
Shirley Evans Collett |
Born in 1896
at Woodford |
#2 |
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11P11
|
Albert Frederick William
Collett, who was more
usually known as Fred or Frederick, was born at Mickleton on 7th
June 1870, the birth being registered by his mother on 28th
June. He was three months old when he was
baptised at the Church of St Lawrence in Mickleton on 4th
September 1870, the third child of William Collett by his first wife Ann Hall. It was as Albert Collett that he was nine
months old in the Mickleton census of 1871, and was 10 years old and was
still living in Mickleton with his family in 1881. On both occasions the family was living at
The Milking Pail on Sheep Street which was specifically named as 5 Sheep
Street in 1871. |
#2 #12 #9 |
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However,
like many members of this family line, Albert later sought work in
Staffordshire and was living in Walsall at the time of the census in 1891, by
which time he was recorded as Frederick Collett from Mickleton. He was 21 and a railway labourer who was a
lodger at the home of 25-years old Walter Lloyd and his wife Elizabeth at 64
Oxford Street in Walsall. It may have
been while he was in the Walsall area that he met his future wife Eliza
Atkins. |
#9 |
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It
was over three years later that Fred married Eliza by banns at the Church of St. Michael in Rushall on
25th December 1894. By that
time Fred’s occupation had changed to
that of a gas stoker, while his father’s occupation was recorded as a
farmer. His address on that occasion
was Ryecroft in Rushall, north-east of Walsall. Eliza’s father was described as a
contractor and the witnesses were John Hewitt, the husband of Eliza’s sister
Mary Ann, and Ida Mason. |
#12 |
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Eliza
was born at James Street in Rushall on 4th May 1874, the fourth
child of James Atkins and his wife Sarah Beetlestone. However, in 1881 and 1891 the Atkins family
was living at 5 Brewer’s Cottages in Rushall from where Eliza, at the age of
17, was the employed as a brace-maker, most probably making leather braces
with her sister Mary Ann who was a harness stitcher. |
#12 |
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Once
they were married Fred and Eliza settled in Walsall where their first two
children were born. Shortly after the
birth of the second child the family moved to Admington Farm Fields, which was
where they were living in March 1901.
The census that month confirmed that Fred was a farmer, perhaps even
taking over from his brother James (above). Once again he referred to himself as
Frederick Collett, as he had ten years earlier. At that time, he was 29 years of age and
his place of birth was confirmed as Mickleton. |
#2 |
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His
wife Eliza Collett was 27 and their two children at that time were five years
old Frederick and two years old Florence, both confirmed as having been born
at Walsall. Also living and working
with the family was a lad named Frank Taplin who was 16 and a servant and a
cowman from nearby Newbold. It may be
significant that twenty years earlier Alfred and Ellen Taplin had been living
with Fred’s parents at The Milking Pail in Mickleton, so Frank could have
been their son. |
#2 |
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During
the following year Eliza gave birth to the couple’s second daughter while
they were still living at Admington.
Over the next five years a further two more children were added to the
family after they had settled in Mickleton, where the family was residing in
April 1911. At the time of the birth
of his daughter Annie in 1904, Fred Collett’s occupation was that of a
labourer, although three years later his occupation was recorded at the birth
of his son Henry as being that of a haulier. |
#2 #9 |
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In
the census of 1911, Albert once again referred to himself as Frederick
Collett of Mickleton, when he was 40 and a self-employed haulier living with
his family at a ‘private house’ in Mickleton, which may have been Hidcote
Cottage in Sheep Street. Eliza Collett
from Walsall was 36, and their children by then were Frederick Collett aged
15, who was a gardener working in a private garden, Florence Collett aged 11,
both born at Walsall, Ethel Collett who was eight and born at Quinton, Annie
Collett who was six, and Henry Collett who was three years old, both of them
after the family had settled in Mickleton, Henry being the only one not
attending school. Whilst she was very
likely baptised as Sarah Ann, it would appear that the couple’s younger
daughter never used her first name, and was known as Annie, and later as Nan. |
#2 |
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One
more child was born into the family after 1911, and that was another son,
Arthur George Collett who was also born while the family was still living in
Mickleton. When the child’s birth was
registered during 1916 Fred’s occupation was stated as being that of a
gardener. It was also in 1916 that
Eliza’ father died on March 13th when he left an estate valued at
£8,609 4 Shilling and 7 Pence which would equate to around £450,000 in 2012
using the Retail Price Index, or a massive £2.4 Million using the Average
Earnings Index. |
#9 #12 |
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An account dated 29th June 1916
included an advance of £200 paid from the estate to Eliza Collett for the
purchase of a house at Mickleton where the family lived until Eliza’s
premature death. Her father’s Will was
proved on 19th May 1917, and in 1918 Frederick Collett bought
Cider Mill Cottage in Admington for £430 at auction held in Stratford-on-Avon
on 1st February 1918. That
dwelling, together with three other cottages, had been purchased by Fred’s
father in 1897 and upon his death they had been passed onto his second wife
Ann. |
#12 |
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Just
three years after the birth of her last child Eliza Collett nee Atkins died
on 16th March 1919 at the age of 44. Her
granddaughter Dorothy said that she had died of influenza during the massive
world-wide epidemic of 1919, but her death certificate gave the cause of
death as a cerebral haemorrhage. Her
eldest daughter Florence who, along with her sister Ethel was in domestic
service, was called home to take charge of the household and, in particular,
to care for her brother Arthur who was only three years old. |
#12 |
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Eliza died without making a Will, so
administration of her estate was granted to Frederick under a bond jointly
with Francis James Paige Collett (his nephew) of
Stratford-on-Avon, a poultry dealer, on 18th January 1922. The estate was valued at £338 7 Shillings
and 8 Pence, made up of a freehold messuage and premises situate at Mickleton
in the County of Gloucester in the occupation of the deceased at the time of
her death, worth £200 or £9 per annum if rented, plus £52 12 Shillings and 9
Pence in the Stratford-on-Avon branch of Lloyds Bank, plus the balance due as
one of the children of James Atkins at £85 14 Shillings and 11 Pence. Shortly after her death the family moved into
Cider Mill Cottage in Admington. |
#12 |
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It
was nineteen years later that Albert Frederick William Collett died on 6th
February 1938, his death being registered at the North Cotswold district
registrar’s office on the following day by his son A G Collett of Ilmington,
who had been present at the death.
However, by that time in his life he was staying at the home of his married daughter
Florence Bennett at Hidcote Boyce in Gloucestershire. He was 67 years old and had been working as
a roadman, and the cause of death was: Syncope (loss of consciousness), Heart failure, and. Chronic nephritis and
dropsy. Following his death Albert Frederick William Collett was buried in
the parish churchyard at Quinton.
Attending the funeral were Bob and Lorna North (Mr & Mrs R North – see Obituary below), Lorna Collett North
nee Craven being the eldest daughter of Albert’s sister Florence Gertrude Ann
Hall Craven nee Collett. |
#12 |
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The
following obituary was published in the local newspaper that same month: ”Mr A .F Collett in his 67th
year after failing health for over 12 months.
Native of Mickleton and at one time farmed at Admington Grounds. Afterwards employed by Warwickshire and
Gloucestershire County Councils and had lived in Admington for over 30
years. Survived by 3 sons and 3
daughters. Wife died 1919. Funeral at Quinton on Wednesday. Mourners Mr & Mrs Fred Collett - son
and daughter-in-law, Mr & Mrs Henry Collett - son and daughter-in-law, Mr
Arthur Collett – son, Mr & Mrs J Bennett - daughter [Florence] and
son-in-law, Mrs W Bailey – daughter [Ethel], Mr & Mrs Charles Clifford -
daughter [Sarah Ann] and son-in-law, Mr F Collett – nephew [Francis James Paige Collett, the son of
his brother Francis], Mr & Mrs R. North - nephew and niece [Lorna Collett
Craven, the daughter of his sister Florence].
Frederick’s estate was administered by Slatter, Son & Slatter of
Stratford-upon-Avon [Frederick & John Slatter Jnr were cousins]. Frederick William Collett & Francis
James Paige Collett were executors.” |
#12 |
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|
11Q9 |
Frederick William Collett |
Born in 1895
at Walsall |
#9 |
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11Q10 |
Florence Gertrude Collett |
Born in 1899
at Walsall |
#9 |
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|
11Q11 |
Ethel May Collett |
Born in 1902
at Admington |
#9 |
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|
11Q12 |
Sarah Ann Collett |
Born in 1904
at Mickleton |
#9 |
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|
11Q13 |
Henry James Collett |
Born in 1907
at Mickleton |
#9 |
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|
11Q14 |
Arthur George Collett |
Born in 1916
at Mickleton |
#9 |
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