PART TWELVE

The Oxfordshire Chipping Norton Line - 1560 to 2010

Updated July 2024

This is the family line of Iain Collett (Ref. 12R4) of Derbyshire,

who kindly provided the new information regarding his family line,

which is depicted by the names in capital letters

This is also the family line of Sheila Collett (Ref. 12Q3) of New South Wales, whose

daughter, Marion O’Shea, kindly provided much of the information relating to her family.

Their line, depicted by the underlined names, shares a common ancestor with the

line of Iain Collett (above), that being John Collett (Ref. 12L5) 1780 to 1848

The Colletts listed in this section were mostly born or lived within a triangle of rural Oxfordshire defined by Chipping Norton to the north (the apex), and Burford and Witney (the base line). The actual starting point still requires more research, as there are some missing elements, possibly from outside that defined area. For example, it must be assumed that Ursely Collett (Ref. 12F1) and Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 12F2) had a younger brother, let us say Ref. 12F3. If he was born around 1570 and married around 1590, his son could be John (Ref. 12G1) below
Although not yet confirmed as being part of this family line, but only discovered recently, was John Collett who married Elizabeth Souch at Spelsbury on 9^th October 1619, a village approximately one mile from Chadlington. This is likely to mean that John was born in the late 1590s, thus being 10 to 15 years older than the John Collett below, who seems likely to be his cousin and perhaps the nephew of Elizabeth Collett.
It may be of interest that Part 64 – The Gloucestershire Upper Swell Line contains details of [a] Susanna Collett (Ref. 64M4) from Oddington in Gloucestershire who married Thomas Lardner at Bledington in 1816, that [b] John William Collett (Ref. 12n2) married an Anne Lardner at Charlbury around 1860, and that [c] the aforesaid Anne Lardner, born at Churchill in 1838, was the daughter of Thomas Lardner of Churchill who was born there around 1802. In addition to them, William George Collett (Ref. 12m6) from Oddington was a servant to Henry Lardner of Little Compton near Oddington in 1851.
Those villages lie within ten miles of each other, across the county boundary between Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Details of the Oddington Colletts of Gloucestershire, from 1723 to 1836, can now been found in Part 64 – The Gloucestershire Upper Swell Line, when previously some of the details were contained in the appendices at the end of Part 12 and at the end of Part 48 – The Dudley West Midlands Line. The work of merging all those three separate sections was completed with the re-issue of Part 64 during the second half of 2021.
12F1		Ursely Collett may have been born around 1563 and may have been the older sister of Elizabeth Collett (below). What is known is that she married Thomas Tidmarsh at Chipping Norton in 1583.
12F2		Elizabeth Collett, whose estimated birth date was around 1565, married John Stapleton or Stapleford on 7^th November 1586 at the village of Chadlington just south of Chipping Norton.
12G1		John Collett, whose estimated birth date was around 1610, married Elizabeth Robbins on 17^th March 1632 at Chadlington. In the absence of any other information at this time, it has been assumed that John was the nephew to Elizabeth Collett (above)
12H1		There is a missing generation here, which is likely to be the children of John Collett (above), one or more of whom produced the three children listed below; William Collett (Ref. 12I1); Richard Collett (Ref. 12I2); and Robert Collett (Ref. 12I3).
12H2		Richard Collett was born at Oxford in 1655 and his wife was Ann. Just one child has so far been credited to Richard and Ann, and he was their son Thomas Collett who was born in the Oxfordshire village of Enstone, four miles south-east of Chipping Norton.
		12I4		Thomas Collett	Born in 1685 at Enstone, Oxfordshire
12H3		Thomas Collett, who may have been born around 1660 or earlier, married Audrey Hancock at Chipping Norton on 1^st October 1682. The couple could therefore be the parents of the next three Collett men listed below, but further work needs to be undertaken to validate this.
12I1		William Collett, whose date of birth was possibly around 1685, may have been the grandson of John Collett and Elizabeth Robbins (above) and even possibly the son of Thomas Collett and Audrey Hancock (above). William married Ann Bridgman in 1706 at Shipton-under-Wychwood, and their son John Collett was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott-under-Wychwood, just a couple of miles south of Chadlington. By the time of the birth of their second son, William and Ann were living at Enstone and it was there, at St Kenelm Church, that the child was baptised. Also, a ‘William Collett of Ascott’ died at Enstone, where he was buried on 24^th May 1743. It seems very likely that he was this William, in addition to which, it is also very likely that it was his wife ‘Ann Collett, a widow’ who was buried at Ascott-under-Wychwood on 20^th March 1747.
		12J1		John Collett	Born in 1710 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12J2		William Collett	Born in 1712 at Enstone, Oxfordshire
12I2		Richard Collett, whose date of birth was around 1685, may have been the grandson of John Collett and Elizabeth Robbins (above). He is likely to have married Mary at Ascott-under-Wychwood around 1710 as there is reference to the burial of ‘Mary Collett, the wife of Richard’ on 19^th July 1753. All their children listed below were baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott-under-Wychwood. The same parish register includes the burial of Richard Collett on 18^th December 1756 although, it is possible that, this could refer to the couple’s eldest son Richard Collett.
		12J3		Richard Collett	Born in 1711 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12J4		Matthew Collett	Born in 1715 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12J5		Thomas Collett	Born in 1717 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12J6		Joseph Collett	Born in 1720 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
12I3		Robert Collett, whose date of birth was around 1700, may have been the grandson of John Collett and Elizabeth Robbins (above). It is known that he married Elizabeth and that they lived in the hamlet of Fawler, five miles to the north of Witney. Elizabeth Collett died at Fawler, during or just after the birth of their daughter, and was buried at Charlbury on 18^th September 1738, when the parish register confirmed that she was ‘the wife of Robert Collett’. As a consequence of the loss of Robert’s wife, his daughter’s baptism at nearby Charlbury was delayed until 1745. Then, eight years later, Robert died at Fawler and was buried at Charlbury when the parish register for St Mary’s Church confirmed the burial of Robert Collett as taking place on 6^th July 1753 and included a note that he had been residing at Fawler.
		12J7		Nan Collett	Born in 1738 at Fawler, Oxfordshire
12I4		Thomas Collett was born in the village of Enstone near Chipping Norton in 1688, the son of Richard and Ann Collett. On the occasion of the baptism of his daughter, his wife was named as Sarah. It is interesting, that the same year Ann was baptised at Enstone, so too was Joseph Collett (Ref. 12J9) on 20^th August 1738, the son of Edward Collett (Ref. 12I5) and his wife Ann. It is therefore possible that Edward may have been the brother of Thomas, although nothing has been found to confirm or deny that.
		12J8		Ann Collett	Born in 1738 at Enstone, Oxfordshire
12J1		John Collett was born in 1710 and was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott-under-Wychwood on 14^th November 1710, the first of two known sons of William Collett and Ann Bridgman.
12J2		William Collett was born early in 1712 and was baptised at Enstone on 20^th January 1712 at Enstone, another son of William and Ann Collett.
12J3		Richard Collett was born at the end of 1711 and was baptised at Ascott-under-Wychwood on 18^th January 1712, the eldest son of Richard and Mary Collett. No other details have been discovered at this time, other than the burial of a Richard Collett at Ascott-under-Wychwood on 18^th December 1756, who may have been Richard or his father.
		12K1		Thomas Collett	Born in 1743 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K2		John Collett	Born in 1745 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
12J4		Matthew Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood, he was baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 5^th October 1715 and was another son of Richard and Mary Collett.
12J5		Thomas Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood in 1717, where he was baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 14^th March 1717, the third son of Richard and Mary Collett. He married Ann Gilks in 1751 at St Mary’s Church in Charlbury, where their children were also baptised. It would be reasonable to assume that their son Thomas was their first-born child, which may indicate that Thomas married Ann when he was in his early thirties, while she may have been the younger spouse. Although not proved, it is possible that further children were born to Thomas and Ann and that one of them, born after 1753, may have been the father of John Collett (Ref. 12L8) who married Mary at Charlbury around 1797. Thomas Collett died in 1770 and was buried at Charlbury on 11^th March 1770, while Ann lived on as a widow until she died twenty-six years later and was buried with her husband at St Mary’s Church in Charlbury on 9^th March 1796.
		12K3		Thomas Collett	Born in 1753 at Charlbury
		12K4		unknown Collett - not confirmed	Born circa 1754 at Charlbury
		12K5		Ann Collett	Born in 1756 at Charlbury
12J6		Joseph Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood and baptised there on 15^th May 1720, the son of Richard and Mary Collett. It was also at Ascott where he married Ann around 1740-1743, and where all their children were baptised. Ann Collett was buried at Ascott on 16^th September 1765, only a few months after the death of their son Matthew Collett, and just one month before the death of two-month-old daughter Sarah Collett. The Ascott parish burial record stated that she was ‘Ann, the wife of Joseph Collett’ who was also buried there on 30^th April 1779.
		12K6		Thomas Collett		Born in 1743 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K7		Richard Collett		Born in 1745 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K8		Jane Collett		Born in 1747 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K9		Ann Collett		Born in 1749 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K10		Matthew Collett		Born in 1750 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K11		Mary Collett		Born in 1752 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K12		Joseph Collett		Born in 1755 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K13		Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1756 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K14		Joseph Collett		Born in 1758 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K15		William Collett		Born in 1762 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
		12K16		Sarah Collett		Born in 1765 at Ascott-under-Wychwood
12J7		Nan Collett was born in 1738 at the family home in the Oxfordshire hamlet of Fawler, just over a mile south-east of Charlbury, the only child of Robert and Eizabeth Collett. Tragically, her mother did not survive the ordeal of giving birth. As a result of his loss, grieving Robert did not rush to organise his daughter’s baptism, which was eventually conducted at the parish Church of St Mary’s in Charlbury on 31^st March 1745 when she was around seven years of age. Sadly, Nan was only fifteen years of age when her father died at Fawler in 1753 and was buried at Charlbury.
12J8		Ann Collett was born at Enstone in 1738 and was baptised there on 2^nd April 1738, the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Collett. The only other known detail for Ann is that she was 71 when she died and was buried at Ascott-under-Wychwood on 16^th July 1809, four miles south of Chipping Norton.
12K1		Thomas Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood in 1743, the son of Richard Collett. Sadly, he only survived for a few weeks, when he was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott on 5^th April 1743.
12K2		John Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood in 1745, the son of Richard Collett. He later married Sarah Berry on 13^th November 1767 at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington, where all their children were baptised. The witnesses at the wedding were John Berry, possibly Sarah’s father, and James Holloway. Sarah was born in 1747, according to her burial record below. Curiously the parish register recorded John Collett as being ‘buried by the parish’ at Chadlington on 29^th October 1783, which might indicate he died as a pauper, while his wife Sarah Collett nee Berry was buried there on 19^th March 1835 when she was 88.
		12L1		Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1769 at Chadlington
		12L2		Mary Collett		Born in 1772 at Chadlington
		12L3		Sarah Collett		Born in 1775 at Chadlington
		12L4		Hannah Collett		Born in 1777 at Chadlington
		12L5		John Collett		Born in 1780 at Chadlington
12K3		Thomas Collett was born at Charlbury in 1753 and baptised at St Mary’s Church on 6^th May 1753, the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Ann Gilks. He was twenty-seven years old when he married (1) Hannah Ward at Charlbury on 9^th April 1780. It seems likely that Hannah presented him with a son during the following year (see note below from Thomas’ burial record), and that he may have been followed by further children, including daughter Sarah who was confirmed as having been born into the family at Charlbury. Hannah Collett nee Ward died after just seven years of being married to Thomas and was buried at Charlbury on 3^rd November 1787.
		Two years later ‘Thomas Collett, a widower’ married (2) Hannah Chapman on 17^th November 1789 at Charlbury. Thomas Collett died towards the end of 1809 and was buried in the churchyard at St Mary’s in Charlbury on 22^nd December 1809. The service was conducted by the Vicar John Cobb as detailed in the parish register, which described the deceased as ‘Thomas Collett senior’. Therefore, that comment would indicate that he and Hannah Ward had a son of the same name, although this has yet to be confirmed.
		12L6		Thomas Collett – assumed son		Born circa 1782 at Charlbury
		12L7		Sarah Collett		Born in 1784 at Charlbury
12K4		An unknown Collett may have been born at Charlbury around 1754 and have been the brother of Thomas Collett (above) and the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Ann Gilks, none of which has been confirmed to date. Neither has it been confirmed that he married and had a son John who was very likely born at Charlbury around 1776.
		12L8		John Collett –assumed son		Born circa 1776 at Charlbury
12K5		Ann Collett was born at Charlbury in 1756 where she was baptised on 4^th July 1756, one of the children of Thomas Collett and Ann Gilks.
12K6		Thomas Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood in 1743, the first of eleven children born to Joseph Collett and his wife Ann. He was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Ascott on 2^nd October 1743.
12K7		Richard Collett was born in 1745 at Ascott-under-Wychwood, where he was baptised on 27^th October 1745, another son of Joseph and Ann Collett.
12K8		Jane Collett was the first daughter and third child of Joseph and Ann Collett born at Ascott-under-Wychwood and baptised there on 19^th April 1747.
12K9		Ann Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood in 1749 and was baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 15^th May 1749, another daughter of Joseph and Ann Collett. She was around twenty-two years of age when she married Thomas Jackson at Ascott on 10^th August 1771, with the witnesses being John Harris and John Wayne.
12K10		Matthew Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood where she was baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 25^th December 1750, another son of Joseph and Ann Collett. Although he lived longer than his brother Joseph and sister Elizabeth (below), Matthew died while he was still in his teenage years and was buried at Ascott on 14^th July 1765. The parish register confirmed that he was ‘the son of Joseph Collett’.
12K11		Mary Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood in 1752 who was baptised at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ascott on 15^th October 1752, another daughter of Joseph and Ann Collett.
12K12		Joseph Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood and was baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 5^th May 1755, the son of Joseph and Ann Collett. He only lived for a few days and was buried there on 11^th May 1755, the burial record referring to him as ‘the son of Joseph Collett’.
12K13		Elizabeth Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood another child of Joseph and Ann Collett who was baptised at at Holy Trinity Church on 9^th April 1756. Just like her brother Joseph (above), Elizabeth only lived for a short while. She was buried at Ascott on 13^th April 1756 when the parish register verified that she was ‘the daughter of Joseph Collett’.
12K14		Joseph Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood and it was there, at Holy Trinity Church, that he was baptised on 14^th May 1758. He was named in honour of his brother who had died three years before he was born. He was another son of Joseph and Ann Collett and it was also at Ascott where he was buried on 8^th October 1806. It is unclear whether, or not, he was ever married, but it seems unlikely.
12K15		William Collett was born in 1762 at Ascott-under-Wychwood, the youngest son of Joseph and Ann Collett. Like all his ten siblings, he was baptised at Ascott in the Church of the Holy Trinity on 30^th May 1762.
12K16		Sarah Collett was born at Ascott-under-Wychwood and baptised there at Holy Trinity Church on 28^th July 1765, the youngest child of Joseph and Ann Collett. Sarah ‘the daughter of Joseph Collett’ was buried at Ascott on 4^th October 1765, less than three months after her brother Matthew Collett (above) and less than a month after her mother Ann, who may have never recovered after the birth. Could there be a common cause for the three deaths, such as a serious illness or infection, and was that the same reason that the lives of the two other infants Joseph and Elizabeth Collett (above) where cut short, when they passed away ten and nine years earlier respectively.
12L1		Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 14^th May 1769, the eldest child of John Collett and his wife Sarah Berry. It was on 27^th December 1792 at Chadlington that she married John Drinkwater who was also from Chadlington. The witnesses at the wedding were James Burden and Mary Mears.
12L2		Mary Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 8^th March 1772, the daughter of John and Sarah Collett. Mary later married Thomas Dring of Charlbury at Chadlington on 17^th August 1793. The witnesses at the wedding were Mary’s brother-in-law John Drinkwater (above) and her sister Sarah Collett (below).
12L3		Sarah Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 19^th March 1775, the daughter of John and Sarah Collett. She married James Keary (or Kearsy) on 18^th September 1798 and the witnesses were Sarah’s brother-in-law Thomas Dring (above) and Martha Berry, a possible relative through her mother Sarah Berry. The parish records relating to Sarah’s son Henry Collett appear to indicate that he was initially base-born, that is she was not married at the time of his birth. The Chadlington baptism record of 6^th December 1807 stated that he was christened Henry Keary, and that the name Collett was ‘erased’.
		It may be worth noting here that William Collett (in Part 64) who was born during 1801, married Elizabeth Kearsy (or Keary) at Chadlington in 1835, so could this be a case of the same family name being misspelt in one of the parish records. What is known is that Elizabeth, who was born in 1801 and who died in 1859, was the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Kearsey, the five times great uncle and aunt of Don Cameron of Belmont in New South Wales whose family details can be found in Part 62 – The Trowbridge to New Zealand Line. It is also interesting that Edwin Collett (in Part 64), the son of Elizabeth Kearsy and William Collett, attended the school at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1841 that was owned and managed by John and Frances Kearsey, as did his sister Mary Collett (in Part 64) ten years later.
		12M1		Henry Collett (later Kearsy)		Born before September 1798
12L4		Hannah Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 4^th January 1778, another child of John and Sarah Collett. She lived to be just four years old before she was buried at Chadlington on 1^st March 1782. The parish burial register recorded that she was ‘the daughter of John and Sarah Collett’.
12L5		John Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 2^nd July 1780, the son of John and Sarah Collett. Twenty-three years later he married Mary Hucking, also of Chadlington, at Chadlington on 5^th November 1803. John’s occupation was recorded as being that of a cooper, both at the time of his own marriage and those of his daughter Mary Ann Collett in 1844, and his son William Collett in 1847, the year before he died, as well as in the census of 1841. Mary Hucking was the daughter of William Hucking and Mary Gardner and was baptised at Chadlington on 26^th September 1784. The witnesses at his wedding were John Hucking, Mary’s brother perhaps, and Sarah Holloway. See the marriage of John Collett (Ref. 12K2) and Sarah Berry in 1767, at which James Holloway was a witness.
		All of the couple’s children were baptised at Chadlington, and it was there that John’s wife Mary was buried on 16^th April 1834, aged 50. Just over seven years later, the first census of 1841 recorded widower John Collett as living at Mill End in Chadlington. John, like the four children still living there with him, was recorded as being born within the county (of Oxfordshire) with a rounded age of 60, and the occupation of a cooper. Living with him, and very likely performing the role of housekeeper, was his daughter Mary Ann Collett who had a rounded age of 20. The three other children were his sons Charles Collett, aged 20, who was also a cooper, Mark Collett, aged 15, who was a carpenter, and Jabel Collett, who was also 15, but employed as a tailor. John Collett died seven years later at the age of 65 (sic), and was buried at Chadlington on 21^st November 1848. However, his quoted age at the time of his passing does not correspond to that of his birth or baptism, so it may have been a genuine mistake by a member of his family, or a misinterpretation of his actual age of 68.
		12M2		Mary Collett	Born in 1804 at Chadlington
		12M3		Caroline Collett	Born in 1805 at Chadlington
		12M4		John Collett	Born in 1806 at Chadlington
		12M5		William Collett	Born in 1808 at Chadlington
		12M6		John Collett	Born in 1810 at Chadlington
		12M7		Frederick Collett	Born circa 1811-1812 at Chadlington
		12M8		Mary Ann Collett	Born circa 1815-1816 at Chadlington
		12M9		Charles Collett	Born in 1817 at Chadlington
		12M10		James Collett	Born in 1820 at Chadlington
		12M11		Mark Collett	Born in 1823 at Chadlington
		12M12		Jabel Collett	Born in 1825 at Chadlington
12L6		Thomas Collett was possibly born at Charlbury around 1782, the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Hannah Ward. No actual date of birth or baptism record has so far been found and his existence is based purely on the fact that his father was referred to as ‘Thomas Collett senior’ at the time of his death at Charlbury in 1809.
12L7		Sarah Collett was baptised at Charlbury on 5^th August 1784 and was the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Collett. Tragedy hit the family when Sarah was only three years old, when her mother died, possibly in childbirth. Although her father married for a second time just over two years after the death of his wife, there may have been an adverse effect on little Sarah, which caused problems for her in subsequent years. What is known is, that she later gave birth to a base-born daughter Hannah Collett, named in honour of her late mother, who was buried at Charlbury on 31^st August 1809. The parish burial record confirmed that Hannah was ‘the illegitimate daughter of Sarah Collett of Charlbury’. However, neither the age of the child at the time of her death, or the date of her birth are known, but it seems likely that it would have been between 1804 and 1809. Furthermore, it has not been established whether Sarah was ever married or what happened to her after 1809, when it must be assumed that she was still a spinster living in Charlbury at that time in her life.
		12M13		Hannah Collett	Born 1804-1809 at Charlbury
12L8		John Collett, who may have been born at Charlbury around 1776, married Mary at Charlbury around 1796 and he may have been the cousin of Sarah Collett (above). This is only an assumption and is not based on any factual information, but is needed to provide the parents for the following two children, both of whom were baptised at Charlbury.
		12M14		Thomas Collett	Born in 1797 at Charlbury
		12M15		Stephen Collett	Born in 1798 at Charlbury
12M1		Henry Collett was base-born at Chadlington in the years prior to the marriage of his mother Sarah Collett to James Keary (or Kearsy) on 18^th September 1798. It is not known if James was his father or not, but Henry was later baptised Henry Keary (or Kearsy) on 6^th December 1807 at Chadlington, and may have been adopted by James Keary (or Kearsy).
12M2		Mary Collett may have been born at Chadlington in 1804, but no birth or baptism record has been found for her to date. However, her burial record of 17^th December 1806 at Chadlington confirmed that her parents were John and Mary Collett, and that she was buried less than two weeks before her brother John (below).
12M3		Caroline Collett was born at Chadlington and was baptised there at St Nicholas’ Church on 12^th May 1805, the daughter of John and Mary Collett.
12M4		John Collett may have been born at Chadlington in 1806, but again no birth or baptism record has been found to date. However, his burial record on 30^th December 1806 at Chadlington confirmed his parents as John and Mary Collett and that he was buried less than two weeks after his sister Mary (above).
12M5		William Collett was born in 1804 according to his burial record below, but was not baptised until 5^th June 1808. That event took place at Chadlington where he married Harriet Smith on 20^th January 1847. At that time William’s occupation was that of a carpenter, as it was seven years later at the birth of his second son, and later still at the time of the marriage of his first-born son James in 1878. The witnesses at wedding of William and Harriet were, Jabel Collett (below) - William’s youngest brother, and Ann Smith - who was possibly Harriet’s mother. William’s father was listed as John Collett, a cooper, while Harriet’s father was Francis Smith, a farmer.
		The couple’s second son Francis William Collett was baptised at Chadlington, although no record has so far been found of the birth or baptism of their first son James Collett, even though he was listed with the family in the census records. The 1861 census recorded the family at Bull Hill in Chadlington as William Collett, aged 54 and a carpenter of Chadlington, his wife Harriet Collett also born at Chadlington who was 44, and their two Chadlington born sons James Collett who was eight, and Francis William Collett who was seven.
		Ten years later the family was still together and was still living at Chadlington where William was 66 and a master carpenter, Harriet was 56, James was 19, and Francis was 16. William Collett died five years later and was buried at Chadlington on 18^th August 1876, aged 72. The note in the parish register stated that William had died as the result of a fall from the top of the house that he was building at that time. Four years after that, according to the 1881 Census for Chadlington, Harriet Collett was a 66 years old widow, an annuitant, when she was living very near and perhaps adjacent to her married son James and his family. Just three years later, in May 1884, Harriet passed away at the age of 70 and was buried with her husband on 10^th May 1884 in the graveyard of St Nicholas’ Church at Chadlington.
		12N1		James Collett	Born in 1852 at Chadlington
		12N2		Francis William Collett	Born in 1854 at Chadlington
12M6		John Collett was born around 1808 and was the son of John Collett and Mary Hucking. He was baptised at Chadlington on 27^th May 1810 and he later became a farmer and, around 1830, he married Mary Aynsley. By the time of the birth of their son Joseph it is very likely that they were living in the village of Glympton, three miles north of Woodstock. It was also Glympton where Joseph said he was born in the various documents that have been discovered. Furthermore, his farmstead in Australia was named Glympton Park. Whether John and Mary had any other children has not been determined at this time, since no record of the family has been found within the census of 1841. By 1851 their son was recorded as a boarder in Witney, and four years later he and his wife left England for Australia. His 1855 immigration papers stated that his parents were John and Mary Collett who were living at Norwood in Surrey.
		Once the young couple was settled in Australia, John and Mary followed not long after. And it was in Australia that John Collett died in 1858, his death recorded that year at Windsor, just outside Sydney. It is also believed, within the present-day family, that John, Mary and son Joseph were some of the first Colletts to settle in New South Wales. John’s brother Frederick (below) also had a connection with Glympton, in addition to which the Appendix at the end of this file refers to Part 39 – The Clanfield Oxfordshire Line, which contains another member of the Collett family connected with Glympton. There is therefore a strong possibility that they may be a link between Part 12 and Part 39, but that link is still waiting to be unearthed.
		12N3		Joseph Collett	Born in 1833 at Glympton
12M7		Frederick Collett was born at Chadlington around 1811, the son of John Collett and Mary Hucking. He is known to have married Ann Price of Glympton around Christmas time in 1835 and, according to the 1838 baptism record for his daughter Caroline Collett, Frederick’s early occupation was that of a tailor of Chadlington. The couple’s wedding banns were recorded in the register at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington on the three occasions of 29^th November, and the 6^th and 13^th December 1835. It is very likely that the marriage ceremony was conducted at Glympton. Five year later, and following the birth of the couple’s first child at Chadlington, the three members of the family were living at Brook End in the village, just south-west of the centre of Chadlington. The census return for 1841 included Frederick Collett with a rounded age of 25, his wife Ann was 31, and their only child at that time was Caroline who was three years old.
		Over the next four years Ann gave birth to two sons, as confirmed in the Chadlington census of 1851, when Frederick from Chadlington was 39 and an inn keeper and grocer, and Ann from Wolford in Warwickshire was 41 and also recorded as an inn keeper and grocer. Their three children were listed as Caroline Collett aged 13, Frederick H Collett who was eight, and William H Collett who was five years of age, and all born at Chadlington. Completing the household was Elizabeth Bond who was 19 and a house servant. By the time of the marriage of the couple’s only known daughter in 1859, Frederick was recorded as an inn keeper and, a few years later for the marriage of his son William in 1867, his occupation was stated as being that of a publican. In between those two events the family was recorded in 1861 as living on Bull Hill in Chadlington, at which time Frederick was 49 and an inn keeper having 15 acres of land, and employing one man. His wife Ann was 51 and from Wilsford in Wiltshire (?), when their two sons were Frederick who was 18, and William who was 15. It was during the next decade that Frederick‘s wife may have died and, during those same ten years, his two sons left the family home.
		So, for the next census of Chadlington conducted in 1871, Frederick Collett was 60 years old and the only occupant of a dwelling on Bull Hill in the village, from where he was still working as a tailor. Curiously his status was still that of a married man, as it was ten years later, while his place of birth was confirmed as Chadlington. It was a similar situation ten years later when the census return for 1881 described Frederick Collett from Chadlington as being married, aged 70 years, and living alone in a dwelling immediately next door to the Sandy Arms Inn at Chadlington. Once again, his occupation was that of a tailor although, it is understood that during some of the intervening years he had also been the landlord of the Sandy Arms Inn. However, his single status was reaffirmed by the census in 1891 when Frederick Collett from Chadlington was 80 years of age and a widower, who was a tailor living alone at Mill End in Chadlington. Just over six years later the parish records for Chadlington confirmed that Frederick Collett died during 1897, aged 86, and that he was buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas’ Church on 9^th October 1897. His death was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 525) during the last quarter of 1897.
		12N4		Caroline Collett	Born in 1837 at Chadlington
		12N5		Frederick Henry Collett	Born in 1843 at Chadlington
		12N6		William Price Collett	Born in 1846 at Chadlington
12M8		Mary Ann Collett was born at Chadlington around 1816 and was the seventh child of John Collett and Mary Huckings. She had a rounded age of 20 in the June census of 1841, by which time her mother had already passed away in 1834, when she was recorded living with her widowed father at Mill End in Chadlington. With no stated occupation, it seems more than likely she was acting as the housekeeper for her father and her three younger brothers. Three years later Mary Ann was married, and four and a half years after that her father died. Mary Ann Collett married Thomas Hill at Chadlington on 10^th March 1844, when she was recorded as the daughter of John Collett. Thomas Hill was a carpenter, while his father’s occupation was that of a wheelwright. The witnesses at the wedding were William Collett (above) - Mary Ann’s older brother, and Mary Hill, who was possibly Thomas’ mother. The next census in 1851 recorded the family as Thomas Hill 36 and a carpenter, Mary Ann Hill 37, Mary Hill who was six, Fanny Hill who was four, and David Hill who was one year old. All members of the household had been born in Chadlington.
		Son, David may not have survived since in 1861, just four members of the family were still living at Chadlington, and they were Thomas and Mary Ann, both 46, and daughters Mary and Fanny, 16 and 14 years respectively. According to the census in 1871, Thomas and Mary Ann were both 55 and had been born at Chadlington, where they were still living with their unmarried daughter Mary who was 26. Living with the family, was Mary Ann’s youngest brother Jabel Collett (below), a confirmed bachelor of 45 years. Jabel was still living with the couple at Chadlington in 1881, when builder Thomas Hill was 65, as was his wife, Mary Ann Hill. It was the same situation in 1891, when the three of them were again residing in Chadlington, at Green End, at the ages of 77 and 66. Mary Ann Hill, nee Collett, was 84 when she died at Chadlington, her death recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 609) during the first quarter of 1899.
12M9		Charles Collett was born around 1816 and was baptised at Chadlington on 29^th June 1817. In the census of 1841 Charles had a rounded age of 20 while still living at the family home in Mill End in Chadlington. By that time in his life his mother had passed away seven years earlier, and his occupation was that of a cooper, like his widowed father, with whom he was living with his sister Mary Ann (above), and his brothers Mark and Jabel (below). Just over five years later Charles Collett, then described as a farmer, married Judy Fletcher of Chadlington at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington on 14^th November 1846. The witnesses at the wedding were his brother Jabel Collett, and Ann Hill, who was possibly the sister of Thomas Hill who married Charles’ sister Mary Ann Collett. Charles’ father was recorded as being ‘John Collett a farmer’, while Judy’s father was listed as Samuel Fletcher, who was also a farmer. Later records confirm that Judy Fletcher was in fact Judith Hope Fletcher.
		The census of 1851 confirmed that Charles was 32 and a married farmer of 21 acres, who was born at Chadlington, where he was still living with his wife Judith from Ramsden, a farmer’s wife, with their first two children. They were Elizabeth Collett who was three, and James Collett who was one year. Like his father John Collett, Charles Collett was initially a cooper by trade but, from 1852 onwards he was recorded as a farmer, or a labourer, on the baptism records for his children. All the children were born at Chadlington and baptised at St Nicholas’ Church in the village. By 1861 the family living at Bull Hill in Chadlington comprised Charles Collett who was 45 and a farmer of 74 acres employing one man and one boy, his wife Judith Hope Collett aged 36 and born at Ramsden (between Witney and Charlbury), and their seven school age children. They were Elizabeth Ann Collett who was 13, James Collett who was 11, Arthur Collett who was nine, George Collett who was seven, John Samuel Collett who was five, Amelia Mary Collett who was three and Caroline Winifred Collett who was one year old. Staying with the family at that time were two of Judith’s aunts; Mary Fletcher who was 78 and Fanny Fletcher who was 60, both of them born at Ramsden.
		Also, just like the reference in the 1861 Census, from 1862 onwards Charles’ wife was listed in their children’s baptism records as being Judith Hope Collett. It has not been determined whether Judith Hope Collett was the same Judy Fletcher that Charles had married in 1846. The alternative solution could be that Charles may have been married twice, although no records of the death of Judy, nor his marriage to Judith, have been found. So, the greater likelihood is that they were one and the same person. What is interesting is the second Christian name of their daughter Fanny, which was Judy’s maiden-name. Was it a tribute to a death in Judy/Judith’s family? or was it as a result of the passing of Judy. Either way the baptism record confirmed the children’s father was Charles Collett.
		More children were born into the family during the next decade so, by 1871, the family residing at Chadlington was made up of farmer Charles Collett from Chadlington who was 56, his wife Judith H Collett from Ramsden who was 44, and eleven of their thirteen children. Only the couple’s eldest sons James and Arthur had already left the family home by then, more likely to ease the overcrowding in their home. The children listed with Charles and Judy were Elizabeth A Collett 22, George Collett 16, John S Collett 14, Amelia M Collett 13, Caroline W Collett 11, Charles Collett who was nine, Lewis E Collett (Louis) who was seven, Fanny F Collett and Susan K Collett who were both aged four years, Frances Collett who was two, and one-year-old Frederick Collett who sadly died at the end of the following year.
		There is further evidence of the family in the census of 1881. On that occasion Charles Collett was recorded as being married and was 63 years of age, who had been born at Chadlington. His occupation was that of a farmer of 76 acres employing one boy, while still living at Chadlington. However, Charles’ wife Judy was missing from the census record. Living with Charles was his son Arthur Collett, aged 29 and a farmer’s son and an assistant on the farm, his son Lewis E Collett, aged 17 and a scholar, the twins Fanny and Susan, both 14, and Frank Collett who was 12 who had been baptised as Francis. All of the children were confirmed as having been born at Chadlington.
		A search for the wife of Charles Collett in 1881 has been conducted, but without success. However, ten years, she was again recorded at West End in Chadlington with the family in the census of 1891. Charles Collett was 75 and still working as a farmer, his wife Jude Collett was 62, and just two sons and two daughters were still living with them. Arthur Collett was 36 and a farmer’s son, as was Charles Collett who was 29, while the twins Fanny and Susie Collett were 23, both described as farmer’s daughters, with all four children and their father confirmed as having been born at Chadlington. Living close by at Mill End in Chadlington was Charles’ older brother Frederick Collett, who was 80 years of age.
		It is very odd, that the death of Judith Hope Collett has not been identified in any form, anywhere in England during the 1890s. Having lost his wife, widowed Charles Collett aged 85, had retired from farming and was residing at Park Street in nearby Charlbury, where he was living on his own means at Charlbury. Living there with him was his eldest daughter Elizabeth A O’Grady who was a widow of 53, who had also been born at Chadlington. However, he only survived for another twelve months, when he died during April 1902 aged 87, following which he was buried at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington.
		12N7		Elizabeth Ann Collett				Born in 1847 at Chadlington
		12N8		James Collett				Born in 1849 at Chadlington
		12N9		Arthur Collett				Born in 1851 at Chadlington
		12N10		George Collett				Born in 1854 at Chadlington
		12N11		John Samuel Collett				Born in 1856 at Chadlington
		12N12		Amelia Mary Collett				Born in 1858 at Chadlington
		12N13		Caroline Winifred Collett				Born in 1860 at Chadlington
		12N14		Charles Collett				Born in 1862 at Chadlington
		12N15		Lewis Edward Collett				Born in 1864 at Chadlington
		12N16		Fanny Fletcher Collett twin				Born in 1866 at Chadlington
		12N17		Susan Kate Collett twin				Born in 1866 at Chadlington
		12N18		Francis Collett				Born in 1868 at Chadlington
		12N19		Frederick Collett				Born in 1870 at Chadlington
12M10		James Collett was born on 7^th August 1820 at Chadlington, where he was baptised on 20^th August 1820 at St Nicholas’ Church. The church’s baptism record confirmed his parents were John and Mary Collett. However, following the death of his mother in 1834, James was not living with his widowed father at Mill End in Chadlington in June 1841, nor has any later record of him been found. So, he too may have died while he was still a child.
12M11		Mark Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 4^th June 1823, a son of John Collett and Mary Hucking, and was recorded with a rounded age of 15 years in the census of 1841, when he was living with his widowed father and four siblings at Mill End in Chadlington. His actual age would have been 18 and, by that time in his life was he working as a carpenter. Four years later, the marriage of Mark Collett and Rosina Coleman was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 66) during the third quarter of 1845. Rosina was born at Salford near Chipping Norton in 1827, but was recorded in later records and census returns under a variety of names. The couple’s only two confirmed children were both baptised at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington and for the first of them she was named as Rosannah, and for the second, as Rose Anna. It was at Chadlington, the newly married couple was living in 1851, by which time Rosina had presented Mark with their first child. Mark Collett was 28 and a sawyer, Roseanna Collett was 24, and Angelina Collett was one year old, all three of them born at Chadlington. Mark’s occupation was simply described as labourer at the time of the baptism of the two girls, but was recorded as a carpenter in the subsequent census returns, and in the parish register for the later wedding of his second daughter Mary Ann in 1870.
		The Chadlington census of 1861 listed the family living at Brook End in the village as Mark Collett who was 38 and a carpenter, Rose Anna Collett was 34 and from Salford near Chipping Norton, and their two daughters Angelina Collett (recorded or translated in error as Caroline) who was 11, and Mary Ann Collett who was nine years old. They had been born at Chadlington, like their father. By 1871, carpenter Mark Collett was 47 and Rosa A Collett from Salford was 44 and, with daughter Mary married by then, it was just the couple’s oldest daughter who was still living with them at Brook End. Angelina Collett was 21, while boarding with the family was 75-year-old Jonah Hucking from Chadlington, who was very likely a member of his mother’s family.
		After a further ten years, it was just Mark Collett, aged 58, a carpenter, born at Chadlington, and his wife Rosina Collett from Salford aged 54, who were living at Brook End in Chadlington in 1881. The couple was still residing at Brook End in 1891, when carpenter Mark was 67 and Rosanna was 63. However, less than three years later, Rosanna passed away at the start of 1894 and was buried at Chadlington on 20^th January 1894 at the age of 67. Her death was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 598) during the first quarter of 1894 when her name was correctly recorded at Rosina Collett.
		Following the death of his wife, Mark had left Chadlington and moved to Chipping Norton by 1901, where he was a farm labourer aged 78, who was described as an inmate. It was just over two years later that Mark Collett, a carpenter of Chipping Norton, died on 18^th September 1903, where his death was recorded (Ref. 3a 494) at the age of 80. It took five years to settle his estate which was resolved at Oxford on 18^th November 1908, when administration of his personal effects worth £5 was granted to his eldest daughter Angelina Susan Derby, a widow. Tragically, after working all his life, it was at the Chipping Norton Union Workhouse that he was living when he passed away.
		12N20		Angelina Susan Collett	Born in 1850 at Chadlington
		12N21		Mary Ann Collett	Born in 1851 at Chadlington
12M12		Jabel Collett was born at Chadlington in 1824 and was baptised there on 16^th February 1825. He was also listed with a rounded age of 15 in the census of 1841, when he was living at Mill End in Chadlington with just his father and three older siblings. The census also confirmed that he was already employed as a tailor by then. Five years later he was one of the witnesses at the marriage of his older brother Charles Collett (above) and Judy Fletcher in 1846. It is rather curious that in the Chadlington census of 1851, not long after his father had died, that Jabel Collett from Chadlington was 26 and described as a tailor’s son, when his father John Collett had been a cooper. However, in the Chadlington census of 1861, he was 35 and an unmarried tailor and draper who had been born at Chadlington. After another ten years, unmarried Jabel was 45 and still working as a tailor, when he was living with his older married sister Mary Ann Hill in Chadlington.
		It can now safely be said that he never married and, again in 1881, when he was still working as a tailor aged 56, Jabel Collett was again living at the Chadlington home of his sister Mary Ann Hill (above) and her carpenter husband Thomas Hill, with whom he was again living with them at Green End in 1891. At that time in his life, at the age of 66, he was continuing his work as a tailor. With the demise of his sister and brother-in-law during the last decade of the century, by 1901 Jabel Collett was head of the household at Mill End in Chadlington when he was 76 years of age and once again recorded as having the occupation of a tailor. Jabel Collett lived his whole life in Chadlington, where he died and was buried on 17^th December 1907, at the age of 84.
12M13		Hannah Collett was the base-born daughter of Sarah Collett and was named after Sarah’s mother who had died when she was only three years old. Her date of birth is not known but it very likely took place at Charlbury after 1804, where sadly she died during August 1809. Hannah was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church at Charlbury on 31^st August 1809, where the parish register described her as ‘Hannah the illegitimate daughter of Sarah Collett of Charlbury’.
12M14		Thomas Collett was the eldest of the two known children of John and Mary Collett, and was born at Charlbury, where he was baptised on 21^st May 1797.
12M15		Stephen Collett was born at Charlbury, the younger of the two sons of John and Mary Collett. It was at St Mary’s Church in Charlbury that he was baptised on 23^rd December 1798.
12N1		James Collett was born on 25^th April 1852 at Enstone in Oxfordshire and was very likely baptised at St Kenelm’s Church in Enstone. In the census records for 1861 and 1871 he was living with his family at Bull Hill in Chadlington when he was aged eight years and 19 years respectively. Neither James nor his younger brother Francis (below) were credited with having a job of work in 1871, when they were very likely working alongside their father, learning the trade of a carpenter. Certainly, James was 27 years old and a carpenter when he married Isabella Smith on 26^th December 1878 at Chadlington, where they lived and where all of their children were born and baptised. Isabella was 26 years of age at the time of the marriage and was born at Chadlington in 1852. According to other details in the record of their marriage, James’ father was William Collett, who was also a carpenter and a witness at the wedding, while Daniel Smith, a labourer, was Isabella’s father. The second witness was Sarah Ann Collett who remains a mystery, since she cannot have been the wife of James’ brother Francis, as previously thought, because they were not married until near the end of 1880.
		James’ father William Collett had married Harriet Smith, so it seems very likely that Isabella was the niece of her mother-in-law. By the time of the 1881 Census, James Collett, born at Enstone, was 29 and a carpenter employing two men, while his wife Isabella, born at Chadlington, was 28 and was pregnant with the couple’s second child. Living with them at Chadlington, very close to where James’ widowed mother was also living, was his and Isabella’s daughter Elizabeth Alice Collett who was one-year-old, and Richard Southam of Steeple Aston in Oxfordshire, a 19-year-old boarder and carpenter’s apprentice working alongside James. Ten years later, the family was still living in Chadlington, at Auburn Lane, where James Collett was 39 and a builder, his wife Isabella was 38, when living there with them were the couple’s four surviving children. Sadly, two of their three eldest daughters had both died just over two years earlier, leaving Elizabeth Collett who was eleven and described as adopted (sic), Olive Collett who was five, James Collett who was two, and Francis Collett who was four months old, the only surviving children.
		By March 1901 James, aged 50 and from Enstone, was a carpenter and builder who was still living at Auburn Lane in Chadlington with Isabella who was 49. With them on that occasion were their two daughters Elizabeth A Collett who was 21 and an assistant school mistress, and Olive L Collett who was 15, together with their two sons James W C Collett who was 12, and Francis C Collett who was ten years old. Eight years later, at the time of the wedding of their daughter Olive Louise Collett in 1909, her father James Collett was recorded as being a builder. Two years after that, James and Isabella were still living in Chadlington at the time of the census in 1911, when builder James Collett from Enstone was 60, and his wife Isabella from Chadlington was 58.
		James and Isabella lived long lives and it was over twenty-five years later, on 6^th December 1936 that James Collett passed away and was buried in the grounds of the Church of St Nicholas at Chadlington on 10^th December 1936, aged 85. His death was recorded at the Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 3a 1519) and his Will was proved at Oxford on 5^th May 1937, when the beneficiaries were his two sons James William Claude Collett and James Campbell Collett.
		Isabella lived for almost another three years before she died on 13^th September 1939, following which she was buried with her husband at St Nicholas’ Church on 18^th September 1939, aged 86. At the time of her passing, Isabella was residing at Grove Cottage in Chadlington, when her passing was recorded at Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 3a 1668). Her Will was proved in Oxford on 1^st November 1939, during which her eldest son James William Claude Collett was referred to as a retired bank official and her youngest son Francis Campbell Collett was described as a bank manager, when her estate was valued at £882 10 Shillings and 5 Pence.
		12O1		Elizabeth Alice Collett	Born in 1879 at Chadlington
		12O2		Eva Annie Collett	Born in 1881 at Chadlington
		12O3		Lillian Edith Collett	Born in 1883 at Chadlington
		12O4		Olive Louise Collett	Born in 1885 at Chadlington
		12O5		James William Claude Collett	Born in 1888 at Chadlington
		12O6		Francis Campbell Collett	Born in 1890 at Chadlington
12N2		Francis William Collett was born at Chadlington in the first half of 1854 and was baptised there on 10^th September 1854, the son of William and Harriet Collett. His birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 599) during the second quarter of the year1854. He was seven in 1861 and was 16 in 1871 when he was living with his family at Bull Hill in Chadlington on both occasions, but with no stated occupation for the latter. While his brother James (above), followed in his father’s footsteps, and became a carpenter, Francis travelled to London to seek his fortune. It may have been in London where he met his future wife, because it was at St Olave Southwark where the marriage of Francis William Collett from Oxfordshire and (1) Sarah Trelease from Devon was recorded (Ref. 1d 382) during the last three months of 1880. Sarah was born at Combe Martin near Ilfracombe, her birth registered at nearby Barnstable (Ref. 5b 466) during the last quarter of 1852, a daughter of William and Sarah Trelease. By 1871, Sarah was 18 and a dressmaker, who was one of only two children still living at Combe Martin with her widowed mother.
		Once married, Francis and Sarah made their home at 25 New Cross Road in the St Paul area of Deptford, within the Greenwich registration district of south London, where they lived for many years. New Cross Road today forms part of the A2 trunk road. On the day of the census in 1881, Francis W Collett from Chadlington was 27 and working as a clerk, while Sarah from Combe Martin was 28. The couple’s good financial status was perhaps indicated by the fact that they employed a general domestic servant, unmarried Emma Bencon from Shottisham in Suffolk who was 43. Staying with the Francis and Sarah that day, was Sarah’s older unmarried sister Jane Trelease of Combe Martin, aged 30, who was described as a draper and sister-in-law to head of the house Francis. Also, on that census day in 1881, Sarah was two months into the pregnancy for her first child, who was born at Deptford just after the start of October that year. In total, Sarah gave birth to two children although, only the second one survived.
		After suffering the loss of their first child, in the same year he was born, Sarah presented Francis with another son in 1884, when they were still living at 25 New Cross Road. That situation was confirmed in the next Deptford census of 1891, when the family of three was again living at New Cross Road, where Francis W Collett was 36 and a banker’s clerk, his wife Sarah Collett was 37, and their son William T Collett was seven years old. Yet again, the family was paying for the services of domestic servant, 23-year-old Ada Ashdown from Bromley in Kent. Less than nine years later, the premature death of Sarah Collett aged 47 was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 789) during the first three months of 1900. The following year, widower Francis W Collett from Chadlington was 47 and a commercial clerk, who was still residing at New Cross Road in St Paul Deptford. With him that day, was his son William T Collett who was 17 and with no stated occupation, whose place of birth was confirmed as New Cross, a reference to New Cross Road in Deptford. Staying with father and son that day, were two sisters-in-law from Combe Martin, they being Elizabeth Trelease, aged 52, and Jane Trelease who was 49.
		It seems highly likely that it was through his late wife’s Trelease family, that Francis was introduced to Rose Melina Cock who was born at Appledore in Devon in 1870. She was the second daughter and fourth child of Robert and Phillipa Cock with her birth registered at Bideford (Ref. 5b 536) during the second quarter of 1870. That assumption was reinforced in the census for Exeter in 1891, when mother and daughter, Phillipa and Rose Cock, were visitors at the home of William and Margaret Trelease. The eventual marriage of Francis W Collett and (2) Rose M Cock was recorded at Bideford register office (Ref. 5b 979) during the third quarter of 1910. That second marriage for Francis, may have been the reason why, for the next census in 1911, the very recently married couple was living in the Fulham area of London, rather than Deptford. On that day Francis William Collett aged 56 and from Chadlington in Oxfordshire was a bank clerk, and his new wife Rose Melina Collett from Appledore was 40 years of age with no stated occupation. Visiting the couple that day was unmarried 43-year-old Helena Bligh from Altrincham in Cheshire. At that same time, Francis’ son William was still a bachelor who, interestingly, was still living at New Cross in St Paul Deptford at the age of 27.
		A few years later, Francis and Rose left London for the safety of North Devon, as they were recorded living at Ford Cottages on New Road in Bideford during the Great War. A further move may have taken place some years later, possibly after the Second World War, since the death of Francis William Collett was recorded at the Staffordshire register office (Ref. 9b 227) at the end of 1949. His Will was proved by the Diocese of London at Canterbury in Kent on 12^th January 1950 which confirmed that he died at Burton-on-Trent on 11^th November 1949 at the age of 95. Being that much younger that her husband, his widow Rose Melina Collett died six years later at 105 Broadhurst Gardens in Hampstead, London on 10^th November 1955 aged 85. It was at Hampstead register office that her passing was recorded (Ref. 5c 778) before the end of that year, following which her Will was proved in London on 23^rd December 1955. The executor of the Will was named as civil servant John William Lawrence Shillidy, and the value of her personal estate was £6,422 11 Shillings and 10 Pence.
		12O7		Francis William Collett	Born in 1881 at Deptford
		12O8		William Trelease Collett	Born in 1884 at Deptford
12N3		Joseph Collett was born at Glympton in 1833, the only known child of John Collett and Mary Aynsley. No trace of him or his parents has been found in the census of 1841, although by 1851 Joseph, at the age of 17, was working as a carpenter and living as a boarder at the home of elderly Elizabeth Smith at the High Street in Witney. During the next few years, Joseph moved nearer to London and, during the third quarter of 1855, the marriage of Joseph Collett and Eliza Ann Sharpe was recorded at Staines (Ref. 3a 10). Eliza was the daughter of John and Susan Sharpe. On the day of the Staines census in 1851, Eliza Sharpe was 17 and was no longer living with her parents.
		Shortly after they were married Joseph and Eliza boarded the ship ‘Morayshire’ bound for Australia, where they arrived on 19^th January 1856. The record of their entry into the country completed by the Immigration Board provided the following information. Their journey had been one of assisted passage costing £5, and both could read and write and were of good health. The parents of carpenter Joseph were confirmed as John and Mary Collett who were then living at Norwood (Hill) in Surrey. Eliza’s parents were named as Jonathan and Anne Sharpe of Thorpe (near Staines) in Surrey. The same document also stated that Joseph had an uncle, Lawes Ainslie (his mother’s brother), living at Kissing Point a suburb of Ryde in New South Wales, while Eliza already had three sisters and a brother living at Ballaratt in Victoria.
		Following the couple’s safe arrival in New South Wales, Joseph’s parents made the same sea journey to be reunited with their son and his wife. Sadly, it was around the time that Eliza presented Joseph with the first of their nine children, while they were residing within the Ryde district of Sydney, that Joseph’s father died. Not long after that the family moved to Ulmarra, known as Colletts Island, near Grafton in the Clarence River region of Northern Rivers in New South Wales, which was known as the cedar capital at that time, and it was there that their remaining children were born. Once settled in their new life Joseph and Eliza became established as dairy farmers, a trade that was continued by subsequent generations of their family right up to the present day.
		Joseph Collett died at his farm at Glympton Park, Coldstream in Ulmarra on 20^th January 1894 at the age of 61. His death certificate confirmed that his place of birth was Glympton Park in Oxfordshire, England, and that he was a farmer. It also stated that he had been ill for six months, and that his father was John Collett, a farmer, and that his mother was Mary Aynsley. The informant of the death was named as Joseph’s son Fred Collett of Upper Coldstream in Ulmarra.
		The same certificate revealed that the death was registered on 22^nd January 1894, that Joseph was buried at South Grafton on 21^st January by undertaker H H Sanders, that the Church of England minister who conducted the service was the Rev. W Tait, that Joseph had been a resident of NSW for 39 years, and had married Eliza Ann Sharpe at Staines in England when he was 23. And finally, the certificate confirmed that all nine of his children were still alive at the time of his death. They were listed on the document as, Mary Ann 36, Joseph William 33, James 31, Henry 29, Frederick 26, George Clarence 24, Louisa Caroline Eliza 22, Elizabeth Sarah Victoria 20, and Rose Violet May who was 12.
		What is rather curious is the fact that his Will was proved in London, but not until 13^th September 1910, over sixteen years after his death. The probate record confirmed that Joseph Collett of Glympton Park, Coldstream, Ulmarra in New South Wales, died on 20^th January 1894 and that administration of his (limited) Will was granted to George Frederick Mace, an auctioneer, the attorney of his two sons Henry Collett and Frederick Collett. The personal effects of Joseph Collett were estimated to be worth £160 14 Shillings and 5 Pence.
		12O9		Mary Ann Collett	Born in 1858 at Ryde, Sydney
		12O10		Joseph William Collett	Born in 1860 at Ulmarra, Grafton
		12O11		James Collett	Born in 1863 at Coldstream, Ulmarra
		12O12		Henry Collett	Born in 1865 at Coldstream, Ulmarra
		12O13		Frederick Collett	Born in 1867 at Coldstream, Ulmarra
		12O14		George Clarence Collett	Born in 1869 at Coldstream, Ulmarra
		12O15		Louisa Caroline Eliza Collett	Born in 1871 at Coldstream, Ulmarra
		12O16		Elizabeth Sarah Victoria Collett	Born in 1874 at Coldstream, Ulmarra
		12O17		Rose Violet May Collett	Born in 1881 at Coldstream, Ulmarra
12N4		Caroline Collett was born towards the end of 1837, with her birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 40) during the final quarter of the year. It was also at Chadlington where she was baptised on 14^th January 1838, the only daughter and the eldest of the three known children of Frederick Collett and Ann Price. Prior to the birth of her to younger brothers (below), three-year-old Caroline was recorded with her parents at Brook End in Chadlington on the census day in 1841. Ten years after, the Chadlington census of 1851 included the whole family with Caroline Collett aged 13 attending school, and her father an inn keeper and grocer. Eight years later, it was also at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington that Caroline married farmer John Hiatt on 30^th June 1859. Caroline’s father was recorded at that time as Frederick Collett, an inn keeper, who was also a witness to the marriage. John’s father was listed as Thomas Hiatt, a farmer, and the second witness was his wife Eliza Hiatt who was born in 1806 and who was living at Pembroke Street in Chipping Norton in 1881. Fifty-eight years earlier Thomas Collett (Ref. 12l11) had married Sarah Ann Hyatt at Oddington in Gloucestershire in 1801
		By the time of the 1881 Census, Caroline Hiatt was a widow, aged 42, living at 45 Sandy Lane at Aston in Birmingham, when her place of birth was confirmed as Chadlington. Living with her was her family comprising her three Enstone born sons, John Hiatt, aged 20 and house painter, Thomas Hiatt, aged 19, who was a chandelier filer, and Frederick Hiatt, aged 17, a brass caster. With them was her daughter Mary Hiatt, aged 13 and born at Chadlington, and son William Hiatt, aged 11 from Chipping Norton. Caroline Hiatt nee Collett was 52 when she died at 13 Pope Hope Road in Birmingham on 13^th November 1890 when her death was recorded at the Aston register office (Ref. 6d 174) during the last three months of that year. It took nearly a year to settle her estate which only amounted to £168 8 Shillings. Probate was granted at Birmingham on 15^th October 1891 to her son John Hiatt, a painter, whose address was also 13 Pope Hope Road. It was at Yardley Cemetory and Crematorium in Birmingham that Caroline Hiatt was laid to rest in November 1890.
12N5		Frederick Henry Collett was born at Chadlington in 1843, the second child and eldest son of Frederick and Ann Collett. He was eight years old in the Chadlington census of 1851, and was still living with his family at Bull Hill in Chadlington in 1861, by which time he was 18 and working as a baker. Sometime over the following years he left Oxfordshire and moved to Birmingham, where he was living in 1871 at the age of 26 (sic). Six years later it was at St Bartholomew’s Church in Edgbaston that he married Sarah Ann Sargeant on 13^th September 1877, when his father was confirmed as Frederick Collett and Sarah’s father was named as Henry William Sargeant. Their wedding was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 650) during the third quarter of 1877.
		Sarah Ann had been born in Birmingham, the second of six children, and eldest daughter of Henry and Jane Sargeant, with her birth register at Birmingham (Ref. xvi 282) during the first three months of 1840. According to the next census in 1881, Frederick and Sarah were living at 18 Whitmore Street in Birmingham. Frederick H Collett was 38 and a brewer from Chadlington, while his wife Sarah A Collett, aged 41, was a shopkeeper and a grocer. Listed with them was their daughter Ann E Collett from was one year old and born in Birmingham.
		During the next decade the family of three moved to their long-term permanent home at Railway Terrace in Duddeston-cum-Nechells, where Frederick and Sarah very likely passed away. That move was first confirmed in the census of 1891 when Frederick was 47 and a brewer, Sarah was 51, and their daughter Ann was 11 and at school. It was the same situation in 1901, by which time Frederick Henry Collett of Chadlington was a baker at the age of 58, when his wife Sarah Ann Collett was 61, and daughter Ann Elizabeth Collett aged 21. Sometime during the next decade, Frederick gave up being a baker and by the time of the census in 1911 his occupation was that of a carpenter. Frederick Henry Collett, aged 68 and from Oxfordshire, was residing at 34 Railway Terrace in Duddeston-cum-Nechells. His wife Sarah Ann Collett was 71 and the census return confirmed that she had given birth to one child who was still living. Frederick Henry Collett was still recorded as living at 34 Railway Terrace within the Edgbaston Ward of Birmingham in the Electoral Roll of 1927, when he would have been around 84.
		By that time Frederick had been a widower for around three years after Sarah Ann Collett died at 34 Railway Terrace in 1924, with her death recorded at the Warwickshire register office (Ref. 6d 250) when she was 84 years of age. It was possibly at Railway Terrace that Frederick Henry Collett died during September 1930, after which he was buried at the Birmingham Yardley Cemetery and Crematorium. His passing was recorded at Warwickshire register office (Ref. 6d 478) when he was 88 years old.
		12O18		Ann Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1879 at Birmingham
12N6		William Price Collett was born in 1846 at Chadlington, the youngest of the three children of Frederick Collett and Ann Price. His birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 49) during the second quarter of 1846. For some reason his baptism at Chadlington was delayed until 24^th February 1861, by which time the family home was at Bull Hill in Chadlington, where William Collett was 15 years of age and still attending school on the census day that year. On leaving school he took up the occupation as a carpenter and, six years later, he married 21-year-old Elizabeth Mary Gee on 12^th December 1867 at Chadlington, when he was 22 years of age. The witnesses at the wedding were William Bond and Sarah Gee, the bride’s sister, while Elizabeth’s father was recorded as labourer James Gee. Their wedding day was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 1273) at the end of 1867.
		After fathering two children, and less than three following their wedding, William Price Collett died of ‘consumption and dropsy’ when his youngest son was only ten months old. Just eight months earlier, at the time of the baptism of his son Frederick, William was confirmed in the Chadlington church records as a carpenter. He was buried at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington on 27^th August 1870, aged 24 years, with his premature death recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 495) during the third quarter of the year, as simply William Collett. So, by the time of the Chadlington census of 1871, seven months after the death of her husband, Elizabeth was a widow at the tender age of 24, who was earning a living as a gloveress, and caring for her two young sons, William who was two, and one-year-old Frederick, at the Chadlington home of her parents James and Mary Gee.
		After just over two years as a widow, Mrs Elizabeth Collett married Thomas Souls on 26^th October 1872 at Chadlington. She was 26 and Thomas was 27 and a labourer. As at her first wedding, Sarah Gee was once again one of the witnesses who was very likely Elizabeth’s sister, while on that occasion the second witness was Elizabeth’s father James Gee. According to the next census in 1881, Elizabeth Souls was 34 and the wife of Thomas Souls, aged 36 and a carter who was born at Sherborne in Gloucestershire. Elizabeth was listed as being born at Chadlington, as were the two eldest children who had retained their Collett surname. The family’s third child was Thomas Souls who was born at Spelsbury. The family at that time was living at 65 Merriscourt Cottages in Lyneham in Oxfordshire, a village a few miles to the south-west of Chipping Norton.
		12O19		William Ernest Collett	Born in 1868 at Chadlington
		12O20		Frederick James Collett	Born in 1869 at Chadlington
		12O21		Thomas Souls	Born in 1873 at Spelsbury, Oxfordshire
12N7		Elizabeth Ann Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 29^th November 1847, the first-born child of Charles Collett and Judith Hope Fletcher, whose birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 41). She was three years old and 13 years of age in the Chadlington census returns for 1851 and 1861 when the family home was on Bull Hill. No record of the family has been found in 1871, and five years later she was married. It was in Birmingham that Elizabeth Ann Collett married Patrick O’Grady with the event recorded at Aston (Ref. 6d 514) during the fourth quarter of 1876. Elizabeth Ann was 29 and the daughter of Charles Collett, while Patrick was a bachelor at 35, the son of Edmund O’Grady, when they were married at Bordesley on 22^nd October 1876. The witnesses at their wedding were Mary Ann Feak and John Munton. .
		Once married, the couple settled in Aston, where they were recorded in the census of 1881. Elizabeth A O’Grady from Chadlington was 33 when she was living at 1 Grafton Road in Aston with her husband Patrick who was 39 and a carpenter from Ireland. The childless couple was living at Bordesley in 1891, when Patrick was 50 and a grocer, and Elizabeth A O’Grady from Chadlington was 43. Five years later, at the age of 55, Patrick O’Grady died, his death recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 165) during the third quarter of 1896. After a further five years, his widow Elizabeth was living with, and looking after, her elderly father Charles Collett at Park Street in Charlbury, near Chadlington, in 1901.
		Elizabeth A O’Grady from Chadlington was 53 with no stated occupation. Her father passed away exactly one year later, while nine years after that Elizabeth O’Grady, aged 64 and living on independent means, was a boarder at the Charlbury home of John and Ellen Stayte on Park Street. Sometime later, it would seem, Elizabeth went to live with her youngest brother Charles at Milton-under-Wychwood, and it was there where Elizabeth Ann O’Grady nee Collett died on 18^th November 1925. She was 79 when her death was recorded at Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 3a 1288). Her Will was proved at Oxford on 21^st January 1926 when Charles Collett, a farm labourer, and Charles Guy Collett, a commercial clerk, were named as the joint executors of her estate of £844 12 Shillings. Charles Guy Collett was Elizabeth’s nephew, being the eldest son of her brother Charles.
12N8		James Collett was born at Chadlington in 1849 with his birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 43) during the third quarter of that year, the eldest son, and second of thirteen children of Charles and Judith Collett. It was at Chadlington that he was baptised on 5^th August 1849 and was one-year-old in the Chadlington census of 1851. By the time he was 11 years old in 1861, James was one of three children living with their parents at Bull Hill in Chadlington, when he was still attending school. No record of him or his family has been found in the census of 1871, but shortly thereafter the marriage of James Collett and (1) Fanny Lidbetter was conducted at St Peter’s Church, Dale End in Birmingham. Both the bride and the groom were 22 years of age, Charles Collett being the father of the groom, and David Lidbetter the father of the bride. The couple settled in Birmingham where their four children were born.
		However, by the time of the census of 1881, James and his family had left Birmingham and were living at Kemble Road in Croydon, Surrey. James Collett was described as 31 and a carpenter from at Chadlington, while his wife Fanny was the same age, but had been born at Horsham in Sussex. The couple’s four children were all born at Birmingham and were George F C Collett who was seven, James P Collett who was five, Frances E M Collett who was three, and John Collett who was two years old. Visiting the family at that time was James’ unmarried sister Minnie Collett (below).
		Fanny Collett nee Lidbetter was born in 1849, and was baptised at Horsham on 17^th June 1849, the daughter of David and Frances Lidbetter. Her premature death was recorded at Croydon (Ref. 2a 160) during the final quarter of 1889, when she was only 40 years old. Just over one year after losing his wife, widower James Collett was 41 and a builder’s foreman living at White Horse Lane in Croydon with his four children. In some cases, their names were not consistent with the census of 1881, when George Collett was 18, Percy J Collett was 16, Margaret E M Collett was 14, and John N Collett was 13.
		Shortly after that census day, the marriage of James Collett and (2) Sarah Maria Moore from Fundenhall in Norfolk was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 419) during the second quarter of 1891. By the time of the next census in 1901, the marriage had produced three children for James and Sarah, although by then, all of James’s other children had left the family home at White Horse Lane in Croydon, to make their own way in the world. James Collett from Chadlington was 51 and his occupation was that of a carpenter, while living with him, was his new wife Sarah Collett who was 43 and from Fundenhall, and their three children; William Collett was eight years old, Gladys Collett was six, and Gladstone Collett was three, all three children having been born at South Norwood in the Borough of Croydon.
		Most of the family was still together and living in the Croydon area ten years later although, by then, daughter Gladys was working away from home at Norbury, to the north of Croydon. The census in April 1911, listed the remainder of the family as James Collett from Chadlington who was 60 and a carpenter and a joiner, his wife Sarah Collett from Fundenhall who was 53, and their two sons William Collett who was 18 and working for the railway, and Louis Collett who was 13 and still at school. Upon his son Louis’ discharge from the army in 1918, James Collett was residing at 226 White Horse Road in West Croydon. Twelve years later, the death of James Collett was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 346) during the third quarter of 1931, when he was said to be 83.
		12O22		George Frederick Charles Collett					Born in 1872 at Birmingham
		12O23		James Percival Collett					Born in 1874 at Birmingham
		12O24		Frances Elizabeth Margaret Collett					Born in 1876 at Birmingham
		12O25		John Nelson Collett					Born in 1878 at Birmingham
		The following are the three known children of James Collett by his second wife Sarah Maria Moore:
		12O26		William Albert Ernest Collett					Born in 1892 at South Norwood
		12O27		Gladys Beatrice Gertrude Amelia Collett					Born in 1894 at South Norwood
		12O28		Louis Stanley Gladstone Leopold Collett					Born in 1897 at South Norwood
12N9		Arthur Collett was born at Chadlington towards the end of 1851, where he was baptised on 25^th January 1852, the son of Charles and Judy Collett, who was nine years old in 1861. By the time he was 19, he was living at the Chadlington home of saddle maker Richard E Minchin and his family, when Arthur Collett from Chadlington was a saddler’s apprentice, as confirmed in the census of 1871. It may be assumed that he never married since, in both 1881 and 1891, he was a bachelor still living with his family at Chadlington. In the first of the census returns Arthur of Chadlington was 29 when he was assisting his father on his 76-acre farm at Chadlington. It was a similar situation ten years later, when Arthur Collett aged 36 (sic) and from Chadlington was a farmer’s son living with his parents and three younger siblings at Chadlington.
		Following the death of his mother during the 1890s, Arthur left the family home and by March 1901, he was working as farm labourer at Nether Langwith (Holbeck) in Nottinghamshire where he was just one of five servants working for the Ghest family from Lincolnshire. It was therefore likely that the census enumerator obtained the information about Arthur Collett from 58-year-old William Ghest, as he was correctly described as having been born at Chadlington in Oxfordshire, but who was only 41 years of age, rather than 49. In the next Nottinghamshire census in 1911, once again his age was incorrectly recorded. Arthur Collett from Chadlington was again described as a farm servant, but at the home of Sam Booth and his wife Ann Eliza in Chilwell, south-west of Nottingham. He was the eldest of the three farm servants and was recorded as being 52, instead of 59. It was seven years later that the death of Arthur Collett was recorded at Worksop register office (Ref. 7b 61) during the first three months of 1918, when he was said to be 65 years old. Workshop lies just north of Holbeck, where he was in 1901.
12N10		George Collett was baptised at Chadlington on 25^th June 1854, another son of Charles and Judith Collett. At the time of the census in 1871, George Collett was 16 years old, when he was working alongside his father, both described as farmers. Just over one year after that day, George Collett suffered a premature death, when died from gastric fever and was buried at Chadlington on 2^nd May 1872, when he was only 18.
12N11		John Samuel Collett was born at Chadlington in 1856, the birth registered at Chipping Norton during the second quarter of that year. It was also at Chadlington on 23^rd November 1856 that he was baptised, a son of Charles and Judith Collett. He was 14 at the time of the 1871 Census while he was still living with his parents. It was on 25^th September 1872 that John was employed by the Great Western Railway at Chipping Norton Station as a passenger clerk on a salary of £25 which has risen to an annual salary of £50 by 1875. During August 1875 he left Chipping Norton when he was offered the job of passenger clerk at Droitwich Station in Worcestershire where he was earning £60 per annum in March 1876. Five years later he was living and working at Bromyard in Herefordshire. According to the census that year John S Collett of Eastend in Oxfordshire was 23, Eastend being the very next village to Chadlington. His occupation was that of a stationmaster at the recently opened Bromyard Railway Station and on that occasion bachelor John was lodging at the Church Street home of Joseph Turbill, a builder employing five men and a boy.
		At the end of the next decade the census in 1891 described him as John S Collett, aged 32, single and a railway clerk, a boarder at Somerset Cottages, Howell Road in Leigh, Malvern Link, Worcestershire, the home of railway clerk Charles J Widdows. It was six years later when John Samuel Collett married Elizabeth Chadbon from Steeple Barton (midway between Chipping Norton and Bicester), with their wedding ceremony conducted at the Church of St Mary in Steeple Barton. The event was recorded at Woodstock register office (Ref. 3a 1558) during the second quarter of 1897. Elizabeth had been born in the spring of 1869, and was the youngest daughter of Thomas and Chadbon.
		Once they were married, the couple settled at Bridgnorth in Shropshire where their son Frank was born and where John continued to work as a stationmaster, as confirmed by the census for Bridgnorth in 1901. John S Collett from Chadlington was 43, Elizabeth Collett was 32, and their son was just one year old, when the family was living at 3 Dale Millicent Terrace, 1 Victoria Road in Bridgnorth St Leonard. At that time the family employed a general domestic servant, Eleanor Philpot aged 16. Soon after that day, Elizabeth discovered she was with-child and nine months later the couple’s second child was born before the end of that same year, and was followed by two further daughters.
		Tragically, John died before the birth of his last child, who was baptised two months after her father’s funeral. It was on Wednesday 30^th August 1905 that John Samuel Collett died at Bridgnorth the age of 47, where his death was recorded (Ref. 6a 348). That was the end of nine years as the stationmaster at Bridgnorth, and after which he was buried at St Leonard’s Church in Bridgnorth on 2^nd September, when his address was given as 3 Victoria Road. Administration of his personal estate of £704 3 Shillings and 8 Pence was granted to Elizabeth Collett, widow, at Shrewsbury on 6^th December 1905. The following notice was published in the Bridgnorth Journal on Saturday 2^nd September 1905. “The painfully sudden death of Mr John Samuel Collett, G.W.R. Station Master, which took place at his residence in Victoria Road on Wednesday last, was a great shock to all those who knew him, and expressions of sympathy for the widow and her three young children were expressed on every hand. Mr Collett had been unwell and had had medical advice, but the end came quite suddenly. During the nine years Mr Collett has held the post of Station Master here, he has made many friends, his courtesy and consideration for the travelling public, and the trader, being prominent features in his conduct, whilst his duties were ever discharged in a business-like manner.”
		By April 1911 Elizabeth Collett, a widow aged 42, and a hotel proprietor from (Steeple) Barton in Oxfordshire, was still living at Bridgnorth with her three daughters. They were Sybil Collett who was nine, Muriel Collett who was seven, and May Collett who was five. Completing the household was 18-year-old Rose Preece, a domestic servant. On that census day Elizabeth’s son Frank Collett from Bridgnorth, who was eleven years old, was recorded at school in an orphanage in Wolverhampton. Historical Note: The railway station at Bromyard only opened on 22^nd October 1877, following the laying of the track from Worcester, as part of the Worcester to Leominster Line built by the Great Western Railway. Sadly, the line closed in 1964, a victim of the notorious Beeching cuts.
		12O29		Frank Chadbon Collett	Born in 1899 at Bridgnorth, Salop
		12O30		Sybil Mary Collett	Born in 1901 at Bridgnorth, Salop
		12O31		Muriel Gertrude Collett	Born in 1903 at Bridgnorth, Salop
		12O32		May Collett	Born in 1905 at Bridgnorth, Salop
12N12		Amelia Mary Collett, who was referred to as Minnie, was the sixth child, and second daughter of Charles and Judith Collett. She was born at Chadlington in 1858, possibly at Bull Hill, where she was living with her family in 1861 at the age of three years. Her birth, like all her twelve siblings, was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 566) during the second quarter of that year. By 1871 Amelia was 13 and was still attending school in Chadlington, but shortly after completing her education she moved south for work purposes. Ten years later, when she was single at the age of 23, Minnie Collett from Chadlington was a visitor at the home of her older married brother James Collett (above) at Kemble Road in Croydon, Surrey. Perhaps surprisingly, she was not credited as having a job of work. However, Minnie never married and appears to have worked in domestic service for most of her life.
		After thirty years, the census in 1911 confirmed that Minnie Collett from Chadlington was 50 (sic), a spinster who was employed as a cook at the home of elderly widow Marian Ridle and her bachelor son Percy. The census return placed Amelia as one of the three live-in servants of the Ridley family at their dwelling with the name Abingerm, situated on the Burcott Road in Purley, within the Surrey parish of Coulsdon in the Croydon registration district. The fact that Minnie said she was younger than her 53 years was reflected thirty years later when, upon her death in 1941, she was described as 79 whereas she would have been nearer 82 or 83. The death of Amelia M Collett was recorded at the South-Eastern register office in Surrey (Ref. 2a 1554) during the first three months of that year.
12N13		Caroline Winifred Collett was born at Bull Hill in Chadlington early in 1860, with her birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 637) during the first quarter of the year. It was at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington that she was baptised on 12^th February 1860, another daughter of Charles Collett and Judith Hope Fletcher. She was one year old in 1861 when Caroline and her large family was residing at Bull Hill in Chadlington who, by 1871 was 11 years of age. By the time Caroline was 22 she had moved to London, where she was working in service at the home of Malcolm Cook who worked at the London Stock Exchange. Caroline was simply described as from Oxford and was employed as one of just two domestic servants in the house at 9 Land Terrace on the Lower Teddington Road in Hampton Wick. Lower Teddington Road runs parallel with the River Thames and is still there today.
12N14		Charles Collett was born at Bull Hill in Chadlington early in 1862, where he was baptised on 30^th March 1862, with his birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 605) during the first three months of the year. In the census of 1871, Charles was living with his parents when he was nine years of age, one of eleven children living at Chadlington with their parents Charles and Judith Collett. Ten years later in 1881, he was recorded as a visitor at the home of Robert Watts in Chipping Norton. At that time Charles was 19 and was not credited with an occupation. Robert Watts of Icomb in Gloucestershire was a butcher, and he and his wife and family were living at premises referred to as ‘Lower Side’ in the High Street at Chipping Norton, which may have been the name of the butcher’s shop.
		Charles Collett, aged 29 and a farmer’s son, was still a bachelor living in the family home at West End in Chadlington in 1891, by which time he may have been emotionally attached to his future wife, who was nearby and a live-in domestic servant at a property in Cross Lane, Chadlington. Their wedding banns were recorded in the marriage register for St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington, which listed 10^th, 17^th and 24^th of September as the three Sundays that the banns were posted at Chadlington. Rachel was noted as a spinster from St Ebbes in Oxford and, it seems very likely, that was where the couple was married. Certainly, the marriage of Charles Collett and Rachel Hadland was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 1317) during the last three months of 1893.
		Curiously, in the census returns for 1901 and 1911, the wife of Charles Collett from Chadlington was named as Lily Collett who, in 1901, said she was born at Witney, whereas in 1911 her place of birth was given as Chadlington. During the first eight years they were married, Charles and Lily had five children, with a further three born after 1901. All the children were born while Charles and Lily were living at Milton-under-Wychwood, south-west of Chadlington, and it was also there that the family was residing in both 1901 and 1911. In the first of them, Charles Collett from Chadlington was 39 and a farmer, Lily Collett from Witney was 34, and their children were Charles Guy Collett who was six, Percy Collett who was five, May Collett who was three, Daisy who was one year old, and Dorothy who was only a few months old.
		Ten years later, the full family was recorded as Charles Collett aged 49 and a farm labourer, Lily Collett from Chadlington was 42, Guy Collett was 16 and a plough boy working on the farm, as was his brother Percy Collett aged 14, May Collett was 13, Daisy Collett was 11, Dorothy Collett was 10, Ivy Collett was eight, Desmond Collett was seven, and Marion Collett was four years old. Charles Collett did in 1930 and was buried at Chadlington on 23^rd April 1930, aged 68. Over five years earlier Charles’ eldest sister Elizabeth Ann O’Grady nee Collett (above) passed away and during the proving of her Will at Oxford in January 1926, Charles Collett, a farm labourer, was named as one of the two executors, the other being his eldest son Charles Guy Collett.
		Up until 2024, his wife’s origins had remained somewhat of a mystery, with very few records for her found prior to her marriage to Charles. Further research during the summer of 2024 has resolved a number of those hitherto unresolved issues. First, it is now known that the birth of Rachel Hadland was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 664) during the first three months of 1866, with Lilian Rachel Hadland having been born on 6^th February 1866 at Finstock, midway between Chipping Norton and Witney in Oxfordshire. This now makes sense of Lily Collett saying in 1901 that she was born at Witney. Ten years later she claimed she was born at Chadlington, with Chadlington being due north of Finstock, only five miles away as the crow flies.
		In addition to the above details, it is now established that in 1871, when Rachel Hadland from Finstock was five years of age, she and her family were living on the Gloucestershire County boundary with Warwickshire, at Moreton-in-Marsh. The census return that year reveals that Rachel was the first-born child of agricultural labourer Charles Hadland from Finstock and his wife Ann, also from Finstock. Their other children that day were Edith Hadland from Finstock, and baby Ellen Hadland who had been born at Bourton-on-the-Water. After a gap of twenty years, the census in 1891 identified Lily Rachel Hadland as 25 years of age when she was single and employed as a mother’s helper in the large Edginton farming family at Cross Lane in Chadlington. On that occasion, in ignorance, Henry Edginton stated that she had been born in Gloucestershire.
		The final confirmation presented itself many years later when the widow of Charles Collett died on 25^th February 1947. The record of her passing at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 6b 1136) confirmed that Lilian Rachel Collett, nee Hadland, had died during the first three months of 1947 when she was 81 years of age. No record of her burial has been found to date, but it would be reasonable to assume that she was buried with Charles Collett at Chadlington.
		12O33		Charles Guy Collett	Born in 1894 at Milton-under-Wychwood
		12O34		Percy Ralph Collett	Born in 1896 at Milton-under-Wychwood
		12O35		Caroline May Collett	Born in 1897 at Milton-under-Wychwood
		12O36		Lilian Daisy Collett	Born in 1899 at Milton-under-Wychwood
		12O37		Dorothy Cicely Collett	Born in 1901 at Milton-under-Wychwood
		12O38		Emily Ivy Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1902 at Milton-under-Wychwood
		12O39		Desmond Harold Collett	Born in 1903 at Milton-under-Wychwood
		12O40		Marion Collett	Born in 1906 at Milton-under-Wychwood
12N15		Lewis Edward Collett was born at Chadlington in 1864 when his birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 640) during the second quarter of the year. He was baptised at Chadlington on 24^th April 1864 another son of Charles and Judith Collett. His full name was recorded at his birth, marriage, and death, but in the census returned he was identified as Lewis E Collett, as he was in 1871 aged seven, and again in 1881 when he was 17 and in further education while still living with his farming family in Chadlington. It was on 14^th April 1890, when he was a 26-year-old butcher living at Church Street in Charlbury, that he married Amelia Annie Kench in Charlbury. The witnesses at the wedding were Amelia’s brother and sister Henry Stephen Kench and Ada Louisa Kench, with the event recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1333). Amelia Annie Kench was born at Charlbury in 1871 and her father, Percival Kench, was the hotel keeper of the White Hart Hotel in Dyers Hill at Charlbury and was later the proprietor of a hotel in Market Street in Charlbury.
		It may be of interest that there were two earlier records of Collett and Kench marriages, and both in the same county of Oxfordshire. The first just prior to 1866 when widower William Collett (Ref. 39N16) of Clanfield married Sarah Kench the daughter of Mary Ann Kench who had been born at Faringdon in 1833. The second at Witney where in 1868, widower William Collett (Ref. 46N27) married Sarah Kench, the widow of John Kench, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Martin who had been born at Eynsham in 1822. Whilst not a common name, there are many Kench/Kinch living in Oxfordshire in the latter half of the 1800s, some as far north as Banbury.
		Once married, the couple settled in Church Street in Charlbury, where their two known children were born. Twelve months after their wedding day Lewis was recorded in 1891 as 26 and a butcher, Amelia was 20, and their daughter Daisy was only a few days old. Living with the young family was Fredrick Jeffrey who was 17 and an apprentice butcher under training with Lewis. Three years later Amelia gave birth to a son who was living with the family at Church Street in Charlbury as recorded in the census of 1901. By that time butcher Lewis E Collett from Chadlington was 36, his wife Amelia A Collett from Charlbury was 30, and their two Charlbury born children were Daisy A Collett who was 10 years old, and Lewis P Collett who was six years of age.
		Sometime after March 1901, the family left Charlbury when Lewis became an inn keeper in the Berkshire market town of Wantage. Tragically, it was at Wantage just four years later, that Lewis Edward Collett died on 11^th October 1905, when his death was recorded at Wantage register office (Ref. 2c 187). Although not of a significant value, probate for the Will of Lewis Edward Collett of Berkshire must have encountered an issue which caused a major delay in the process. It was over three years after his passing, that his Will was proved in Oxford on 28^th December 1908, when his wife Amelia Annie Collett was named as the executor of his estate of £125 10 Shillings. Over those three years Amelia had been the sole provider for herself and her two children. It was probably inevitable that Amelia was subsequently married for a second time, with the wedding of Amelia Annie Collett and Samuel Herbert Cruley recorded at Banbury register office (Ref. 3a 2073) during the last quarter of 1909.
		Samuel Herbert Cruley was born at Whitechapel in London in 1874 and eight years before he married Amelia, he was one of six unmarried Cruley siblings living at Petherton Road in Islington with stepfather Edward Lloyd Marks and their remarried mother Emily Marks, as confirmed in the census of 1901.
		The next census in 1911 recorded the new family living at the George Hotel in Shipston-on-Stour, although the surname was incorrectly stated as Comley, rather than Cruley. Samuel Herbert Cruley from Bow in London was 38 and a hotel proprietor, and his wife Amelia Annie Cruley from Charlbury was also 38, who was assisting her husband in the family business at the hotel. Living with the couple were Amelia’s two children who were recorded as Daisy Amelia Collett from Charlbury who was 20, and Lewis Percival Collett who was 16 and also from Charlbury. Both Daisy and Lewis were described as the stepdaughter and stepson of Samuel Cruely. One other person was included on the census form with the family, and he was Frank Austin who was 28 and a servant employed at the hotel. Amelia Annie Cruley, formerly Collett nee Kench, died at Woodstock Road in Witney during 1946, following which probate of her Will was granted to her son Percy Collett who was a hotel proprietor, like his grandfather Percival Kench, and Amelia’s second husband Samuel Cruley.
		For years after being made a widower, Samuel married Winifred M Beechey with their wedding day recorded at Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 6b 1822) during the final three months of 1950. They were married for just less than five years, when the death of Samuel Herbert Cruley was recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 6b 788) during the summer of 1955 at the age of 81.
		12O41		Daisy Amelia Collett	Born in 1891 at Charlbury
		12O42		Lewis Percival Collett	Born in 1894 at Charlbury
12N16		Fanny Fletcher Collett was one half of a set of twins born to Charles Collett and Judith Hope Fletcher at Chadlington towards the end of 1866. Her birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 650) during the fourth quarter of the year, and it was at Chadlington that she baptised with twin Susan (below) on 8^th March 1867. Fanny was four years of age in 1871 and was 14 in 1881 when she was living with her family at Charlbury. It was as Fanny Collett, aged 23, that she was still living at Charlbury with her family in 1891. She was not married by the end of the century and, in the census of 1901, when she was 33, she was then living at Chadlington, where her father was buried in 1902. Fanny never married and died in Oxford during the first week of April 1911 immediately prior to the census day that year, her death recorded at Headington register office (Ref. 3a 519).
12N17		Susan Kate Collett was the other half of a set of twins born late in 1866 at Chadlington, with her birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 650) during the fourth quarter of the year. Three months later she was baptised in a joint ceremony with her twin sister Fanny (above) on 8^th March 1867 at Chadlington. She was aged four years in 1871 and 14 in 1881 when she was living at Charlbury with her family. Ten years later she was still living with her parents and her twin sister fanny (above) when she was recorded in the Charlbury census on 1891 as Susie Collett, aged 23. Within the next few months, Susan Collett married Frederick George Thomas Dent, their marriage recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1352) during the third quarter of 1891. Susan Dent lived a very long life and died at Hungerford on 16^th August 1968 at the age of 101. Her Will was proved at Oxford on 17^th November 1966 when the joint executors of her estate of £2,810 were named as Harold Collett Dent, a retired university teacher, and Norman Horrocks Dent, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in Her Majesty’s army.
		Further research in 2021, revealed that Harold Collett Dent was born at Scunthorpe on 14^th November 1894, the couple’s first-born child of a great many. Harold never married and died in Devon during the month of January 1995. The birth of Norman Horrocks Dent was recorded at Auckland register office in County Durham (Ref. 10a 67) during the third quarter of 1900, although it was on 11^th May that he was born. He was then baptised at Spennymoor on 8^th July 1900, the son of Frederick G T Dent and Susan Dent. He married Olive M Hargrave at Blandford in Dorset during 1931. The later death of Norman Horrocks Dent was recorded at Lewisham in London at the start of 1972. In fact, Frederick and Susan had seven children living with them at Saffron Waldon in Essex in 1911, when their son Harold was already living in Bury St Edmunds. The census that year described Susan’s husband as Frederick George Thomas Dent from Ashbourne in Derbyshire who was 51 and a Wesleyan Methodist Minister. Susan Dent was 47, but her place of birth was confusingly recorded at Beenham in Berkshire, while their seven children were born at various locations around England.
12N18		Francis Collett was born at Chadlington during the summer of 1868, with his birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 677). He was baptised at Chadlington on 29^th November 1868, the twelfth of thirteen children of Charles and Judith Collett. In the Chadlington census of 1871, when he was two years of age, his named was recorded in error as Frances Collett. Ten years later he was 12 years old and at school when he was living at Charlbury with his family in 1881, when he was referred to as Frank. On leaving school Francis secured work at nearby Burford where he was lodging with Charles and Annie Bishop in 1891 when he was working as a butcher’s assistant at the age of 21 under the name of Francis Collett.
		Following that occasion Francis appears to have provided subsequent census enumerators with an inaccurate age. For example in March 1901 Frank Collett, who was born at Chadlington, was living at Wallingford where he was working as a journeyman butcher, but when his age was recorded as being 25, perhaps an enumerator error. However, after a further ten years butcher Francis Collett from Oxfordshire was working in Leamington, when he was staying at the Blenham Lawrence Hotel on Clements Street in the town. He was still a bachelor although, once again, his age was incorrectly recorded as 32, when in fact he would have been 42.
12N19		Frederick Collett was born at Chadlington in 1870 and was baptised there on 27^th February 1870, the youngest child Charles Collett and Judith Hope Fletcher. His birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 719) during the first quarter of that year. He was just over one year old on the day of the Chadlington census in 1871 but tragically, Frederick Collett was approaching his third birthday when he died and was buried at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington on 23^rd December 1872. His death was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 434) at the end of 1872.
12N20		Angelina Susan Collett was born at Chadlington during the first three months of 1850, with her birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 45), but only as Angelina Collett. A few months later she was baptised at Chadlington on 2^nd June 1850, the first of the two children of Mark Collett and Rosina Coleman. According to the census in 1851, Angelina Collett was one year old and living with her parents in Chadlington. Ten years later, she and her sister Mary (below) were living with their parents at Chadlington in 1861 when Angelina was 11. Towards the end of the following decade sister Mary was married, leaving Angelina Collett as the only child still living at Chadlington with her parents in 1871 when, at the age of 21, she had no stated occupation.
		After a further thirty months, the marriage of Angelina Susan Collett and Thomas Derby was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 1373) towards the end of 1883. The wedding service was conducted in Chadlington at the Church of St Nicholas on 12^th November 1883. At that time in their lives, the bride was recorded as a domestic servant aged 33, while the groom was a shopkeeper aged 34 who was living at 114 Holloway Road in London. Angelina’s father was confirmed as Mark Collett, a carpenter, with Thomas’ father was named as William Derby, who was a publican. The witnesses at the wedding were James and Maria Coleman, two members of Angelina’s mother’s family.
		The earlier census of 1881 recorded the age of Annie Collett as 27 instead of 30 or 31. However, the census return did confirm that she was born at Chadlington. It also stated that she was a cook in domestic service at the St Marylebone School at Hayes in Middlesex. Interestingly, her future husband Thomas Derby, aged 31, was a porter at the same establishment. By the time of the census in 1891, the childless couple was residing in the Islington area of London, where Thomas Derby from London was 41 and a boot maker, when his wife Angelina S Derby from Chadlington was 41 and a boot sales woman. The next census in 1901 confirmed that Thomas had been born at The Strand in London and was 51 and continuing to work as a boot maker, when he and Angelina S Collett, also 51, were residing at Holloway Road in Islington. Today, Holloway Road is one of the main shopping streets in North London.
		Following the death of her father in 1903, it was Angelina Susan Derby who was granted administration of her father personal effects valued at just £5 in 1908. By that time in her life Angelina was already a widow, following the death of Thomas Derby whose passing was recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 89) during the second quarter of 1908, at the age of 58. Just two years later Angelina Susan Derby died at Islington on 11^th April 1910, when she was 61, with her death recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 119). Her Will was proved at Canterbury in Diocese of London on 26^th April 1910, the main beneficiary being her sister Mary Ann Wells (below).
12N21		Mary Ann Collett was born at Chadlington near the end of 1851, with her birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. xvi 47) during the fourth quarter of the year. It was three years later, at Chadlington, that she was baptised there on 25^th December 1854, the second daughter of Mark Collett and Rosina Coleman. It was at Brook Street in Chadlington that she was living with her family at nine years of age in 1861. Mary Ann Collett was 19 when she married 28-year-old Beriah Wells, a builder, at Chadlington on 5^th December 1870, when their wedding was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 1123). He was the son of builder Benjamin Wells and his address was listed as 99 Great George Street in Bermondsey, London. The witnesses at the wedding were Angelina S Collett and carpenter Mark Collett, they being her older sister (above) and her father. The birth of Beriah Wells was registered at Bermondsey (Ref. iv 36) during the spring of 1842, with no further record found for him until he married Mary Ann.
		It also seems rather odd, that no record of Beriah and Mary Ann Wells has been found in any census return from 1871, through to the death of Beriah Wells in 1901 at the age of 59, which happened on 9^th December 1901 and was recorded at St Olav Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 128). The couple’s home address at that time, was 19 Eckett Street, Dockhead in Bermondsey. Ten years prior to that, they were recorded as residing at 25 Spa Mansions, Spa Road in Bermondsey. The Will of Beriah Wells was subsequently proved in Surrey on 30^th December 1904, which named his widow Mary Ann Wells as the sole beneficiary.
		Nine years later, and following the death of her sister Angelina Susan Derby in 1910, it was Mary Ann Wells who was the main beneficiary under the terms of her Will proved in April. Eleven months later, widow Mary Ann Wells aged 60 and from Oxfordshire was still residing in Bermondsey with her two children. They were Thomas William Wells who was 28 and a labourer employed at a tin works, and Esther Rebecca Wells who was 23 with no occupation, both born at Bermondsey and both unmarried. No record of the death of Mary Ann Wells has been found at this time. The birth of Thomas was registered at St Olav Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 348) early in 1883, and the birth of Hester Rebecca Wells was also registered at St Olav Bermondsey (Ref. 1d 215) during the second quarter of 1887.
12O1		Elizabeth Alice Collett was born at Chadlington on 11^th June 1879, where she was baptised at St Nicholas’ Church on 3^rd August 1879, the first child of James Collett by his wife Isabella Smith. Her birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 755) during the third quarter of 1879. She was recorded as being one year old in the Chadlington census of 1881 and was 11 years of age at the time of the Chadlington census in 1891. Curiously, she was described at the adopted daughter of James and Isabella Collett. Ten years after that she was an assistant school mistress in Chadlington at the age of 21 and, it was over three and a half years later, at the age of 25, when she married Gerald Hastings Watts on 28^th December 1904 at Chadlington. Her father, who was a witness at the wedding, was confirmed as James Collett, a builder. Gerald H Watts, who was 28 and a bailiff from Hookburgh in Lancashire, was the son of John Watts, an agent. The second witness was Alfred Grimwood, who was probably Gerald’s best man. Their wedding was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1886).
		In April 1911, Elizabeth Alice Watts from Chadlington was 31, and her husband Gerald Hastings Watts was 35 from Cromhall in Gloucestershire, when they were living in Lyneham, to the west of Chadlington. Gerald was described as a farm bailiff employed on a garden estate. By that time in their married life the couple already had two children, John Francis James Watts who was three years old, and Gerald Wallace Watts who was seven months old. Staying with the family that census day were two members of Gerald’s family, and they were his widowed mother Martha Watts aged 74, and his unmarried sister Agnes Mary Watts aged 39 and also from Cromhall.
		It was during 1964 that Elizabeth Alice Watts died, with her death recorded at Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 6b 796) at the age of 85. Gerald survived for another five years by which time he was residing in the village of Kingham when he passed away on 23^rd May 1969 at the age of 93, when his death was recorded at Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 6b 2403). It was at Cromhall that he had been born on 16^th March 1876, the youngest child of farm bailiff John Watts of Chipping Norton and his wife Martha, with his birth registered at Thornbury, Gloucestershire (Ref. 6a 225) during the second quarter of 1876.
12O2		Eva Annie Collett was born at Chadlington in late 1881, with her birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 791) during the final three months of the year. She was baptised at Chadlington on 18^th October 1881, another daughter of James and Isabella Collett. She was four months short of her sixth birthday when she died on 17^th June 1887, when her premature death was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 469) during the second quarter of 1887. That tragic event for the family, happened just one month after the death of her younger sister Lillian (below) with whom she was buried at Chadlington on 18^th June 1887.
12O3		Lillian Edith Collett was born at Chadlington in 1883 and her birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 873) during the first quarter of that year. A couple of months later she was baptised at Chadlington on 27^th May 1883, the third daughter of James and Isabella Collett. Just prior to her fourth birthday she was suffering with diphtheria from which she later died on 12^th May 1887. She was buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington on 15^th May 1887 and was joined there by her sister Eva (above) one month later. The infant death of Lillian Edith Collett was recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 468) during the second quarter of 1887.
12O4		Olive Louise Collett was born at Chadlington on 11^th May 1885 with her birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 824) during the third quarter of the year. It was at Chadlington that she was baptised on 28^th June 1885 another daughter of James and Isabella Collett. By 1891 Olive Louise Collett was five years old in the Chadlington census, and ten years later was 15, when she was still living there with her family. And it was at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington that she later married Arthur Alfred Edginton, a 23-year-old farmer of Chadlington, on 5^th August 1909. He was the son of farmer Henry Bryan. Olive was 24 years old and the daughter of builder James Collett who was a witness at the wedding. The only other witness was Elizabeth Funnell, with the event recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 2375) during the third quarter of 1909.
		Their son was born during the following year and was recorded with his parents in the Shipton-under-Wychwood census of 1911, when Ronald Arthur James Edginton was one year old. His father Arthur Alfred Edginton was 24 and a farm bailiff who had been born at Chadlington, as was his mother Olive Louise Edginton who was 25. Three more children were added to the family in the six years after that census day, and they were: Myrtle Edginton in 1912; Graham C Edginton in 1915; and Francis E Edginton in 1917. All three births were recorded at Chipping Norton register office, when Colett was confirmed as their mother’s maiden-name. Fifty-four years later Olive Louise Edginton was residing in the village of Little Tew in North Oxfordshire, when she died on 22^nd July 1971 aged 86. The death of Olive Louise Edginton was recorded at register office (Ref. 6b 2265).
12O5		James William Claude Collett was born at Chadlington on 3^rd June 1888, whose birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 836) during the third quarter of the year. He was known as Claude and was the fourth child and eldest son of James and Isabella Collett and was baptised at the Church of St Nicholas in Chadlington on 5^th August 1888. By the time of the Chadlington census of 1891 he was two years old when he was recorded with his family at Chadlington as James William C Collett. He was still attending school in Chadlington by the time of the census in 1901 when, as James W C Collett he was 12 and still living with his parents in Chadlington.
		Upon leaving school Claude left Oxfordshire and moved south to Berkshire where, in the census of 1911 he was living and working in Reading, where he was described as unmarried James W Claude Collett a bank clerk aged 22 from Chadlington. Like his brother Francis (below), Claude worked in banking for much of his life and was described as a retired bank official within the probate papers following the death of his mother Isabella on 13^th September 1939. Her Will was proved at Oxford on 1^st November 1939 when Claude and his brother Francis were named as the executors.
		He was still living in Oxfordshire when he died in 1982, with his passing at the age of 93, recorded at Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 20 2719). It was at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington where James William Claude Collett was laid to rest on 8^th June 1982.
12O6		Francis Campbell Collett was born at Chadlington on 18^th November 1890 with his birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 793) during the final three months of that year. It was also at Chadlington where he was baptised on 11^th January 1891, the youngest child of James Collett and Isabella Smith. He was four months old in the Chadlington census of 1891, and ten years later in 1901 he was still living there with his family when he was 10 years old and attending the village school. During the first decade of the new century, Francis appears to have sought work in London, since by the time of the census in 1911, Francis Collett from Oxfordshire was 20 years old and a bank clerk who was boarding with the family of printer Walter England at their home within the Hammersmith and Fulham area of the city. It was on 22^nd April 1916 that he was called up and enlisted at Charlbury in Oxfordshire.
		He was initially assigned to the 1^st Reserve Battalion of the Honourable Artillery Company as Private 7356, when his father was confirmed as James Collett, a builder. Nine months later Francis was transferred to 2^nd Battalion HAC (Infantry) in January 1917 and was part of 7^th Division Battalion at Bertrancourt on the Somme, and then at Ablainzeville in northern France. In March, the 2^nd Battalion had moved on to Courcelles, Ervillers, and from Mory to Ecoust-Saint-Mein on the Hindenburg Line. By April the men were rested and involved in training ahead of the May attack on the Hindenburg Line, Gommecourt, Bullecourt, and Vimy Ridge. During that period eight officers were lost, together with 250 other ranks. During June and July in 1917 the battalion was back at Bullecourt, and through August and September advances were made to Godewaersvelde on the Belgian border in the heart of Flanders, arriving at Zillebeke on 30^th September.
		In October they moved through Menin Road, Polygon Wood, and La Belle Hotesse. The Division was then withdrawn to Reningelst in West Flanders, under canvas, having lost six officers and 135 other ranks killed, with ten officers and 218 other ranks wounded. On 20^th November 1917 the troops under went training at Hesdin in France, as preparation for a move to Northern Italy and the town of Minerbe, south-east of Verona, and by 18^th January 1918, the battalion had taken over frontline duties at Nervesa on the River Piave.
		Less than a month later Francis was back in Oxfordshire for his wedding when he was recorded as a Private with the Honourable Artillery Company, with the marriage of Francis C Collett and Eveline V Roberts conducted at Chadlington on 11^th February 1918. The event was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 2107) during the first quarter of 1918. Both the bride and the groom were 27 years of age, with Eveline’s father named as James Roberts, a schoolmaster, when the witnesses were John Henry Harvey, and Gerald Hastings Watts. Gerald was the husband of Elizabeth Alice Collett (above), the eldest sibling of Francis Campbell Collett. It was as Eveline Vinnie Roberts that her birth at Chadlington was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 865) during the third quarter of 1890, the last child born to James and Ann Roberts. In 1891 the family was living in Chadlington when Eveline Roberts was nine months old. In both the next two census returns Eveline was recorded with her parents at Leek Wootton near Kenilworth in Warwickshire, but as Vinnie Roberts aged ten years in 1901, and again as Vinnie Roberts aged twenty in 1911.
		Shortly after their wedding day, Francis returned to Italy and by March in 1918 the Battalion was billeted at Galzigano near Padua for more training. On 6^th May, and after five weeks on Asiago Plateau, they were withdrawn from the frontline line as a war reserve. The Battalion was initially moved to Novaledo at the Astico River, from where they returned on foot to the Plateau on 26^th May. Five days later the 7^th Division was relieved by the 48^th Division when they were moved to Thiene, and then to Grumo. By 23^rd June they had returned to the same trenches at Asiago Plateau.
		Less than one month later, on 18^th July, they were relieved again, when they were moved to Cavaletto. After another month the Battalion departed from Asiago Plateau on 20^th August and, during September, they moved through Grumo, Trissino, and Sirmione. By 5^th October they had reached Fornace near Treviso, after which they captured the island at Grave di Papadopoli just north-west of Venice. The war finally came to an end on 11^th November 1918, with Francis receiving his discharge on 12^th February 1919 when he was 28.
		For his time in Italy, he received a letter in March 1919 which stated “It is a custom in the Italian Army, when a unit has distinguished itself in a particular operation, for the Higher Command, as a mark of appreciation, to order a medallion in commemoration of the action, to be struck and presented to all ranks of the unit. This medallion is not worn as a decoration, but is much coveted as a memento. That such an honour should be extended to a unit outside the Italian Army is unique, and it was therefore with great pride that this Battalion received notification that subject to our approval (Headquarters, 2^nd Battalion HAC) a medallion should be struck in commemoration of the capture of the Grave di Papadopoli by the Honourable Artillery Company.
		Needless to say, the suggestion was readily acceded to. The medallion enclosed was designed by Professor Mario Urbani, a Lieutenant of 3^rd Regiment of Alpini, and will serve as a souvenir of the happy association of this Battalion with 75^th Alpini Division during the time it was their command, with the Army of Occupation in Austria”
		Francis was also awarded the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal, as seen below.
		After the Great War, Francis followed in his older brother’s footsteps and continued working in banking. At one period in their life, he and Eveline resided at Wimborne in Dorset where Francis was the branch manager of the National Provincial Bank, where he was very popular with the farming community. Some years later he was transferred as the manager to another branch of the same bank at Northampton, from where he later retired. At the time of the death of his mother in September 1939, Francis was confirmed as a bank manager when he and his brother Claude (above) were named as the joint executors of her Will, which was proved at Oxford on 1^st November that year.
		On his later retirement, around 1950, Francis and Eveline moved from Nothampton to Rounds Hill in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, where other members of their extended were already living. It was at Kenilworth that Francis became a good friend of Harold James Collett (Ref. 15N38), as they were a very similar age, whose wife was also Eveline. Eveline Collett nee Roberts died at Kenilworth during 1963 when she was 73 years old, following which she was buried in Kenilworth Cemetery. Harold James Collett died in 1972 and his wife in 1982, both buried at Kenilworth Cemetery. It was also at Kenilworth, surrounded by his extended family, that Francis celebrated his one-hundredth-birthday-day towards the end of 1990.
		Not long after receiving his special commemorative birthday card from Queen Elizabeth II, Francis left Kenilworth when he moved into a residential care home in Cubbington, north-east of Leamington Spa. And it was from there that he spent last few days at Warwick Hospital, where he died on 28^th December 1992 at the age of 102. The death of Francis Campbell Collett was recorded at Warwickshire register office (Vol. 31 564), when his date of birth was confirmed as 18^th November 1890. Shortly after he passed away, he was laid to rest with Eveline at Kenilworth Cemetery.
		Kenilworth lies to the south of Coventry while, north of the city, only thirteen miles from Kenilworth is the town on Nuneaton. It was at Nuneaton register office that the births of two children were recorded whose father was a Collett and whose mother’s maiden-name was Roberts. However, it is established that they were the children of Albert Ernest Collett (Ref. 5Q21) and his wife Edith G Roberts, whose family details can be found in Part 5 – The Tewkesbury Line.
12O7		Francis William Collett was born on 3^rd October 1881 at 25 New Cross Road in Deptford, within the south-east London district of Greenwich, where his birth was registered (Ref. 1d 967), the first of the two sons of Francis William Collett and Sarah Trelease. He was almost four weeks old when he was baptised at All Saints Church in Deptford on 30^th October 1881. Not long after that day, Francis William Collett passed away, with his death recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d 674) during the first quarter of 1882.
12O8		William Trelease Collett may have been born at 25 New Cross Road in Deptford, where his parents were living in 1881. He was born on 2^nd November 1883 with his birth registered at Greenwich in Kent (Ref. 1d 1004) during the last three months of the year. A month later he was baptised at All Saints Church in Deptford on 11^th December 1883, the second child of Francis William Collett and Sarah Trelease, the first of his two wives. It was simply as William T Collett aged seven years, and 17 years, that he was recorded at New Cross Road in Deptford with his parents in 1891, and with his widowed father in 1901. By the time of the next census in 1911 his father, together with his second wife, was living in Fulham, when nephew William Trelease Collett was still a bachelor at 27, and a railway clerk living at New Cross in Deptford, where the head of the household was Elizabeth Trelease aged 63, his late mother’s unmarried sister, who had been living with him and his father in 1901.
		He enlisted with the army during 1916 and, at the age of 32, joined the Royal Sussex Regiment service number 10203. His military record confirmed that William Trelease Collett was living at 143 Waller Road in New Cross, south-east London and that his next-of-kin was his father Francis William Collett who, by then was living at Ford Cottages in New Road, Bideford in Devon. A second military record, dated after the war in 1919, stated he was 35 and from Brockley in Kent (the same as in 1916), and assigned to the Royal Defence Corps, service number 40751. Brockley in an area just south of Deptford and Greenwich. Five years later, another record placed William Trelease Collett onboard the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company vessel Malwa sailing out from the Port of London on 23^rd May 1924 to Marseilles in France, when he was 40 years of age and his occupation was that of a clerk.
		Four years earlier, when he was still residing at 143 Waller Road, he wrote a letter on 26^th April 1920 to the Officer of Infantry Records at the Royal Observer Corps, which opens “Sir, I beg to enclose my Certificate of Transfer to Receive (Z) on demobilisation....” which sadly thereafter is written so poorly it is virtually impossible to read, except that at the end, where it finishes by saying “probably a clerical error and I mentioned this in case the alteration is necessary. Thanking you in anticipation, I beg to remain Sir, your obedient servant W T Collett”. Why William travelled to France in 1924 and what happened to him during the rest of his life is not yet known, except that he was living in Devon when he passed away in March 1971. The death of William Trelease Collett was recorded at Barnstable register office (Ref. 7a 811) when he was reputedly 86 years of age. On that occasion his date of birth was incorrectly recorded as being 1^st November 1884, eleven months after he was baptised.
12O10		Joseph William Collett was born at Ulmarra in the Grafton district of New South Wales on 11^th July 1860, the son of Joseph Collett and Eliza Ann Sharpe. It was around 1890 that he married Lucinda Dixon who was born on 26^th October 1869 at Araluen in New South Wales, the daughter of John Alcock Dixon and Catherine Buckley. All of their six children were born at Ulmarra (Colletts Island) and it would appear that the couple’s eldest son was original christened as Joseph William Collett after his father. However, it was in his military records from the Great War that he had the name Joseph Wilton Collett, which was later used on the family headstone (see below), but without the Joseph.
		The photo on the right was sent in by Marion O’Shea (Ref. 12R2). This clearly shows the New South Wales headstone for Joseph and his wife Lucinda, together with a memorial to their son Joseph Wilton Collett who perished in the First World War and was buried in France. The inscriptions read: “In Loving Memory of Joseph William Collett who died 23^rd May 1931 aged 71 years, a loving husband and kind father” “Also a tribute to the memory of Pte Wilton Collett, AIF, who died in the Great War aged 20 years” “Also Lucinda Collett died 22^nd Jan. 1957 aged 87 years, peace perfect peace”.
		12P1		Victoria A Collett	Born in 1895 at Ulmarra
		12P2		Joseph Wilton Collett	Born in 1897 at Ulmarra
		12P3		Henry Collett	Born in 1899 at Ulmarra
		12P4		Edna Collett	Born in 1902 at Ulmarra
		12P5		William John Collett	Born in 1904 at Ulmarra
		12P6		Netta Catherine Collett	Born in 1907 at Ulmarra
12O11		James Collett was born at Coldstream, Ulmarra in the Grafton district of New South Wales in 1863. Bachelor James Collett, aged 23 and a farmer from Grafton, later married Mary Robertson of Shoalhaven in Newcastle, New South Wales, who was the daughter of farmer Angus Robertson and his wife Georgina McPherson. The couple were married at the Presbyterian Church in Upper Coldstream, New South Wales on 2^nd March 1886. The witnesses at the wedding were Joseph William Collett, and Louisa Caroline Eliza Collett, they being James’ older brother Joseph (above), and his sister Louisa (below).
		The marriage of James and Mary is known to have produced seven children for the couple, and all of them were born at Ulmarra in the Grafton district of New South Wales. Collett family traditions at that time dictated that the children were addressed and referred to by their second Christian name. James Collett suffered a heart attack and was rushed to Runnymede Hospital in Grafton, where he died on 15^th January 1913 at the age of 50. His death certificate confirmed that he was a grazier, and the son of grazier Joseph Collett and Eliza Ann Sharpe, and that the informant of his death was his eldest son William George Collett of Coldstream.
		The death of James Collett was registered at Grafton on 17^th January 1913, his body having been buried the previous day at the Church of England Cemetery at South Grafton by Henry H Sanders who also buried James’ father there nine years earlier. At the time of his passing James still had six children who were still living, although the death certificate also included reference to a deceased female. The named children were Eliza M Collett 25, William G Collett 24, Elsie Collett 22, Georgina M Collett 21, Raymond Collett 19, and Olive E Collett who was 14. It therefore identified the deceased child as Mary Collett, who obviously suffered a childhood death.
		12P7		Eliza Mary Collett	Born in 1887 at Ulmarra
		12P8		William George Collett	Born in 1889 at Ulmarra
		12P9		Elsie Collett	Born in 1890 at Ulmarra
		12P10		Georgina May Collett	Born in 1892 at Ulmarra
		12P11		James Raymond Collett	Born in 1894 at Ulmarra
		12P12		Mary Collett	Born in 1897 at Ulmarra; died b/f 1913
		12P13		Olive Edith Collett	Born in 1898 at Ulmarra
12O12		Henry Collett was born at Grafton in New South Wales in 1865. It would seem he lived most of his life at Grafton and that he was married fairly later in his life to Edith since he was forty years old when his known son was born.
		12P14		Joseph Clarence Collett	Born in 1905 at Grafton
12O18		Ann Elizabeth Collett was born at Birmingham in 1879, when her birth was registered at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 61) during the last quarter of the year. She was one year old in the census 1881 when Ann E Collett living with her parents at 18 Whitmore Street in Birmingham, the only known child of Frederick Henry Collett and Sarah Ann Sargeant. Over the following years her parents moved to Railway Terrace in Duddeston-dum-Nechells in Birmingham. It was there, in 1891, that Ann then was 11 years old and attending school, from where her father was managing a baker’s shop and her mother a grocer’s shop. Upon leaving school Ann took up employment with a Birmingham company producing mineral water, where she was a bottler, as confirmed in the 1901 Census when she was still living with her parents at 34 Railway Terrace in Duddeston-cum-Nechells in Birmingham at the age of 21.
		Around five months later when Ann Elizabeth was still 21, she married Albert Frank Lester who was 27 and the son of Thomas Henry Lester, with their wedding conducted on 18^th August 1901. After they were married Ann Elizabeth Lester continued to live in Duddeston-cum-Nechells and was still there in 1911, by which time the couple had two children. Albert Frank from Birmingham was 37 and a stoker, Ann Elizabeth was 32, and their two children were Frederick Henry Lester who was nine and named after Ann’s father, and May Lester who was six years old. The only issue is that on her wedding day, Ann’s father was named as William Frederick Collett which, hopefully was recorded in error, because everything else appears very feasible.
12O19		William Ernest Collett was born at Chadlington in 1868 when his birth was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 686) during the second quarter of that year. On being baptised at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington on 30^th August 1868, he was confirmed as the son of William Price Collett and Elizabeth Mary Gee, the first of their three children. When he was two years old, he and his brother Frederick J Collett (below), together with their young mother, were staying with their maternal grandparents James and Mary Gee at Chadlington. Ten years later, at the age of 12 in 1881, William was already working as a ploughboy with his brother Frederick, when they were living with their widowed mother Elizabeth and her second husband Thomas Soles and their first child Thomas Soles who was eight years old and from Spelsbury. The family at that time was living at 65 Merriscourt Cottages in Lyneham near Chipping Norton.
		No record of William in 1891 has been found, but ten years later, according to the census in March 1901, William E Collett was 32 when he was a lodger at the Northfield Street home of the Enderwood family in Worcester, from where he was working as a railway goods guard. It was also at Worcester over four years later that William Ernest Collett from Chadlington married the much younger Alice May Matthews from Worcester. The event was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 515) during the last three months of 1905. Over the next five years Alice gave birth to three children while the family was still living in Worcester, although only two of them were still alive at the time of the next census in 1911.
		It was also in Worcester where the family was still living in April that year, when William Ernest Collett from Chadlington was 42 and again a railway goods guard employed by the Great Western Railway. His wife Alice May Collett was 31, and their two sons were William Ernest Collett who was four, and Frederick Albert Collett who was three years old. The place of birth for Alice and the two boys was confirmed as Worcester. Having already suffered the loss of their daughter nine months earlier, Alice May was seven months into her fourth pregnancy on the day of the census and gave birth to her third son just two months later, with a fourth and final son born there three years after.
		The later death of William Ernest Collett was recorded at Worcestershire register office (Ref. 6c 463) in 1940 when he was 71. It was eight years later, when she was 69, that the death of widow Alice May Collett was also recorded at Worcestershire (Ref. 9d 248) in 1948.
		12P15		William Ernest Collett			Born in 1906 at Worcester
		12P16		Frederick Albert Collett			Born in 1908 at Worcester
		12P17		Elizabeth Alice Collett			Born in 1909 at Worcester
		12P18		Thomas Charles Collett			Born in 1911 at Worcester
		12P19		John Stanley Collett			Born in 1914 at Worcester
12O20		Frederick James Collett was born at Chadlington on 18^th October 1869 and was baptised there at St Nicholas Church on 26^th December 1869. It was after that day when the birth of Frederick James Collett was registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 719) during the first quarter of 1870. Just eight months after he was baptised, his father William Price Collett died and was buried at Chadlington, leaving Frederick and his older brother William (above) to be looked after by their widowed mother at the Chadlington home of her parents, as confirmed in the census of 1871. In 1881, just like his brother William (above), he was a ploughboy and was 11 years old, while living with his widowed mother Elizabeth and her second husband Thomas Soles (Souls) and their first child Thomas Soles (Souls). The family at that time was living at 65 Merriscourt Cottages in Lyneham near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire.
		By 1891 his future bride Agnes E Burden from Chadlington was 18 years old and a domestic kitchen maid, the youngest of the four servants at a property in the East Smithfield district of London. Where Frederick James Collett was that census day is still a mystery, but at some time between 1881 and 1900 he established himself in the town of Derby. And it was there that the notice of the banns of marriage was read out each of the three Sundays leading up to his wedding day with Agnes Emma Burden in the village of their birth. It was at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1733) that the wedding was recorded during the second quarter of 1900.
		The wedding ceremony for Frederick James Collett of Derby and Agnes Emma Burden spinster of Chadlington was conducted at St Nicholas’ Church in Chadlington on 17^th April 1900 and recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1733). The groom was 30, and a coal man, the son of William Price Collett, deceased, while the bride was 27 and the daughter of Daniel Burden, her birth registered at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 732) during the second quarter of 1872. The two main witnesses were Agnes’ mother Ada Mary Burden, and Polly Souls. Polly was very likely from Frederick’s mother’s Souls (Soles) family, and perhaps representing his mother who would have been 54. Two other witnesses were H Burden and A Kilby. Shortly after they were married Frederick and Agnes were residing at Stanhope Street in Derby where their daughter and first child was born. In the census a few weeks later, the family was listed as Frederick J Collett aged 31 and from Chadlington, who was a general labourer, his wife Agnes E Collett was 28 and also of Chadlington, and their daughter Ada Collett who was two months old.
		According to the next census in 1911, Frederick James Collett from Chadlington was 41 and a general labourer with the Midland Railway who was still living in the Derby area with his family. His wife Agnes Emma Collett was 38 and born at Chadlington, daughter Ada Elizabeth Collett was 10, and William Lewis Collett was four years old. The census return also confirmed that the two children had been born in Derby. The family continued to live in Derby and it was there that Agnes Emma Collett, nee Burden, died on 11^th June 1925 and was buried at the Nottingham Road Cemetery. Her death was recorded at the Derbyshire register office (Ref. 7b 590) at the age of 53. Twenty-eight years after losing his wife Frederick James Collett died on 30^th January 1954 at the age of 83, when he was buried with Agnes at the Nottingham Road Cemetery. His death, like his wife’s, was recorded at Derbyshire register office (Ref. 3a 295).
		12P20		Ada Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1901 at Derby
		12P21		William Lewis Collett	Born in 1906 at Derby
12O22		George Frederick Charles Collett was born at Birmingham on 16^th December 1872, whose birth was registered at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 160) during the first quarter of 1873. He was the eldest son of James Collett and Fanny Lidbetter, who was baptised at St George’s Church in Birmingham on 19^th January 1873. Sometime after 1878 the family left Birmingham when they moved to Kemble Road in Croydon, Surrey, where they were living at the time of the census in 1881. At that time George F C Collett was eight years old and had three younger siblings. However, the children’s mother died in 1889, so by 1891 the four children were still living in Croydon at White Horse Lane, but with just their widowed father, when George Collett was 18 and an accountant’s clerk.
		Not long after that George’s father remarried, following which he and his three siblings all left the family home upon the arrival of two half-siblings. Ten years later, the census in 1901, revealed that George F Collett from Birmingham was 28 and working as a tram conductor, when he was a boarder at the home of the Goodall family at Collier’s Water Lane in Croydon. During the next decade George returned to his roots when, by 1911 and at the age of 38, he was once again living in the Birmingham area of the country. However, the death of George F C Collett was recorded at Staines register office (Ref. 3a 3) during the third quarter of 1923, when he was 50 years of age.
12O23		James Percival Collett was born on 12^th September 1874 at Birmingham, the second son of James Collett and Fanny Lidbetter. During his life he was referred to as Percy or James however, his birth was registered at Aston as James Percival Collett (Ref. 6d 180) during the last three months of that year. After three of his younger siblings were born in Birmingham the family moved to Surrey and, in 1881, it was at Kemble Road in Croydon, that they were living when James P Collett was five years old. Another moved followed which saw the family residing at White Horse Lane in Croydon in 1891. Later in his life James was referred to as a ‘war veteran’ and that may have related to the Boer Wars in South Africa, which is where he might have been in 1901, since no record of him in Britain has been found on the day of the census. If that assumption is correct, then he later returned to Croydon to be married.
		The marriage of James Percival Collett and Bertha Lavinia Crouch was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 139) during the third quarter of 1905. Shortly after their wedding day, James and Bertha sailed back to South Africa, where their two known children were born. The first of them was Evelyn Fanning Collett was born to parents James Percival Collett and Bertha Lavinia Collett, who was baptised at St Peter’s Church in Klerksdorp, Transvaal, on 3^rd December 1908, when James’ occupation was that of a station master with the South African Railway. After a gap of five years, their son Frederick Francis Clifford Collett was born, when James and Bertha were living at Kroonstad in Orange Free State, South Africa, south-east of Klerksdorp. Just over a month after he was born, he was baptised when his parents were confirmed as James Percival Collett and Bertha Lavina Collett. The baptism witnesses were Eva Crouch – how she was related to Bertha is not currently known, David Williams, and James Collett – the father, whose occupation was recorded as an inspector with the S A R.
		James was 83 when he passed away at the Sanatorium in Ladysmith, Uthukela, KwaZulu-Natal, where the cause of death was recorded as ‘old age’. He died on 10^th September 1957 and was buried at the General Cemetery in Ladysmith on 12^th September, when he was described as James Percival Collett of 12 Deamana Road in Kliprivier, Vereeniging, Transvaal, a married man, and a retired South Africa Railway employee, an S A R pensioner, and a war veteran.
		12P22		Evelyn Fanning Collett			Born in 1908 at Klerksdorp, Transvaal, SA
		12P23		Frederick Francis Clifford Collett			Born in 1914 at Kroonstad, South Africa
12O24		Frances Elizabeth Margaret Collett was born at Birmingham in 1876, with her birth registered at Aston (Ref. 6d 327) during the second quarter of the year, the only daughter of James and Fanny Collett. By the time of the census in 1881 Frances’ family had settled in Croydon, where she was four years old when living at Kemble Road. Rather oddly she was recorded as Margaret E M Collett, aged 14, in the Croydon census of 1891, by which time her mother had died and she was living there with her widowed father and her three brothers. It is highly likely that Frances never married, with the death of Frances E Collett, aged 84, recorded at Surrey register office (Ref. 5g 345) in 1963.
12O25		John Nelson Collett was born at Birmingham in 1878, the last of the four children of James Collett of Chadlington and his wife Fanny. His birth, like those of his older siblings, was registered at Aston (Ref. 6d 276) during the second quarter of the year. John Collett was two years old in the census of 1881 when he and his family had left Birmingham and were living at Kemble Road in Croydon. Tragically, his mother died while he was still very young and so, in 1891, when he was recorded as John N Collett aged 13, he was living at White Horse Lane in Croydon with his widowed father and his three siblings. Just a few months after the census day, John’s father remarried and two new children were added to the family. Upon leaving school, John travelled to the south coast and was a visitor at the Surrey Street, Portsmouth, home of elderly couple Alfred and Mary Hedgecock in 1901. That day John N Collett from Birmingham was 23 and working as a barman.
		No record of John Collett or John Nelson Collett has been found in the census of 1911 and thereafter there was a big jump in his life to 1954. It was on 23^rd April 1954 that John Nelson Collett from London, with a British passport and travelling alone, sailed out of the Port of Liverpool onboard the Empress of France, arriving at Quebec oe week later. His onward destination was Hardin County in Iowa, with his US Immigration records indicating he had entered the USA via Quebec and St Albans in Vermont. He remains, very much, a man of mystery.
12O26		William Albert Ernest Collett was born at White Horse Lane, South Norwood in Croydon, Surrey on 11^th November 1892, where he was baptised on 27^th December 1892, the eldest of the three children of James Collett and Sarah Maria Moore. The birth of William Albert Ernest Collett was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 247) during the last months of 1892. All three children were still alive by the time of the Croydon census in 1901 when the family was still residing at White Horse Lane where William Collett was eight years old, his sister Gladys Collett was six, and his brother Gladstone was three (both below). On completing his secondary education, when William was nearly fifteen years old, he was taken on as an employee of the London-Brighton South Coast Railway Company on 14^th September 1907 and was based at Forest Hill Station. Two and a half years later William Collett from South Norwood was 18 and a railway clerk when he and his family were still residents of Croydon. The railway employment record for William Albert Ernest Collett, born on 11^th November 1892, also includes a note that on 29^th April 1915 he moved to a new address in Wimbledon.
		Just over four years after that move to Wimbledon, it was back at Croydon where the marriage of William Albert Ernest Collett and Edith Ellen Giles was recorded (Ref. 2a 832) during the third quarter of 1919. Edith had been born at Croydon in 1896, the daughter of Henry and Louisa Giles of Gloucester Road in Croydon. As far as can be determined William and Edith only had one child, with the birth of their son recorded at Croydon register office in 1921 and his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Giles. Finally, it has been established that William Albert Ernest Collett he was living in Brighton when he died at the age of 77, his death recorded at Brighton register office (Ref. 5h 113) during the last three months of 1969.
		12P24		Reginald William James G Collett	Born in 1921 at Croydon
12O27		Gladys Beatrice Gertrude Amelia Collett was born at White Horse Lane in South Norwood on 24^th August 1894, the only daughter of James and Sarah Collett. Her birth was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 260) during the third quarter of the year. It was as Gladys Collett aged six years that she was living with her family at White Horse Lane in 1901. Upon leaving school Gladys became of children’s nurse and, according to the next census in 1911, Gladys Beatrice Gertrude Amelia Collett from South Norwood was 17 and employed as a children’s nurse at ‘Ventor’ 10 Roche Road, just off London Road [A23] in Norbury, south-west London. Twenty years later, spinster Gladys became a married woman when the marriage of Gladys B G A Collett and Thomas W Reeves was recorded at the Sussex, East Preston register office (Ref. 2b 938) during the final quarter of 1931. The death of Gladys Beatrice G A Reeves was recorded at Worthing register office (Vol. 18 2248) in Sussex during the summer of 1982.
12O28		Louis Stanley Leopold Gladstone Collett was born at White Horse Lane in South Norwood on 29^th December 1897, the youngest of the three children of James and Sarah Collett. His birth was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 225) during the first three months of 1898. The census returns for both 1901 and 1911 placed him and his family residing at White Horse Lane when on the first occasion he was recorded as Gladstone Collett aged three years and subsequently as Louis Collett who was 13 and attending school. After completing his education, he became a jockey, but with the arrival of Great War he was a member of the King’s army and as Private Collett 48290 he served with the 3^rd Wiltshire Regiment, having been posted to Trowbridge on 19^th January 1918.
		However, he was discharged from duty on 13^th November 1918, having spent from 22^nd August to 20^th September as a patient in Glover’s Hospital in Sittingbourne. The reason for his discharge was because he was poorly developed and fragile, his chest barely 32 inches when expanded and, after a few days training, he broke down and subsequently he was only given light duties. His weight was a very slight 89 lbs, only 6 stones 5 lbs, a good weight for a jockey, but not a soldier. The military record also gave his father as his next-of-kin, whose address was stated as being 226 White Horse Road, which is in the Selhurst area of Croydon. Today, it is as Whitehorse Road (the A212), off which runs Whitehorse Lane (B266).
		Ten years after he was discharged from the military, the marriage of Louis Stanley L G Collett and Marie E Powell was recorded at Reading register office (Ref. 2c 91) during the first three months of 1928. No record of any issue has been found. The only other known fact about him is that he was 83 when he died in Gloucestershire, where the death of Louis Stanley L G Collett was recorded at Gloucester register office (Vol. 22 1945) during December 1980.
12O29		Frank Chadbon Collett was born in the family home at 3 Dale Millicent Terrace, 1 Victoria Road in Bridgnorth, Shropshire on 2^nd August 1899, the eldest child of John Samuel Collett and Elizabeth Chadbon. It was at Bridgnorth register office that his birth was recorded (Ref. 6a 611) and it was at 3 Victoria Road (Milicent Terrace) in Bridgnorth St Leonard that he was living with his parents in 1901 when he was one year old. Just over four years later Frank’s father died at 3 Victoria Road and, on the day of the census in 1911, Frank was no longer living with his widowed mother and his three sisters. Instead, Frank Chadbon Collett from Bridgnorth was 11 years of age when he was recorded as an inmate and a schoolboy at The Royal Orphanage on Penn Road in Wolverhampton.
		Frank worked as a bank clerk and was thirty-two when he was married by certificate to widow Cecilia Mary Wilding at Staines register office (Ref. 3a 70) in Middlesex on 29^th August 1932. Cecilia was born in Worcestershire on 17^th February 1890, the daughter of William Snelling and Eliza Emerson and the former wife of John H Wilding to whom she was married in 1915 at Worcester. With Cecilia being ten years older than Frank there were no children born to the couple. The death of Frank Chadbon Collett was recorded at Southend register office (Ref. 4a 836) in Essex on 19^th April 1965, when his age was given in error as 64. His Will was proved at Ipswich on 27^th May 1965 when it was confirmed that he and his wife had been living at 33 Boston Avenue in Southend-on-Sea, where he passed away, and that his widow Cecilia Mary Collett was given administration of his personal effects valued at £302.
		After Frank died, Cecilia moved across the county boundary into South Suffolk, and it was at Suffolk register office (Vol. 10 2488) that her death was recorded during 1978, at the age of 88. It was in the grounds of the Church of St Bartholomew in the village of Groton, midway between Sudbury and Hadleigh, where her body was laid to rest.
12O30		Sybil Mary Collett was born at Bridgnorth in Shropshire on 19^th December 1901, the second child and eldest daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett. It was also at Bridgnorth that she was baptised on 14^th January 1902. With the birth of her three siblings recorded at Bridgnorth register office, it is rather odd that no such record for Sybil has been found. When her father died in 1905, Sybil and her two younger sisters stayed with their widowed mother at Bridgnorth, where simply as Sybil Collett she was nine years old in 1911. Why their brother was sent away to an orphanage in Wolverhampton is not known, but that was where he was in 1911. Sybil never married and was living in Sussex when she passed away at the age of 87, with the death of Sybil Mary Collett recorded at Sussex register office (Vol. 18 45) in 1989. The death recorded confirmed her date of as stated above.
12O31		Muriel Gertrude Collett was born on 5^th October 1903 at Bridgnorth, with her birth recorded at Bridgnorth register office (Ref. 6a 587) during the last three months of the year. She was three weeks old when she was baptised at Bridgnorth on 30 October 1903, another daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett. Two months before her second birthday her father died, after which the three daughters stayed with their widowed mother, while their older brother was sent away to an orphanage in Wolverhampton. In 1911 Muriel Collett was seven years old age in the Bridgnorth census. She was another sister who never married although unlike her old sister who settled in the South of England, the death of Muriel Gertrude Collett was recorded at Cheshire register office (Ref. 10a 2377) in 1970 when she was 66.
12O32		May Collett was born at Bridgnorth in 1905, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6a 574) during the fourth quarter of the year. She was the fourth and last child of John Samuel Collett and Elizabeth Chadbon, and sadly, she never knew her father who died two months prior to her being born. May was only a few days old when she was baptised at Bridgnorth on 13^th October 1905 and confirmed as the daughter of John Samuel and Elizabeth Collett. With no father to care for the wellbeing of her only brother he was sent to an orphanage in Wolverhampton, leaving five-year-old May living with her two older sisters and her mother in the family home in Bridgnorth in 1911. Neither of her older sisters were married, while no record has been found to suggest that May might not have been May Collett when she died.
12O33		Charles Guy Collett was born at Milton-under-Wychwood on 26^th August 1894, the eldest child of Charles Collett and his wife Lilian Rachel Hadlands. His birth was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 880) during the last three months of 1894, sometime after he was born. It was as Charles Guy Collett that he was six years old in the Milton census of 1901, at The Green, and was described as Guy Collett aged 16 and a plough boy, when he was still living at the family home in Milton-under-Wychwood in 1911. During the First World War Charles Guy Collett served as a private, service number 42656, with the Warwickshire Infantry Division of the Worcester Regiment, from which he was eventually discharged. However, upon the 1925 death of his aunt Elizabeth Ann O’Grady nee Collett, his father’s eldest sister, Charles Guy Collett, a commercial clerk, was named as one of the executors of her Will. The other executor was his father, Charles Collett senior. What happened to Charles Guy after that time is not currently known, except that he may have been living within the Reading and Wokingham area of Berkshire at the end of his life, where his death was recorded (Vol. 19 0268) during March 1982, at the age of 87.
12O34		Percy Ralph Collett was born on 4^th May 1896 at Milton-under-Wychwood, with his birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 933) during the second quarter of the year. By 1901 he was already attending school, when Percy Collett was five years of age and living with his family at The Green in Milton-under-Wychwood. Ten years later he had finished his education and, at the age of 14, he was working as a plough boy on a local farm, most likely alongside his father and older brother. It was towards the end of 1921, presumably after he had seen active service during the First World War, when the marriage of Percy Collett and Florence M Pullinger was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 2685). The birth of the first of their three children was recorded at the register office in Abingdon-on-Thames, where Percy’s sister was married four years later and where two of her children were born. So, maybe Percy and his family were also living in Abingdon area at that time in their lives. The births of the two later children of Percy and Florence were recorded at Chipping Norton, after the family had travelled back north to that part of the country. Percival Ralph Collett died at Shipton-under-Wychwood on 23^rd June 1944, with his death recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1615) during the second quarter of 1944, when he was 48.
		12P25		John Ralph Collett	Born in 1922 at Abingdon-on-Thames
		12P26		Doris L Collett	Born in 1924 at Chipping Norton
		12P27		Bessie Gertrude Collett	Born in 1928 at Chipping Norton
12O35		Caroline May Collett was born on 31^st December 1897 at Milton-under-Wychwood, with her birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 936), the eldest daughter of Charles and Lily Collett. The family was living at The Green in Milton in 1901, where May Collett was three years old and again as May Collett, she was 13 in 1911. Both she and her older brother Percy (above) appear to have been residing in Abingdon-on-Thames around 1922 to 1932, where Percy’s son was born in 1922, where Caroline May Collett married Frank G Bateman during the second quarter of 1926 (Ref. 2c 773), and where the births of their three children were recorded. Frank J Bateman was born early in 1927 (Ref. 2c 122), Mary M Bateman was born near the end of 1928 (Ref. 2c 60), and Violet E Bateman was born during the second quarter of 1932 (Ref. 2c 61). In all three cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Abingdon is only eight miles from the city of Oxford, where the death of Caroline May Bateman was recorded (Ref. 6b 2398) during the summer of 1972, at the age of 74.
12O36		Lilian Daisy Collett was born at The Green in at Milton-under-Wychwood in 1899, where she was living with her family in 1901 as one-year-old Daisy Collett, another daughter of Charles and Lilian Collett. Her birth was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 976) during the third quarter of 1899, and it was at Milton that she and her family were living in 1911, when again as Daisy Collett she was 11 years of age. She was a single lady aged 33 when she died, when the death of Lilian Daisy Collett was recorded at Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 3a 1231) during 1933.
12O37		Dorothy Cicely Collett was born at The Green in Milton-under-Wychwood in 1901, just prior to the day of the census that year, her birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1020) during the first three months of the year. She was another daughter of Charles and Lily Collett and in the census of 1901 and 1911 she was recorded were her family as Dorothy Collett, who was 10 years old in the latter. Just over twenty years after that census day, the marriage of Dorothy Cicely Collett and Horace Edward S French was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 2840) during the last three months of 1931. Horace was younger than Dorothy, having been born at Oxford St Ebbes on 17^th November 1907, the first-born child of Edward and Clara French, who was living in Abingdon when he died in 1981. Dorothy presented Horace with four children, all born within the county of Oxfordshire, but at different locations, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. They were Dorothy M C French in 1932 at Headington, Edward M L French in 1938 at Oxford, James C French in 1943 at Witney, and Andrew C French in 1945 also at Witney.
12O38		Emily Ivy Elizabeth Collett was born on 16^th July 1902 at The Green in Milton-under-Wychwood, where she was Ivy Collett aged eight years in 1911. It was the recording of her birth at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 1087) which revealed her full name as Emily Ivy Elizabeth Collett. Like her sister Dorothy (above), Emily was also in her thirties when she was married, the wedding of Emily I E Collett and John E Slade was recorded at Reading register office (Ref. 2c 2027) during the third quarter of 1939. No issue has been found, likely because of her advanced years, while the death of Emily Ivy Elizabeth Slade was recorded at Gloucestershire register office (Vol. 22 1664) in January 1992, aged 89.
12O39		Desmond Harold Collett was born at Milton-under-Wychwood on 3^rd December 1903, the seventh of the eight children of Charles and Rachel Collett, his birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1052). He was seven years old in the Milton-under-Wychwood census of 1911. He was almost thirty-four years old when Desmond H Collett married Mary V Collins at Brighton where the marriage was recorded (Ref. 2b 508) during the last three months of 1937. Mary Violet Collins was born at Brighton on 18^th January 1911 when her birth was recorded at Brighton register office (Ref. 2b 173), the last child of George Hansford Collins and his wife Mary Elizabeth. The births of their three children were all recorded at Oxford register office. It was on 29^th May 1977 that Desmond Harold Collett died at the age of 73, when his death was recorded at Oxford register office (Vol. 20 2421). Afterwards he was buried in the grounds of the Wolvercote Cemetery. Mary survived her husband by thirteen years and was still living in Oxford when she died on 1^st December 1990 at the age of 79, after which she was laid to rest with Desmond at Wolvercote Cemetery. The death of Mary Violet Collett, nee Collins, was recorded at Oxford register office (Vol. 20 2668) during the final three months of 1990.
		12P28	Mollie J Collett				Born in 1938 at Oxford
		12P29	Roger D Collett twin				Born in 1942 at Oxford
		12P30	Janet Margaret Collett twin				Born in 1942 at Oxford
12O40		Marion Collett was born at Milton-under-Wychwood on 6^th November 1906, the last child of Charles Collett and Lilian Rachel Hadlands. As with all her older siblings, the birth of Marion Collett was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1095) and she was living with her family at Milton-under-Wychwood in 1911 at the age of four years. All that is known about Marion is that she never married and may well have lived all her life in the county of Oxfordshire, since it was at the Oxford register office (Vol. 20 2382) that the death of Marion Collett was recorded during the spring of 1977, when she was 70 years old.
12O41		Daisy Amelia Collett was born at Church Street in Charlbury early in 1891, her birth recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 951). It was also at Charlbury where she was baptised on 22^nd March 1891, the eldest of the two children of Lewis Edward Collett, a butcher, and his wife Amelia Annie Kench. As Daisy Collett she was only one week old on the day of the Charlbury census in 1891. It was as Daisy A Collett aged 10 years when she was living with her family at Church Street in Charlbury in 1901. Daisy was only 14 when her father passed away and, four years later her mother married Samuel Herbert Cruley. By 1911, Daisy Amelia Collett from Charlbury was living at the George Hotel in Shipston-on-Stour, where her mother and stepfather were managing the establishment. It was also in 1911, that the marriage of Daisy Amelia Collett and Thomas E Clarke took place at Witney, where it was recorded (Ref. 3a 2182) during the last three months of the year. Just over two years later, Thomas and Daisy sailed to America, arriving at Ellis Island, New York, in 1914. Curiously in 1920, a Daisy Clark from England, of English parents, was recorded in the New York City centre that year, as being 25 years old and a single lady in lodgings, who was working as a pathologist at a hospital.
12O42		Lewis Percival Collett was born at Church Street in Charlbury on 13^th December 1894 with his birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 938) during the first quarter of 1895. It was at Charlbury that he was baptised on 6^th January 1895, the only son of Lewis Edward Collett and Amelia Annie Kench. He was six years old in 1901 when Lewis P Collett and his parents were still residing in Charlbury, at Church Street. However, just over four years after that his father died and after a further four years his mother remarried. Sometime prior to the next census in 1911, Lewis’ stepfather, Samuel Herbert Cruley, took on the role of manager of the George Hotel in Shipston-on-Stour where the family was residing in April 1911. Although still recorded as Lewis Percival Collett, aged 16 and from Charlbury, it was later in his life that he was known as Percy Collett. Just over three years later the war in Europe started, and it was on 8^th September 1914 that Lewis Percival Collett entered military service with the Royal Flying Corps at the age of 19.
		Eleven years after the end of the war, Lewis Percival Collett married Clara Annie Hewer, the wedding recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 3a 1929) during the first quarter of 1929. Clara was born at New Hinksey in Oxford in the summer of 1903, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 3a 1076) during the third quarter of the year. She was the fourth child of John Hewer, a house painter from Oxford, and his wife Clara. Three years after she married Percy she presented him with their only known child. At the time of the death of his mother at Witney in 1946, Percy was a hotel proprietor and was named as the sole executor of her Will. After a further thirty-two years, Percy passed away at the age of 83 in Witney, when the death of Lewis Percival Collett was recorded at Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 20 3133) in 1978.
		12P31	Nina Collett				Born in 1932 at Witney
12P2		Joseph Wilton Collett was born during 1897 at Ulmarra in the Grafton district of New South Wales and may originally have been christened Joseph William Collett after his father, his mother being Lucinda Dixon. Joseph was a farmer and grazier before he enlisted with the Australian Infantry (AIF) at Brisbane on 31^st August 1915, following the outbreak of the First World War in Europe. It was as Private 4161 Joseph Wilton Collett of the 9th Battalion AIF, from Ulmarra in New South Wales, that he left Brisbane with thirteen reinforcements on HMAT Kyarra on 3^rd January 1916, bound for France.
		Like many of his comrades, he was exposed to the gas attacks by the enemy forces at Le Barque near Martinpuich in France between the 14^th and 20^th of February in 1917. Such was the effect that Joseph was taken to the 5^th General Hospital at Rouen, where he died from pneumonia on 6^th March 1917, at the age of 20. Following his death, he was buried at the St Sever Cemetery Extension at Rouen. At home, the name of Joseph Wilton Collett is amongst those included on the Australian War Memorial at Campbell in Canberra. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission recorded that the parents of Joseph Wilton Collett were Joseph William and Lucinda Collett of Ulmarra, Clarence River in New South Wales. The above picture was kindly supplied by Marion O’Shea. Upon the death of his father in 1931, a headstone was erected on the grave which also included a memorial to Pte Wilton Collett, the son of Joseph William Collett, who died during the Great War. The name of his mother was added to the same gravestone twenty-six years later, when she died in 1957.
12P3		Henry Collett was born at Ulmarra on 14^th April 1899 and was another son of Joseph and Lucinda Collett. He was 24 years of age when he married Olive Jean McGregor during 1923. Olive was also born at Ulmarra but in 1903. Nothing more is known about the couple after their wedding day, except that Henry Collett 62 years old when he died in 1961.
12P4		Edna Collett was born at Ulmarra on 25^th January 1902 and was the eldest daughter and third child of Joseph and Lucinda.
12P5		William John Collett was born at Ulmarra on 25^th October 1904 and was the fourth child and youngest of the three sons of Joseph and Lucinda.
12P6		Netta Catherine Collett was born at Ulmarra on 17^th December 1907, the youngest of the six children of Joseph William Collett and Lucinda Dixon. She was twenty-two when she married Alfred Charles John Joss at Grafton during 1930, the son of Charles Arthur Joss and Olive Sarah Anne Barnett. He was born at Southwark in London on 7^th July 1900 and died in 1970. Their marriage produced four children for the couple, while Netta Catherine Joss nee Collett passed away on 1^st October 1991. Their first-born child was Gladys Catherine Joss, born 1^st February 1931, who married Claud Darcy Max Cochrane (1926-1961). Next were twins, the first of them was Donald Anthony James Joss, born 25^th June 1933, who married Phyllis Patricia Hadlington on 5^th May 1962, and it was Phyllis Patricia Joss, who was born at Waverley NSW on 7^th September 1935, who kindly provided the details of her Collett/Dixon family. Netta and Alfred’s other twin was Yvonne Ursula Norma Joss (1933-2009), while the last child was Margaret Dolores Hinemoa Joss, born on 7^th November 1940, who married Glen McCarthy.
12P10		Georgina May Collett, who was known as May Collett, was born at Coldstream, Ulmarra on 5^th December 1892, the daughter of James Collett and Mary Robertson. In 1909, at the age of 17, she fell in love with Clarence Herbert Shannon, aged 30, who was employed by May’s father, on his farm. James Collett was not happy with the arrangement and consequently sent May away to relatives in New Zealand, where she lived for the next five years.
		It was not known by the relatives that handed down the story, whether her father’s objection to the relationship was the age gap between the couple, or the fact that Clarence was the grandson of a convict. Clarence Herbert Shannon was born at Brushwood in Grafton, New South Wales in 1879 and was the son of Martha Prentice and Thomas Shannon. The passenger records show that a Miss M Collett (Georgina May) was accompanied by a Miss E Collett on her many trips to and from New Zealand and she may have been either her younger sister Olive Edith or, more likely, her older sister Elsie.
		During her period of absence, Clarence Shannon was married to another woman during April of 1912, with whom he had a son around a year later. However, by the time of the birth of the child, Clarence had already left his wife in December 1912, following which she served him with divorce papers on the grounds of desertion. On 26^th January 1915, May Collett arrived at Sydney from Wellington at the age of twenty-two, having served her five-year isolation period.
		Possibly on hearing the news of May’s return, the couple was reunited and Clarence hoped to secure the divorce that his wife had petitioned for, but there ensued a long and protracted battle over property, which was not resolved until 1926, when the final divorce settlement was granted. Sometime after her return to Australia in early 1915, May and Clarence rekindle their romance and during 1916 it was confirmed when May was living at the home of Clarence Shannon, together with her brother Raymond Collett. That was at Casino in New South Wales.
		Over the next nine years May presented Clarence with four base-born children, during a period in his life when he was still legally married to his first wife. Each child was born at a different location, perhaps indicating a nomadic life-style for the couple. In addition to the named children listed below, there is a high expectation within the family that Georgina May Collett may have given birth to another child while she was in New Zealand, but to date no record of such a birth has been found.
		It was only on 22^nd June 1926, and following the dissolution of his marriage, that May, then aged 34, and Clarence, aged 47, were eventually married at The Manse (Presbyterian Church) in Glen Innes, New South Wales. The marriage certificate confirmed that Clarence was a grazier, and that May was involved in domestic duties. The document also stated that Clarence was a divorced petitioner, and that May was a spinster. The couple’s parents were named as Thomas Shannon and Martha Prentice (deceased), and James Collett (deceased) and Mary Robertson, while the witnesses were John A Davidson and John A Robinson.
		In addition to Clarence’s and May’s four base-born children, the couple were blessed with a further two children, and they were born within the first three years of their married life together. All of May’s four base-born children were initially given the Collett surname. Her eldest son Henry, who was born prematurely, died when he was only seven days old, and her next son was subject to formal adoption a few years after he was born. Both of the remaining two children were taken into the care of other families who raised them, and from which time they dropped the Collett name in favour of the Shannon surname.
		Although the children were eventually reunited in 1848, that happened after both May and Clarence had passed away. Clarence Herbert Shannon died during 1934, and was followed three years later by Georgina May Shannon, nee Collett, when she died at Casino in New South Wales on 20^th September 1937 at the age of 45. However, some elements of the family were still in contact with each other in 2008 and, Sarah, the granddaughter of son Tom, was attending James Cook University in Townsville, while lodging with Marion O’Shea (her cousin one-step removed), the daughter of Tom’s sister Sheila Shannon, formerly Collett.
		Georgina May Shannon’s death certificate revealed the following information. Firstly, that she was a patient at The Friendly Society Private Hospital in Casino when she passed, and that her death was the result of an embolism caused during an hysterectomy operation, which had been conducted eighteen hours prior to her demise. She was buried at the Church of England Cemetery in South Grafton on 21^st September 1937, where the witnesses at the burial service were her brother-in-law C R Shannon, who was also the informant of her death, and P C Sanders.
		The death certificate also listed the names of only three of her five surviving children, and they were Clarence H Shannon 12, Martin R Shannon 10, and Heather M Shannon who was eight years old. However, by that time, her son Henry had been dead for eighteen years, her son James had been adopted, and her missing daughter Sheila had been fostered by another family, thus resulting in their absence from the list.
		12Q1	Henry Collett				Born in 1919 at Moree, NSW
		12Q2	James Thomas Collett				Born in 1921 at Toowoomba in Qld
		12Q3	Sheila Collett				Born in 1923 at Inverell, NSW
		12Q4	Clarence Henry Collett				Born in 1925 at Drake, NSW
		12Q5	Martin Rowland Shannon				Born in 1927
		12Q6	Heather May Shannon				Born in 1928
12P15		William Ernest Collett was born at Worcester on 6^th July 1906, the first-born child of William Ernest Collett and his wife Alice May Matthews. His birth was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 261) during the third quarter of 1906. Apart from his appearance in the 1911 census, at the age of four years, the only other record found is that of his death at Evesham register office (Vol. 29 201) in April 1985, at the age of 78.
12P16		Frederick Albert Collett was born at Worcester in 1908 with his birth recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 284) during the first three months of the year. He was three years old in 1911 and tragically, he was only eight years of age, when the death of Frederick A Collett was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 154) during the second quarter of 1916.
12P17		Elizabeth Alice Collett was born at Worcester in 1909, the only daughter of William and Alice, who sadly did not survive. The birth of Elizabeth Alice Collett was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 2457) during the third quarter of 1909, and was only one year old when her death was recorded at Worcester (Ref. 6c 105) during the third quarter of 1910.
12P18		Thomas Charles Collett was born at Worcester on 9^th June 1911, the third son of William Ernest Collett and his wife Alice May Matthews. His birth was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 464) during the third quarter of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Matthews. It was after the Second World War when the marriage of Thomas C Collett and Marjorie Brooks was recorded at Worcestershire register office (Ref. 9d 694) during the last quarter of 1946. The only other known fact relating to Thomas Charles Collett of Worcester, is that his death was recorded there (Vol. 5271b b62e) during February 1998, when he was 86. Four years earlier, the death of Marjorie Collett, ne Brooks, was recorded at Worcestershire (Vol. 5271b b53e) in 1994 when her date of birth was reported to be 21^st December 1914.
12P19		John Stanley Collett was born at Worcester on 10^th September 1914, the last child of William and Alice Collett. His birth was recorded at Worcestershire register office (Ref. 6c 217) during the last three months of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Matthews. Like his older brother Thomas (above) it seems that John lived out his life in Worcester, since it was there in March 1978 that his death was recorded (Vol. 29 0931), at the age of 63. At that time in his life, he had been married for thirty-eight years, since it was during the summer of 1940 that the marriage of 26-year-old John S Collett and Doris I Dovey was recorded at Worcester register office (Ref. 6c 663). Their marriage produced three children, with the birth of the first of them recorded in the City of Worcester, when the birth of the two younger children were recorded at Worcestershire register office. In each case the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Dovey.
		12Q7	Michael John Collett (Ref. 6c 349)				Born in 1941 at Worcester (Qrt 3)
		12Q8	Christine H Collett (Ref. 6c 277)				Born in 1944 at Worcestershire
		12Q9	Brian A Collett (Ref. 6c 268)				Born in 1945 at Worcestershire
12P20		Ada Elizabeth Collett was born at Stanhope Street in Derby on 9^th February 1901, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 7b 592). It was at St Augustine’s Church in Derby that she was baptised on 17^th March 1901, the daughter of Frederick James Collett and Agnes Emma Burden. In the census two weeks later infant Ada E Collett was three months old and living with her parents at Stanhope Street. After a further ten years Ada Elizabeth Collett was 10 years old and at school, when she and her parents, plus Ada’s brother (below) were still residing in Derby. She married John William Pratley at Derby on 28^th March 1937 with the event recorded at Derby register office (Ref. 7b 1239) during the first quarter of the year. and also died there in February 1971.
12P21		William Lewis Collett was born at Derby on 28^th April 1906 and was baptised at St Augustine’s Church on 25^th May 1906, the son of Frederick and Agnes Collett. He was four years old in the Derby census of 1911 when he was living there with his parents and sister Ada (above). Like his sister Ada, William also lived all his life in Derby where, in 1937, he married Evelyn Trowbridge, with whom he had two children. William’s occupation was that of a turner and lathe worker at the Rolls Royce factory in Derby and he died in November 1978.
		12Q10	Christine Collett				Born in 1941 at Derby
		12Q11	Jeffrey Collett				Born in 1945 at Derby
12P22		Evelyn Fanning Collett was born at Klerksdorp, Transvaal, in South Africa during on 1^st July 1908, the first child and only known daughter of James and Bertha Collett. It was at the Church of St Peter in Klerksdorp that she was baptised on 3^rd December 1908, Klerksdorp being a few miles north-west of Kroonstad where her younger brother (below) was later born and baptised.
12P23		Frederick Francis Clifford Collett was born at Kroonstad on 28^th February 1914 at Kroonstad, Orange Free State, South Africa. He was baptised there on 5^th April 1914, the second child and only known son of James Percival Collett and Bertha Lavinia Crouch.
12P24		Reginald William James G Collett was born on 13^th May 1921 at Croydon, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 2a 647) during the second quarter of 1921, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Giles. He was the only child of William Albert Ernest Collett and Edith Ellen Giles. It was during the third quarter of 1950, when the marriage of Reginald W J G Collett and Kathleen Wilson was recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 551). However, it was earlier that same year when the birth of their son was recorded at the Surrey North-Western register office. It looks like Reginald retired from whatever occupation he had and settled in Somerset towards the end of his life, and it was there, at the Mendip register office (Vol. 7213 w33b), that his death was recorded during February 1998, when he was 76.
		12Q12	John R Collett				Born in 1950 in Surrey
12P25		John Ralph Collett was born at Abingdon-on-Thames on 1^st May 1922, the eldest of the three children of Percy Ralph Collett and Florence M Pullinger, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 2c 558), with his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Pullinger. Just like his youngest sister Bessie (below), John was also around twenty-eight years of age when the marriage of John Ralph Collett and Cynthia Holloway was recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 6b 1679) during the second quarter of 1950. Their only known child, Charles W Collett, was born in 1953 and tragically died a little while after, his birth and death both recorded during the second quarter of the year at Middlesbrough register office (Refs. 1b 1074 & 1b 624), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Holloway. John Ralph Collett was 78 years old and living at Thanet-with-Dover where his death was recorded (Vol. 5751a a10e) during the month of March in 2001.
		12Q13	Charles W Collett				Born in 1953 at Middlesbrough
12P26		Doris L Collett was born in 1924, her birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1823) during the third quarter of 1924, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Pullinger.
12P27		Bessie Gertrude Collett was born on 21^st January 1928 with her birth also recorded at Chipping Norton (Ref. 3a 1790) during the first quarter of that year, her mother also confirmed as having the maiden-name of Pullinger. It was during the first three months of 1956, when she was around twenty-eight years old, that the marriage of Betty G Collett and Thomas C Pratley was recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 6b 2405). The birth of their only child, Wendy A Pratley, was also recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 6b 1292) during the second quarter of 1957. The later death of Betty Gertrude Pratley was recorded at Oxford in April 1992 (Vol. 20 2459), when she was 64.
12P28		Mollie J Collett was born on 31^st January 1938, her birth recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 1917), months of the year, the eldest of the three children of Desmond Harold Collett and Mary Violet Collins. Mollie was almost 21 years of age when her marriage to David W John was also recorded at Oxford (Ref. 6b 1507), during the second quarter of 1959. Mollie gave birth to two children during the following ten years, first was Sarah J John in 1962, and then Rachel Mary John in 1969, the births of both girls recorded at Oxford, with their mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Collett.
12P29		Roger D Collett was born in 1942 and was the twin brother of Janet (below), the only son and one of the three children of Desmond and Mary Collett. His birth was recorded at Oxford (Ref. 3a 3002) during the second quarter of the year when his mother’s maiden-name was Collins. At the age of 23, the marriage of Roger D Collett and Jean M Morgan was also recorded at Oxford (Ref. 6b 2295) during the third quarter of 1963. The first of the couple’s three daughters was born in Oxford, while it was at Bicester, to the north of Oxford, that the other two girls were born. In each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Morgan.
		12Q14	Lorna F Collett				Born in 1965 at Oxford
		12Q15	Joanne Carol Collett				Born in 1967 at Bicester/Ploughley
		12Q16	Heather Mary Collett				Born in 1969 at Bicester/Ploughley
12P30		Janet Margaret Collett was born in 1942 and her birth was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 3002) during the second quarter of that year with the same reference as her twin brother (above). They were the two youngest children of Desmond and Mary Collett. Janet was twenty-one when she married the much older Richard Donald Berry at Oxford during the second quarter of 1963 (Ref. 6b 1599). Richard was born at Camberwell in London on 12^th May 1925 and he died at Witney on 17^th January 2009. Their marriage produced two daughters, the births of Lisa Jane Berry and Susanne Louise Berry both recorded at Oxford in 1966 and 1968, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. Janet Margaret Berry was at Aylesbury when she died on 1^st October 2000, when she was only 58.
12P31		Nina Collett was born at Witney in 1932, the only child of Lewis Percival Collett and Clara Annie Hewer. Her birth was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 1948) during the second quarter of 1932. Towards the end of 1956, the marriage of Nina Collett and Cornelius A McKenzie was recorded at Harrow in Middlesex (Ref. 5f 57) during the last three months of that year.
12Q1		Henry Collett was born at Moree in New South Wales on 10^th October 1919 and survived for just a week when he died 17^th October 1919. His death certificate conformed that he died at Nurse O’Hara’s Private Hospital in Moree, and that he had been prematurely born. It would also appear that his seven days were all spent in the hospital under Doctor Matthew Harris. The certificate also stated that his mother was Georgina May Collett and that the informant of the death was Olive O’Hara, no relation. Baby Henry Collett was buried at the Presbyterian Cemetery in Moree, on the same day that he died.
12Q2		James Thomas Collett, who was referred to as Tom, was born at Toowoomba in Queensland in 1921. He was the oldest surviving base-born son of Georgina May Collett and Clarence Herbert Shannon and, whilst he lived with them for a few years, he was formally adopted by the Siebenhausen family of Toowoomba, to become James Thomas Siebenhausen. He was married in the late 1940s and the marriage produced two sons for Tom. Michael Siebenhausen was born at Oakey in Queensland on 29^th April 1949, and Stephen Charles Siebenhausen was born on 30^th November 1954 at Clifton in Queensland. James Thomas Siebenhausen, formerly Collett, died at Pittsworth in Queensland on 7^th August 1989. It is Stephen’s daughter Sarah who attended James Cook University in Townsville where she studied veterinary science.
12Q3		Sheila Collett was born at Inverell in New South Wales on 11^th January 1923 and was the base-born daughter of Georgina May Collett. Following the marriage of her mother May to her father Clarence Herbert Shannon in 1926, when she was three years old, Sheila adopted her father’s surname to replace her mother’s maiden, as did her older brother Tom and younger brother Clarence Henry. However, as Sheila Shannon she was taken into the care of another family and was only reunited with her siblings at a later date. Her foster parents had tried in previous years to persuade her to meet with her parents but with little success and Sheila last saw them in 1931. And it was as Sheila Shannon that she later married Herbert Francis O’Shea at Cairns in Queensland in 1942 with whom she had two children.
		She was eventually reunited with her siblings in 1948 although they had no knowledge of her existence as they were all too young to remember. The reunion was not a happy event and no further meetings took place. Sheila died in 1997 and in the week prior to her passing she expressed a wish that it would be nice to once again meet up with her brothers and sisters, but sadly that never happened. Since her death Sheila’s two children have been in contact with their surviving aunt and uncle and their cousin, the son of the late Clarence Henry Shannon.
		12R1		Herbert Patrick O’Shea	Born in 1942 at Ayr, Queensland
		12R2		Heather Marion O’Shea	Born in 1944 at Townsville, Queensland
12Q4		Clarence Henry Collett was born at Drake in New South Wales in 1925 and was the base-born son of Georgina May Collett. It was during the year following his birth that his mother married his father, following which Henry took up his father’s surname and became Henry Shannon. Later in his life Clarence was married and his wife presented him with a son Rory.
		12R3		Rory Shannon	Date of birth unknown
12Q7		Christine Collett was born at Derby on 25^th January 1941, her birth recorded there (Ref. 7b 1221), when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Trowbridge. Twenty-two years later she married Edward G Mould in 1963, the event recorded at Shardlow register office (Ref. 3a 1196) during the third quarter of that year. The couple eventually moved to Bristol, where Christine was a school teacher. Christine Mould nee Collett died at Bristol on 1^st May 1999, at the age of 58, her passing recorded at the South Gloucestershire register office (Vol. 3041b b12).
12Q8		Jeffrey Collett was born at Derby on 15^th June 1945, his birth recorded at Derby register office (Ref. 7b 976), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Trowbridge. As a young man Jeffrey served with the Royal Air Force for several years and was posted to many places around the world, including Africa and Middle East. Following his military service, he settled in Derbyshire where he still lives to this day, and where he worked as a quantity surveyor prior to retirement. It was on 3^rd October 1970 that Jeffrey married (1) Diana Morris, their marriage recorded at Repton register office (Ref. 3a 987). Over the following decade, Diana presented Jeffrey with two children who were both born while the family was living at Burton-on-Trent. Twenty-five years later, Jeffrey and Diana were divorced on 1^st May 1995 and, four years later, Jeffrey married (2) Janet Till nee Thomas on 6^th March 1999, their wedding recorded at South Derbyshire register office (Vol. 397 0711).
		12R4		Iain Collett	Born in 1975 at Burton-on-Trent
		12R5		Robert Collett	Born in 1979 at Burton-on-Trent
12Q9		John R Collett was born in 1950, a few months before his parents were married in Surrey, his birth recorded at the Surrey North-Western register (Ref. 5g 889) during the second quarter of 1950, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed Wilson. It was around his twenty-fourth birthday that the marriage of John R Collett and Eleanor M Chatterley was recorded at Surrey North-Western register office (Vol. 17 0562) during the second quarter of 1974. The births of their three children were all recorded at the Reading & Wokingham register office, with the mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Chatterley. The marriage of the couple’s youngest child was recorded at Winchester (Vol. 502 0294) during the summer of 2002, when eighteen-year-old Jessica Rachel Collett married Robert C Waddington.
		12R6		Lisa Jayne Collett	Born in 1978 at Reading & Wokingham
		12R7		Iain Robert Collett	Born in 1982 at Reading & Wokingham
		12R8		Jessica Rachel Collett	Born in 1984 at Reading & Wokingham
12Q12		Joanne Carol Collett was born at Bicester in 1967, with her birth recorded at the Bicester Ploughley register office (Ref. 6b 1984) during the first quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Morgan. The marriage of Joanne Carol Collett and William M Oliver was recorded at the West Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 20 2994) during May 1989. Joanne gave birth to two children, the births of both was recorded at Oxford register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was Collett. Kate Elizabeth Oliver was born in November 1991, and Samuel William Oliver in June 1995.
12R2		Heather Marion O’Shea, who is referred to as Marion, was born at Townsville in Queensland in 1944. Grateful thanks go to Marion, as it was she, who kindly provided the details of her family line.
12R4		Iain Collett was born at Burton-on-Trent on 10^th September 1975, with his birth recorded at the East Staffordshire register office (Ref. 30 23), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Morris. Iain qualified as a chartered accountant and, on 23^rd September 2000, he married Catherine Sarah Bould, their wedding day recorded at the Leicestershire register office (Vol. 605 1081). Nine years later, the couple was residing in Derbyshire during 2009. It is interesting to note that prior to their wedding day, Catherine Bould’s brother, Andrew J Bould, married Helen L Collett of Burton-on-Trent, the event also recorded at the East Staffordshire register office (Vol. 30 839) during May in 1993. It is now known that the birth of Helen Louise Collett at Burton-on-Trent was recorded there (Ref. 9b 167) during the first quarter of 1969, when her mother’s maiden-name was recorded as Scotney and her father was John V Collett (Ref. 1R10). Grateful thanks go to Iain for providing the new details relating to his family line, the majority of which were originally gathered by his father Jeffrey from the parish records at Chadlington.
		12S1		DYLAN ALFRED Collett	Born on 25^th January 2012
12R5		Robert Collett was born at Burton-on-Trent on 13^th July 1979, hand as with his brother Iain (above), his birth was also recorded at the East Staffordshire register office (Vol. 30 789), his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Morris. In 2009, bachelor Robert was working as a town planner in Gosport, Hampshire, where he lives.
	APPENDIX – GLYMPTON
	It may be interesting to note that in the Oxfordshire Census of 6^th June 1841, there appears to be just one Collett family with a Glympton connection. That was Rachel Collett (Ref. 39M5) aged 67, the wife of William Collett of Clanfield. Living there with her, were her three unmarried sons, Thomas Collett (Ref. 39N4) aged 28, George Collett (Ref. 39N7) aged 25, and James Collett (Ref. 39N8) aged 21.
	Further information on all of them can be found in Part 39 – The Clanfield Oxfordshire Line