PART TWENTY

 

The Suffolk to Australia and County Durham Line – 1790 to 2008

 

is a continuation from Part 18 – The Main Suffolk Line

 

Updated December 2023

 

 

The extensive update of this file in July 2010 was thanks to Susanne Collett from

Scarborough in Queensland who kindly provided the new information via www.ozigen.com,

with other additional information kindly supplied by Anne Thomson of Braemar in NSW

 

This is the family of Ian Joseph Collett (Ref. 20R76) of Tamworth

in New South Wales and his sister Anne Beatrice Thomson nee Collett (Ref. 20R74)

whose line is denoted by the names in capitals.  It is also the line of the aforementioned

Susanne Collett (Ref. 20T4) who died in 2018, whose line is marked by the underlined names

 

 

 

The second of the five sections of Part 18 – The Main Suffolk Line contains William Collett (Ref 18N39) the base-born son of Hannah Collett.  Hannah never married and died in July 1801 when she was only 29, leaving her nine-year-old son William in the care of his grandfather William Collett (Ref. 18L36).  William, whose first wife Hannah Mills had died in 1798, married Mary Girling at Wilby in 1803.

 

 

 

 

20N1

WILLIAM COLLETT (Ref. 18N39) was baptised on 10th September 1792 at Wilby in Suffolk, which is midway between Diss (in Norfolk) and Framlingham, although he may have been born a few years earlier according to one unconfirmed source.  The Parish Register at Wilby (ref. FC88/D1/2) recorded that on Monday 10th September 1792 “Garrod William, the base-born son of Hannah Collett (who was 20 at that time), was privately baptised PP” - the PP referring to her pauper status.  The entry may point to the fact that the father had the surname Garrod which William dropped in favour of Collett, probably after the death of his mother in 1801.  William’s baptism was also recorded in the Archdeacon’s Transcript for 1792-93.

 

 

 

It was as William Collett, a labourer, that he was married by banns to Mary Knights at the church of St Thomas & St Mary in Wortham near Diss on Monday 19th May 1817 (Parish Register ref. FB131/D1/9).  Both were listed as single and “of this parish” and both signed by making a cross.  The witnesses were William Driver and Francis Groom.  It seems likely that Mary was already with-child at the time of the wedding as their first child was born just seven months later.  The baptisms of their first four children were recorded in the Wortham Parish Register where there was also an entry on 20th September 1824 (Parish Register ref. FB131/D1/5) for William Collett of Wortham, labourer and Mary Collett nee Knights who were “privately baptised”.  And perhaps that was to finally supersede William’s original baptism as William Garrod.

 

 

 

In the first national census of 1841, William and Mary were living at Long Green in Wortham, when both of them had a round age of 45.  Living there with them, were their three oldest children William Collett, John Collett, and Philip Collett, all recorded with a rounded age of 20.  During the next ten years the children were married and had left the family home, and in 1846 William’s wife Mary died was buried in the graveyard of Wortham Church on 10th September 1846.  By 1851, William Collett was confirmed as a widower aged 60, who had been born at Wilby, and who was still working as an agricultural labourer.  His age that day, indicated that he was possibly up to two years of age when he was baptised in 1792.  On that occasion he was living alone at Long Green in Wortham, and living in the house next door was his son John and his family.  Also still living in Wortham was his eldest son William with his family.

 

 

 

By the time of the next census in 1861, widower William Collett was recorded in error as 73 when he was living at the home of his eldest son William Collett and his wife Ann Collett nee Pretty at Long Green, Hartismere in Wortham.  That may well have been the same house that William (senior) had occupied ten and twenty years earlier in 1851.  Just over three and a half years later, William Collett died at Wortham and was buried there with his wife on 14th December 1864, when his age was again possibly recorded in error as 69.  The death of William Collett was recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 4) during the last quarter of 1864.

 

 

 

20O1

William Collett

Born in 1817 at Wortham

 

20O2

John Collett

Born in 1818 at Wortham

 

20O3

PHILIP COLLETT

Born in 1819 at Botesdale

 

20O4

Susanna Collett

Born in 1821 at Wortham

 

20O5

George Collett

Born in 1824 at Wortham

 

 

 

 

20O1

William Collett was born at Wortham where he baptised on Sunday 12th December 1817 (Parish Register ref. FC85/D1/4), when it was confirmed that he was the son of William Collett and Mary Knights.  In June 1841, William was still living in the family home with his parents but, two years later, he married Ann Elizabeth Pretty at Wortham during 1843 and it is understood that the couple had thirteen children, all of whom were born at Wortham.  Ann was born at Horringer in Suffolk in 1823, and the surname Pretty occurs in Part 30 – The Third Suffolk Line around that same time, so there may be a connection to that family line which needs to be resolved – see Ref. 30N1.

 

 

 

According to the 1851 census for Wortham, William of Wortham was thirty-four and was employed as an agricultural labourer.  Living with him was his wife Ann from Horringer, just south of Bury St Edmunds, who was twenty-seven, together with their three children, William who was seven, Eliza who was four, and two-year-old Laura, all three children having been born at Wortham.  By that time the couple had produced four children, although their second son Philip had died when he was only two weeks old.  However, over the next decade more children were born into the family, and the next son was also named Philip.

 

 

 

Ten years later in 1861, the family had suffered the recent loss of their two youngest daughters, plus their fifth child, all three being Jane, when William was 43 and Ann was 37, when they were living at Long Green, Hartismere in Wortham with their five surviving children.  They were William who was 17, Eliza who was 14, Laura who was 13, Philip who was eight, and Emma who was four years old.  Also living with them at that time was William’s widowed father William Collett.  According to the next census in 1871, the family was again living in Wortham, where William Collett was 53 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Ann Collett was 47 and from Horringer, while all of the other members of the family had been born at Wortham.  Living with the couple that day were their seven of their thirteen children, although an eighth child was also living nearby.  The seven still living at the family home were William who was 29, Eliza who was 26, Laura who was 22, Emma who was 16, Jane who was eight, Caleb who was nearly two years old, and Samuel J Collett who was only a few months old.

 

 

 

By 1881, the couple had moved over the county boundary into Norfolk, when they were living at Mount Road, Mount Pleasant in Diss.  William Collett from Wortham was 65 and an agricultural labourer, who was also described as “a lunatic”.  His wife Ann Collett was 58, when her place of birth was said to be Wortham, rather than Horringer.  Her occupation was that of brush maker, like three of her daughters ten years earlier.  Living with William and Ann were unmarried daughters Emma Collett, aged 24, who was recorded as Alice, and Jane Collett, who was 20, both sisters being brush makers like their mother.  Also living with them was son Caleb John Collett who was 12 and described as an errand boy.

 

 

 

Six years later, the death of William Collett was recorded at St Faith’s during the first three months of 1887, when he was 70 years old.  Four years later, his widow Ann Elizabeth Collett, aged 68 and from Bury-St-Edmund (Horringer), together with her son Caleb John Collett, aged 31, were lodgers at 8 Edith Road in Tottenham, the London home of her daughter Emma Alice Bugg nee Collett and her husband Charles James Bugg.

 

 

 

20P1

William Collett

Born in 1842 at Wortham

 

20P2

Philip Collett

Born in 1844 at Wortham

 

20P3

Eliza Collett

Born in 1846 at Wortham

 

20P4

Laura Collett

Born in 1848 at Wortham

 

20P5

Jane Collett

Born in 1851 at Wortham

 

20P6

Philip Collett

Born in 1853 at Wortham

 

20P7

Emma Alice Collett

Born in 1856 at Wortham

 

20P8

Jane Collett

Born in 1858 at Wortham

 

20P9

Alice Jane Collett

Born in 1860 at Wortham

 

20P10

Alice Jane Collett

Born in 1861 at Wortham

 

20P11

Amelia Collett

Born in 1866 at Wortham

 

20P12

Alfred Collett

Born in 1868 at Wortham

 

20P13

Caleb John Collett

Born in 1869 at Wortham

 

20P14

Samuel Jesse Collett

Born in 1870 at Wortham

 

 

 

 

20O2

John Collett was born at Wortham and baptised there on Sunday 8th November 1818 (Parish Register ref. FB131/D1/5), the son of William Collett and Mary Knight.  The register also notes that he was privately baptised which means it took place at home, but that he was received into the church on 17th January 1819.  That would indicate that he was a poorly baby and unable to go to the church when first born.  He was living at Wortham with his parents in June 1841 and, thirty months after that, he married Maria Green at Hartismere during December 1843.  The following year the couple’s only child was born. 

 

 

 

In 1851 John, aged 32 and an agricultural labourer born at Wortham, was married to Maria, aged 27, who was born at Mellis a village just one mile immediately south of Wortham.  Living with them at Long Green in Wortham was their son George who was six years old and born at Wortham.  Also living with the family was Maria’s sister Sarah Green, aged 25, an unmarried tailoress of Mellis, and with her was her base-born son Arthur Green who was just four months old and also from Mellis.  According to the 1851 census return for John and Maria, it would appear that they were living next door to John’s father William Collett.

 

 

 

Nearly three years later, the death of Maria Collett was recorded at Wangford (Ref. 4a 4) during the first three months of 1854.  Sometime after that family tragedy, widower John Collett and his son George, left Suffolk and travelled north to County Durham, where they were both living in 1861.  The census that year revealed that John Collett was listed as residing at Ormesby Eston near Middlesbrough.  By that time George was no longer with his father but was living at Guisborough about eight miles away.  John Collett died during December 1862 and the death was registered at Guisborough, presumably by his son George, who was living there at that time (Vol. 9d, page 326).

 

 

 

20P15

George Collett

Born in 1844 at Wortham

 

 

 

 

20O3

PHILIP COLLETT was born on 7th November 1819 at Botesdale, a village to the west of Wortham, although it was at Wortham that he was baptised on 19th December 1819 (Parish Register ref. FB131/D1/5), when his parents were confirmed as William Collett and Mary Knights.  He became a farm labourer and at the time of the census in June 1841 he was still living with his parents at the family home in Wortham.  Four months after that, when Philip was 21, he married (1) 19-year-old Maria Hammond at Wortham on Monday 1st November 1841, the ceremony conducted by the Rev. Richard Cobbold of Wortham.  Maria was a school mistress at nearby Hartismere School, and was born at Wortham in 1822.  At her baptism on 3rd October 1822, the entry in parish register recorded that Maria Hammant was the daughter of William Hammant and Elizabeth Harbour.

 

 

 

The witnesses at the wedding of Philip and Maria were Charles Elvin, Sarah Ann Bryant, and Maria’s two sisters Mary and Hannah Hammond.  And it was while Philip and Maria were living at Wortham that their only child was born.  When the child was only fifteen months old, Philip and his wife and daughter emigrated to Australia.  The passenger list included the name of Philip Collett aged 23, who was a farm labourer, with a ticket price of £18 14 Shillings, the same for his wife Maria, a school mistress at 20, while their daughter Eliza, aged one year, travelled at half-fare.  Also listed with them was Maria’s sister Mary Hammant who was 16 and a nurse – see the later explanation for this.

 

 

 

First, they made their way to Ireland from Deptford, from where they sailed out of Cork on Thursday 26th October 1843 on board the three-masted sailing vessel, the barque Neptune, which arrived in Sydney on 11th February 1844.  The ship, under the Master William James Ferris, transported 308 bounty emigrants and during the difficult voyage ten passengers died, including three babies and two toddlers.  That resulted in the ship being placed in quarantine for three days on its arrival in New South Wales because of smallpox.  One of the later casualties of the journey was Philip’s wife Maria.  She had not been well when leaving England, and suffered badly during the sea voyage and, due to her poor state of health she died within three months of setting foot on Australian soil, when she passed away on 7th May 1844 at a benevolent asylum.  During those early days Philip and his wife and child had stayed at a house in Domain Terrace.

 

 

 

It was Maria’s father who had invited Philip and Maria, with baby Eliza, to join him in Australia and for which he sent the money for their passage.  The invitation also included Maria’s two sisters Mary and Hannah who made the same journey to New South Wales on board the Neptune.  That happened after the Reverend Richard Cobbold at Wortham received a letter via Dr Broughton, the Bishop of Sydney, together with a sum of money sent by William Hammant.  William Hammant had been convicted, with his brother James, of stealing wheat found at the Hammant family’s home at The Dolphin Inn near Wortham.  On 6th January 1832 they were both sentenced at Suffolk Quarter Sessions to fourteen years transportation, arriving in Sydney on 17th August 1832 on board the Lady Harewood.

 

 

 

Widower William later became a church warden at the town of Appin (just south of Sydney) from where he made his generous offer to provide the money (twenty pounds per person) for the rest of his family to join him.  Philip Collett was provided with free passage to Sydney on the condition that he took with him William’s two daughters Maria and Hannah; Hannah had only just been born when he was transported.  After the tragic death of his wife, Philip and his daughter Eliza went to live at Appin where his father-in-law was still living, and it was there that he worked for the Reverend Sparling.  That situation continued for nineteen months following the death of Maria, at the end of which he was to meet his second wife who also worked for the Rev. Sparling.

 

 

 

Philip Collett married (2) Lucy Bean on Tuesday 16th December 1845 at St Marks Church in Appin near Sydney in New South Wales.  Lucy was born on 29th July 1825, the daughter of James Thomas Bean (junior) and Esther Short.  Her maternal grandmother was Sarah Maria Kelly who was very likely the first convict ancestor of the Collett family who was transported from Dublin to New South Wales around 1797.  Lucy’s paternal grandfather, James Bean, emigrated to Australia many years earlier as a master carpenter to help build the colony, including the hospital.  His family were subject to a tragic incident when a gang of thugs, possibly convicts, raped the Bean women and looted their home.  A later incident involved James Bean junior, whose barn was burned down by a convict, following the said convict was duly hanged on his property, frontier justice style.

 

 

 

Once Philip and Lucy were married, they moved into the parsonage in Appin where they both worked, and where their first child was born.  The marriage produced a total of thirteen children for Philip and Lucy, and all of them except the last child were born in Appin.  It was while the family was still living at Appin, that Philip was one of six local patrons elected at a public meeting to establish a Vested National School in Appin.  He and his family also lived in various properties in the town of Appin owned by the Rev. Sparling.  They were at Elladale Road, Lachlan Vale Road, and Macquarie Dale Road.  It would appear that Philip later became a farmer, perhaps after he had left Appin.

 

 

 

It was while living at Elladale Road that the couple’s second and third child was born.  It is also interesting that, at the time of the birth of some of his children, Philip gave his name as Philip Spelling Collett, and it is wondered if that was simply a misinterpretation of Philip Sparling Collett, and a reference to his benefactor and landlord.  It may also be noteworthy that the Rev. Sparling built Elladale Cottage on the Elladale Road in 1838, and that it served as a church until the construction of St Mark’s Church in Appin was completed during 1842.  It is conceivable that the Collett family lived at Elladale Cottage until around 1849, the cottage later being occupied by Rachel Henning (1826-1914), the writer of many letters to her sister in England.

 

 

 

Around 1849 the family moved to nearby Lachlan Vale Road where Philip and Lucy’s next six children were born.  Just prior to 1864 they moved again, that time to Macquarie Dale Road, where Lucy presented Philip with a further two more children.  The final family move took place between 1868 and 1872, when Philip and Lucy travel south to Gunning in New South Wales, just north of Canberra, where many of Lucy’s family relatives were living at that time.  It was also after the couple settled in Gunning that their last child was born.  Sadly, that last child did not survive beyond eighteen months, when she died in 1874, and was followed two years later by her father.  Philip Collett died on Tuesday 24th October 1876 when he was 56.  His widow Lucy Collett nee Bean died twenty-one years later on 26th March 1897.

 

 

 

20P16

Eliza Collett

Born in 1842 at Wortham

 

The following are the children of Philip Collett and his second wife Lucy Bean:

 

20P17

Mary Collett

Born in 1846 at Appin

 

20P18

Arthur Collett

Born in 1848 at Appin

 

20P19

Philip Collett

Born in 1850 at Appin

 

20P20

James Thomas Collett

Born in 1852 at Appin

 

20P21

Lucy Amelia Collett

Born in 1854 at Appin

 

20P22

William Collett

Born in 1856 at Appin

 

20P23

Louisa Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1857 at Appin

 

20P24

Esther Alice Collett

Born in 1859 at Appin

 

20P25

JOSEPH COLLETT

Born in 1861 at Appin

 

20P26

Louisa Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1864 at Appin

 

20P27

Emily Jane Collett

Born in 1865 at Appin

 

20P28

Dulcie Ella Collett

Born in 1867 at Appin

 

20P29

Ada Rhoda Collett

Born in 1873 at Gunning

 

 

 

 

20O4

Susanna Collett was born at Wortham during 1821 and due to her poor state of health she was privately baptised at home in Wortham on Sunday 8th July 1821, when the baptism record confirmed that she was the daughter of William Collett and Mary Knight.  She survived for just another month, when she died at Wortham, where infant Susanna Collett was buried on 13th August 1821.

 

 

 

 

20O5

George Collett was born at Wortham in 1824, where he was baptised on 20th September 1824, the only known child of William Collett and Mary Knight.  It is understood that he suffered an infant death and died just a few weeks after he was baptised.

 

 

 

 

20P1

William Collett was born at Wortham in 1842, although it was not until 7th January 1844 that he was baptised there, the first child of William Collett and his wife Ann Elizabeth Pretty.  By the time of the Wortham census of 1851 William was seven years old when he was still living there with his parents.  He was still there ten years later at the age of 17, and was still unmarried at the age of 29 when he was once again living at Wortham with his large family in 1871, when he was working as an agricultural labourer, like his father.  Apart from the above details, the only other record of William, is the fact that his death was recorded at Plomesgate register office (Ref. 4a 85) during the last quarter of 1916, when he was 74.

 

 

 

 

20P2

Philip Collett was born at Wortham in 1845, his birth recorded at Hartismere (Ref. xiii 125) during the fourth quarter of the year.  Not long after he was born, he was baptised at Wortham on 23rd November 1845, the son of William and Ann Collett.  Tragically, he only survived for just less than one month after that, when he died in December 1845, and was buried at Wortham on 17th December 1845.

 

 

 

 

20P3

Eliza Collett was born at Wortham in 1846 and was baptised there on 14th March 1847, the daughter of William and Ann Collett.  In 1851, Eliza was four years old and in 1861 she was 14.  By 1871, when she was recorded as 26 years old and employed as a brush maker, the same occupation as her two younger sisters (below), she was still living with her family in Wortham.  It was at Wortham that Eliza Collett married Samuel Bartram, with the wedding recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 291) during the fourth quarter of 1872.  In the 1881 census, a Harry Bartram, aged 25 and a bricklayer’s labourer (possibly Samuel’s brother), was working for Alfred W Copping, aged 27 who was a builder employing three men (possibly George Copping’s brother, the husband of Eliza’s sister Laura (below).  Both men had been born in Wortham.

 

 

 

By 1881 the marriage of Eliza and Samuel had produced three children for the couple and all of them born at Wortham.  However, by that census day the family was living at the Cottage-By-Ling in Palgrave, between Diss and Wortham.  The census return listed Samuel Bartram as 30 and an agricultural labourer born at Wortham, his wife as Eliza who was 34 and of Wortham, and their three children.  They were Jessie Bartram who was six and born in 1874, Philip Bartram who was five and born in 1875), and Albert Bartram who was three years old and born during 1877.  Samuel’s father was Samuel Bartram an agricultural labourer of Wortham born in 1819 who, in 1881, was a widower living at Millway Lane in Palgrave with his daughter and housekeeper Eliza Bartram, who was 21, and his daughter Sarah Bartram who was 18 and who was listed as unwell and with no occupation.  Both daughters had been born at Palgrave and both were unmarried.

 

 

 

 

20P4

Laura Collett was born at Wortham in 1848 and it was there that she baptised on 15th April 1849, the daughter of William and Ann Collett.  In the following census record for Wortham, Laura Collett was living there with her parents at the ages of two years.  On leaving school nearly ten years later, Laura entered the world of domestic service and, on the day of the next census in 1861, Laura Collet from Wortham was 13 years old and a house servant at the home of the Alger family at Manor House Road in Wortham.  Robert Alger was a farmer of 115 acres, employing five labourers, one of which was yard-boy Robert Copping, who was 14 and born at Palgrave.  And that close association for Laura may be how she met Robert’s younger brother George Copping, to whom she was later married.  After a further ten years, Laura Collett was 22 years old in the census of 1871, by which time she was again living at the family home, where she was a brush maker, working alongside her older sisters Eliza and Emma (below).  Laura may well have given birth to a base-born daughter at Wortham in 1865, when she was around 17 years old age, since the burial records at Wortham include the death of infant Laura Collett who was buried there on 16th December 1865.  Shortly after the census in 1871, Laura Collett married George Copping at Wortham, the wedding recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 327) during the first quarter of 1872.

 

 

 

George Copping was born at Palgrave in 1852 and was baptised at Wortham on 29th May 1852, the son of Robert and Mary Ann Copping.  In 1871 the Copping family was living at Wortham, where George was the eldest of the five children still living with their parents, when he was 18 and an agricultural labourer.  Very curiously, no record of the family has been located anywhere within the census of 1881, even though George and Laura had three or four children born and baptised in Suffolk between 1872 and 1881.

 

 

 

The search for them did unearth another Copping family, that of George and his wife Susannah Copping who was born at Wortham and is known to be Susan Mace.  They and their family were living at 14 Katherine Street in Darlington in County Durham.  Laura’s brother Philip Collett (below), her cousin George (below) and his father John Collett (Ref. 20O2) had previously moved to Durham.  The census in 1881 recorded George Copping as a blacksmith’s striker aged 37 and born at Bressingham in Norfolk, and his wife Susannah as 35 and born at Wortham.  On that day, their children were listed as Mary J Copping aged 12, John R Copping aged 11, Emily Copping aged nine, Charlotte Copping aged seven, Eliza Copping aged four, and George S Copping who was three years of age.  The couple’s first child was born at Shildon near Bishop Auckland, with the remaining having been born after the move to Darlington.

 

 

 

Moving forward another ten years and the Copping/Collett family has been positively identified as residing at Hill Road (to Diss) in the village of Palgrave, where George Copping was born.  George was 39 and a farm labourer, Laura Copping was 43, and their eight Suffolk born children were Robert Copping who was 18, Florence Elizabeth Copping who was 17, James Copping who was 13, Edith Copping who was 10, Jessie Copping who was eight, Charles Copping who was five, George Copping who was two, and Laura Copping who was only a few months old.  No record of the family has been found before or after 1891.

 

 

 

 

20P5

Jane Collett was born at Wortham after the census day in 1851, where she was baptised on 3rd August 1851, the daughter of William and Ann Collett.  Her birth was recorded at Hartismere (Ref. xiii 8) during the second quarter of 1851.  Sadly, it was at Wortham that she died during December 1858, and it was there also that she was buried on 30th December 1858 at the age of seven years.

 

 

 

 

20P6

Philip Collett was born at Wortham in 1853, with his birth recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 141) during the third quarter of that year.  He was living with his family at Wortham in 1861, when he was eight years old.  By the time of the next census in 1871, Philip Collett was 17, whose occupation was that of a groom, when he was one of three servants at the Wortham home of farmer Ireland Graham, not far from his own family.  It was during the following year that Philip Collett married (1) Ann Elizabeth Dye, also of Wortham, their marriage recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 93) during the second quarter of 1872.  Philip and Ann started out their married life together at Wortham, where their first child was born with six months of their wedding day.  However, the promise of work in the Durham area meant that the family left Suffolk to make a new start in life, not long after the birth of the second child.

 

 

 

By 1881 Philip Collett from Wortham in Suffolk was a coalminer aged 27 who was with wife Ann Elizabeth, also from Wortham and also 27 years old, who were living at Brick Garth (street name) in the centre of the colliery town of Easington Lane, just south of Hetton-le-Hole in County Durham.  With them was daughter Emily Elizabeth who was eight, and sons George William Collett who was three and born at Cornforth in County Durham, and John James Collett who was one year old and born at Easington Lane.

 

 

 

For some reason, no record of the family has been found within the census of 1891.  However, just over two years after the census day that year, Ann Elizabeth Collett died at Brick Garth, either during the birth of daughter Ellen, or shortly thereafter.  The death of Ann Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 74) during the third quarter of 1893, when she was only 39 years of age.

 

 

 

Seven years later in 1901, the family were still living at Brick Garth.  Philip was then listed in the census return as a coal hewer aged 47 and born at Wortham.  It was also recorded that he was still a married man but, on the day of the census, his second wife was not listed with him.  Instead, his eight children were listed as George W Collett who was 23 and born at West Cornforth, John J Collett who was 21, Philip Collett who was 17, Thomas Collett who was 16, the twins Robert and Mary Jane Collett who were 12 years old, and Ellen Collett who was seven years old.  The seven younger children were all born at Easington Lane.  Staying with the family that day, was Philip’s married daughter Emily Eliza Clayton from Wortham who was 28, her husband George Spen Clayton aged 29, and their two sons Joseph and Philip Clayton who were four and three respectively, who were born at Eastington Lane in Durham.

 

 

 

Within six months of the day of the census in 1901, Philip Collett was married for a second time, when his marriage to (2) Catherine Pearson was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 277) during the third quarter of 1901.  It is very interesting that Catherine had already been widowed twice in her life by then, her previous married name being Catherine Tempest, who was the mother of Elizabeth Tempest who married Philip Collett – Philip’s son in 1905.  Just prior to the marriage of Philip Collett and Catherine Pearson, Catherine from Whitehaven in Cumberland was residing in Hetton-le-Hole with two daughters and two sons in 1901 when she was 49 years of age.  Her four children were Catherine Tempest 20, George Tempest 18, Elizabeth Tempest 15, and Joseph Tempest who was 12.  All four children had been born at Easington Lane.

 

 

 

Just under nine years later, Philip Collett, aged 57 and a coal miner hewer, was still residing in the Hetton-le-Hole in County Durham in 1911.  He was again a married man but, on that occasion his wife was Catherine Collett from Cumberland who was 58.  Three of Philip’s children were still living with him and his second wife, and they were Thomas Collett who was 26, Robert Collett who was 22, and Ellen Collett who was 17.  Completing the household was Catherine Tempest who was 30 and born at Easington Lane, a domestic servant, a daughter of Philip’s second wife.  It is interesting that Philip’s fourth child, his son Philip, had already marriage Elizabeth Tempest in 1905, Catherine’s younger sister.  Four years after that census day, the death of Philip Collett was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 14) during the second quarter of 1915, when he was 61 years old.  Around twelve months later, the marriage of Catherine Collett and Gabriel Brimilow was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 39).

 

 

 

20Q1

Emily Eliza Collett

Born in 1872 at Wortham

 

20Q2

George William Collett

Born in 1877 at Cornforth, Co Durham

 

20Q3

John James Collett

Born in 1879 at Brick Garth, Easington

 

20Q4

Philip Collett

Born in 1881 at Brick Garth, Easington

 

20Q5

Philip Collett

Born in 1883 at Brick Garth, Easington

 

20Q6

Thomas Collett

Born in 1884 at Brick Garth, Easington

 

20Q7

Robert Collett                twin

Born in 1888 at Brick Garth, Easington

 

20Q8

Mary Jane Collett          twin

Born in 1888 at Brick Garth, Easington

 

20Q9

Ellen Collett

Born in 1891 at Brick Garth, Easington

 

20Q10

Ellen Collett

Born in 1893 at Brick Garth, Easington

 

 

 

 

20P7

Emma Alice Collett was born at Wortham in 1856, and it was there as Emma Collett that she was baptised on 6th September 1857, the daughter of William and Anne Collett.  She was four years old at the time of the Wortham census of 1861 and, on leaving school, Emma Collett joined her two older sisters as a brush maker when, in 1871, she was 16 years of age and living with her family in Wortham.  Ten years later, in 1881, Emma was using her second forename, when Alice Collett was 24 years old and was employed as a brush maker.  By that time, she and her family were living at Mount Road in the Mount Pleasant district of Diss.

 

 

 

It was around June 1882, that Emma married Charles James Bugg at Edmonton in London.  He was born at Norwich in 1857 or 1858, the son of Charles Samuel Bugg.  By the time of the census in 1891, Charles James Bugg was 33 and a whitesmith living at 8 Edith Road in Tottenham with his wife Emma Alice Bugg, aged 34, and their two sons Charles William Bugg who was eight and born at Southgate, and Sidney James Bugg who was four and born at Tottenham.  Also living with them was Charles’ father Charles Samuel Bugg, a widower aged 66 from Norwich, and Emma’s widowed mother Ann Elizabeth Collett, aged 68, of Bury St Edmunds, and Emma’s brother Caleb John Collett, a brush-maker of 21.

 

 

 

In the earlier census of 1881 Emma’s future husband Charles J Bugg was living at 6 Alfred Place, St Giles-in-Fields in London where he was listed as “nephew” aged 23 and a whitesmith of Norwich.  The head of house was 57 years old James Brown a tailor from Cornwall.  The family connection was with Mary A Brown aged 52 of Woodbastwick northeast of Norwich.  Also, in 1881, Charles James Bugg’s parents were living at 3 Wellington Terrace in Potter Heigham in Norfolk.  Charles Samuel Bugg was a carter aged 55 as was his wife Sarah who was born at Woodbastwick.  With them was their son William a 21-year-old carpenter born at Costessey near Norwich.  It therefore seems highly likely that Mary A Brown of Woodbastwick (above) was the sister of Charles James Bugg’s mother as they share a common birthplace.

 

 

 

By March 1901 the family was still living within the Tottenham – Wood Green district of London.  The census that year recorded the four of them as James Bugg, aged 43 and from Norwich, who was working as a gas fitter, his wife Emma Bugg, also 43 but from Wortham, and their two sons Charles – who was listed as William Bugg, aged 18, who was an engine cleaner, and Sidney – who was listed as Sydney Bugg, aged 14, who was described as an errand boy.  Both sons were recorded as having been born at Bowes Park in Middlesex, just north-west of Wood Green.

 

 

 

 

20P8

Jane Collett was born at Wortham towards the end of 1858, her birth recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 18) during the first three months of 1859.  She was given the same name as her older sister who died a few months before Jane was born.  Jane, the second, was then baptised at Wortham on 1st May 1859, a daughter of William and Ann Collett, whose death was recorded at Hartismere during the third quarter of 1859, when she was around nine months old.

 

 

 

 

20P9

Alice Jane Collett was born at Wortham during the summer of 1860, her birth recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 148) during the third quarter of that year.  It was at Wortham where she was baptised as Jane Collett on 12th August 1860, another daughter of William Collett and Ann Elizabeth Pretty.  Sadly, she around six months old, when the death of Jane Collett was recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 29) during the first days of January, following which she was buried at Wortham on 5th January 1861. 

 

 

 

 

20P10

Alice Jane Collett was born at Wortham, nine months after the death of her older sister of the same name, her birth also recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 15) during the last quarter of 1861.  In the Wortham census of 1871 she was recorded simply as Jane Collett, most likely in honour of her two deceased sisters of the same name, when she was recorded as being eight years old.  By the time of the census 1881, Jane and her parents had left Suffolk and crossed the county boundary into Norfolk.  It was there, at Mount Pleasant Road in the Mount Pleasant district of Diss, that they were living, when Jane Collett was 20 years of age and working as a brush-maker with her sister Alice (above) and her mother Ann.  Ten months later, Alice Jane Collett married Ephraim Glanfield at Diss on 23rd January 1882.  Alice was described as being 20 years of age and the daughter of William Collett, while Ephraim was 25 and the son of John Glanfield.

 

 

 

By 1891, the couple was living at Shelfanger Road in Royston, Norfolk, by which time they had two children.  Ephraim from Diss was 34 and working as a brush maker, Alice J Glanfield from Wortham was 29, Ellen M Glanfield was eight, and Ethel M Glanfield was six, both born at Diss.  A later addition to the family was a son who, together with sister Ethel, were the only children living with Ephraim, aged 44, and Alice, aged 39, at Royston in 1901.  Ethel M Glanfield was 15, and Stanley J Glanfield was one year old.  At that time Alice was working as a dressmaker.  After a further ten years, the family of four was again living in Diss.  Brush maker Ephraim Glanfield was 54, Alice Jane Glanfield was 49 and a draper, Ethel May Glanfield was 25 and a draper’s assistant working with her mother, and Stanley Glanfield was 11 years old and born at Royston.

 

 

 

 

20P11

Amelia Collett was born at Wortham in 1866 and, her birth like those of her siblings, was recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 101) during the first quarter of the year.  She was baptised at Wortham on 9th May 1866, although she died shortly after and was buried at Wortham on 23rd May 1866.  The death of Amelia Collett was recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 6) during the second quarter of 1866.

 

 

 

 

20P12

Alfred Collett was born at Wortham early in 1868, another son of William Collett and Ann Elizabeth Pretty, whose birth was recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 177) during the first three months of the year.  Tragically, he suffered an infant death and died a few months later, following which he was buried at Wortham on 29th June 1868.

 

 

 

 

20P13

Caleb John Collett was born at Wortham in 1869 and it was there that he was baptised on 6th March 1870.  By the time of the 1871 census, Caleb was one year old, although he was recorded in error as Calip Collett.  Ten years later he was listed as Caleb John Collett, aged 12 years and from Wortham, when he was already working as an errand boy.  At that time, he and his family were living at Mount Pleasant Road in the Mount Pleasant district of Diss.  With him and his parents were his two sisters Emma Alice Collett, who was simply referred to as Alice, and Jane Collett (above), both of them brush makers.  His father died in 1887 and, according to the next census in 1891, Caleb John Collett and his widowed mother were lodgers at 8 Edith Road in Tottenham, the home of Caleb’s brother-in-law Charles James Bugg, a whitesmith who was born in Norwich.  The census return confirmed he was 21 years of age and from Wortham, and that his occupation was that of a brush-maker.

 

 

 

Caleb John Collett married Clara Jane Meads at Wood Green in Tottenham sometime during the period between May and August 1891, and it was at Wood Green that all of their children were born.  The Wood Green census in 1901, recorded the family as Caleb J Collett from Wortham was 31 and a brush maker, his wife Clara J Collett was 30, their four daughters were Maggie Collett who was nine, Nettie J Collett who was eight, and Ida Beryl Collett who was four, and their son Arthur J Collett who was six years old.  All of the children, and their mother were confirmed as having been born at Wood Green.  Tragically, around thirty months later, their son Arthur suffered a premature death.

 

 

 

The family was still living at Wood Green in April 1911 when, Caleb John Collett of Wortham was 41 and a brush maker, while his wife Clara Jane Collett was 40, whose place of birth on that occasion was recorded at New Southgate.  Living with them was just three of their six children, and they were Nettie Jane Collett who was 18, John Collett who was nine, and Dorothy May Collett who was three years old.  The two missing daughters had already left home and were working in different parts of London.  Forty years after that census day, the death of Caleb John Collett was recorded at Wood Green register office (Ref. 5f 77) during the third quarter of 1951, when he was 82 years old.

 

 

 

Later records for only four of the couple’s six confirmed children have been found, whilst it is also possible that Clara gave birth to a further child within a few months of the census day in 1911.  The known details for the other two children, plus the possible seventh child are as follows.  The birth of Nettie Jane Collett, at Wood Green, was recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 279) during the second quarter of 1892, and was eight years of age in the Wood Green census of 1901.  Ten years later, having left school, Nettie J Collett was 18 and working as a blouse maker machinist who was since living at Wood Green with her family.  Her younger sister Ida Beryl Collett was also born at Wood Green, with her birth also recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 10) during the second quarter of 1896 and was four years old in 1901.  On leaving school, Ida entered in the world of domestic and, in 1911, aged 14, Ida Collett from Bowes Park (Wood Green) was a general domestic servant at the Walthamstow home of the Murphy family.  The child who may have been the couple’s last child, could be another Arthur John Collett, born in 1911, whose death was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 30) during the third quarter of 1919 aged eight year.  

 

 

 

20Q11

Maggie Winifred Collett

Born in 1891 at Wood Green

 

20Q12

Nettie Jane Collett

Born in 1892 at Wood Green

 

20Q13

Arthur John Collett

Born in 1894 at Wood Green

 

20Q14

Ida Beryl Collett

Born in 1896 at Wood Green

 

20Q15

John Collett

Born in 1902 at Wood Green

 

20Q16

Dorothy May Collett

Born in 1907 at Wood Green

 

 

 

 

20P14

Samuel Jesse Collett was born at Wortham in 1870 with his birth recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 255) during the second quarter of the year, although no baptism record for him has been found.  He was the last of fifteen children born to William Collett and his wife Ann Elizabeth Pretty.  In the Wortham census of 1871 Samuel J Collett of Wortham was under one year old, while eighteen months later, the death of Jesse Collett was recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 236) during the third quarter of 1872, and was buried at Wortham on 16th September 1872.

 

 

 

 

20P15

George Collett was born at Wortham in 1844 and was baptised there on 9th February 1845, the son of John and Maria Collett.  By the time of the census of 1851 George was six years old and was living with his parents John and Maria at Long Green in Wortham.  George was an only child and, following the death of his mother before 1861, he and his father were recorded in the Middlesbrough area at the time of the 1861 census, but not living together.  George Collett from Wortham, who was 16 and an apprenticed confectioner, was living at the home of wholesale confectioner and grocer William Woodcock at Westgate in Guisborough.  Just over seven years later George married Sarah Jane Peacock in June 1868.  The marriage was registered at Stokesley south west of Guisborough (Ref. 9d 305), and that indicated Sarah had been born at Leeds in 1845.  In 1871 George, aged 26 and working as a grocer’s assistant, and his wife Sarah aged 25, were living with their first child at Westgate in Guisborough.

 

 

 

Ten years later and the family had grown to four daughters and one son, all of the children having been born at Guisborough where the births were registered.  The family appeared to be ‘well off’ at that time in 1881 as their address was recorded as 29 and 31 Redcar Road in Guisborough, where they had the luxury of a live-in servant Amelia Nincks, a seventeen-year-old girl from Germany.  Whether by sheer coincidence or not, living in the premises next door at 25 and 27 Redcar Road was the Collett family of grocer William Collett (Ref. 31N26) from Halifax whose father George Collett came from South Wraxall in Wiltshire, the details for whom can be found in Part 31 – The New Wiltshire-Somerset Line.  It is also interesting that later on, a son of George Ernest Collett - the youngest child of George and Sarah Jane Peacock, was confused with the son of George William Collett, who was the son of the aforementioned William the grocer from Halifax, the two families having homes in Redcar Road over a continuous number of years.

 

 

 

In the census of 1881 George Collett of Wortham, was described as being 36 and a grocer.  Sarah his wife was 35, and their children were Ada E Collett aged 11, Maria A Collett who was nine, Sarah E Collett who was six, Maud E Collett who was four, and their son George E Collett who was two years old.  George and Sarah were also still living in Redcar Road in both 1891 and 1901, although at different addresses, as described below.  In 1891, the family comprising grocer George Collett aged 46 and Sarah J Collett aged 45, and their children Maria A Collett who was 19, Sarah E Collett who was 16, Maud E Collett who was 14 and George E Collett who was 12, was living at 31 Redcar Road.  Also living with them was nephew Percy R Poole aged 10 and born at Stockton.  As George Collett had no siblings, it seems reasonable to assume that Percy was the child of a sister-in-law, and the sister of Sarah Jane Collett, his wife.

 

 

 

By the time of the 1901 census, the family was living at 33 Redcar Road in Guisborough.  George was then described as a grocer and shopkeeper aged 56.  He was still married to Sarah aged 55 and still living with the couple were their daughters Maria aged 29 and Maud aged 24, both unmarried, and their son George aged 22 who was a grocer’s assistant and also not married.  The two daughters’ occupations were quoted as being a mother’s helper/domestic, but both had been crossed out on the census form.  Also living with the family on that occasion was their five-year old grandson Cyril Collett.  The child’s name immediately followed the name of Maud E Collett on the census form and both of them came after the entry for son George who was the youngest member of the family.  Other records for young Cyril, confirm that he was the base-born son of unmarried Maud Collett.  Ten years later, in April 1911, the family was still living at Guisborough when the census return listed the family as George Collett of Wortham who was 66 and still a grocer, his wife Sarah Jane Collett from Leeds who was 65 and assisting in the family business, and their unmarried daughters Sarah Eleanor Collett who was 36, and Maud Emily Collett who was 34, together with her son Cyril Collett who was 15.  Both daughters and grandson had been born at Guisborough.

 

 

 

20Q17

Ada Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1870 at Guisborough

 

20Q18

Maria Annie Collett

Born in 1872 at Guisborough

 

20Q19

Sarah Eleanor Collett

Born in 1874 at Guisborough

 

20Q20

Maud Emily Collett

Born in 1876 at Guisborough

 

20Q21

George Ernest Collett

Born in 1878 at Guisborough

 

 

 

 

20P16

Eliza Collett was born at Wortham in Suffolk on Tuesday 12th July 1842, and was baptised there on 6th September 1842, the only child of Philip Collett and Maria Hammond.  When Eliza was just over one year old, she and her parents emigrated to Australia via Ireland.  The arduous journey on board the barque Neptune between October 1843 and February 1844 caused severe health problems for Eliza’s mother, who died shortly after the family arrived at Sydney.  The following year, and nineteen months after the death of her mother, Eliza’s father was married for a second time.  Eliza Collett married Thomas Harvey on Tuesday 8th April 1862 at Appin in New South Wales.  Thomas was born on 5th May 1841 and was the son of William Harvey and Mary A Harvey.  After she was married, the records show that she was referred to as Eliza Ann Harvey.

 

 

 

Their marriage produced eleven children for Eliza and Thomas, and they were Mary Maud Harvey (born 15th March 1863, died 16th August 1949), Philip Harvey (born 21st January 1865, died 9th April 1866), James William Harvey (born 23rd March 1867, died in 1959), Charlotte Maria Harvey (born 10th September 1869, died 12th July 1937), Lucy Hannah Hammond Harvey (16th August 1871, died 22nd June 1941), Percy Thomas Harvey (born 18th August 1873, died 2nd September 1876), Emily May Harvey (born 28th July 1875, died 25th September 1876), Albert Edward Harvey (born 20th July 1877), Arthur Herbert Harvey (born 12th September 1879, died 4th October 1906), Eliza Jane Harvey (born during 1880), and Amy Elizabeth Mildred Harvey (born 4th July 1882, who died during October 1966).

 

 

 

It was while she was living at Malden in New South Wales, that Eliza Harvey nee Collett died on Monday 13th May 1895 at the age of 52.  Thomas Harvey survived for another twenty-six years, until his death on 10th June 1921.

 

 

 

 

20P17

Mary Collett was born at the Parsonage in Appin, New South Wales on Sunday 26th July 1846.  In 1874 she married William Walter Nicol at Campbelltown in New South Wales.  William was born in 1850 and his married to Mary produced eight children, all perhaps born at Campbelltown where Mary died on 9th January 1920 at the age of 73.  Her husband died seven years later on 11th October 1927.  Their eight children were Minnie Nicol (born 1874, died 27th August 1951), Ellen Jane Nicol (born 1875, died 10th July 1914), Amy Lucy Nicol (born 1877), Walter George Philip Nicol (born 1879), Maudina May Nicol (born 1880, died 20th June 1943), Alice Beatrice Nicol (born 1882), Dulcie Amelia Nicol (born 1885), and Sybil Grace Nicol (born 1888, who died on 13th April 1092).

 

 

 

 

20P18

Arthur Collett was born at Elladale Road in Appin on Friday 5th May 1848.  He married Rebecca Jane Sutherland on Tuesday 9th January 1877 at Wilton Church in Campbelltown, Rebecca having been born on 13th May 1859.  The majority of their children were born in Appin, where three of them died as infants.  Arthur Collett died on Friday 1st April 1932 at Mount Britain in Appin aged 83.  His wife Rebecca died just less than two years later, when she passed away on 12th February 1934.

 

 

 

20Q22

Emily Ella Collett

Born in 1877 at Wilton

 

20Q23

Mary Lucy Collett

Born in 1879 at Appin

 

20Q24

James Thomas Collett

Born in 1880 at Appin

 

20Q25

Angelina Collett

Born in 1882 at Appin

 

20Q26

Margaret Collett

Born in 1884 at Appin

 

20Q27

Arthur Sutherland Collett

Born in 1885 at Appin

 

20Q28

William Henry Collett                twin

Born in 1887 at Appin

 

20Q29

un-named male child                 twin

Born in 1887 at Appin

 

20Q30

Alice Esther Collett

Born in 1888 at Appin

 

20Q31

Ada Rhoda Collett

Born in 1893 at Appin

 

20Q32

Percy Philip Collett

Born in 1895 at Appin

 

20Q33

Jack Alexander Collett

Born in 1897 at Picton

 

20Q34

Frederick Charles Collett

Born in 1903 at Picton

 

 

 

 

20P19

Philip Collett was born at Elladale Road in Appin on Sunday 20th January 1850, when he was named as the son of Philip Spelling Collett and Lucy Bean, Spelling possibly a misinterpretation of Sparling, Philip’s employer.  According to the New South Wales indexes of births, deaths and marriages, Philip Collett married Mary Ann Edwards at Gundaroo in Queanbeyan near Canberra in New South Wales on Monday 6th February 1882.  Mary, who was born on 3rd March 1864, was sometimes referred to as Minnie.  The couple had ten children and all of them were born in New South Wales, but at differing locations. 

 

 

 

The first was born at Gundaroo in Queanbeyan, the second, third and fourth at Goulburn, with the next five born at Young, while the couple’s last child was born at Grenfell.  Philip Collett died at Goulburn on 11th November 1918 at the age of 68, while Mary survived for another twenty-five years, until her death in 1943.  Sadly, the year before she died Mary received the tragic news that her son Arthur William Collett had died while working for the Australian military headquarters of the army.

 

 

 

20Q35

Ernest Henry Collett

Born in 1882 at Gundaroo

 

20Q36

Oscar Herbert Collett

Born in 1883 at Goulburn

 

20Q37

Herbert Oliver Collett

Born in 1884 at Goulburn

 

20Q38

Arthur William Collett

Born in 1887 at Goulburn

 

20Q39

Lillian Ella Collett

Born in 1888 at Young

 

20Q40

Laura Beatrice Pearl Collett

Born in 1889 at Young

 

20Q41

William Leslie Philip Collett

Born in 1891 at Young

 

20Q42

Harold Edward James Collett

Born in 1894 at Young

 

20Q43

Ellen Catherine Collett

Born in 1899 at Young

 

20Q44

Leslie John Leonard Collett

Born in 1902 at Grenfell

 

 

 

 

20P20

James Thomas Collett was born at Elladale Road in Appin on Friday 19th March 1852 and he married Emma Rebecca Agnes Lodge at St Saviour’s Church in Goulburn on Monday 26th June 1871.  Emma was born on 2nd May 1849.  The couple’s first six of their children were all born at Yass where James’ parents and the children’s grandparents were living in their latter years.  Around 1881 the family moved home to live at Gunning for a short time where James’ brother Joseph was living and where their daughter Deborah was born.  Within a few more years the family had moved to Queanbeyan where two more child were born, before finally settling in Sydney where their last child was born.  James Thomas Collett died on Tuesday 30th May 1933 at Queanbeyan at the age of 81.  His wife Emma had died over eleven years earlier on 2nd February 1922.

 

 

 

20Q45

Percy James Lodge Collett

Born in 1871 at Gunning

 

20Q46

Arthur Henry Collett

Born in 1872 at Gunning

 

20Q47

Augustus John Hugh Collett

Born in 1873 at Gunning

 

20Q48

May Rebecca Collett

Born in 1875 at Gunning

 

20Q49

Ida Maud Collett

Born in 1877 at Gunning

 

20Q50

Ada Emily Collett

Born in 1879 at Gunning

 

20Q51

Fanny Lucy Collett

Born in 1880 at Gunning

 

20Q52

Deborah Ellen Collett

Born in 1882 at Gunning

 

20Q53

Pearl Edith Collett

Born in 1884 at Gunning

 

20Q54

Ernest Joseph Collett

Born in 1886 at Queanbeyan

 

20Q55

Lillian Alice Collett

Born in 1888 at Queanbeyan

 

 

 

 

20P21

Lucy Amelia Collett, who was often known as Amelia, was born at Lachlan Vale Road in Appin on Wednesday 1st November 1854.  She married Robert Henry E Davis, the son of Edward Davis and Mary Ann Smith, at St Edmund’s Church in Gunning on Saturday 13th February 1875.  The marriage of Lucy and Robert produced eight children for the couple, they being Mary Lucy Davis (born 1876, died 1898), Alice M Davis (born 1877), Eveline Kate Davis (born 1879), Percy Edward Davis (born 1880, died 1967), Sidney Spencer Davis (born 1882), Beatrice A Davis (born 1885), Florence Ida Mildred Davis (born 1890), and Leslie Robert Davis (born 1893).  It was their daughter Florence Davis who later married her cousin Arthur William Collett (Ref. 20Q38), the son of Lucy’s brother Philip Collett (above).  Lucy Amelia Davis nee Collett died on Thursday 19th June 1941 at Guildford in New South Wales at the age of 86, her husband Robert having died two years previously on 30th April 1939.

 

 

 

 

20P22

William Collett was born at Lachlan Vale Road in Appin on Saturday 12th January 1856.  He married Ellen Boyd at Collector in New South Wales on Monday 4th October 1880, Ellen having been born on 9th May 1861.  Over the following twenty-two years their twelve children were born at various locations, as detailed below, which probably reflects on the type of work in which William was involved.  William and Ellen were living at Goulburn on the occasion of the birth of their first child.  Shortly after they moved to Waterloo where their second child was born, and then onto Central Cumberland where a further two were born.  After a few years in Granville, where two more children were added to the family, they spent a short time in Crookwell for the birth of son Joseph, before settling in Boorowa where the next four children were born.  Following that the family moved to Grenfell where the couple’s last child was born.  William Collett died at Burwood, Enfield in New South Wales in 1943.

 

 

 

20Q56

Lucy Mary Collett

Born in 1881 at Goulburn

 

20Q57

William Griffith Rees Collett

Born in 1882 at Waterloo

 

20Q58

Edwin P Collett

Born in 1885 in Central Cumberland

 

20Q59

Emily Collett

Born in 1886 in Central Cumberland

 

20Q60

Charles Kingsmill Collett

Born in 1889 at Granville

 

20Q61

Esther A Collett

Born in 1891 at Granville

 

20Q62

Joseph Harrington Collett

Born in 1893 at Crookwell

 

20Q63

Aubrey J Collett

Born in 1895 at Boorowa

 

20Q64

Ellen Collett

Born in 1896 at Boorowa

 

20Q65

Robert Montgomery Collett

Born in 1898 at Boorowa

 

20Q66

Edith Kate Collett

Born in 1899 at Boorowa

 

20Q67

Neville R Collett

Born in 1902 at Grenfell

 

 

 

 

20P23

Louisa Elizabeth Collett was born at Lachlan Vale Road in Appin during 1857, but tragically she died on Sunday 29th April 1860 at Appin.

 

 

 

 

20P24

Esther Alice Collett was born at Lachlan Vale Road in Appin on Thursday 30th June 1859.  It was at Gunning in New South Wales that she married John Pope in 1883, John having been born in 1852.  Tragically for the couple’s only child, Edith Mary Pope (born 1884), she was just two years old when Esther Alice Pope nee Collett died on Wednesday 30th June 1886 at the age of 27, and was still only four years old when her father John Pope passed away on 8th April 1888.  What happened to orphan Edith after that is not known.

 

 

 

 

20P25

JOSEPH COLLETT was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Monday 3rd June 1861 and he was the ninth of thirteen children from the second marriage of Philip Collett to Lucy Bean.  Joseph married Harriet Hawker on Thursday 27th August 1885 at Parramatta to the west of Sydney in New South Wales.  Harriet had also been born at Parramatta, on 7th July 1865.  The couple’s first child was born at Goulburn in New South Wales, while their subsequent children were all born at Gunning in New South Wales.  Joseph Collett died in Australia on Monday 21st July 1947 aged 86. 

 

 

 

20Q68

Frances Alice Collett

Born in 1886 at Goulburn

 

20Q69

Beatrice Pearl Collett

Born in 1889 at Gunning

 

20Q70

Philip Oliver Collett

Born in 1893 at Gunning

 

20Q71

Ivy Gertrude Collett

Born in 1894 at Gunning

 

20Q72

Enos Joseph Collett

Born in 1897 at Gunning

 

20Q73

Norman Alexander Collett

Born in 1900 at Gunning

 

20Q74

Herbert Edward Noel Collett

Born in 1903 at Gunning

 

20Q75

STANLEY BEAN COLLETT

Born in 1905 at Gunning

 

 

 

 

20P26

Louisa Elizabeth Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Tuesday 20th October 1863, but tragically she was only two and a half years old when she died there on Saturday 28th April 1866.

 

 

 

 

20P27

Emily Jane Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Saturday 23rd September 1865.  It was in 1895 at Goulburn that she married Joseph Turner Kellett, the son of Joseph and Susan Kellett.  The marriage produced five children for the couple and they were Percy Joseph Kellett (born 1895), Hilda Lucy Kellett (born 1899), Rhoda May Kellett (born 1901), John Turner Kellett (born 1905), and Harold Norman Kellett (born 1907, who died during 1945).  Emily Jane Kellett nee Collett died in 1944, the same year that her husband also passed away.

 

 

 

 

20P28

Dulcie Ella Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Thursday 6th June 1867.  She married William James Line at Goulburn on Wednesday 21st December 1887.  He was born in 1865 and was the son of W J Line and Elizabeth Johnston.  Two children were born to the couple and they were Dulcie I A Line, who was born in 1889, and William P Line who was born in 1891.

 

 

 

 

20P29

Ada Rhoda Collett was born at Gunning in New South Wales on 26th October 1873 and was just over one year old when she died there on 16th May 1875.

 

 

 

 

20Q1

Emily Eliza Collett was born at Wortham in Suffolk in 1872, her birth recorded at Hartismere (Ref. 4a 306) during the third quarter of 1872.  Her parents Philip Collett and his first wife Ann Elizabeth Dye having only been married during the second quarter of that same year.  Perhaps it was out of the embarrassment of revealing that Ann was with-child on their wedding day, that resulted in the rapid move north to County Durham, where all of her younger siblings were born.  Her mother died at Easington Lane in 1893 and, three years later, Emily Eliza Collett married George Spencely Clayton at Easington Lane, the event recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 78) during the third quarter of 1896.  George was born in the colliery town of Easington Lane in 1871 and, in the census of 1901, Emily and George, and their first two children, were living as boarders with Emily’s widowed father and her seven younger siblings. It was at his Brick Garth home in Easington Lane, that Emily may having been acting as the housekeeper for her father and seven siblings.  On that day George Clayton was a coal hewer aged 29, with Emily Eliza Clayton from Wortham in Suffolk being 28.  Both of their children with them at that time had been born at Easington Lane, and they were Joseph Clayton who was four years old, and Philip Clayton who was three.

 

 

 

Over the following decade, Emily presented George with four more children, all of them also born at Easington Lane.  By the time of the next census in 1911, their family was complete, and still living in the town of Easington Lane.  Coal miner and hewer George was 40, Emily Eliza was 39, Joseph was 14, Philip was 13, Isaac Clayton was 10, Thomas Clayton was six, Ann Elizabeth Clayton was three, and George Clayton junior was under one year old.  Twenty-six years later, the death of Emily Eliza Clayton was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 4) during the first three months of 1937, when she was 63.  After four years as a widower, the death of George Spencely Clayton was recorded at Durham Northern register office (Ref. 10a 76) during the third quarter of 1941, when he was 70 years old.

 

 

 

 

20Q2

George William Collett was born at Cornforth in County Durham in 1877 and the birth was registered at Stockton (Ref. 10a 174) during the third 1877 of that year.  He was three years old in 1881, when he and his family were living at Brick Garth, a short street in the centre of the town of Easington Lane, within the Hetton-le-Hole area of County Durham.  1901 at the age of 23 George was unmarried and was still living with his parents at Brick Garth in Easington Lane.  His occupation as at that time was described as a coal worker below ground.  Just over one year later, the marriage of George William Collett and Harriet Wharton was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 276) during the second quarter of 1902, and by the spring of 1911 the marriage had produced five children for the couple.  In the Hetton-le-Hole census conducted in early April that year for Brick Garth in Easington Lane, 33-year-old George William Collett from Sedgefield – just south of Cornforth, was a coal hewer and a stoneman, when his wife Harriet Collett from Ravensworth was 32.  Their five children on that occasion were Ann Elizabeth Collett who was eight, George Wharton Collett who was seven, Harriet Collett who was five, Margaret Jane Wharton Collett who was three, and baby Ellen Collett who was one year old.  All of the children were born at Brick Garth.

 

 

 

Six more children were added to the family after 1911, the first of them within the next six months of the census day that year.  The death of George William Collett was recorded at Durham Eastern register office (Ref. 1a 110) during the second quarter of 1963, when he was 85 years old.

 

 

 

20R1

Ann Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1902 at Brick Garth

 

20R2

George Wharton Collett

Born in 1904 at Brick Garth

 

20R3

Harriet Collett

Born in 1905 at Brick Garth

 

20R4

Margaret Jane Wharton Collett

Born in 1907 at Brick Garth

 

20R5

Ellen Collett

Born in 1909 at Brick Garth

 

20R6

Laura Collett

Born in 1911 at Brick Garth

 

20R7

Philip Collett

Born in 1914 at Brick Garth

 

20R8

Emily Collett

Born in 1919 at Brick Garth

 

20R9

Joseph Collett

Born in 1920 at Brick Garth

 

20R10

Olive M Collett

Born in 1923 at Brick Garth

 

 

 

 

20Q3

John James Collett was born at Easington Lane in 1879, his birth recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 133) during the last three months of the year.  He was the third child of Philip Collett and Ann Elizabeth Dye, who died when John was 14 years old.  No record of the family has been found in 1891.  It was the census in 1881, that confirmed his place of birth, when he was still living there with his family, under two years of age.  At the age of 21 he was unmarried and was still living with his parents at Brick Garth in Easington Lane.  His occupation, at that time in 1901, was described as coal hewer like that of his father.  It was towards the end of the following year that the marriage of John James Collett and Isabella Wood was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 53) during the fourth quarter of 1902, with whom he had four children prior to the next census.  Isabella Wood was born at Shotley Bridge in County Durham and was baptised there at the Primitive Methodist Church on 27th July 1879, the daughter of Elizabeth Wood. 

 

 

 

According to the Hetton-le-Hole census of 1911, which includes Brick Garth in Easington Lane, the family was recorded as John James Collett of Easington Lane who was 31 and a coal miner and deputy over-manager (deputy foreman), his wife Isabella Collett who was also 31, and their four children.  Mary Jane Dodds Collett was seven, Philip Collett was five, Henry Collett was two, and Ann Elizabeth Collett was just five months old.  A further four more children were added to their family at Easington Lane, over the next thirteen years and, in each case the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wood.  John was 60 years old when he died, the death of John James Collett being recorded at Sunderland register office (Ref. 10a 78) during the first three months of 1940.

 

 

 

20R11

Mary Jane Dodds Collett

Born in 1903 at Brick Garth

 

20R12

Philip Collett

Born in 1905 at Brick Garth

 

20R13

Henry Wood Collett

Born in 1908 at Brick Garth

 

20R14

Ann Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1910 at Brick Garth

 

20R15

Emma Collett

Born in 1913 at Brick Garth

 

20R16

John James Collett

Born in 1916 at Brick Garth

 

20R17

Isabella Collett

Born in 1919 at Brick Garth

 

20R18

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1922 at Brick Garth

 

 

 

 

20Q4

Philip Collett was born at Brick Garth, Easington in 1881, his birth recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 186) during the last three months of the year.  Before he reached the age of two years, he suffered an infant death.  The death of Philip Collett was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring during the third quarter of 1883 (Ref. 10a 279).

 

 

 

 

20Q5

Philip Collett was born at Brick Garth, Easington, two years after his deceased older brother and namesake was born there.  The birth of the second Philip Collett was also recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 373) during the last quarter of 1983.  At the age of 17 he was still living with his parents at Brick Garth in Easington Lane, when his occupation, at that time in 1901, was that of a coal worker, below ground.  Just over four years later, the marriage of Philip Collett and Elizabeth Tempest was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 146) during the third quarter of 1905.  Like Philip, Elizabeth had also been born at Easington Lane, as confirmed by the census in 1911, and the earlier census in 1901, when Elizabeth and three Tempest siblings were living with their widowed and remarried mother Catherine Pearson, who had married Philip’s father a few months after that census day in 1901. Furthermore, Elizabeth’s older sister Catherine Tempest, was living with Philip’s father, and his second wife Catherine, in 1911.  As regards Philip and Elizabeth, by 1911, they were living at Hetton-le-Hole with their first three children, when every member of the family had been born at Easington Lane.  Philip Collett was 27 and a coal miner and hewer, Elizabeth Collett was 25, Ann Elizabeth Collett was four, Catherine Collett was two and Ellen Collett was only a few months old.  The later death of Philip Collett was recorded at Durham Northern register office (Ref. 1a 93) during third quarter of 1960, when he was 76 years of age.

 

 

 

20R19

Ann Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1906 at Brick Garth

 

20R20

Catherine Collett

Born in 1908 at Brick Garth

 

20R21

Ellen Collett

Born in 1910 at Brick Garth

 

20R22

Philip Collett

Born in 1913 at Brick Garth

 

 

 

 

20Q6

Thomas Collett was born at Easington Lane in 1884, his birth recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 321) during the last quarter of the year.  No record in the census of 1891 has been found for him or his family, while he was 16 and working as coal miner below ground in 1901, he was still living with his parents at Brick Garth in the colliery town of Easington Lane.  He was still not married in 1911 when, at the age of 26, he was still living at the family home, where he was a coal miner and a hewer.  No record of Thomas having taken a wife has been found and, it was in 1959 that he died, when the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at Durham Northern register office (Ref. 1a 4) during the third quarter of that year, when he was 74.

 

 

 

 

20Q7

Robert Collett, who was one half of a set of twins, was born at Brick Garth in Easington Lane in 1888, his birth being recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 225) at the end of that year.  It was also at Brick Garth that he was living with his family in March 1901, when he was 12 years old.  It was around that time that his mother Ann died, following which his father Philip re-married.  By the time of the next census in April 1911, Robert was 22 and a coal miner and a hewer who was one of only three children still living with his father, and his new wife Catherine, at Brick Garth.  Eleven years after that day, the marriage of Robert Collett and Christina Glassford was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 58) during the second quarter of 1922.  No children appear to have been born to the couple, with the later death of Robert Collett recorded at Durham Northern register office (Ref. 1a 99) during the second quarter of 1953 at the age of 64.

 

 

 

 

20Q8

Mary Jane Collett, was a twin with her brother Robert (above) and was born in 1888 at Brick Garth in Easington Lane.  It is therefore rather strange that her birth was not recorded on the same day as her twin brother, the birth of Mary Jane Collett recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 262) very early in 1889.  Mary was three years old when her mother died during the birth of another child, leaving Mary living with her widowed father Philip at Brick Garth in 1901.  Mary Jane Collett from Easington Lane was 12 years, while it was her old married sister Eliza and it was around that time when her mother Ann died and her father Philip Collett took a second wife. 

 

 

 

 

20Q9

Ellen Collett was born at Brick Garth in Easington Lane in 1891, her birth recorded during the first three months of the year at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 239).  It was towards the end of that same year, when the death of Ellen Collett was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 51).

 

 

 

 

20Q10

Ellen Collett was named in honour of her late sister and was born at Brick Garth in Easington Lane on 30th August 1893.  Her birth was also recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 34) during the third quarter of the year.  Tragically, having already lost her sister, Ellen’s mother died just after she was born, having never recovered fully from the ordeal of the birth.  Ellen was therefore living with her widowed father and older siblings at Brick Garth, when she was seven years old in the Hetton-le-Hole (Easington Lane) census of 1901.  Just after that day, her father re-married, with Ellen Collett aged 17 still living with her father and stepmother at Easington Lane in 1911.  Seven and a half years later, the marriage of Ellen Collett and Alexander Newstead was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 52) during the last three months of 1918.  Three years into their married life, Ellen gave birth to the couple’s only known child.  The birth of Mary J Newstead was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 142) during the first quarter of 1922.  Alexander Newstead was the son of Mary Newstead and was born at Hetton-le-Hole in 1886, so was 79 years old when his death was recorded at Durham Northern register office (Ref. 1a 79) during the second quarter of 1966.  Three years after being made a widow, the death of Ellen Newstead was recorded at Durham North register office (Ref. 1a 39) early in 1970, when she was 76 years old.

 

 

 

 

20Q11

Maggie Winifred Collett was born at Wood Green in 1891, the first-born child of Caleb John Collett and Clara Jane Meads, her birth recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 343) during the third quarter of the year.  She was living with her family at Wood Green in 1901, aged nine, and again in 1911, when she was 19 and the domestic nurse-maid caring for one-year-old Norman George Spooner, the son of George and Florence Spooner at their home in the Kensington area of London.  Her place of birth was confirmed as Bowes Park, the collective name of the area of London covering Wood Green, Palmers Green and Bounds Green.  After the First World War, the marriage of Maggie Winifred Collett and Douglas Christie was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 133) during the last quarter of 1919.  Six years later, the birth of their only known child, Doreen Christie, was recorded at Fulham register office (Ref. 1a 9) during the third quarter of 1926, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

 

 

 

 

20Q13

Arthur John Collett was born at Wood Green in 1894, his birth also recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 229) during the fourth quarter of the year.  He was six years old in the Wood Green census of 1901 and, two and a half years after that day, the death of Arthur John Collett was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 277) during the last three months of 1903.

 

 

 

 

20Q15

John Collett was born at Wood Green on 11th March 1902, his birth recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 97) during the second quarter of the year.  He was nine years of age in the Wood Green census of 1911, when he was living there with his family.  It is possible that he never married and that he was 78 years old when his death was recorded at Enfield register office (Vol. 12 140) during the spring of 1980.

 

 

 

 

20Q16

Dorothy May Collett was born at Wood Green in 1907, possibly the last or penultimate child born to Caleb John Collett and Clara Jane Meads, who was three years old in the Wood Green census of 1911.  Her birth, like those of all her older siblings, was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 274) during the third quarter of 1907.  At the start of 1929, the marriage of Dorothy May Collett and Reginald A Hancock was recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 141) during the first three months of that year.  Their marriage appears to have produced just the one son, Kenneth J Hancock, whose birth was recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 131) during the third quarter of 1929, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

 

 

 

 

20Q17

Ada Elizabeth Collett was born at Guisborough on 1st April 1870, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 9d 223) during the second quarter of the year.  It was also on the day that she was born, that she was baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Guisborough, the eldest child of George Collett and Sarah Jane Peacock.  At the time of the census in 1871 she was one-year-old, and was 11 years of age in 1881 when she was living with her family at 29 and 31 Redcar Road in Guisborough.  Where she was ten years later, has not been determined but, after a further ten years, the census in 1901 recorded Ada Elizabeth Collett was one of three boarders at the Ecclesfield home of Eliza Ann Shortland from Norfolk.  By the time in her life, unmarried Ada was 30 years old, whose occupation was that of a school teacher. Four years later, the marriage of Ada Elizabeth Collett and William Harold Toothill was recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 123) during the third quarter of 1905.  William had been born in Bolton and was living at Bolton-le-Moors in Lancashire by 1911.  He was 32 and was a schoolmaster at a day school for the Lancashire County Council Education Department.  His wife Ada Elizabeth Toothill from Guisborough was 41, who had already given birth to two sons.  They were Arthur Toothill who was four and Leslie Toothill who was one year old, both born at Clitheroe.

 

 

 

 

20Q18

Maria Annie Collett was born at Guisborough on 17th January 1872, her birth recorded there (Ref. 9d 223) during the first three months of the year.  She was baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Guisborough on 27th February 1872, another daughter of George and Sarah Collett.  Maria was recorded in census returns for 1881, aged nine, 1891, aged 19 and again in 1901 when, on each occasion, Maria A Collett was living at home with her parents on Redcar Road in Guisborough.  For the latter she was listed as being aged 29 and unmarried, a mother’s helper/domestic, although that occupation was crossed out on the census form.

 

 

 

 

20Q19

Sarah Eleanor Collett was born at Guisborough on 30th June 1874, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 9d 249) during the third quarter of the year.  She was baptised on 19th July 1874 at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Guisborough and was living with her parents George and Sarah Collett in 1881 at Redcar Road when she was six years of age, and again in 1891 when she was 16.  No record of Sarah has been found in the census of 1901 although, by 1911, she was listed in that year’s census return as Sarah Eleanor Collett, a spinster of 36 who was still living at Guisborough with her parents.  On that day she was described as a grocer’s daughter, undertaking bakehouse work.  Sarah never married and she was living in the York area when she died on 11th May 1947, following which her Will was proved there on 24th July 1947, with the main beneficiary being her nephew Cyril Collett, the base-born son of her sister Maud (below).

 

 

 

 

20Q20

Maud Emily Collett was born at Guisborough on 26th June 1876, and was baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Guisborough on 19th July 1876, when she was confirmed as the daughter of George Collett and Sarah Jane Peacock.  Like her sister Maria (above), she too appeared in the census returns for 1881 aged four years, in 1891 aged 14, and in 1901 living at the Redcar Road home of her parents.  For the latter she was listed as being aged 24 and unmarried, a mother’s helper/domestic, although that occupation was crossed out on the census return.  Also, with her in 1901, was her five-year-old base-born son, who was listed as the grandson of her parents George and Sarah Collett.  She was again living with her elderly parents at Guisborough in 1911, when Maud Emily Collett of Guisborough was 34 and a grocer’s daughter and home domestic.  Still living there with her, was her son Cyril Collett who was 15 years of age and still attending school.

 

 

 

20R23

Cyril Collett

Born in 1896 at Guisborough

 

 

 

 

20Q21

George Ernest Collett was born on 8th July 1878 at 29 Redcare Road, in Guisborough where his birth was recorded (Ref. 9d 70) during the third quarter of the year.  A few days later, he was baptised at the Guisborough Circuit Wesleyan Methodist Church on 22nd July 1878, the last child of George Collett and Sarah Jane Peacock.  He was listed with his family at Redcar Road in the census returns for 1881, 1891, and again in 1901, when his occupation was that of a grocer’s assistant working with his grocer father George.  Seven years later, during the second quarter of 1908, the marriage of George Ernest Collett and May Wilkinson was recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 7).  May had been born at Upleatham, the daughter of Louisa Wilkinson before she married William Stephenson.  In 1901 May was 17 and a shirt machinist living with the Stephenson family in Leicester.  It was two years after that, when May presented George with the first of their two confirmed children.

 

 

 

The next census conducted at the start of April in 1911 recorded the family living at 20 Eskdale Terrace in Guisborough, where head of the household was George Ernest Collett, aged 32, who was again a grocer’s assistant, when he was still working with his father who lived nearby.  The completed census return also included a reference to where George had been born, which was recorded as 29 Redene Road in Guisborough, an error in transcription for Redcar Road.  George’s wife of two years was confirmed as May Collett aged 27 from Upleatham - a couple of miles north-east of Guisborough, and their daughter Marjorie Collett was only seven months old and born at 20 Eskdale Terrace. 

 

 

 

Four years following that census day in 1911, a son was added to their family when May and George may have still be living at 20 Eskdale Terrace, in Guisborough, since it was there that his birth was record, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wilkinson.  The later death of George Ernest Collett was recorded at the Yorkshire Cleveland register office (Ref. 1b 9) during the first three months of 1950, when he was 71 years of age.

 

 

 

20R24

Marjorie Collett

Born in 1910 at Guisborough

 

20R25

John R Collett

Born in 1915 at Guisborough

 

 

 

It was original written here that George and May Collett (above) also had another son Ronald Collett who was born on 13th March 1911 and baptised at Guisborough of 12th April 1911.  If that had been true, then he would have been listed in the Guisborough census of 1911 with the couple, which he was not.  It has now been confirmed that Ronald was the son of George William Collett and his wife Eliza, whose family feature in Part 31 – The New Wiltshire-Somerset Line

 

 

 

 

20Q22

Emily Ella Collett was born at Wilton (south-west of Appin) on Tuesday 6th November 1877.  She married Edward Booth Winton on Wednesday 18th April 1906 at St Barnabas Church in Sydney.  Edward was born on 4th May 1876, and he died on 17th July 1945.  Emily Ella Winton nee Collett she died at Wollongong on Thursday 9th June 1966 at the age of 88, after which she was buried in the churchyard of St Mark’s Church in Appin.  During their life together Emily and Edward had a total of five children.  Gladys Myee Winton was born on 6th February 1907 and she died on 11th May 1995, and was followed by twins Aubrey Edward Winton and Doris Emily Winton who were born on 2nd November 1908.  Aubrey died on 9th August 1987 and Doris passed away on 9th February 1950.  The last two children were Douglas Collett Winton who was born on 9th January 1917, who died on 15th August 1992, and Marjory Susannah Winton who was born on 6th June 1918.  The great granddaughter of Emily Ella Collett made contact in 2017, when Jane Louise Hardy kindly supplied details of the previously missing two younger children.

 

 

 

 

20Q23

Mary Lucy Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Tuesday 10th June 1879.  It would appear that she never married and died at Appin during 1961.

 

 

 

 

20Q24

James Thomas Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Saturday 4th December 1880.  He married Florence Evelyn Knight at Woonona in New South Wales during 1901, Florence being born in 1883 and the daughter of John and Ellen Knight.  The couple’s first three children were born at Appin, the next three were born at Alstonville, and the last three were born after the family had moved to Queensland.  It was there, that James established himself as a bullock driver and timber-getter at Skyring Creek, Pomona. When James died, his son Ernest took over the property at Skyring Creek which, after Ernest passed away in 1962, was eventually purchased by his grandson Percy, the eldest of Ernest’s sons. 

 

 

 

20R26

Arthur James Collett

Born in 1901 at Appin

 

20R27

Reginald John Collett

Born in 1903 at Appin

 

20R28

Rita May Collett

Born in 1905 at Appin

 

20R29

Edith Evelyn Collett

Born in 1907 at Cataract Dam

 

20R30

Ernest George Collett

Born in 1910 at Alstonville

 

20R31

Cecil Lynwood Collett

Born in 1913 at Alstonville

 

20R32

Queenie Adeline Collett

Date of birth unknown in Queensland

 

20R33

Clarice Pearl Collett

Date of birth unknown in Queensland

 

20R34

Olive Ethel Collett

Date of birth unknown in Queensland

 

 

 

 

20Q25

Angelina Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Saturday 4th November 1882.  It would appear than she never married and her death as Angelina Collett was recorded in 1943 at Wollongong in New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

20Q26

Margaret Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Thursday 7th August 1884.  She married Albert Henry Wonson, the son of Albert Henry Wonson and Helen Lucas who was born in 1882.  The wedding took place at Sydney on Wednesday 9th December 1908.  The marriage produced two children for Albert and Margaret, Iris Alberta Wonson who was born in 1909 and Norman Henry Wonson who was born in 1916, who tragically died during 1936.  Margaret and Albert both died at Wollongong in New South Wales in 1944.

 

 

 

 

20Q27

Arthur Sutherland Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Thursday 19th November 1885.  He married Alma Myrtle Thelma Cooper at Appin Newtown on Monday 5th May 1911.  Arthur Sutherland Collett died at Bulli Road in Appin on Sunday 8th February 1953 at the age of 67.  His wife Alma died over fifteen years later on 16th November 1968.

 

 

 

20R35

Eileen Enid Merle Collett

Born in 1913 at Appin

 

20R36

Cecil Sutherland Collett

Born in 1914 at Appin

 

20R37

Murray Arthur Collett

Born in 1917 at Campbelltown

 

20R38

Hazel Alma Collett

Born in 1920 at Campbelltown

 

20R39

Kelvin Laurence Collett

Born in 1924 at Campbelltown

 

20R40

Glen Denzil Collett

Date of birth unknown at Campbelltown

 

 

 

 

20Q28

William Henry Collett, was a twin with an un-named brother, and was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Saturday 2nd July 1887 and died two days later on Monday 4th July 1887

 

 

 

 

20Q29

An un-named male Collett twin was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Saturday 2nd July 1887 and died that same day.

 

 

 

 

20Q30

Alice Esther Collett was born at Macquarie Dale Road in Appin on Thursday 4th October 1888, and it was there also that she died nearly two years later on Monday 15th September 1890.

 

 

 

 

20Q31

Ada Rhoda Collett was born at Mount Britton Road in Appin on Saturday 25th February 1893.  She married Albert Horrex Read on Saturday 23rd October 1915 at St Mark’s Church in Appin.  It was at Nambour in Queensland that Ada Read nee Collett died on Wednesday 5th June 1963 at the age of 70.

 

 

 

 

20Q32

Percy Philip Collett was born at Mount Britton Road in Appin on Thursday 18th July 1895.  At the outbreak of the Great War, Percy enlisted at Brisbane with the Australian Light Horse as trooper 3414.  He saw active service in the Middle East and entered the battle for Jericho in Palestine on 21st February 1918.  It was less than two months later at Jericho that Percy died on 11th April 1918 and was buried in Jerusalem.  The War Graves Commission entry reads “Percy Philip Collett aged 22 died on 11th April 1918 and was buried at the War Cemetery in Jerusalem.  He was a native of Appin in New South Wales and the son of Arthur and Rebecca Jane Collett”.

 

 

 

The Jerusalem War Cemetery where he was buried (Ref. H10) is just over four kilometres north of the walled city and is situated on the neck of land at the north end of the Mount of Olives, to the west of Mount Scopus. The cemetery on Churchill Boulevard lies between the Hadassah Hospital and the Hyatt Hotel.  The Australian Memorial carrying Percy’s name is situated opposite the cemetery entrance.  In his honour, his great nephew Percy Philip Ernest Collett (Ref. 20S13) was named after him, when he was born at Pomona in 1937.

 

 

 

 

20Q33

Jack Alexander Collett was born at Picton (to the west of Appin) on Monday 2nd August 1897.  He Florence Brock on Wednesday 17th August 1927 at Kin Kin in Queensland.  She was born on Thursday 4th May 1905 in the Bega district of New South Wales.  It was forty years after they were married that Jack Alexander Collett died at Cooroy in Queensland during 1967.  Florence, who was known as Florrie, survived for a year after the death of her husband, when she died at Gympie in Queensland during 1968.

 

 

 

 

20Q34

Frederick Charles Collett, was born at Picton in New South Wales on Thursday 30th April 1903, and was the youngest son of Arthur Collett and Rebecca Jane Sutherland.  He married Laura Thurkettle in 1943 at Kingsford in New South Wales and there is no record of any child.  Frederick Charles Collett died in 1975. 

 

 

 

 

20Q35

Ernest Henry Collett was born at Gundaroo on Saturday 23rd December 1882.  He married (1) Lucy Margaret Jones on Monday 17th June 1912 at Bundamba in Queensland but she tragically died on 27th November 1927, but not before presenting Ernest with two children.                     The couple are pictured on the right.

 

Ernest then married (2) Myrtle Elsie Huggett who was born on 19th November 1886 and who died on 5th September 1981.  That marriage produced a further child for Ernest.  Ernest had died nine years earlier at the age of 89 on Tuesday 29th August 1972 at Umina in New South Wales.

 

 

 

20R41

Myrtle Jean Collett

Born in 1917 at Mount Morgan

 

20R42

Arthur William Collett

Born in 1919 at McKay

 

The following is the child of Ernest Henry Collett by his second wife Myrtle Elsie Huggett:

 

20R43

Innes Charles Edgar Collett

Born circa 1929/30 at Marrickville

 

 

 

 

20Q36

Oscar Herbert Collett was born at Goulburn on Tuesday 10th April 1883.  He married Bertha Isabel Buttenshaw at Grenfell in New South Wales on Wednesday 28th October 1908.  It seems very likely that Oscar and Bertha lived the majority of their married life at Grenfell, since that was where all their children were born and where their youngest son Laurence died in 1929.  Oscar Herbert Collett died on Saturday 10th March 1979 at the grand age of 95.

 

 

 

20R44

Reginald Oscar Collett

Born in 1909 at Grenfell

 

20R45

Raymond Edgar George Collett

Born in 1911 at Grenfell

 

20R46

Trevor Donald Hamilton Collett

Born in 1914 at Grenfell

 

20R47

Wesley Ernest Collett

Born in 1917 at Grenfell

 

20R48

Gladys Edna Isobel Collett

Born in 1920 at Grenfell

 

20R49

Freda Jessie Collett

Born in 1923 at Grenfell

 

20R50

June Estell Collett

Born in 1925 at Grenfell

 

20R51

Laurence A Collett

Born in 1927 at Grenfell

 

 

 

 

20Q37

Herbert Oliver Collett was born at Goulburn in New South Wales in 1884, although an alternative source placed the birth as happening at Argyle in 1884.

 

 

 

 

20Q38

Arthur William Collett was born at Goulburn in New South Wales in 1887.  He married Florence Ida Mildred Davis who was born in 1890 and who was known within the family as Ida.  She was the daughter of Lucy Amelia Collett (Ref. 20P2), the sister of Arthur William Collett’s father Philip Collett, and Robert Henry E Davis.  Arthur and Ida were therefore directly related, being first cousins.  The wedding took place at Granville in New South Wales on 10th December 1919 and resulted in the birth of four children for Arthur and Florence.  It seems very likely that Arthur took an active part in the First World War, judging by the photograph of him in his army uniform, but being in his fifties at the time of the start of the Second World War he was probably considered too old for active duty by then. 

 

 

 

However, he did manage to secure the role of Private Collett N-100659 with the Australian Army Headquarters.  Although the cause is not known, Arthur William Collett died while in the service of the army on 11th December 1943 at the age of 53.  His actual age at that time was in 57 or nearly 58.  Arthur was buried at the Sydney War Cemetery and the military records confirmed that his next-of-kin was his wife Florence Ida Collett of Guildford, and that his parents were Philip and Minnie Collett.  The Guildford mentioned here refers to Guildford in New South Wales, rather than the one in Surrey, England.

 

 

 

20R52

Marjorie Beatrice Collett

Born in 1920 In Australia

 

20R53

Nancy Collett

Born in 1922 in Australia

 

20R54

Gwendoline Collett

Born in 1924 in Australia

 

20R55

John (Jack) Beresford Collett

Born in 1927 in Australia

 

 

 

 

20Q39

Lillian Ella Collett was born at Young in New South Wales in 1888.  She married Henry Spencer Miles who was born in 1886 and who was known as Harry.  The marriage took place at Grenfell in New South Wales, and from which Lillian and Harry had two children.  Their two children were Henry Ernest Miles (born 1905) and Lucy Ella Miles (born 1908).  Lillian Ella Miles nee Collett died in 1945.

 

 

 

 

20Q40

Laura Beatrice Pearl Collett was born at Young in 1889, the daughter of Philip Collett and his wife Mary Ann Edwards.  It was in 1909 at Grenfell in New South Wales that Laura married Thomas Ernest Stein who had been born there during 1886.  It was also at Grenfell where Laura Stein nee Collett died in 1921 at the age of 32, most likely during childbirth. 

The picture on the right of Laura on her wedding day is an extract from a much larger photograph with Thomas Stein seated to the left of her.  The full photograph was kindly provided by Shirley Kinghorn, who also supplied other details for the December 2012 update of the family line.

 

 

 

Following the death of his wife, Thomas Ernest Stein, who was known as Tom, married Mabel Smith during 1925, Mabel having been born in 1896.  Tom died suddenly in 1962 while he was visiting the parents of Shirley Kinghorn at Bathurst.  Tom and Laura had three children, and two of them were Harold Ernest Thomas Stein (born at Grenfell on 01.03.1910, who died in 1975, having married Violet Frances Marrion Dwight at Cowra on 21.06.1933), Violet Stein (born at Charleville in Queensland on 05.09.1911, who died on 19.07.2008).  Tom's father had the Glenrock Farm near Grenfell, and his parents had adjoining property known as Torwood.  Tom purchased Regentville Farm at Penrith, which has since been redeveloped as the Glenmore Park housing estate.

 

 

 

It was just after they were married that Harold and his wife Violet made the epic journey from Cowra to Penrith.  They travelled by horse and wagon, a dray loaded with furniture, with Harold sitting on a meatsafe, while driving the horse.  When the couple set off, they had with them a couple of cows and horses, but the cows were a problem, when it took them a week to complete the journey.  Upon arrival in Penrith Harold established a dairy farm, with crops and sheep as well.  It was while they were living there that their four children were born, Shirley, Ross, Vince, and Ken.  During the 1950s Harold and Violet purchase a dairy farm at Bathurst.

 

 

 

The couple’s eldest child Shirley Violet Frances Stein was born at Cowra during 1934, as there were no facilities in Penrith at that time.  Shirley later married Reg Kinghorn on 11th October 1952, and they had three children, Stephen Wayne Kinghorn (born 30.01.1955), David Reginald Kinghorn (born 17.09.1956), and Kathryn Laura Kinghorn (born 25.09.1959).  Around 1984 Shirley and her family attended the Collett Reunion Thirroul in New South Wales.  And it is thanks to Shirley that the file was update.

 

 

 

 

20Q41

William Leslie Philip Collett was born at Young in 1891, the son of Philip Collett and Mary Ann Edwards.  On Tuesday 20th January 1920, at Goulburn, William married Pearl Weeks who was born in 1893, the daughter of William Weeks and Amy A Watman.  Pearl Collett nee Weeks died in 1984 twenty-eight years after William had passed away in 1956 while they were living at Moss Vale.  The records show that on 2nd September 1922 a Herbert John Collett was born to a Philip Collett at Goulburn.  It therefore seems likely that William had used the name Philip after his father who had died in 1918, and his grandfather before him. 

 

 

 

William also had two brothers with the name Herbert and a younger brother John.  On that basis, it therefore seems worthwhile to include Herbert John Collett as his and Pearl’s child.  William Leslie Philip Collett died on Sunday 5th August 1956, and was buried at Bong Bong Cemetery in New South Wales.

 

 

 

20R56

Herbert John Collett

Born in 1922 at Goulburn

 

 

 

 

20Q42

Harold Edward James Collett was the son of Philip Collett and Mary Ann Edwards and was born at the town of Young in New South Wales during 1894.  He was known as Harry and he married Elizabeth Mary Fyffe.  Nothing else is known about him or his wife at this time.  Nor is it known whether the marriage produced any children for Harold and Elizabeth.  It is understood that Harold Edward James Collett died around 1943, when he would have been approaching his fiftieth birthday.

 

 

 

 

20Q43

Ellen Catherine Collett was born at Young in 1899.  She was known as Nellie and in 1917 at Goulburn she married (1) Alfred J Payne who was born in 1896 and was known as Alf.  She later married (2) Frank Cusack who died in 1984, Ellen Catherine Cusack nee Collett having died two years earlier in 1982 at Guildford in New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

20Q44

Leslie John Leonard Collett was born at Grenfell in New South Wales in 1902 and to date no record has been found to indicate that he ever married.  What is known is that he died in 1978 while living at Bargo in New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

20Q45

Percy James Lodge Collett was born at Gunning on Sunday 26th March 1871.  He married Sarah Jane Swan at St Paul’s Church in Burra, New South Wales on Wednesday 26th December 1900.  Sarah was the daughter of John Swan and Margaret Brown and was born in 1877.  The couple’s two children were both born while Percy and Sarah were living at Queanbeyan, and tragically it was around the time of the birth of the second child that Sarah died on 10th March 1903.  Percy died at Newtown in New South Wales on Thursday 8th September 1927 when he was 56.

 

 

 

20R57

Nita Phyllis Lodge Collett

Born in 1901 at Queanbeyan

 

20R58

James John Lodge Collett

Born in 1903 at Queanbeyan

 

 

 

 

20Q46

Arthur Henry Collett was born at Frankfield Inn at Gunning on Thursday 13th June 1872.  He married Frances Maud Bailey at Parramatta in 1895 where all of their children were born.  Arthur died at Manly to the north of Sydney on Tuesday 16th October 1956 when he was 84.

 

 

 

20R59

Arthur Henry Collett

Born in 1896 at Parramatta

 

20R60

Ruth M Collett

Born in 1897 at Parramatta

 

20R61

George Henry Collett

Born in 1900 at Parramatta

 

20R62

Fanny Collett

Born in 1902 at Parramatta

 

20R63

May Collett

Born in 1903 at Parramatta

 

20R64

Maud Collett

Born in 1905 at Parramatta

 

 

 

 

20Q47

Augustus John Hugh Collett was born at Gunning on Thursday 18th December 1873.  He married Annie Edith Pickering at Milton New South Wales during 1900, and it was there that the couple’s first child was born, while second was born after the family had moved to Kilkenny.  Augustus Hugh Collett died in 1923 at Mosman in New South Wales, although in the record of his son’s death in 1975 Augustus was described as Augustus John Collett.  Annie Edith Pickering was born in 1877 and died in 1958.

 

 

 

20R65

Kenneth Claude James Samuel Collett

Born in 1901 at Milton

 

20R66

Ernest Augustus Collett

Born in 1903 at Kilkenny

 

20R67

Annie Merle Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

20Q48

May Rebecca Collett was born at Frankfield Inn at Gunning on Sunday 6th June 1875.  She married Charles Mackintosh at Redfern in New South Wales in 1905.  Over the next five years May presented her husband with three children, Gordon C Mackintosh (born 1906), Clarence N Mackintosh (born 1908), and Keith A Mackintosh (born 1910).

 

 

 

 

20Q49

Ida Maud Collett was born at Gunning on Tuesday 1st May 1877.  She married Thomas Michael McCabe on Wednesday 16th November 1901 at Queanbeyan.  Ida Maud McCabe nee Collett was living in Sydney when she died on Saturday 20th December 1841 when she was 64.

 

 

 

 

20Q50

Ada Emily Collett was born at Gunning on Thursday 29th May 1879.  She married Ernest Creamore Hincksman on Tuesday 17th March 1902 at Queanbeyan in New South Wales.  Four children resulted from their marriage and they were Oswald Thomas G Hincksman (born 1903), Eric G Hincksman (born 1906), Harry E Hincksman (born 1909), and George A Hincksman (born 1911).  Ada Emily Hincksman nee Collett died on Tuesday 12th July 1955 at the age of 76.

 

 

 

 

20Q51

Fanny Lucy Collett was born at Gunning on Thursday 14th October 1880.  She married John James Gay on Wednesday 17th August 1904 at Queanbeyan, with whom she had three children.  They were Dorothy V Gay (born 1905), Carolton V Gay (born 1906), and Vivian James Gay (born 1908).

 

 

 

 

20Q52

Deborah Ellen Collett was born at Gunning on Saturday 9th September 1882.  She married Duncan A McDonald in 1905 at Queanbeyan with whom she had two children.  They were Dorothy J R McDonald (born 1906), and Helena E P McDonald (born 1908).

 

 

 

 

20Q53

Pearl Edith Collett was born at Gunning on Saturday 13th September 1884.  She married Samuel Alfred Parcel on Wednesday 29th July 1914 at Queanbeyan.

 

 

 

 

20Q54

Ernest Joseph Collett was born at Queanbeyan in 1886 where he died on Monday 11th August 1913.

 

 

 

 

20Q55

Lillian Alice Collett was at Queanbeyan born on Friday 20th July 1888.  She married Edwin Frederick Land on Tuesday 5th November 1912 at Queanbeyan.  And it was there also that Lillian Alice Land died on Sunday 5th August 1956 at the age of 68.

 

 

 

 

20Q56

Lucy Mary Collett was the daughter of William Collett and Ellen Boyd and was born at Goulburn in 1881, where she died later that same year.

 

 

 

 

20Q57

William Griffith Rees Collett was born at Waterloo in 1882 and he married Agnes Wilhelmina Fisher at Granville in 1900.  Minnie as she was known presented her husband with one known child.

 

 

 

20R68

Wilhelmina G Collett

Born after 1900

 

 

 

 

20Q58

Edwin P Collett was born at Central Cumberland in 1885, where he also died in 1886.

 

 

 

 

20Q59

Emily Collett was born at Central Cumberland in 1886, and she married John E Wearne at Granville in New South Wales in 1912.  Emily’s sister Esther A Collett (below) married Horace Wearne, so it looks very likely that the two sisters married two brothers.

 

 

 

 

20Q60

Charles Kingsmill Collett was born at Granville in New South Wales in 1889, and he married Ida D Prior at Newtown in New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

20Q61

Esther A Collett was born at Granville in New South Wales during 1891, and she married Horace Wearne.  Horace Wearne was most likely the brother of John E Wearne who married Esther’s sister Emily Collett (above).

 

 

 

 

20Q62

Joseph Harrington Collett was born at Crookwell in New South Wales in 1893.  He married Doris Annie Reynolds in Sydney 1926, and died on Wednesday 6th April 1977.  Doris died twenty years later on Tuesday 18th February 1997.  Immediately prior to her passing, Doris lived at Penshurst in New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

20Q63

Aubrey J Collett was born at Boorowa in New South Wales in 1895.  He married Vera Norma D Baker at Sydney in 1928 who died on Monday 23rd July 1990 at Punchbowl in New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

20Q64

Ellen Collett was born in 1896 the daughter of William Collett and Ellen Boyd, and tragically she died that same year.

 

 

 

 

20Q65

Robert Montgomery Collett was born at Boorowa in 1898, the son of William Collett and Ellen Boyd, and was just seventeen years old when he died at Granville in 1915.

 

 

 

 

20Q66

Edith Kate Collett was born at Boorowa in 1899, and she married Charles McGrath at Sydney in 1926.

 

 

 

 

20Q67

Neville R Collett was born at Granville on Tuesday 20th May 1902, and he married Veronica H Tully at Canterbury in New South Wales in 1929.

 

 

 

 

20Q68

Frances Alice Collett was born at Goulburn on Thursday 3rd June 1886, and she married Alfred Ernest Trompp at Goulburn in 1917.  He was born in 1882 and died on 2nd June 1928.  In November 1919 Frances presented Alfred with a son, Donald Oliver Trompp who sadly died the following year.  In 1932 widow Francis Trompp nee Collett married for a second time to become Francis Alice Eldridge.

 

 

 

 

20Q69

Beatrice Pearl Collett was born at Gunning in 1889.  On Wednesday 10th March 1909 at Goulburn, she married William Thomas Leslie Newton who was born in 1885, the son of Edward Newton and Minnie Brunner.  The marriage resulted in the birth of two children, Dorothy I Newton (born 1909) and Daphne A Newton (born 1911).

 

 

 

 

20Q70

Philip Oliver Collett was born at Gunning in 1893.  He married Ethel Jane Galvin at Cootamundra in New South Wales on Monday 5th April 1915.  Their daughter Mary died at Goulburn in 1921, as did Philip many years later in 1966.

 

 

 

20R69

Mary Collett

Born circa 1920; died in 1921

 

 

 

 

20Q71

Ivy Gertrude Collett was born at Gunning on Tuesday 29th September 1894, and she married Hector Robert King on Wednesday 16th November 1927 at Goulburn.  Ivy Gertrude King nee Collett died at Currawong in New South Wales on Wednesday 10th October 1973 aged 79.

 

 

 

 

20Q72

Enos Joseph Collett was born at Gunning in 1897.  He married Florence M Thompson at Goulburn in 1925.  The couple’s first child may have been born at Goulburn or Gunning, but it was at the latter town where he died while still an infant in 1928.  It seems likely that Enos was married for a second time to Frances Negus, since there are the two names on the death certificate for daughter Harriet who died at Goulburn in 1943.  Enos also died at Goulburn on Tuesday 22nd February 1972. 

 

 

 

20R70

James A Collett

Born circa 1926

 

20R71

Harriet Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

20Q73

Norman Alexander Collett was born at Gunning in 1900.  He married Ivy M Campbell at Crookwell in 1925.

 

 

 

 

20Q74

Herbert Edward Noel Collett was born at Gunning in 1903 and he later married Lynda M Helmers at Goulburn in 1926.

 

 

 

 

20Q75

STANLEY BEAN COLLETT was born at Gunning on Sunday 1st October 1905, the last child of Joseph Collett and Harriet Hawker.  He later married Salome Elizabeth Lieschke on Monday 29th July 1929 at Goulburn, where their children were born.  Salome was born at Henty in New South Wales on 14th October 1905 and died on Wednesday 5th July 1972 aged 66.  Almost nine years later Stanley Bean Collett died at Canberra on Saturday 29th August 1981 at the age of 75.  Prior to marrying Stanley Bean Collett, Salome Elizabeth Lieschke already had a son, Allan Lindsay Lieschke, who was born on 23rd October 1925.  Allan married Mary Theresa Corbett with whom he had seven children, and died in America on 13th December 1978.  His ashes were interred at Goulburn, New South Wales.

 

 

 

20R72

Stanley James Collett

Born in 1931 at Goulburn

 

20R73

Anne Beatrice Collett

Born in 1935 at Goulburn

 

20R74

Philip Sidney Collett

Born in 1942 at Goulburn

 

20R75

IAN JOSEPH COLLETT

Born in 1944 at Goulburn

 

20R76

Peter Norman Collett

Born in 1948 at Goulburn

 

 

 

 

20R1

Ann Elizabeth Collett was born at Brick Garth, in Easington Lane, in 1902 and was the first-born child of George William Collett and Harriet Wharton.  Her birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 120) during the last three months of the year.  Under her full name, she was recorded with her family in 1911 at the age of eight years.

 

 

 

 

20R2

George Wharton Collett was born at Brick Garth on 4th January 1904, his birth recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 161) during the first three months of the year.  In the Hetton-le-Hole census of 1911, George Wharton Collett who was seven years when still living with his family at Brick Garth in Easington Lane.  George was twenty-six when he became a married man, his wedding recorded at Easington register office (Ref. 10a 132) during the quarter of 1930.  As far as can be determined, the marriage of George Wharton Collett and Jane Harper produced two children for the couple, their births also recorded at Easington.  The later death of George Wharton Collett was recorded at Durham Eastern register office (Ref. 1 73) during the summer of 1979.

 

 

 

20S1

Robert Collett

Born in 1931 at Easington, Durham

 

20S2

Cecilia L Collett

Born in 1935 at Easington, Durham

 

 

 

 

20R3

Harriet Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1905 and her birth was also recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 122) during the fourth quarter of the year.  She was five years of age in 1911, while still living there with her family.  The marriage of Harriet Collett and Alfred E Raymond was recorded at Easington register office (Ref. 10a 91) during the first three months of 1924.  Their marriage produced the following children, all of them confirming the mother’s maiden-name as Collett: Harriet Raymond in 1924, Emily Raymond in 1926, Alfred E Raymond in 1928, Alan Raymond in 1930, June R Raymond in 1931, George G Raymond in 1933, Ann E Raymond in 1936, and Laura G Raymond in 1937.  She was 60 years when she died, the death of Harriet Raymond was recorded at Durham Eastern register office (1a 1) during the last three months of 1965.

 

 

 

 

20R4

Margaret Jane Wharton Collett was born at Brick Garth on 17th September 1907, the fourth child of George and Harriet Collett.  As with her siblings, her birth too was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 345) during the last three months of the year.  Margaret Jane Wharton Collett was three years old in 1911, when living at Brick Garth with her growing family.  She never married, with the death of Margaret Jane Wharton recorded at Sunderland register office towards the end of 1988, at the age of 81.

 

 

 

 

20R5

Ellen Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1909, another daughter of George and Harriet Collett.  It was during the third quarter of that year, when her birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 8).  It was at the family home, that Ellen was one-year-old in the Hetton-le-Hole census of 1911, which includes Brick Garth in Easington Lane.

 

 

 

 

20R6

Laura Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1911, when her birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 121) during the third quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wharton.  She was twenty-two- years-old when the marriage of Laura Collett and Ralph C Naylor was recorded at Easington register office (Ref. 10a 45) during the last three months of 1933.  Around six months after their wedding day, Laura presented Ralph with their only child, when the birth of Samuel G Naylor was recorded at Easington during the first quarter of 1934.  Tragically, Laura never recovered from the ordeal of giving birth, with her death also recorded at Easington register office during the second quarter of 1934, when Laura Naylor was still 22 years old.

 

 

 

 

20R7

Philip Collett was born at Brick Garth, with his birth recorded during the second quarter of 1914 at Easington register office (Ref. 10a 121), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wharton.  Twenty-two-years later, the marriage of Philip Collett and Mildred Dodds was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 128) during the third quarter of 1936.  Philip and Mildred enjoyed seventeen years together before his untimely death was recorded at Durham Eastern register office (Ref. 1a 73) during the first quarter of 1954, when he was only 39 years of age.

 

 

 

 

20R8

Emily Collett was born at Brick Garth on 4th January 1919 and her birth was recorded at Easington register office (Ref. 10a 3) during the first three months of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wharton.  Emily was 25 years of age when she married Robert Potts, their wedding day recorded at Durham Eastern register office (Ref. 10a 90) during the third quarter of 1943.  It was there also, that the births of the couple’s two children were recorded.  Robert Potts was born in 1944 and Elizabeth Potts in 1949.  On both occasions the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.  Just prior to the end of the century, the death of Emily Potts was recorded at Durham East register office near the end of 1999.

 

 

 

 

20R9

Joseph Collett was born at Brick Garth on 11th September 1920, the youngest son of George and Harriet Collett.  It was during the last four months of the year that his birth was recorded at Easington (Ref. 10a 10), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wharton.  On the occasion of his wedding, after the Second World War, his name was recorded as Joseph R Collett when his bride was Elizabeth Lloyd, the event recorded at Durham North-Eastern register office (Ref. 1a 41) during the last quarter of 1947.  Over the next seven years, Elizabeth present Joseph with a son and two daughters.  It was during the early weeks of 1988 when his passing was recorded at the Durham East register office at the age of 67.

 

 

 

20S3

Thelma Collett

Born in 1948 at Durham North-Eastern

 

20S4

Graham Collett

Born in 1951 at Durham North-Eastern

 

20S5

Elizabeth A Collett

Born in 1954 at Durham North-Eastern

 

 

 

 

20R10

Olive M Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1923 and was the tenth and last child of George William Collett and Harriet Wharton.  Her birth was recorded at the Durham Easington register office (Ref. 10a 88) during the last quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wharton.  She was just short of her twentieth birthday when the marriage of Olive M Collett and William G Marley was recorded at Durham Eastern register office (Ref. 10a 103) during the third quarter of 1943.  As far as can be determined, Olive gave birth to three children, the births of all three recorded at Durham Eastern register office, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.  They were Carole A Marley born in 1945, William G Marley born in 1947 and Raymond Marley born in 1949.

 

 

 

 

20R11

Mary Jane Dodds Collett was born in 1903 at Brick Garth in the centre of the colliery town of Easington Lane.  She was the eldest of the eight known children of John James Collett and Isabella Wood, her birth recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 327) during the second quarter of the year.  It was with her family there in 1911, when she was seven years of age and recorded using her full name.  It is still not clear where the Dodd name came from, although her younger cousin Philip Collett (Ref. 20R7) married Mildred Dodds at Eastington Lane in 1936.  However, ten years before that wedding day, the death of Mary Jane Dodds Collett was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 111) in the summer of 1926, when she was only 23 years old.

 

 

 

 

20R12

Philip Collett was born at Brick Garth on 28th July 1905, his birth recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 370) during the third quarter of the year, and he was five years old in the Easington Lane of 1911.  It is possible that Philip never married, although it would appear that he lived out his life in County Durham, since it was at Durham Central register office that his death was recorded at the start of 1982, at the age of 76.  

 

 

 

 

20R13

Henry Wood Collett was born at Brick Garth on 3rd June 1908, whose birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 210) during the third quarter of the year.  He was the third child of John James Collett and Isabella Wood, who was simply listed as Henry Collett, aged two years, in the Easington Lane census of 1911, when he was living there with his family.  It may also be that Henry was never married while, like his old brother Philip (above) he may have lived all his life in the Durham area of the country, since it was at Sunderland that the death of Henry Wood Collett was recorded during the spring of 1979, when he was 70 years old.

 

 

 

 

20R14

Ann Elizabeth Collett was born was born at Brick Garth around October time in 1910, and was five months old in the Easington Lane census of 1911.  Her birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 34), but sadly, three years later, her death was also recorded there (Ref. 10a 85) during the second quarter of 1913.

 

 

 

 

20R15

Emma Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1913 and it was during the last three of that year, when her birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 92) and her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wood.

 

 

 

 

20R16

John James Collett was born at Brick Garth in the first half of 1916, another son of John James Collett and Isabella Wood.  His birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 1a 133) during the second quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wood.

 

 

 

 

20R17

Isabella Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1919, the penultimate child of John and Isabella Collett.  Her birth, like all of her siblings, was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 30) during the second quarter of the year, her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wood.

 

 

 

 

20R18

Elizabeth Collett was born in 1922 at Brick Garth in Easington Lane, the eighth and last child of John James Collett and his wife Isabella Wood.  It was during the second quarter of the year that her birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring (Ref. 10a 147), where her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wood.

 

 

 

 

20R19

Ann Elizabeth Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1906, the first of the four children of Philip Collett and Elizabeth Tempest.  Her birth was recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 68) during the second quarter of the year.  In the Easington Lane census of 1911, for the area of Hetton-le-Hole, Ann Elizabeth Collett was four years old.  It was during the second quarter of 1936 that the marriage of Ann Elizabeth Collett and Thomas W Greenfield was recorded at Easington register office (Ref. 10a 84).  It seems that the couple only had one child, that being Thomas W Greenfield who was born in the summer of 1942, the birth recorded at Durham Eastern register office (Ref. 10a 77).

 

 

 

 

20R20

Catherine Tempest Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1908, the second daughter of Philip Collett and Elizabeth Tempest.  Her birth was also recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 205) during the last three months of the year, and was two years old in 1911, when living at Easington Lane with her family.

 

 

 

 

20R21

Ellen Collett was born at Brick Garth in 1910, but curiously, her birth is the only not found yet with her siblings at Houghton-le-Spring.  She was under one year old in the Brick garth census of 1911, and it was early in 1938 that she was still living in the Easington Lane area, where her marriage to Thomas C Farrell was recorded (Ref. 10a 115).  The births of their three children were recorded at the Durham Eastern register office, when their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.  They were Thomas Farrell in 1938, Olive M Farrell in 1941, and James Farrell in 1945.

 

 

 

 

20R22

Philip Collett was born at Brick Garth on 3rd September 1913, his birth recorded at Houghton-le-Spring register office (Ref. 10a 110) during the last quarter of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Tempest.  Although not proved, and being aware there are two other Philip Colletts in this family of a similar age, it is possible that Philip Collett married Ada Davison in 1947, their wedding day recorded at Durham (Ref. 1a 61) during the first quarter of the year.  Ada was born in Durham, where she was baptised on 17th June 1915, the daughter of Thomas and Ellen Davison.  However, there is a chance that Ada may have been the second wife of Philip Collett 1814-1954 (Ref. 20R7), his first wife being Mildred Dodds.  The other Philip Collett was (Ref. 20R12) 1905-1982, who has not been credited as having a wife.

 

 

 

 

20R23

Cyril Collett was born at Guisborough on 27th March 1896, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 9d 372) during the second quarter of the year, the base-born son of Maud Collett.  Upon being baptised at the Guisborough Circuit Wesleyan Methodist Church in April 1896, his sole parent was confirmed as Maud Collett.  He was five years old and 15 years of age in the Guisborough census returns for 1901 and 1911, when he and his unmarried mother were living with his Collett grandparents.  It was during the second quarter of 1926 when the marriage of Cyril Collett and Blanche Margaret Coatsworth was recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 55).  No record of any children has been found, while it was at East Cleveland register office (Vol. 3 70) that the death of Cyril Collett, aged 79, was recorded during the spring of 1975.  Two years earlier, the death of Blanche Margaret Collett was also recorded at East Cleveland register office (Ref. 1b 48) during the second quarter of 1973, when her date of birth was confirmed as 28th July 1899.  Her birth had been recorded at Guisborough, but was baptised at Lingdale in Yorkshire on 16th August 1899 at the Brunswick Wesleyan Church, the daughter of Thomas and Mabel Coatsworth.

 

 

 

 

20R24

Marjorie Collett was born at 20 Eskdale Terrace in Guisborough during the summer of 1910, the eldest of the two children of George Ernest Collett and May Wilkinson.  Her birth was recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 64) during the third quarter of 1910 and was seven months old in the Guisborough census of 1911.  That day Marjorie Collett was seven months old.  She never married, with the death of Marjorie Collett recorded at Yorkshire register office (Ref. 2b 278) in 1964 at the age of 53.

 

 

 

 

20R25

John R Collett was born at Guisborough in 1915, possibly at 20 Eskdale Terrace, with his birth recorded at Guisborough (Ref. 9d 126) during the second quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wilkinson.  He was the third and last child born to George Ernest Collett and May Wilkinson.  However, there is speculation that he married the much younger Jane F Appleton who was born in Middlesbrough in 1930, the marriage of John R Collett and Jane F Appleton recorded at Middlesbrough register office (Ref. 1b 40) during the third quarter of 1953.  The couple had two children, the births of both of them recorded at Middlesbrough, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Appleton.

 

 

 

20S6

Brian Collett – not yet proved

Born in 1956 at Middlesbrough

 

20S7

Julie Collett – not yet proved

Born in 1957 at Middlesbrough

 

 

 

 

20R26

Arthur James Collett was born at Appin in 1901, although his second forename may have been John.  He married (1) Ivy Morton at Wickham in 1927 and later (2) Elsie M Stamp at Lismore in 1932.  The only other known fact about Arthur is that he died in Queensland.  At some time in her life, perhaps immediately before she married Arthur, his wife Elsie lived at 27 Breckfield Street in Aspley, Queensland.

 

 

 

 

20R27

Reginald John Collett was born at Bulli Road in Appin during 1903 and again, like his brother Arthur (above), there is doubt about his second being John or James.  What is known is that he married Joyce Roberts with whom he had two children.

 

 

 

20S8

Marlene Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

20S9

Kevin Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

20R28

Rita May Collett was born at Bulli Road in Appin in 1905, the daughter of James Thomas Collett and Florence Evelyn Knight.  Previously, the only further note on Rita, was that she later married Bruce Parsons.  In 2019 new information regarding this family line was received from Steven Knowles in Brisbane, his ex-wife having a shared interest in the Colletts.  It was her half-first-cousin, three times removed, Edith Carpendale (1876-1932) who married Percival Bruce Parsons (1875-1976) at Bundarra in New South Wales in 1903.  Following Edith’s death, Percival married (1) Rita May Collett (1905-1996) in Queensland on 14th July 1934.  On their wedding day, Rita was 29 and Percival was 59, who reached the age of 100 years when he died.  Nearly twenty years after being widowed, Rita May Parsons was 90 years old when she died on 29th January 1996, following which, she was interred at Nambour Garden Lawn Cemetery, Nambour Connection Road, Nambour in Queensland.

 

 

 

 

20R29

Edith Evelyn Collett was born at Cataract Dam in New South Wales in 1907, and she married William John Jenson.

 

 

 

 

20R30

Ernest George Collett was born at Alstonville in New South Wales on 3rd October 1910, the son of James Thomas Collett and Florence E Knight.  He married Jean Agnes Archer on 30th October 1931, and established himself as a farmer at Kin Kin, to the north of Pomona in Queensland, where his son Percy was born six years later, the third of his nine children.  And it was at Pomona where Ernest George Collett died on 21st March 1962, at the age of 51.  Five years earlier, in 1957, Ernest had sold a small part of his property to son Percy, upon him becoming a married man.  To repay his father, Percy had to work on his father’s property, as well as running his own property.  At the time Ernest passed away, it was revealed that he had financial problem, and virtually left Jean without any means to support herself, such was the size of his debts.  She was therefore support by her children, her two youngest daughters continuing to live with her on the family farm, which was taken over by her son Percy who, by then, had three daughters of his own, with a fourth one on the way.  That situation continued for a while, but eventually Jean, with daughters Shirley and Pamela, moved to Brisbane.  With her health failing, Jean became a resident in the Bethany Christian Care Home at Norman Park in the Graceville district of Brisbane.  Not long after, she died there at the age of 75.  Cooroy, where her first two children were born, lies five miles south-east of Pomona.

 

 

 

20S10

Evelyn Joan Collett

Born in 1932 at Cooroy, Queensland

 

20S11

Beryl Mavis Collett

Born in 1933 at Cooroy, Queensland

 

20S12

Iris Jean Collett

Born in 1935 at Pomona, Queensland

 

20S13

Percy Philip Ernest Collett

Born in 1937 at Pomona, Queensland

 

20S14

Trevor James Collett

Born in 1939 at Pomona, Queensland

 

20S15

Heather Marjorie Collett

Born in 1941 at Gympie, Queensland

 

20S16

Allan John Collett

Born in 1944 at Pomona, Queensland

 

20S17

Shirley Agnes Collett

Born in 1947 at Cooroy, Queensland

 

20S18

Pamela Edith Pearl Collett

Born in 1949 at Pomona, Queensland

 

 

 

 

20R31

Cecil Lynwood Collett was born at Alstonville in New South Wales during 1913.  He later married Marjorie Tompkins.

 

 

 

 

20R32

Queenie Adeline Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was born after her family settled in Queensland sometime after 1913.  She married (1) Douglas George Rushton and later she married (2) Mr Thrush on Wednesday 3rd November 1976.  Curiously, one record suggests that Queenie Adeline Thrush died during 1966, which must have been made in error.

 

 

 

 

20R33

Clarice Pearl Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was born in Queensland and was the daughter of James Thomas Collett and Florence E Knight.  She married Cecil McDermott.

 

 

 

 

20R34

Olive Ethel Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was born in Queensland.  She was the youngest daughter and last child of James Thomas Collett and Florence E Knight, and she later married Jack Roulston.

 

 

 

 

20R35

Eileen Enid Merle Collett was born at Appin on Friday 14th March 1913.  She married Robert George Thorburn in 1933 at St Peter’s Church in Campbelltown.  Eileen Thorburn nee Collett died at Edgecliff in New South Wales on Sunday 5th October 1980 at 67 years of age.

 

 

 

 

20R36

Cecil Sutherland Collett was born at Appin on Wednesday 6th May 1914.  He married Beulah F Nixon at Bankston in 1934.  Cecil died at St Leonards on Friday 4th June 1971 aged 57.

 

 

 

 

20R37

Murray Arthur Collett was born at Campbelltown on Saturday 23rd June 1917.  He married Eileen Estelle Gallagher at Bulli in Appin during 1946.  Seven years later Murray’s father Arthur Sutherland Collett died at Bulli in 1953.  Murray Arthur Collett died on Tuesday 9th April 1895 when he was 67.

 

 

 

 

20R38

Hazel Alma Collett was born at Campbelltown on Saturday 9th October 1920 and during 1939 she married Clive McKenna.  Hazel Alma McKenna nee Collett died on Saturday 16th March 1991, when her place of residence was stated as being at Burrill Lake in New South Wales.  Previously, she had lived at Ulladale.

 

 

 

 

20R39

Kelvin Laurence Collett was born at Campbelltown on 6th May 1924 and he married Dorothy Emily Ellis at Burwood in 1946 after he had returned from active service in the Second World War.  His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Campbelltown on 6th May 1924; he enlisted at Bulli in Appin; his service number was N339651; and his next-of-kin was his father Arthur Collett.  Kelvin Laurence Collett died at Lismore during 1971.

 

 

 

 

20R40

Glen Denzil Collett, whose date of birth is not known, married Shirley Patricia Fitzgerald at Bulli in Appin during 1951 where his father died two years after.

 

 

 

 

20R41

Myrtle Jean Collett was born at Mount Morgan in Queensland on Sunday 1st April 1917.  She was married on 12th October 1940 when she became Myrtle Jean McNab.  Thirty-four years later she died on Saturday 12th October 1974 when she was 57.

 

 

 

 

20R42

Arthur William Collett was born at McKay in Queensland on Wednesday 25th June 1919.  A month after his thirty-first birthday he died on 23rd July 1950.

 

 

 

 

20R43

Innes Charles Edgar Collett, whose date of birth may have been around 1929/30, was born at Marrickville in New South Wales on the thirteenth of August of the particular year.  He married Marion Jean McLennan on Friday 26th March 1954 and the only other fact known about him is that he died on Monday 25th October 1993.

 

 

 

 

20R44

Reginald Oscar Collett, who was often known as Reggie, was born at Grenfell on Friday 5th November 1909, sadly it was also at Grenfell that he died on Saturday 22nd June 1912.

 

 

 

 

20R45

Raymond Edgar George Collett was born at Grenfell on Wednesday 21st June 1911.  He lived a long life and died at the age of 90 at Cowra in New South Wales on 12th March 2002.

 

 

 

 

20R46

Trevor Donald Hamilton Collett was born at Grenfell on Wednesday 18th March 1914 and he saw active service during the Second World War, and he died in June 1996.  His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Grenfell on 18th March 1914; he enlisted at Sydney; his service number was 132383; and his next-of-kin was his father Oscar Collett.  Trevor Donald Collett died at Grenfell in June 1996 at the age of 92.

 

 

 

 

20R47

Wesley Ernest Collett was born at Grenfell on Saturday 22nd September 1917, the son of Oscar Herbert Collett and his wife Bertha Isabel Buttenshaw.  At the start of World War Two, on 29th April 1940, Wesley enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force as an airman, service number 14847.  He served a total of five years and 178 days, finishing on 24th October 1945.  He gained a commission on 1st September 1944 when he was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer.  For his services to King and Country he was awarded the War Medal 1939-1945, the 1939-1945 Star, the Pacific Star, the Australia Service Medal 1939-1945, and the Returned from Active Service Badge.  Nothing more is known about him at this time, except that he was living in New South Wales in Australia when he died during 1990.

 

 

 

 

20R48

Gladys Edna Isobel Collett was born at Grenfell on Monday 12th January 1920.  She later married to become Gladys Dwight and at the age of 75 she died at Orange in New South Wales on Sunday 24th December 1995 and was buried at Cowra.

 

 

 

 

20R49

Freda Jessie Collett was born at Grenfell on Wednesday 21st March 1923.  In 1945 she married to become Freda Jessie McFayden, and just over fifty years later she died in Australia around 2000.

 

 

 

 

20R50

June Estell Collett was born at Grenfell on Friday 5th June 1925, and she married Mr Hall.  June Estell Hall nee Collett died in New South Wales on Sunday 10th January 1999 at the age of 73.

 

 

 

 

20R51

Laurence A Collett (or Lawrence A Collett) was born on Saturday 9th July 1927, and died at Grenfell in New South Wales on Tuesday 6th August 1929 when he was just two years old.  And it was at Grenfell that he was also buried.

 

 

 

 

20R52

Marjorie Collett was born in 1920 and she later became Marjorie Martin through her first marriage.  It was from her second marriage that she became Marjorie McCann and prior to her death on Thursday 17th January 2002 she lived at Harrington in New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

20R56

Herbert John Collett was born at Goulburn on 2nd September 1922 and he saw active service during the Second World War.  His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that he was born at Goulburn on 2nd September 1922, that he enlisted at Paddington in New South Wales, that his service number was NX92715, and that his next-of-kin was his father Philip Collett.

 

 

 

 

20R57

Nita Phyllis Lodge Collett was born at Queanbeyan in 1901.  At the time of her marriage to Mr Williams in 1925, she was referred to a Neta P L Collett.

 

 

 

 

20R58

James John Lodge Collett was born at Queanbeyan in 1903 and tragically at or following the birth, his mother Sarah Collett died on 10th March 1903.  It was at Queanbeyan that he married Ada F Mayo in 1925.  James John Lodge Collett, who was known as Jack, died in 1974.

 

 

 

 

20R59

Arthur Henry Collett was born at Parramatta in 1896, the first-born child of Arthur Henry Collett and Frances Maud Bailey.  Arthur Henry junior was twenty when he married Georgina E S MacDonald at Sydney in 1918.

 

 

 

20S19

Sheila Ruth Collett

Born in 1919

 

 

 

 

20R61

George Henry Collett was born at Parramatta in 1900 where he married Lillian R Gilmore.  It seems likely he was involved in a supporting role during the Second World War.  It was at Parramatta that he died in 1970.  His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that he was born at Parramatta, but no date given, that he enlisted at Sydney, and under service number it simply stated “depot”; and his next-of-kin was his father Arthur Henry Collett.

 

 

 

 

20R65

Kenneth Claude James Samuel Collett was born at Milton in 1901 and he married Gwendoline Jess Lyell at Chatswood in 1930.  Kenneth Claude Collett died in 1975.

 

 

 

 

20R66

Ernest Augustus Collett was born at Kilkenny in South Australia in 1903.  He married Eileen Clarice Murray at Mosman in New South Wales during 1930.  Prior to his death on Thursday 26th January 1989, widower Ernest Augustus Collett had lived at Castle Hill in New South Wales.  Eileen Clarice Murray was born at Robertson in New South Wales and died at Canberra in 1973.

 

 

 

 

20R67

Annie Merle Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the youngest of three children of Augustus John Hugh Collett and his wife Annie Edith Pickering who were married in 1900.  It is likely that she was born around 1905 or shortly thereafter.

 

 

 

 

20R68

Wilhelmina G Collett was born after 1900 when her parents were married.  She married the much older Hubert Mellersh who was born on 24th March 1891 and who died during the month of May in 1965.  The marriage produced a son for Wilhelmina and Hubert, and that was John Hubert Mellersh who was born on October 1920 and who only survived for twenty-three years when he died on 27th November 1943.

 

 

 

 

20R70

James A Collett was born around 1926 and died at Gunning in 1928.

 

 

 

 

20R71

Harriet Collett, whose date of birth is not known, died very young at Goulburn in 1943.

 

 

 

 

20R72

Stanley James Collett, who was referred to as Jim, was born at Goulburn on 31st December 1930.  He married Daphne Merle Higham at Bellevue Hill Anglican Church in Sydney on 15th May 1955.  Daphne was born on 21st March 1934.  Jim confirmed that both he and Daphne were alive and well in 2007, and in 2021 Jim’s sister Anne (below) wrote to say that his was living at Woolamia on the south coast of New South Wales, having just celebrated his 90th birthday.

 

 

 

20S20

Geoffrey Martin Collett

Born in 1959

 

20S21

Susan Yvette Collett

Born in 1961

 

20S22

Adele Catherine Anne Collett

Born in 1968

 

 

 

 

20R73

Anne Beatrice Collett was born at Goulburn on 7th May 1935, and it was there also that she married James Brown Thomson on 11th May 1957.  Over the following years Anne presented her husband with four children, the first three being born at Wollongong in New South Wales, and the fourth after the family had moved to Sydney.  Sadly, Anne’s husband died from cancer on 24th April 2002, when the couple was living at Braemar in New South Wales.  In early 2021, Anne was still living at Braemar, near Mittagong on the Southern Highlands about ninety kilometres from Sydney, where she keeps busy with many crafts and is involved with the activities of the Uniting Church there.

 

 

 

20S23

James Robert Thomson

Born in 1959 at Wollongong

 

20S24

Elizabeth Ann Thomson

Born in 1961 at Wollongong

 

20S25

Ian Joseph Thomson

Born in 1964 at Wollongong

 

20S26

Johanna Jean Thomson

Born in 1972 at Sydney

 

 

 

 

20R74

Philip Sidney Collett was born at Goulburn on Monday 9th March 1942, the son of Stanley Bean Collett and Salome Elizabeth Collett.  Not a great deal is known about Philip except that he was thirty years old when he died on Sunday 21st May 1972 at either Cooma or Adaminaby in New South Wales.

 

 

 

 

20R75

IAN JOSEPH COLLETT was born in 1944 the fourth of the five children of Stanley Bean Collett and Salome Elizabeth Lieschke.  He married Judith (Judy) Dawn in New South Wales, where all of their three children were born.  In 2021, Ian’s sister Anne (above) wrote to say that he was still living at Tamworth in the North-Western Region of New South Wales.

 

This photo of Ian and Judy was taken near Brisbane in 2014 during the Alfa Annual Rally.

 

 

 

20S27

James Collett

Born in 1972 at Cooma in NSW

 

20S28

Leanne Collett

Date and place of birth withheld

 

20S29

Lucy Collett

Date and place of birth withheld

 

 

 

 

20R76

Peter Norman Collett was born at Nowra during 1948; he was married and had two children.  According to his sister Anne (above), Peter now resides in a nursing home at Goulburn, the town where he and his siblings all grew up.

 

 

 

20S30

Matthew Collett

Date of birth not revealed

 

20S31

Elizabeth Collett

Date of birth not revealed

 

 

 

 

20S1

Robert Collett was born in 1931, the older of the two children of George Wharton and Jane Harper, whose birth was recorded at Easington register office (Ref. 10a 74) during the third quarter of the year.  The birth record also confirmed that his mother’s maiden-name was Harper.  Robert later married Joan McCabe, although no record of any children has been found.  Their marriage was recorded at Durham Eastern register office (Ref. 1a 126) during the last quarter of 1970.  The couple had nearly been married for twenty-two-years, when the death of Robert Collett was recorded at Sunderland during the summer of 1992.

 

 

 

 

20S2

Cecilia L Collett was born in 1935, the daughter of George Wharton Collett and Jane Harper.  Her birth was recorded at Easington (Ref. 10a 31) during the first three months of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Harper.  It was nearly thirty years later, when the marriage of Cecilia L Collett and Silas G Farmer was recorded at Durham Eastern register office (Ref. 1a 31) during the third quarter of 1965.  After a few years, the couple’s only known child was born, the birth of Michael Farmer recorded at Durham near the end of 1973, when Collett was the maiden-name of his mother.

 

 

 

 

20S3

Thelma Collett was born in 1948 and her birth was recorded at Durham North-Eastern register office (Ref. 1a 31) during the quarter of that year, the eldest of the three children of Joseph R Collett and Elizabeth Lloyd.  It was also at Durham North-Eastern register office that the marriage of Thelma Collett and David Robinson was recorded (Ref. 1a 84) during the second quarter of 1972.  Nine months later, the first of their two children was born at Sunderland, the second at South Shields.  The birth of Karl Joseph Robinson was recorded at Sunderland (Ref. 1a 92) near the start of 1972, and the birth of Gregg David Robinson was recorded at South Shields (Ref. 2 44) in the summer of 1976.  The mother’s maiden-name in each case was confirmed as Collett.

 

 

 

 

20S4

Graham Collett was born in 1951, with his birth recorded at Durham North-Eastern (Ref. 1a 135) during the third quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Lloyd.  Graham was around twenty-eight when he married Doreen Preece, their wedding recorded at Sunderland (Ref. 2 23) during the summer of 1978

 

 

 

 

20S5

Elizabeth A Collett was born in 1954 and her birth was recorded at Durham North-Eastern register office (Ref. 1a 4) during the third quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Lloyd.

 

 

 

 

20S8

Marlene Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the daughter of Reginald Collett and Joyce Roberts.  Upon being married, she became Marlene Unwin.

 

 

 

 

20S9

Kevin Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was the son of Reginald Collett and Joyce Roberts. 

 

 

 

 

20S10

Evelyn Joan Collett was born at Cooroy in Queensland on 2nd September 1932 and was the first-born child of the nine children of Ernest George Collett and Jean Agnes Archer.  It was as Joan that she was known and it was on 13th July 1951 that she married Eric Thomas Booth at Gympie Methodist Church.  Eric was a cabinet maker, and he and Joan had two children.  Barbara Joan Booth and Ian Booth.  Evelyn Joan Booth died in Queensland on 12th October 2011.

 

 

 

 

20S11

Beryl Mavis Collett was born at Cooroy in Queensland on 14th November 1933.  She later married Hylton Wallace Saxelby at the Gospel Hall in Gympie on 28th September 1957.  Hylton was a salesman and he and Beryl had two child, Lynelle Dawn Saxelby and Sherilyn Adele Saxelby.

 

 

 

 

20S12

Iris Jean Collett was born at Pomona in Queensland on 9th May 1935.  She married Arthur Cooke, a taxi driver, on 24th November 1956 at the Gospel Hall in Cooroy.  Their five children were Arthur Douglas Cooke, Heather Marie Cooke, Michelle Ruth Cooke, Andrew Ernest Cooke who died during the 1980s, and Annette Yvonne Cooke.

 

 

 

 

20S13

Percy Philip Ernest Collett was born at Pomona, a small country town in Queensland, on 16th June 1937 and was the eldest son and one of the nine children of Ernest George Collett and Jean Agnes Archer.  Percy, who was known as Phil, came from a long line of farmers and married (1) Eileen Mae Birt at Cooroy Gospel Hall in Queensland on 1st June 1957.  Eileen also came from a farming family, having been born at Kingaroy in Queensland on 6th February 1939.  Their marriage produced four daughters, Jennifer, Colleen, Cheryl and Susanne, but ended in divorce in 1984.  Shortly after, Phil married (2) May Elaine Staines on 16th February 1985, and six months later their daughter Shana Collett was born.  That second marriage also ended up with them being divorce.  Sadly, Percy Philip Ernest Collett passed away peacefully in his sleep at the Prince Charles Heart Hospital in Brisbane on 24th September 2012.  One week later he was buried on 2nd October at Pomona Cemetery, where his father Ernest and his grandfather James, were also buried, along with other relatives.

 

 

 

Go to the appendix at the end of this file, for more details of the life of Percy and his family, as seen through the eyes of his fourth daughter Sue, who passed away in 2018.  In February 2019, Sue’s sister Cheryl provided some additional information regarding Sue recollections of their parents.  Sue believed that Percy and Eileen’s first home, after they married, was on the family farm belonging to Percy’s father.  The truth was that Ernest Collett sold a small piece of his property to Percy to get him started in life.  Percy had to pay him back by working on his father’s property, as well as running his own much smaller farm.  After Ernest died in 1962, Percy took over management of both properties single-handedly.  It is also believed that there was considerable debt on the main family farm, and perhaps even death duties.  In the end, the farm had to be sold, which left Percy’s mother Jean with very little finances to support herself, so she was looked after by her children from the day she was widowed.

 

 

 

One thing Sue does not say in the appendix, is that Percy was a great farmer and Eileen was an intelligent and hard-working wife and partner in the family business.  After buying various properties, improving the running of them, and then selling them on, Percy and Eileen eventually owned and operated the second largest camel farm on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.  In addition to that, and after he was married for a second time, he purchased his grandfather’s property at Skyring Creek in Queensland.

 

 

 

20T1

Jennifer Margaret Collett

Born in 1958 at Gympie

 

20T2

Colleen Jean Collett

Born in 1959 at Gympie

 

20T3

Cheryl Anne Collett

Born in 1962 at Gympie

 

20T4

Susanne Lorraine Collett

Born in 1963 at Gympie

 

Below is the only child of Percy Philip Ernest Collett by his second wife May Elaine Staines:

 

20T5

Shana May Collett

Born in 1985 at Nambour

 

 

 

 

20S14

Trevor James Collett was born at Pomona on 10th April 1939.  He married Lynette Faye Skinerty at Bundaberg Methodist Church in Queensland on 2nd February 1963.  They had two children and were later divorced.  Since then, it is understood that, he was later re-married, perhaps even on two occasions.  What is known, is that Trevor James Collett died during the month of November in 2014

 

 

 

20T6

Russell James Collett

Born after 1963 in Queensland

 

20T7

Justine May Collett

Born after 1963 in Queensland

 

 

 

 

20S15

Heather Marjorie Collett was born at Gympie in Queensland on 6th April 1941.  It was at the Gospel Hall in Cooroy where she married Hugh John McKee on 9th May 1959.  He was known as Jack, and he and Heather had three children.  They are David John McKee, Lynda Maree McKee and Pamela Grace McKee.

 

 

 

 

20S16

Allan John Collett was born at Pomona on 10th April 1944.  He later married (1) Gaye Ann Liseman at Bundaberg Apostolic Church on 1st April 1966.  Sometime later, after Gaye gave birth to a son, the couple was divorced, with Allan subsequently married (2) Stella Rodiquez, with whom he had a second son.  That second marriage also ended in divorce.

 

 

 

20T8

Craig Collett

Born after 1966 in Queensland

 

20T9

Kevin Collett

Born after 1966 in Queensland

 

 

 

 

20S17

Shirley Agnes Collett was born at Cooroy on 4th January 1947.  She was only just nineteen years of age when she married Geoffrey Valle Vines at Wavell Heights Gospel Hall in Queensland on 26th February 1966.  Geoff was a linen merchant, who was also the director of Grass Roots Evangelism.  Shirley presented him with three children.  They were Glen Reginald Vines, Stephen Noel Vines and David Ernest Vines.

 

 

 

 

20S18

Pamela Edith Pearl Collett was born at Pomona on 4th April 1949.  She was the last of the nine children of Ernest George Collett and Jean Agnes Archer, and she was married to Neville Taylor on 5th February 1966 at Nundah in Queensland.  Over the following years Pamela and Neville had two children and they were Mark Andrew Taylor and Christine Pamela Taylor.

 

 

 

 

20S19

Sheila Ruth Collett was the daughter of Arthur Henry Collett and Georgina MacDonald.  She was born in 1919 and she lived in Canberra where she died on Monday 10th February 1992.

 

 

 

 

20S20

Geoffrey Martin Collett was born in 1959.  He later married Cheryl Kim Stanley and the marriage produce two children for the couple, both of them being born at Goulburn.  In 2008 the family was living in Canberra and it was Geoff that kindly provided the information for this file to be updated.

 

 

 

20T10

Bradley John Collett

Born in 1986 at Goulburn, NSW

 

20T11

Erin Natasha Collett

Born in 1989 at Goulburn, NSW

 

 

 

 

20S21

Susan Yvette Collett was born at Goulburn in 1961.  She was married Ronald Adrian Hope on 27th August 1988.  He was born on 23rd June 1951 and their marriage produced two children for the couple, Phoebe who was born at Nowra and Adrian who was born at Darwin before they were divorced in 1997.  Susan and the children reverted to her maiden-name following the divorce, and in 2007 Susan confirmed that they were living at Maryborough in Queensland.

 

 

 

20T12

Phoebe Yvette Collett

Born on 25.08.1990 at Nowra, NSW

 

20T13

Adrian Phillip Collett

Born on 24.09.1992 at Darwin, N. Terr.

 

 

 

 

20S22

Adele Catherine Anne Collett was born in 1968.  She married and had three children Carleigh Adele, Isobel Catherine and Georgia Margaret.

 

 

 

 

20S23

James Robert Thomson was born at Wollongong in New South Wales on 7th September 1959.  He married Simone Mungoven on 13th November 1988 and they have two children, both born in Sydney.  They are James Daniel Thomson who was born on 6th January 1990, and Holly Yvonne Thomson who was born on 21st October 1992.  James and Simone were later divorced and, in 2021, Holly has a daughter of her own, Kalani Anne who was born on 5th February 2020.

 

 

 

 

20S24

Elizabeth Ann Thomson was born at Wollongong on 15th April 1961, and she married Dennis Walter Mulvihill in Japan on 22nd September 1983.  The marriage has resulted in two children for Elizabeth and Dennis, and these are Emily Anne Mulvihill born on 19th February 1986, and Edward Michael Ian Mulvihill, who is known as Ned, who was born on 1st February 1989.  Both children were born while the family was living in Sydney, and some years later, Elizabeth and Dennis were divorced.

 

 

 

 

20S25

Ian Joseph Thomson was born at Wollongong on 11th January 1964.  He married Irene Fitzgerald on the island of Vanuatu in the South Pacific on 14th June 1996.  Ian and Irene now have two children, Stuart Ian Thomson who was born at Bowral in New South Wales on 11th January 1997, and Martin Stanley Thomson who was born at Nowra in New South Wales on 25th February 2000.

 

 

 

 

20S26

Johanna Jean Thomson was born in Sydney on 10th April 1972, and she married Wade Andrew Conroy at Mittagong in New South Wales on 29th November 2003.  Today Johanna and Wade have two children, Zahli Joy Conroy who was born at Gosford on 19th April 2005, and James Allan Conroy who was also born at Gosford in New South Wales on 20th August 2008.

 

 

 

 

20S27

James Collett was born at Cooma in New South Wales during 1972, the eldest child of Ian Joseph Collett and his wife Judith Dawn.  James married Irena Konecna in Praha (Prague) in the Czech Republic and they have three children.  Their first child Natalia Collett was born at Sydney in Australia, their second daughter Amalie Collett and their son William were born in Praha.

 

 

 

20T14

Natalia Collett

Born in 2007 at Sydney

 

20T15

Amalie Collett

Born in 2010 at Prague

 

20T16

William Collett

Born in 2012 at Prague

 

 

 

 

20T1

Jennifer Margaret Collett is the eldest of the four daughters of Percy Philip Ernest Collett and his first wife Eileen Mae Birt and was born at Gympie in Queensland on 28th April 1958.  Jennifer, who was a chef, married (1) Bevan Herbert Yates on 11th December 1976 at Chermside Methodist Church in Queensland.  They had four daughters and they are: Melissa Jo-leen Yates, born in 1977, who has a daughter and a son; Camila Melina Yates, born in 1979, who passed away in June 2018; Nicole (Niki) Jenan Yates, born at Gayndah in 1981, who has a daughter Taesa, and two sons Mason and Ewan; and Carla Jeanne Yates born at Valdora in 1983, who has two daughters and a son.  Sometime later, Jennifer and Bevan were divorced, after which Jennifer married (2) Adrian Evans at Maryborough in Queensland.  When she was later made a widow, Jennifer married (3) Patrick Turton at Bribie Island in Queensland who, in 2018, are separated.

 

 

 

 

20T2

Colleen Jean Collett was born at Gympie on 20th May 1959, another daughter of Percy and Eileen Collett, who is an artist who married James Armand Dutton at Nambour Methodist Church on 12th April 1977.  They have five children, who are Michael James Dutton (who has a daughter and two sons), Amanda Christine Dutton (who has four daughters and a son), Laura Jeanette Dutton (who, in 2019, was engaged to be married), Sharleen Mae Dutton (who has three sons), and Emily Susanne Dutton (who has two sons).  Coleen and James were later divorced.

 

 

 

 

20T3

Cheryl Anne Collett is the third daughter of Percy and Eileen Collett and was born at Gympie in Queensland on 5th January 1962.  As Cheryl Saul, she made contact in 2019 and provided lots of new details about her family, including an announcement regarding a Collett Family Reunion being arranged by Cheryl and her husband for November 2019 at their farm on Tamborine Mountain in Queensland.  The event happened over the weekend of 22nd - 24th of November, with the main event taking place at 2.30 p.m. on the 23rd.  The property covers fifty acres, so there was plenty of room for camping and getting together.

 

 

 

Cheryl initially married (1) Michael John Edwards at Maleny in Queensland and had a daughter Saskia Adele Collette Edwards who was born in Brisbane on 1st July 1993.  Saskia married Fernando Laposse during the month of May in 2018 and now lives in London, working at the British Broadcasting Corporation Online World Services.  Cheryl, who is a property developer, married (2) Iain Godfrey Saul at South Brisbane during the month of September in 2013.

 

 

 

 

20T4

Susanne Collett who was known as Sue, was the last of the daughter of Percy Philip Ernest Collett and his first wife Eileen Mae Birt.  She was born at Gympie on 13th April 1963, and it was Sue who kindly helped to extend this family line during 2010.  At that time, Sue’s only surviving child, her daughter Adriane, was living at Kidderminster in England with her partner Simon Cull, while Susanne was living at Redcliffe near Scarborough in Queensland, Australia.  During her life, Susanne first married (1) Mark Basset at Noosaville in Queensland in 1980, with whom she had a son Luke Basset, who was born at Nambour in Queensland on 9th February 1981, who tragically died there died on 23rd May 1981, the cause of death being “sudden infant death syndrome” (SIDS).  After she and Mark were divorced, Susanne married (2) Alexander Mark Smirnoff at Toowong in Queensland on 23rd April 1983, the outcome of that marriage being the birth of their daughter, Adriane Collett Smirnoff.  Three years later, Sue and Alexander were divorced during 1992.  During her working life, Sue was employed at the Australian Taxation Office and, following her premature death on 10th May 2018, she was described as a retired editor with the Australian Taxation Office

 

 

 

Her daughter Adriane Collett Smirnoff was born in Brisbane on 12th March 1989, and she later married Simon James Cull on 28th January 2012 at Kidderminster in England, where Simon had been born on 5th November 1981.  It was also at Kidderminster that their only son Henry James Smirnoff Cull was born on 24th June 2013.  Just a year after the death of her mother, Adrianne was still residing in Kidderminster with her son and a daughter.

 

 

 

The earlier contact in 2010 with Brian Collett at www.collettfamilyhistory.net in England, demonstrated Sue’s real interest in family history and, following her death, her Will included the request that her sister Cheryl (above) take ownership of her extensive recollections of her family life.  It was therefore Cheryl who generously passed this information onto the aforementioned Brian Collett to include on the website, in the Appendix One below.  In addition to the above note, and over a year after Sue passed, Cheryl discovered more family history details that Sue was preparing to send to Brian, to fill in lots of gaps in the family and to bring the then current version of the file, dated March 2019, more up to date.  So, it is with great pleasure, therefore, that we release the April 2021 edition of this family line, in honour of the late Susanne Collett 1963 – 2018.

 

 

 

 

20T5

Shana May Collett was born at Nambour, on the Sunshine Coast Region of Queensland, on 2nd August 1985.  She was the only child born to Percy Philip Ernest Collett and May Elaine Staines.  Shana was married and later divorced, but not before she gave birth to Lily and Cameron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX ONE

Family Life in Australia, as recorded by Susanne Collett (Ref. 20T4)

 

 

 

Here is what I know about my father.  It may not always agree with what others know of him, including his other daughters, Jennifer, Colleen, Cheryl and Shana.  But that doesn’t matter, because he is gone and all that is left are our memories and impressions, which have evolved into our own stories through our perceptions, experiences and personalities.                                                                     [added references]

 

 

 

My father, Percy Philip Ernest Collett [Ref. 20S13], was born in Pomona on 16th June 1937.  He was the first-born son and fourth child of Ernest and Jean Collett.  There were three more daughters to come and another two boys.  But ‘Philip’ or ‘Philly’ was the favourite of them all, it seems.  The name ‘Percy’ was given to him in honour of his great uncle who was in the Australian Light Horse Brigade and died in action in Europe during World War One.  Ernie and Jean raised their nine children on a farm out Kin Kin way, Gympie being the closest town.  The farm consisted mostly of dairy but, with the usual assortment of farm animals, chooks, horses, dogs, and so on.  Phil loved birds and horses, but hated school.  He was a shy, sensitive boy and his father would bribe him with bantam hens to get him to go to Kin Kin State School.  He rode to school with his siblings and would have had to do farm chores, such as milking, before and after school.  This is something my older sisters and I also had to do when Dad, himself, was dairy farming later on.  We also attended Kin Kin school for a while, although I think we mainly walked, until we came to the bus stop or were picked up.  It was a long way for little girls to go on their own and sometimes scary, especially when it was stormy.

 

 

 

The name Philip means ‘lover of horses’ from its Greek origins, and Dad loved horses, as did many of his forbears.  Dad had a horse called ‘Pride’ – a sturdy little Welsh Mountain pony that lived to the ripe old age of thirty-two years.  There is a picture of my three older sisters perched atop Pride towards the end of his life.  Later on, I had a horse which Dad called ‘Flash’, but I was never able to ride him very well, I think, because Dad didn’t have the patience anymore to break him in properly.  Several years ago, I visited the Pomona Museum and was fascinated to find, not only school pictures of my father and his siblings, but a photograph of Dad as the winner of a horse race at the local fair.  There was also a picture of my grandfather [Ernest George Collett Ref. 20R31] and Uncle Allan [Collett Ref. 20S16] using a horse to skin a calf.  Life was pretty much subsistence level and tough.  Everybody had their chores to do in order for the family to survive.

 

 

 

The main outing of the week would have been the trip into the Gospel Hall on a Sunday for fellowship and worship.  I’m not sure, but I seem to recall Grandma Collett saying that they left the Exclusive Brethren and joined the Gospel (Open) Brethren because it was easier to travel to.  Whatever the reason, anyone who leaves the Exclusives is shunned for life.  To be one of God’s chosen few, undefiled from dealings with ‘worldly people’ was sacred – for an Exclusive, who had seen the light, to leave the fellowship, was far worse than being a non-Brethren.  It tore my grandparent’s families apart.  However, even being Gospel Brethren meant a certain standard had to be set.  When we were attending the Nambour Gospel Hall, my parents were discreetly told that they would be asked to leave at the next assembly, because it had become known that some of their children (my sister and I) were attending a Methodist youth group in Yandina as well.  We went there with our neighbours and best friends, the Walker family.  Needless to say, we didn’t go back and had to either attend Cooroy or Gympie Gospel Hall instead.

 

 

 

Religion permeated every aspect of the Collett family life; living according to the Gospels and a literal reading of the Old and New Testaments wasn’t easy (and impossible to achieve).  There was no dancing, music, drinking, movies, newspapers, and so on.  However, it was very much a ‘cherry picked’ literalism with much debate and schisms forming over the finer points of God’s law.  But, on the whole, life was plain and simple, if lived according to these rules.  Education wasn’t important; in fact, it was something worldly people acquired which might take them away from God’s Word.  There was no doubt, no questioning, and a certainty of eternal life in Paradise, seated beside the Lord and Father.  My grandmother would tell us how we would all wear bejewelled crowns and the streets would be paved with gold in Heaven.  It seemed very bright and shiny to me, but still somehow ephemeral and even a bit scary.

 

 

 

There are no christenings in the Gospel Hall.  You had to be old enough to make a personal decision to ask the Lord Jesus to save you.  Until that time, you sat at the back of the congregation, only the saved sat at the front and took part in communion (the ‘wine’ was grape juice).  While saved women sat with their menfolk, they did not speak during the service.  Nor was there a priest or minister – they believed in a personal relationship with their Lord and Saviour, with no intermediary required.  The men, including my father, would be filled with the Spirit and would stand and bear witness of their faith or lead the assembly in prayer or a reading from the Bible.  There was a hymn book and my father, who had a fine tenor voice, would lead the singing of songs such as ‘Rock of Ages’, ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ or ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus’.  The Gospel Hall assembly was one big family: all the adults were ‘Aunties’ and ‘Uncles’ to us.  And we all supped together after the service and before afternoon Bible Study for the adults and Sunday School for the children.

 

 

 

For the rest of my grandmother’s life, Dad was afraid that she would find out that, in later life, he and my mother went dancing or had a tipple of wine.  We were never allowed to walk past a pub because of the smell of alcohol.  These were the Devil’s tools for luring those whose faith was weak.  For the Colletts, the Devil was as real as Jesus Christ and just about as powerful.  If you sinned however, praying for forgiveness would always bring the promise of everlasting life.  God was always watching; we even had a plaque in the dining room that reminded us that He was the silent listener to every conversation, the observer of every action.  He knew exactly what was in our hearts and minds and there would be judgement.  I never really understood whether, when we died, we went straight to the place of Judgement or whether we lay in our graves until the Lord and His Angels, on a fiery chariot with trumpets sounding out the end of times, when the faithful would rise from their graves and be reunited with their saved loved ones and, of course, God and his son Jesus.

 

 

 

That was another thing I found difficult to comprehend.  God so loved the world that he gave his only son to save us wretched sinners who he had created in His own image, but who had fed from the Tree of Knowledge (thanks to Eve being tempted by the Devil) and, thereafter, we were all born in original sin until we sought His salvation.  We believed in Creationism unquestioningly, but it didn’t pay to think about it too hard.  You just accepted whole heartedly – doubt was for sinners.  But God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit were one and the same as well.  It seemed to me that God was the God of the Old Testament; cranky, quick to judge and condemn, and difficult to please.  He required worship and would punish those who failed Him.  Whereas Jesus was meek and mild, He loved the little children and bid them to come unto Him.  He was ‘the lamb of God’.  I never saw that as a sacrifice, but just as a sweet nursery rhyme lamb.

 

 

 

Religion brought my parents together.  My mother, Eileen Mae Birt, who was born on 6th February 1939 in Kingaroy, to a farming family of four daughters and one son, met Dad’s sister Beryl at the Gympie District Hospital, where they were both nursing.  Whether it was the religion that actually brought them together through my aunty, or them falling in love and then Mum converted, I don’t know.  I remember being told Grandma Birt was very upset about it all and would do things, like throw hot water at my father or puncturing the tyres on his car.  Mum’s parents were not impressed when they took her to see Bing Crosby in ‘White Christmas’ at the cinema and she covered her eyes before running out.  She would also become upset if anyone placed anything atop the Holy Book.  I don’t know how much of this is true, but the relationship between my parents and Mum’s parents, especially Grandma Birt, were very strained for many years.  Mum basically married into the Collett family and left her birth family behind.

 

 

 

Mum and Dad were married in the Cooroy Gospel Hall in June 1957, after a two-year courtship (it may have been a bit less).  I’m not sure if any of Mum’s family attended their wedding, but they were certainly not a part of the wedding party.  Dad’s younger sister, Heather [Collett Ref. 30S15], was actually one of Mum’s bridesmaids, rather than any of her own sisters.  One of her younger sisters, Joy Birt, did have a brief fling with Dad’s younger brother, Trevor [Collett, Ref. 30S14], who was a bit of a lad.  While nothing came of that, the relationship between Grandma Birt and Aunty Joy was forever strained, although I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it.  It’s not that Mum’s family was against religion, I expect they were like most Australians, describing themselves as Christian, while leading a mostly secular existence.

 

 

 

The children were irregular attendees at Church and Sunday School, since the cows still had to be milked twice a day on Sunday, just like any other day, so that would have been the priority.  My mother’s family were of English, German and Danish origin and came to Australia for a better life, thanks to assisted passages and land grants.  Grandma Birt came from a broken home and was married at seventeen years of age to my grandfather, George Birt, who was thirty-one and owned a farm near her family’s home.  I don’t think it was a happy marriage, although Grandpa Birt seemed a fairly gentle and quiet person, from my childhood memories (he died when I was about eight years old).

 

 

 

At some point in his teens, my father purchased a motorbike and rode up north to work on a dam project.  His older sister, Iris [Collett, Ref. 20S12], who was most fond of him, also went up there to work and Dad ended up moving in with her, so she could cook his meals and look after him.  My father was always looked after by women; he would never have managed without them.  And yet, according to their religious beliefs, God made Man in His own image to be His representative on Earth.  Women were made from men for men.  We were to obey them and respect them.  We were to be modest and decent, submissive always.  My mother fitted the bill very well.  We girls kept our heads covered on Sundays and behaved ourselves, or else.  Our role in life was to marry and breed and ensure our families lived according to the Gospel.

 

 

 

Initially, my parents lived in a shack on the Collett farm.  It had dirt floors, no running water or electricity.  Here they started their family and grew beans.  They were literally ‘dirt poor’.  My eldest sister, Jennifer Margaret, was born 28th April 1958, then Colleen Jean in 20th May 1959.  It is possible my mother had a miscarriage, since it was nearly three years later before my sister, Cheryl Anne, was born on 5th January 1962, and then I came along on 13th April 1963.

 

 

 

Dad’s father [Ernest George Collett Ref. 20R31] died suddenly, at the age of fifty-two, from heart disease and diabetes in August 1962.  I’m sure this had a huge impact on him.  Suddenly, at the age of twenty-five, he was the head of the Collett family.  He had a wife and three little children and another on the way, plus his mother, six sisters and two brothers, the youngest two girls still school age.  At some point the decision was made to sell the family farm and Grandma Collett and the girls went to live in Brisbane, in a house belonging to a member of the Brethren.  My parents and the other siblings, helped pay the rent and my grandmother [Jean Agnes Collett, nee Archer, Ref. 20R31] stayed there until she went into the Bethany Christian Home at Norman Park, before she died aged 75 from, I suppose, complications from diabetes and heart disease.  I used to think she had suffered a stroke, but I’m not too sure.

 

 

 

What I do know is that, like a lot of the Colletts, she had a sweet tooth and her daughters loved to treat her with cakes and other confectionery.  She was a big woman, not obese exactly, but soft and cuddly.  She claimed it was her arthritis which made her look so swollen, but I think the cakes had something to do with it too.  She was a very kind grandmother, who gave us money to buy sweets when we came to stay, and would let us sleep with her in her big old bed with the picture of the little children kneeling in prayer above it.  Actually, the prayer was a bit spooky to think of it now; ‘Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take’.  And there was a photograph of grandpa on her duchess sofa.  She always spoke of him so lovingly and seemed so sure that she would be with him again for eternity.  I don’t think she had any doubts in her faith.