PART
TWENTY-ONE
The
Cornwall Line – 1840 to 1900
This
is the second of three sections of this family line
Updated January 2023
An earlier update included the details
of the family of Edward Charles Collett (Ref. 21Q38) 1865-1942, whose family sailed
to Canada in 1912, where his widow and his six children established the
present-day Collette family. Additional
information and photographs received from Neil Collette (Ref. 21S46) in 2013 were
inserted at that time. Also, as a result
of the update in 2013, a new branch of the family which settled at Lake Charles
in Louisiana, was added leading from Joseph Harris Collett (Ref. 21Q28) to the
present day, all thanks to information received from sisters Allyson Dean Nixon
nee Collette (Ref. 21T18), Alice Anne Collette (Ref. 21T17), and their
sister-in-law Shawn Collette nee Shelton (Ref. 21T20).
The file also includes the family line
of Lynne Sharp of Cornwall, the daughter of June Collett (Ref. 21S63) and the
cousin of Christine St Johanser nee Collett (Ref. 21S64), together with Andrée
Salisbury (Ref. 21R76) of Cornwall, and Richard William Collett of Melbourne,
great grandson of William Hosking Collett (Ref. 21Q57)
Appendix A has been added to include
many of the early Collett/Collick families of Breage, via a connection to the
village of Illogan, near Redruth, while Appendix B looks at a possible
connection to Part 52 – The England to Baltimore Line, both of which can be
found at the end of the end of this second section of Part 21
Two further appendices are included at
the end of section three of Part 21.
They are Appendix C, which includes the known details of Daniel Collett
of Penryn St Gluvias, which has no apparent connection to this family line,
that is, at the moment, and Appendix D, which has been added courtesy of Keith
Rookledge and which traces the Rookledge family line back from Mrs Elsie Alice
Goodwin-Rookledge (Ref. 21Q2)
William
Henry Collett [21P43] was
born at Treworthal on 17th May 1837 and was baptised at Philleigh on
30th July 1837, the son of Robert and Grace Collett. It was also at Treworthal that he was four
years old at the time of the census in 1841.
Ten years later, when he was 13, he was already working as an agricultural
labourer, while he was still living with his family at Treworthal. Around the end of the 1850s William was
living at Illogan, near Redruth, where he was working as a labourer, and it was
there that he met his future wife.
William married Grace Jewell at Philleigh on 31st December
1859 when they were both recorded as being 22 years old. It was at Illogan that the couple initially
settled and where their first child was born
Shortly after the birth, William and
Grace moved to Philleigh where the child was baptised. By 1865 they were living in the village of
Kea, just south of Truro, where their second child was born. The next two children were born when the
family was living in Truro, after which they returned to Philleigh where their
last two children were born
The next census in 1871 confirmed that
the family was living at Truro and comprised police constable William Collett
and his wife Grace, both aged 33 and from Philleigh, with only their two sons
Robert D Collett, who was 10 and from Illogan, and Edward C Collett, who was
five and from Kea, living with them on that occasion, since their daughter
Elizabeth Grace Collett had already passed away on 31st August 1869
William was not living with his family
at Treworthal at the time of the next census in 1881 and the reason for that is
now known, since it was during October 1880 that he had been admitted into the
Bodmin Lunatic Asylum. The census return in 1881 included his wife Grace who was 43 and
described as being married and an agricultural labourer’s wife. Living with her at Treworthal village were
her sons Edward who was 15, James who was nine, and John who was two, and her
daughter Mary who was five. Her eldest
son Robert was already working away from home at that time. The couple’s youngest son John was baptised
at Philleigh in the middle of May that same year and one month later the family
was attending the funeral of the boy’s father in St Philleigh Church
William Henry Collett died on 22nd
June 1881 at the age of 44 and was buried in the churchyard at St
Philleigh. His death certificate reveals
the horrible truth of his death, which was suicide by hanging, and it was the
coroner’s records which state he had been admitted to the asylum in October the
previous year. Eight years after his
death, his son Edward married for a second time and on the marriage certificate
Edward gave his late father’s occupation as being that of a policeman. A single headstone marks the grave of William
H Collett, and the same grave and headstone was used for his parents Robert
Davey Collett and Grace Collett in 1884 and 1888 respectively (see
Headstone Epitaphs)
Widow Grace Collett was 53 in 1891 and
was living within the Truro, St Just registration district with her youngest
son John who was twelve years old. Also
living there with her was her two years old grandson William H Collett, the son
of Edward Charles Collett, whose wife had died during the previous year. Ten years later in 1901, Grace Collett of
Philleigh was still living there at 63, but was on her own by then. Sometime during the following decade Grace
move away from Philleigh and settled in St Just where she was recorded as
living at the time of the census in 1911, when she was 73 years old
21Q37 – Robert Davey Collett was born in 1861 at Illogan, near
Redruth
21Q38 – Edward Charles Collett was born in 1865 at Kea, near Truro
21Q39 – Elizabeth Charles Collett was born in 1868 at Truro
21Q40 – James Henry Collett was born in 1872 at Truro
21Q41 – Albert Collett was born in 1874 at Truro
21Q42 – Mary Lavinia Collett was born in 1876 at Truro
21Q43 – John Collett was born in 1878 at Philleigh
Anne
Collett [21P44] was
born at Treworthal on 3rd January 1840 but was baptised at Philleigh
on 23rd February 1840. She
was one year old in 1841 and in the 1861 Census she was twenty-one years of
age. Anne never married but stayed at
the family home looking after her aging parents when all the other members of
the family had left. According to the
census in 1881 Anne was 40 years old and was a spinster living with her elderly
parents at Treworthal. At that time, she
was a boot binder presumably working alongside her boot and shoemaker father
Robert Davey Collett
Anne never married and spent the latter
part of her living looking after her elderly parents, both of whom died during
that decade in 1884 and early 1888.
Eight months after her mother passed away the death of Anne Collett,
aged 48, was recorded on 5th October 1888 Anne Collett died, after
which she was buried in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church where a
gravestone marks the plot. The
inscription on the headstone gives a clue to how she must have been viewed by the
family. It reads “Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of his saints”.
The Will of Anne Collett was proved at Bodmin
Mary Ann was very likely related in some
way to James’ mother, so it is therefore possible that James Collett and Mary
Ann Dingle were cousins. By the time of
the next census Mary Ann had presented James with three children. His occupation in 1881 was again confirmed as
being that of a shoemaker, when James aged 38 and Mary aged 40 were living at
‘village lane’ in St Just-in-Roseland with their three children who were all
born there. Richard Collett was four,
Mary A Collett was three and Benjamin Collett was one year old
Ten years later, according to the census
for St Just in 1891, James Collett was 48, and his wife Mary Ann Collett was
50. Still living there with them were
their three children, Richard aged 14, Mary Ann aged 13 and Benjamin who was
11. It was eighteen months later that
Mary Ann Collett nee Dingle died from deep vein
thrombosis in her leg while still living at St Just-in-Roseland, where
she was buried on 4th September 1892, aged 52
By the time of the next census in March
1901, widower James Collett, aged 58 and confirmed as having been born at
Philleigh, was still working as a shoemaker at St Just. None of his three children had left home by
then, and none of them was married, and they were recorded as Richard Collett
aged 24, Mary Collett aged 23 and Benjamin Collett who was 21. By April 1911 the census for St
Just-in-Roseland confirmed that James Collett, at 68, was still living there
with two of his three children. They
were Richard who was 34 and Mary Ann who was 33
The death of James Collett aged 95, was
recorded at Truro register office (Ref. 5c 133), following his passing at St
Just in Roseland, Cornwall, on 13th June 1937. It is understood that, at some time during
his life, in addition to being a shoemaker, he also had a second occupation as
a grocer. Probate for his estate of just
£65 was granted in London on 27th October 1937 to Mary Ann Collett,
spinster, and Benjamin Dingle Collett, a farm labourer. The absence of a mention of his eldest child
is very likely an indicator that Richard Collett had already passed away by
then. Since this was written it has been
discovered that son Richard did in fact die in London during 1932
It is very interesting that the picture
of James Collett (above), extracted from a much large family group photograph
of what looks like a family picnic or day out, also features a very young
Martha Collins who many years later married James’ eldest son Richard. Judging by the age of James in the picture,
he would appear to be in his fifties perhaps, meaning that the photograph was
very likely taken during the last decade of the old century, with his son
Richard not marrying Martha Collins until 1911
21Q44 – Ricard Collett was born in 1876 at St Just-in-Roseland
21Q45 – Mary Ann Collett was born in 1877 at St Just-in-Roseland
21Q46 – Benjamin Dingle Collett was born in 1879 at St Just-in-Roseland
Francis
Collett [21P46] was
born at Treworthal on 22nd September 1844 and was baptised at
Philleigh on 27th October 1844, the son of Robert Davey Collett and
Grace Dingle. He was recorded as being
16 years of age in the 1861 Census for Treworthal, when he was living there
with his family. Francis followed his
father and older brother James (above) by becoming a boot and shoemaker, as
confirmed in the census of 1871 when Francis was 25 and still living with his
family in Philleigh. On that census day,
it seems very likely that Francis was preparing for wedding day, since the
married of Francis Collett and Elizabeth Richards took place six months later
on 14th October 1871 at Philleigh, where Elizabeth had been born on
16th June 1843. By 1881 the
couple, aged 36 and 37 respectively, were living in Treworthal where Francis
was still employed as a shoemaker, while Elizabeth managed a grocer’s shop in
the village and was described as a grocer and tea dealer. Both of their children were listed in the
census as having been born at Philleigh, and they were Elizabeth aged eight
years and William who was six
Ten years later in 1891, only the same
four members of the family were still living at Treworthal within the Truro
& St Just registration area. Francis
Collett was 46 and a merchant, his wife Elizabeth was 47, their daughter
Elizabeth Collett was 18, and their son William who was 16. It was therefore sometime between 1881 and
1891 that Francis ceased his work as a boot maker and devoted his time to
working in the village grocer’s shop with his wife. That was situation was also confirmed in the
census of 1901 when Francis Collett, aged 56, and Elizabeth Collett, aged 57,
were both described as having the same occupation, that of a grocer. Unlike the earlier census records, on that occasion
Elizabeth gave her place of birth as St Just-in-Roseland, while her husband’s
birth place was still Philleigh
In the census of 1911 Francis and
Elizabeth were still residing in the village of Treworthal. Francis Collett, who was confirmed as having
been born there, was 66, while his wife Elizabeth, who was confirmed as having
been born at St Just, was 67. Living
with the couple, and perhaps looking after them in their old age, was their
married daughter Elizabeth Grace Woodward, with her husband William Woodward,
and their son Cyril Woodward
Twelve years after that, Francis Collett
died at Treworthal on 11th March 1923 at the age of 78 and was
buried in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in the village of
Philleigh. His death was recorded at Truro
register office (Ref. 5c 164). At the
time of his death, it was his married daughter Elizabeth Grace Woodward who
dealt with the probate service in Bodmin, which was completed on 6th
April that year. Within the
documentation, Francis Collett of Treworthal, Philleigh, was described as a
retired storekeeper, and his personal effects amounted to £166 12 Shillings and
3 Pence. Four years later his wife
Elizabeth died on 20th February 1927 when she was 83, following
which she was buried with her husband. A
single headstone marks the joint grave on which is engraved the words “Until
the day break and the shadows flee away”.
It was also Francis Collett who started the Family Bible which is now
held by his great great grandson Mick Underhill
21Q47 – Elizabeth Grace Collett was born in 1872 at Philleigh
21Q48 – William Collett was born in 1874 at Philleigh
Frances
Collett [21P47] was
born at ‘Treworthal, Filley’ in either 1845 or 1846, and was the daughter of
Robert and Grace Collett. It would seem
likely that she did not survive, since she was no longer living with her family
at Treworthal in 1851
Richard
Davey Collett [21P48] was
born at Treworthal on 18th February 1847, but baptised at nearby
Philleigh on 7th March 1847.
The census in 1851 recorded him as Richard D Collett living with his
family at Treworthal at the age of four years.
Ten years later in the next census in 1861 he was simply Richard Collett
aged 14, when he was still living at Treworthal with his family. It seems highly likely that Richard Davey
Collett died on 5th March 1867, at the age of 21, the cause of death
being scarlet fever, which had already taken the life of his younger sister
Elizabeth Grace Collett (below). It was
with his sister, and older brother Robert Davey Collett (above), that he was
buried within the churchyard of St Philleigh Church, where a single headstone
marks the grave of all three children of Robert Davey Collett and his wife
Grace (see Headstone Epitaphs)
Elizabeth
Grace Collett [21P49] was
born at Treworthal on 12th December 1851 and was baptised at
Philleigh on 11th January 1852, the last known child of Robert Davey
Collett and his wife Grace Dingle. By
the time of the April census in 1861 she was recorded in the census return as
being aged nine years. Sadly, on 7th
February 1864 when she was twelve years old, Elizabeth Grace Collett died from
scarlet fever and was buried with her brothers Robert Davey Collett and Richard
Davey Collett in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church. A single gravestone inscribed with all three
of their names marks the grave (see Headstone Epitaphs)
Grace
Collett [21P50] was
born at Philleigh in 1841 and by the age of 19 she was living with her widowed
father John, and her brother John, at their home in Philleigh. Ten years later at the time of the 1871
Census, Grace was unmarried and was still living with her father in Philleigh
at the age of 29. It would appear that
she never married and, following the death of her father, she left Cornwall and
moved to Bristol. By early April 1881
and at the age of 39, Grace Collett was assistant housekeeper at the lodging
house at 23 All Saints Road in Clifton. The
lodging house was the home and property of the widow Hermina Collett, aged 41,
who had been born at Sidmouth in Devon.
The census stated their relationship was that of cousins, the family
connection being through Hermina’s later husband James Henry Collett (below)
who was Grace’s cousin. Grace’s father
John Collett was the brother of James Henry’s father William Collett
Grace Collett was still living with her
cousin in 1891. She was 49 and was
living with Hermina and her son Willie at Barton Regis in the Clifton area of
Bristol. It was around seven years later
that Grace Collett died, her death being recorded
during the second quarter of 1898. By
that time in her life her address was given as The Vicarage House at Crantock
in Cornwall, where she was presumably working right up to her passing
Mary Chipman Collett [21P52] was born at St Just on 12th
September 1840, just over a year after her parents Fanny Chipman, nee Collett,
and William Chipman were married at Philleigh.
Although she was most likely born as Mary Chipman, it was as Mary
Chipman Collett that she married Alfred Richards at Truro on 10th
August 1863, when her date of birth was confirmed as stated above
Mary
Ann Collett [21P53] was born at Philleigh in July 1841, the
eldest of five children of William Collett and Asenath Dowrick. The child’s baptism was recorded in the St
Mawes Wesleyan Circuit Records on 7th September 1841, with a note
that she was eight weeks old. In 1851,
when she was nine years old, Mary Ann was living with her family at White Lane
in Philleigh, and ten years later she was still living with them at the age of
19. Sometime during the next few years
Mary Ann and her three brothers (below) all left the family, so by 1871 it was
only her younger sister Sarah who was living with her parents at White
Lane. By that time, it is assumed that
Mary Ann was married
John
Kitto Collett [21P54] was born at Philleigh in October 1842,
the eldest of three sons of William Collett and Asenath Dowrick. His baptism four weeks after he was born was
recorded in the St Mawes Wesleyan Circuit Records on 17th November
1842. He was eight years in 1851 when
living with his family at White Lane in Philleigh, and was still living there
in 1861 when he was 18. Sometime before
1871 he married Jane who was born at Phillick in 1843. This is understood to be Phillack near St
Ives, and during the next ten years their marriage produced five children for
John and Jane. In 1871 the census return
recorded the young family as John K Collett aged 28, his wife Jane who was 27,
and their baby Mary Ann Collett who was under one year old. Whether the census enumerator made a mistake
in 1881, or whether it was an error in translation, but John K Collett was
stated as being a blacksmith who had been born at Phillick, as was every other
member of the household
At that time in April 1881 John K
Collett aged 38, and his family were living in Bodriggy Street in
Phillack. John’s wife was recorded as
Jane Collett who was 37, and their five children were Mary Ann who was 10,
James H Collett who was nine, John Collett who was six, Elizabeth E Collett who
was three, plus one month old Bessie R Collett.
The family was still living at Phillack ten years later, but by then
John R Collett was a widower with the passing of his wife Jane sometime during
the previous ten years. Only his three
youngest children were still living with him on that occasion and they were
John 16, Ellen 13, and Bessie who was 10
Since John was not listed with his two
unmarried daughters in the census returns for 1901 it might be safe to assume
that he had died in the 1890s. In order
to survive John’s two daughters were working as general domestic servants while
still living in Phillack. Elizabeth
E Collett was 23 and Bessie J Collett was 20, but unlike the earlier census
returns, on that occasion their place of birth was given at Hayle in
Cornwall. The two Collett sisters were
the only people of the Collett name still living in Phillack at that time
21Q49 – Mary Ann Collett was born in
1870 at Philleigh
21Q50 – James H Collett was born in 1872 at Philleigh
21Q51 – John R Collett was born in 1874 at Philleigh
21Q52 – Elizabeth Ellen Collett was born in 1877 at Philleigh
21Q53 – Bessie Jane Collett was born in 1880 at Philleigh
Robert
Davey Collett [21P55] was born at Philleigh in 1842, his birth
recorded at Truro (Ref. ix 254) during the last three months of that year. He was the third child and second son of
William Collett and Asenath Downick, and it was a year later, at the Wesleyan
Methodist Church in St Mawes, that he was baptised under his full name on 26th
December 1843. By the time of the census
in March 1851, he was seven years old when he was still living with his parents
at White Lane in Philleigh. Upon leaving
school Robert also left Philleigh when he went to work for farmer Joseph Dash
at Gerrans, about two miles south of Philleigh.
According to the census in 1861, Robert Collett was a carter aged 17
from Philleigh and was employed as the one boy on Treleggan Farm in
Gerrans. Joseph Dash was the brother of
Elizabeth Collett nee Dash, the wife of Amos Collett (Ref. 21O11). Living at the adjacent farm cottage in
Gerrans, was William Collett and his family, and he was Robert’s father’s
cousin from Philleigh, and not Robert’s father, as might have been expected. No record of Robert Collett of Philleigh has
been found in any census after 1861
James
Henry Collett [21P56] was born at Philleigh on 1st
December 1845, the youngest of the three sons of William Collett and Asenath
Dowrick. The St Mawes Wesleyan Circuit
Records state that he was baptised on 2nd January 1846. He was five years old in 1851 when he was
living with his family at White Lane in Philleigh, and was still living there
with them in 1861 at the age of 16. Some
years later, towards the end of the 1860s, James married Hermina and it then
appears that the couple settled in Bristol where their son was born. The census in 1871 recorded the family in
Bristol as James Henry Collett aged 25 and from Cornwall, his wife Hermina who
was 31, and their son William Henry who was ten months old
Tragically, it would seem, James passed
away shortly after that, when he died at Bristol just after his twenty-fifth
birthday. Ten years later in April 1881
at the age of 41, his widow Hermina Collett from Sidmouth in Devon was the
proprietor of a lodging house at 23 All Saints Road in Clifton, Bristol. Living with her at that time, and assisting
her run the lodging house, was spinster Grace Collett 39, the first cousin of
her late husband James Henry Collett.
Grace was described as assistant housekeeper. The absence of Hermina’s son at that time was
due to him being educated at 2 Frederick Street in the St Philip district of
Bristol when he was ten years old and recorded simply as William Collett of
Bristol
Ten years later Hermina Collett was 51
and was living with her son Willie Collett at Barton Regis in the Clifton area
of Bristol. Still living with Hermina
was her late husband’s cousin Grace Collett.
At the start of the next decade Hermina’s son became a married man and
started a family of his own, while he was still living in Bristol. According to the Bristol census in March
1901, Hermina Collett aged 61 and from Sidmouth in Devon, was living with her
son William and his wife, and she was still living with them ten years later
when she was 71 but at 50 Claremont Road within the Bishopston area of Bristol
21Q54 – William Henry Collett was born in 1870 at Bristol St Philips
Sarah
J Collett [21P57] was born at Philleigh in 1847, the
youngest of the five children of William Collett and Asenath Dowrick. It seems odd that Sarah was missing from the
1851 Census listing for the family which was living in White Lane at Philleigh
at that time. However, she was back
living with them in 1861, when she was 13 years of age. In the next census of 1871, Sarah was simply
recorded as S J Collett of Philleigh, the daughter of William Collett and his
wife Asenath who were still living at White Lane in Philleigh although, rather
curiously her age was noted as 16, rather than 23, which may have just been a
transcription error. With no record for
Sarah Collett having been found in 1881, it must be assumed that she was
married by then
Susanna
Collett [21P58] was born at Philleigh where she was
baptised on 18th March 1821.
In the first census in 1841 she was still living at Philleigh with her
family when she was 20. Six years later
Susanna, as the daughter of
Samuel Collett [21P59] was born at Philleigh, where she was
baptised on 2nd November 1823, another child of Peter Collett and
Margery Broad. At the time of his
premature death, he was living in Church Town, Philleigh, and was buried at the
Philleigh parish church on 4th April 1840
Jane
Broad Collett [21P60] was born at Philleigh and baptised there
on 30th October 1825. She was
confirmed as being aged 15 in the 1841 Census when she was living at Philleigh
with her family. It was also at
Philleigh where Jane Broad Collett, daughter of Peter Collett, married Joseph
Ward on 8th August 1850.
Joseph was baptised at St Gerrans on 15th December 1822, the
son of Richard Ward. Following their
wedding Jane and Joseph moved to Truro where their first three children were
born. However, before their first child
was born, and only seven months after they were married, Jane Ward nee Collett
was visiting her parents at Church Town in Philleigh, when in the census of
1851, she was described as a policeman’s wife, aged 25 and from Philleigh
It was Joseph’s work as a Parish
Constable at
Over the months following the birth of
their last child, Jane developed consumption and sadly died on at Chyandour on
Christmas Eve in 1867, leaving her husband to bring up ten children. However, it was at nearby Gulval that Jane
was buried on 28th December 1867, the cause of death recorded as
chronic disease of knee joints and tubercular disease of the lungs. It was also around that time that Joseph was
also suffering with failing health, as a result of which, he was the first
officer to be invalided out of the Cornwall Constabulary. His departure from the force, secured with it
a pension of one hundred guineas, set the pension standard for all future
retirements
Following his retirement, he spent his
final years at Gulval where he died on 27th November 1870 at the age
of just 48, the cause of death being a haemorrhage of the lungs. Their children were: Eliza Jane Ward
(born 22.10.1851); Ellen Ward (born 21.01.1853); Richard John Ward
(born 20.04.1854); Joseph Ward (born 21.01.1856); Alfred Ward
(born 25.08.1858); James Ward (born 15.06.1859); William Henry Ward
(born 07.02.1861); Peter Collett Ward (born 05.04.1863); Albert Ward
(born 29.03.1865); and Arthur Ward (born 21.12.1866)
Jane and Joseph are the great great grandparents of Bill O’Reilly who, with Myra Cordrey,
manages and maintains the wonderful Cornwall OPC database which has been
extensively used in compiling The Cornwall
Catherine Collett
[21P61] was born at Philleigh where she was
baptised on 29th August 1827.
Tragically, one month later she died and was buried at Philleigh on 23rd
September 1827
Catherine
Collett [21P62] was born at Philleigh in 1829 and was
named after her recently deceased sibling.
It was at Philleigh that she was baptised on 3rd January
1830, another daughter of Peter and Margery Collett, who was eleven years old
in the census of 1841. Ten years later
she was 21, by which time she was working as a housekeeper at premises in
Treworlas, the next village to Philleigh.
Almost exactly nine years later, Catherine Collett, aged 30, married her
cousin Francis Collett (below), aged 25, at Philleigh on 3rd March
1860, the event recorded at Truro (Ref. 5c 271). Francis was the son of James Collett and had
been living with Catherine’s family since before the census in 1851, where he
was working as an apprentice blacksmith with Catherine’s father
At the time of the census in 1861,
Francis 27 and Catherine 31 were confirmed as husband and wife when they were
still living with Catherine’s parents at Philleigh. Also, on that same day in 1861, Catherine was
with-child and, exactly one month later to the day, she presented Francis with
their first child. Following the death
of her mother three months later in August 1861, Catherine and Francis
continued to live with Catherine’s father at Philleigh, until his death in
1865. In his Will proved in August 1865,
Catherine’s husband Francis Collett was referred to as son-in-law. For the continuation of the story of the
life of Catherine Collett go to Ref. 21P68
Peter
Collett [21P63] was born at Philleigh in 1835 and was
baptised at the Wesleyan Church in St Mawes on 16th August 1835, the
last child born to Peter Collett and Margery Broad. He was five years old in the Philleigh census
of June 1841 and 15 in the Church Town, Philleigh census of 1851. Also living with the family at Church Town in
1851 was Peter’s cousin, seventeen-year-old Francis Collett (below) who was a
blacksmith’s apprentice. During the next
decade Peter left Philleigh and, by 1861 at the age of 25, he was living and
working in the Penryn & Falmouth district of Cornwall and was still a
bachelor. Just four months after the
census day, Peter’s mother died, followed by his father four years after that
It was during the following year that
Peter Collett, aged 30, married the much younger Emily Hosking, aged 19, at
Phillack on 28th March 1866.
Their wedding was recorded at Redruth (Ref. 5c 370) during the first
quarter of the year. Emily was born in
1848 and was the youngest daughter of George and Eliza Hosking of
Phillack. In 1861, Emily was 13 years of
age and was living with her family in Phillack.
During the year prior to his wedding, Peter’s father (Peter Collett)
died in July 1865 and, in his Will, Peter was referred to as ‘my son Peter
Collett of Phillack’
Just over one year after their wedding
day, Emily presented her husband with their first child, and over the following
four years two more children were born into the family, while they were still
living at Phillack. So, by the time of
the 1871 Census for the Redruth & Phillack area the family comprised Peter
Collett 35, Emily Collett 23, Edith E Collett who was four, Maud M Collett who
was two, and Willie H Collett who was five months old. Emily was presumably with-child on the day of
the census, since later that same year the couple’s fourth child was born at
nearby Hayle
A total of three children were added to
the family while they were living at Hayle near Phillack, following which the
whole family had moved to London by the time of the birth of Peter’s and
Emily’s seventh child. It would appear
that it was from London that the family sailed to Australia before the end of
the 1870s, since it was there in Victoria that the couple’s final two children
were born. The family initially settled
in Victoria but, not long after, made their home in Melbourne. Sadly, when the youngest child was around
three years old, Peter Collett simply walked out on his family and his
whereabouts after that time have never been discovered. Nor has any record of his death ever been
unearthed
21Q55 – Edith Emily Collett was born in 1867 at Phillack
21Q56 – Maud Mary Collett was born in 1868 at Phillack
21Q57 – William Hosking Collett was born in 1870 at Phillack
21Q58 – Nellie Collett was born in 1871 at Hayle near Phillack
21Q59 – Frank Collett was born in 1873 at Hayle near Phillack
21Q60 – Peter Collett was born in 1875
at Hayle near Phillack
21Q61 – Alfred Collett was born in 1876
at London
21Q62 – Edward Percival Collett was born
in 1881 at Sandridge, Victoria
21Q63 – Horace Collett was born in 1884
at Port Melbourne, Victoria
Ann
Billing Collett [21P64] was born at St Gorran in 1825. By 1851 both of Ann’s parents had died and in
the 1851 Census she was recorded as Ann Collick aged 25 and at that time she
was living at the home of Peter Whetter.
He was probably her cousin or her uncle, since Ann’s mother was Philippa
Whetter the daughter of Jacob Whetter, prior to marrying her father, James
Collett. Later that same year Ann
married widower Thomas Ball at Philleigh on 4th December 1851. Thomas’ previous wife had been Nancy Collett
(Ref. 21O13) whom he had married on 19th December 1840 at Gerrans,
Nancy having been his second wife and Ann’s aunt two-times removed. In the 1860s as Ann Billing Ball, she was one
of the witnesses to the writing of the Will of her uncle
Susanna
Collett [21P65] was born at St Gorran in 1827 although
her age was given as being 12 in the 1841 Census for St Austell & Truro
Susan
Collett [21P66] was born at St Gorran in 1829 and she
later married Michael Mitchell at Philleigh on 29th December 1849
Mary
Collett [21P67] was born at St Gorran in 1831 and was
ten years of age in the Bodmin, St Austell & Truro census of 1841 when
living with her mother and two younger brothers Francis and Joseph (below)
Francis
Collett [21P68] was born in 1833 at St Gorran near
Mevagissey, where his mother Philippa Whetter had been born before she married
James Collett. In June 1841 he was seven
years old when he was living with his mother, sister Mary (above) and brother
Joseph (below) within the Bodmin, St Austell & Truro area. What is interesting is that in the 1851
Census, Francis Collett was 17 years old and living at the Church Town,
Philleigh home of his uncle and master blacksmith Peter Collett and his wife
Margery Broad, where he was described as nephew and his occupation was that of
a blacksmith’s apprentice. Therefore, it
is very likely that Francis went to live with his uncle on leaving school, in
order to learn how to become a blacksmith
As a result of Francis living and
working with his uncle Peter, from around 1848 until 1860, he must have fallen
in love with his cousin Catherine Collett, Peter’s youngest daughter. What is known is that he married (1) Catherine
Collett (above) at Philleigh on 3rd March 1860. Their marriage record confirmed that Francis
was the son of James Collett, and that Catherine was the daughter of Peter
Collett. The census the following year
confirmed that Francis was 27, his wife Catherine was 31, and that they were
living in the Church Town area of Philleigh with Catherine’s parents. In addition to that, Catherine was heavily
pregnant with the couple’s first child, who was born exactly one month to the
day after the 1861 Census. In the end,
the marriage produced a total of seven children for Francis and Catherine, and
all of them born while the couple were living at Philleigh. The Church Town, Philleigh census for 1871
confirmed that Francis’ and Catherine’s family had increased to five children,
although by then six children had been born into the family
It was also at that time that Francis
Collett was 37 and was working as a blacksmith, and it seems highly likely that
he had taken over the family business previously managed by Catherine’s
father. His wife Catherine was 41 and
their five surviving children were Samuel, who was nine, Margery, who was
eight, Francis, who was seven, Catherine, who was five, and Albert who was
three years old. Tragically, the latest
addition to the family, Edward, had only survived a short while after the
birth, and that was the reason he was missing from the census record in April
1871
Their loss was partially compensated
five months later when Catherine presented Francis with their seventh and last
child. However, eighteen months later at
43 years of age, Catherine Collett died on 14th April 1873 and was
buried in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in the village of Philleigh on
17th April 1873. During the
following years Francis Collett married (2) widow Rebecca Glanville, formerly
Rebecca Collett (Ref. 21P82) who was born at Whitstable in Kent in 1840. Rebecca was the daughter of Francis Cock
Collett, the brother of Francis’ father James Collett. Therefore, Francis and Rebecca were first
cousins. Perhaps because of Rebecca’s
age there were no children resulting from the marriage
According to the 1881 Census for the
village of Philleigh, Francis was eight years older than his new wife, he being
48, while Rebecca was 40. Francis’ occupation
was that of a blacksmith for which he employed one man to assist him, and that
was John Hawkins aged 20 and of Philleigh.
In addition to his blacksmith business, Francis also had a smallholding
of 13 acres which appeared to be farmed by his two oldest sons Samuel 19 and
Francis 17
All of his children had been born at
Philleigh and those still living at Church Town in Philleigh with him in 1881
were his two eldest sons, plus daughter Kate aged 15 and his two youngest sons
Albert 13, and Edmund who was nine. Only
his daughter Margery was absent from the family home on that day. A double tragedy hit the family in 1886 and
1890 when, first Francis’ daughter Margery died, and that was followed by the
death of his son Francis. So, by the
time of the census of 1891 only the three youngest children were still living
at Philleigh with their parents and they were aged 25, 23 and 19 respectively,
although the census recorded Edmund’s name in error as Edward. The children’s father was listed as 57, while
his wife Rebecca was 50, and by that time Francis Collett’s occupation was that
of a farmer
Ten years later in 1901 all of the
children had left the family home in Philleigh except for bachelor Edmund who
was twenty-nine and was still recorded as being a farmer’s son as he had in
previous census details. The census that
year confirmed that Francis Collett had been born at Gorran and that, even
though he was 68 years old, he continued to work as a farmer. His wife Rebecca Collett from Kent was 60,
and still living with them was their daughter Katie who was 34. It was just over one year later that Francis
Collett died at Philleigh on 19th May 1902 and was buried with his
first wife Catherine, and alongside the grave of his two children Margery and
Francis in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in Philleigh. A single headstone marked his and his wife’s
grave on which it stated he was 68 when he died, together with the inscription
“Forever with the Lord”
Upon the death of her husband, Rebecca
left Philleigh and moved to Kenwyn in Truro and at the time of the census in
1911 she was living there at the home of her stepson Albert Collett and his
family. Rebecca Collett was 70 years old
by then and amazingly still had another twenty years of her life in front of
her. It was on 26th February
1932 that Rebecca Collett died at the age of 92 and was buried in the
churchyard of St Philleigh Church in the village of Philleigh. It would appear from the two epitaphs on the
headstone that marks her grave, that Francis’ daughter Catherine Collett, who
died twenty years later in 1952, was also buried in the same grave in the
churchyard at Philleigh (see Headstone Epitaphs)
21Q64 – Samuel James Collett was born in 1861 at Philleigh
21Q65 – Margery Collett was born in 1862 at Philleigh
21Q66– Francis Collett was born in 1863 at Philleigh
21Q67– Catherine Collett was born in 1865 at Philleigh
21Q68 – Albert Collett was born in 1867 at Philleigh
21Q69 – Edward Peter Collett was born in 1869 at Philleigh
21Q70 – Edmund Collett was born in 1871 at Philleigh
James
Collett [21P69] was born at Gorran in 1836 and he was
five years old in the June census of 1841 for the St Austell & Truro
registration area. By that time in his
young life his father James Collett appears to have died. Tragically James’ mother Philippa died five
years later and it has not been determined exactly what happened to James after
1846 when he was made an orphan, but it seems likely that he was taken into
care by a family in Philleigh, since it was there that he said he was from when
he married in 1871
The only confirmed record of James
Collett prior to that time was in the census of 1861 when he was 25 and listed
as being a member of the Royal Navy and ‘at sea in foreign parts or colonies’. What is
known is that he was married on two occasions, the first time to (1) Ellen
Cornelius Ripper at Philleigh on 7th November 1863. The marriage produced two daughters for the
couple, although it may have been the second of them which resulted in the
death of Ellen on 19th September 1869 at the age of 35, following
which she was buried at Philleigh in the grounds of St Philleigh Church (see
Headstone Epitaphs)
It was less than two years later, on 14th
March 1871, that widower James Collett of Philleigh, the son of James Collett
and Philippa Whetter, married (2) Cecilia Paul at the Church of St Paul in
Truro. Cecilia was the daughter of
Andrew Paul. Two weeks after they were
married James and Cecilia were living at White Lane in Philleigh. The census that year recorded the family as
follows. James Collett from St Gorran
was 34 and a travelling draper, while his wife Cecilia Collett from St Day (in
Gwennap) was 24. It was also at St Day
that James’ eldest daughter from his previous marriage had been born. She was Clara Augusta Collett who was four,
while her younger sister Alice Maud Collett was two years old and born at Truro. James was wealthy enough to employ a servant,
in the form of 18 years old Annie Hubber from St Columb, who was living with,
and working for, the family at that time.
Living just two doors away from James and his family, was William and
Asenath Collett with their daughter Sarah J Collett who was James’ uncle,
one-step-removed
Just over ten months after they were
married Cecilia presented her husband with the first of their three children,
who was born at Philleigh during the last week of January 1872. Tragically he only survived for eleven weeks
when he died on 19th April 1872.
Over the next few years two more children were added to the family while
they were still living at White Lane.
However, further tragedy hit the family when James Collett, then aged
only 38, died at Truro on 7th January 1875, following which he was
buried with his first wife Ellen in the churchyard at Philleigh. A single gravestone in the churchyard of St
Philleigh Church bears the following inscription “In affectionate
remembrance of Ellen Cornelius the beloved wife of James Collett of this parish
who died at Truro Sept 19th 1869 aged 35 years – Her end was peace”
under which is “Also the above James Collett who died Truro Jan 7th
1875 aged 38 years – In sure and certain hope of Resurrection to eternal life”
(see
Headstone Epitaphs)
It would seem that the death of her
husband resulted in Cecilia taking the children north to Lancashire, although
the reason is not known. What is known
is that, according to the census of 1881, the widow Cecilia Collett and her two
children and two stepchildren were living at 91 Breck Road in Everton on
Merseyside. Cecilia was 34 and had been
born at Gwennap St Day between Redruth and Penryn, and her occupation was that
of a confectioner. Living with her were
James’ two daughters by his first wife, Clara A Collett who was 14 and also
born at Gwennap St Day and Alice M Collett aged 12 years who was born at Truro,
as well as her own two children by him, Florence L Collett and James A P Collett
who were aged eight years and six years respectively
According to the next census in 1891
Cecilia was still residing at 91 Breck Road in Everton but curiously not under
the name of Collett. While she was most
likely the actual head of the household, as she was ten years early, the head
of the household that year was named as John K Luke from Brazil who was 42 and
a painter. Incorrectly, Cecilia Collett
aged 44 and from St Day in Cornwall was named as Cecilia Luke, whose occupation
was again a confectioner. Living with
the couple were the two youngest children of James Collett, Florence L Collett
who was 18 and James A P Collett who was 16, both of them described as having
been born at Truro but with no occupation.
The last person included on the census return was Frank J Luke, who was
seven years old and born at Radcliffe in Lancashire, the son of John Luke. It therefore seems very likely that John Luke
was a widower and claimed Cecilia was his wife to cover the embarrassment of
their domestic situation
Just after the end of the century
Cecilia Collett from Gwennap was still living at Breck Road in Everton where
she was 53 and was then working as a florist.
Living there with her in March 1901 was her married daughter Leonora
Heaton who was 28, the previously named Florence L Collett. Cecilia Collett was again living at 91 Breck
Road ten years later. Her place of birth
was confirmed as Gwennap in Cornwall and at that time she was recorded as being
64 and a florist, who had given birth to three children – only two living. On that occasion there was another Collett
listed in the Everton census of 1911, and he was 21-year-old Henry Collett who
was living at an ‘institution’, while her married daughter was still living
there, may be still with her mother since no record of her husband has been
found to date
21Q71 – Clara Augusta Collett was born in 1867 at Gwennap St Day
21Q72 – Alice Maud Collett was born in
1869 at Truro
The following are the three known
children on James Collett by his second wife Cecilia Paul:
21Q73 – Archibald Luke Collett was born in 1872 at Philleigh
21Q74 – Florence Leonora Collett was born in 1873 at Truro
21Q75 – James Andrew Paul Collett was born in 1875 at Truro
Joseph
Collett [21P70] was born at St Gorran in May 1841 and
was just fourteen days old on 6th June 1841 according to the Bodmin,
St Austell & Truro census when he was living with his mother Philippa, his
sister Mary and his brother Francis. By
the time of the next census in 1851 his age was given as being ten years
old. From that date onwards there is no
record of Joseph in any subsequent census returns
Sarah
Johns Collett [21P71] was born at Wexford in Ireland during
1836, the first child born to Francis Cock Collett and Sarah Johns. Shortly after the birth she and her parents
moved to Seasalter in Whitstable, Kent, but around 1845 the family moved to the
Scilly Isles where Sarah’s father was a coastguard. According to the Tresco census in 1851 Sarah
Johns Collett from Wexford was 14 and had left school but had no job of work,
so it is assumed that she was helping her mother look after the younger members
of the family. By 1861 Sarah J Collett
was 24 and she and her sister Grace (below) were residing within the St Mary’s
district of the Scilly Isles, while the rest of their family had moved to
Falmouth. And it was while at St Mary’s
that she met and married William Rogers on 17th May 1862. William was aged 25 and was a shoemaker of St
Mary’s, the son of shoemaker Isaac Rogers.
Sarah was also 25 and of St Mary’s and was listed as the daughter of
coastguard Francis Collett. Three and a
half years later Sarah’s younger sister Susan Collett (below) married William
Rogers’ brother Isaac Rogers at St Mary’s
Grace
Collett [21P72] was born at Seasalter in Whitstable in
Kent in 1838, where it is believed she lived with her family until around 1847,
when they moved to the Scilly Isles for her father’s work as a coastguard. In the Tresco census in 1851 Grace Collett
from Seasalter in Kent was 12 years old and still attending the local school.
It was on the Scilly Isles at St Mary’s that Grace was living with her older
sister Sarah (above) in 1861 when she was 22.
Ten years later Grace was still a spinster aged 32 and was the only
child of Francis and Sarah Collett to still be living with them at St Mary’s in
Scilly. There appears to be no record of
Grace in the 1881 Census and she may have been married by then
Rebecca
Collett [21P73] was born at Seasalter in Whitstable in
1840. When she was five years of age her
parents moved to the Scilly Isles with their children, where Rebecca Collett
from Seasalter in Kent was 10 years old.
It was just over eight years later that she was married by banns to
Philip Glanville on 31st May 1859.
Philip Glanville of Tresco was a 29 years old coastguard and was the son
of labourer John Glanville. Rebecca was
ten years younger than her husband and was recorded as being of Bryher, was
aged 19, and was the daughter of coastguard Francis Collett. It would appear that Philip Glanville died
during the late 1860s or early 1870s since, as the widow Rebecca Glanville, she
later married her cousin Francis Collett prior to 1881, he having lost his wife
in 1873. Once married the couple settled
in Philleigh. For the continuation of the story
of the life of Rebecca Collett go to Ref. 21P68
Susannah
Collett [21P74], who was referred to as Susan, was born
at Seasalter in Whitstable during 1842.
By 1846 the family had left Kent and had settled on the Scilly Isles
where four of Susan’s youngest siblings were born. According to the census in 1851 Susannah
Collett from Seasalter in Kent was eight years of age and was attending school
while living with her family in Tresco.
Sometime in the mid-to-late 1850s the family, less her three older
sisters, moved to Falmouth where they were living in 1861 when Susan was
18. Sometime during the next four and a
half years Susan returned to the Scilly Isles where she married Isaac Rogers at
St Mary’s on 30th December 1865.
Isaac was the brother of William Rogers who had married Susan’s sister
Sarah (above) in 1862 and was the son of shoemaker Isaac Rogers
Isaac junior was 32 and of St Mary’s at
the time of the wedding ceremony and was employed as a shipwright. Susan was described as of full age and of St
Mary’s and would have been 23 compared to her husband of 32 years. Her father was confirmed as Francis Collett,
a coastguard. Over the next fifteen
years or so she presented her Isaac with five children, all of whom were born
at St Mary’s. However, by 1881 Susan was
a widow aged 38 living at The Parade in St Mary’s with her five children. Her place of birth was confirmed as having
been Whitstable and her occupation was that of a lodging house keeper, which
might indicate that she was today’s equivalent of a landlady. In addition to her five children, Susan had
living with her, her widowed mother Sarah Collett who was the assistant lodging
house keeper. The children of the family
were: Isaac Rogers (born 1866); Elizabeth Rogers (born 1867); William
Rogers (born 1868); Clara C Rogers (born 1870); and Joseph J
Rogers (born 1871)
William
Francis Collett [21P75] was born at Seasalter in Whitstable in
1844. By the time of the census in 1851
William Francis Collett from Seasalter in Kent was six years of age and
attending school in Tresco on the Scilly Isles to where his family had moved
around 1845. Before he reached his
sixteenth birthday in 1861, he and his family were much travelled. After starting out in Kent, and then living
on the Scilly Isles, his family moved to Falmouth where most of them were
living on the day of the census in 1861.
Before 1870 the family had moved back to the Scilly Isles, and it was
there in St Mary’s that William Francis Collett was living when he died at just
26 years of age. He was buried at St Mary’s
on 2nd February 1871
Mary
Johns Collett [21P76] was born at Tresco on the Scilly Isles
in 1846 and her second name was her mother’s maiden-name. Sadly, she did not survive for very long and
was buried on the Scilly Isles on 17th August 1846
Joseph
Mills Collett [21P77] was born at Tresco in 1848, a son of
Francis Cock Collett and Sarah Johns. It
was as Joseph Mills Collett that he appeared with his family in the Tresco
census of 1851 when he was two years old, although his birth was recorded on the
Scilly Isles as John Mills Collett (Ref. 9 239) during the third quarter of
1848. By 1861 he and the majority of his
family were living at Falmouth, when he was 12 years of age
Richard
James Collett [21P78] was born at Tresco in 1852 and was eight
years old and living with his family at Falmouth in 1861. Shortly after that Richard and his parents
returned to the Scilly Isles where, in 1871 at the aged of 18, he was living at
St Mary’s with his father, his mother and his older sister Grace. Richard married Elizabeth Ann Jenkins of
Bryher on 28th October 1875 at St Mary’s.
By the time of the 1881 Census their
marriage had produced two children for the couple, both born at St Mary’s where
the family was living in
Just after the turn of the century the
whole family was still together with the exception of their only son Francis
who had joined the Royal Navy by then.
The family was still living at St Mary’s where Richard was 48 and was
working as a boat man. His place of
birth was again confirmed as having been Tresco. The census record also confirmed that his
wife Elizabeth, who was 51, had been born at St Mary’s, as had all of their
children. Apart from himself, the only
other member of the family listed with an occupation was Richard’s daughter
Clara who was a dressmaker at the age of nineteen. The other children still living at the family
home were listed as Lillie 24, Annie 17, Ethel 14, and Nannie who was nine
years old. By the time of the next
census in April 1911 only two of Richard’s children were still living on the
Scilly Isles with him and Elizabeth.
Richard James Collett was 58, his wife Elizabeth Ann was 62, Annie Maud
Collett was 27, and Nannie who was 19.
It was nearly twenty years later that the death of Richard James Collett
was recorded at the Scilly Isles register office (Ref. 5c 321) during the first
three months of 1930 when he was 77
21Q76 – Lillie G Collett was born in 1876 at St Mary’s on the
Scilly Isles
21Q77 – Francis Henry Collett was born in 1877 at St Mary’s on the
Scilly Isles
21Q78– Clara E Collett was born in 1881 at St Mary’s on the
Scilly Isles
21Q79 – Annie Maud Collett was born in 1883 at St Mary’s on the
Scilly Isles
21Q80 – Ethel Janis Collett was born in 1887 at St Mary’s on the
Scilly Isles
21Q81 – Nannie E Collett was born in 1891 at St Mary’s on the
Scilly Isles
Frances
Collett [21P79] was born at Tresco in 1857 but did not
survive beyond nine weeks. Following her
death, she was buried on the Scilly Isles on 25th April 1857, the
youngest of the nine children of Francis Cock Collett and his wife Sarah Johns
Joshua
Collett [21P80] was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1837
and was baptised there on 2nd February 1838. He was unmarried and aged 23 in 1861. It must have been just after the census day
that Joshua emigrated to North America, where his three children were born in
the early 1870s. Adjusting to life in
the new world may have been difficult for the young Collett family since during
the mid-1870s Joshua and the children made the return trip back to
Cornwall. According to the 1881 Census
Joshua was married but there was no wife living with him. However, because of the discovery of some new
information it is possible that his wife and the mother of his three children
may have died in Canada and that may have prompted their return
The new information would indicate that,
following his return to England, Joshua married (2) Matilda who was born at
Mereworth in Kent in 1839 and with whom he had a fourth child George born at
Battersea in London in 1878. According
to the 1881 Census, Joshua’s occupation was that of a blacksmith employing one
man and a boy to work with him at The Praze in St Gluvias Penryn. The census that year recorded Joshua aged 43
as married and living with two of his three children who were both born in
In addition to the two children with him
at that time, was his widowed sister-in-law Sarah Collett aged 39 of
Tanworth-in Arden, Warwickshire who was staying with him. And with her was her one-year-old daughter
Elizabeth who was born at Penryn and described as Joshua’s niece. That would indicate that Sarah had been
married to Joshua’s brother who had since passed away. Therefore, the corresponding age fit would
place Sarah’s husband as Joshua’s younger brother James (below)
It also seems likely that Joshua’s
second wife Matilda never fully accepted the role as stepmother to his three
children since, following his death before 1891, the two youngest children were
taken under the care of their uncle Hugh Collett (below), while Matilda agreed
to have the oldest child. That would
appear to have been the only option open to the family as Joshua’s sister
Elizabeth had died around the same time as Joshua and his only other male
sibling James had died ten years earlier.
Joshua’s only other surviving sibling was his sister Ellen (below) who
was married and living in Gloucestershire
Rather curiously, Joshua’s presumed
second wife Matilda was recorded in the 1881 Census as living at St Michael
Penkevil at the home of Joshua’s unmarried brother Hugh Collett and the boys’
mother 74 years old Elizabeth Collett.
With Matilda was her son
21Q82 – Elizabeth Maria Collett was born in 1871 at Stratford, Canada
21Q83 – Ellen Collett was born in 1872 at Stratford, Canada
21Q84 – William Hugh Collett was born in 1873 at Stratford, Canada
The following child was born to Joshua
with his second wife Matilda:
21Q85 – George Collett was born in 1878 at Battersea, London
Elizabeth
Collett [21P81] was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1839
and was baptised there on 18th August 1839. It would appear that she never married and
lived with her parents at St Michael Penkevil where she also died aged 51. Her death was recorded there on 1st
August 1890
Ellen
Collett [21P82] was born at St Michael Penkevil and it
was there that she was baptised on 25th October 1840. She was still living there with her family in
1861 at the age of 20. By the time she
was 40 in 1881 Ellen was married to William G Coombe of Wickham Bishop in Essex
where he had been born in 1846. William
was a gardener and the childless couple were living at Iron Mills in
Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire.
Staying with them was Ellen’s niece Ellen Collett, the daughter of
Ellen’s brother Joshua (above) who had recently returned from Canada where his
eight-year-old child had been born
James
Collett [21P83] was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1842
and baptised there on 18th September 1842. He was aged 18 at the time of the 1861 Census
when he was still living with his parents at St Michael Penkevil. During the late 1870s James married Sarah who
was born at Tanworth-in Arden, Warwickshire in 1842. But tragically by 1881 Sarah was a widow and
was staying with her brother-in-law and James’ brother Joshua (above) at his
home in The Praze in St Gluvias Penryn.
With Sarah was her one-year-old daughter Elizabeth Collett who was born
at Penryn and described as Joshua’s niece.
The child’s age and James’ absence from the 1881 Census would indicate
that he had possibly died after the birth of his daughter and certainly before
3rd April 1881. Sarah
eventually returned to her late husband’s home
21Q86 – Elizabeth Collett was born in
1879 at St Michael Penkevil
Hugh
Collett [21P84] was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1846
and it was there that he was baptised on 21st June 1846. He was still living there with his parents in
1861 and 1871 aged 14 and 24 respectively.
Originally Hugh could not be located in 1881 but it has since been
discovered his surname was transcribed as Pollett and not Collett. As Hugh Pollett, aged 34, he was still living
at St Michael Penkevil in 1881. His
address in the village was simply given as No. 11 and his occupation as head of
the household was confirmed as being that of a blacksmith. Living with him was his mother Elizabeth of
Philleigh who was 74, together with his unmarried sister Elizabeth aged 41, who
was performing the role of housekeeper for her brother. Both brother and sister were confirmed as
having been born at St Michael Penkevil.
Completing the household was Hugh’s sister-in-law Matilda Collett
(Pollett) aged 42 and of Mereworth in Kent, together with her son George aged
two years who was listed as Hugh’s nephew.
It may be assumed that she was perhaps the second wife of Hugh’s brother
Joshua Collett (above)
Hugh never married and was still living
at St Michael Penkevil in 1891 and still working as a blacksmith. By that time four major catastrophes had
befallen his family which dramatically changed Hugh’s life. The first tragedy was the death of his
brother James who died around 1880. That
left his widow Sarah to raise their daughter which she did with the support of
Hugh’s and James’ older brother Joshua, until Sarah died in 1887. Three years later Hugh’s housekeeper and
elder sister Elizabeth died around the same time that Joshua also died. That left Joshua’s three Canadian born
children and James’ and Sarah’s daughter without any other family member to
take care of the four children, so that duty fell to Hugh. Hugh’s only other sister Ellen was married
and was living in Gloucestershire, so he really was the only possible solution
to the crisis
According to the 1891 Census bachelor
Hugh Collett was 44 when he was still living at St Michael Penkevil, and was
continuing to work as a blacksmith.
Living with him was his niece Ellen Collett aged 18 who was born in
Canada, her brother 17 years old William H Collett also born in Canada, and
their cousin and Hugh’s other niece Elizabeth Collett aged 11, all of whom had
been made orphans by the recent deaths of their respective parents.
Ten years later only nephew William had
left the home of his uncle Hugh and the reason for that was because he was to
be married. According to the census of
1901 Hugh was aged 54 and was still working as a blacksmith in St Michael Penkevil. And still living with him were his two
unmarried nieces, Ellen who was performing the duties of his housekeeper, and
the younger Elizabeth who was simply listed as ‘living with uncle’. It was six years later that the death of Hugh
Collett was recorded at the Royal Cornwall Infirmary in Treliske, on the
outskirts of Truro, on 14th June 1907. His personal effects, amounting to £165 10
Shillings, were subject to probate at Bodmin on 9th July that year,
when his niece Ellen Collett, a spinster, was named as the sole executor. For clarity, Ellen was the daughter of his
deceased brother Joshua Collett (above).
The notice of his death confirmed that the occupation of Hugh Collett of
St Michael Penkevil was that of a smith.
Less than four years after the death of their guardian, Hugh’s nieces Ellen
and Elizabeth Collett were living in London at the time of the census in 1911
Henry
Collett [21P85] was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1848
and baptised there on 8th August 1848
Emma
Collett [21P86] was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1849
and was baptised at the end of that year on 23rd December 1849. As with the baptisms of all her siblings
(above), her parents were recorded as being Hugh and Elizabeth Collett
Ten years later in 1851 John, aged 17,
and his brother who was15, were still living with their father at Treluckey
Mill midway between Cuby-with-Tregony and St Michael Caerhays. Five or six years later John married
Elizabeth Jane Knight and, by the time of the 1861 Census, they had two
children and were living at Trevenna in Creed within the St Austell
registration district, where both of their children had been born. They were Catherine Collett who was two years
old, and Caleb Collett who was only two weeks old. John Collett was 27 and his place of birth
was given as Camborne, while his wife Elizabeth Jane Collett was 24 and from
Roche. John’s occupation at that time
was stated as being that of a tin miner
During the next decade a further three
children were added to the family so the 1871 Census recorded the family as
Shortly after the census day in 1871 the
couple was blessed with the arrival of another daughter Lavinia. And on 8th October that same year
Lavinia was baptised at St Ewe where the family still living and where,
according to the baptism record, her father
Living with the couple in April 1881 was
their son William aged 16 and a clay labourer like his father, and the family’s
latest child David aged 4. Also living
with them were their daughters Salome aged 12 and Lavinia who was nine. The three eldest children had been born at St
Ewe while David had been born after the couple had moved to Roche. Within the following year Elizabeth presented
John with their ninth child and last known children who was born while the
family was still living at Roche, where it appears they spent the rest of their
life. By 1891 only the three youngest
children were still living with the couple at Roche. They were Lavinia aged 20, David aged 14, and
Richard who was eight years old.
John Vivian Collett died at West
Goonbarrow in Roche on 1st November 1908 at the age of 75. The administration of his personal effects,
amounting to £157 9 Shillings and 3 Pence, was conducted at Bodmin on 8th
February 1909 when his occupation was confirmed as a clay labourer and when his
widow was named as Elizabeth Jane Collett.
It was just over two years later that Elizabeth Jane Collett nee Knight
died at Roche on 12th January 1911 when she was 73, her death being
recorded at the St Austell register office (Ref. 5c 75)
21Q87 – Catherine Collett was born in 1858 at Creed
21Q88 – Caleb Knight Collett was born in 1861 at Creed
21Q89 – Edith Jane Collett was born in 1862 at Grampound
21Q90 – William Collett was born in 1865 at St Ewe
21Q91 – Salome Collett was born in 1868 at St Ewe
21Q92 – Lavinia Collett was born in 1871 at St Ewe
21Q93 – David Knight Collett was born in 1876 at Roche
21Q94 – Richard Knight Collett was born in 1882 at Roche
Henry
Collett [21P88] was born in 1835 and that possibly took
place at Camborne where his brother John (above) was born. However, unlike his brother who was baptised
at Camborne, Henry was baptised at St Ewe on 25th December
1835. A little while after Henry was
born his mother Catherine died, possibly as result of his birth or during the
birth of another child that also did not survive. So, by June 1841 Henry’s father William
Odgers Collett was a widower, and Henry aged five years and his older brother
George
Collett [21P89] was baptised at Cuby-with-Tregony on 9th
April 1842. It would appear that he died
while still very young as a few years after another George was born into the
family
Mary
J Collett [21P90] was born at St Michael Caerhays in 1843
and was the fourth child and eldest daughter of miller William Odgers Collett
and his second wife Jane Miners. She was
around five years old when her father took over Treluckey Mill between St
Michael Caerhays and Cuby-Tregony and was included in the census of 1851 in
error as Mary Collick aged seven years.
However, ten years later she was correctly listed in the census of 1861
as Mary J Collett who was 17 and from St Michael Caerhays when she was living
with her family at Treluckey Mill within the Probus & Truro registration
district. Sometime thereafter, the
family left Treluckey Mill and in 1871, when spinster Mary Collett was 27, she
was still living with her elderly parents, but at 3 Stanbury Row in
Cuby-with-Tregony, where she was described as working on a farm. The only other siblings living at the family
home on that occasion were Eden, Fanny and Edwin
William
Collett [21P91]
was born at St Michael
Caerhays on 9th August 1845 and he was later baptised at
Cuby-with-Tregony on 2nd November 1845. By the time of the census in 1851 William,
aged six years, was living with his parents at Treluckey Mill, when their
surname was recorded incorrectly as Collick.
Just before his twenty-first birthday William married (1) Emma Jane
Ferrell in Truro during June 1866. Emma
presented William with two children before she passed away during the March
quarter of 1874. Both of the children
were born at Ladock where Emma had been born in early 1838. Emma Jane Ferrell seems likely to have been
the younger sister of James Ferrell who married Susanna Collett (above) at
Philleigh on 13th May 1847.
Susanna’s father was Peter Collett and in his Will of 1865 his
grandchildren Samuel Ferrell and Mary Ferrell were named as beneficiaries under
the terms of the Will
During the year following the death of
his wife, William married (2) Jane Smith at St Leonards-on-Sea near Hasting on
22nd April 1775. Jane had
been born at St Leonards and was baptised on 22nd March 1844 in
Hastings. However, it would appear that
William returned to Ladock with Jane, as it was there that the couple’s first three
children were born. In 1881 the family
of seven was living at Bissick Mill in Ladock where 35 years old William was a
corn miller. However, soon after the
April census day in 1881 the family moved to Hayle near St Ives where the
couple’s fourth child was born. The time
spent at Hayle may only have been a fairly short few years since, by the time
of the birth of their sixth and last child the family was living at
Penryn. And it was at Penryn where the
family was living from 1886 through to the end of March 1901
According to the 1891 Census William was
45, and his wife Jane 48. Their two
older children were not living with them anymore, so the family just comprised
Ellen aged 13, Emily aged 12, Annie aged 10, Kate who was eight, Clara who was
six, and Arthur who was four. The
following census in 1901 recorded William as 55 and still working as a miller,
and his wife Jane as 57. Living with
them were their daughters Ellen aged 24 who was a dressmaker, Emily aged 22 who
was a grocer’s assistant, Katie aged 18 who was a draper’s apprentice, and
their son Arthur who was 14. The
couple’s eldest daughter Elizabeth had already left the family home by then,
but there is uncertainty about what had happened to their youngest daughter
Clara who would have been 16. Towards
the end of 1902 Jane died, leaving William to marry (3) widow Mary Lucilla
Nicholls nee Tremayne two years later around December 1904. Mary was born around 1850 and in April 1911
William Collett from St Michael Caerhays was living at Tavistock in Devon with
his wife Mary Luscilla Collett. William
was 65 and his wife was 60. William
Collett and his third wife Mary both died at Falmouth during the June quarter
of 1926
21Q95 – William Collett was born in 1866 at Ladock
21Q96 – Elizabeth Jane Collett was born in 1868 at Ladock
21Q97 – Ellen Maud Collett was born in 1875 at Ladock
21Q98 – Emily Mary Collett was born in 1878 at Ladock
21Q99 – Annie Collett was born in 1880 at Ladock
21Q100 – Kate Collett was born in 1882 at Hayle
21Q101 – Clara Louise Collett was born in 1884 at Penryn
21Q102 – Arthur James Collett was born in 1886 at Penryn
George
Collett [21P92] was born at St Michael Caerhays and was
baptised at Cuby-with-Tregony on 26th September 1847, a son of
William and Jane. Not long after he was
born his father became the miller at Treluckey Mill where George, aged four
years, and the family were recorded in error as Collick in the census of 1851. It was the following census in 1861 which
described George Collett as being 13 and born at St Michael Caerhays, with no
occupation, when he was still living with the family at Treluckey Mill. Six years later, the banns of marriage for
George Collett, a bachelor of the parish of Cuby, and Louisa Jenkins, a
spinster of the parish of Tregony St James, were read on 10th, 17th,
and 24th February, Louisa having been born at Tregony in 1847. The couple was then married at
Cuby-with-Tregony on 12th March 1867, where all of their six
children were born
By 1871 the family living at Tregony
comprised George Collett, a mason by trade, and his wife Louisa both aged 24,
and their daughters Alma who was three, Mary who was one year old and baby
Emma. Sadly, for whatever reason, George
did not survive to see his children into adulthood as he died at the age of 29,
with his death recorded at Truro (Ref. 5c 103) during the second quarter of
1877. By the time of the census in 1881,
widow Louisa Collett was 33 and was living with five of her six children by her
late husband at Bridgend near Lostwithiel in the district of St Winnow. It would appear that she had moved there
after the death of her husband, and it was there also where she had a
relationship with a certain Mr Smith, perhaps John Smith, following which she
gave birth to the first of three further children
According the Bridgend census of 1881, Louisa
was working as a charwoman to support her young family, which was made up of
Mary Collett who was 12, Emma Collett who was 10, George Collett who was eight,
Joshua Collett who was six, and William Collett who was four. Also living with the family was her son by
another man, one-year-old John Smith of Devonport who was described as a
boarder. Louisa’s missing eldest
daughter Alma Collett, who was 14, was working away from home as a general
servant at the home of farmer Walter H Wevell at Polmenna Farm in nearby
Lostwithiel. During the next year or so,
Louisa moved again, on that occasion to Truro, where she settled in the St
Clement district of the city, where she gave birth to two more children
It was also at East Rosewin Row within
Truro St Clements that Louisa and her family were residing on the day of the
census in 1891. Louisa Collett from
Tregony was still earning a living as a charwoman at the age of 44, while still
living with her were her three sons by George Collett and the three sons born
after he had died. They were described
as George Collett aged 17, Joshua Collett aged 15, William Collett aged 14,
Johnny Collett (previously Smith) who was ten, Sidney Collett who was seven and
Stanley Collett who was three years old.
Just after the turn of the century Louisa, at the age of 55, was living
at Mitchell Hill in St Clement Urban, a suburb on the fringe of the City of
Truro. Living with her were three of her
children, sons Joshua Collett who was 23 (sic), Sydney Collett who was 16, and
Stanley Collett who was 12, all three of them listed as born in Truro. Curiously, no obvious record of Louisa
Collett has been found in the census of 1911, when she would have been 65 years
old. Just prior to the census day that
year, her youngest son Stanley had sailed to Canada, who may have been
accompanied by his mother. However, the
death of Louisa Collett, nee Jenkins, was recorded in Cornwall register office (Ref.
5c 143) during 1929, when she was 84 years old
21Q103 – Alma Collett was born in 1868 at Cuby-with-Tregony
21Q104 – Mary Harriet Collett was born in 1869 at Cuby-with-Tregony
21Q105 – Emma Rachel Collett was born in 1870 at Cuby-with-Tregony
21Q106 – George Collett was born in 1872 at Cuby-with-Tregony
21Q107 – Joshua Collett was born in 1875 at Cuby-with-Tregony
21Q108 – William James Collett was born in 1877 at Cuby-with-Tregony
The following are the three children
born to Louisa Collett after the death of her husband:
21Q109 – John Collett was born in 1880 at Lostwithiel
21Q110 – Sidney Collett was born in 1884 at Truro
21Q111 – Stanley Collett was born in 1888 at Truro
James
Collett [21P93] was born at Treluckey Mill near
Cuby-with-Tregony in 1849. At the age of
one year in 1851 and 12 years in 1861 when he was attending school, he was
still living at Treluckey Mill with his family.
Some years later, when he was a resident of Brighton in Michigan USA, he
informed people that he had been born at Brighton in England. However, he did not fully explain that the
Brighton he was referring to was a hamlet in Cornwall, just a few miles from
where he was actually born, and not the well-known seaside resort in Sussex
frequented by successive Kings of England.
By April 1871 when he was 22 James was still in Cornwall, although he is
believed to have married (1) Jane by the end of that year or sometime during
the following year. Jane was born in
1850 and together they left England for North America before 1873. It is thought that the couple initially
sailed to
Joshua’s return to England may have been
the reason that prompted James and Jane to leave Canada to cross the border the
short distance to Brighton in Michigan, about forty miles north-west of
Detroit. The couple’s first child was
born while James and Jane were still in
Sometime later James was joined by his
nephew Caleb Knight Collett (Ref. 21Q89) who had travelled to Michigan with his
grandmother in early 1885. James was the
half-brother to Caleb’s father
By the turn of the century James had
returned to
21Q112 – Edith Collett was born in 1873
at Stratford, Canada
21Q113 – Mary Collett was born in 1874
at Stratford, Canada
21Q114 – Lillie Collett was born in 1877
at Stratford, Canada
21Q115 – Bertha Collett was born in 1880
at Stratford, Canada
21Q116 – Lillian Collett was born in 1882
at Stratford, Canada
21Q117 – James Henry Collett was born on
29th September 1884 at Stratford, Canada
Joshua
Collett [21P94] was born at Treluckey Mill near
Cuby-with-Tregony in late 1851 or early 1852, where his parents were living at
the time of the 1851 Census, while it was at Cuby-with-Tregony that Joshua
Collett was baptised on 11th April 1852. At nine years of age, he was still living
with his family at Treluckey Mill and on leaving school Joshua also became a
miller like his father. According to the
census of 1871 he was living and working with George Body, a miller, in the
village of St Clement to the east of Truro.
Joshua Collett from Cuby was 19 years old in the St Clement census that
year when he was described as a working miller and a boarder with the family of
George Body and his wife Mary. Whether
as a result of an accident or some illness, the death of Joshua Collett aged 24
was recorded at Truro (Ref. 5c 111) during the second quarter of 1876
Elizabeth
A Collett [21P95] was born at Treluckey Mill near
Cuby-with-Tregony in 1853 and at seven years of age Elizabeth A Collett was
still living with her family at Treluckey Mill in 1861. By the time of the next census in 1871 she
had left the family home which, by then was in Cuby-with-Tregony. After a further ten years, when Elizabeth
Collett was 26, she was living and working in Kenwyn, just north of Truro. According to the census of 1881 she was
employed as a cook and domestic servant at the home of biscuit manufacturer and
confectioner John C Furniss at Lemon House in Kenwyn. Although her stated age of 26 years conflicts
with her estimated date of birth the census recorded accurately that she was
born at Tregony
Susan
E Collett [21P96] was born at Treluckey Mill near
Cuby-with-Tregony in 1854 and was aged six years in 1861 when Susan E Collett
and her family were still living at Treluckey Mill. What happened to her after that day is not
known, except that she was not living with her family in 1871
Eden
Collett [21P97] was born at Treluckey Mill near
Cuby-with-Tregony in 1856 and was four years old in 1861 when she was living
with her family at Treluckey Mill, where her father was the miller. Ten years later Eden and her family were
living at 3 Stanbury Row in Cuby-with-Tregony when she was 13 and had completed
her education and, with no stated occupation, she was very likely helping her
mother. It was during the first three
months of 1879 that the marriage of Eden Collett and Frederick Brown was
recorded at Truro (Ref. 5c 179). The
marriage produced at least eleven children for the couple, and by 1881 Frederick
Brown from Plymouth was 28 and a miller’s labourer, his wife Eden Brown was 24,
and their first child was Alberta Brown who was one year old and born in
Truro. On the day of the census that
year the family of three was living at Paul Quick Cottage in St Clement, while
lodging with them was pork butcher John Hore from Kenwyn who was 27
Five more children were added to the
family during the 1880s, which by 1891 comprised Frederick who was 38, Eden who
was 34, Alberta who was 11, Edith Jane who was nine, Stephen who was seven,
William John who was four, Caroline who was three and Florence who was under
one year old. On that occasion they were
recorded at St Clement within the Truro & Kenwyn census registration
district. Five more children were born
into the family during the last decade of the century and all of them born at
St Clement, where the family was still living in March 1901. By then Frederick was a grocer’s waggoner
aged 49, Eden was 44, Alberta was 21 and a dressmaker, Edith J Brown was a
draper’s assistant at 19, Stephen was 17 and an auctioneer’s clerk, William J
Brown was 14 and a stable boy, Caroline was 13, Florence was 10, Frank was
nine, Jessie was seven, Mary Gwendoline was four, John was two and Arnold was
one year old. After a further ten years
the family had reduced in size with just four of the children still living with
Frederick, aged 58, and Eden who was 53.
Alberta Brown was 31, Caroline Brown was 23, Florence Brown was 20 and
Arnold Brown was 11
Fanny
Collett [21P98] was born at Treluckey Mill near
Cuby-with-Tregony in 1858 where she was baptised on 26th December
1858. Fanny Collett was two years old in
the census return for Treluckey Mill in 1861, although the family left the mill
during the following decade. By the time
of the census in 1871 Fanny was 12 years of age and still attending school,
when she was one of just four children still living with their parents at 3
Stanbury Row in Cuby-with-Tregony. Nine
year later Fanny married Harry Cock on 17th April 1880 at
Kenwyn. Harry was described as being 22
years old and a miller of Kenwyn, the son of farmer William Cock, while Fanny
was also 22 and from Tregony, the daughter of labourer William Collett
Edwin
Collett [21P99] was born at Cuby-with-Tregony in 1865
and was baptised there of 4th June 1865, the last child of William
Odgers Collett and his second wife Jane Miners.
According to the 1871 Census he was six years old and living with his
parents and three older siblings at 3 Stanbury Row in Cuby-with-Tregony. By 1881 Edwin was the only member of his
family still living with his parents at
On the day of the census, Janie was
expecting the couple’s second child who was born later that same year. However, it would appear that Janie
tragically died either during the birth or shortly thereafter, but mercifully
for Edwin, the child, his second son and namesake, did survive the ordeal. In an instant Edwin went from a married man
with two children, to a widower with a baby and two years old son to look
after. As a result of that dire
situation, it seems highly likely that Edwin enlisted the help of his late
wife’s parents to take in and care for the two boys. A year or so later Edwin married (2) Florence
Hannah Pill of Truro, better known as Fanny, and it was while the couple were
still at Truro that the first two of their children were born. Sometime during 1897 and 1898 the family left
Cornwall to set up home in Essex, and it was at Walthamstow that the couple’s
third child was born
By that time, it would appear that Percy
Collett, Edwin’s eldest son from his first marriage, had rejoined the family to
make the move to north London with his father and stepmother and his two
half-siblings. It would also appear that
Edwin’s younger son from his first marriage, did not make the move to
Walthamstow, instead choosing to stay with his maternal grandparents. According to the census in March 1901, Edwin
Collett was 36 and was employed as a joiner when he and his family were living
at 16 Clacton Road in Walthamstow. His
wife Fanny was 37 and from Truro, and the four children living there with them
were Percy aged 11, George who was six, Gladys who was four, and Jack who was
one year old. By that time Edwin’s nine-year-old
son Edwin L Collett was confirmed as still living with his grandparents in
Tregony
During the following three years two
more children were born to Edwin and Fanny who moved house again during that
same period. By April 1911 the family
was living at 12 Devonshire Road in Walthamstow and comprised carpenter and joiner Edwin
Collett aged 46 and from Cuby,
Fanny Collett from St
Clements aged 47, together with five of their six children. They were George who was 16, Gladys who was
14, Jack who was 11, Frank who was eight, and Fred who was six. Both of Edwin’s two sons from his first
marriage were missing on that occasion and, although no record of Percy Collett
has been found anywhere in Great Britain in 1911, since he had joined the Royal
Navy, Edwin L Collett was still living in Cornwall at the age of 19. Six years later in 1917, Edwin and Fanny were
living at 1 Cornwallis Road in Walthamstow when they received the tragic news
that their son Jack had been killed during the Great War. It is now known that Edwin Collett was
residing at Oxford Road in Enfield when he died at the age of 83, his death recorded
at the South Western Essex register office (Ref. 5a 251) during the third
quarter of 1948. Probate for this estate
of £336 3 Shillings and 2 Pence was settled in favour of his widow Florence Hannah Collett
21Q118 – Percy Collett was born in 1889 at Tregony
21Q119 – Edwin Llewelyn Collett was born in 1891 at Tregony
The following are the children of Edwin
and his second wife Fanny:
21Q120 – George Odgers Collett was born in 1894 at Truro
21Q121 – Gladys Ada Collett was born in 1896 at Truro
21Q122 – Jack Collett was born in 1899 at Walthamstow, London
21Q123 – Frank Collett was born in 1903 at Walthamstow, London
21Q124 – Fred Collett was born in 1904 at Walthamstow, London
CHARLES
HARCOURT COLLETT [21Q1] was born at Edmonton in Middlesex on 13th
May 1884, the only child of Charles Benjamin Collett and his wife Tamar Harriet
Harcourt Brown. Following the death of
his mother in 1886, Charles H Collett was six years old in 1891 when he was
living with his elderly father in the Lambeth area of London. He was only fourteen years old when his
father passed away during 1900, and that may have been the reason why one year
later his place of birth was incorrectly given as Tottenham in the census of
1901. By that time, he was 16 years old
and was a boarder living in Clapham at the home of Archibald Grover Bowie. No record for Charles has been located in the
next census of 1911 although it is known that he was married prior to 1924, but
was unable to obtain a divorce from his wife when the marriage failed
It was under those circumstances that he
therefore partnered with Mrs Elsie Alice Goodwin-Rookledge in 1924. Elsie was born at 8 Ashburnham Road in
Greenwich on 23rd July 1896, the daughter of William Alfred Goodwin
and his wife Catherine Susan Goodwin.
Like Charles, Elsie had also been married before, but her marriage to
Harold Dalby Rookledge (Ref. 21Q1b) had been declared null and void when she
left her husband during the honeymoon upon discovering the truth that he was already
married and therefore a bigamist. She
did however retain the Rookledge name as stated on her null and void marriage
certificate. From her first marriage
Elsie had conceived a child while on honeymoon but the child died within two
weeks of being born on 29th March 1922 – see Appendix D, at
the end of the third section of Part 21 - Ref. 21R1b. All of the children from the partnership
between Charles and Elsie were born in England where Charles was a well-known
actor and appeared in many early cinematic films
In 1933, prior to the birth of their
youngest child, he returned to
21R1 – Heather Wanda Rookledge Collett was born in 1926 at Christchurch,
Hampshire
21R2 – Joy Rookledge Collett was born in 1927 at Christchurch,
Hampshire
21R3 – Nigel Harcourt Rookledge Collett was born in 1929 at Wandsworth, London
21R4 – Jean Margaret Rookledge Collett was born in 1932 at Clapham, London
21R5 – GORDON CHARLES ROOKLEDGE COLLETT was born in 1933 at Clapham, London
Peter Thomas Collett
[21Q2] was born in 1843, the only son and
eldest child of Peter Thomas Collett and Dinah Henderson, whose birth was
registered at Poplar (Ref. ii 293) during the third quarter of that year. Upon the death of his father in 1858, it was
during the following year, when Peter junior was sixteen years of age, that he
was named as a recipient of his father’s military pension. Seventeen years later, Peter Thomas Collett,
aged 33, and the son of Peter Thomas Collett, married Sarah Gardiner, who was
32 and the daughter of William Gardiner, at Farnham in Surrey on 16th
September 1876, the event recorded at Farnham (Ref. 2a 143). No record of any children has been found, nor
where the couple was living in 1881.
However, in 1891, the childless couple was residing at Bishops Road in
Hackney where Peter Thomas Collett aged 47 was living on his own means, his
place of birth simply London. Sarah
Collett from Surrey was 46
Ten years after that day, the pair was
living on Clarence Road, Hackney in 1901, when Peter was 57 and a tobacconist
and shopkeeper from Bromley in Kent, and his wife Sarah was 56 and born at
Farnham in Surrey. Sarah died eight
years later, aged 64, her death recorded at Hackney register office (Ref. 1b
394) during the first quarter of 1909.
The London Electoral Roll for 1910 identified Peter Thomas Collett at
149 Clarence Road in Hackney. After a
further two years, Peter was still the owner of 149 Clarence Road, but was
residing at 29 Spurstowe Road, off Amhurst Road in Central Hackney
Elizabeth
Collett [21Q4] was born at the hamlet of St Erme in
1850 and was baptised at the parish church in Probus on 22nd
December 1850, the eldest child of John Collett and his wife Catherine
Hosking. For the census in 1851 she was
listed with her parents at St Erme as under being one year old. In 1861 she was aged 10 and in 1871 she was
aged 18 and on both occasions was recorded in the Truro, St Clement
registration district
John
Hosking Collett [21Q5] was born at St Erme but was baptised at
Probus on 20th June 1852, the eldest son child of John Collett and
Catherine Hosking. At just twenty years
and five months John married (1) Dinah Ellen Hooper at Ladock on 24th
November 1872. Dinah was a daughter of
William Hugo Hooper and Frances Coade and was baptised at St Enoder in Cornwall
on 28th July 1854. It seems
that she was already with-child on her wedding day since, within the next three
months, Dinah gave birth to a son who was baptised at Ladock on 25th
February 1873, the same day that Dinah was buried there, aged 19. Tragically for John, his son died shortly
after the child’s mother, his death recorded at Truro during the second quarter
of the same year, following which he was buried at Ladock with his mother, on
11th April 1873
Just over four years after those tragic
events, John Hosking Collett, a widower and the son of John Collett, married
(2) Maria Nance at St Paul’s Church in Truro on 12th August 1876,
Maria being the daughter of Thomas Nance.
Once married the couple left Cornwall to seek a new life in London. In 1881 John H Collett was 28 and from
Tresillian, and his occupation was that of a joiner. His wife Maria Collett was 25 and from Truro,
and by then the marriage had produced a daughter Annie Collett who was one year
old, who had been born at Chelsea. The
family of three was living at 72 Ifield Road in the West Bromley area of
London, not far from Chelsea. Lodging
with the family was joiner William H Lewis from Walmer in Kent who was 29. Ten years later in 1891 it was just John
Collett aged 39, who was living in the St George Hanover Square & Belgrave
area of London with his daughter Annie Collett aged 10. No trace of the family has been found after
that time
21R6 – William John Collett was born in 1873 at Ladock
The following in the only known child of
John Hosking Collett by his second wife Maria Nance:
21R7 – Annie Collett was born in 1879 at
Chelsea, London
James
Thomas Collett [21Q6] was born at St Erme and was baptised at
Probus on 23rd December 1855.
He married Ellen Cowl with whom he had had two children by the time of
the census of 1881. The wedding took
place at St Paul’s Church in Truro on 7th September 1878 and James’
father was confirmed as John Collett, while Ellen was the daughter of William
Cowl. At that time, and like many other
members of the Collett family, James was living at Tresillian Road in St Erme
where he was aged 23 and was employed as a maltster’s man. His place of birth was confirmed as having
been at St Erme. His wife was Ellen of
nearby Truro St Clement where their first child had also been born. Their two children in 1881 were John who was
two years old and Sidney who was three months.
By 1891 the extended family was living at Gilles in St Erme and
comprised James Collett aged 36 who was a maltster, Ellen Collett aged 32, and
their children, John Collett who was 12 and at school, as was Sidney Collett
who was 10, Nellie Collett who was eight, Edith Collet who was six, plus
Charles Collett who was four, Gertrude Collett who was two, and baby Blanche
Annie Collett who was not yet one year old
Nine years later their daughter Ellen
Collett (Nellie in 1891) suffered a premature death, so was not with her year
for the census in 1901. James Collett
was listed in that year’s census for St Erme as being a maltster at the age of
45 who had been born at Tresillian.
Ellen his wife was 42 and her place of birth was given as Truro St
Clement which lies just to the east of Truro.
The children living with the couple on that occasion were Charley 14,
Gertrude 12, Annie 10, and Beatrice who was seven. All four of the children were recorded as having
been born at Tresillian, the same as their father. According to the census of 1911, James and
Ellen Collett were still living in St Erme, but by that time in their life all
of their children had left home. Head of
the household James Collett of St Erme was 56 and with no occupation, and his
wife Ellen Collett of Truro was 53.
However, staying with the couple was their recently marriage daughter
Anne Mitchell aged 21 of St Erme, and two grandchildren, the two children of
the couple’s older married daughter Edith Horwell. They were Charles Hart Collett Horwell aged
two, and Charles Kenny Horwell who was only a few months old and born at Truro
21R8 – John Collett was born in 1878 at Truro St Clement
21R9 – Sydney Collett was born in 1880 at St Erme
21R10 – Ellen Collett was born in 1882 at St Erme
21R11 – Edith Collett was born in 1884 at St Erme
21R12 – Charles Collett was born in 1886 at St Erme
21R13 – Gertrude Collett was born in 1888 at St Erme
21R14 – Blanche Annie Collett was born in 1890 at St Erme
21R15 – Beatrice Collett was born in 1893 at St Erme
Peter
Thomas Collett [21Q7] was born at St Erme around February 1857
but was not baptised until the end of that year. That took place at Probus on 21st
December 1857 but was tragically followed only three months later with his
burial at Merther on 14th March 1858. He was thirteen months old when he died at St
Erme
Catherine
Jane Collett [21Q8] was born at St Erme in July 1858 and was
baptised at Probus on 26th December 1858. She only survived for around a year and was
buried at Merther on 22nd July 1859
Catherine
Jane Collett [21Q9] was born at St Erme, possible in the
second half of 1859, and was baptised at Probus on 8th April 1860,
the daughter of Catharine Hoskins and her husband John Collett. She was one year old in the St Erme census of
1861 and was 11 in the following census of 1871 when on both occasion she was
living there with her family. Ten years
later a Kate Collett aged 22 and from Cornwall, was working as a general
servant at Florence Villa in the Tottenham area of London, the home of
journalist James Fitt and his large family.
Then later that same year, there is another record of the death of
Catherine Jane Collett aged 21, at Fulham register office (Ref. 1a 166). Although not yet proved, both of these
listings may refer to Catherine Jane Collett from St Erme
Emily
Collett [21Q10] was born at St Erme during December 1860
and was buried at Merther just nine months later on 8th August
1861. She was living with her family at
St Erme on the day of the census in 1861 when she was three months old
Emily
Collett [21Q11] was born at St Erme towards the end of
1862 and baptised at Probus on 22nd December 1862 using the name of
her older sister who had died during the previous year. She was seven years old and 18 years of age
in the next two census returns when she was living with her parents at
Tresillian Road in St Erme
Louisa
Collett [21Q12] was born at St Erme in 1865 and was
baptised at Probus on 20th May 1866, the youngest child of John
Collett and his wife Catharine Hoskins.
Louisa was five years old in 1871, and was 16 in 1881 when she was
living at Tresillian Road in St Erme with her family
Bessie
Collett [21Q13] was born at Truro in 1865 and was the
eldest daughter of James and Mary Collett.
Sadly, her father died when she was around eight years old, following
which she was brought up by her mother.
She was recorded as being six years old in the Truro census of 1871 when
her mother was still listed as married, although no trace has been found of her
husband. It was during the next few
years that her father died, so by 1881, when she was working as a tailoress at
the age of 16, she was still living with her widowed mother and the rest of her
family at Boscawen Row in St Mary’s Truro
Eliza
Jane Collett [21Q14] was born at Truro on 22nd
January 1867, and was just over four years old when she was baptised in Truro
on 14th March 1871, the daughter of James and Mary Collett. In the census of 1871, she was living with
her mother Mary and her older sister Bessie (above) and younger sister Caroline. Where her father was at that time has not
been determined. Her father died during
the next ten years and in 1881, when she was 14 and still at school, she was
living with her widowed mother Mary Collett at Boscawen Row in St Mary’s Truro,
and her three sisters Bessie, Caroline and Johanna. Ten years after that, in 1891, Eliza Collett
was 23 and a general domestic servant at the New Street, Falmouth home of
schoolmaster Isaac W Manger from London
Caroline Collett
[21Q15] was born during the month of February
in 1871 and was one month old on the day of the Truro census in 1871. Her birth was registered at Truro (Ref. 5c
172) during the first quarter of the year.
As in the case of her sister Eliza Jane (above), Caroline was also
around four years old when she was baptised in Truro on 12th January
1875, the third daughter of James and Mary Collett. Following the death of her father during the
second half of the 1870s, Caroline was ten years old and living with her three
sisters and their widowed mother at Boscawen Row in Truro. It was in 1907 that Caroline Collett from
Truro married to become Caroline Helps who gave birth to two daughters shortly
after. That situation was confirmed by
the 1911 Census, when 40-year-old Caroline Helps was head of the household at
St Clements Truro. She was married
although her husband was absent from the family home, Caroline just having her
two young daughters with her. They were Francis
May Helps who was three, and Mary Irene Helps who was two years of
age, both of them born many miles away at Mullion
Johanna Collett
[21Q16] was born at Truro in 1873, the last of
the four daughters of James and Mary Collett, who was baptised there on 12th
January 1875 in a joint service with her older sister Caroline (above). She was eight years of age in the Truro St
Mary’s Census in 1881, when she was living at Boscawen Row with her widowed
mother and her three older sisters
Sydney
Charles Collett [21Q17] was born in 1876 at Newton Ferrers to
the east of Plymouth where he was living with his parents Charles and Emma
Collett in April 1881 at the age of four years.
During the following few years Sydney’s father died and so, by the time
of the census in 1891, 14 years old ‘Sidney C Collett’ was stilling living at
Newton Ferrers but only with his widowed mother Emma. Sometime during the 1890s, Sydney’s mother
returned to Holbeton – east of Plymouth, the village where she was born, and
that may have been where he met his future wife. It was almost ten years later, when Sydney
Charles Collett was 24, that he married Bessie Rogers, their wedding day
recorded at Plymouth register office (Ref. 5b 433) during the first three
months of 1901. The census that year
recorded the couple as living in the St Budeaux district of Plymouth where
Sydney was working as a baker, a business he had taken over from his mother who,
in that same year, was described as a retired baker. ‘Sidney C Collett’ was 24 and from Newton
Ferrers, while his wife Bessie Collett was 23.
Bessie was very likely to have been with-child on the day of the census
at the end of March in 1901, since the first of the couple’s three children was
born later that same year, the birth being recorded at Plympton register
office, east of Plymouth
Seven years after the birth of their
first child, Bessie presented Sidney with their second son when they were
living ten miles north of Plymouth in the village of Buckland Monachorum, where
the family of four was recorded in the Tavistock area of Devon in 1911. The birth of the couple’s second child was
recorded at Tavistock register office.
The census return listed the family as Sydney Charles Collett from
Newton Ferrers who was 34 and a poultry farmer, his wife Bessie Collett from
Plymouth who was 33, their son Russell Collett who was nine, whose place of
birth was recorded as St Rudmere (?) in Devon, and their youngest son Ivor
Collett who was two years old and born at Buckland Monachorum. Staying with the family was Sydney’s mother
57-year-old Emma Collett from Holbeton, near Plymouth. There was then a large gap in years between
the birth of the couple’s second and third child, whose birth was also recorded
at Devonport register office towards the end of 1919
Forty years later when he was residing
at 18 Corporation Road in Peverell, Plymouth but was taken into the South Devon
and East Cornwall Hospital in Plymouth where he died on 12th March
1951. The death of Sydney Charles Collett was recorded at Plymouth register
office (Ref. 7a 2059) during the first quarter of 1951 and administration of
his estate of £179 4 Shillings and 6 Pence was granted to his daughter Betty
Climo, the wife of Charles Clifford Climo
21R16 – Russell Clifford Collett was born in 1901 at Devonport
21R16 – Ivor Victor Roy Collett was born in 1908 at Buckland Monachorum
21R16 – Betty Collett was born in 1919 at Devonport
Clara
Collett [21Q18] was born at St Erme during 1898, the
eldest of the three known children of John Collett and Sarah Grace Murton. Curiously on the day of the census in April
1901 Clara, aged two years, and her younger sister Ada and their mother Sarah
were staying at the St Erme home of her elderly grandparents John and Mary
Collett. The reason they were there may
have been because Clara’s mother was expected her third child who was born
later that same year. The whole family
was together again in 1911 and by then they had left St Erme and were residing
within the Truro registration district where Clara Collett was 12. It may be odd, but in 1901 her place of birth
was given as St Erme, while in 1911 it was said to be Tresillian, the same as
her two siblings. All that is currently
known about Clara Collett is that she was still not married by the time her
father died in 1932. Probate for John
Collett of Tresillian was granted jointly to his daughter Clara Collett, a
spinster, and William George White, a farmer.
The value of his personal estate was said to be £1,739 2 Shillings
Charles
Glencoe Collett [21Q20] was born at Tresillian after March 1901
and was the youngest of the three children of John Collett and Sarah Grace
Murton, his birth recorded at Truro register office (Ref. 5c 127) during the
second quarter of that year. He was nine
years old in the census of 1911 when living at St Erme with his family, his
place of birth confirmed as Tresillian.
The death of Charles G Collett on Christmas Day was recorded at Truro
register office (Ref. 5c 150) during the last month of 1930 when he was
29. Judging by the probate announcement,
Charles was a bachelor when he died and it was his father John Collett, a
retired farmer, who was named as the administrator of his estate valued at
£3,616 17 Shillings and 4 Pence, a substantial amount of money for a young man
back in those days. The final address
for Charles Glencoe Collett was recorded as Gillies in Tresillian, Probus in
Cornwall
James
Collett [21Q21] was born at Camborne in 1861 according
to the 1881 Census. After he was born
his family moved to Lancashire, via Plymouth, and were living at 49 Greenough
Street in Wigan where James was nineteen years old in 1881. He was described as a joiner like his father
but ‘out of employment’ and was the eldest child of Martin Williams Collett and
the first of his three wives, Mary Simms
John Jenkin Collett
[21Q22] was born at Plymouth in 1868, where his
birth was registered (Ref. 5b 275) during the third quarter of the year. He was another son of Martin and Mary Collett
who when John was only one year old, took the family to the north of England,
and initially settled in Stockport, before moving to Wigan. At the age of 12, John Collett from Plymouth
and his family were living at 49 Greenough Street in Wigan. Twenty years later, John J Collett from
Plymouth was married with a son, when he was 32 and a scenic artist living at
Hulton Street, Ordsall in Salford, Manchester, Lancashire. His wife was Mary Collett from Prestwich in
Lancashire who was 30, while their Manchester born son Victor Collett was three
years old. Boarding with the family were
Staffordshire born sisters Alice A Ansell aged 27 and Ellen D Ansell aged 19,
who were both employed as shirt machinists
The birth of Victor Collett was recorded
at Manchester register office (Ref. 8d 247) during the second quarter of
1897. However, two years later it was as
Victor Collette, the son of John Jenkin Collette and his wife Mary Collette,
that he was baptised in St Clements Church at Ordsall-in-Salford on 29th
October 1899. Not long after that, the
family of three sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and, according to the US
Census of 1910, they were recorded at Los Angeles Assembly District 71. John J Collette was 41, Mary Collette was 39,
and Victor Collette was 12, all of them born in England. The census form stated the couple had been
married for fifteen years, had arrived in America during 1904, and that John
was an artist working in a theatre
21R19 – Victor Collette was born in 1897
at Manchester
Frederick Collett
[21Q23] was born at Stockport at the end of
1870, with his birth recorded there (Ref. 8a 55) during the first quarter of
1871, another son of Martin Williams Collett from Cornwall, joiner, and Mary
Simms of Wigan. Curiously, the only
census that he was recorded in was in 1881 when he was living with his family
at 49 Greenough Street in Wigan, when he was nine years of age and attending
school. Shortly after that census day,
his mother died, and his father was married for a second time in 1884. By 1891, when Frederick would have been
nineteen, he had already left the home of father and stepmother in Wigan. He may have joined the armed forces and
served overseas, because no obviously record of him has been found in the
United Kingdom from 1891 through to 1911. At the end of his life Frederick
Collett of Ince-in-Makersfield, within the Borough of Wigan, was 74 years old
when he died on 17th February 1945, and was buried there at the
Lower Ince Cemetery
Gertrude
Collett [21Q24] was born at Stockport in 1875, her birth
as simply Gertrude Collett registered at Stockport (Ref. 8a 51) during the
second quarter of the year. She was the
daughter of joiner Martin Williams Collett and his wife Mary Simms, with whom
she was living in 1881, following her parents move from Cornwall to
Lancashire. At that time, Gertrude was
six years old when she was living with her family at 49 Greenough Street in
Wigan. However, around six years later
it would appear that her mother Mary died during childbirth, after which her
father married Elizabeth, as confirmed by the census in 1891 when Gertrude from
Stockport was 16. Ten year later, at the
time of the census in 1901 when she was 26, she and her brother Thomas (below)
were the only members of her family still living with her widowed father at
Wigan. On that occasion she gave her
place of birth as Plymouth, which was where her older brother John was known to
have been born. Her father was a
grocer’s shopkeeper and master builder, while Gertrude was acting as his cook
and housekeeper. Ten years later
Gertrude Collett was unmarried at the age of 36 when she was still living with
her widowed father William Collett at 23 Frederick Street
in Ince-in-Makerfield, Wigan, where he passed away six months later
Charles
Collett [21Q25] was born at Wigan in February 1881 and
was listed as being one month old if the census that year, living with his
family at 49 Greenough Street in Wigan.
Following the death of his mother Mary around 1887, his father
re-married and in 1891 Charles Collett was 10 years old and living in Wigan
with his father and stepmother and two of his siblings. No further record of his has been found after
that time
Thomas
Pilling Collett [21Q26] was born at Wigan on 10th
March 1888, when his birth was registered at Wigan (Ref. 8c 51) during the
second quarter of the year. He was the
only child from the second marriage of Martin Williams Collett and Elizabeth
Pilling, the second of his father’s three wives. Thomas was three years of age in the Wigan
census of 1891 and was six years old when his mother died at Wigan, either at
the end of 1894 or after the start of 1895.
It was later that same year, that his father married widow Frances
Pemberton, and she and her four unmarried daughters moved in with Thomas, his
sister Gertrude (above), and their father.
That situation was confirmed in the Wigan census of 1901 when they were
living at School Lane, where Thomas Collett was 13 and still attending
school. Thomas was still living with his
father and his sister at 23 Frederick Street in
Ince-in-Makerfield, Wigan, ten years later in April 1911 when he was 23,
and it was there also that his father died six months later
Following the death of his father on 26th
October 1911, Thomas sailed to a new life in America and it was during 1918
that he became an American citizen. It
was on 13th December that year that he enlisted with the United
States Air Force, while he was residing at 2320 Hunter Street in Los Angeles,
California. Thomas Pilling Collette,
born on 10th March 1888, was recorded as Private Collette, attached
to 147 Spruce Squadron. The only other
known fact regarding Thomas, is that Thomas Pilling Collette died at Los
Angeles on 28th May 1964, at the age of 76
Joseph
Harris Collett [21Q27] was born at Feock on 7th
November 1869, the eldest of the two known children of Joseph Harris Collett
and Emily Gay. His birth was registered
at Truro (Ref. 5c 177) during the last quarter of the year. He was one year old at the time of the Feock
census in 1871, and was 11 years of age ten years later, when he and his sister
Lena (below) were living at Carnon Downs near Feock, with their mother, while
their father was already living and working in America, to where the family
eventually emigrated. In December 1883
Joseph was still attending Wes Day School in Truro, his school book being held
by his present-day family in America. In
2013 the United States Colorado Naturalisation Certificate dated 12th
December 1882 for his father Joseph Harris Collett is proudly displayed on the
office wall of his great granddaughter Allyson Nixon nee Collette, and it was
from that date that the family name had the E added to the end of their surname
While it may have been the Colorado
Silver Rush which attracted the family to the New World, it was at Lake Charles
in Louisiana that the family settled and where Joseph’s father established
Collette’s Grocery Store. On 29th
November 1894 Joseph Harris Collette married Ida King, the sixth child of the
Reverend Cyrus A King and Frances Ellen Parkins, who was born on 24th
July 1872 at Schuyler in Nebraska. The
marriage produced five children for the couple, including a set of twins, and
by the end of the century Joseph owned a saw-mill and lumber business near Lake
Charles, where all of the children were born.
Joseph Harris Collette was only 43 years of age when he died at Edna in
Louisiana on 16th January 1913, just six months prior to the death
of his father at Lake Charles. His widow
lived a long life, since it was on 20th October 1956 that Ida
Collette nee King passed away at the age of 84.
At that time in her life her address was 704 Iris Street in Lake
Charles, the timber property having been specifically built for Ida and Joseph Collette
21R20 – Alpha Harris Collett was born in 1895 at Lake Charles, Louisiana
21R21 – Donald Allan Collett was born in 1896 at Lake Charles, Louisiana
21R22 – Mabel Edna Collett was born in 1896 at Lake Charles, Louisiana
21R23 – Josephine Collett was born in 1902 at Lake Charles, Louisiana
21R24 – Edith Collett was born in 1907 at Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lena Emily Collett
[21Q28] was born at Feock in 1873, the younger
of the two children of Joseph Harris Collett and Emily Gay. Her birth was registered at Truro (Ref. 5c
176) during the first quarter of the year, after which she was baptised at
Feock on 6th February 1873.
Len was eight years of age when recorded with her mother and brother
Joseph (above) while the three on them were awaiting a letter from Lena’s
father to join him in America
Ada Jessie Collett
[21Q29] was born at Feock in 1874, the only
known child of Thomas Collett and Ellen Dunston, and her birth was recorded at
Truro (Ref. 5c 169) at the start of the year.
A few months later, she was baptised using her full name at Truro on 3rd
April 1874. It was as Ada J Collett,
aged seven, that she was living with her family at Carnon Down in Feock in
1881, as she was in 1891 when she was 17 years old. Less than three years later the marriage of
Ada Jessie Collett and John Locke was recorded at Truro register office (Ref.
5c 193) during the first three months of 1894.
On the day of the next census in 1901, John Locke was 37 and a farmer of
Feock, his wife Ada J Locke from Feock was 27, and their daughter Constance W
Locke of Kea who was one year old. A
second daughter was added to the family a couple of years later, with the four
members of the family residing at Perranzabuloe in 1911. By that time John was 46 and Ada Jessie was
37, when Constance Wilmot Locke was 11 and Mildred Bernice Collett
Locke was seven. Nine years later, the
death of Ada J Locke was recorded at Truro register office (Ref. 5c 151) during
the second quarter of 1920, following which Ada Jessie Locke of Polglaze,
Perrancoombe, was buried at Perranzabuloe on 9th June 1920 at the
age of 46
Charles Edward Collett
[21Q30] was born in Cornwall on 25th
August 1876, around nine months after his parents, Hannibal Collett, a mason,
and Mary Manuel, were married towards the end of the previous year. When his parents travelled to America in May
1878, Charles was not listed with them, perhaps because he was still a
babe-in-arms. However, much later in his
life and after he had married (1) Lucy Risch in 1904, he completed a Petition
for Naturalization in the USA on 25th August 1914, with the legal
paperwork confirming the following information.
Firstly, his name, date and place of birth, were stated, when he and
Lucy were residing at Sidney, Richland County in Montana, from where Charles’
occupation was that of an attorney
Next, the petition recorded that he had
sailed from Liverpool to New York in 1878, and was an honourably discharged
soldier applying for citizenship. His
wife Lucy was from St Paul in Minneapolis, with whom he already had two
children, who were also born at St Paul.
They were William Rich Collett who was born on 4th January
1907, and Margaret Lynda Collett who was born on 23rd August 1908,
both of them living with Charles and Lucy at Sidney. The form required Charles to denounce any
allegiance to George V, King of Great Britain & Ireland. After completing the petition in took until 1st
May 1917 for citizenship to be approved
The first recording of Charles Edward
Collett in an American census, was in 1900 when he was a bachelor aged 24 from
England, who was a student boarding with the Rich family at Keowitt Avenue, St
Paul City, Ramsey County in Minnesota.
On that occasion, his date of birth was recorded in error as 23rd
August 1876. He may have lived with the
family for some years, and later used the family’s surname as a forename for
his first child. Five years later,
Charles E Collett from England was 29 and an attorney who, together with his
recently acquired wife Lucie S Collett, was still living at Keowitt Avenue with
printer William Rich and his wife Lydia
According to the City of St Paul census
in Ramsey County in 1910, Charles had been married for six years, but was
working away from his wife Lucy that day, and was a lawyer employed by a law
firm, who was 33 years old and a lodger with the Holley family. At the age of 42, Charles Edward Collett of
Sidney, Montana, and born on 25th August 1876, his First World War
Registration Card confirmed he was an American citizen and a lawyer, whose wife
was Lucy Risch Collett. The date of
registration was 9th December 1918
The next census in 1920 for Richland
Montana, included all four members of the family. Head of the household Charles E Collett from
England was 43 and a County Attorney, his wife Lucy R Collett – amended to
Lucie R Collett from Minnesota was 39, and their two children were William
Richard Collett who was 13 and also born at Minnesota, as was Margaret L
Collett who was 11. Renting a room in
the property was Ruth H Humphrey aged 27 who was a teacher at a public school,
described as a roomer. The district of Sidney in which the family
was living was recorded as Sidney School District 45
It was a similar situation in 1930, with
the family home still being within the Sidney School District, but on the day
of the census that year, the couple’s two children were absent, although
recorded as living there just the same.
Charles was 53 and an attorney at law, Lucy was 49, William R Collett
was 23, and Margaret L Collett was 21, both still unmarried, and again with no
occupation like their mother. The other
member of the household was Ethel M Huck who was 41 and a housekeeper, while
the property in which they were living was valued at $5,000
During the following decade, Charles was
widowed and, on 30th November 1939 at Falls Church, Fairfax County
in Virginia, Charles Edward Collett, a widower aged 63, married (2) Louella
Orange Webb, the 61-year-old unmarried daughter of William West Webb and Eliza
Jane Atcheson. Charles was confirmed as
born in Cornwall England, an attorney, and the son of Hannibal Collett and Mary
Manuel, who was residing at 2818 Rittenhouse in Washington DC. Louella was from Paoli in Indiana and was
residing at 3133 Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC. Charles Edward Collett was 80 years of age
when he died at Los Angeles in California during the month of March 1957. The death certificate confirmed that he was
an attorney at law, and that he was already widowed for a second time in his
life. The informant of his passing while
at Braewood Sanitorium was his daughter Margaret Bryant, when his last home
address was 2194 Dudley Street, Pasadena, Los Angeles
21R25 – William Richard Collett was born
on 4th April 1907 at St Paul, Minneapolis
21R25 – Margaret Lynda Collett was born
on 23rd August 1908 at St Paul, Minneapolis
William Hannibal Collett
[21Q31] was born in Kansas City on 19th
January 1884, the second known child of Hannibal Collett and Mary Manuel, both
from Feock in Cornwall. He is known to
have married Mary Ashley and was just over forty years of age when he died at
Minneapolis, Hennepin County in Minnesota, on 2nd August 1925. The death certificate confirmed that he was
the husband of Mrs Mary Collett, the son of Hannibal Collett and Mary Manuel,
who had been born in Kansas City
Five years earlier William H Collett
from Kansas and his wife Mary, were recorded in the Hennepin County census in
1920. Their place of residence was 8th
Precinct in Minneapolis City, where William H Collett, of English parents, was
37 and a plumber having his own shop.
Mary L Collett from Wisconsin was 36, and living with the couple was
William’s mother-in-law and brother-in-law.
They were Harriet S Ashley, a widow at 61, and Theodore Ashley who was
21, a clerk working for the government
The World War One Registration Card for
William Hannibal Collett reveals a few more details about his short life. Dated as 9th December 1918, it
described him as tall, slender, with brown eyes, and dark hair, native born on
19th January 1884, so aged 34, and living at 310 Humbolt North,
Minneapolis, Hennepin County. His occupation
was a steam fitter (plumber) having his own business, when his nearest relative
was Mary Louise Collett, his wife, address as above
Thomas
Davey Collett [21Q32] was born at Philleigh in 1858, his
birth registered at Truro (Ref. 5c 175) during the second quarter of the
year. He was around six months old when
he was baptised at Philleigh on 31st October 1858, the eldest child
of Thomas Collett and Ann Morse. It was
around the time of his second birthday, that Thomas died, his death recorded at
Truro (Ref. 5c 114) during the second quarter of 1860. He was buried at Philleigh on 14th
May 1860, when the parish burial recorded that he and his family were living at
Treworthal
Elizabeth
Ann Collett [21Q33] was born at Philleigh in 1860, her birth
registered at Truro (Ref. 5c 161) during the third quarter of the year. It was at Philleigh parish church that
Elizabeth Ann Collett, daughter of Thomas Collett and Ann Morse, was baptised
on 2nd February 1861.
Sometime after she was born the family moved from Philleigh, ten miles
west, to set up home at St Stithians and just west of St Gluvias. And it was there in 1871 that she was living
with her family aged ten years. Ten years
later and at the age of 20, Elizabeth A Collett was still living at the family
home at 18 Sunny Corner in St Stithians where she was listed as a mother’s
helper
Elizabeth never married and was the only
child still living with her parents at Kennall Vale in St Stithians in 1891
when she was thirty. Over the following
years her father died, when she and her mother moved to St Gluvias just east of
St Stithians and north of Penryn where, in 1901, Elizabeth was 40 and her
mother Ann said she was 67. There was
only one other Collett living at St Gluvias in 1901 and that was dairymaid
Annie Collett aged 17 who was born there in 1883, the eldest child of
Elizabeth’s brother William Henry Collett (below). By April 1911, Elizabeth Ann Collett from
Philleigh was 50 years old and was residing in the Ponsanooth area just
north-west of St Gluvias with her 75-year-old mother Ann Collett from Veryan
William
Henry Collett [21Q34] was born at Philleigh in 1862, with his
birth registered at Truro (Ref. 5c 165) during the last three months of the
year. He was then baptised at Philleigh
parish church on 28th December 1862, the son of Thomas Collett and
Ann Morse. He was eight years old in
1871 when he was living with his family at St Stithians. On leaving school he worked as an agricultural
labourer, probably with his father, and was still living with his family at
Sunny Corner in St Stithians in 1881.
Eighteen months later, the banns of marriage for William Henry Collett
and Elizabeth Ann Bath, both of the Parish of St Gluvias, were read on each of
the first three Sundays of December in 1882. The actual wedding ceremony was conducted at
the Church of St Budock in Falmouth on Saturday 23rd December 1882,
when William Henry Collett, son of Thomas Collett, was 20 as was Elizabeth Ann,
the daughter of John Bath. The event was
recorded at Falmouth (Ref. 5c 314)
The couple’s first child was born and
baptised at St Gluvias, before the three of them moved to Mylor Bridge, just
north of Penryn, where the next three children were born, although still
baptised at St Gluvias. Another family
move took place after the census day in 1891, with the last child born at
Stithians to the west of St Gluvias. On
the day of the census in 1891, the couple and their first four children were
recorded at Goonreath in Mylor. William
H Collett was 28 and a farm labourer, his wife Elizabeth A Collett was also 28,
when the four children were Annie J Collett who was seven, Mary E Collett who
was five, Beatrice S Collett who was four, and William C Collett who was two
years of age
By the time of the census of, 1901 the
family of six was living at Gwennap, midway between Redruth and Penryn. The census listed William H Collett as aged
38 and born at Philleigh who was working as a domestic gardener and his wife
The reason for the move may have been a
better job opportunity for William, then in his 40s, on the railway, and most
likely at nearby Perranwell Station.
Just one year prior to the census in 1911, the death of William Henry
Collett, aged 47, was recorded at Falmouth register office (Ref. 5c 96) during
the second quarter of 1910. The
remainder of his family was recorded at Perranwell Station in Perranarworthal
in 1911, where his wife widow Elizabeth Collett from St Gluvias was 48 and head
of the household, having no occupation, her daughter Beatrice Collett from
Mylor who was 23 and a machinist working in a shirt factory, and her two sons
William and Thomas Collett. William
Collett from Mylor was 22 and a domestic gardener, while Thomas Collett from St
Stithians was 15 and a clerk employed by a miller and a merchant. Just under six years later, the death of
Elizabeth Ann Collett was recorded at Falmouth register office (Ref. 5c 234)
during the first three months of 1917, when she was 56
21R27 – Annie Jane Collett was born in 1883 at St Gluvias
21R28 – Mary Ellen Collett was born in 1886 at Mylor Bridge
21R29 – Beatrice Sarah Collett was born in 1887 at Mylor Bridge
21R30 – William Charles Collett was born in 1889 at Mylor Bridge
21R31 – Thomas J Collett was born in 1895 at Stithians
Mary
Collett [21Q35] was born at Philleigh in 1866, her birth
registered at Truro (Ref. 5c 178) during the first three months of that
year. It was at Philleigh where she was
baptised on 10th June 1866, the youngest child born to Thomas
Collett and Ann Morse. She was aged five
years in 1871 and was 15 years old in the 1881 Census. On both occasions she was living at 18 Sunny
Corner in St Stithians with her family, when her place of birth was confirmed
as Philleigh. It was eight years later
at the age of 23 that she married James Henry Burley, aged 25, at Perranworthal
on 22nd April 1889. Their
wedding was recorded at Falmouth register office (Ref. 5c 269). James was born at Tregony in 1863, the son of
agricultural labourer William Burley and his wife Susan A Burley, both of
Tregony
In 1881 James was 17 and was also
working as an agricultural labourer while he was still living with his family
at Pellean Cross in Perranworthal. He
was the second oldest child in the family of seven brothers and three
sisters. Sometime during the year after
they were married Mary presented James with their first child Cloelinda Burley
who was born at Gwennap in 1890. The
following year the census of 1891 revealed that Mary aged 25, and Cloelinda
Burley who was not yet one year old, were living with the Redruth &
Gwennap registration district with James Burley’s sister Elizabeth and was
described as ‘living on her own means’
Her husband James has not been accounted
for in the census and it has since been discovered that he had sailed to
America. Mary and her daughter were
eventually reunited with him in Montana and it was there that their second
child was born. He was William Thomas
Burley who was born at Montana in 1893.
Not long after the birth of their son the family returned to
Cornwall. The exact reason for the move
has not been established, since there was nothing significant happening in the
USA at that time. It therefore seems
likely that Mary may have become homesick and wished to return to her native
roots
Once back in Cornwall the couple were
blessed with the birth of their third and fourth offspring, they being Ethel
Burley who was born in 1895 and James Henry Burley who was born in
1897, both having been born at Gwennap.
By the time of the 1901 Census for Gwennap, Mary Burley of Philleigh was
35 and living with her were her four children Cloelinda who was ten, William
who was seven, Ethel who was six, and James who was four, but yet again there
was no mention of Mary’s husband James Burley
During the next decade a further two
children were added to the family, so by April 1911 the family living at
Frogpool in Perranwell was made up of James Burley from Tregony who was 47 and
a farmer, his wife Mary Burley from Philleigh who was 45, William Thomas Burley
from America who was 17 and a greengrocer, Ethel Burley who was 16 and working
in a tape factory, James Henry Burley who was 14 and working on the farm with
his father, Frederick Burley who was eight and at school, and Lillie
Burley who was four years old. Apart
from their eldest son, all of the other children were recorded as having been
born at Gwennap. The later death of Mary
Burley was recorded in Cornwall (Ref. 5c 141) in 1926, when she was 61. This is the family line of Lynne Sanders who
kindly provided the information relating to the children of Mary Collett and
her husband James
Robert
Davey Collett [21Q37] was born at Illogan near Redruth
although, not long after he was born, his parents moved back to Philleigh where
his father had been born and where Robert was baptised on 14th April
1861, the son of William Henry Collett and Grace Jewell. Further moves saw the family living at Kea
south of Truro in 1865 and at the time of the 1871 Census he was 10 years old
when he was living with his parents and brother Edward (below) in the town of
Truro itself. Sometime after leaving
school, he left home to work as an agricultural labourer on the 300-acre farm
of Giles Williams at Barn Farm in Ruan Lanihorne just two and a half miles from
Philleigh where he was at the time of the 1881 Census. When he was 27 years of age the marriage of
Robert Collett married (1) Elizabeth Ann Hancock was recorded at St Columb
(Ref. 5c 127) during the third quarter of 1888, when they were married at St
Issey, two miles south of Padstow, on 18th August 1888. Elizabeth was born in 1857 at Warleggan, six
miles east of Bodmin, where
she was baptised on 18th January 1857, the daughter of Robert and Jane Hancock. Over the remaining years of the century Elizabeth
presented Robert with at least three children
By
that time in his life Robert was a member of the Cornwall Constabulary and during the year after their wedding
day, Elizabeth presented him with their first child. On that day the couple was living at Wadebridge
in land from Padstow while,
by 1891 the family of three was residing at St Breock, one mile west of
Wadebridge. The census that year
recorded the family as Robert Davey Collett aged 30 who was a police officer
with the Cornwall Constabulary, his wife Elizabeth Ann Collett who was 32, and
their son Stanley Warne Collett who was one year old. It was very likely it was Robert’s work as a
policeman that was the reason the family moved a couple of times during the
following decade, with their next two children born at St Wenn, west of Bodmin,
and at St Blazey, near St Austell. After
the birth of their daughter, the family made a return journey north to the
Wadebridge area of Cornwall, where they were recorded in the census of 1901
According to the census return that year,
police constable Robert Davey Collett was living at Molesworth Street in Wadebridge when
he was 40 and gave his place of birth as Illogan. Living with him was his wife Elizabeth Ann
Collett from Warleggan who was 43, together with their three children. They were Stanley Warne Collett who was eleven
and born at Wadebridge, John Percy Collett who was eight and born at St Wenn,
and Gwendoline May Collett who was three years of age and born at St Blazey. It was less than three years later when the death of Elizabeth Ann
Collett, aged 45, was recorded at Bodmin register office (Ref. 5c 59) during
the first three months of 1904
Following her passing it was one year
later that Robert Collett married (2) Jemima Bishop, the event recorded at St
Columb (Ref. 5c 135) during the first quarter of 1905, the marriage producing a
further two children for Robert. By 1911 Robert Davy Collett from
Illogan had retired from the police force and was recorded as a 50-year-old
police pensioner who was living with his family within the St Austell Urban
registration district of South Cornwall.
His much younger wife was Jemima Collett from St Kew who was 44, and still
living with Robert were the three children from his previous marriage, together
with the two latest arrivals. Stanley W
Collett was 21 and born at Wadebridge, John Percy Collett was 19 and born at St
Wenn, and Gwendoline Collett was 13 and born at St Blazey. The first of Robert and Jemima’s children Thomas C Collett was five years
old and born at Lostwithiel, while daughter Doris Collett was three years
of age and had been born after the family settled in St Austell
The death of Robert D Collett, aged 78,
was recorded at Truro register office Ref. 5c 126) during the second quarter of
1939. By that time, Robert had been
widowed for a year, with the death of his wife recorded at Truro during 1938
(Ref. 5c 98) when she was 71. In
2022, Robert Davey Collett was the only Collett of this family line to have
been born at Illogan. Appendix A, at
the end of this section of Part 21, includes another connection to the
village of Illogan, which lies two miles from Redruth
21R32 – Stanley Warne Collett was born in 1889 at Wadebridge
21R33 – John Percy Collett was born in 1892 at St Wenn
21R34 – Gwendoline May Collett was born in 1897 at St Blazey
The following
are the two children of Robert Davey Collett by his second wife Jemima Bishop:
21R35 – Thomas C Collett was born in 1905
at Lostwithiel
21R36 – Doris Collett was born in 1907
at St Austell
Nearly six years later Edward married,
the much older, (1) Ann Williams Johns at Portloe near Veryan on 7th
February 1887. Ann was 35 at that time,
having been born at Veryan on 3rd October 1852, compared to Edward
who was 21. Ann’s father was Cornish
fisherman Peter Blamey Johns, and her mother was Mary Ann Williams Caddy. It is understood by one source, although so
far not verified, that Ann Williams Johns was a direct descendent of John T
Collett (Ref. 52G1) of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire and his London born
wife Susanna Ferrar – see the Appendix B at the end of this section of
Part 21
By 1881 Ann’s mother had died, so at
that time in her life, when she was 27, she was living at Portloe where she was
acting as housekeeper to her widowed father Peter who was 64. Her wedding at Veryan, six years later to
Edward Collett, was followed by the birth of three sons. The first of them was born while Edward and
Ann were still living in Veryan, but shortly after the birth the family of
three settled in Ladock, seven miles north of Veryan, where the couple’s next
two children were born. Tragically, Ann
died during the birth of her twin boys who both survived the ordeal, and
following which she was buried just after they were born, during the first week
of June 1890
Following the death of their mother, the
three boys were taken into the care of their widowed grandmother Grace Collett
nee Jewell. However, by the time of the
census in April 1891, it was only the oldest son William, who was 12, who was
still living with Grace Collett. By that
time the twin brothers had been separated and had been placed in the care of
two of the brothers of their late mother in Portloe near Veryan, the details
for which can be found under their individual entries. At that same time in 1891, widower Edward
Collett aged 25 and from Kea, was working as a general servant and gardener at
Oatlands, near Stoke Damerel in Devon.
His employer and the owner of that property, was John E Scott, the
father of Robert Falcon Scott who, ten years later, was more well-known as
Scott of the Antarctic. It was also
around that time in 1891 that Edward met and married (2) Ann (Annie) Bowden
Gribble. The story within the family is
that Edward did not admit to already having three children, which came as a shock
to Annie when he brought the eldest boy into the family home. Perhaps he never admitted to having the twins
at all, because they remained living with the two separate Johns families of
his first wife
According to the census in 1881, Annie
Gribble from Stonehouse in Plymouth was 11 years old and was living in the
village of Loddiswell near Kingsbridge in Devon with her family. Her father was Henry Gribble, a labourer from
Loddiswell, and her mother was Ann Gribble also of Loddiswell. There was no mention of the name Bowden,
although the Cornish records include previous marriages between the Bowden and
Gribble families. The marriage of Edward
Charles Collett and Annie Bowden produced a further ten children, all of them
born within the Plymouth area, although the first three were born at 61
Palmerston Street in Millbridge, their births recorded at Stoke Damerel
register office, the remainder at Plymouth register office. In each case of the baptism of the children,
Edward’s occupation was always recorded as a coachman. After the birth of those first three
children, and following the infant death of the third child, the family left 61
Palmerston Street in the Millbridge area of Plymouth, when their new home was
at Mount View Cottage in the Hartley area of north Plymouth, from where the
next four children were baptised. The
family’s last address in Plymouth was 21 Corporation Road in the Pennycross
area of Plymouth, where the last three children were born, with the last two
suffering infant deaths
The Plymouth census conducted at the end
of March in 1901, recorded the family at Mount View Cottage in Hartley as
Edward Collett aged 35 and a domestic coachman, Annie B Collett who was 31,
Edward’s sole surviving son from his first marriage, William Collett who was 12,
plus the children born by his second wife, Henry L Collett who was eight,
Beatrice Collett who was seven, George Collett who was four, and Annie B
Collett who was three years old.
However, by that time the couple had lost two children, Alfred George
Collett and Elsie May Collett, who had suffered infant deaths
Just over three years after the death of
the couple’s nineth child and one year after the birth of their last child,
Edward Charles Collett sailed out of Liverpool on 30th April 1908 on
board the SS Kensington bound for Canada, to seek a new life for his
family. And it was while he was there
that he received the sad news from England that his youngest child had died
during the first few months of 1909.
Just after the census day on 2nd April in 1911, Edward’s
eldest son from his second marriage, Henry Lake Collett, also made the journey
across the Atlantic Ocean to join his father in Canada
Following the departure of her husband,
Annie continued to live at 21 Corporation Road in Pennycross, Plymouth, with
just five of her ten children, together with Edward’s son William from his
first marriage. And it was at 21
Corporation Road that they were still living in April 1911 when they were
recorded in that year’s census. Annie
Collett was 41, her son Henry was listed as Harry Collett aged 18, George was
14, Annie was 13, Winnie was eight, and Alfred was six years old. Her stepson William Henry Collett was 22 and
was also living in the Devonport area at that time. The only surviving child not mentioned on the
census return was Annie’s eldest daughter Beatrice who would have been 17, and
it is now known that she had gone to live with relatives in America, rather
than Canada
It was three years later, on 2nd
May 1914, that Annie Collett and the rest of her young family sailed from
Liverpool on board the White Star Dominion Line ship SS Canada to be reunited
with her husband, whom she had not seen for six years, and her eldest son Henry
who had made the same journey three years earlier. According to the passenger list, those
travelling with Ann Bowden Collett aged 44 in steerage third class were her
daughters Ann Bowden Collett aged 16 and Winifred Collett who was 11, and her
son Alfred Collett who was nine, the ship arriving at Quebec City on 12th
May, with the reason for their journey being “taking them to their
father”. Missing from the list was
Annie’s son George who had sailed from Bristol to Nov Scotia on 8th
January 1913. The only member of the
family to remain in England was William Henry Collett, the only surviving son
from the first marriage of Edward Charles Collett
The death of Ann Bowden Collett was
recorded at Chilliwack as having taken place on 6th December 1938
21R37 – William Henry Collett was born in 1889 at Veryan
21R38 – Edward Charles Collett was born in 1890 at Ladock
21R39 – James Arthur Collett was born in 1890 at Ladock
The following are the children resulting
from Edward’s second marriage to Annie Gribble:
21R40 – Henry Lake Collett was born in 1893 at Stoke Damerel
21R41 – Beatrice Annie Collett was born in 1894 at Stoke Damerel
21R42 – Alfred George Collett was born in 1895 at Plymouth
21R43 – George Edward Collett was born in 1896 at Plymouth
21R44 – Ann Bowden Collett was born in 1897 at Plymouth
21R45 – Elsie May Collett was born in 1899 at Plymouth
21R46 – Winifred Louise Collett was born in 1902 at Plymouth
21R47 – Alfred John Collett was born in 1904 at Plymouth
21R48 – Christopher Thomas Collett was born in 1905 at Plymouth
21R49 – Florence Eveline Collett was born in 1907 at Plymouth
Elizabeth
Grace Collett [21Q39] was
born at Truro in 1868, and was baptised there on 22nd January 1869,
the daughter of William Henry Collett and his wife Grace Jewell. Tragically it was just over seven months
later that Elizabeth Grace Collett died on 31st August 1869
James
Henry Collett [21Q40] was
born at Truro where he was baptised on 7th March 1872, the son of
William Henry and Grace Collett. He was
nine years old in the 1881 Census when he was living with his family in the
village of Treworthal in the parish of Philleigh [Filley]. His father William Henry was absent for the
census, although his mother Grace was still recorded as being married. However, just two months later his father
died and was buried in the churchyard at St Philleigh Church in the
village. In 1891 James H Collett was
nineteen and had left the family home, but was still living within the Truro
& St Just registration district where he was working
It was on 4th April 1900,
that the marriage of James Henry Collett aged 28 and the son of William Henry
Collett, and Elizabeth Jane Buse took place at St Minver, near Padstow, where
she was born. By that time in his life
James was a constable with the Cornwall police, as confirmed by the census in
1901 when he and Elizabeth were living in Lanteglos to the east of Fowey. James H Collett was 29 and Elizabeth J
Collett was 30 and was very likely with-child on the day of the census that
year, as the couple’s first child was born shortly thereafter. Also, not long after they were married couple
left Lanteglos when they moved nearer to Elizabeth’s family in Padstow when
they settled in Camelford twelve miles to the north-east of Padstow. Over the next ten years Elizabeth presented
her husband with five children, the first two of which were born at Camelford
After the birth of their second child,
the family of four moved nearer to the coast at Tintagel where the next three
children were born and where the larger family was living in April 1911. The
census that year confirmed that James Henry Collett from Truro and his wife
Elizabeth Jane Collett of St Minver were both 40. The couple’s five children at that time were
James Roy Collett who was nine and born at Camelford, Kathleen Collett who was
seven and also born at Camelford, Richard Collett who was five, Angelina
Collett who was two, and Francis Collett who was one year old, all of them born
at Tintagel
The death of James Henry Collett took
place on 29th February 1952 in St Minver, after which he was buried
in the graveyard at the Church of St Menefreda at St Minver Highlands. He was buried in the same grave as his wife,
the death of Elizabeth Jane Collett nee Buse having taken place seven years
earlier on 8th February 1945.
Also buried there, and named on the single headstone, was their daughter
Angelina Collett who was 24 when she died in 1932
These are the five children of James
Henry Collett and Elizabeth Jane Buse, from the previous page:
21R50 – James Roy Collett was born in 1902 at Camelford
21R51 – Kathleen Collett was born in 1904 at Camelford
21R52 – Richard Collett was born in 1906 at Tintagel, Camelford
21R53 – Angelina Collett was born in 1908 at Tintagel, Camelford
21R54 – Francis Thomas Collett was born in 1910 at Tintagel, Camelford
Albert
Collett [21Q41] was born at Truro in 1874 but there is a
mystery surrounding his entry in the 1881 Census. In that he was six years old and confirmed as
having been born at Truro, but was a visitor at the home of farm labourer
William Grose at Lower Rosewin Row in the parish of St Clement in Truro. It would appear that he was still living in
that same parish ten years later in 1891, as he was at the time of the census
in 1901. By the time of the latter, he
was 26 and was employed as a stone sawyer in the suburb of St Clement on the
eastern fringe of the city of Truro.
During the following years he left Cornwall and made his way to
Berkshire and was living in the town of Faringdon when he was 36 and his place
of birth was confirmed as Truro. It is
not known at this time whether or not he was ever married
Mary
Lavinia Collett [21Q42] was born at Truro in 1876 and was four
years old in 1881 when living at Treworthal with her family. Thanks to Neil Collette in North America, we
now know that Mary Lavinia Collett married Arthur Edwin Hobbs who was born in
1878. In the census return for 1901,
Mary and Arthur were living in the City of Gloucester, but had no children on
that occasion. Mary L Hobbs was 24 and
from Truro, while her husband Arthur E Hobbs was 23 and from Tewkesbury. Over the next decade Mary presented her
husband with five children, the first two being born in Gloucestershire at
Brockworth and then Tewkesbury, before the family settled in Hucclecote near Brockworth,
where the other three children were born.
In 1911 Mary and her family were living at Foxhall in Hucclecote where
Arthur Edwin Hobbs aged 33 and from Tewkesbury, was a Prudential Insurance
Agent. His wife Mary Lavinia was 34 and
from Truro, while their children were as listed below
Violet Lavinia Hobbs was nine, Gladys
Mary Hobbs was seven, Reginald John Hobbs was five, William Arthur Hobbs was
two, and Grace Ellen Hobbs was just one month old. It is known that Arthur’s eldest son Reginald
John Hobbs left the family as soon as he was old enough, at which time he
emigrated to Canada, apparently because of his father’s excessive drinking
habit. Many years later, towards the end
of the 1940s, Mary Lavinia Hobbs nee Collett sailed to Canada to visit her son
Reginald Hobbs of Banff, and his wife Grace Doreen Louise Hobbs nee
Collett. It is also known within the
family that on more than one occasion Mary Lavinia considered emigrating to
Canada herself
John
Collett [21Q43] was born at Philleigh in 1878 and was
baptised there on 15th May 1881, the youngest of the seven children
of William Henry Collett and his wife Grace Jewell. Prior to that, on 3rd April 1881,
he was listed as being two years old when he was living in the village of Treworthal
with his family. Just one month after he
was baptised his father died and was buried at St Philleigh Church, in a grave
he shared with his own parents, John’s grandparents. By 1891 John was twelve years old and was the
only child still living with his mother Grace Collett in the Truro & St
Just area. It was just over seven years
later in July 1898 that John enlisted with the Royal Navy, and we are grateful
to Sue Collett (Ref. 21T25) in Australia who has kindly provided details
extracted from his naval records.
Curiously within his application form his date of birth was given as 29th
August 1881, over three months after he was baptised. His first few months were spent on the
training vessel HMS Northampton which, up until 1894 had been an armoured
cruiser, but which was later taken out of service in 1905. Later during 1898 he spent some time on the
light cruiser HMS Curacao
By February 1899 he was on board the
training vessel HMS Vivid I and in May that same year he served for a few
months on board HMS Cleopatra. After
that initial year undergoing his naval training John Collett signed on for
twelve years on the 29th August 1899 and was assigned to HMS
Cleopatra as an Ordinary Seaman. Sadly,
he contracted Erysipelas, known as St Anthony's fire, and was hospitalised at
McKelvie Infectious Hospital in Oban Scotland, where he died on 15th
September 1899
It was just over one month later that
Richard Collett married Martha Collins (below) at the Wesleyan Chapel in St
Mawes on 5th May 1911, the marriage being recorded at Truro register
office. The chapel register recorded
that Richard was 34 and a life assurance agent of St Just Lane in St
Just-in-Roseland, and that he was the son of grocer James Collett. Martha was listed as being 31 years old and
of Commercial Road in St Mawes, the daughter of grocer George Collins. The witnesses at the ceremony were Martha’s
parents George and Lillian Collins.
Thanks to Rosemary Ann Evans, nee Collett, the granddaughter of Richard
and Martha Collett, we now know that their marriage produced two sons, as
listed below, and that Richard was working as a market gardener at some stage
in his life, in addition to being an assurance agent
21R55 – Richard Grenville Collett was born in 1912 at St Just-in-Roseland
21R56 – Douglas Percival Collett was born in 1919 at St Just-in-Roseland
Mary
Ann Collett [21Q45] was named after her mother and was born
in 1877 at St Just-in-Roseland. By 1901
she was still living there at 23, and was performing the duty of housekeeper
for her father James and her two brothers Richard (above) and Benjamin (below),
following the death of her mother in 1892.
Mary Ann Collett was still a spinster in 1911 when she was 33 and still
keeping home for her father James Collett and her brother Richard Collett. Mary was still not married when her father
died in 1937 as confirmed by the probate service which named Mary Ann Collett,
a spinster, and her brother Benjamin Dingle Collett (below), as the joint
executors of his estate. It was on 24th
January 1961 that Mary Ann Collett, a spinster, died at Falmouth in Cornwall,
presumably while she was in hospital there.
During the next month her personal effects valued at £354 10 Shillings
were the subject of the probate when her sister-in-law Martha Collett (the wife of Richard Collett above), a
widow, was named as the sole executor at Bodmin on 17th February
1961. The notice of probate also
confirmed that Mary Ann’s place of residence prior to her death was at St Just
Lane in Truro
Benjamin
Dingle Collett [21Q46] was born in 1879 at St Just-in-Roseland
and was one year old at the time of the census in 1881. His second forename came from his mother’s
maiden-name. Following the death of Mary
Ann Collett nee Dingle in 1892, Benjamin was still living at St Just with his
widowed father James Collett in 1901 at the age of 21. His occupation at that time was that of a
contractor’s labourer. During the next
decade Benjamin married Ann Richards, and by April 1911 the couple were living
in Philleigh. Benjamin Dingle Collett of
St Just was 31, while his wife Ann was 30.
The only other known facts about Benjamin at this time are that he was a
farm labourer in 1937 when he was named as joint executor of his father’s estate
with his sister Mary (above), and that he died in March 1955 and was buried in
the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in the Roseland village of Philleigh
It is also known that, eleven years
after his death, his wife Annie died in May 1966. The single headstone that marks their grave
has the following inscription “In loving memory of Benjamin Dingle Collett
beloved husband of Annie Collett who died March 6th 1955 aged 75
years. Also of
the above Annie Collett who died May 16th 1966 aged 85 years -
Reunited”. At the foot of the
headstone are the words “Erected by her brother R J Richards of Mawgan,
Helston” (see Headstone Epitaphs)
Elizabeth
Grace Collett [21Q47] was born at Treworthal in the parish of
Philleigh on 14th December 1872, the only known daughter of Francis
Collett and his wife Elizabeth Richards.
It was at Treworthal in the grocer’s shop, managed by her mother, that
she was living with her family in 1881 and 1891, when she was eight years old
and 18 years of age respectively. Five
years later, during the second quarter of 1896, Elizabeth married William
Woodward with whom she had three children from which only one survived. At the time of the next census in March 1901
the childless couple was incorrectly recorded under the surname Woodware. Elizabeth and William Woodward were living at
19 Torrs in Countisbury near Lynton & Lynmouth in North Devon, where
William was a coastguard
By April 1911, Elizabeth Grace Woodward
was 38, her husband William Woodward was 43, while their son Cyril Woodward was
just three years old. The family of
three on that occasion was living at the Treworthal home of Elizabeth’s elderly
parents, Francis and Elizabeth Collett.
It was many years later at Bodmin on 6th April 1923 that
Elizabeth Grace Woodward, wife of William Woodward, was named at the proving of
the Will of her father Francis Collett who had died at Treworthal during the
previous month on 11th March.
It should be noted that in 1905 Elizabeth
presented William with a second son Francis Woodward, who died shortly after he
was born, while six years earlier in 1899 Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter
Mildred Irene Woodward who also died that same year. As a tribute to his sister Cyril Woodward
later named his two eldest daughters Mildred and Irene Woodward
William
Collett [21Q48] was born at Treworthal in the parish of
Philleigh on 2nd December 1874, the only known son of Francis and
Elizabeth Collett. He was six years old
in the Treworthal census of 1881 and was 16 in the same census in 1891 and, on
both occasions, he was living at the grocer’s shop of his parents in
Treworthal. It was during the final
three months of 1893 at Truro (Ref. 5c 265) that the marriage of William
Collett and Elizabeth Ann Hooper was recorded, and within the first quarter of
the following year their daughter was born at Treworthal. Although not confirmed as Elizabeth Mary
Collett, the birth of Lizzie Collett was recorded at Truro register office
(Ref. 5c 135) during the first three months of 1894. Sometime between then and the end of the
century William joined the Cornwall constabulary and left Treworthal for St
Columb Major, near Newquay
By the end of March in 1901 he was
employed as a second-class police constable, when he was living and working at
St Columb Major, with his wife and child.
William Collett was 26 and from Philleigh, while his wife Elizabeth was
27 and had been born at Gerrans. It
seems likely that his work with the Cornwall police force later resulted in a
move for the family, since by April 1911 William and his wife and daughter were
living in the Liskeard area of Cornwall.
William Collett of Philleigh was 36, his wife Elizabeth Ann Collett was
37, and their daughter Elizabeth Mary Collett was 17
Two years later P C William Collett was
shot in the leg during the China Clay Strike of 1913. At that time there were several small companies
running about seventy pits in the mid-Cornwall area, as a result of which there
were big differences in workers' pay and conditions. As workers from the various pits compared
notes on their weekly pay packet, many grew angry at the variety of wages being
paid, leading up to strike. It started
after one firm, Carne Stents based in Trewoon in mid-Cornwall, went back on a
promise to pay wages fortnightly
For about three months 5,000 china clay
workers stood firm on their calls for a pay increase of five shillings more a
week, and for their wages to be paid fortnightly, not once a month. Most of the companies initially refused the
calls, leading to a strike which overwhelmed the local police force. The situation came to a head when one of the
strike's leaders, Howard Vincent, shot P C William Collett from Lostwithiel in
the leg. That incident shocked the
strikers, who were already thinking about ending the strike. Although they went back to work without a
deal, within weeks the clay firms started to agree to the workers’ demands. Despite the injury to his leg William Collett
lived a long life, his death at the age of 88 years recorded at Liskeard
register office (Ref.7a 61) during the final three months of 1963
21R57 – Elizabeth Mary Collett was born
in 1893 at Treworthal
James
H Collett [21Q50] was born at Phillack in 1872. He was nine years old in 1881 and was living
with his family at Bodriggy Street in Phillack, near St Ives. Thereafter it has not been possible to locate
James in any later census and, previously, he had been confused with James
Henry Collett of Philleigh who became a policeman
John
R Collett [21Q51] was born at Phillack in 1874, although
in the census of 1881 when he and his family were living in Bodriggy Street in
Phillack his place of birth, like that of every member of the household was
recorded as Phillick. By 1891 his Jane
mother had died and he was living with his father and two younger sisters
Elizabeth and Bessie (below), when he was 16.
During the next ten years it has been assumed that his father John Kitto
Collett died since his two sisters were living along together in Phillack in
March 1901. John R Collett was also
absent from the family home, so there is a possibility that father and son
where elsewhere, rather than passed away
Elizabeth
Ellen Collett [21Q52] was born in 1877 at Phillack where she
was living with her family in 1881 aged three years. At that time her father and blacksmith John
Collett and her family was living in Bodriggy Street in Phillack. Ten years
later in the 1891 Census she was listed as Ellen Collett aged 13 living with
her widowed father and two siblings John (above) and Bessie (below). Following the death of her father during the
1890s, Elizabeth E Collett was still living at Phillack in March 1901 where she
was employed as a general domestic servant at the age of 23. It seems highly likely that she was living
with, and working with, her sister Bessie who had the same occupation. Rather curiously both girls gave their place
of birth as Hayle instead of Phillack. Ten
years later Elizabeth Ellen Collett from Hayle was 33 in 1911 when she still
unmarried, but by which time she was living in Penzance
Bessie
Jane Collett [21Q53] was born in March 1880 at Phillack and
was just one month old at the time of the census on
William
Henry Collett [21Q54] was born at Bristol St Philips in June
1870 and was ten months old at the time of the census of 1871 when he was
living with his father James Henry Collett and his mother Hermina. It was just a few months later that his
father died, leaving William to be raised by his mother. He attended boarding school in the St Philip
parish of Bristol and was ten years old in the census of 1881 when he was at 2
Frederick Street. His mother at that
time was running a lodging house at 23 All Saints Road in Clifton, ably
assisted by her later husband cousin Grace Collett. On completing his schooling William returned
to live with his mother and her cousin Grace, in the Barton Regis district of
Bristol. At that time, he was listed as
Willie Collett, aged 20
It was on 2nd June 1900 that
William Henry Collett married Gertrude Katherine (Kate) Bremner at the church
of St Andrew-Montpelier in Bristol, when William was described as being 30 and
the son of James Henry Collett. By March
1901 the couple was still living in Bristol and according to the census return William H Collett was 30 and a
builder’s cashier, while his wife Gertrude K Collett was 28. Living with the couple was William’s mother
Hermina Collett who was 61. Just two
weeks after the census day in 1901 the couple’s first child was born and she
was named after her grandmother Hermina.
The birth of Hermina Mary Collett was recorded at Bristol (Ref. 6a 227)
during the second quarter of 1901. The
couple’s second child was added to the family three years later when Gertrude
presented William with another daughter who, it would appear, was named after
his mother’s late cousin Grace Collett who had been living with his family for
over twenty years
For whatever reason William’s eldest
daughter was not living with the family in 1911. According to the April census that year
William Henry Collett from Bristol was 40 and a builder’s cashier when he was
living at 50 Claremont Road in Bishopston, Bristol. His wife of ten years Gertrude Kate Collett
was 38 and also born at Bristol St Philips, while their daughter Grace was six
years old and had been born in the Horfield district of Bristol. Still living with the family was William’s
71-year-old mother Hermina Collett, but on that same day their daughter Hermina
was staying with Gertrude’s widowed mother in Bristol. The census return
also confirmed that Gertrude had given birth to two children, both of whom were
still living in April 1911. Supporting
the family in their seven-roomed property was domestic servant Minnie Annie
Atkins who was 14 and from Winford in Somerset
The family eventually settled in
Weston-Super-Mare where their daughter Grace was married in 1937, and it was
there also that Gertrude and William were living when they both died during the
month of March in 1942. Neither of them
was reported to be a casualty of the Second World War, so it seems likely their
passing was due to natural causes. Their
address at that time was of Core Hill
on Downside in West Town, Weston-Super-Mare.
Gertrude Kate Collett nee Brenner died on 4th March 1942 and
her estate of £420 14 Shillings and 3 Pence was administered by Lloyds
Bank. When William Henry Collett died
nine days later on 13th March 1942 probate of his estate amounting
to £25,307 1 Shilling and 10 Pence was also granted to Lloyds Bank
21R58 – Hermina Mary Collett was born in 1901 at Bristol
21R59 – Grace Collett was born in 1904 at Horfield, Bristol
Edith
Emily Collett [21Q55] was born at Phillack on 16th
July 1867, and it was there also where she was baptised on 6th
September 1867. At the time of the
Phillack census of 1871, Edith E Collett was four years old and was living with
her parents and two younger siblings, Maud and Willie (below). Not long after the census day that year, the
family left Phillack when they moved to nearby Hayle for just a short while,
after which the family moved to London, before starting a new life in Australia
Maud
Mary Collett [21Q56] was born at Phillack on 10th
October 1868, with her birth registered at Redruth (Ref. 5c 279) during the
last three months of that year, after which she was baptised at Phillack on 5th
November 1868, the second child of Peter Collett and Emily Hosking. It was as Maud M Collett aged two years that
she was listed with her family at Phillack in the census of 1871. In the following years the family made a
temporary move to Hayle, before heading for London, prior to leaving England
for Australia
William
Hosking Collett [21Q57] was born at Phillack on 29th
September 1870 and it was there that he was baptised on 10th
November 1870, the son of Peter Collett and Emily Hosking. At the time of the Redruth & Phillack
census in 1871, Willie H Collett was recorded as being five months old while
living at Phillack with his parents and his older sisters Edith and Maud
(above). Not long after he was born his
family travelled the short distance to Hayle, where his sister Nellie (below)
and brother Frank were born. After a few
years living at Hayle, William’s parents first took the family to London,
before finally emigrating to Australia towards the end of the 1870s, where the
family was completed by the birth a William’s last two siblings
When William was living with his family
in Melbourne around 1887 his father mysteriously walked out on the family and
was never seen again. Sometime later,
perhaps during the following decade, William returned to England and to
Cornwall, where he married Hannah White on 11th May 1897 at Phillack
Church. Once married William returned to
Australia with his bride, and it was there that they raised their family. Not long after they were married Hannah
presented William with a son who was born during 1898, and he was followed two
years later by a daughter
William Hosking Collett died while
attending the Mercy Private Hospital in East Melbourne on 27th April
1945 at the age of 74, and was buried the following day at the Fawkner Memorial
Park, in Coburg Cemetery in East Coburg in Victoria. The same grave site, Plot No. 1142, was also
used by his wife in 1936, by his married daughter Myrtle in 1934, and by his
son Leslie in 1956. Hannah Collett aged
66, was buried at Fawkner Memorial Park in Coburg Cemetery on 15th
February 1936. William Hosking Collett
was the great grandfather of Richard William Collett who was born in 1962 and
who was living in Melbourne, Australia in 2009/2010
21R60 – Leslie Harold Collett was born in 1898 at Victoria, Australia
21R61 – Myrtle Ivy Collett was born in 1898 at Victoria, Australia
Nellie
Collett [21Q58] was born at Hayle near Phillack on 28th
August 1871 and was baptised there on 18th October 1871, when her
name was recorded as Nelly Collett and her parents were Peter and Emily Collett
Frank
Collett [21Q59] was born at Hayle on 22nd
March 1873 and was baptised at nearby Phillack on 15th December
1873. The baptism record for Frank, like
those of his four siblings above, gave their parents’ names as Peter and Emily
Collett
Samuel
James Collett [21Q64] was born at Philleigh on 7th
May 1861, his birth recorded at Truro (Ref. 5c 183). Two weeks after, he was baptised on 23rd
May 1861 at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in St Mawes, the son of Francis and
Catherine Collett. At the time of the
Philleigh census in 1871 Samuel was nine years old and was attending the
village school. Ten years later, when he
was 19, he was still living at Philleigh with his family and was described as a
farmer’s son. He later left Cornwall for
London where he married Ada who was born at Kennington in 1866. The marriage of Samuel James Collett, aged
39, and Ada Elizabeth Harriet Warmington, who was 28, took place on 14th
January 1901 at the Church of St John the Evangelist in East Dulwich. The marriage register confirmed that the
father of the groom was Francis Collett, while Ada’s father was named as
Frederick Warmington. It would appear
that they did not have any children and by 1901 they were living at Fulham
where Samuel J Collett of Philleigh was working as a manager of a clothes
shop. His wife was listed as Ada E
Collett aged 34
Margery
Collett [21Q65] was born at Philleigh around 11th
September 1862, and it was there that she was baptised on 2nd
October 1862. The parish baptism record
stated that she was 21 days old. By the
time of the Philleigh census in 1871, Margery was eight years old, although she
was recorded in error as Margaret. By
the time of the next census in 1881, Margery’s mother Catherine Collett nee
Collett had died, and her father Francis Collett was married to Rebecca
Glanville his cousin, the former Rebecca Collett. However, Margery was absent from the family
home on that occasion and her exact whereabouts has not yet been
determined. It was five years later that
Margery Collett, the daughter of first cousins Francis Collett and Catherine
Collett, died on 15th June 1886 at the age of 23. Three days later on 18th June 1886
Margery was buried in the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in the village of
Philleigh. Four year later Margery was
joined by her brother Francis (below) in a shared grave (see Headstone Epitaphs)
Francis
Collett [21Q66] was born at Philleigh in 1863 and was
seven years old at the time of the Philleigh census of 1871. Ten years later he was working on his
father’s thirteen acres smallholding at the age of 17, when he was described as
a farmer’s son. During the middle of the
following decade Francis’ sister Margery (above) died and four years after her
passing, Francis Collett died on 7th March 1890 at the age of 26,
following which he was buried with his sister in the grounds of St Philleigh
Church. A single headstone marks their
joint grave, on which they are referred to as beloved daughter of Francis and
Catherine Collett, and her beloved brother (see Headstone Epitaphs). The grave and its headstone stands
alongside the joint grave and headstone for Margery’s and Francis’ parents,
their mother having been buried there in 1873, while their father was not
buried there until 1902
Catherine
Collett [21Q67], who was referred to in the national
census records as Kate, was born at Philleigh on 30th November
1865. She was baptised on 29th
January 1866, the event being recorded in the St Mawes Wesleyan Methodist
Circuit. She appeared as Catherine in
1871 at Philleigh aged five years, and two years later when she was seven, her
mother Catherine died. In the census
returns for 1881 and 1891 for Philleigh she was simply referred to as Kate
Collett aged 15 and 25 respectively, a farmer’s daughter. By 1901 she was still not married and was
continuing to live with her elderly father Francis Collett and her stepmother
Rebecca. She was listed as Katie Collett
aged 34, who had been born at Philleigh, where she was still living at that
time. Her father died during 1902 at
which point in her life it would appear that Catherine went to live with her
married brother Edmund (below) at his home in Philleigh. Her stepmother Rebecca went to live with
Catherine’s brother Albert (below) at that time in Kenwyn near Truro
In the Philleigh census of 1911
Catherine Collett of Philleigh was 44, while it was forty-one years later that
spinster Catherine Collett died on 8th August 1952 at the grand old
age of 87. After she was buried with her
stepmother close to other family members in the grounds of St Philleigh Church
in the village of Philleigh where she appears to have lived all her life (see
Headstone Epitaphs). It would appear from
the headstone that marks the grave, that Catherine had happily accepted her
father’s second wife Rebecca, since the single headstone carries an inscription
for each of the two ladies
Albert
Collett [21Q68] was born at Philleigh on 31st
August 1867 but was baptism on 16th October 1867 at the Wesleyan
Methodist Church in St Mawes. In the
Philleigh census of 1871 Albert was three years old, but just two years later
his mother died. By 1881 his father had
re-married, and in the census that year he was living with his father and his
stepmother, who was also his aunt, at the age of 13. Albert was still living at the family home in
Philleigh in 1891 at the age of 23, when his occupation was that of an
outfitter’s assistant. Just before the
end of the century, Albert was on the Isles of Scilly, where he married
Elizabeth Rogers, a Scilly Islander, their wedding recorded there (Ref. 5c 449)
during the third quarter of 1899.
Eighteen months after that day, the
couple was living at Kenwyn, a suburb on the north side of Truro, where Albert
was employed as an outfitter and shop keeper.
Both he and his wife, who was born on the Isles of Scilly, were 33 years
of age. Albert and Elizabeth’s one and
only child was born towards the end of 1901.
Ten years later, in April 1911, Albert Collett of Philleigh was 43 and a
tailor and outfitter, his wife Elizabeth Collett from the Isles of Scilly, and
living with them at Kenwyn was their son Albert Edward Collett who was nine
years old and Albert’s stepmother, the widow Rebecca Collett who was 70 and
from Somerset. Supporting the family was
domestic cook Fanny Maria Cocks from Feock who was 39. Albert Collett was 70 when he died in 1938,
his death recorded in Cornwall (Ref. 5c 108)
21R62 – Albert Edward Collett was born in 1901 at Truro
Edward
Peter Collett [21Q69] was born at Philleigh on 4th
December 1868, where he was baptised on 21st February 1869. Sadly, he would have been around six months
old when he died, his death recorded at Truro (Ref. 5c 114) during the second
quarter of 1869
Edmund
Collett [21Q70] was born at Philleigh on 5th
September 1871, although baptism record has been located for him. What is known is that around the time he was
18 months old, his mother Catherine passed away. During the following years his father Francis
Collett remarried, so by 1881 Edmund was nine years old and was living at
Philleigh with his father and stepmother, who was also his aunt Rebecca. The school records for Edmund show that he
started at
In March 1901 Edmund was still a
bachelor at 29 and was still living at the family home in Philleigh with his
father, farmer Francis Collett, where Edmund was once again described as a
farmer’s son. During the following year
his father died, and a little while later Edmund married Margaret Jane. It seems unlikely that Edmund and Margaret
ever had any children since, by April 1911, they were a childless couple living
in Philleigh when both of them were 39 years old. Living with them at that time was Edmund’s
older unmarried sister Catherine who was 44.
In the churchyard of St Philleigh Church in Philleigh is a gravestone
with the inscription “In Loving Memory of Edmund Collett died February 13th
1941”. Close by is a separate headstone
with the inscription “In Loving Memory of Margaret Jane Collett died March 4th
1942” (see Headstone Epitaphs)
Clara
Augusta Collett [21Q71] was born at Gwennap St Day in 1867, the
first child of James Collett by his first wife Ellen Cornelius Ripper who died
when Clara was around three years old.
By the time of the census in 1871 Clara’s father had re-married, when he
and his family was residing at White Lane in Philleigh where Clara Augusta
Collett was four years of age. Sadly,
for Clara, her father died when she was eight years old, after which her
stepmother took the family north to Lancashire.
The next census in 1881 recorded the family at 91 Breck Road in
Everton. Clara A Collett from Gwennap St
Day in Cornwall was 14 and had completed her schooling but was not credited
with an occupation, so presumably she was helping her confectioner stepmother
look after her younger sibling Alice and two half-siblings Florence and James
During the next decade Clara and her
sister Alice made the long journey back to Cornwall and on the day of the census
in 1891 the pair of them was recorded as staying with their widowed aunt
Caroline R Lloyd at 14 Ford Street in St Austell. Caroline was 48 and a dressmaker who had been
born in St Austell who had living with her a sister-in-law, Emma Bickle, who 57
and from Newton Ferrers who was married and living on her own means. Clara A Collett was 24 and from St Day, whose
occupation was that of a milliner, while her sister Alice M Collett was 22 and
from Truro who had no stated occupation.
Both of them were described as the nieces of Caroline Lloyd. Completing the household was another
dressmaker and her assistant, plus two domestic servants
It was just over four years after that
when Clara Augusta Collett married William Alexander Coon, the marriage
recorded at Plymouth (Ref. 5b 526) during the last three months of 1895. William was a gentleman’s outfitter who had
been born in St Austell, and was considerably older than Clara. Although married in Plymouth, the couple
settled in St Austell where Clara gave birth to their daughter, and it was in
St Austell that the family of three was living in March 1901. The census that year listed them as William A
Coon, who 42 and a merchant tailor, his wife Clara A Coon who was 34, and their
daughter Madeline M Coon who was two years old
It was the same situation ten years
later when, according to the St Austell census of 1911, William Alexander Coon
was 50, Clara Augusta Coon was 39, and Madeline Maud Coon was 12. The stated ages of Madeline’s parents are
very curious, since Clara would certainly have been 44, while William would
have been 53. William Alexander Coon was
born around 1857, the eldest son of mercer and tailor Alexander Coon from St
Mewan who ran his business from Church Street in St Austell
Madeline Maud Coon later married Henry Philip Lawton
Higman and as such, she was the sole beneficiary of the Will of her widowed
mother following her death in 1938. The
death of Clara Augusta Coon nee Collett was recorded at St Austell register
office (Ref. 5c 89) during the second quarter of that year when she was 71,
with probate of her personal effects valued at £1,117 9 Shillings and 4 Pence
granted to Madeline Maud Higman
Archibald
Luke Collett [21Q73] was born at Philleigh in January 1872,
the first of three children of James Collett and his second wife Cecilia
Paul. Tragically he only survived for
eleven weeks when he died on 19th April 1872 and was buried in the
ground of St Philleigh Church where a single headstone marks the grave (see
Headstone Epitaphs)
Florence
Leonora Collett [21Q74] was born at Truro in 1873 where her
birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 171) during the first two months of that year. It was also in Truro that she was baptised on
10th March 1873, the second of the three children of James Collett
by his second wife Cecilia Paul. While
still very young her father suffered a premature death, following which her
mother took Florence, her brother James (below) and two half-siblings north to
Lancashire. In 1881 the family of widow
Cecilia Collett was living at 91 Breck Road in Everton where Florence L Collett
from Truro was eight years of age. She
was still living at the same address ten years later when she was 18, although
she was not credited with an occupation, so she may have been assisting her
mother who was a confectioner. It was
during the first quarter of 1900 that the marriage of Florence Leonora Collett
and William Heaton was recorded at West Derby register office (Ref. 8b 1049) in
Everton during the second quarter of the year
Whether William Heaton was a member of
the army or the royal navy has not been determined but no record of him has
been discovered, either in the census of 1901 or 1911. Instead, the childless Leonora Heaton, aged
28 and from Truro, was staying with her mother at Breck Road in Everton in
March 1901, and it was the same situation ten years after in 1911 except that
her name was incorrectly recorded in the census return as Headon. F Leonora Heaton from Cornwall was 38 and
five years earlier she had given birth to a daughter Leonora C Paula Heaton
James
Andrew Paul Collett [21Q75] was born at Truro in 1875, his birth
recorded there (Ref. 5c 169) during the first quarter of that year, but as
James Andrew P Collett. His baptism, as
James Austin Paul Collett, was conducted at Truro on 16th May 1875
when he was confirmed as the son of James Collett and his wife Cecilia. No long after he was born his family died, as
a result of which his mother took the family north, where they settled in
Everton. It was at 91 Breck Road that
the family was residing in 1881 when James A P Collett from was six years of
age. He was still living at that address
in 1891 at the age of 16, where he had a younger half-brother, the son of his
mother and John Luke. Tragically it was
at the Liverpool register office (Ref. 8b 78) during the third quarter of 1898
that his death was recorded there at the age of 23 under the name of James
Andrew P Collett
Lillie
G Collett [21Q76] was born at St Mary’s on the Isle of
Scilly in 1876, the eldest daughter of Richard James Collett and Elizabeth Ann
Jenkins. Lillie was four years old at
the time of the census in 1881, when she and her family were living at Well
Lane in St Mary’s. Ten years later she
was fourteen and in 1901 she was 24 and unmarried while still living with her
parents at St Mary’s. Sometime after
that she married Mr Kaye with whom she had two children before the next census
in 1911. That census revealed her
husband was absent from the family home on the island of Guernsey. Lillie Kaye from the Isle of Scilly was 34
and her two children were Lillie May Kaye who was eight years old, and Irene
Kaye who was three years old. Neither of
the girls had been born on Guernsey
Francis
Henry Collett [21Q77] was born at St Mary’s on the Isle of
Scilly in 1877, the only son among five daughters of Richard James Collett and
Elizabeth Ann Jenkins. In 1881 at the
age of three, Francis was living with his family at Well Lane in St
Mary’s. Francis was 13 in 1891 when he
was still attending school in St Mary’s, but on leaving school he joined the
Royal Navy and was therefore absent from the family home by March in 1901. It was during a period of shore-leave that
Francis married Clara Thompson who was born at St Mary’s in 1880. That took place between 1902 and 1904, after
which the couple settle in Stoke Damerel in Devonport where their first three
children were born
By the time of the census in April 1911,
Francis was once again absent from the family home at 47 Ford Hill in Stoke and
was recorded in the census as being overseas with the Royal Navy. His wife Clara from St Mary’s Scilly was 30
years old and was living at Ford Hill with her third children. They were Francis Collett who was six, Betsy
Collett who was five, and Richard Collett who was two years old. Also living with the family at that time was
Francis’ unmarried sister Ethel Collett (below) who was described as
sister-in-law to head of the household Clara
Francis Henry
Collett was still residing at 47 Ford Hill in Stoke Damerel in Devonport
thirty-three years later where he died on 26th December 1944. Probate of his Will, valued at £2,188 16
Shillings and 10 Pence was granted at Llandudno on 10th March 1945
to his widow Clara Collett. Almost
exactly twenty-one years after his passing his wife passed away at Freedom
Fields Hospital in Plymouth. Clara
Collett nee Thompson of 47 Ford Hill in Stoke died on 10th December
1965 at the age of 87 and it was at Plymouth register office (Ref. 7a 736) that
her death was recorded. Probate of her
personal effects of £3,924 was settled on 18th January 1966 in
favour of Richard John Collett, a storehouse assistant at the HM Dockyard in
Plymouth
21R63 – Francis Thompson Collett was born in 1905 at Stoke Damerel
21R64 – Elizabeth Collett was born in 1906 at Stoke Damerel
21R65 – Richard John Collett was born in 1908 at Stoke Damerel
Clara
E Collett [21Q78] was born at St Mary’s on the Isle of
Scilly in 1881, but that took place after the census day on the third
April. She was listed living with her
family at St Mary’s in the next two census returns; in the first of them in
1891 she was nine years old, and in 1901 she was a dressmaker at the age of
nineteen at St Mary’s. No trace of Clara
has been found anywhere in Britain in the census of 1911, so this might mean
that she was married by then, or had left the country. Rather curiously, but by a sheer coincidence,
her brother Francis (above) married Clara Thompson who was born on Scilly in
1880
Annie
Maud Collett [21Q79] was born at St Mary’s on the Isle of
Scilly in 1883 and was seven years old in 1891 when still living there with her
family. She was also still living with
her parents at St Mary’s in both 1901 when she was seventeen, and again in 1911
when she was unmarried at twenty-seven years of age
Ethel
Janis Collett [21Q80] was born at St Mary’s on the Isle of
Scilly in 1887, her birth recorded there (Ref. 5c 287) during the second
quarter of that year. In 1891 she was
four years old, and in 1901 she was 14 years old, when she was still living
with her family at St Mary’s on the Isle of Scilly. When her brother Francis became a married
man, it was Ethel who living with his wife Clara while he was away in the Royal
Navy. By April 1911 the family of sailor
Francis Collett was living at 47 Ford Hill, in Stoke in Devonport, previously
known as Stoke Damerel, where unmarried Ethel Collett from the Isle of Scilly
was also living at that time aged 24
Nannie
E Collett [21Q81] was born at St Mary’s on the Isle of
Scilly in 1891 and that took place sometime after the census day, which that
year was on the fifth of April. Nannie E
Collett was nine years old in March 1901 when she was living with her family at
St Mary’s on the Isle of Scilly. She was
also living there with her parents ten years later in April 1911 when she was
19
Elizabeth
Maria Collett [21Q82] was born in Canada in 1871 and it is
believed that this may have been at Stratford in Ontario, midway between
Detroit and Toronto. Sometime after the
births of her two younger siblings, they and their father Joshua returned to
Ellen
Collett [21Q83] was born at Stratford in Ontario in
1872. Following her family’s return to
England sometime between 1875 and 1880 possibly without her mother, Ellen was
looked after by her aunt Ellen Coombe nee Collett the sister of Ellen’s father. This was confirmed in the next census in 1881
which placed Ellen, who was eight years old, as living at Iron Mill in
Minchinhampton with gardener William G Coombe, aged 34, and his wife Ellen
Coombe who was 40 from St Michael Penkevil.
Ten years later, and following the death of her father Joshua in 1890,
Ellen and her brother William (below) were living at St Michael Penkevil with
their uncle Hugh Collett who was their only surviving relative
By 1901 Ellen aged 28 was still a
spinster and was the housekeeper for her uncle Hugh. The census confirmed Canada as her place of
birth. Six years later, during the
summer of 1907, Ellen’s uncle and guardian died in the Royal Cornwall
Infirmary, following which Ellen Collett, a spinster, was named as the sole
executor of his estate of £165 10 Shillings.
Not long after the death of her uncle it would appear that Ellen and her
cousin Elizabeth Collett moved to the Edmonton district of London where they
were recorded in April 1911 as Ellen Collett from Ontario who was 38 and
Elizabeth Collett from St Michael Penkevil who was 31
William
Hugh Collett [21Q84] was born at Stratford in Ontario in
1873. Shortly after he was born, he and
his two sisters (above) left Canada with their father and returned to St
Michael Penkevil but, it seems likely, without their mother. By 1881 William was seven and was living with
sister Elizabeth (above) and his father Joshua at The Praze in St Gluvias in
Penryn where Joshua was a blacksmith. On
leaving school William took up his father’s trade as a blacksmith and worked
with him until his early death in 1890.
The 1891 Census showed that William H Collett, aged 17 and from Canada,
was living at St Michael Penkevil with his uncle Hugh who was also a blacksmith
On 4th June 1900 at Probus,
William Hugh Collett married Elizabeth Jane Fugler who was born at Probus in
1875. She was the daughter of John
Fugler and William was confirmed as the son of Joshua Collett. According to the 1901 Census, the couple had
left Cornwall and had moved to the neighbouring county of Devon. The census record stated that 27-year-old
William was a blacksmith living at Littleham with his wife Eliza who was
25. William’s place of birth was listed
as being Canada. Unfortunately, there
are two villages called Littleham in Devon, one very near Exmouth and the other
in North Devon just south of Bideford, so at this time it has not been
determine which was their place of residence.
Although no record of the couple has been found in the census of 1911,
it was during 1910 that the name of William Hugh
Collett was registered as a blacksmith of Penkevil within the Kelly’s Directory
George
Collett [21Q85] was born at Battersea in London in 1878
and was baptised at the Church of St George the Martyr on 24th
November 1878, the son of Joshua Collett and his second wife Matilda. He was two years old in April 1881 and at
that time he was with his mother Matilda Collett of Mereworth in Kent, and the
pair of them staying with George’s uncle Hugh Collett at St Michael
Penkevil. Also living in the same house
was George’s aunt Elizabeth Collett and his grandmother Elizabeth Collett of
Philleigh, the sister and mother of blacksmith Hugh Collett [21P93]
Ten years later the 1891 Census recorded
George as being ten years of age and living with his mother Matilda at Gluvias
in the Falmouth & Penryn registration district. Also living in the same area, and possibly
with George and Matilda, was Elizabeth Maria Collett aged 19, who was born in
Canada. If it can be provided that
Matilda was the second wife of Joshua Collett then it would make sense that
Elizabeth Maria, the eldest of Joshua’s children, was living with her
stepmother. Just after the turn of the
century George was 22 and was working as a journeyman builder while still
living at St Gluvias with his mother Matilda.
The census in 1901 confirmed his place of birth as being Battersea. Ten years later George Collett from Battersea
was 31 and was still a bachelor living with his mother Matilda Collett at St
Gluvias
Elizabeth
Collett [21Q86] was born at St Michael Penkevil in 1879
and was the only child of James and Sarah Collett. Her father died within a year of her birth
following which she and her mother lived with
It was therefore incumbent on
Catherine
Collett [21Q87] was born at Creed in 1858 but was
baptised at Cuby-with-Tregony on 26th December 1858. Shortly after she and her brother Caleb
(below) were born, their parents moved to nearby Grampound where the family was
living in 1861. By that time Catherine was
two years of age and her place of birth was confirmed as Creed. Over the next ten years Catherine and Caleb
were joined by three new siblings and by 1871 the whole family was living at St
Ewe near St Austell, where Catherine was confirmed as being aged 12 years. By 1881 Catherine had moved to the north of
England and to Accrington in Lancashire where she was living with her married
sister Edith Wellington nee Collett (below).
Catherine Collett was listed in the census return as being twenty-two
and from St Austell, when she was working as a domestic servant
During the next eight years Catherine,
who was known as Kate, continued to live with her sister whose family moved to
Haslingden south of Accrington in the 1880s.
And it was while she was living at Haslingden that she married Stephen Polkinghorne
during the first quarter of 1889.
Stephen was born on 8th October 1860 and so was about two
years younger than Catherine, although the difference in their stated ages
varied in subsequent census returns. At
the timer of his death, the parents of Stephen were noted as Stephen Polkinghorne
and Mary Ann Knight of England, his mother possibly being related to
Catherine’s mother Elizabeth Jane Knight or even her sister, which would make
Catherine and Stephen first-cousins
By the time of the next census, two
years later in 1891, Catherine was temporarily staying with her other sister
Salome Taylor (née Collett) and her husband William Taylor at their home in
Burnley. The census listed Catherine
Polkinghorne of Creed as 32, and ten years older than her sister Salome, and
with her was her daughter Annie Polkinghorne who was under one year old
and born at Accrington. Her husband
Stephen Polkinghorne was missing from the census return on that occasion. The reason for his absence was because he had
travelled to America during the previous year, with the objective of setting up
a new home there for him and his family.
Catherine and his daughter were to join him there later, which they did
just over a month after the census day which, that year was 5th
April 1891
Almost immediately after the census day
it would seem, Catherine and her nine-month-old daughter Annie sailed out of
Liverpool on board the steam-ship, the SS Pavonia, which first stopped at
Queenstown in Ireland, before completing the Atlantic crossing to Boston in
Massachusetts on 11th May 1891.
Once in America, Catherine would have been reunited with her husband and
possibly even her two brothers Caleb and William Collett, who had emigrated
there nearly ten years earlier
On meeting up with Catherine, Stephen Polkinghorne
would have seen his daughter Annie for the very first time. From Boston, the family then made the
overland trek, perhaps by rail, to Redridge in Michigan where they initially
settled. The spelling of their name
changed after that time. Just less than
nine years later, according to the United States census of 1900, the family was
living at Osceola in Houghton County, Michigan, by then. The couple wase listed as ‘Katherine Polkinghorn aged 41 and her
husband Steven 39’. By that time,
three further children had been added to the family, so the four children were
Annie Polkinghorn who was ten, Salome Polkinghorn
who was six, Harold Polkinghorn
who was four, and Stephen V Polkinghorn
who was who was one year old. Ten years
later, fifty-one-year-old Katherine Polkinghorn and her family were living at
Stanton in Michigan and, by that time in 1910, she had presented her husband
with their fifth and final child. That
was Cecil Polkinghorn who was seven years old, the other children being
Annie 20, Salome 16, Harold 14, and Stephen who was 11. The children’s father on that occasion was
Stephen aged 50
The couple was still living at Stanton
in 1920 when the family was recorded as Stephen who was 60, his wife Katherine
who was 59, Annie who was 29, Salome who was 26, Harold who was 24, Stephen V
Polkinghorn who was 21, and John Cecil Polkinghorn who was 16 and previously
recorded as Cecil. According to US
records Katherine Polkinghorn nee Collett died sometime shortly after the
census day in 1920, since by 1923 the record of the death of Stephen
Polkinghorn indicated that he was a widower aged sixty-two and eleven months
and nine days
Stephen Polkinghorn died on 17th
September 1923 and was buried at Houghton, the cause of death being general
paresis. The full record confirmed he
had been in the USA for thirty-one years, and that he had been living at 57
Redridge for the last twenty-three years of his life. His daughter Salome, who nursed her father
through his final years, was born on 9th September 1893 at Hubbell
in Michigan and never married and died from tuberculosis on 26th
October 1935 at the age of forty-two and one month and seventeen days. She was buried at Forest Hill three days
later. At the time of her death, Salome
had been working as a nurse at the local hospital for the previous six years,
and had been living at 98 Sheldon Street in Houghton for the past six years
APPENDIX
A - The Illogan (near Redruth) Connection
Robert
Davey Collett [21Q37] was born at Illogan in 1861, where his
parents were also married, but was baptised at the parish church in
Philleigh. Francis (Frank) Thomas Collett
[21R53], and his wife Margaret Mary Collett, both died at Illogan in
1966 and 1987 respectively. Whether
there was a connection to the following gentleman is not known, but he has been
included here in the hope that one day his family line might be inserted within
this branch of the family. What is perhaps interesting
though from his birth to his death, his surname was predominately recorded as
COLLICK, with COLLETT for just the census returns in 1891 and 1901
Hugh
Collett [21q4] was born
early in 1862 at Breage, three
miles west of Helston, with his birth registered at Helston (Ref. 5c 257)
during the first three months of 1862 as Hugh Collick, one of the six sons of Hugh
Collick [21p1] 22 and Elizabeth Jane Andrew 19 who were married at Breage
on 25th December 1856, when Hugh’s father was Hugh Collick born in
1835, and Elizabeth’s father was John Andrew.
In the earlier census, conducted as Ashton, Breage in 1861, Hugh’s
parents were recorded at Hugh Collick 26 and a tin miner, Elizabeth J Collick
23, and their first child Hugh Collick [21q1] who was four years old,
having been born at Germoe, Penzance on 15th
April 1857 and baptised there on 25th December 1857. That son must have died during 1861 because
ten years later, eight-year-old Hugh Collick was living with his family at
Ashton, Breage in 1871, the son of Elizabeth Collick aged 35, a miner’s wife
from Breage. That day he was the middle
son of Elizabeth’s five sons, the others being Edward Collick [21q2] who
was 11, Thomas Collick [21q3] who was nine, John T Collick [21q5]
who was five, and Isaac Collick [21q6] who was two years of age, all of
them born at Breage. By 1881 Hugh’s
father had died and Hugh himself had left the family home and was working on
the nearby farm of Josiah C Lobb at Sithney, Helston,
where he was employed as an indoor farm servant at the age of 19. Also by that time,
Hugh had four younger sister who were living at Breage with their widowed
mother. Elizabeth J Collick was 44 and a
housekeeper, Carrie Collick was 15, Mary W Collick was 12, Maria Collick was
nine, and Clara Collick was six years old
The
marriage of Hugh Collick and Thomasine Annie Bray, also born at Breage, was
recorded at Helston during the last three months of 1883 (Ref. 5c 358). It is very likely that they met through
their work at the tin mine, with Ann Bray being 18 in the census of 1881, when
she was described as a tin mineress who was living with her mother and two
younger sisters at Illogan Downs in Illogan.
The couple’s first three children were born at Breage, prior to a family
move to Camborne, where two more children were added to the family. The 1891 Census identified Hugh Collett and
his family as living in Treswithin Down in Camborne, where Hugh Collett, at the
age of 29, was still employed as a tin miner.
Annie Collett was 28 and their five children were Hugh Collett who was
seven, Bessie Collett who was six, John Collett who was five, Mabel Collett who
was two years old, and Florrie Collett who was just three months old and born
at Camborne. All of the other children had been born at Breage,
including Mabel whose later place of birth was said to be Camborne. Living with the family in their three-roomed
accommodation was Annie’s widowed mother Ann Bray from Camborne who was 51 and
living on her own means. With her was
her younger child, her daughter Esther Bray who was 14 and from Breage who was
still attending school
The family’s time in Camborne was fairly
short living as the couple’s next two children were born back at Breage before
the family eventually settled in Crowan, three miles south of Camborne, where
the last two children were born. All of
this was confirmed in the Crowan census of 1901 when the family was recorded
with the surname of Collett. By that
time Hugh Collett from Breage was 37 and a mason’s labourer, his wife Annie B
Collett was 36, and living with them were seven of their eleven children. They were John J Collett who was 15 and also a mason’s labourer,
Mabel Collett who was 13 and
born at Camborne, as was Flora J Collett who was 11, Ethel Collett who
was eight and born at
Breage, as was Lily Collett who was five, while both Charlie Collett who
was four, and Richard Collett who was nearly one year old, had been born at Crowan
The census conducted in 1911 confirmed
that the family had moved to Illogan, just north of Camborne, by that time, but
once again their surname was as Collick.
Hugh Collick from
Breage was 48 and a general farm labourer living at Druids Lodge, with
his wife Annie Collick who was 47 and also born at Breage. The children still living with them at
Illogan were Bessie Collick who was 26 and a tin mine worker, Lily Collick who was 16 and also a tin mine worker,
Charles Collick who was 14 and
a tin streams labourer, and Richard B Collett who was 11 and attending school. All of the children were confirmed as having
been born at Breage. Other
members of the family were also recorded at Illogan in the census that year and
they were eldest son Hugh who was 28 and Jack (John J) who was 24, also
confirmed as having been born at Breage.
It was also at Illogan that both Hugh Collett (senior) and his youngest
son Richard R B Collett died and were buried.
Hugh Collett was eighty-one years old when he died on 20th
May 1943, his passing
recorded at Cornwall register office (Ref. 5c 200), following which he was
buried at Illogan on 1st June 1943, with his son who had died in
1926. The parish burial recorded stated
that Hugh Collick had been residing at 5 Wills Row, Park Bottom, Illogan prior
to his death
21r1 – Hugh Collett was born in 1883 at Breage
21r2 – Bessie Collett was born in 1884
at Breage
21r3 – John J Collett was born in 1886 at Breage
21r4 – Mabel Collett was born in 1888 at Camborne
21r5 – Flora J Collett was born in 1891 at Camborne
21r6 – Ethel Collett was born in 1893 at
Breage
21r7 – Lily Collett was born in 1895 at
Breage
21r8– Edward Charles Collett was born in 1897 at Crowan
21r9 – Richard R B Collett was born in 1899 at Crowan
Hugh Collett [21r1] was born at Breage at the end of 1883, with his
birth registered at Helston (Ref. 5c 193) during the first quarter of 1884, the
first of the nine children of Hugh Collett and Thomasine Annie Bray. Up to around 1887 the family continued to
live at Breage after which they moved to Treswithin Down in Camborne, where
Hugh Collett was seven years old in 1891.
Shortly thereafter the family returned to Breage, before moving to
Camborne, with them living at Crowan in 1901, by which time Hugh Collick was 18
and was working as a domestic servant at the Crowan home of elderly farmer
Joseph Semmens and his large family. It
was during the second quarter of 1910 that the wedding of Hugh Collett and
Edith Aver was recorded at Redruth register office (Ref. 5c 353). One year later, Hugh Collick from Breage was
28 and living at Illogan, where he was working as a carter at a tin mine. His wife Edith Collick of Illogan was 24 and
had given birth to twin daughters, while completing the household was Edith’s
younger sister 15-year-old Lottie Aver, a framer working in the tin streams
industry. At the end of the following
year Edith presented Hugh with a son, who birth was recorded at Redruth
register office (Ref. 5c 307) during the fourth quarter of 1912, when the
mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Aver.
Hugh Collick was 78 when his death was recorded at Cornwall register
office (Vol. 7a 116) in 1962
21s1
– Gwendoline May Collick was born in 1910 at Illogan
21s2
– Ida Pearl Collick was born in 1910 at Illogan
21s3
– Charles H Collick was born in 1912 at Illogan
John
J Collick [21r3] was
born at Breage during 1886 and was five years old in 1891 when he and his
family were living at Treswithin Down, Camborne. Ten years later he was 15, by which time the
family had moved to Crowan and during the first decade of the new century
another move followed, to Illogan where Jack Collett was 24. On the census day
in 1911 Jack and his older brother Hugh were recorded there, but no with their
parents, who had also settled there.
Later records indicate that a John J Collett, age 29, married Lily Bate
who was 23 and the daughter of John Bate.
The wedding took place at Crowan in 1915, when the groom’s father was
named as Thomas Collett rather than Hugh Collett. However, it was ten years later that the
death of John J Collett was recorded at Redruth register office (Ref. 5c 198)
during the third quarter of 1924 when he was 38. He was then buried at Redruth on 11th
September 1924
Edward
Charles Collick [21r8] was born at Crowan on 28th December 1896,
his birth recorded at Helston register office (Ref. 5c 179) during the first
quarter of that year. In 1901 he was
recorded as Charlie Collett aged four years, at Crowan (near Camborne) with his
family, with whom he was still living at the age of 14 in 1911, but at Druids
Lodge in Illogan, by which time he was a labourer working in tin streams. The later death of Edward Charles Collick
aged 74, was recorded at Cornwall register office (Vol. 7a 309) in 1971
Richard
R B Collick [21r9] was
born at Crowan to the south of Camborne during 1900 and was simply recorded as
Richard Collect in the census of 1901.
All that is currently known about him is that he died at Illogan near
Camborne on 14th June 1926 when he was only 26 years of age, and
when his father was confirmed as Hugh Collett who was buried at Illogan
seventeen years later
APPENDIX
B – Possible Connection to Part 52
From an unconfirmed source on the
internet website www.ancestry.com
there is information alluding to the fact that Ann Williams Johns, who married Edward
Charles Collett [21Q38], was herself a descendent of the Collett family of
Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire. An
investigation into this has failed to verify that the assumption is correct
but, for completeness, the original brief details are provided below, about
which there are many unresolved questions.
Ann Williams Johns [1852-1890] was the daughter of Peter Blamey Johns
[1816-1890]. His parents were John Johns
and Rachel Blamey. The parents of Rachel
Blamey were John and Frances Curgenven.
The father of John Curgenven
was Richard Curgenven and his wife was Frances
Collett [see their full family below].
Frances Curgenven nee Collett was the daughter of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth Ball who, it is claimed, was
the great granddaughter of John Collett
of Little Gidding and his wife Susanna Ferrar, who feature in Part 52 –
The England to Baltimore Line under Ref. 52G1
FACT: The Curgenven and Blamey families are linked
with the Collett family, as confirmed in the 1744 Will of Richard Collett [Ref.
21K9] in which Francis Curgenven (nee Collett) [Ref. 21K6] and the wife of Richard
Curgenven, and their daughter Rachel Blamey, the wife of Benjamin Blamey of
Veryan, were named beneficiaries (see their details under Ref. 21K6 in the
first section of Part 21)
Query: Another Rachel Blamey was baptised at
Mevagissey on 27th November 1791 and was the daughter of Richard and
Mary Blamey. While another Rachel
Curgenven was baptised at St Kew in Cornwall on 26th December 1794
and she was the daughter of John and Ann Curgenven
Query: Was Frances Collett actually married to
Richard Curgenven or William Curgenven?
One record shows Frances Collett was married to William Curgenven, while
another says she died in 1762, but that she married Richard Curgenven alias
Lean around 1711 – see below
Query: On 26th March 1779 Frances
Curgenven married Peter Blamey at Veryan, where Frances was baptised on 6th
November 1757
Query: Richard Curgenven was originally baptised Richard Lean, the son of William Lean who died in 1689 and his wife Rachel Richards who were married in 1667. It was around the time that Richard married Frances Collett in 1711 that he adopted the name Curgenven, taken very likely from the name of the place in Cornwall, near Newquay