PART TWENTY-EIGHT

The Faringdon Line

This is the first of three sections of the twenty-eighth part of the Collett family

Updated February 2018

This is the family line of Bob Collett (Ref. 28Q59) of Stratton St Margaret in Swindon. To date no direct ancestral link to any other line has been found but it does have two ‘sideways’ connection by marriage with Part One – The Gloucestershire Main Line. These can be found at John Willis (Ref. 28Q61) and Robert Martin Collett (Ref. 28R47).

Faringdon has always been part of the County of Berkshire. However, following local government boundary changes, it became part of Oxfordshire in April 1974.

In addition to Bob Collett of Stratton who supplied the bulk of the initial information, thanks must also go to David Considine of Hillingdon in Middlesex, Pam Kuyt of Cookstown in Canada, June Keating of Carterton in New Zealand, Susan Hoskins (Ref. 28S38) of Lincolnshire in England, Heather Preston (Ref. 28R11) of New South Wales in Australia, Kathy Belcher (Ref. 28P94) of Florida in South Africa, Thomas George Collett (Ref. 28R27) of Cranwell in Lincolnshire, Darren Stephen Collett (Ref. 28R64) of Swindon and very recently Terry Collett (Ref. 28R32) of Horsham in Sussex, who have all been instrumental in providing some of the details.

Many of the more recent Australian Collett family members in this line are still alive in 2007 and therefore only brief outlines of their personal details are available.

The line of BOB COLLETT can be traced by the names in capital letters, while the family line of THOMAS G COLLETT can be traced by names in upper case that are underlined

	During a visit to the records office in 2011 and more recently in 2013, Dave Considine unearthed many more Collett records with a Faringdon and Buscot connection, some of which have now been incorporated into this family line. However, for some of them no direct link has been found but by listing them here there is a chance that the link may be made at sometime in the future. On these the very earliest is that of the marriage of Elizabeth Collett to Henry Mundaye at Great Coxwell on 22^nd February 1638.
	The next early record of any Collett found within in the marriage register of 1653 to 1710 was that of the marriage of Sarah Collet to William Bevis which took place at Faringdon on 1st December 1694. From that marriage, according to the IGI, they had a son William Bevis who was baptised at Great Faringdon on 10^th November 1695. It is possible that Sarah was the sister of John Collett who starts this family line (Ref. 28I1).
	Two later unconnected records have also been found. The first relates to the Faringdon baptism of John Collett on 19^th January 1752 who was the son of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth. The second is the baptism of James Collett at Faringdon on 22^nd September 1796 who was the son of James and Jane Collett. Where they fit into this family line has yet to be determined.
28I1	JOHN COLLETT was born at Faringdon around 1665. He married Elizabeth Petty who was born around 1670 but at Evenlode near Stow-on-the Wold in Gloucestershire. The first known son Anthony was born at Longcot near Faringdon, while their next two sons were baptised at Buscot which lies between Faringdon and Lechlade.
	Please note that the order of the date of birth of the first three children does not correspond to the children’s reference numbers. To place them in their correct order would require the complete re-ordering of the whole of the three sections of this family line which would be a mammoth task.
	28J1	JOHN COLLETT		Born in 1698 at Buscot
	28J2	Anthony Collett		Born in 1690 at Longcot, nr Faringdon
	28J3	William Collett		Born in 1695 at Buscot
	28J4	Thomas Collett		Born in 1696 at Buscot
	28J5	Mary Collett		Born in 1700 at Buscot
	28J6	Anthony Collett		Born in 1702 at Buscot
	28J7	Henry Collett		Born in 1705 at Buscot
	28J8	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1706 at Buscot
28I2	John Collett (above) possibly had a brother who in turn had a son named Anthony who was born sometime before the end of the eighteenth century.
28J1	JOHN COLLETT was born at Buscot on 15^th September 1698 where he was baptised on 13^th October 1698, the son of John and Elizabeth Collet (sic). He later married (1) Margaret and it was at Faringdon that their son was born, although it is likely that Margaret did not survive the ordeal. The subsequent death of his wife allowed John to marry (2) Mary Breach at Faringdon on 8^th July 1726 with whom he had a further three sons.
	28K1	Richard Collett		Born in 1725 at Faringdon
	The following is the child of John Collett and his second wife Mary Breach:
	28K2	Thomas Collett		Born in 1727 at Faringdon
	28K3	JOHN COLLETT		Born in 1728 at Faringdon
	28K4	William Collett		Born in 1730 at Faringdon
28J2	Anthony Collett was born in 1690 at Longcot to the south of Faringdon, the son of John Collett and Elizabeth Petty. It was also at Longcot on 19^th May 1717 that he married Sarah Jacobs who was born in Faringdon during 1690. It may be assumed that they lived all their life at Faringdon as that was where all six of their children were born. Furthermore, within the Faringdon burial records is the burial of Anthony Collett on 14^th September 1741, and it has been assumed that this refers to the husband of Sarah Jacobs.
	Their children are listed below in the order that they were baptised although it would appear from their ages upon being married that the majority of them were a few years old when they were baptised. One such example is their son John who was married during 1742 following his baptism only fourteen years earlier in 1728.
	28K5	Betty Collett		Baptised in 1722 at Faringdon
	28K6	Anthony Collett		Baptised in 1725 at Faringdon
	28K7	John Collett		Baptised in 1728 at Faringdon
	28K8	Sarah Collett		Baptised in 1732 at Faringdon
	28K9	Ann Collett		Baptised in 1734 at Faringdon
	28K10	William Collett		Baptised in 1737 at Faringdon
28J3	William Collett was baptised at Buscot on 13^th February 1694, the baptism record confirming that his parents were John and Elizabeth Collet (sic). William later married Elizabeth and all of their children were born and baptised at Buscot, when they were described as Willm and Eliz Collet (sic).
	28K11	Elizabeth Collett		Baptised in 1727 at Buscot
	28K12	Martha Collett		Baptised in 1728 at Buscot
	28K13	Ann Collett		Baptised in 1731 at Buscot
	28K14	John Collett		Baptised in 1733 at Buscot
	28K15	Jane Collett		Baptised in 1736 at Buscot
28J4	Thomas Collett was baptised at Buscot on 13^th September 1696, the son of John and Elizabeth Collett. In the autumn of 1727 two gentlemen by the name of Thomas Collett were married at Faringdon within a few weeks of each other. Which one was this particular Thomas has not been determined, so the details of both weddings are included here. The first of them was Thomas Collett who married Elizabeth New on 16^th October, and the other was Thomas Collett who married Jane Carter on 3^rd November 1727.
	All of the children listed below were baptised at Faringdon, when their parents were named as Tho and Jane Collet (sic).
	28K16	Thomas Collett		Baptised in 1730 at Faringdon
	28K17	Maria Collett		Baptised in 1733 at Faringdon
	28K18	Esther Collett		Baptised in 1734 at Faringdon
	28K19	Ann Collett		Baptised in 1736 at Faringdon
28J5	Mary Collett was baptised at Buscot on 26^th September 1700, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Collet (sic). If Mary was around eight to ten years old when she was baptised she may have been the Mary Collett who gave birth to a base-born Charles who was baptised at Buscot on 17^th October 1710. Sadly it was within the following week that he died and was buried at Buscot on the 24^th October 1710.
	28K20	Charles Collett		Born in 1700 at Buscot; died 1700
28J6	Anthony Collett was baptised at Buscot on 26^th October 1702, the son of John Collett and Elizabeth Petty. He may have been a few years old when he was baptised since it is established that he married Joan around 1717/1718, following which the couple settled in Great Coxwell where their two known children were born and baptised. Their daughter Mary was baptised there on 31^st August 1718, as was their son Richard who was baptised on 24^th April 1720, both recorded as the children of Anthony and Joan Collet (sic).
	28K21	Mary Collett		Born in 1718 at Great Coxwell
	28K22	Richard Collett		Born in 1720 at Great Coxwell
28J7	Henry Collett was baptised at Buscot on 12^th August 1705, the youngest son of John and Elizabeth Collett.
28J8	Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Buscot on 30^th November 1706, the last known child of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth Petty.
28K1	Richard Collett was born at Faringdon in 1725 and was the only known child of John Collett and his first wife Margaret who most likely died during the birth or shortly thereafter. It was also at Faringdon on 5^th May 1745 that he married Elizabeth Gough who, as Betty Goffe, had been born on 29^th May 1727 the daughter of Robert and Sarah Goffe. All of their children were born and baptised at Faringdon when they were described as the offspring of Richard and Betty Collett.
	28L1	Sarah Collett		Born in 1745 at Faringdon
	28L2	Martha Collett		Born in 1747 at Faringdon
	28L3	William Collett		Born in 1748 at Faringdon
	28L4	Letitia Collett		Born in 1751 at Faringdon
	28L5	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1753 at Faringdon
	28L6	Lucy Collett		Born in 1755 at Faringdon
	28L7	Alan Collett		Born in 1757 at Faringdon
	28L8	Isaac Collett		Born in 1761 at Faringdon
	28L9	Dinah Collett		Born in 1763 at Faringdon
	28L10	Deborah Collett		Born in 1769 at Faringdon
28K2	Thomas Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 7^th May 1727, the eldest of the three sons of John Collett by his second wife Mary Breach.
28K3	JOHN COLLETT was born at Faringdon in 1728 and was baptised there on 26^th January 1729, the second son of John and Mary Collett. It would appear that it was at Faringdon where he married Lettice Evans on 19^th August 1751. Letitia Evans was the daughter of Thomas Evans and was born on 18^th November 1725 at Ramsbury south-east of Swindon. Over the following eight years John and Lettice continued to live in Faringdon, where four of their five children were born and baptised. Sometime around the end of the decade, the family left Faringdon when they moved to the village of Little Faringdon six miles to the north-west and just north of Lechlade. And it was while they were living there that their last child was born, even though he was baptised at Faringdon.
	28L11	Mary Collett		Born in 1752 at Faringdon
	28L12	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1755 at Faringdon
	28L13	Jane Collett		Born in 1757 at Faringdon
	28L14	John Collett		Born in 1759 at Faringdon
	28L15	ROBERT COLLETT		Born in 1762 at Faringdon
28K4	William Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 5^th February 1730, the last of the three sons for John Collett and Mary Breach.
28K5	Betty Collett was born at Faringdon sometime after 1717 before 1722 where she was baptised as Betty Collett on 1^st July 1722 the eldest daughter of Anthony and Sarah Collett.
28K6	Anthony Collett may have been born at Faringdon around six or seven years before he was baptised there on 7^th March 1725 when he was named as the son of Anthony Collett and his wife Sarah. It seems highly likely that Anthony was still in his late teenage years when he married Ann Millard at Buscot on 25^th December 1735, after which they settled in Buscot where their children were born and baptised.
	It is possible, but not proved, that Anthony’s wife may have died after 1756, following which he returned to live in Faringdon where he may have been married for a second time. Certainly an Anthony Collett married Letitia Castle at Great Faringdon on 30^th July 1764 and six months later the first of their two daughters were born. The baptism details of the two children have therefore been included here for completion. There also exists the burial record for an Anthony Collett which took place on 30^th June 1788.
	28L16	John Collett		Born in 1737 at Buscot
	28L17	Mary Collett		Born in 1740 at Buscot
	28L18	Martha Collett		Born in 1742 at Buscot
	28L19	James Collett		Born in 1745 at Buscot
	28L20	Thomas Collett		Born in 1748 at Buscot
	28L21	Betty Collett		Born before 1756 at Buscot
	The following are the two daughters of Anthony Collett and his second wife Letitia Castle:
	28L22	Mary Collett		Baptised on 09.12.1764 at Faringdon
	28L23	Hannah Collett		Baptised on 21.10.1767 at Faringdon
28K7	JOHN COLLETT may have been born at Faringdon in the early 1720s and was therefore around seven or eight years when he was baptised at Faringdon on 24^th October 1728 when he was confirmed as the son of Anthony and Sarah Collett. It was previously written here that John may have been married first to Susanna, and then to Lettice. This has now been determined to be incorrect. However, it seems very likely that it was this John who married Susannah Baker at Great Faringdon on 8^th July 1742. All of their nine children were born and baptised at Faringdon when their parents were confirmed as John and Susanna Collett.
	28L24	James Collett		Born in 1743 at Faringdon
	28L25	Richard Collett		Born in 1745 at Faringdon
	28L26	Martha Collett		Born in 1746 at Faringdon
	28L27	Henry Collett		Born in 1748 at Faringdon
	28L28	Stephen Collett		Born in 1750 at Faringdon
	28L29	Hannah Collett		Born in 1752 at Faringdon
	28L30	Stephen Collett		Born in 1757 at Faringdon
	28L31	Maria Collett		Born in 1760 at Faringdon
	28L32	John Collett		Born in 1764 at Faringdon
28K8	Sarah Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 13^th August 1732, the baptism record confirming that she was the daughter of Anthony and Sarah Collett. It seems likely that she was a few years old when she was baptised, as were most of her siblings.
28K9	Ann Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 7^th April 1734, the daughter of Anthony and Sarah Collett. Ann was most likely a few years old when she was baptised since she married William Neal at Great Faringdon on 12^th November 1750. This may indicate that she was born nearer 1730. Over the following years Ann presented William with three known daughters, and all of them born and baptised at Faringdon. Martha Neal was baptised on 2^nd June 1751, Mary Neal was baptised on 3^rd February 1756, and Elizabeth Neal was baptised on 30^th March 1760. This is the family line of Vicki Martin nee Purcell from Adelaide in Australia.
28K10	William Collett was born at Faringdon in 1736 and was baptised there on 6^th February 1737, when his parents were confirmed as Anthony and Sarah Collett. Although not verified at this time it does seem likely that William married (1) Margaret Sadler with whom he had two children at Faringdon in 1761 and 1764. Margaret may have died allowing William to marry (2) Elizabeth Mikson (Nixon) at Faringdon on 9^th September 1778.
	28L33	Sarah Collett		Baptised on 12.02.1762 at Faringdon
	28L34	William Collett		Baptised on 10.02.1765 at Faringdon
28K11	Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Buscot on 18^th January 1727 when she was recorded as Elizthe Collet, the daughter of Wm and Eliz Collet.
28K12	Martha Collett was baptised at Buscot on 18^th July 1728 when she was recorded as the daughter of Willm and Eliz Collet.
28K13	Ann Collett was baptised at Buscot on 30^th September 1731 when she was recorded as the daughter of Wm and Eliz Collet.
28K14	John Collett was baptised at Buscot on 9^th December 1733, the eldest son of Willm and Eliz Collet.
28K15	Jane Collett was baptised at Buscot on 21^st March 1736, the last known child of Willm and Eliz Collet.
28K16	Thomas Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 26^th July 1730, the eldest child of Thomas Collett and Jane Carter.
28K17	Maria Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 29^th April 1733, the eldest daughter of Thomas and Jane Collett.
28K18	Esther Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 22^nd May 1734, the daughter of Thomas and Jane Collett.
28K19	Ann Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 4^th April 1736, the youngest know child of Thomas Collett and his wife Jane Carter.
28K21	Mary Collett was baptised at Great Coxwell 31^st August on 1718, the daughter of Anthony and Joan Collett. It was also at Great Coxwell that a Mary Collett married Thomas Albumun on 19^th December 1767, while another Mary Collett married Thomas Pyeman at Great Faringdon on 10^th July 1749. It is unsure whether either of these was this Mary Collett.
28L1	Sarah Collett was born at Faringdon in 1745 where she was baptised on 10^th November 1745, as the eldest daughter of Richard and Betty Collett.
28L2	Martha Collett was born at Faringdon in 1747. She was the daughter of Richard and Betty Collett and was baptised at Faringdon on 30^th August 1747. It may be interesting to note that another Martha Collett, the daughter of John Collett and his wife Susannah was baptised at Faringdon on 7^th January 1746, although that family has not been identified at this time.
28L3	William Collett was born at Faringdon in 1748 where he was baptised on 23^rd October 1748, the baptism record stating that he was the son of Richard and Betty Collett. William married Rachel, possibly at Buscot, around the mid 1770s since it was there that they settled and it was there that all of their four known children were born and baptised at the Church of Mary (see right). Buscot lies between to the west of Faringdon is situated just two miles south-east of Lechlade. William’s wife Rachel was born in 1750.
	28M1	Sarah Collett		Born in 1776 at Buscot
	28M2	Rachel Collett		Born in 1779 at Buscot
	28M3	John Collett		Born in 1781 at Buscot
	28M4	William Collett		Born in 1785 at Buscot
	It was originally thought that William had married Elizabeth Walker at Faringdon on 29.04.1771. However, that William, with his wife Elizabeth, lived at Clanfield in Oxfordshire about four miles to the north of Faringdon, where all of their children were born and baptised.
	For the continuation of the family line of William Collett and Elizabeth Walker see Part 39 – The Clanfield Oxfordshire Line (Ref. 39L1)
28L4	Letitia Collett was born at Faringdon either in late 1751 or early 1751, and it was there also that she was baptised on 10^th March 1751, the daughter of Richard and Betty Collett. An alternative date is also listed on the IGI which gives the year as 1750.
28L5	Elizabeth Collett was born at Faringdon where she was baptised on 4^th February 1753, the daughter of Richard and Betty Collett.
28L6	Lucy Collett was born at Faringdon in 1755 and was baptised there on 19^th October 1755, the daughter of Richard and Betty Collett.
28L7	Alan Collett was born at Faringdon in 1757 and it was there that he was baptised as Allen Collett on 7^th August 1757, the son of Richard and Betty Collett, although the baptism entry appears to have spelt his name as Allen.
28L8	Isaac Collett was born at Faringdon in 1761 where he was baptised on 28^th June 1761, the son of Richard Collett and his wife Betty.
28L9	Dinah Collett was born at Faringdon in 1763 and was baptised there on 15^th January 1764, the daughter of Richard and Betty Collett.
28L10	Deborah Collett was born at Faringdon in 1769 and it was there also that she was baptised on 2^nd July 1769, the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Collet (sic).
28L11	Mary Collett was born at Faringdon in 1752 where she was baptised on 19^th April 1752, the daughter of John and Lettice Collett.
28L12	Elizabeth Collett was born at Faringdon and it was there also that she was baptised on 13^th July 1755 as the child of John and Lettice Collett.
28L13	Jane Collett was born at Faringdon and baptised there on 3^rd April 1757, the baptism record confirming that she was the daughter of John and Lettice Collett.
28L14	John Collett may have been born at Faringdon in 1758 where he was baptised on 15^th April 1759, the son of John Collett and his wife Lettice. It seems likely, although not proved, that a young John married Elizabeth Willis at Great Faringdon on 6^th September 1775, since in 1779 a son Charles Collett was baptised at Buscot on 24^th January 1779, he being the son of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth. Two years later the same couple had another son baptised at Buscot, and that was John Collett who was baptised there on 16^th June 1781.
	It is also believed that John and Elizabeth had a third son William who was born at Buscot in 1784, although no baptism record for the child has yet been found, nor has any other record been found that would confirm this. There is a chance though that he did exist, and that he moved with his brother Charles to Appleford (see below). It seems likely that John’s son Charles eventually moved east, towards the larger market town of Abingdon-on-Thames where he settled in the nearby village of Appleford. Others in this family line also moved to Abingdon, perhaps attracted by better employment opportunities, and that may have applied to John’s ‘mysterious’ brother William.
	28M5	Charles Collett – see Part 34		Born in 1779 at Buscot
	28M6	John Collett		Born in 1781 at Buscot
	28M7	William Collett		Born in 1784 at Buscot
28L15	ROBERT COLLETT was born at Little Faringdon and baptised in Faringdon on 3^rd January 1762, the youngest child of John and Lettice Collett. Two months before his nineteenth birthday he married Mary Harris at Faringdon on 11^th November 1780. Mary was seven months pregnant at the time of the wedding and two months later she gave birth to the first of three children who were all born virtually born nine months apart. All of their children were born at Faringdon except William who was born at Little Faringdon. Robert Collett died on 22^nd July 1800. It may be of interest that in Little Faringdon, near Lechlade, is Colletts Farm and, since it was Robert’s father who is believed to be the first of that surname to settle in the village. It is therefore possible that it was John Collett or son Robert Collett who established Colletts Farm.
	28M8	Jane Collett		Born in 1781 at Faringdon
	28M9	Mary Collett		Born in 1781 at Faringdon
	28M10	Thomas Collett		Born in 1782 at Faringdon
	28M11	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1785 at Faringdon
	28M12	Robert Collett		Born in 1786 at Faringdon
	28M13	LEONARD COLLETT		Born in 1789 at Faringdon
	28M14	Mary Collett		Born in 1791 at Faringdon
	28M15	WILLIAM COLLETT		Born in 1793 at Faringdon
	28M16	Sarah Collett		Born in 1796 at Faringdon
28L16	John Collett was born in 1737 and was baptised at Buscot on 10^th December 1737, the eldest child of Anthony and Ann Collett. He later married Elizabeth and it was at Buscot that the couple settled and where their children were born and baptised.
	28M17	Betty Collett		Born in 1762 at Buscot
	28M18	Mary Collett		Born in 1762 at Buscot
	28M19	William Collett		Born in 1764 at Buscot
	28M20	Ann Collett		Born in 1766 at Buscot
	28M21	John Collett twin		Born in 1768 at Buscot
	28M22	Thomas Collett twin		Born in 1768 at Buscot
28L17	Mary Collett was born in 1740 and was baptised at Buscot on 27^th July 1740, the eldest daughter of Anthony and Ann Collett.
28L18	Martha Collett was born in 1742 and was baptised at Buscot on 21^st December 1742, the daughter of Anthony and Ann Collett.
28L19	James Collett was born in 1745 and was baptised at Buscot on 5^th January 1746, the son of Anthony Collett from Faringdon and his wife Ann.
28L20	Thomas Collett was born in 1748 and was baptised at Buscot 15^th November 1748, the son of Anthony and Ann Collett.
28L21	Betty Collett may have been a few years old when she was baptised at Buscot on 22^nd February 1756, the last child of Anthony Collett and his wife Ann.
28L24	James Collett was born at Faringdon in 1743 and was baptised there on 24^th July 1743, the eldest child of John and Susanna Collett. There is a possibility that it was this James Collett who married Mary Sheppard at Faringdon on 6^th March 1783. The Faringdon baptism records include five daughters of James and Mary Collett after 1783 which were very likely the children of Mary Sheppard who would need to be some years younger than James Collett born in 1743. For completeness those five children are listed here but may need to be relocated at some time in the future.
	28M23	Ann Collett		Born in 1784 at Faringdon
	28M24	Mary Collett		Born in 1792 at Faringdon
	28M25	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1793 at Faringdon
	28M26	Sophia Collett		Born in 1798 at Faringdon
	28M27	Maria Collett		Born in 1801 at Faringdon
28L25	Richard Collett was born at Faringdon where he was baptised on 3^rd February 1745 as Richd Collett, the son of John and Susanna Collett.
28L26	Martha Collett was born at Faringdon in 1746 and it was there also that she was baptised on 7^th December 1746, the first daughter of John and Susannah Collet (sic).
28L27	Henry Collett was born at Faringdon in 1748 where he was baptised on 7^th April 1748, the son of John and Susannah Collet (sic).
28L28	Stephen Collett was born at Faringdon in 1750 and was baptised there on 11^th February 1750, the son of John and Susannah Collet (sic). The birth of a subsequent son into the family after seven years who was also named Stephen suggests that Stephen born in 1750 very likely died while he was still a young child.
28L29	Hannah Collett was born at Faringdon in 1752 baptised on 12^th April 1752, the second daughter and sixth children of John and Susanna Collett.
28L30	Stephen Collett was born at Faringdon in 1757 and was named after his late brother who had died while he was still very young. He was baptised at Faringdon on 24^th April 1757, the son of John and Susanna Collett. Stephen Collett was arrested on 13^th February 1794 and was imprisoned in Newgate Gaol for stealing a loaf of bread from Goddards Baker Shop. He subsequently appeared at the Old Bailey on 21^st February 1794 when his place of birth was confirmed as Berkshire and his age as 38. It was on 24^th February that he was sentenced to one week in Newgate and was fined one penny. The court record also described him as being 5 feet 4 inches tall, of fair complexion, with dark brown hair.
28L31	Maria Collett was born at Faringdon in 1760 where she was baptised on 20^th July 1760, the youngest daughter of John and Susanna Collett.
28L32	John Collett was born at Faringdon during 1764 and it was there that he was baptised on 9^th June 1764, the last child of John Collett and his wife Susanna Baker.
28M1	Sarah Collett was born at Buscot in 1776 and it was there that she was baptised on 14^th July 1776 as the daughter of William and Rachel Collett.
28M2	Rachel Collett was born at Buscot in 1779 where she was baptised on 9^th April 1780, the baptism record confirming that her parents were William Collett and his wife Rachel.
28M3	John Collett was born at Buscot in 1781 where he was baptised on 9^th September 1781. He was the son of William and Rachel Collett, and it is worth highlighting that another John Collett was also baptised at Buscot earlier that same year, he being the son of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth (below).
28M4	William Collett was born at Buscot in 1785 and was baptised there on 4^th December 1785, the son of William and Rachel Collett. It was as William Collet (sic) at Buscot on 14^th April 1814 that he married Susannah Lovesey who was born at Little Faringdon around 1792. The witnesses at the wedding were William Lovesey and John Fisher, so was William the father or the brother of Susannah? The marriage produced at least eight children for the couple, all of whom were born and baptised at Buscot. As stated here, and up until now, it was curious that no record of the family had been found in 1841. However, that changed in December 2012 when the census return for that year was discovered by Jennie Cordner, albeit of very poor quality and very difficult to read, but now as detailed below.
	Already confirmed in the census of 1851, the family was living at Broadlease Cottage in Buscot ten years earlier in 1841, the next dwelling on the census return being Broadlease Farm where members of the family were most likely employed. William Collett and his wife Susan were both given in error the rounded age of 35, while their eldest child Rachel was 20. William would have been 55 and Susan would have been around 48. The other children still living with them were Hester, age 15, Martha, age 13, Thomas, age 11, Jane who was eight, and Elizabeth who was three years old. Also living with the family was William father William Collett, who was 90, and Anne Rison who was 80, both of whom were described as agricultural labourers. By that time the couple’s eldest daughter Sarah was already married, while their eldest son William had left home by then to make his own way in the world.
	Ten years later in 1851 the depleted family was still living in Broadlease Cottage in Buscot. Missing from the family were daughters Sarah, Rachel, and Martha, who were all married by then. Also absence was youngest daughter Elizabeth who would appear to have died by then. William Collett of Buscot was 65 by then, and was still working as an agricultural labourer. At that time, and very likely some years earlier and certainly for the next ten years at least, he was employed by Horatio Weston on Broadlease Farm in Buscot. The farm comprised 340 acres and farmer Weston employed 6 men, 4 women, and three boys. Four of them, two men and two women, came from the Collett family in their tied cottage.
	William’s wife was recorded as Susanna Collett who was 59 and her place of birth was confirmed as Little Faringdon. Still living with William and Susannah in 1851, were three of their children, they being Esther Collett, age 26, Thomas Collett, age 21, and Jane Collett, who was 18, and all three of them were employed by farmer Weston. Also living with the family in 1851 was William’s and Susannah’s granddaughter Anne Collett who was five years old and born at Buscot. She was very likely the base-born child of their daughter Hester ‘Esther’ Collett.
	After a further ten years William and Susannah were still occupying Broadlease Cottage in 1861, the last property before entering the Oldfield area of Buscot. William was still employed as an agricultural labourer on Broadlease Farm, even at the age of 77. All of his children had left home by that time, but still living there with him and Susan, age 68, was their grandson John W Collett who was 18 and another agricultural labourer, and their granddaughter Anne Collett who was 15 and a servant in their home. John Wheeler Collett was the base-born son of their second daughter Rachel, while Anne was the base-born daughter of William’s and Susan’s younger daughter Hester.
	In view of their advancing years, and the fact that no record of William has been found in 1871, it seems inevitable that William died during the 1860s. That was confirmed by the census in 1871, in which his widow, Susan Collett age 82 (sic) and from Little Faringdon, was living at the Buscot Wick home of her married granddaughter Anne Hart nee Collett. It was previously stated here that Susan Collett died at Abingdon-on-Thames on 25^th June 1875. However, it has yet to be determined whether or not she was the widow of William Collett.
	28N1	Sarah Collett		Born in 1817 at Buscot
	28N2	Rachel Collett		Born in 1820 at Buscot
	28N3	William Collett		Born in 1822 at Buscot
	28N4	Hester Collett		Born in 1824 at Buscot
	28N5	Martha Collett		Born in 1828 at Buscot
	28N6	Thomas Collett		Born in 1829 at Buscot
	28N7	Jane Collett		Born in 1832 at Buscot
	28N8	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1837 at Buscot
28M5	Charles Collett was born around the end of 1778 or during the first few days of 1779 at Buscot, where he was baptised on 24^th January 1779, the first child of John Collett and Elizabeth Willis. It now seems highly likely that he later moved to Appleford near Abingdon-on-Thames where he married Mary Sandall and had six children.
	Further details for Charles Collett and his family can be found in Part 34 – The Appleford Berkshire Line (Ref. 34M1)
28M6	John Collett was born at Buscot in 1781 and was baptised there on 16^th June 1781 as the son of John and Elizabeth Collett. Not a great deal is known about the long life of John Collett, except that he was a widower in the Buscot census of 1851 when he was recorded as being 69. At that time he was a lodger in the home of William Barnard and his wife Esther, both of them from Buscot. Although the census return stated that he had no occupation, it also stated that he was supported by ...... ....., which unfortunately is not clearly enough written to read the two words. He was still living in Buscot in 1861 when he was 79. Whether his marriage produced any children is not known at this time.
28M7	William Collett was believed to have been born at Buscot in 1784 and was the third son of John and Elizabeth Collett, although no baptism or birth record has so far been found to confirm this.
28M8	Jane Collett was born at Faringdon on 17^th January 1781 where she was baptised on 19^th January 1781, the eldest child of Robert and Mary Collett. It would appear that she never married and that she may have been the J Collett, a female of 79 who died as an inmate at the Reading Union Workhouse during 1861.
28M9	Mary Collett was born at Faringdon and was baptised there on 9^th November 1781. As the second child of Robert and Mary Collett it would seem that she did not survive since a later daughter born to the couple was also given the name Mary.
28M10	Thomas Collett was born at Faringdon where he was baptised on 24^th July 1782, the son of Robert and Mary Collett. He later married Mary Pawling and their son William was born at Langford, just north of Little Faringdon. Thomas and Mary were still alive and living within the Cirencester, Faringdon & Northleach registration district in June 1841 when both of them were recorded in the census as being 55.
	It may be of interest to note that Sarah Pawling, who was born in 1790 at Grafton near Clanfield, just across the River Thames in Oxfordshire, may have been the sister of Mary Pawling. That may be of particular significance because Sarah Pawling married Thomas Collett who was born at Clanfield in 1791 and they and their family feature in Part 39 – The Clanfield Oxfordshire Line.
	28N9	William Collett		Born in 1814 at Langford
28M11	Elizabeth Collett was born at Faringdon and was baptised on 9^th March 1785, the daughter of Robert and Mary Collet (sic). She married William Bond and their daughter Sarah was born at Highworth to the west of Faringdon.
	28N10	Sarah Bond		Born in 1826 at Highworth
28M12	Robert Collett was born at Faringdon and it was there also that he was baptised on 31^st December 1786, the son of Robert and Mary Collet (sic). The first national census indicated that he had moved from Faringdon to Abingdon-on-Thames where certainly his children were born. The 1841 census for Abingdon listed Robert as 55 and his wife Elizabeth as 50. However, still living with the couple were their two daughters Esther who was 25 and Ann who was 20. It is very likely that Robert and Elizabeth had more than just the two children listed below.
	28N11	Esther Collett		Born in 1815 at Abingdon-on-Thames
	28N12	Ann Collett		Born in 1820 at Abingdon-on-Thames
28M13	LEONARD COLLETT was baptised at Faringdon on 30^th August 1789, the son of Robert Collett and Mary Harris. He married Elizabeth Scott on 15^th November 1812 at Faringdon, Elizabeth having been born at Kidlington north of Oxford in 1791. All of their children were baptised at Faringdon, even though the IGI simply stated the location as Berkshire on each occasion. At the time of the census in 1841, Leonard and his wife Elizabeth were both listed with a rounded age of 50. Living with them at that time at Grove Lodge in Faringdon were nine of the couple’s fourteen known children and they were Jane age 25, Sarah age 15, Ann age 14, William age 12, Henry age 10, Betsy who was eight, Esther who was six, Ellen who was four, and baby Clara who was only three months old. Leonard’s wife was obviously helping him with his shoemaker business, since Elizabeth was described as being a shoe binder. Five years later Leonard Collett’s occupation was that of a game keeper when his son Robert was married in London during 1846.
	During that decade some of the older children left the family home in Faringdon to make their own way in the world. By 1851 the family still living in Faringdon comprised Leonard 61 and Elizabeth 60, together with five of their children, they being William 22, Elizabeth 18, Esther 17, Ellen 15, and Clara who was ten years old. Of their ‘missing’ children at that time, Charles and Robert were married and were living in London where sister Ann was also living and working and was soon to be married, while the other two absent daughters Jane and Sarah were both married by that time in 1851.
	It is interesting that Leonard’s son Henry was also in London on the actual day of the census on 30^th March 1851, as that was the same day that he became a married man. By the time of the census in 1861, only the couple’s youngest daughter Clara was still living with her parents. Leonard was 72, Elizabeth his wife was 71, and daughter Clara was 20 years of age. Leonard Collett died nine years later on 17^th April 1870, whilst he was living at The (Grove) Lodge in Faringdon.
	The Faringdon census of 1871 confirmed that Elizabeth Collett was a widow of eighty years, and that living with her at Grove Lodge was her thirty years old daughter Clara, together with her base-born son Leonard Collett who was seven years old. Elizabeth Collett nee Scott died at Faringdon just over four years later, when she passed away on 15^th January 1875.
	28N13	Jane Collett		Baptised in 1815 at Faringdon
	28N14	Charles Collett		Baptised in 1817 at Faringdon
	28N15	Mary Collett		Born in 1818 at Faringdon
	28N16	Eliza Collett		Baptised in 1820 at Faringdon
	28N17	George Collett		Baptised in 1821 at Faringdon
	28N18	Sarah Collett		Born in 1823 at Faringdon
	28N19	Robert Collett		Baptised in 1824 at Faringdon
	28N20	Mary Ann Collett		Baptised in 1827 at Faringdon
	28N21	WILLIAM COLLETT		Baptised in 1829 at Faringdon
	28N22	Henry Collett		Born in 1830 at Faringdon
	28N23	Elizabeth (Betsey) Collett		Baptised in 1832 at Faringdon
	28N24	Hester (Esther) Collett		Baptised in 1834 at Faringdon
	28N25	Ellen Collett		Born in 1836 at Faringdon
	28N26	Clara Collett		Born in 1840 at Faringdon
28M14	Mary Collett may have been born at Faringdon on 30^th October 1791, where she was baptised on 9^th November 1791, the second daughter of that name of Robert and Mary Collett. It was also at Faringdon that she married William Hunter on 16^th February 1811.
28M15	WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Little Faringdon on 30^th October 1793, the youngest son of Robert and Mary Collett. He married Ann Maisey on 29^th November 1824 at Fulbrook, Burford in Oxfordshire. She was the daughter of Stephen Maisey and Ann Butler (1776-1831) and was born on 12^th January 1806 at Shilton, just south of Burford. Once married the couple settled in the village of Alvescot just five miles from Burford. By the time of the first national census in 1841 their family was almost completed, although their surname was incorrectly recorded with a single T. William Collet was 45, his wife Ann was 36, and living with them at Alvescot were six of their seven children. Only the couple’s eldest son Stephen was missing, he having died shortly after he was born. Elizabeth Collet was 14, George Collet was 11, Mary Collet was nine, Harriet Collet was seven, Ann Collet was four, and Lucy Collet was two years of age.
	Over the next five years a further two children were added to the family, and by the time of the next census in 1851 only the three youngest children were still living with William and Ann. William Collett from Little Faringdon was 55 and an agricultural labourer, Ann Collett was 45 and from Shilton, Lucy Collett was 12, William Collett was nine, and Joseph Collett was five, all three of them confirmed as having been born at Alvescot. After another decade had passed it was only the couple’s two youngest sons who were still living at Alvescot with William, who was 65, and Ann, who was 55. Exactly eight month later Ann died when she was still only 55, following which she was buried at Alvescot on 7^th December 1861.
	Ten years later William Collet (sic) appeared in the 1871 Census for Alvescot living there with his married son George and his family in which he was described as being a widower aged 75 and a former agricultural labourer. Following the death of his wife William had remained a widower until his own death on 3^rd November 1880. Like Ann, William was also buried at St Peter’s Church in Alvescot, although the parish burial record noted that he was living at Witney at the time of his death.
	The surname Maisey appears connected to the Collett on a number of occasions – see Ref. 1O47 for Sarah Maisey who was baptised at Fairford on 30^th June 1811 and Ref. 3N8 for Ann Maisey who married James Margetts around 1805.
	William Collett’s father-in-law Stephen Maisey was baptised on 15^th November 1773 at Shilton (married on 19^th January 1804 and died in 1855) and was the son of John Maisey born at Black Bourton, Oxon on 9^th March 1736 who married Ann Betts on 14^th August 1763 at Shilton. His father was another Stephen Maisey (born circa 1710), the 6x great grandfather of Jennie Cordner who has kindly provided many details relating to numerous branches of the Collett family over the past couple of years.
	28N27	Stephen Collett		Born on 27.07.1825 at Alvescot
	28N28	Elizabeth Ann Collett		Baptised on 29.07.1827 at Alvescot
	28N29	George Collett		Baptised on 29.11.1829 at Alvescot
	28N30	Mary Collett		Baptised on 25.03.1832 at Alvescot
	28N31	Harriett Collett		Baptised on 20.04.1834 at Alvescot
	28N32	Anne Collett		Baptised on 16.04.1837 at Alvescot
	28N33	Lucy Collett		Born on 06.03.1839 at Alvescot
	28N34	WILLIAM COLLETT		Born on 29.01.1842 at Alvescot
	28N35	Joseph Collett		Baptised on 01.02.1846 at Alvescot
28M16	Sarah Collett was born at Faringdon during 1796 or the few years before that, and was baptised there on 19^th June 1796, the youngest child of Robert and Mary Collett. Sadly she did not survive and was buried there during March 1799.
28M17	Betty Collett was born at Buscot in 1762 where she was baptised on 3^rd October 1762 the eldest child of John and Elizabeth Collett. Her sister Ann and her two twin brothers all suffered infant deaths and it was on 5^th November 1769 that Betty also died at the age of seven.
28M18	Mary Collett was born at Buscot in 1762 and was baptised there on 6^th January 1763, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett.
28M19	William Collett was born at Buscot in 1764 where he was baptised on 17^th February 1765, the son of John and Elizabeth Collett.
28M20	Ann Collett was born at Buscot in 1766 and it was there also that she was baptised on 2^nd October 1766, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett. Sadly she survived for just over three weeks after her christening, when she died at Buscot on 26^th October 1766.
28M21	John Collett was the twin brother of Thomas (below) who was born at Buscot in 1768 where he was baptised with his brother on 3^rd July 1768. Tragically it was nine days later that he died, just two days after his twin brother.
28M22	Thomas Collett was the twin brother of John (above) who was born at Buscot in 1768 where he was baptised with his brother on 3^rd July 1768. Tragically it was just seven days after that when he died and just two days before the death of his twin brother.
28M23	Ann Collett was born at Faringdon during 1784 where she was baptised on 12^th January 1785, the eldest child of James Collett and Mary Sheppard.
28M24	Mary Collett was born at Faringdon possibly in the late 1780s and was baptised there a few years later on 30^th September 1792 when she was named in error as the daughter of James and Mary Collott.
28M25	Elizabeth Collett was born at Faringdon during 1793 and it was there also that she was baptised on 14^th June 1793, the daughter of James and Mary Collett.
28M26	Sophia Collett was born at Faringdon in 1798 where she was baptised on 30^th November 1798, another daughter of James and Mary Collett.
28M27	Maria Collett was born at Faringdon on 17^th June 1801 and was baptised there on 6^th June 1801, the youngest of the five known daughters of James Collett and his wife Mary Sheppard.
28N1	Sarah Collett was born at Buscot in 1817 and was baptised there on 7^th March 1819, the eldest daughter of William and Susannah Collett who, by 1841, was married and no longer living with her family at Broadlease Cottage in Buscot. It was prior to that when Sarah had married George Pettifer who was born at Bampton in Oxfordshire in 1818. The census in 1841 listed just Sarah Pettifer, who was 25, and George Pettifer who was 23. By 1851 Sarah was 34 and George was 33, and living with them within the Faringdon registration district were their two children William Pettifer, who was 11, and Sarah Pettifer who was five. The couple are also believed to have had a son John Pettifer who was born at Faringdon in 1840, who presumably did not survive as he was not recorded with them in 1841 or 1861.
	According to the census in 1861 George Pettifer from Bampton was 43 when he and his family were still living in Faringdon. His wife Sarah was 44, while living with them was George’s brother Robert Pettifer who was 38 and Sarah A Seery who was 15. Although not verified, it seems highly likely that Sarah A Seery was in fact Sarah Pettifer the youngest child of George Pettifer and Sarah Collett.
28N2	Rachel Collett was born at Buscot in 1820, and it was there that she was baptised on 18^th February 1821, the daughter of William and Susannah Collett. In the Buscot census of 1841 Rachel Collett was 20 when she was living at Broadlease Cottage with her family. It was during the following year that she gave birth to a base-born child, the son of the much younger John Wheeler who was only sixteen years old. About seven or eight years later, when Rachel was around 28, she married Henry Hollick who was born at Shellingford in Berkshire in 1821.
	The wedding would have taken place around 1849, and three years earlier Henry Hollick was serving with the 50^th Regiment of Foot in the First Anglo-Sikh War when he was wounded in both legs by grapeshot during the Battle of Sobraon on 10^th February 1846. As a result of his injuries Henry was invalided out of the army, all as confirmed in his Chelsea Pension records, which also included reference to the medals he had earned during his service. The Battle of Sobraon was fought between the forces of the British East India Company and the Sikh Khalsa Army, the army of the Sikh Empire of the Punjab. The Sikhs were completely defeated on the day that Henry was shot, marking it as the most decisive battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War.
	The first of the couple’s three child was born at Shellingford which lies midway between Faringdon and Stanford in the Vale. Their next two children were born at Bromley by Bow following a move to London. However, according to the census in 1861, Rachel’s illegitimate son John W Collett, age 18 and from Buscot, was living with his grandparents William and Susan Collett at Broadlease Cottage on Broadlease Farm in the Oldfield area of Buscot. At that time in his life, John Wheeler Collett was working with his grandfather as an agricultural labourer for Horatio Weston at Broadlease Farm. The household was completed by Rachel’s niece Anne Collett, age 15 and a servant, who was the base-born daughter of her sister Hester (below).
	In 1881 Rachel and Henry were living at the Denton and Gutsum Varnish Works on the Albert Embankment at Lambeth in London. Henry, age 59 was listed as a Chelsea Pensioner from Faringdon, while his wife Rachel was also from Faringdon. The only member of the family living with them at that time was their youngest daughter Ruth Hollick who was 16 and a machinist, who had been born at Bromley in Bow. By that time their son Harry Hollick, who was living in Chelsea, was married with two children of his own.
	28O1	John Wheeler Collett		Born in 1842
	28O2	Martha Hollick		Born in 1851
	28O3	Harry Pinel Hollick		Born in 1856
	28O4	Ruth Hollick		Born in 1865
28N3	William Collett was born at Buscot in 1822 and was baptised there on 27^th April 1823, the baptism record confirming that he was the son of William and Susannah Collett. Although he was not living with his family at Buscot in 1841, when he would have been eighteen years old, it was around three years later, on 26^th May 1844 at Eaton Hastings, to the east of Buscot, that William Collett married Charlotte Lockey of Buscot. Charlotte had been born at Buscot in 1826, and was the daughter of George Lockey, and the sister of George Lockey who, eight years later, married Esther Collett, William’s younger sister (below).
	It was also at Eaton Hastings that the couple initially settled after they were married, and where their first six children were born. The village of Eaton Hastings lies on the south bank of the River Thames, downstream from Lechlade, and just two miles from Buscot. And it was there that the family was still living at the time of the census in 1851 when William Collett, age 28, was working as a gamekeeper.
	His wife Charlotte was 25, and despite having four children, she was described as a labourer. The children were William Collett who was six years old, Maria Collett who was five, Elizabeth Collett who was three, and Mary Collett who was only seven months old. Lodging with the family at Eaton Hastings on that occasion was farm worker Jonathan Cattrick who was 30 and from Alvescot.
	Two further children were born while the family continued to live in Eaton Hastings, but then William was offered another game-keeping job in the Great Barr area of the West Midlands near Walsall, and that prompted the family to leave Eaton Hastings around 1856. It was at Great Barr that the couple’s seventh child was born and she was baptised at Aldridge in Staffordshire on 14^th February 1858 when she was named Susan Collett after her grandmother Susannah Collett nee Loosey.
	The Great Barr census in 1861 placed the family living at Hardwick in the parish of Aldridge, near Great Barr, where William was 38 and a gamekeeper, Charlotte was 35, William was 16 and an agricultural labourer, Elizabeth was 13, Mary was 10, Harriet, was seven, Ann was five, and Susan was three years old. It might be right to assume that the couple’s missing eldest daughter Marie had left home by then to start her working life. Two years later Charlotte presented her husband with their last child while they were still living at Hardwick near Walsall and Great Barr.
	What happened to William after that time is not known, since he was absent from the next census in 1871. By that time his widow Charlotte Collett of Buscot had returned to live in a tied farmhouse in Eaton Hastings, where she was working as an agricultural labourer at the age of 45. Living with her on that occasion were her two youngest children, Susan Collett who was 13, and George Collett who was seven years old, both confirmed as having been born at Great Barr.
	28O5	William Collett		Born in 1844 at Eaton Hastings
	28O6	Maria Collett		Born in 1845 at Eaton Hastings
	28O7	Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1847 at Eaton Hastings
	28O8	Mary A Collett		Born in August 1850 at Eaton Hastings
	28O9	Harriett Collett		Born in 1853 at Eaton Hastings
	28O10	Ann Collett		Born in 1855 at Eaton Hastings
	28O11	Susan Collett		Born in 1857 at Aldridge, near Walsall
	28O12	George Collett		Born in 1863 at Hardwick, near Walsall
28N4	Hester Collett, who was sometimes referred to in the records as Esther Collett, was born at Buscot in 1824 and was baptised there on 13^th March 1825, the daughter of William and Susannah Collett. It was as Hester Collett, age 15, that she was recorded with her family at Broadlease Cottage in Buscot at the time of the census in 1841. It was also while she was still living at Buscot that it is understood she gave birth to a base-born daughter when she was around 21 years old.
	By the time of the census in 1851, and at the age of 26 when she was named as Esther Collett of Buscot, she was still living with her parents at Broadlease Cottage in Buscot village. At that time in her unmarried life, she was an agricultural labourer working for Horatio Weston at Broadlease Farm where her father worked, together with her two siblings, Thomas and Jane (both below). Also recorded as living with the family at that time, was five years old Anne Collett, the base-born daughter of Hester Collett and George Lockey.
	It was ten months later that Hester, recorded as ‘Esther Collett’ married George Lockey at Buscot on 26^th January 1852. George was the son of George Lockey senior, and was also the brother of Charlotte Lockey who eight years earlier had married Hester’s brother William Collett (above). George was born around 1831 and was therefore in his mid-teenage years when their base-born daughter was conceived.
	Following her married to George Lockey, the couple moved to Lower Swell in Gloucestershire, and it was there at Chalk Hill Cottage that they were living at the time of the census in 1861. Gamekeeper George from Eaton Hastings was 30, his wife Esther from Buscot was 36, and their six children were Edward Lockey, who was nine, George Lockey, who was seven, Harriet Lockey, who was five, Elizabeth Lockey, who was three, Fanny Lockey, who was two, and William Lockey who was four months old. Esther’s earlier illegitimate child was living at Broadlease Cottage on Broadlease Farm in the Oldfield area of Buscot, the home of her parents William and Susan Collett. She was described as Anne Collett, age 15 and from Buscot was a servant in their home. Also staying there with his grandparents was John Wheeler Collett from Buscot who was 18 and an agricultural labourer, the illegitimate son of Esther’s older sister Rachel Collett (above).
	Twenty years after that the Lockey family was still living in Lower Swell in 1881, but by then their dwelling place was Braggs Lodge. George Lockey, age 49 and from Eaton Hastings, was still working as a gamekeeper, his wife Esther was 55, and living with them were five of their children, plus a grandchild, who was very likely the base-born child of their daughter Fanny Lockey. Fanny was 22, and her child was Arthur Lockey who was six years of age. The other children of George and Esther were William Lockey, age 25, a slater maker, Harry Lockey, age 15 and a domestic groom, Dennis Lockey, age 12 and an agricultural labourer, and Susan Lockey who was nine years old.
	28O13	Anne Collett		Born in 1846 at Buscot
28N5	Martha Collett was born at Buscot in 1827 and was baptised there on 14^th October 1827, the baptism record confirming her parents were William and Susannah Collett. In 1841 Martha was 13 years of age and was living with her family at Broadlease Cottage. During the next decade she left the family home in Buscot where her family of farm workers was still living at Broadlease Cottage in 1851. She married William Claydon of Great Sampford in Essex, where he was born in 1827. Together they had nine children the first being Louisa born at Camberwell in 1858 and the rest being born at Battersea between 1859 and 1870.
	For the 1881 Census Martha and William Claydon were living at 56 Bridge Road West in Battersea, where Martha was 53 and from Buscot, while her husband William was 54 and a dairyman from Great Sampford. Living with them were their six children, all of whom were born at Battersea.
28N6	Thomas Collett was born at Buscot during 1829 and it was there later that same year on 27^th September 1829 that he was baptised, the son of William and Susannah Collett. He was 11 years old in 1841 and was 21 in 1851 when, on both occasions, he was living at Broadlease Cottage in Buscot with his parents. By 1851 Thomas Collett was a farm worker at Horatio Weston’s Broadlease Farm where his father, and sister Hester (above) and Jane (below) all worked. Just over three years later he became a married man and left the village of Buscot.
	On 25^th December 1854 at Highworth he married (1) Mary Hughes of Gloucestershire who was also born in 1829. The marriage produced two children who were both born at Coleshill near Highworth. In early 1857 Thomas and Mary, with son Henry and daughter Elizabeth, sailed to Australia on board the ship ‘Grand Trianon’. The ship’s passenger list included the following details. Thomas and Mary Collett both aged 27 and their children Henry and Elizabeth both recorded as being one year old, although Henry would have been around 15 to 18 months, while Elizabeth was probably only three to six months old.
	Also on the same passenger list for the journey was part of the Stranks family from Thomas’ home village of Buscot. They were mother Esther (Hester) Stranks nee Betts, her daughter Elizabeth, age 18, and her son Nathaniel who was six. See earlier reference to Betts family name at Ref. 28M15. Her husband Thomas Stranks had made the journey during the previous year with their two other children on board the ship ‘Sultana’ which arrived at Victoria in January 1856. Accompanying them on the voyage was his older brother Nathaniel, his wife and an older sister.
	However, perhaps as a result of ill health following their long journey, which would have taken three to four months, Thomas’ wife and baby daughter both died within a year of them arriving in Victoria in May 1857. Mary Collett nee Hughes died on 16^th April 1858 at Moorabin and was buried at Great Brighton in Victoria, with baby Elizabeth Jane having died nine months earlier on 31^st July 1857.
	Following the death of his wife, Thomas married (2) Elizabeth Stranks the eldest daughter of Thomas Stranks and Esther Betts who had coincidentally travelled half way round the world with Thomas and his family from January to May in 1857. Elizabeth Stranks was born at Hardwick, north of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, and was baptised on 19^th August 1838 at the parish church in Hardwick.
	The wedding ceremony, which took place at the Primitive Methodist Chapel at Broadmeadows in Victoria on 2^nd January 1860, was conducted by Samuel Bracewell in the presence of Elizabeth’s father Thomas Stranks and Joseph Hughes. All eleven of the children of Thomas and Elizabeth were born at Victoria in Australia but at seven different locations – see individual entries for exact details.
	Thomas Collett died on 4^th July 1902 at Benambra in Victoria at the age of 73, and it was there also that he was buried. Being nine years younger than her husband, Elizabeth lived for a further twenty-seven years before she died on 26^th April 1929 at East Bairnsdale in Victoria and was buried the following day at Bairnsdale.
	28O14	Henry Thomas Collett		Born in 1855 at Coleshill, Wiltshire
	28O15	Elizabeth Jane Collett		Born in 1856 at Coleshill, Wiltshire
	The following were the children of Thomas Collett and his second wife Elizabeth Shranks:
	28O16	Eliza Matilda Collett		Born in 1860 at Yuroke, Victoria
	28O17	Salome Collett		Born in 1864 at Moorabbin, Victoria
	28O18	William Collett		Born in 1866 at Brighton, Victoria
	28O19	Esther Collett		Born in 1869 at Brighton, Victoria
	28O20	Susannah Collett		Born in 1871 at Broadmeadows, Vic.
	28O21	Susannah Collett		Born in 1872 at Broadmeadows, Vic.
	28O22	George Collett		Born in 1874 at Campbellfield, Victoria
	28O23	Thomas Collett		Born in 1876 at Campbellfield, Victoria
	28O24	Frederick John Collett		Born in 1878 at Shepparton, Victoria
	28O25	Herbert Ebenezer Collett		Born in 1880 at Numurkah, Victoria
28N7	Jane Collett was born at Buscot towards the end of 1832 and was baptised the following year on 24^th February 1833 at the parish church in Buscot, the parish record confirming she was the daughter of William and Susannah Collett. In 1841 Jane was eight years of age when she was living with her family and her grandfather at Broadlease Cottage. Her father, her sister Hester, and brother Thomas, were all employed by farmer Horatio Weston, as confirmed in the next census of 1851, when the family was still living at Broadlease Cottage, adjacent Broadlease Farm in Buscot. Jane was 18 years old at that time and was also described as an agricultural labourer, so was most likely working with the other members of her family.
	It was original believed that, just a few years later, Jane married William Monk of Watchfield which lies midway between Faringdon and Swindon. William was born in 1836 and all of the couple’s three children were born at Shrivenham between 1858 and 1861. The only member of the family located in 1881 was Albert Monk aged 20 of Shrivenham, an apprentice to coach and carriage builder Thomas Hill of 26 Marlborough Road in Swindon.
	However, this is now considered to be incorrect and new research indicates that Jane Collett, age 23, married farmer Thomas Brown, age 20 and the son of Stephen Brown, at the Church of St Mary in Buscot on 19^th May 1858. Later that same year their first child Sarah Ann Brown was born, the birth being registered in the parish records during the third quarter of the year, perhaps indicating that Jane was already with-child on her wedding day. On 28^th February 1859 Thomas Brown, his wife Jane, and their daughter Sarah Ann sailed out of Plymouth harbour on the ship ‘The Herald’ to a new life in Australia.
	Three months later their three-month sea voyage ended when they disembarked at Melbourne on 1^st June. Once there the family initially settled in Cape Schank in Victoria where Thomas secured employment with John Barker Esquire. There was work for one year, for which Thomas was paid sixty-five pounds. After the family’s arrival in Australia the marriage produced another three children for Thomas and Jane, one of which was Martha Brown who married Alexander McKelvie in 1885 at Brighton, Victoria.
28N8	Elizabeth Collett was born at Buscot in 1837, the last child born to William Collett and Susannah Loosey. At the time of the census in 1841 Elizabeth Collett was three years old when she was living with her family at Broadlease Cottage in Buscot. However, with no record of her in the following census of 1851 it has been assumed that she died sometime during the 1840s.
28N13	Jane Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 16^th April 1815, the eldest daughter of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett. According to the census in 1841, Jane was 25, and was working as a dressmaker while still living with her parents at Grove Lodge in Faringdon. It was later that same year when Jane Collett married Thomas Harris and by 1851 their marriage had produced three children for the couple. The census return that year placed the family living in Coxwell Street in Faringdon from where Thomas Harris, age 38, was a master mason employing four men, his wife Jane Harris was 36, their two daughters were Kate Elizabeth who was eight and Lydia who was one year old, and their son Jesse was four. All three children were described as being scholars at home. Staying with the family was Jane’s younger brother William Collett, age 22, who was confirmed as brother-in-law to head of the household Thomas. All occupants of the dwelling had been born in Faringdon.
28N14	Charles Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 26^th January 1817, the son of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett. By June 1841 Charles was married with two children. The census that year listed the young family living at Faringdon as Charles Collett, age 25, his wife Elizth Collett, who was also 25, when their two children were Henry Collett, who was four, and Elizth Collett who was not yet one year old. During the next ten years a further three children were added to the family with all of them born after the family had settled within the Marylebone district of London.
	According to the next census in 1851 they were residing within the Marylebone registration area where Charles and Elizabeth were both 35, their son Henry was 14 and their daughter Elizabeth who was referred to as Ann, was ten years old. The three new additions to the family were Thomas who was eight, Clara who was six, and Emma who was two, all of whom were confirmed as having been born in London. On leaving school the couple’s eldest child left home to secure employment, so was the only absentee at the time of the Marylebone & Christchurch census of 1861.
	The census return that year listed the family as Charles and Elizabeth who were both 44, Ann Collett who was 20, Thomas Collett who was 18, Clara Collett who was 15, Emma Collett who was 12, and Alice L Collett who was six years old. It is not clear from the census of 1861 where their absent son Henry was living and working at that time, although it is established that he was married and had already started a family of his own. However, three years later he was one of the witnesses at the wedding of his sister Elizabeth in 1864. On that same occasion the occupation of Charles Collett was confirmed as a shoemaker, the same trade as his father before him.
	Between 1864 and 1871 Charles’ wife died after which Charles went to live with his married son Henry and his family. In 1871 shoemaker Charles Collett, age 56 and from Berkshire, was living at 39 Boston Place in Marylebone, the home of shoemaker Henry Collett who was 34 and also from Berkshire. Living there with them was Henry’s wife Elizabeth and their five children. Just over seven years later Charles Collett from Faringdon died in London, where his death was recorded at the Kensington register office (Ref. 1a 4) during the final quarter of 1878, when his age was estimated to be 63 rather than 61.
	28O26	Henry Collett		Born in 1836 at Faringdon
	28O27	Elizabeth Ann Collett		Born in 1840 at Faringdon
	28O28	Thomas Collett		Born in 1842 at Marylebone, London
	28O29	Clara Collett		Born in 1845 at Marylebone, London
	28O30	Emma Collett		Born in 1848 at Marylebone, London
	28O31	Alice L Collett		Born in 1854 at Marylebone, London
28N15	Mary Collett was born at Faringdon on 14^th September 1818, where she was baptised on 11^th October 1818 the daughter of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett. Although Mary would have been 22 by the time of the census in 1841 and could have been married by then, it is more than likely that she died while she was still very young, as a second Mary was born into the same family in 1827.
28N16	Eliza Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 9^th July 1820, the daughter of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett.
28N17	George Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 26^th October 1821, the son of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett. On leaving school George left Faringdon to seek work in London where he was recorded in the census of 1841 in error as being only 15 years old, a rounded age, rather than his actual which was nearer 19. With George on that day in June 1841 was his younger brother Robert, when the brothers were lodging at the Neptune Court, Rotherhithe, home of elderly seaman James Rennison and his wife Rebecca, and when they were both described as being apprentice coopers.
28N18	Sarah Collett was born on 19^th February 1823 at Faringdon, where she was baptised on 12^th April 1823, the daughter of Leonard Collett and Elizabeth Scott. At the time of the Faringdon census in 1841 Sarah was 15 when she was still living with her family at Grove Lodge in the town, where her father was a shoemaker.
28N19	Robert Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 30^th August 1824, the son of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett. By June 1841 Robert was living and working at Rotherhithe in London with his brother George (above) when he was incorrectly noted as being 14 years old and an apprentice cooper. The census that month recorded the brothers lodging at the home of seaman James Rennison and his wife Rebecca at Neptune Court in Rotherhithe. It was five years later at St Mary’s Church in Bermondsey, London that Robert Collett married Eleanor Myers on 10^th May 1846. Robert was described as being of full age, a bachelor and a cooper of Cherry Garden Street in Bermondsey, the son of game keeper Leonard Collett. Eleanor was a spinster of James Place and the daughter of Robert Myers, a foreman at the docks. Robert Collett signed the marriage register, while his bride made the mark of a cross. The witnesses at the ceremony were Benjamin Phillips and John Wise, which raises the question, was John Wise related to the Wise family who a few years later married into the Collett family – se Ref. 28N30.
	Four years after they were married Robert and Eleanor were living at Rotherhithe, by which time their marriage had produced three children for the couple. Robert Collett from Faringdon was 25, Eleanor (Elenor) was 24, and their three daughters were Eleanor (Elenor) who was four, Anne who was three, and Eliza who was one year old. Whilst two more children were added to the family during the next five years, sadly Robert’s wife and their eldest daughter of the same name were no longer alive by the time of the census in 1861. On that occasion the family was living at 13 Lower Street in Stepney, Tower Hamlets in London when widower Robert Collett from Faringdon was 36 and a journey cooper, daughters Ann and Eliza were 12 and 10 respectively, son Robert was eight, and the youngest child was Mary Ann who was six. That census stated that the four children had been born in Bermondsey.
	It was Robert’s work as a journeyman cooper that then took him and his family to Hackney, where they were residing at the time of the census in 1871. Robert Collett from Berkshire was incorrectly stated as being 51, and the only one of his children still living with him was his son Robert who was 19. Living there with them was Eliza Frist, who was 42, and her two children Henry Frist, age 19, and Benjamin Frist who was 14. After a further ten years Robert Collett, a cooper aged 56 and from Faringdon, was living alone at 57 Tarling Street in the St George in the East district of London.
	28O32	Eleanor Collett		Born in 1847 at Bermondsey, London
	28O33	Anne Collett		Born in 1848 at Bermondsey, London
	28O34	Eliza Sarah Collett		Born in 1850 at Bermondsey, London
	28O35	Robert Collett		Born in 1852 at Bermondsey, London
	28O36	Mary Ann Collett		Born in 1854 at Bermondsey, London
28N20	Mary Ann Collett was baptised at Faringdon on 5^th June 1827, the second daughter of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett to be given the name of Mary, perhaps indicating that the couple’s first Mary suffered a childhood death. In 1841 Ann was 14 when living with her family at Grove Lodge in Faringdon. Ten years later she had left Grove Lodge and was living and working in London. The census in 1851 recorded her as Ann Collett from Faringdon, aged 23 and residing in the St Pancras & Regents Park district of the city.
	She married Joseph Smallwood possibly that same year, since the first of their children was born during 1852. The child was born at Epsom where all of their later children were also born. It is interesting that the children’s names recorded in the next three census returns varied between their first and second forenames. The Epsom census in 1861 listed the family as Joseph, age 35, Ann, age 34, Ann, who was eight, Emily, who was seven, and Frederick C Smallwood who was under one year old. Their son Leonard, age six, was staying with family in Faringdon on that occasion. Ten years later Joseph was 45, Ann was 44, and their children were Emily 17, William L Smallwood 16, Charles H Smallwood, who was eight, Edgar, who was six, Reginald, who was four, Alfred, who was two, and Harry who was under one year old.
	By 1881 Ann Smallwood and her family were living at 6 Goldstone Street in Hove, Sussex. The census details that year confirmed that she was 53 and that she had been born at Faringdon. Although the census return stated that she was married, she was also listed as head of the household, so her husband may have been away on business at the time. Her family, who were all confirmed as having been born at Epsom in Surrey, comprised Sarah E Smallwood [Emily], age 27 and an unmarried schoolteacher, Charles H Smallwood, age 18 and a draper and shopman, Joseph E Smallwood [Edgar], age 17 and a boot maker, Thomas R Smallwood [Reginald], age 15 and a painter, and scholars Ernest A Smallwood [Alfred], age 13 and Benjamin H Smallwood [Harry], age 10.
	What is very interesting is that there was a visitor at the house and he was Frederick Beams who was seven years old and also born at Epsom. See another member of the Beams family at Ref. 28O64. Ann’s eldest son had already left home to be married by 1881. He was shoemaker son William Leonard Smallwood, age 26 from Epsom, who was living at Ellen Street in Hove with his wife Louisa and two sons, both of whom were born in Brighton.
	In 1891 Ann Smallwood, age 63 and from Faringdon, was residing in the Steyning & Shoreham registration district, where other members of her family were also living. By the time of 1901 Census William Leonard Smallwood’s family had increased to four sons and four daughters with the family living at Hastings. It seems very likely that William Leonard Smallwood had a younger brother Leonard Smallwood who was also born at Epsom in the mid 1850s and that Leonard married Ann Collett’s youngest sister Clara Collett (below).
28N21	WILLIAM COLLETT was baptised at Faringdon on 7^th June 1829, another son of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett. In June 1841 William was 12 years old and was living at Grove Lodge in Faringdon with his shoemaker family and the rest of his family. By the time of the census in 1851 William, at the age of 22, was living with his married sister Jane Harris nee Collett at her family’s home at Coxwell Street in Faringdon, when his occupation was recorded as assistant to clerk to guardians. Having moved to Nantwich in Cheshire during the next couple of years, it was there that he married Hannah Pick on 8^th November 1855 at The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. Hannah was born in 1827 at nearby Willaston which lies midway between Nantwich and Crewe.
	At the time of their marriage, William was recorded as being an Attorney's Clerk and Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths. He was also recorded as being a Relieving Officer for Nantwich Poor Law Union Workhouse. It was at Nantwich that the couple’s six children were born, and all at number 16 Hospital Street. And it was at that address where the family was living in 1871. William of Faringdon was aged 42 as was his wife Hannah, and their children were Eliza J aged 14, William John 12, Leonard 10, Emma, who was six, Thomas, who was two, Walter who was just two months old.
	However, it would appear that the family was split up after William died, possibly around 1876 but certainly before April 1881. In the 1881 Census Hannah was living at 16 Hospital Street with her sons William James aged 21, who was working as a chemist’s assistant, and Leonard aged 19, who was a joiner’s apprentice. Of their four other children, daughter Emma was 18 and was working as an apprentice confectioner with spinster and confectioner Ann Fitton in her shop at 4 High Street in Nantwich.
	Hannah’s eldest daughter Eliza Jane was 24 and her youngest son Thomas was 12, and they were living with Hannah’s older brother James Pick at his London Road home in nearby Willaston. Although William’s and Hannah’s youngest son Walter featured in the 1871 census, there was no record of him thereafter so it must be assumed that he suffered an infant death. The couple’s oldest daughter Eliza Jane aged 24, and son Thomas aged 12, were both living with Hannah’s older brother James Pick at his London Road home in nearby Willaston.
	James Pick aged 64 was the superintendent registrar of births, marriages and deaths. Living with him in April 1881 were his two sisters Eliza A Pick aged 61 and Jane Pick aged 47, all three having been born at Wistaston which is about half a mile north of Willaston. The record stated that Hannah’s daughter Eliza Jane Collett was an assistant school mistress, while son Thomas was still attending school. Their relationship to head of the house James Pick was stated as being niece and nephew.
	28O37	Eliza Jane Collett		Born on 18.03.1857 at Nantwich
	28O38	William James Collett		Born on 12.04.1859 at Nantwich
	28O39	LEONARD COLLETT		Born on 17.04.1861 at Nantwich
	28O40	Emma Collett		Born on 16.01.1863 at Nantwich
	28O41	Thomas Collett		Born on 28.11.1869 at Nantwich
	28O42	Walter Collett		Born on 25.01.1871 at Nantwich
28N22	Henry Collett was born at Faringdon in 1830 and was recorded as being 10 years old in the census of 1841, when he was living with his family at Grove Lodge in Faringdon. He was one of only three children of the fourteen children of shoemaker Leonard Collett and his wife Elizabeth for whom no baptism record has been found, the other two being his younger sisters Ellen and Clara. Ten years later, on the same day that the 1851 Census was conducted, Henry Collett from Faringdon married Frances Ann Hawkins, the daughter of George Hawkins. The wedding ceremony took place on 30^th March 1851 at St Marylebone in London where Francis had been born in 1827, and the couple’s first child was born not long after they were married.
	All of their children were born in London, except Alice who was born at Epsom in Surrey. According to the census in 1861, Henry and his family were living at 3 Meards Court in the Strand & St Anne Soho district of London. Henry from Faringdon was 32 and a military tailor, his wife Frances Ann was 33 and had been born at St Georges Hanover Square, and at that time they had four children.
	They were Georgina Collett, age 10, Harry L Collett, who was eight, Helena E Collett, who was six, and Alice Collett who was two. Judging by her absence from the next census in 1871, it might be assumed that Henry’s and Frances’ eldest daughter Georgina was married by then, either that or she had suffered a premature death. By 1871 the family was living at Eagle Street within the St Andrew Holborn district of London where Henry Collett from Berkshire was 42 and Frances A was aged 43. Their children at that time were Harry L Collett, age 19 and a tailor like his father, Helen who was 15, Alice who was 11, Mary who was nine, Victoria who was six, and George aged just one year.
	In 1881 the family was living at 30 Jupps Road in Mile End Old Town in London. The family comprised: Henry a tailor aged 52 of Faringdon, his wife Frances aged 54 and a tailoress of London, and children Alice age 20, Mary age 18, Victoria age 16, and George who was 11, with each of the three girls being listed as a tailoress just like their mother.
	Ten years later in 1891 Henry was a 61 and his wife ‘Francis’ was 63. The only one of their children still living with them at 87 Bridge Street in Mile End Old Town at that time was their youngest child, who was listed as George F Collett, age 21 and a tailor like his father, who had been born at St Pancras. Henry’s place of birth was once again confirmed as Faringdon, while his wife was recorded as having been born within the St George Hanover Square district of London.
	It was just over two years later that his son George was married at Limehouse in London, when Henry was again described as a tailor, the father of the groom. Sadly it was about fifteen months after that happy event that Henry Collett from Faringdon died in London and his death was recorded at Mile End (Ref. 1c 409) during the first quarter of 1895. He was 64 and died of acute spinal myelitis and septicaemia. The loss of her husband resulted in Frances being taken in by the Poplar Union Workhouse on the High Street, where she was described as a pauper. Three years later an Order of Justice was obtained by the Guardians of the Poplar Union on 4^th February 1898 to transfer Frances Ann Collett, of about 72 years and the lawful wife of the Henry Collett deceased, to the parish or place of her last legal settlement. The Order was presented to the Guardians of the Poor of the Hamlet of Mile End Old Town, where presumably she spent the next few years, before Frances Ann Collett nee Hawkins died in 1901.
	28O43	Georgina Collett		Born in 1851 at St Marylebone, London
	28O44	Harry Leonard Collett		Born in 1852 at Holborn St Margaret
	28O45	Helena Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1855 at Holborn St Margaret
	28O46	Alice Collett		Born in 1859 at Epsom, Surrey
	28O47	Mary Collett		Born during 1863 in London
	28O48	Victoria Collett		Born during 1865 in London
	28O49	George Frederick Collett		Born during 1869 in London
28N23	Elizabeth Collett was born at Faringdon during 1832, but it was as Betsey Collett the daughter of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett that she was baptised on 23^rd October 1832. In 1841 it was as Betsy age eight years that she was recorded living with her family at Grove Lodge in Faringdon. Ten years later in 1851 another Elizabeth Collett, age 18, was a servant at the Faringdon Union Workhouse, although her place of birth was Leeds in Yorkshire, so she was very likely Ref. 55P18. Betsy Collett from Faringdon was also a servant, but in the St Luke Chelsea district of London, where she was 20 (sic) and employed by landed proprietor James Ramsbottom who was 71 and from Windsor.
	It is believed that during the 1860s Betsy married William Henry Taylor who was also born at Faringdon in 1831, and it was while they were living at Faringdon that their two known children were born. Sometime after 1870 Elizabeth and William moved to Earley near Reading when William secured work at the Huntley & Palmers Biscuit Factory. According to the 1881 Census, William Taylor, age 49, was a labourer at the biscuit factory, his wife was 48 and living with them at 22 Amity Street in Earley was their daughter Jane Taylor, who was 12, and their son Thomas Henry Taylor who was nine years old.
28N24	Esther Collett was born at Faringdon during 1834 and was baptised there on 14^th December 1834 as Hester Collett, the daughter of Leonard and Elizabeth Collett. She later married Joseph Nah Whipp. The marriage presented the couple with five children, and they were Joseph Henry Whipp, Louise Elizabeth Whipp, Adelaide Whipp, Jessie Whipp, and Amy Whipp.
28N26	Clara Collett was born at Faringdon around February or March in 1840 and was just three months old at the time of the census in June 1841 when she was living with her family at Grove Lodge in Faringdon. Clara was the last child of fourteen born to shoemaker Leonard Collett and his wife Elizabeth Scott. Clara was still living at Grove Lodge with her family in 1851 when she was ten years old, but by 1861 she was the only child of Leonard and Elizabeth still living at Grove Lodge with them in their old age, when Clara was 20 years of age.
	During the following year unmarried Clara became with-child and her base-born son was born in the subsequent year. It was also around that time when her father Leonard died, so Clara considered it would be a fitting tribute to name the child after her late father. By the time of the census in 1871 Clara and her son were living with her widowed mother Elizabeth at Grove Lodge. According to the census that year, Clara Collett was 30 and she and her seven-year old son Leonard Collett were still living at Grove Lodge with her eighty-year old mother Elizabeth Collett who died just under five years later.
	It may have been after the death of her mother that Clara married (1) Leonard Smallwood during the second half of the 1870s. Leonard is understood to have been born at Epsom around 1852 so he could not have been the father of her base-born son Leonard. However, that Leonard Smallwood may well have been William Leonard Smallwood the eldest son of Clara’s sister Ann Smallwood nee Collett (above). It is therefore possible the Clara’s husband may have been the younger brother of Joseph Smallwood who was the husband of Ann Collett whom she married in 1851.
	Neither Clara, her husband Leonard, nor her son Leonard, featured in the 1881 UK National Census under the name of Collett or Smallwood and the reason for that was that by then her husband had died and Clara had married (2) Isaac Whittle. According to the census in 1881, Clara Whittle, age 40 and born at Faringdon, was living with her son Leonard Whittle (formerly Leonard Collett), age 17, at the home of her new husband Isaac Whittle at 133 Spoke Road in Battersea, London.
	Isaac Whittle was 44 and a railway signalman was born at Upton in Dorset, while Clara’s son Leonard was listed as the stepson of Isaac. In addition, Isaac had three children from his previous marriage. They were Fred, age 13 and an errand boy, Amy, age 12, and Edward who was eight. By 1891 the family was living in the Wandsworth registration district of London where Clara was aged 50, Isaac 54 and his stepson Leonard 27 and both mother and son were confirmed as born at Faringdon.
	A further ten years later in 1901 Clara was 60 and her husband Isaac was 64. By then they had moved and were living alone at Walton-on-Thames, where Isaac was still working as a railway signalman. On leaving home sometime during the 1890s Clara’s son Leonard reverted back to the Collett surname and by 1901 he was living at Aston in Birmingham with his wife. During the following decade Clara and Isaac moved again, and in 1909 they were living at St John’s Schoolhouse in Wimborne, Dorset. It was on 31^st December that year when retired railway signalman Isaac Whittle died. His Will was proved at Blandford on 27^th April 1910 when his stepson Leonard Collett, a schoolmaster, was named as the sole executor of his estate of £294 3 Shilling 4 Pence.
	Following the death of her husband Clara Whittle nee Collett was reunited with her schoolmaster son in Birmingham, with whom she was staying at the time of the census in 1911 when she was 70. And it was there also that she was still living when her death was recorded at the Aston register office (Ref. 6d 373) during the third quarter of 1919 at the age of 78.
	28O50	Leonard Collett		Born in 1863 at Faringdon
28N27	Stephen Collett was born at Alvescot on 27^th July 1825 and was buried at St Peter’s Church in Alvescot following his death one day after he was born. He was the eldest child of William and Ann Collett.
28N28	Elizabeth Ann Collett was born at Alvescot and was baptised there on 29^th July 1827, the oldest surviving child of William and Ann Collett. It was simply as Elizabeth Collet (sic) that she was recorded as the eldest child of William and Ann in the Alvescot census of 1841 when she was 14. It was also at Alvescot over eight years later that she married David Johnson on 25^th November 1849. By 1881 Elizabeth had present David with a number of children, two of whom were still living with the couple at Samfords in Bampton that year. David Johnson was 56 and a hay trusser, Elizabeth Ann Johnson was 53, Annie Johnson was 18, while Thomas Richard Johnson was eight years of age. Living with the family on that day was their grandson George W Johnson who was six years old. Every member of the household was recorded as having been born at Bampton.
	Six years earlier the couple’s eldest daughter Clara had given birth to a base-born son Albert Edward Johnson who was born at Bampton on 19^th November 1875, when Clara was working as a domestic servant. It was she also who signed the birth certificate by making the mark of a cross. Neither mother or son have been located in 1881, so it seems likely that Clara was married by then, and that her son had taken her married name, had he survived.
28N29	George Collett was born at Alvescot and baptised there on 29^th November 1829, and was 11 years of age in the Alvescot census of 1841. He married Jane Stanton at Brackley in Northamptonshire during 1850, and she was baptised on 20^th April 1828 at Marston St Lawrence, which is midway between Banbury and Brackley, the daughter of Matthew and Anne Stanton. By the time of the Alvescot census in the following year the marriage had already produced the couple’s first child. George Collett was 21, his wife Jane was 22, and their daughter Mary was not yet one year old, while five more children were added to their family during the next decade. However, the last of those five, Caroline, died after eight months and just ten months prior to the census day in 1861.
	That situation was confirmed by the Alvescot census that year, when the family was recorded under the incorrect spelling of their surname as Collet. George was 31, Jane was 32, and their five surviving children were Mary Ann, age 10, John, who was nine, George, who was eight, Lucy, who was six, and Anne who was two years of age. On the day of the census in 1861 Jane was expecting the birth of the couple’s seventh child, which was born six weeks later and was followed by the birth of their last child just over two years after that. Four years later, during the autumn of 1867, the couple’s first grandchild was born, when their eldest daughter Mary Ann gave birth to a base-born daughter.
	That grandchild, Emma Collett, was living with George and Jane at their cottage in Alvescot at the time of the census in 1871, while the whereabouts of her mother Mary has not yet been discovered, even though it is known that she was married at Alvescot seven months later that same year. Once again the family’s surname was recorded with one T, so George Collet was 41 and an agricultural labourer, while his wife Jane was 43. The children still living with them on that day were George, who was 18 and a farmer’s groom, Anne, who was 12, Elizabeth, who was nine, and William who was seven, all of whom were confirmed as having been born at Alvescot.
	In addition to their granddaughter Emma Collett (Ref. 28P61), who was four years old, there was one other person living with the family at that time, and that was George’s father William Collett, a widower of 75, who was described as being a former agricultural labourer who had been born at Little Faringdon. George’s missing daughter Lucy was still living nearby in Alvescot, where she was also working at the age of 16.
	By the time of the census in 1881 for Alvescot, George was 51 and was an agricultural labourer living with his wife Jane who was 52. Living with them were their two youngest children, Elizabeth, age 19, and William, who was 17, both of them were employed as agricultural labourers and both were listed as having been born at Alvescot. Also living with them was their grandson Albert Collett (Ref. 28P76) who was two years of age and of Alvescot, the base-born son of their daughter Elizabeth who was to be married later that same year. By that time their daughter Lucy, age 26, was married with three children, while unmarried daughter Annie, age 21, was living and working in Berkshire, not far from her married brothers John and George.
	Even after their daughter Elizabeth was married, George and Jane continued to look after her son. By 1891 Albert was still living with the couple at Alvescot, when George and Jane were both 61, and their grandson was 12. Just after the turn of the century George was still living at Alvescot, but was a widower by then, following the death of his wife at Alvescot on 7^th February 1895. In March 1901 George was recorded as being 71 and his occupation was that of an ordinary farm labourer.
	George Collett died at Alvescot on 12^th July 1906, following which he was buried with his wife Jane in the graveyard of Peter’s Church in Alvescot, where a single headstone marks the grave with the following epitaph. “In Loving Memory of George Collett who died on July 12^th 1906 aged 76 years. Also of Jane Collett wife of the above who died February 7^th 1895 aged 66 years – They rest from their labours”
	28O51	Mary Ann Collett		Born on 13.10.1850 at Alvescot
	28O52	John Collett		Born on 28.12.1851 at Alvescot
	28O53	George Collett		Born on 06.02.1853 at Alvescot
	28O54	Lucy Collett		Born on 26.11.1854 at Alvescot
	28O55	Annie Collett		Born on 12.09.1858 at Alvescot
	28O56	Caroline Collett		Born on 16.10.1859 at Alvescot
	28O57	Elizabeth Collett		Born on 26.05.1861 at Alvescot
	28O58	William Collett		Born on 21.06.1863 at Alvescot
28N30	Mary Collett was born at Alvescot where she was also baptised on 25^th March 1832, and by 1841 she was recorded with her family at the age of nine years. By the time she was nineteen she had already left the family home in Alvescot and it was seven years later that she married (1) Thomas Smith in 1858 at Bicester. Tragically the marriage did not last long, before Thomas Smith died at Bicester during the following year, and that short marriage produced no children for Mary. Two years later the 1861 Census for Bicester confirmed that Mary Smith, age 28 and born at Alvescot, was a widow and a servant at the home of Thomas Henry Shillingford in Bicester.
	It was during the following year that Mary married (2) Joseph Wise at Witney. Joseph was born at Weston-on-the-Green near Bicester in 1833 and was the oldest son of Joseph Wise and Ann Porter. The Wise family comprised Mary born 1829, Emma born 1832, Joseph, Thomas born 1836, Sarah born 1838, Elizabeth born 1840, John born in 1844 and William who was baptised on 22^nd May 1853.
	In 1871 Joseph Wise was 38 and an agricultural labourer living at Step Farm in Faringdon. With him was his wife Mary 39, and their children Mary, who was six and born at Shellingford just south of Faringdon, Joseph, who was four and born at Faringdon, Sarah who was two, and one-year old William, both of them born at Eaton Hastings just north-west of Faringdon.
	Also living with then at that time was Joseph’s youngest brother William Wise, age 16, whose occupation was that of a shepherd. And it was that William Wise who married Mary Ann Collett (Ref. 28O51) who was the niece of Mary Wise nee Collett (Joseph’s wife), Mary Ann being the daughter of Mary’s brother George Collett (above)
	By 1881 Mary Wise, age 49 and from Alvescot, and Joseph Wise, age 48 and a gas fitter from Weston on the Green, were living at 4 Henry Street, Rodbourne Cheney in Swindon. According to census details Mary and Joseph’s family had increased to six children, with the addition of John who was seven and Thomas who was five, both of them born at Swindon. During the next twenty years William Wise passed away leaving Mary Wise, age 69 and from Alverscot, still living at the family home in Swindon but with just her unmarried son William G Wise aged 31 the only one of her children still living there with her.
28N32	Ann Collett was born at Alvescot and baptised there on 16^th April 1837, the daughter of William Collett and Ann Maisey. She was four years old in the census of 1841, when she was one of the six surviving children living with her parents at Alvescot, but had left the family home by 1851 when she would have been 14. She was still only eighteen when she married (1) Charles Richards on 25^th October 1856 at Buckland Parish Church. Charles was born at Buckland in Berkshire on 17^th January 1830, the son of William Richards. Both William and Charles Richards were listed as labourers on the marriage certificate, although later Charles became a baker. A witness at the wedding was Charles’ brother Thomas Richards.
	The couple’s five children were born at three different locations, perhaps indicating that they moved around to suit Charles’ work as a labourer/baker. The first child was born at Alvescot, the second at Great Coxwell near Faringdon, the third at Woolstone between Uffington and the White Horse Hill, and the fourth again at Great Coxwell. It was prior to the birth of their fifth and last child that Ann and Charles and their family sailed out of Greenock in Scotland on 30^th October 1874, bound for New Zealand on board the colonial clipper Wild Deer. They were at sea for almost three months, when they arrived at Port Chalmers on 20^th January 1875. Making the journey with them was Charles’ sister Fanny Richards, who had married William Woodley, their son William and Fanny’s two daughters from a previous marriage. It was around mid-journey that Ann became pregnant with the couple’s last child.
	After their arrival on the South Island of New Zealand the family settled at Queenstown in Otago, although the birth of their fifth child in August that same year was registered at nearby Arrowtown. The family became well established at nearby Queenstown, where Charles continued his occupation as a baker. About a year after the family settled had been there Charles Richards tragically died in suspicion circumstances on 12^th May 1876. An item in The Arrow Observer for Wednesday 17^th May included the following report.
	“News of a melancholy accident reached us on Saturday last, from Queenstown. Mr Richards, who for some time resided in this town, and was engaged at Gilmour’s Mill, was drowned in the Wakatip Lake, 12 Mile, on Friday morning last. It appears, from what we learn, that he rose from his bed, and on being asked by his son where he was going, said he wouldn’t be long; but he never returned alive. His body was found next morning, lying in about two feet of water. We cannot account for the occurrence in any way as he always seemed to be a very steady, sober and industrious man. He leaves a wife and several children to mourn his loss.”
	However, at the inquest held on 15^th May 1876, and reported in the Queenstown Southland Times newspaper on 18^th May, the situation was made a little clearer. That stated that:
	“An inquest was held today on the body of a man named Richards. He was found drowned in the lake at Bob’s Cove on Sunday morning. The man had been a servant of one Gilmour, a miller near Arrow, and had taken his wages in sheep and land. Upon going to view his property, he found the land covered with water. This is supposed to have preyed upon his mind, inducing him to commit a most determined suicide. He was picked up in about two feet of water with his hands desperately crossed upon his chest. The verdict was ‘temporary insanity’.
	Following his death Ann, as the sole provider, then established a successful boarding house called ‘Pleasant View’ on Eastern Terrace in Queenstown. She later married (2) Thomas Mantle and as Ann Mantle she died on 2^nd November 1919 and was buried at Queenstown Cemetery, at the age of 84. At the time of her death she was still living at Eastern Terrace and had been a keen supporter of the Wakatipu Horticultural Society. Ann’s obituary stated that she was born at Coleshill, which is situated midway between Faringdon and Highworth, some ten miles from Alvescot. It is also referred to her three sons and two daughters, three of whom had already died prior to her death. This photo of Ann was provided by her great granddaughter June Keating.
	The full obituary read as follows: ”A very old resident of Queenstown, in the person of Ann Mantle, wife of Mr T Mantle, died at her residence, Eastern Terrace, in the early hours of Sunday morning. The deceased had been in very indifferent health for some considerable time, suffering from many ills peculiar to her ripe old age of 84. Despite her four score years, however, and the fact that she had been a martyr to rheumatism, she was a remarkably industrious woman. All her life, indeed, she was a great worker and a keen gardener, in this latter connection being a strong supporter of the Wakatipu Horticultural Society.
	The late Mrs Mantle was born at Coleshill, Oxfordshire, (Eng.). With her first husband, Mr Richards, and her family, she embarked for New Zealand in the sailing ship Wild Deer, in 1874, the passage occupying 92 days. They landed at Port Chalmers and came straight to this district, settling in Queenstown. They had five children – three sons and two daughters, these being Mr Fred Richards (Pareora), Mr B.E. Richards (Timaru), the late Mr W. Richards, and Mrs Logan and Mrs Richmond, both deceased. About a year after the arrival of the Richards family in Queenstown Mr Richards died, so his widow set out to establish a boarding house on the Eastern Terrace. This was known as "Pleasant View", and under her capable management it became a very well-known and popular place of accommodation, being conducted by her with success until 1904 when she decided to retire. Thirty-four years ago the deceased was married to Mr T Mantle.
	The late Mrs Mantle was a type of the true pioneer. She kept her home with scrupulous care, reared her family in honour and was in every sense a godly matron who faced the many hardships and sorrows of a chequered career in a spirit that is seldom met with in the present day and generation. Mrs Mantle was held in high esteem and respect in Queenstown, and her husband and family will have the sympathy of the people of our community in their bereavement. On Sunday morning felling reference was made to her death by the Vicar of Wakatipu in St Peter’s, of which church she was a faithful adherent. The funeral takes place this afternoon, when the remains will be interred in the Queenstown Cemetery.”
	28O59	Mary Ann Richards			Born in 1858
	28O60	William Charles Richards			Born in 1860
	28O61	Fred Richards			Born in 1865
	28O62	Susan Richards			Born in 1866
	28O63	Bertram Edwin Richards			Born in 1875
28N33	Lucy Collett was born at Alvescot on 6^th March 1839, and it was there that she was baptised on 31^st March 1839, the daughter of William Collett and his wife Ann Maisey. She was two years old in the census of 1841 and was 12 years of age in the Alvescot census of 1851, by which time she was the oldest of the three children still living with her parents. Lucy later married John Pill who was born on 10^th May 1829 at Eaton Hastings near Faringdon. The marriage produced nine children between 1858 and 1877, although only seven survived beyond infancy. The last six children were born at Eaton Hastings, Thrupp, Wantage, Buscot, with the final two having been born at Coleshill.
	And it was at Coleshill that the family was living in 1881 when John Pill was 51 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Lucy was 42, and still living there with them were their five youngest children. They were Mary A Pill, age 19, Fanny Pill, age 16, Elizabeth Pill, age 10, Emily Pill who was seven, and William John Pill who was four years old. On the day of the census Lucy was expecting the birth of her last child, Percy who was born later that same year.
	Twenty years later in March 1901 Lucy and John were still living at Coleshill, where cattleman John Pill from Eaton Hastings was 72, while his wife Lucy from Alvescot was 63. By April 1911 John Pill was a farm labourer at the age of 82, his wife of 53 years was Lucy Pill, who was 72, and living with them at Coleshill near Highworth was their grandson Percy Pill of Coleshill who was 30 and a stone digger in a quarry. The census also confirmed that they had had nine children of which seven were still alive. Lucy Pill nee Collett died in 1917.
28N34	WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Alvescot on 29^th January 1842 and was baptised there on 27^th February 1842. He was nine years old in 1851, when he was one of only three children still living with his parents at Alvescot, while ten years after that, when he was 19, it was only William and his younger brother Joseph (below) who were still living with their parents at Alvescot in 1861. Sadly, just eight months later William’s mother died. Two years on from then William married Elizabeth Lander at Faringdon on 30^th October 1863. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Lander and Hannah Davis and was born on 7^th July 1844 at Faringdon. William’s work meant that the family was widely travelled around the Swindon area, judging from the many places that the couple’s children were born.
	The first four children were born while William and Elizabeth were living in Faringdon. There then followed a quick succession of four location where the next four children were born, they being, Rodbourne, Swindon, Dauntsey, Wroughton. The next three children were born after the family moved to Stratton St Margaret and the last child was born at Crudwell.
	Rodbourne and Dauntsey lie close to Malmesbury to the west of Swindon, while Crudwell is situated to the north between Malmesbury and Cirencester. However, in the census of 1911 William’s son George who was born at Rodbourne said he was born in Swindon which may mean he was born at Rodbourne Cheney.
	At the time of the census in 1871 the family was confirmed as living at Cheltenham Street in Swindon and comprised father William, his wife Elizabeth, son William, and daughters Mary Ann and Caroline. The couple’s second son James, who would have been three, had already passed away by then.
	Ten years later according to the 1881 Census, William 39 and born at Alvescot was a brewer’s labourer living with his wife Elizabeth aged 37 and of Faringdon and his family at Stratton Green in Stratton St Margaret. The family at that time comprised William 16, Caroline 12, George 10, Fanny, who was five, and Fred who was two years old. Missing from the family was their daughter Mary Ann Collett who would have been 15, son Tom Alfred Collett who would have been eight years old.
	A wider search of the 1881 Census has located Mary Ann Collett living with her aunt Caroline Mayersbach at Hove in Sussex. Caroline Mayersbach was formerly Caroline Lander the sister of Elizabeth Collett nee Lander, Mary Ann’s mothers. A further search for Tom Collett revealed that he was a visitor at the home of Charles and Sophie Lander at Gloucester Street in Faringdon, where he was listed as being seven years of age. Charles Lander, who was 52, was a builder’s labourer from London, and was very likely the older brother of Elizabeth Collett nee Lander, Tom’s mother.
	Following the birth of their last child at Crudwell, the family lived for a while within the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade registration district. That was confirmed by the census of 1891 in which William was 48, Elizabeth was 47, and their children were George, age 20, Fanny, age 14, Frederick, age 12, Elizabeth, age 10, John, who was eight, Albert, who was five, and James who was one year old and born at nearby Crudwell.
	During the next decade the family returned to Stratton St Margaret where they were recorded as living in March 1901. On that occasion William and Elizabeth still had eight of their children still living with them, although two of their sons were married by then with families of their own. William was 59 and a general labourer born at Alvescot, and his wife Elizabeth was 57 and of Faringdon. Living with them were their sons William 36 born at Faringdon and George 29 born at Swindon, John 17 and Albert 15, both born at Stratton, and all four of them employed as general labourers.
	In addition to the older boys, there was also daughter Elizabeth, age 20 of Stratton, and the family’s youngest son James who was 11 and born at Crudwell. The ‘missing’ married sons were Tom and Frederick and their census record details are provided under their own names.
	By 1911 the only member of the family still living with William and Elizabeth was their youngest son James. The family was still living at Stratton St Margaret where William Collett was 69, his wife Elizabeth was 65, and their son James was 21. A short while later Left the family home to be married.
	William Collett died on 16^th December 1923 and was followed three years after by his wife Elizabeth who died on 26^th December 1926, and both deaths were registered in Swindon. The single headstone that marks their grave at Stratton St Margaret bears the following inscription “In Loving Memory of William Collett who died Dec 16^th 1923 aged 80 years, Also of Elizabeth wife of the above who died Dec 26^th 1926 aged 81 years – Reunited”