PART
TWENTY-EIGHT
The
Faringdon
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
Faringdon has always been part of the
In addition to
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
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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 22nd February 1638. |
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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 10th
November 1695. It is possible that
Sarah was the sister of John Collett who starts this family line (Ref. 28I1). |
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Two later unconnected records
have also been found. The first
relates to the Faringdon baptism of John Collett on 19th January
1752 who was the son of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth. The second is the baptism of James Collett
at Faringdon on 22nd September 1796 who was the son of James and
Jane Collett. Where they fit into this
family line has yet to be determined. |
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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. |
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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. |
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28J1 |
JOHN COLLETT |
Born in 1698 at Buscot |
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28J2
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Anthony Collett |
Born in 1690 at Longcot, nr Faringdon |
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28J3
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William Collett |
Born in 1695 at Buscot |
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28J4
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Thomas Collett |
Born in 1696 at Buscot |
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28J5
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Mary Collett |
Born in 1700 at Buscot |
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28J6
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Anthony Collett |
Born in 1702 at Buscot |
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28J7
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Henry Collett |
Born in 1705 at Buscot |
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28J8
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Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1706 at Buscot |
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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. |
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28J1 |
JOHN COLLETT
was born at Buscot on 15th September 1698 where he was baptised on
13th 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 8th July 1726 with whom he had a further three sons. |
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28K1
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Richard Collett |
Born in 1725 at Faringdon |
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The following is the
child of John Collett and his second wife Mary Breach: |
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28K2
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Thomas Collett |
Born in 1727 at Faringdon |
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28K3
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JOHN COLLETT |
Born in 1728 at Faringdon |
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28K4
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William Collett |
Born in 1730 at Faringdon |
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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 19th 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 14th September 1741, and it has been assumed
that this refers to the husband of Sarah Jacobs. |
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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. |
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28K5 |
Betty Collett |
Baptised in 1722 at Faringdon |
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28K6
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Anthony Collett |
Baptised in 1725 at Faringdon |
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28K7 |
John Collett |
Baptised in 1728 at Faringdon |
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28K8 |
Sarah Collett |
Baptised in 1732 at Faringdon |
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28K9 |
Ann Collett |
Baptised in 1734 at Faringdon |
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28K10 |
William Collett |
Baptised in 1737 at Faringdon |
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28J3
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William Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 13th 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). |
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28K11 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Baptised in 1727 at Buscot |
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28K12
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Martha Collett |
Baptised in 1728 at Buscot |
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28K13 |
Ann Collett |
Baptised in 1731 at Buscot |
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28K14 |
John Collett |
Baptised in 1733 at Buscot |
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28K15 |
Jane Collett |
Baptised in 1736 at Buscot |
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28J4
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Thomas Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 13th 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 16th
October, and the other was Thomas Collett who married Jane Carter on 3rd
November 1727. |
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All of the children
listed below were baptised at Faringdon, when their parents were named as Tho
and Jane Collet (sic). |
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28K16 |
Thomas Collett |
Baptised in 1730 at Faringdon |
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28K17
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Maria Collett |
Baptised in 1733 at Faringdon |
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28K18 |
Esther Collett |
Baptised in 1734 at Faringdon |
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28K19 |
Ann Collett |
Baptised in 1736 at Faringdon |
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28J5
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Mary Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 26th 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 17th October 1710. Sadly
it was within the following week that he died and was buried at Buscot on the
24th October 1710. |
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28K20
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Charles Collett |
Born in 1700 at Buscot; died 1700 |
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28J6
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Anthony Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 26th 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
31st August 1718, as was their son Richard who was baptised on 24th
April 1720, both recorded as the children of Anthony and Joan Collet (sic). |
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28K21
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Mary Collett |
Born in 1718 at Great Coxwell |
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28K22 |
Richard Collett |
Born in 1720 at Great Coxwell |
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28J7
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Henry Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 12th August 1705, the youngest son of John
and Elizabeth Collett. |
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28J8
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Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Buscot on 30th November 1706,
the last known child of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth Petty. |
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28K1
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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 5th May 1745 that he married Elizabeth Gough who, as Betty
Goffe, had been born on 29th 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. |
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28L1
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Sarah Collett |
Born in 1745 at Faringdon |
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28L2
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Martha Collett |
Born in 1747 at Faringdon |
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28L3 |
William Collett |
Born in 1748 at Faringdon |
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28L4 |
Letitia Collett |
Born in 1751 at Faringdon |
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28L5 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1753 at Faringdon |
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28L6 |
Lucy Collett |
Born in 1755 at Faringdon |
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28L7 |
Alan Collett |
Born in 1757 at Faringdon |
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28L8 |
Isaac Collett |
Born in 1761 at Faringdon |
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28L9 |
Dinah Collett |
Born in 1763 at Faringdon |
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28L10
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Deborah Collett |
Born in 1769 at Faringdon |
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28K2
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Thomas Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 7th May 1727, the eldest of the three
sons of John Collett by his second wife Mary Breach. |
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28K3
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JOHN COLLETT was born at Faringdon in 1728 and was
baptised there on 26th January 1729, the second son of John and
Mary Collett. It would appear that it
was at Faringdon where he married Lettice Evans on 19th August
1751. Letitia Evans was the daughter
of Thomas Evans and was born on 18th 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. |
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28L11
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Mary Collett |
Born in 1752 at Faringdon |
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28L12 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1755 at Faringdon |
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28L13 |
Jane Collett |
Born in 1757 at Faringdon |
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28L14 |
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Born in 1759 at Faringdon |
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28L15
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ROBERT COLLETT |
Born in 1762 at Faringdon |
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28K4
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William Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 5th February 1730, the last of the three
sons for John Collett and Mary Breach. |
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28K5 |
Betty Collett was
born at Faringdon sometime after 1717 before 1722 where she was baptised as
Betty Collett on 1st July 1722 the eldest daughter of Anthony and
Sarah Collett. |
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28K6 |
Anthony Collett may
have been born at Faringdon around six or seven years before he was baptised
there on 7th 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 25th December 1735, after which
they settled in Buscot where their children were born and baptised. |
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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 30th 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 30th June 1788. |
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28L16
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John Collett |
Born in 1737 at Buscot |
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28L17
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Mary Collett |
Born in 1740 at Buscot |
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28L18
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Martha Collett |
Born in 1742 at Buscot |
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28L19
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James Collett |
Born in 1745 at Buscot |
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28L20
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Thomas Collett |
Born in 1748 at Buscot |
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28L21
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Betty Collett |
Born before 1756 at Buscot |
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The following are the
two daughters of Anthony Collett and his second wife Letitia Castle: |
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28L22
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Mary Collett |
Baptised on 09.12.1764 at Faringdon |
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28L23
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Hannah Collett |
Baptised on 21.10.1767 at Faringdon |
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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 24th
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 8th July 1742.
All of their nine children were born and baptised at Faringdon when
their parents were confirmed as John and Susanna Collett. |
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28L24
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James Collett |
Born in 1743 at Faringdon |
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28L25
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Richard Collett |
Born in 1745 at Faringdon |
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28L26
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Martha Collett |
Born in 1746 at Faringdon |
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28L27
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Henry Collett |
Born in 1748 at Faringdon |
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28L28
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Stephen Collett |
Born in 1750 at Faringdon |
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28L29
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Hannah Collett |
Born in 1752 at Faringdon |
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28L30
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Stephen Collett |
Born in 1757 at Faringdon |
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28L31
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Maria Collett |
Born in 1760 at Faringdon |
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28L32
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John Collett |
Born in 1764 at Faringdon |
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28K8 |
Sarah Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 13th 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. |
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28K9 |
Ann Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 7th 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 12th 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
2nd June 1751, Mary Neal was baptised on 3rd February
1756, and Elizabeth Neal was baptised on 30th March 1760. This is the family line of Vicki Martin nee
Purcell from Adelaide in Australia. |
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28K10 |
William Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1736 and was baptised there on 6th 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 9th September 1778. |
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28L33
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Sarah Collett |
Baptised on 12.02.1762 at Faringdon |
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28L34
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William Collett |
Baptised on 10.02.1765 at Faringdon |
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28K11 |
Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Buscot on 18th January 1727
when she was recorded as Elizthe Collet, the daughter of Wm and Eliz Collet. |
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28K12
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Martha Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 18th July 1728 when she was recorded as the
daughter of Willm and Eliz Collet. |
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28K13 |
Ann Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 30th September 1731 when she was recorded as
the daughter of Wm and Eliz Collet. |
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28K14 |
John Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 9th December 1733, the eldest son of Willm
and Eliz Collet. |
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28K15 |
Jane Collett was
baptised at Buscot on 21st March 1736, the last known child of
Willm and Eliz Collet. |
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28K16 |
Thomas Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 26th July 1730, the eldest child of
Thomas Collett and Jane Carter. |
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28K17
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Maria Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 29th April 1733, the eldest daughter of
Thomas and Jane Collett. |
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28K18 |
Esther Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 22nd May 1734, the daughter of Thomas and
Jane Collett. |
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28K19 |
Ann Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 4th April 1736, the youngest know child
of Thomas Collett and his wife Jane Carter. |
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28K21
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Mary Collett was
baptised at Great Coxwell 31st August on 1718, the daughter of
Anthony and Joan Collett. It was also
at Great Coxwell that a Mary Collett married Thomas Albumun on 19th
December 1767, while another Mary Collett married Thomas Pyeman at Great
Faringdon on 10th July 1749. It is unsure whether either of these
was this Mary Collett. |
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28L1
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Sarah Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1745 where she was baptised on 10th November
1745, as the eldest daughter of Richard and Betty Collett. |
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28L2
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Martha Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1747. She was the
daughter of Richard and Betty Collett and was baptised at Faringdon on 30th
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 7th January 1746, although
that family has not been identified at this time. |
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28L3 |
William Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1748 where he was baptised on 23rd 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. |
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28M1
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Sarah Collett |
Born in 1776 at Buscot |
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28M2
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Rachel Collett |
Born in 1779 at Buscot |
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28M3 |
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Born in 1781 at Buscot |
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28M4 |
William Collett |
Born in 1785 at Buscot |
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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. |
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For
the continuation of the family line of William Collett and Elizabeth Walker see
Part 39 – The Clanfield Oxfordshire |
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28L4 |
Letitia Collett was
born at Faringdon either in late 1751 or early 1751, and it was there also
that she was baptised on 10th March 1751, the daughter of Richard
and Betty Collett. An alternative date
is also listed on the IGI which gives the year as 1750. |
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28L5 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at Faringdon where she was baptised on 4th
February 1753, the daughter of Richard and Betty Collett. |
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28L6 |
Lucy Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1755 and was baptised there on 19th October
1755, the daughter of Richard and Betty Collett. |
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28L7 |
Alan Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1757 and it was there that he was baptised as Allen
Collett on 7th August 1757, the son of Richard and Betty Collett,
although the baptism entry appears to have spelt his name as Allen. |
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28L8 |
Isaac Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1761 where he was baptised on 28th June 1761,
the son of Richard Collett and his wife Betty. |
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28L9 |
Dinah Collett was born at Faringdon in 1763 and was
baptised there on 15th January 1764, the daughter of Richard and
Betty Collett. |
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28L10
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Deborah Collett
was born at Faringdon in 1769 and it was there also that she was baptised on
2nd July 1769, the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Collet (sic). |
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28L11
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Mary Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1752 where she was baptised on 19th April
1752, the daughter of John and Lettice Collett. |
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28L12 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at Faringdon and it was there also that she was
baptised on 13th July 1755 as the child of John and Lettice Collett. |
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|
|
|||||
28L13 |
Jane Collett was
born at Faringdon and baptised there on 3rd April 1757, the
baptism record confirming that she was the daughter of John and Lettice
Collett. |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
28L14 |
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
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 3rd January 1762, the youngest child of John and Lettice
Collett. Two months before his
nineteenth birthday he married Mary Harris at Faringdon on 11th
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 22nd 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 10th 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 27th July 1740, the
eldest daughter of Anthony and Ann Collett. |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
28L18
|
Martha Collett was
born in 1742 and was baptised at Buscot on 21st December 1742, the
daughter of Anthony and Ann Collett. |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
28L19
|
James Collett was
born in 1745 and was baptised at Buscot on 5th 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 15th 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 22nd 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 24th 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 6th 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 3rd 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 7th
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 7th April 1748,
the son of John and Susannah Collet (sic). |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
28L28
|
Stephen Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1750 and was baptised there on 11th 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 12th 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 24th April 1757, the son of John and
Susanna Collett. Stephen Collett was
arrested on 13th 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 21st February 1794 when his place of birth was confirmed as
Berkshire and his age as 38. It was on
24th 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 20th 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 9th
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 14th
July 1776 as the daughter of William and Rachel Collett. |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
28M2
|
Rachel Collett was
born at Buscot in 1779 where she was baptised on 9th 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 9th 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 4th December
1785, the son of William and Rachel Collett.
It was as William Collet (sic) at Buscot on 14th 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 25th 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 24th 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 16th 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 17th January 1781 where she was baptised on
19th 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 9th 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 24th 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 9th
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 31st
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 30th August
1789, the son of Robert Collett and Mary Harris. He married Elizabeth Scott on 15th
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 30th
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 17th 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 15th
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 30th October 1791, where she was
baptised on 9th November 1791, the second daughter of that name of
Robert and Mary Collett. It was also
at Faringdon that she married William Hunter on 16th February
1811. |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
28M15
|
WILLIAM COLLETT
was born at Little Faringdon on 30th October 1793, the youngest
son of Robert and Mary Collett. He
married Ann Maisey on 29th November 1824 at Fulbrook, Burford in
Oxfordshire. She was the daughter of Stephen
Maisey and Ann Butler (1776-1831) and was born on 12th 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 7th
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 3rd 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 30th 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 15th November 1773 at
Shilton (married on 19th January 1804 and died in 1855) and was
the son of John Maisey born at Black Bourton, Oxon on 9th March
1736 who married Ann Betts on 14th 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. |
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28N27 |
|
Born on 27.07.1825 at Alvescot |
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28N28 |
Elizabeth Ann Collett |
Baptised on 29.07.1827 at Alvescot |
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28N29 |
George Collett |
Baptised on 29.11.1829 at Alvescot |
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28N30 |
Mary Collett |
Baptised on 25.03.1832 at Alvescot |
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28N31 |
Harriett Collett |
Baptised on 20.04.1834 at Alvescot |
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28N32 |
Anne Collett |
Baptised on 16.04.1837 at Alvescot |
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28N33 |
Lucy Collett |
Born on 06.03.1839 at Alvescot |
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28N34 |
WILLIAM COLLETT |
Born on 29.01.1842 at Alvescot |
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28N35 |
Joseph Collett |
Baptised on 01.02.1846 at Alvescot |
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28M16
|
Sarah Collett was
born at Faringdon during 1796 or the few years before that, and was baptised
there on 19th June 1796, the youngest child of Robert and Mary
Collett. Sadly she did not survive and
was buried there during March 1799. |
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28M17
|
Betty Collett was
born at Buscot in 1762 where she was baptised on 3rd 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 5th November 1769 that
Betty also died at the age of seven. |
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28M18
|
Mary Collett was
born at Buscot in 1762 and was baptised there on 6th January 1763,
the daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett. |
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28M19 |
William Collett was
born at Buscot in 1764 where he was baptised on 17th February
1765, the son of John and Elizabeth Collett. |
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28M20 |
Ann Collett was
born at Buscot in 1766 and it was there also that she was baptised on 2nd
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 26th
October 1766. |
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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 3rd July 1768. Tragically it was nine days later that he
died, just two days after his twin brother. |
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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 3rd July 1768. Tragically it was just seven days after
that when he died and just two days before the death of his twin brother. |
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28M23
|
Ann Collett was
born at Faringdon during 1784 where she was baptised on 12th
January 1785, the eldest child of James Collett and Mary Sheppard. |
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28M24
|
Mary Collett was
born at Faringdon possibly in the late 1780s and was baptised there a few
years later on 30th September 1792 when she was named in error as
the daughter of James and Mary Collott. |
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28M25 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at Faringdon during 1793 and it was there also
that she was baptised on 14th June 1793, the daughter of James and
Mary Collett. |
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28M26 |
Sophia Collett was
born at Faringdon in 1798 where she was baptised on 30th November
1798, another daughter of James and Mary Collett. |
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28M27 |
Maria Collett was
born at Faringdon on 17th June 1801 and was baptised there on 6th
June 1801, the youngest of the five known daughters of James Collett and his
wife Mary Sheppard. |
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28N1 |
Sarah Collett was
born at Buscot in 1817 and was baptised there on 7th 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. |
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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. |
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28N2 |
Rachel Collett was
born at Buscot in 1820, and it was there that she was baptised on 18th
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. |
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The wedding would have
taken place around 1849, and three years earlier Henry Hollick was serving
with the 50th Regiment of Foot in the First Anglo-Sikh War when he
was wounded in both legs by grapeshot during the Battle of Sobraon on 10th
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. |
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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). |
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In 1881 Rachel and
Henry were living at the |
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28O1
|
John Wheeler Collett |
Born in 1842 |
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28O2
|
Martha Hollick |
Born in 1851 |
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28O3
|
Harry Pinel Hollick |
Born in 1856 |
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28O4
|
Ruth Hollick |
Born in 1865 |
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28N3 |
William Collett was
born at Buscot in 1822 and was baptised there on 27th 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 26th 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). |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 14th February 1858 when she was named
Susan Collett after her grandmother Susannah Collett nee Loosey. |
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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. |
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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. |
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28O5
|
William Collett |
Born in 1844 at Eaton Hastings |
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28O6
|
Maria Collett |
Born in 1845 at Eaton Hastings |
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28O7
|
Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1847 at Eaton Hastings |
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28O8
|
Mary A Collett |
Born in August 1850 at Eaton Hastings |
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28O9
|
Harriett Collett |
Born in 1853 at Eaton Hastings |
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28O10
|
Ann Collett |
Born in 1855 at Eaton Hastings |
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28O11
|
Susan Collett |
Born in 1857 at Aldridge, near Walsall |
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28O12
|
|
Born in 1863 at Hardwick, near Walsall |
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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 13th 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. |
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|
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. |
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It was ten months later
that Hester, recorded as ‘Esther Collett’ married George Lockey at Buscot on
26th 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. |
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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). |
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|
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. |
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28O13
|
Anne Collett |
Born in 1846 at Buscot |
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28N5 |
Martha Collett was
born at Buscot in 1827 and was baptised there on 14th 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. |
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|
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. |
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28N6 |
Thomas Collett was
born at Buscot during 1829 and it was there later that same year on 27th
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. |
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|
On 25th
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. |
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Also on the same
passenger list for the journey was part of the Stranks family from Thomas’
home |
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|
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 16th April 1858 at Moorabin
and was buried at Great Brighton in Victoria, with baby Elizabeth Jane having
died nine months earlier on 31st July 1857. |
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|
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 19th
August 1838 at the parish church in Hardwick. |
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|
The wedding ceremony,
which took place at the Primitive Methodist Chapel at Broadmeadows in
Victoria on 2nd 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 |
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|
Thomas Collett died on
4th 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 26th April 1929 at East
Bairnsdale in Victoria and was buried the following day at Bairnsdale. |
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|
28O14
|
Henry Thomas Collett |
Born in 1855 at Coleshill, Wiltshire |
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|
28O15
|
Elizabeth Jane Collett |
Born in 1856 at Coleshill, Wiltshire |
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|
The following were the
children of Thomas Collett and his second wife Elizabeth Shranks: |
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28O16
|
Eliza Matilda Collett |
Born in 1860 at Yuroke, Victoria |
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28O17
|
Salome Collett |
Born in 1864 at Moorabbin, Victoria |
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28O18
|
William Collett |
Born in 1866 at Brighton, Victoria |
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28O19
|
Esther Collett |
Born in 1869 at Brighton, Victoria |
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|
28O20
|
Susannah Collett |
Born in 1871 at Broadmeadows, Vic. |
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|
28O21
|
Susannah Collett |
Born in 1872 at Broadmeadows, Vic. |
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|
28O22
|
George Collett |
Born in 1874 at Campbellfield, Victoria |
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28O23
|
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1876 at Campbellfield, Victoria |
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|
28O24
|
Frederick |
Born in 1878 at Shepparton, Victoria |
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|
28O25
|
Herbert Ebenezer Collett |
Born in 1880 at Numurkah, Victoria |
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|
|||||
28N7 |
Jane Collett was
born at Buscot towards the end of 1832 and was baptised the following year on
24th 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. |
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|
|
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|
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. |
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|
|
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|
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 19th 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 28th 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. |
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|
|
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|
Three months later
their three-month sea voyage ended when they disembarked at Melbourne on 1st
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. |
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|
|
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|
|
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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. |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||
28N13 |
Jane Collett
was baptised at Faringdon on 16th 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. |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||
28N14 |
Charles Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 26th 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. |
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|
|
|||||
|
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. |
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|
|
|||||
|
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. |
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|
|
|||||
|
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. |
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|
|
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|
28O26 |
Henry Collett |
Born in 1836 at Faringdon |
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|
28O27 |
Elizabeth Ann Collett |
Born in 1840 at Faringdon |
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|
28O28 |
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1842 at Marylebone, London |
|||
|
28O29 |
Clara Collett |
Born in 1845 at Marylebone, London |
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|
28O30 |
Emma Collett |
Born in 1848 at Marylebone, London |
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|
28O31 |
Alice L Collett |
Born in 1854 at Marylebone, London |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||
28N15 |
Mary Collett was
born at Faringdon on 14th September 1818, where she was baptised
on 11th 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. |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||
28N16 |
Eliza Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 9th July 1820, the daughter of Leonard
and Elizabeth Collett. |
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|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
28N17 |
George Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 26th 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. |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||
28N18 |
Sarah Collett was
born on 19th February 1823 at Faringdon, where she was baptised on
12th 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. |
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|
|
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|
|
|||||
28N19 |
Robert Collett was
baptised at Faringdon on 30th 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 10th 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. |
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|
|
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|
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. |
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|
|
|||||
|
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. |
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|
|
|||||
|
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 5th 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). |
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|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
28N21 |
WILLIAM COLLETT was baptised at Faringdon on 7th
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 8th
November 1855 at The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. Hannah was born in 1827 at nearby Willaston
which lies midway between Nantwich and |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
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 |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
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 |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
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 30th 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. |
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|
|
|||||
|
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 |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
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 4th 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. |
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|
|
|||||
|
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 23rd 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. |
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|
|
|||||
|
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 14th
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 31st
December that year when retired railway signalman Isaac Whittle died. His Will was proved at Blandford on 27th
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 27th 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 29th
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 25th 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 19th 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 |
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
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 7th 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 12th 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 |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
28O51 |
Mary Ann Collett |
Born on 13.10.1850 at Alvescot |
|||
|
28O52 |
|
Born on 28.12.1851 at Alvescot |
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28O53 |
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Born on 06.02.1853 at Alvescot |
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28O54 |
Lucy Collett |
Born on 26.11.1854 at Alvescot |
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28O55 |
Annie Collett |
Born on 12.09.1858 at Alvescot |
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28O56 |
Caroline Collett |
Born on 16.10.1859 at Alvescot |
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28O57 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Born on 26.05.1861 at Alvescot |
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28O58 |
William Collett |
Born on 21.06.1863 at Alvescot |
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28N30 |
Mary Collett was
born at Alvescot where she was also baptised on 25th 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.
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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 22nd May
1853. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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28N32 |
Ann Collett was
born at Alvescot and baptised there on 16th 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 25th October 1856 at Buckland
Parish Church. Charles was born at
Buckland in Berkshire on 17th 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. |
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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 30th 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 20th
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. |
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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 12th May 1876. An item in The Arrow Observer for Wednesday
17th May included the following report. |
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“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.” |
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However, at the inquest
held on 15th May 1876, and reported in the Queenstown Southland
Times newspaper on 18th May, the situation was made a little
clearer. That stated that: |
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“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’. |
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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 2nd 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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.” |
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28O59 |
Mary Ann Richards |
Born in 1858 |
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28O60 |
William Charles Richards |
Born in 1860 |
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28O61 |
Fred Richards |
Born in 1865 |
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28O62
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Susan Richards |
Born in 1866 |
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28O63
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Bertram Edwin Richards |
Born in 1875 |
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28N33 |
Lucy Collett was
born at Alvescot on 6th March 1839, and it was there that she was
baptised on 31st 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 10th 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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28N34 |
WILLIAM COLLETT was
born at Alvescot on 29th January 1842 and was baptised there on 27th
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 30th October 1863. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Lander
and Hannah Davis and was born on 7th 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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William Collett died on
16th December 1923 and was followed three years after by his wife
Elizabeth who died on 26th 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 16th
1923 aged 80 years, Also of Elizabeth wife of the above who died Dec 26th
1926 aged 81 years – Reunited” |
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