PART TWENTY-EIGHT

 

The Faringdon Line

 

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

 

Updated December 2022

 

 

28O2

John Wheeler Collett was the base-born son of unmarried Rachel Collett and John Wheeler, and was born at Buscot in 1842, as were both his parents in 1821 and 1826 respectively.  It was as John Wheeler that he was recorded in the census of 1851, when he was living with his paternal great grandfather, widower John Wheeler, age 65, at Shellingford near Faringdon.  John Wheeler junior was eight years old and his place of birth was confirmed as Buscot.  Possibly after the death of his grandfather, John then went to live with his maternal grandparents.  According to the next census return in 1861, John W Collett of Buscot was 18 and was employed by farmer Horatio Weston as an agricultural labourer at Broadlease Farm in Buscot.  At that time, he was working alongside his grandfather William Collett, while living with him and his grandmother Susan Collett (Susannah Lovesey) at Broadlease Cottage in the Oldfield area of Buscot.  Also living there with John was his cousin Anne Collett, the base-born daughter of Hester Collett, his mother’s younger sister.

 

 

 

John Wheeler Collett later married auburn haired Mahaila Goodwin of Stoke Newington in Middlesex, who was born in 1847-1848, the daughter of James Goodwin and Mahaila Adams of Notting Hill.  All of their children were born at Norwood near Hounslow, although other records indicate that the last three children may have been born just a few miles away at Southall.  Prior to the marriage, which is believed to have taken place around 1865, Mahaila Goodwin was already a young mother to a base-born daughter of the same name, who was born in 1864, and who, it would appear, was brought up and cared for by Mahaila’s parents.

 

 

 

Very little else is known about John Wheeler Collett except, that at the time of the census in 1871, he and his family were living in North Hyde Road in that part of the parish of Hayes in Middlesex known as Norwood Precinct.  Their dwelling was three doors from the Princes of Wales beer house, and today North Hyde Road is the A437, running between Dawley Road Roundabout and The Parkway (A312).

 

 

 

Rather curiously, John gave his place of birth as Reading and not Buscot, perhaps because he had severed all links with his family by then.  On that occasion he was 29 and was working as a brick-maker.  His wife was Mahaila Collett, age 23 and from London, and by then their two children were Alice Collett who was four, and Rose Collett who was two years old.  The birthplace stated for both daughters was Norwood Precinct.  On the day of the census, Mahaila was expecting the arrival of the couple’s third child.  Living at the dwelling adjacent to the Collett’s family home, was widower James Duffin who was 71 and a blind chaff cutter from Heston in Middlesex.  With him were his daughter Jane Duffin who was 27, and his granddaughter, seven years old Mary Duffin.  Why this is mentioned here, will become more obvious later on

 

 

 

It may be appropriate to explain here, that Norwood Precinct was a chapelry in the parish of Hayes, situated one mile south of Southall railway station, and two and a half miles from Hounslow.  The Precinct contained the hamlets of Norwood Proper, Southall Green, and a part of North Hyde and Southall.  It was therefore that confusing identity which perhaps resulted in John Wheeler Collett, the younger, stating later in his life on different occasions that he was born at Norwood and at Southall.  Five years later, during 1876, John Wheeler Collett died when he would have only been 35 years old.  It is understood that he may have been an epileptic and died as a result of an attack.  It would also appear that he died shortly after the birth of his youngest child, and that his widow Mahaila then married for a second time during not long after.  It was in 1877 that Mahaila Collett married George Duffin, the son of her immediate next-door neighbour James Duffin.

 

 

 

That was confirmed by the census in 1881 when Mahaila Duffin, age 33, was living with her new husband George Duffin at 2 Curnocks Cottages on the Western Road in Norwood.  George was 43 and from Norwood, and was a general labourer.  Living there with the couple was their son George Duffin, who was three years old, and their daughter Mary Duffin, who was one year old and known as Polly.  Also living with the family was George’s father James Duffin, age 81 and from Heston, who was listed as blind and a former agricultural labourer.  In addition to the Duffin family, 2 Curnocks Cottage was also the home of three of Mahaila’s children from her marriage to John Wheeler Collett, and they were her three daughters, Alice Collett who was 14, Rosetta Collett, who was 12, and Rachel Collett who was eight years old.  All three girls were described as the stepdaughters of head of the household George Duffin.  Perhaps because of the limited space in the house at 2 Curnocks Cottages, Mahaila’s two other children from her earlier marriage to John Wheeler Collett, together with her first child and base-born daughter, were all living close by in Norwood, with Mahaila’s parents, James and Mahaila Goodwin.

 

 

 

James and Mahaila Goodwin where both 59 years old and were living at 3 Crown Field, Western Road in Norwood.  The census return for 1881 listed their grandchildren living with them as Mahaila Goodwin, who was 16, John Collett who was nine years old, and Emma Collett, who was four years old.  In addition to those three children, James and Mahaila were also looking after another grandchild by the name of James W Laley, who was 14 and an agricultural labourer.  Apparently, it was during the five years after the 1881 Census that Mahaila Duffin died, while she was giving birth to her third child by George Duffin, who also did not survive.  Following that sad event, it was her daughter Rosetta Collett who took over the care of her young sibling Rachel, while her brother John and sister Emma continued to be looked after by their Goodwin grandparents.

 

 

 

28P1

Mahaila Goodwin

Born in 1864

 

28P2

Alice Collett

Born in 1866 at Norwood

 

28P3

Rosetta Collett

Born in 1868 at Norwood

 

28P4

John Wheeler Collett

Born in 1871 at Norwood/Southall

 

28P5

Rachel Collett

Born in 1873 at Norwood/Southall

 

28P6

Emma Collett

Born in 1876 at Norwood/Southall

 

 

 

 

28O3

William Collett was born at Eaton Hastings in 1844, the first-born child of William Collett and Charlotte Lockey, with his birth recorded at Faringdon (Ref. vi 172) during the third quarter of the year.  He was the eldest of their eight children and was six years old in the Eaton Hastings census of 1851.  Around the time he completed his schooling the family left Eaton Hastings and settled in the Walsall area of Staffordshire, where, in 1861, William Collett from Eaton Hastings was 16 and working as an agricultural labourer.  Sometime in the middle of the next decade the family returned to Eaton Hasting where William’s father died in 1867, and where tragically, three years later, William also died, with the death of 26-years-old William Collett recorded at Faringdon (Ref. 2c 191) during the second quarter of 1870.

 

 

 

 

28O4

Maria Collett was born at Eaton Hastings towards the end of 1845, her birth recorded at Faringdon (Ref. vi 177) during the last three months of that year.  It was at Eaton Hastings that Maria, aged five years, was living with her family in 1851, but a few years later the family moved north to Walsall, where her father continued to work as a gamekeeper.  By 1861, Maria Collett from Eaton Hastings had left school and was 16 years of age when she was employed as a house servant at the Aldridge, Staffordshire, home of licenced victualler and grocer James Briscoe and his wife Margaret, her parents and all of her siblings living near by. 

 

 

 

 

28O5

Elizabeth Collett was born at Eaton Hastings in 1847, another daughter of William and Charlotte Collett.  Her birth was recorded at Faringdon (Ref. vi 165) during the third quarter of the year.  She was three years old in the Eaton Hasting census of 1851 and, by the time she was 13 and still attending school, Elizabeth and her family were living at Aldridge in Staffordshire.

 

 

 

 

28O6

Mary A Collett was born at Eaton Hastings in 1850 and her birth was also recorded at Faringdon (Ref. vi 192) during the third quarter of the year.  As simply Mary Collett, she was six months old in the census of 1851, when she and the family were still residing in Eaton Hastings.  The family later moved to Aldridge in Staffordshire, where Mary Collett from Eaton Hastings was ten years of age and attending school.

 

 

 

 

28O7

Harriet Collett was born at Eaton Hastings in 1853, the fifth of the eight children of William and Charlotte Collett.  As with five of her siblings, Harriet’s birth was recorded at Faringdon (Ref. 2c 220) during the summer of 1853, around three years before the family moved north to the Walsall area of the West Midlands, where her youngest sister and brother were born, and where Harriet from Eaton Hastings was seven years old.

 

 

 

 

28O8

Ann Collett was born at Eaton Hastings on 4th September 1855, her birth recorded at Faringdon (Ref. 2c 217).  Shortly after she was born her family moved to the Walsall district of Staffordshire.  By the time of the census of 1861 Ann was five years old when she was living with her family at Aldridge.  Just after the birth of her youngest sibling at Hardwick (within the parish of Aldridge), the family returned to Eaton Hastings where first her father William Collett died in 1867, and then her eldest brother William in 1870.

 

 

 

At the time of the census of 1871, Ann’s widowed mother Charlotte Collett was living in a tied farmhouse at Eaton Hastings with Ann’s two youngest siblings, Susan and George (below), when Ann was living with the Higgs family in Faringdon, where she was employed as a domestic general servant.  The census recorded Ann Collett from Easton Hastings as being 16 when she was living in the Higgs family home at 64 London Street in Faringdon where 32-year-old Alfred Higgs was a stonemason and a grocer.  His wife Eleanor Higgs was 33 and a shopkeeper and, at that time the Higgs had three young children.

 

 

 

It was almost exactly five months after the census day April in 1871 that Ann Collett celebrated her sixteenth birthday.  Sadly, she may have celebrated in a way that was not in keeping with behaviour standards at that time, when it was soon evident that she was ‘with-child’.  It has not been determined who the child’s father might have been, but it is known that Ann was forced out of the Higgs’ house and went to live in the village of Stanford-in-the-Vale where her base-born daughter was born.  Four years later Ann and her daughter Ellen were still in Stanford when she gave birth to a second base-born daughter Susan.  Mother of two young child Ann Collett died at the age of twenty-two in 1877, her death recorded at Faringdon (Ref. 2c 178) during the second quarter of that year, when she daughter Susan was only months old.  

 

 

 

With her two children being made orphans, they were taken in by the Faringdon Union Workhouse, where they were recorded in the census of 1881.  The census return that year confirmed that Ellen Collett was eight years old, while her younger sister Susan was six years of age, both of them recorded as having been born at Stanford.  Ten years later it would appear that Ellen and Susan had gone their separate ways.  The only Ellen Collett aged 18 was living at Hanover Square in the St Margaret area of London, while Susan Collett aged 16 was living and working in Somerset.

 

 

 

28P7

Ellen Collett

Born in 1872 at Stanford-in-the-Vale, nr Faringdon

 

28P8

Susan Collett

Born in 1876 at Stanford-in-the-Vale, nr Faringdon

 

 

 

 

28O9

Susan Collett was born at Aldridge (Great Barr/Walsall) either at the end of 1857 or early in 1858, her birth recorded at Walsall (Ref. 6b 567) during the first six weeks of 1858.  She was the seventh child of William and Charlotte Collett, was baptised at Aldridge on 14th February 1858, and was three years of age in the Aldridge census of 1861.  After her brother George (below) was born, the family returned to Eaton Hastings in Berkshire, where Susan’s father died in 1867, following by her eldest brother William in 1870.  By 1871, it was just Susan who was 13, and George, who were living at Eaton Hastings with their widowed mother Charlotte who passed away three years later.

 

 

 

 

28O10

George Collett was born at Hardwick (Great Barr/Walsall) within the parish of Aldridge in 1863, the last child of William Collett and Charlotte Lockey.  As simply George Collett, his birth was recorded at Walsall (Ref. 6b 587) during the third quarter of the year, while it was at Great Barr that he was baptised on 3rd July 1864.  Shortly after he was born his family returned south to north Berkshire and the village of Eaton Hastings, where his older siblings were born.  It was also at Eaton Hastings that his father died when George was four years old.  As a result, seven-year-old George Collett from Great Barr, was living at Eaton Hasting in 1871, with his widowed mother and older sister Susan (above).  His mother passed away in 1874, after which he later travelled to Cornwall, as confirmed by the census conducted in 1881.  That year, George Collett from Walsall was an ordinary seaman aged 18, who was serving onboard the vessel “Mary”, which was at sea, but whose base was at Madron, near Penzance.  The “Mary” only had a small crew so it is likely that it was a fishing boat, so probably not an ordinary seaman serving with the Royal Navy.

 

 

 

 

28O11

Anne Collett was born at Buscot in 1846, the base-born daughter of unmarried Hester Collett and gamekeeper George Lockey.  George would have only been around fifteen years old at the time of conception, and that may have been the reason why he did not marry Anne’s mother until he was 20 years of age.  It was therefore with her grandparents, William Collett and his wife Susannah Lovesey, that Anne Collett lived during her childhood years.  Up until March 2011 no record had been found which provided a clue as to who her mother and father actually were, although it was always believed that she was the daughter of Hester Collett.  The new information, gratefully received from Fiona Shoesmith of New Zealand, who now lives in British Columbia, Canada, confirms what was previously written here, that Anne Collett was the base-born children of Hester Collett, the daughter of William Collett and Susannah Lovesey.

 

 

 

In the census of 1851, Anne Collett, aged five years, was living with her unmarried mother Hester, age 26, at Broadlease Cottage in Buscot, the home of Anne’s grandparents.  Ten months later her mother married her father, although Anne continued to live with her grandparents after that event.  By the time of the census 1861, Anne Collett was still living at Broadlease Cottage with her grandparents.  The census return confirmed that Anne Collett, age 15, had been born at Buscot and that she was working as a servant with her grandparents.  Also living with the family at that time was Anne’s cousin John W Collett (above)

 

 

 

It was eight years later that Anne married John Hart at the parish Church of St Mary the Virgin in Buscot on 12th September 1869.  ‘Ann Collett’ a spinster of Buscot was 23, while John Hart, age 21, was a bachelor and labourer from Buscot.  The witnesses at the wedding ceremony were Joseph Boots, John Hart's brother-in-law, and John Giles.  Curiously, the father of Ann Collett was given as George Collett, a labourer, which is contrary to what was recorded on her death certificate, at the time of her passing.

 

 

 

Eighteen months after they were married Ann and John were living at Buscot Wick, within the Faringdon registration district, with the first of their three English born daughters.  Anne Hart from Buscot was 25, John Hart was 22 and from Lechlade, both of them described as agricultural labourers, while their daughter was Mary A Hart of Buscot who was one year old.  Living with the family was Ann’s elderly widowed grandmother Susan Collett from Little Faringdon.

 

 

 

Over the next three years two further daughters were added to the family, and when the youngest was only three months old the family emigrated to New Zealand.  It was on board the ship Adamant that they sailed from England on 6th May 1874 bound for Nelson in New Zealand.  The ship's manifest recorded the family as agricultural labourer John Hart, age 25 of Gloster, even though he was born in Lechlade, his wife Ann Hart, age 28, and their three children Mary A Hart, who was four, Edith H Hart, who was two, and Emily Hart who was three months old.  All three daughters were born at Buscot; Mary Ann Hart was born during the last quarter of 1869, Edith Harriet Hart was born during the third quarter of 1871, and Emily Rose Hart was born during the first quarter of 1874.

 

 

 

The cost of the passage was recorded as 4 Pounds 3 Shillings and 10 Pence, and was borne entirely by the Government.  Although the voyage took three months and one week, the Adamant arrived in record time at Nelson on 13th August 1874.  Upon their arrival John and Ann Hart were allocated land near Karamea in the northern West Coast of South Island, where they eventually arrived at the end of their arduous journey.  It was while the family was living at Karamea that the couple’s fourth child and first son, Joseph William Henry Hart, was born on 24th June 1876.  Two years after that another daughter, Helen Maria Hart, was added to the family on 10th August 1878, and she was the great grandmother of the aforementioned Fiona Shoesmith, who has kindly provided all of the Hart family details.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, there was very little good soil at Karamea and, it was because of that the family later moved to Waimangaroa at West Coast on South Island around 1881.  It was there that John was employed by the railways, first as a surface-man, and then as a railway ganger from 1882.  The family were known as pioneers in that part of New Zealand in the 1880's.

 

 

 

By 9th July 1880, the family was living at Westport when William Jesse Hart was born, but it was shortly after that when the family settled in Waimangaroa where five more children were born into the family.  And they were John Edward Hart, born on 8th February 1882, Annie Esther Hart, born on 15th July 1883, Ernest George Hart, born on 17th January 1886, Fanny Jane Hart, born on 20th February 1889 also died on 4th September 1890, and Emma Isabel Hart, who was born on 12th February 1891

 

 

 

It was sometime between 1895 and 1906 that John and Ann moved again, on that occasion to Auckland, where Ann Hart nee Collett died on 9th March 1906 at Auckland Hospital.  She was buried at Waikumete Cemetery in the Auckland suburb of Glen Eden, and her death certificate recorded her father as ‘George Lockie, a gamekeeper, and her mother as Lockie, maiden-name Collett’.  She was 60 years of age, and it may have been just prior to her passing that the photograph on the right was taken with her husband.

 

 

 

Her death certificate is another vital piece of information which finally confirmed that Anne was the base-born daughter of George Lockey who married Hester Collett in January 1852 at Buscot, when Anne was six years old and was being cared for by her grandparents.  Eight years earlier, in 1844, the older brother of Hester Collett, gamekeeper William Collett, had married Charlotte Lockley, who was George’s sister.  Although John Hart was married for a second time, following Ann’s death in 1906, he was eventually interred with her at Waikumete Cemetery, where also is buried the body of their youngest daughter, Emma, who died in 1923 at the age of 32.

 

 

 

Upon the death of his wife Anne Collett, the following article was published in the local Waimangaroa Newspaper in 1906, together with the above photograph.  “Mr. John Hart has been a ganger in connection with the New Zealand railways since 1882, and has resided for many years at Waimangaroa. He was born in Lechlade, Gloucestershire, England, in the year 1849.  Mr. Hart arrived in Nelson, New Zealand, by the ship “Adamant,” in 1874.  Shortly afterwards he went to Westport, and was employed for some time as a surfaceman in connection with the railway, until his appointment as ganger in 1882.  Mr. Hart has taken an interest in local affairs, and has served as a member of the school and library committees.  As a Forester, he is a member of Court Royal Oak, Westport.  In the year 1869E, he married a daughter of Mr. George Lockie, of Gloucestershire, England, and has surviving, three sons and six daughters.”

 

 

 

 

28O12

Henry Thomas Collett was born on 19th September 1855 at Coleshill near Highworth in England and before the family emigrated to Australia.  Henry married Annie Webster Thomson on 12th April 1882 at Little River in Victoria and died at Dandenong in 1943 at the age of 87 when his parents were confirmed as Thomas Collett and Mary Hughes.  His death was recorded at Victoria (Ref. 17480), while two years earlier it was there also that the death of Annie Webster Collett nee Thomson at Dandenong was recorded (Ref. 21217) at the age of 84 when her parents were named as Charles Thomson and Fanny Pratt.  It is interesting to note that twelve years after Henry and Annie were married, Henry’s half-brother William (below) married Fanny Mary Thomson who may have been Annie’s younger sister.  New information received in January 2014 suggests that Henry and Annie had a son, Norman Thomson Collett, who was born in 1883.

 

 

 

28P9

Norman Thomson Collett

Born in 1883 at Little River, Victoria

 

 

 

 

28O13

Elizabeth Jane Collett was born in the latter half of 1856 at Coleshill before the family emigrated to Australia.  For a very young baby the three to four-months sea journey may have been too much and she tragically died on 31st July 1857 at Moorabbin in Victoria just over two months after they had arrived in Australia.

 

 

 

 

28O14

Eliza Matilda Collett was born on 23rd September 1860 at Yuroke in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia.  She married Edward William Jeffrey on 11th September 1888 at Hinnomunjie in Victoria, midway between Omeo and Benambra.  He was the son of Edward Jeffrey and Selina Tonkin and was born on 25th July 1861 at Harcourt in Southern Australia.  The couple’s first two children were born at Omeo in Gippsland Region, while the other four were born at Narrabri, where Edward died in 1937.  Those children were: Mildred Hazel Jeffrey (born 4th September 1889, died 5th February 1956 in New South Wales); Wilfred Roy Jeffrey (born 1891, died 1921 at Wee Waa in NSW); Cecil Jeffrey (born 1894, died 1896 at Narrabri); twin Harold Edward Jeffrey (born 18th February 1897, died 5th June 1968); an unnamed twin child who was also born on 18th February 1897 but who died on 19th February 1897); and Hilda Naomi Jeffrey (born 1901).

 

 

 

 

28O15

Salome Collett was born at Moorabbin in Western Victoria on 11th March 1864 and in 1887 at Victoria she married Frederick James Ellen.  He was the son of Maurice Ellen and Frances Ede and was born at Murmungee in Victoria on 11th February 1861.  In June 2007 Heather Preston, the couple’s great granddaughter, kindly provided the photograph of the new headstone for Salome and Frederick erected recently on the couple’s grave at Fawkner Cemetery in Melbourne.

 

Heather also kindly supplied other details for this family line.

 

 

 

Salome died at Essendon in Victoria and the headstone confirms the couple’s dates of birth and that Salome died on 20th October 1934, followed almost exactly one year later by Frederick who died on 23rd October 1935.  During their life together Salome and Frederick had twelve children but it is only the line of their eldest daughter, Una Esther Ellen who was born in 1890 at Horsham that is extended here.  To complete the record, the couple’s other children were: Harold Herbert Ellen (1888-1961); Myra Mary Ellen (1892-1981); Charles Edgar Ellen (1894-1976); Bessie Belle Ellen (1895-); Rupert Reginald Ellen (1897-1989); Mavis Eva Ellen (1900-); Frederick John Ellen (1901-); Oliver Ede Ellen (1903-1982); Hilda Hope Ellen (1905-); Geoffrey George Ellen (1907-1958); and Marion Edith Ellen (1910-).

 

 

 

28P10

Una Esther Ellen

Born in 1890 at Horsham, Victoria

 

 

 

 

28O16

William Collett was born on 20th June 1866 at Brighton in Western Victoria.  He married Fanny Mary Thomson on 28th March 1894 in Victoria.  Fanny was born on 13th January 1868 in New South Wales.  Fanny was very likely the younger sister of Annie Webster Thomson who married William’s half-brother Henry Thomas Collett (above) in 1882.  William and Fanny’s first, second and third child was born at Omeo while the others were all born at Benambra.  William Collett died on 16th May 1954 at Wentworthville in New South Wales and was followed nine years later by Fanny who died at Newcastle in New South Wales on 6th June 1963.

 

 

 

28P11

Eva Emmaline Collett

Born in 1895 at Hinnomunjie, Vic.

 

28P12

Bessie Frances Collett

Born in 1896 at Omeo, Victoria

 

28P13

Charles Thomas Collett

Born in 1897 at Benambra, Vic.

 

28P14

Edith Victoria Collett

Born in 1899 at Benambra, Vic.

 

28P15

Wilfred Herbert Collett

Born in 1900 at Benambra, Vic.

 

28P16

Dorothy Lillian Collett

Born in 1903 at Benambra, Vic.

 

28P17

Violet Thomson Collett

Born in 1905 at Hinnomunjie, Vic.

 

 

 

 

28O17

Esther Collett was born in 1869 at Brighton in Western Victoria and she married Edwin Tomkins in 1893 at MacArthur in Victoria.  He was born at MacArthur in 1863 and was the son of Henry Holland Tomkins and Martha Baker.  The couple had eight children between 1894 and 1913, the first three of which were born at Omeo, within the Gippsland district of Victoria, and the remaining five born at Benambra.  They were Alan William Tomkins, Elizabeth Mary Tomkins (born 1894), Cecil Henry Tomkins (born 1896), Edwin Walter Tomkins (born 1897), Herbert Thomas Tomkins (born 1899), Esther Martha Tomkins (born 1902), Frederick John Tomkins (born 1903), and Reginald Collett Tomkins who was born in 1906.  Esther Tomkins nee Collett died during 1951 at Omeo, with Edwin having passed away a few months earlier on 27th October 1950, but at Berwick in Victoria.  He was buried two days later at Wallumbilla in Queensland.

 

 

 

 

28O18

Susannah Collett was born in 1871 at Broadmeadows in Western Victoria where is it assumed she died in infancy within the first year of her life.

 

 

 

 

28O19

Susannah Collett was born at Broadmeadows during 1872, the year after her sister of the same name had died there.  Susannah had lived a long life when she died at Fairfield in Victoria during 1959.

 

 

 

 

28O20

George Collett was born in 1874 at Campbellfield in Western Victoria and he married Lucy Good in Victoria in 1901.  Lucy was born at Lambeth in London in March 1870 the daughter of John Balls Good and Mary Jane Crabb.  The marriage produced five children born at various locations in Victoria – see individual entries for exact details.  Lucy died at Malvern in Victoria in 1951 at the age of 81.

 

 

 

28P18

Crystal Mary Collett

Born in 1902 at Omeo, Victoria

 

28P19

Ethel Mary Collett

Born in 1903 at Bairnsdale, Victoria

 

28P20

Herbert George Collett

Born in 1904 at Bairnsdale, Victoria

 

28P21

Hazel Jean Collett

Born in 1910 at Traralgon, Victoria

 

28P22

Norman Thomas Collett

Born in 1913 at Bendigo

 

 

 

 

28O21

Thomas Collett was born in 1876 at Campbellfield in Western Victoria.  He married Lucretia Esther James at Awaba Park in Teralba, New South Wales on 7th December 1899.  She was the daughter of David James and Jane Lewis and was born at Nattai in New South Wales on 14th December 1874.  Thomas and Lucretia lived all their married life in New South Wales and their children were born at Newcastle, New Lambton a district of Newcastle, and Wee Waa.  Thomas Collett died in 1953 at Belmont in New South Wales, while Lucretia passed away at New Lambton in 1956.

 

 

 

28P23

Rolf Herbert Collett

Born in 1901 at Newcastle, NSW

 

28P24

Neville Thomas Collett

Born in 1902 at Newcastle, NSW

 

28P25

Eric Alexander Miller Collett

Born in 1904 at New Lambton, NSW

 

28P26

Mirelle Elizabeth Jane Collett

Born in 1907 at Wee Waa, NSW

 

28P27

Gwendolyn Margaret Collett

Born in 1909 at Wee Waa, NSW

 

28P28

Elwyn Frances Collett

Born in 1911 at Wee Waa, NSW

 

28P29

Trevor David Collett

Born in 1913 at Wee Waa, NSW

 

28P30

Esther Lucretia Collett

Born in 1917 at Wee Waa, NSW

 

 

 

 

28O22

Frederick John Collett was born in 1878 at Shepparton (or Numurkah) in Western Victoria, the son of Thomas Collett and his second wife Elizabeth Shranks.  He was involved in the Great War of 1914 to 1918 as confirmed by his service record.  His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that: he was born at Numurkah in Western Victoria (as was his brother Herbert below); he enlisted at Narrabri in New South Wales; his service number was 1661; and his mother and next-of-kin was Elizabeth Collett.  After returning from the war, he married Margaret Emma Matthews in 1921 at Victoria.  Margaret was born at Omeo in 1889, the daughter of James Matthews and Margaret Elizabeth Prendergast.  Frederick John Collett died at Bairnsdale in Victoria in 1967, and was followed by his wife Margaret fifteen years later in 1982, also at Bairnsdale, when she was 94.

 

 

 

 

28O23

Herbert Ebenezer Collett was born in 1880 at Numurkah in Western Victoria and he died in his late teenage years in 1899 at Benambra in Victoria.

 

 

 

 

28O24

Henry Collett was born at Faringdon in 1836, the eldest child of shoemaker Charles Collett and his wife Elizabeth.  He was four years old in the Faringdon census of 1841, and was 14 in 1851, by which time he and his family were residing in the St Marylebone district of London.  By 1861 Henry was married to Elizabeth who had already presented Henry with the first of their children.  However, it was only their daughter Elizabeth A Collett who was recorded in the Marylebone & Christchurch census as being three years old.  Where her mother Elizabeth was on that occasion, is still a mystery, while her husband Henry, aged 24 and a shoemaker from Faringdon, was a lodger at the Shefford home of shoemaker William Wainwright aged 32 and from St Neots, Shefford being within the Biggleswade census registration district.  Three years after that Henry was a witness at the Tabernacle in Kensington on the occasion of the marriage of his sister Elizabeth Ann Collett (below), when he signed his name during December 1864.

 

 

 

By the end of 1864, Henry and Elizabeth had a son and a daughter, while Elizabeth was expecting the birth of the couple’s third child.  Two more children were added to the family by the end of that decade, as confirmed by the Marylebone census of 1871.  During 1862, Henry’s mother had died, shortly after which his father was taken in by Henry and his family.  According to the census in 1871, shoemaker and head of the household Henry Collett was 34 and his wife Elizabeth was 33, both of them from Berkshire, which was an enumerator error as Elizabeth had been born in Buckinghamshire.  The couple’s five children had all been born at Marylebone, and they were Elizabeth Collett who was 13, Henry Collett who was 10, Thomas Collett who was five, Emma Collett who was two, and George Collett who was only ten months old.

 

 

 

Six years later Elizabeth presented Henry with a daughter who was also born when the family was still living in Marylebone and before they left London for Aldershot in Surrey.  It was at Church Street in Aldershot that the family was living in 1881, by which time only their two youngest children were still living with them.  Henry Collett, a shoemaker from Faringdon, was 45, his wife Elizabeth from Chesham in Buckinghamshire was 44, George Collett was 11, and Jane Collett was four years of age.  Lodging with the family was bachelor George Hall from Hemel Hempstead who was 52 and a shoemaker.

 

 

 

Sometime after 1881 the family left Aldershot and returned briefly to London where Elizabeth appears to have given birth to another daughter when she would have been around fifty years old, as unlikely as this may seem.  Shortly after the birth the family left the city again when they finally settled in Chertsey in Surrey.  According to the census in 1891, shoemaker Henry Collett aged 54, was living at St Ann’s Road in Chertsey, next door to The Coach & Horses public house.  His wife Elizabeth was 55, and still living with them were their two youngest daughters Jane Collett who was 14, and Sarah Collett who was three years of age.  Curiously the place of birth of all four members of the household was written as Paddingdon which, in Henry’s case, could well be a misinterpretation of Faringdon, as also occurred in the later census of 1911. 

 

 

 

In view of Elizabeth’s advanced years, it is possible the named daughter Sarah may have been a base-born child of her older daughter Emma who would have been around nineteen years old when Sarah was born.  A further mystery surrounds the census in March 1901, when there is no record of a Sarah Collett aged thirteen, nor has any positive records been so far located for Henry, Elizabeth, or Jane, who may well have been married by then, being 24.  However, it seems highly likely that Henry was the Henry Collett shoemaker who was 65 and recorded at Alton in Hampshire, a few miles west of Aldershot.  On that occasion he said he was from Chertsey, which may have been a misunderstanding when he was asked where he came from.  On that same day a certain Lizzie Collett aged 63 was living in Chertsey where she gave her place of birth as London and her occupation as that of a nurse.

 

 

 

Ten years later Henry and Elizabeth were recorded in the Chertsey census of 1911 as residing at 25 Masonic Hall Road, where Henry Collett from Faringdon in Berkshire was 74 and a bootmaker, who had been married to Elizabeth, also 74, for forty-seven years.  Lodging with the couple was Leonard Hoggard who was 27.  What is very interesting about the census return is that it stated that Elizabeth had given birth to fourteen children, of whom only ten were still alive in April 1911, while only seven have been positively identified in the list below.  Henry Collett was approaching his eightieth birthday when he died at Chertsey, his death being recorded at the Chertsey register office (Ref. 2a 126) during the first three months of 1916.  The informant of his death incorrectly estimated that he was only seventy-six years old when he passed away.

 

 

 

28P31

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1857 at Marylebone, London

 

28P32

Henry Collett

Born in 1861 at Marylebone, London

 

28P33

Thomas Collett

Born in 1865 at Marylebone, London

 

28P34

Emma Collett

Born in 1868 at Marylebone, London

 

28P35

George Collett

Born in 1870 at Marylebone, London

 

28P36

Jane Collett

Born in 1877 at Marylebone, London

 

28P37

Sarah Collett – possible grandchild

Born in 1887 at Paddington, London

 

 

 

 

28O25

Elizabeth Ann Collett was born at Faringdon in 1840, the second child and eldest daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Collett.  Her birth as Elizabeth Ann Collett was registered at Faringdon (Ref. vi 159) during the third quarter of 1840.  She was therefore under one year old in June 1841, when Elizabeth Collett was still living at Faringdon with her family.  However, around the middle of the following decade her father’s work took the family to London, and it was at Charles Street in Marylebone that Ann Collett aged 10 and from Faringdon was living with her parents.  At the start of the next decade, Ann Collett from Faringdon was 20 years old in 1861 and was still living with her family in Marylebone, but at Little Grove Street, when she had no stated occupation.  Over three years later, the marriage of Elizabeth Ann Collett and Henry Colee was recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 300).  Their wedding took place on 19th December 1864 when the bride was a spinster who was residing at Dudley Street in Paddington, the daughter of shoemaker Charles Collett.  The groom was a bachelor and bricklayer aged 21, the son of boot closer Joseph Colee.  Elizabeth signed the register, as did her brother Henry (above) as one of the witnesses, while Henry Colee made his mark with a cross.  Perhaps, out of embarrassment at being three years older than her husband, Elizabeth stated that she was the same age as her husband, despite being 24.

 

 

 

It was the same situation in the census return for Kensington in 1871 when Elizabeth Colee from Faringdon was recorded as being 25, the same age as her labourer husband Henry Colley.  Although that was six years after they were married, curiously their stated age had only advanced by four years older.  The couple was living at 1 Norland Square, just off Holland Park Avenue, with their first two children, Elizabeth Colee, who was four, and Henry Colee who was eighteen months old.  When Elizabeth died, she was credited with the correct age, with the death of Elizabeth Ann Colee recorded at Paddington register office (Ref. 1a 21) during the last three months of 1892, when she was 52 years old.  Eighteen months earlier, according to the census in 1891, the four members of the family were living at Church Place in Paddington, where Henry Colee was 45 and a bricklayer from London, Elizabeth A Colee from Berkshire was 49, Henry Colee aged 21 and a bricklayer’s labourer working with his father, and latest arrival Emma Colee who was 15.

 

 

 

Henry Colee was born at Paddington in London on 25th November 1844, where he was baptised on 5th July 1846 at St James Church, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Colee.  By the time his wife had died in 1892, Elizabeth had been a widow for almost a year, with the death of Henry Colee recorded at Paddington (Ref. 1a 2) during the last quarter of 1891, when he was 46.

 

 

 

 

28O26

Thomas Collett was born at Marylebone in London in 1842, with his birth registered at Farringdon (Islington) London (Ref. vi 170) during the third quarter of that year.  He was living with his family in Marylebone in 1851 at the age of eight years, and was 18 years old and working with his father as a shoe-maker at Little Grove Street, Marylebone in 1861.  Towards the end of the next decade, he married Fanny and, by 1871 the marriage had produced a daughter for the couple.  The census in 1871 confirmed that Thomas Collett was 28 and from Marylebone, where his daughter had also been born, his wife Fanny was 30, and their daughter Florence was under one year old.  Thomas was 70 years old when he died in 1912, his death recorded at Paddington register office (Ref. 1a 35) during the second quarter of that year.  Just prior to his passing, Thomas Collett, aged 69 and a chimney sweep, was a patient/inmate at Paddington Infirmary.  The birth of his daughter Florence Collett was registered at Marylebone (Ref. 1a 558) during the last quarter of 1870.

 

 

 

28P38

Florence Collett

Born in 1870 at Marylebone

 

 

 

 

28O27

Clara Collett was born in 1844 and, although that seems to have taken place at Faringdon in Berkshire, where her older siblings were born, her birth was registered at Farringdon (Islington) London (Ref. vi 174) during the third quarter of 1844.  She was another child of shoe-maker Charles Collett, moved to London just after Clara was born.  She was six years of age in the London census of 1851 when her family was living at Charles Street in Marylebone.  After leaving school, and at the age of 17 (in 1861), Clara Collett from Faringdon in Berkshire was a domestic servant at the home of chair-maker Henry Hilderly and his family on Hollen Street in Soho, Westminster St Anne.

 

 

 

 

28O28

Emma Collett was born in London, after her family moved there from Faringdon, the fifth child of shoe-maker Charles Collett.  Her birth was registered at Marylebone (Ref. I 179) during the last three months of 1848.  Emma was two years old in the Marylebone census of 1851, when she and her family were living at Charles Street.

 

 

 

 

28O29

Alice Lavinia Collett was born in the Marylebone area of London in 1854, the last child born to Charles and Elizabeth Collett.  It was during the second quarter of the year that her birth was registered there (Ref. 1a 444).  As Alice L Collett she was six years old in the Marylebone census of 1861 at Little Grove Street, the census return confirming her place of birth as Marylebone.  Care needs to taken, as there was another Alice Lavinia Collett born in London and her marriage to Arthur Stoten was recorded at Paddington register office (Ref. 1a 18) during the third quarter of 1899.  They went on to have a family in Surrey and, upon the death of Alice Lavinia Collett Stoten on 15th January 1915 she was buried at Horton Estate Cemetery in Espom, when her date of birth was revealed as March 1872.

 

 

 

 

28O32

Eliza Sarah Collett was born at Rotherhithe in London during 1850 and was one year old in the Rotherhithe census of 1851 when she was the youngest of the three children at that time of Robert and Eleanor Collett.   Her mother died when Eliza was around five years old, and in 1861 she was living with her father at Limehouse when she was 10 years of age.  It was six years later that, as Eliza Sarah Collett, the daughter of cooper Robert Collett, she was married by banns to John Richard Smith at Christchurch in the London parish of St George on 24th March 1867.  John, who signed his name, was 19 and a coach painter, the son of shoemaker John Smith, while Eliza who made the mark of a cross was 18 and from Robert Street who had no stated occupation.  The witnesses were J Roberts and Louisa Punter.

 

 

 

 

28O34

Mary Ann Collett was born at Rotherhithe in London during 1854, the youngest child of Robert Collett and Eleanor Myers.  Tragically her mother and her eldest sister Eleanor both died around the time she was born, so in 1861 she was living with her widowed father at Limehouse in London when she was six years old.  She was not living with her father in 1871, but three years later, when she was 21, she was married by banns to widower Joseph James Ellis who was 24 and a hawker.  The wedding took place on 22nd May 1874 at St Judes Church in Bethnal Green when Mary’s father was confirmed as Robert Collett, a cooper, and Joseph’s father was named as Joseph James Ellis senior, a carman.  Mary’s address was stated as being 2 Elliott Row off Hague Street, while Joseph’s was 2 Sale Street.  The witnesses were William Grigg and Mary Ann Ellis and both of them and Mary Ann Collett made the mark of a cross, while Joseph signed his name.

 

 

 

 

28O35

Eliza Jane Collett was born at Nantwich on 18th March 1857.  By the time she was 24 she was unmarried and her occupation was that of an assistant school mistress.  At the time of the 1881 Census, she was living with her mother’s brother James Pick at his London Road home in Willaston.  Around five years later Eliza Jane Collett married Frank Andrew Gilbert and over the remainder of the decade they had two children who were born after the couple settled in Nantwich.  That was confirmed by the Nantwich census in 1891 when Frank Anthony Gilbert was 32, his wife Eliza Jane Gilbert was 34, Leonard Gilbert was three and Emily Gilbert was one year old.  Staying with the family on that day was Frank’s sister Mary Egerton Gilbert aged 26.  Frank made his fortune from the shoe trade, which was sufficient enough for the family to employ two servants, Annie Robinson 22 and Martha William 18. 

 

 

 

Two more children were added to their family during the 1890s, but only after the family had moved to Willaston to the east of Nantwich.  And it was there that the family residing on the day of the census in 1901.  On that day the family was recorded at Crewe Road in Willaston, where Eliza had been twenty years earlier.  Frank A Gilbert was 42 and a boot manufacturer from Nantwich, his wife Eliza J Gilbert was 44 and also from Nantwich, and with them were two of their four children.  They were James A Gilbert who was eight and Helena M Gilbert who was five years old, both of them confirmed as having been born at Willaston.  The baptism of James Alan Collett took place at Nantwich in 1893, when his parents were named as Frank Anthony and Eliza Jane Gilbert.  Also living in Willaston on that day, but not with her family, was Emily Gilbert who was 11 years old and born at Nantwich.  However, with the family was domestic servant Alice Robinson who was 26 and visitor Alfred James who was 41 and a bank accountant.

 

 

 

The census of April 1911 revealed that Eliza Jane Gilbert was living at the home of her younger brother and bachelor Thomas Collett (below) at 17 Hollingbury Place in Brighton.  The census return did not describe her as a visitor, so perhaps she had moved to Brighton for some family reason.  She was described as Eliza Gilbert who was 54 and born at Nantwich, who had been married for twenty-four years and that the marriage had produced four children, and all of them still living at that time.  Also living at the same address was Eliza’s spinster sister Emma Collett (below).  On that same day her husband Frank Anthony Gilbert, aged 52, was still living at Crewe Road in Willaston with two of his children.  They were Emily Gilbert who was 21 and James Alan Gilbert who was 18.  Again, the family was supported by a domestic servant Elizabeth Spencer who was 30.  Curiously the census return stated that he had been married for 26 years (not 24 as for his wife) and during which he had four children, although the information was ruled through in red ink.  So had he and his wife separated by that time in their lives.

 

 

 

 

28O36

William James Collett was born in Nantwich on 12th April 1859.  In 1881, aged 21, he was recorded as being a chemist's assistant and was living with his mother Hannah and younger brother Leonard (below) at 16 Hospital Street in Nantwich.  By 1901 at the age of 41 he was still single and was recorded as being a patient at a private hospital in Marylebone, London.  Ten years later he was still a bachelor at the age of 51 when he was living close to his siblings in Brighton.  The 1911 Census gave his occupation as a dispensing chemist working for a charitable institute.  Supporting him in that role were three servants.  They were Charles Cuthbert and his wife Emma both 52, and their daughter Bertha 22.  Charles was a hall porter at the dispensary, while his wife was William’s housekeeper and Bertha was the domestic servant.

 

 

 

It was nine years later that William James Collett died on 12th March 1920 when he was residing at 113 Queens Road in Brighton.  The details of his Will, which was proved in London on 19th May that same year, suggests that he had never married since the executors of his Will were named as his brother Leonard and his sister Emma (both below).  His personal effects were valued at £979 19 Shillings and 5 Pence.

 

 

 

 

28O37

LEONARD COLLETT was born at Nantwich on 17th April 1861.  He became an apprentice joiner on leaving school and in 1881 was aged 19 and was living with his mother Hannah and his older brother William (above) at 16 Hospital Street in Nantwich.  It was on 25th April 1889 that Leonard married (1) Mary Boulton, the daughter of George and Mary Boulton, at St Mary's Church in Nantwich.  They had four children together before Mary died on 17th March 1896 which may have been during the birth of a fifth child who also did not survive.  She was buried at Wybunbury Church near Nantwich, where she was joined many years later by Leonard.  Mary was the eldest of the eight children of iron moulder George Boulton and his wife Mary, and was born at Hanley in Stoke-on-Trent in 1861.  It is interesting to note that in April 1881 Mary Boulton age 20, was one of six domestic servants working for Edwin Wragg, the manager of a boot shop.  On that occasion Mary was living with the Wragg family at the Shakespeare Inn at 17 Piccadilly in the Shelton district of Stoke.  She was referred to as ‘Maria’ so as not to clash with the Wragg’s own daughter Mary.

 

 

 

Ten years later, according to the 1891 Census for Nantwich & Crewe, Leonard was 28 when he was living with his wife Mary and their daughter Mary.  By 1901 he was 39, by which time he was a widower working as a builder and contractor, but with the additional public duties of being the local registrar of marriages, and possibly births and deaths as well.  It is very interesting that his housekeeper was his sister-in-law Gertrude Boulton from Wolstanton in Staffordshire, to whom he was eventually married.  The 1901 Census for Willaston listed Leonard’s children as Mary Collett who was 10, Janet Collett who was nine, Leonard who was seven and William Collett who was six, all four children confirmed as having been born at Willaston, just east of Nantwich.  Following the tragic death of his wife five years earlier, Leonard was left to look after and bring up his young family and it was not until 1907 that he re-married.  During those years on his own it seems likely that he received help with the children from his spinster sister Emma who also lived in Willaston.

 

 

 

28P39

Mary Collett

Born in 1890 at Willaston

 

28P40

Janet Collett

Born in 1891 at Willaston

 

28P41

Leonard Collett

Born in 1893 at Willaston

 

28P42

William Collett

Born in 1894 at Willaston

 

 

 

And so it was that, eleven years after Mary's death, Leonard married (2) Gertrude Boulton, Mary’s youngest sister, at Cross Lane Chapel in Minshull Vernon near Crewe on 16th September 1907.  The marriage was recorded at Nantwich register office (Ref. 8a 818).  Gertrude was born at Wolstanton in Stoke-on-Trent in 1877.  The first of their three children was Joyce, born at Willaston in 1908 and it is thought that Joyce had a twin who died at birth.  Their son George Collett was born after the family had moved from Willaston to Nantwich where he was born in 1912.  However, in April 1911 the family was residing at London Road in Willaston where Leonard Collett from Nantwich was 49.  He was a builder and a contractor who had been married to Gertrude, aged 32, for three years, during which time she had given birth to two children, with only one alive on the day of the census.  The surviving child was Joyce Collett who was two years of age, while her half siblings were named as Janet Collett who was 19, Leonard Collett who was 17 and William Collett who was 16.

 

 

 

In 1901 Gertrude Boulton was 23 and was working as domestic housekeeper in Willaston near to where her future husband was living with his family.  Leonard died in 1940 and was buried at Wybunbury Church with Mary his first wife.  Twenty years earlier Leonard Collett, a builder, was named as one of the two executors of the Will of his brother William James Collett (above), together with his unmarried sister Emma Collett (below).  Gertrude Collett was living at 61 The Broadway, Hill Top in West Bromwich when died in hospital on 27th March 1961, following which probate of her estate valued at £2,510 3 Shillings and 9 Pence was granted to Joyce Collett, a spinster.  The death of Gertrude Collett at the age of 83 was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 9b 1125).

 

 

 

28P43

Joyce Collett

Born in 1908 at Willaston

 

28P44

a twin of Joyce Collett

Born in 1908 at Willaston

 

28P45

GEORGE COLLETT

Born in 1912 at Nantwich

 

 

 

 

28O38

Emma Collett was born at Nantwich in 1863.  At the age of 18 years, she was working as an apprentice confectioner and was living at the home of Ann Fitton at 4 High Street in Nantwich.  Miss Fitton was a confectioner aged 29 who was born at Wybunbury.  Also living on the premises were two young school leavers Mary Williams a 15 years old apprentice and 16 years old servant Hannah Stubbs.  It would appear that Emma never married as in 1891 at the age of 28 she was still single and was living in Nantwich. 

 

 

 

By the end of March 1901, she had moved to Willaston, where she was 38 and was ‘living on her own means’.  On both occasions she was living not far from her brother Leonard (above).  Within the next ten years Emma moved south to Brighton where she was living with her brother Thomas Collett (below) in April 1911.  That year’s census listed Emma as a spinster of 48 who had been born at Nantwich.  Also living with her and her brother at 17 Hollingbury Place was their married sister Eliza Jane Gilbert.  Nine years later, in the spring of 1920, spinster Emma Collett was named as an executor of the Will of her brother William James Collett (above).

 

 

 

 

28O39

Thomas Collett was born on 28th November 1869 at 16 Hospital Street in Nantwich.  He attended Nantwich Grammar School and in 1891 was recorded as being a Mechanical Engineer living in St Pancras, London.  By 1901 he had moved to Islington where he was still recorded as being a Mechanical Engineer.  It would appear that he never married and by 1911 he had left London and was living at 17 Hollingbury Place in Brighton where his occupation was still that of a mechanical engineer at the age of 42.  His place of birth was confirmed as Nantwich, and living with him at that time were his two sisters Emma Collett and Eliza Jane Gilbert nee Collett.

 

 

 

 

28O42

Harry Leonard Collett was born at Holborn St Margaret London in 1852, the son of Henry Collett of Faringdon and Frances Ann Hawkins from London.  After a couple of years living in London, it would appear that the family then spent a short while living at Epsom in Surrey where Harry’s sister Alice (below) was born.  Harry and his family then returned to the Westminster (Strand & St Anne Soho) area of the city where they were living at 3 Meards Court in 1861.  At that time Harry L Collett was eight years old and his place of birth was given as Westminster St Margaret.  By 1871 the family was living at a house in Eagle Street in Holborn (Eagle Street is still there today).  Harry was once again listed as Harry L Collett, and, on that occasion, he was 19 and was working as a tailor with his father.

 

 

 

It was on 1st February 1874 at St John’s Church in Walworth, Surrey that Harry Leonard Collett of full age was married by banns to Martha Sarah Dagwell, age 20, the daughter of Robert Dagwell a tobacco pipe maker.  Harry was confirmed as a tailor, the son of tailor Harry Collett.  The address given for both the bride and the groom was 21 East Street in Walworth, just off the A215 Walworth Road.  The female witness was Martha Butler, who signed her name, while the male witness made the mark of a cross.  Martha Dagwell was born at Bermondsey around 1854, and it was in Bermondsey that the couple initially settled once they were married and where their first child was born.

 

 

 

According to the census in 1881 Harry L Collett was 27 and a tailor’s cutter, his wife Martha S Collett was 26, and by then the family had moved twice since starting life together in Bermondsey.  Their address in 1881 was 143 Kirkwood Road, Camberwell in the Peckham district of Surrey.  Curiously Harry gave his place of birth as Bloomsbury which is just to the north of the St Margaret district of London, where he was stated as being born in the census of 1861, and just to the north of Holborn where he was living in 1871.

 

 

 

The two children of Harry and Martha in 1881 were recorded as Martha F Collett who was five and born in Bermondsey and Henry J Collett who was two and born while the family was living on the Old Kent Road in Camberwell, just before they moved to Kirkwood Road.  Three more children were added to the family over the next ten years, so by 1891 the family living in Camberwell was made up of Harry L Collett 37, Martha S Collett 36, Martha F Collett 15, Henry J Collett 12, Edward B Collett who was eight, Leonard C Collett who was six, and Mary E Collett who was two years old.

 

 

 

Martha was with-child on the day of the census that year when she and her family were residing at 44 Barset Road in Nunhead near the Nunhead Cemetery.  The couple’s penultimate child was born just after the census in 1891 and was followed two years later by the birth of their last child.  Only five of the couple’s seven children were then listed with Harry and Martha in the census of 1901, since it is likely that their eldest daughter Martha had left home by then to be married.  According to the Camberwell census that year the family was still living at 44 Barset Road in Nunhead where the four youngest children had been born.  Harry L Collett 48 was a tailor’s cutter, Martha Collett was 47, and their children were Harry J Collett 22, Edward B Collett 19, Leonard Collett 16, Mary Collett 12, and Elizabeth Collett who was nine years old.  Curiously, the whereabouts of the couple’s youngest son and last child has been not been determined in 1901 even though he was back living with his father and his sister Elizabeth ten years later in 1911.

 

 

 

The census on that occasion placed Harry Leonard Collett as a 59 years old clothier’s cutter from Holborn living at 67 Linden Grove in Nunhead, adjacent to and overlooking Nunhead Cemetery.  He was still recorded as being married even though his wife was not listed at the house on that day, but was recorded at another address in Nunhead where she was Martha Sarah Collett aged 58 from Bermondsey.  The only children living at Linden Grove with Harry were his youngest two children.  They were his daughter Elizabeth Collett who was 20 and born at Nunhead, who was employed as a sewing machinist making underclothing, and his son Frederick Collett, age 17 and also born at Nunhead, who was a gas fitter’s mate.

 

 

 

Kirkwood Road is directly opposite Tappesfield Road, off the A2214 Nunhead Lane to the north, with Tappesfield off Nunhead lane on the south side.  And at the southern end of Tappesfield Road is Barset Road, and just a short walk from there is Linden Grove, all exactly the same today as it was over one hundred years ago.

 

 

 

Curiously at the time of the death of widower Harry Leonard Collett on 16th February 1923, his age was recorded in error as 69, twelve years after the previous census in which he was 59.  His final address was 17 Seldon Street at Nunhead in the parish of St Pauls.

 

 

 

28P46

Martha F Collett

Born in 1875 at Bermondsey

 

28P47

Henry (Harry) Jessie Collett

Born in 1878 at Peckham

 

28P48

Edward B Collett

Born in 1882 at Peckham

 

28P49

Leonard Charles Collett

Born in 1884 at Nunhead

 

28P50

Mary E Collett

Born in 1888 at Nunhead

 

28P51

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1891 at Nunhead

 

28P52

Frederick S J Collett

Born in 1893 at Nunhead

 

 

 

 

28O43

Helena Elizabeth Collett was born in St Margaret London during 1855, the daughter of Henry Collett of Faringdon and Frances Ann Hawkins from London.  When she was still a baby her family moved to Epsom, but had returned to London by 1861.  The census that year placed the family living at 3 Meards Courts in the Strand & Soho district of the city, when Helena E Collett was six years of age.  She was list as Helen Collett aged 15 in the census of 1871 when she was still living there with her family at Eagle Street in Holborn.  However, it is established that she was later more commonly known by her second name, and it was as Elizabeth Collett that she married Frederick Hayward at Trinity Church in Stepney on 1st January 1878.  Frederick James Thomas Hayward was born on the 12th September 1859 at 11 King's Row in Bethnal Green, London.  His profession was that of a blacksmith, but at the time of his marriage to Helen he was described as a gas fitter.

 

This extract from a family group photo was taken much later in her life.

 

 

 

The marriage produced eight children for Helen and Frederick.  However, no census records have been located in either 1881 or 1891 to confirm the details.  Therefore, in March 1901 Frederick J T Hayward of Bethnal Green was living within the Mile End Old Town area of London, where Helen’s parents were living in 1881.  Frederick was 41 and a tool maker, while his wife was described Elizabeth S Hayward of Pimlico who was 46 and a tailoress.  Living with the couple in 1901 was their daughter Elizabeth S Hayward who was 19 and also a tailoress who had been born at Mile End. 

 

 

 

Back in 1881, after she Helen (Elizabeth) had married Frederick Hayward and left the family home, her mother and her three younger sisters were all working at tailoresses, and were supporting her father Henry Collett who was a military tailor.  Helen Elizabeth Hayward nee Collett was the great grandmother of Jennifer Maddock who kindly provided information about her and her Hayward family.  Jennifer also confirmed that her great grandmother continued with the profession followed by her father Henry Collett, by working as a military tailor.

 

 

 

 

28O44

Alice Collett was born at Epsom in Surrey in 1859, the daughter of Henry Collett of Faringdon and Frances Ann Hawkins from London.  By the time of the census in 1861 her parents had moved back into central London and were living at 3 Meards Court in the Strand & St Anne Soho area, where Alice was two years old.  Ten years later Alice Collett was 11 years of age and was living with her family at Eagle Street in Holborn.  During the following decade her parents moved again and in 1881, when Alice was 20 and a tailoress like her sisters and her mother, the family was living at 30 Jupps Road in Mile End Old Town in London.

 

 

 

Just over a year after that Alice married Henry Webb at Mile End Old Town (aka Stepney) on 6th August 1882.  It is also understood that it was in the Stepney area of London that Henry was born on 14th April 1862, where he was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 11th June 1862, the son of printer William Webb and his wife Elizabeth Bills on 51 Jupps Road in Stepney.

 

 

 

Shortly after they were married, the couple emigrated to Australia during 1884, following which they initialled lived in Tasmania for a couple of years before finally settling in North Melbourne, Victoria.   If so, then the couple’s first two children were born while they were living in Tasmania, while the remaining children were most likely born after the family had arrived in Melbourne.  Their children were Henry Webb (born 1884), Frances Webb (born 1886), George Webb (born and died in 1887), William Webb (born in 1888), Thomas Webb (born in 1890), Joseph Webb (born 1896), Alice Webb (born 1899), and Alfred Webb who was born in 1901.

 

 

 

The couple’s youngest child, Alfred Webb, was the grandfather of Di Schutz nee Webb, and it was Di who provided the information that Henry Webb died shortly after Alfred was born, when he passed away on 3rd April 1901.  The delightful, but tragic, picture on the right was taken not long after Alice was made a widow, and shows her with her seven surviving children.

 

Another family photograph taken around the start of The Great War, and again kindly supplied by Di Schutz, shows Alice Webb nee Collett with just her two youngest children, teenagers Alice and Alfred.

 

 

 

One month before the death of her husband the following article was published in The Melbourne Argus on 8th March 1901.  “At the Port Melbourne Court yesterday Alice Webb applied to Messrs Armstrong and Cuscaden, JPs, to have two of her children, Joseph Webb, aged 4, and Alice, aged 2½, committed to the Department for Neglected Children.  The tale told by Mrs Webb and Sergeant Mason was a piteous one.  Mrs Webb had eight children, of whom five were too young to earn anything, and the other three could only earn a few shillings per week.  The husband and father had been ill for some 18 months with rheumatism.  Part of the time he had been in the Melbourne Hospital, but was discharged some weeks ago.  Since that time, he had been lying on a bundle of rags in the house, and this was the best bedding that they possessed.  The rent was overdue, and the family was threatened with ejectment.  The case had only recently come to light, and the local Dorcas Society and the Salvation Army had since they became aware of the facts given what assistance they could.  Sergeant Mason said the husband was a mere skeleton, and it was the worst case that had come under his notice, either here or elsewhere.  The application was granted.”

 

 

 

It was while she was living in East Melbourne that Alice Webb nee Collett died during 1932.  Sixteen years earlier, Alice was living at 7 Thistlewaite Street in South Melbourne where she received the sad news of the death of her son Thomas Richard Webb on 19th July 1916.  Thomas was a private [2910] with the 60th Battalion of the Australian Infantry Forces and died during the Battle of Fromelles in France at the age of 26.  His body was buried in a mass grave for 250 soldiers at Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery in Fromelles, but was only formally identified in 2010 through the use of DNA.  So, after ninety-five years he has been given a proper military burial, the grave site being marked by a headstone bearing his name.

 

 

 

 

28O46

Victoria Collett was born in London during 1865, the daughter of Henry and Frances Collett.  She may have been born at Eagle Street in St Andrew Holborn where she was six years old in 1871 when she was living there with her family.  Ten years later when she was 16, she and her family were residing at 30 Jupps Road in Mile End Old Town.  It was nine years after that when she was married by banns to Francis Hall at Trinity Church in Stepney on 3rd August 1890.  Both of them were recorded as being 26, while Victoria, the daughter of tailor Henry Collett was presumably living with her parents at 87 Bridge Street in Stepney.  Francis was a hatter and the son of William Hall who was a mineral water ware manufacturer of 52 Bridge Street in Stepney.  The witnesses at the ceremony were Henry Collett and Harriett Jordan, the future wife of Victoria’s brother George (below).

 

 

 

Following the birth of her three daughters, tragedy struck the family since Victoria was made a widow by the death of Francis Hall sometime prior to the census of 1911.  At that time Victoria Hall, age 46 and from the Strand in London was a sewing machinist involved in the tailoring and clothing trade working at home, residing at the two-roomed accommodation that was 101 Bridge Street in Mile End Old Town, London.  Living there with her was her three daughters Alice Hall, who was 17 and a worker in tin ware for a tinplate manufacturer, Mary Hall, who was 16 and a tin ware machinist at the same employer, and Florence Hall who was 14 and a blouse maker and sewing machinist in the clothing business like her mother, but not working at home.

 

 

 

 

28O47

George Frederick Collett was born at Holborn in London during the fourth quarter of 1869, the son of tailor Henry Collett from Faringdon and his wife Frances Ann Hawkins.  He was one year old in the census of 1871 when he was living with his family at Eagle Street in Holborn, where he was very likely born.  Ten years later when he was 11, he was living at 30 Jupps Road in Mile End Old Town with his father and his mother, who was a tailoress.  The remainder of his family at that time comprised just his three older sisters Alice, Mary and Victoria, who had all left school by then and were all working with their parents as tailoresses.

 

 

 

George was the only child still living with his parents at 87 Bridge Street in Mile End Old Town in the spring of 1891.  For the first time, he was described as George F Collett, who was 21, while his parents Henry and Frances were both in their early sixties.  On that occasion George’s place of birth was recorded as St Pancras, while his occupation was that of a tailor, the same as his father.

 

 

 

Just over two years later, on 19th November 1893, George Frederick Collett was married by banns to Harriett Maria Jordan at the parish Church of St John in Limehouse, Middlesex.  George was 24, a bachelor and a labourer of 6 Dora Street, midway between Limehouse and Bow Common, which is still there today.  Crucially the marriage certificate confirmed he was the son of Henry Collett, a tailor, and not as previously stated the son of Andrew William Collett (Ref. 31M9) from Wiltshire and his wife Sarah Curnick.  Harriet was 18, the daughter of George Carston Jordan and his wife Charlotte Hall, who was born on 16th February 1875 at Mile End Old Town in London.  Her address, which was presumably that of her parents, was 78 Rhodeswell Road, of which ran Dora Street.  The two witnesses were the bride’s father and Emily Maria Bown.

 

 

 

The couple initially set up home in Mile End, where their first child was born.  Sometime during 1894 or 1895 when George’s father died, the family moved to the neighbouring area of Bow, where their next two children were born.  It was at 16 Helene Street in Bow that the family was living in 1897 when their son Harry was baptised at the Church of St Stephen in Bow.  Shortly after the birth the family moved again, that time to 6 Eleanor Street in Bromley, just immediately south of Bow, where their next child was born.  All of this was confirmed in the 1901 Census for Bromley in the Tower Hamlets district of London.  The family listed at that time was made up of George, age 31 and a general labourer who was born at Mile End (sic), his wife Harriet, age 26 and also of Mile End, and their children George, who was seven and of Mile End, Florence, who was five and of Bow, and Harry, who was three, and Charles aged one year, who were both born at Bromley.

 

 

 

Three further children were born into the family over the following ten years, during which time the family continued to move between Canning Town, where two more children were born, and nearby Plaistow where another was born.  According to the census of 1911, George F Collett of Holborn was 42 and was an iron worker living with his family at 8 Suffolk Road in Plaistow within the West Ham district of London.  Suffolk Road is situated adjacent to the East London Cemetery and near to the Memorial Recreation Ground.

 

 

 

George’s wife of eighteen years was Harriet M Collett who was 37 and from Mile End, and their seven children were confirmed as George F Collett, age 17, Florence E Collett, age 15, Harry L Collett, age 13, Charles A Collett, age 11, Lillian A Collett, who was six, Thomas H Collett, who was four, and baby William G Collett who was just seven months old.  Six years later one more child was added to the family and that was Robert A Collett who was born in the West Ham area during the second quarter of 1917, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jordan.  However, it was at Canning Town in London that George Frederick Collett died on 7th April 1923 at the age of 54. 

 

 

 

28P53

George Frederick Collett

Born in 1894 at Mile End, London

 

28P54

Florence Ellen Collett

Born in 1895 at Bow, London

 

28P55

Harry Leonard Collett

Born in 1897 at Bow, London

 

28P56

Charles Alfred Collett

Born in 1899 at Bromley, London

 

28P57

Lillian Alice Collett

Born in 1906 at Plaistow, Canning Town

 

28P58

Thomas Henry Collett

Born in 1908 at Plaistow, Canning Town

 

28P59

William George Collett

Born in 1910 at Canning Town

 

28P60

Robert Albert Collett

Born in 1917 at West Ham

 

 

 

 

28O48

Leonard Collett was born at Faringdon in 1863 and was named after his grandfather.  It seems very likely that he was the base-born of Clara Collett who was not married at the time of his birth.  In 1871 Leonard was seven was still living with his unmarried mother Clara in the town of Faringdon.  During the next couple of years his mother married Leonard Smallwood who was 10 years younger than Clara, but it would appear that he died shortly after.  Not long after that tragedy Leonard’s mother married widower Isaac Whittle who already had a family of his own.  By the time of the 1881 Census the Whittle family were living at 133 Spoke Road in Battersea.  At that time Leonard was recorded as the stepson of Isaac Whittle and was listed under the name of Leonard Whittle.  He was aged 17 and born at Faringdon and was employed as a works engine fitter.

 

 

 

Ten years later, still listed as Leonard Whittle, he was 27 and was continuing to live with his parents who had by then moved to Wandsworth in London.  Sometime during the 1890s Leonard reverted to using the Collett surname and that may have been at the time he left the family home and made his way to Birmingham to start a new life.  However, it was while he was still living in Wandsworth that he met and married Helen Sophia Chapman there during 1896, one of the witnesses being Isaac Whittle, his mother’s husband.  Helen was born at Battersea in 1870 and was living at 14 Sandown Place in Wandsworth with her family in 1881, where they were still living at the time of the census in 1891.

 

 

 

Not long after Leonard and Helen were married, they moved north to Birmingham and by March 1901 they were recorded as living at 21 Havelock Street in the Aston and Erdington district of Birmingham.  The census return that year described Leonard Collett from Faringdon as being 37 and an instructor in metal work, while his wife was named as Helen S Collett who was 31 and born at Battersea in Surrey.  It is now known that Leonard was employed as a schoolmaster and was therefore a teacher in a metal work class.  Ten years later the childless couple was living apart, and that may have been as a result of Helen needing to be with her elderly widowed mother.  

 

 

 

In 1901 Helen’s mother was already a widow living at West Clandon to the east of Guildford in Surrey, and it was there also that Emily Sarah Ann Chapman was living at 1 Bull & Bones Cottages in April 1911.  The census that year recorded that Emily was 66 and had been born at Westminster, had been married forty-three years earlier and had given birth to two children, both of whom were still alive.  The only other person living with Emily at West Clandon was her married daughter Helen Sophia Collett who was 41 and born at Battersea, who had been married for thirteen years (sic) without issue.  On that same day in 1911 Helen’s husband Leonard Collett was still residing at the six-roomed accommodation that was 39 Sladefield Road, in Alum Rock to the east of Birmingham where he was recorded as being 47 and from Faringdon in Berkshire, a schoolmaster in handicraft employed by Birmingham Education Committee, who had been married for fourteen years.  Living with him was his widowed mother Clara Whittle nee Collett who was 70 and also from Faringdon and another handicraft teacher Frederick Henry Taplin from Reading.  One-year earlier Leonard Collett, a schoolmaster, was named as the sole executor of the Will of his stepfather Isaac Whittle who had died at Wimborne in Dorset on the last day of 1909.

 

 

 

It seems very likely that Leonard and Helen were still living within the Aston area of Birmingham in 1919 and that Leonard’s widowed mother Clara was still living with the couple when she died there during the third quarter of that year.  Sometime after 1919, perhaps when Leonard retired from being a schoolmaster, he and Helen settled in West Clandon in Surrey where Helen’s mother had lived and died.  The couple was still living there during the last year of the Second World War when Leonard Collett died on 17th January 1945.  Whilst his home address was Chelmsley, Cross Road in West Clandon, it was at 10 Warren Road in Guildford that he actually passed away.  Rather curiously his Will was proved at Llandudno on 6th March 1945 when the sole executor of his estate of £2,057 7 Shillings and 9 Pence was his widow Helen Sophia Collett.

 

 

 

 

28O49

Mary Ann Collett was born at Alvescot in 1850, where she was baptised on 13th October 1850, the eldest child of George Collett and Jane Stanton.  Before she was married, Mary gave birth to a base-born daughter Emma Collett.  By the time of the Census in 1871 Emma was living with her grandparents George and Jane Collett at Alvescot, although no record of Mary has been found on that day.  Mary later married the brother of her father’s brother-in-law William Wise (see Ref. 28N30); William having been born at Weston-on-the-Green in 1852 and christened there on 22nd May 1853.  The marriage took place at Alvescot during November 1871, and was registered in Faringdon during the last quarter of that year, with William still unmarried on the day for the census earlier that year.  This photograph of Mary A Wise nee Collett was taken outside her home during her twilight years and was provided by her great granddaughter Jennie Cordner.

 

 

 

William Wise was the youngest son of Joseph Wise and Ann Porter and the brother of Joseph Wise who married Mary Collett (Ref. 28N30) his ‘Auntie Mary’, she being the sister of George Collett (Ref. 28N31) who was the father of his wife Mary Ann.  According to the 1881 Census for Alvescot, Mary Wise, aged 31 and of Alvescot, was living with her agricultural labourer husband William Wise, who was 27 and from Weston on the Green.  Living with the couple were their four daughters, Minnie Wise who was 10, Caroline Ann Wise who was seven, Edith J Wise who was four, and Elizabeth Ellen who was two, all of whom were born at Alvescot.  Mary was very likely with-child on the day of the census, since she gave birth to another daughter later that same year.

 

 

 

The family continued to live at Alvescot until 1890 when William’s work took him to Aldsworth in Gloucestershire.  The census in 1891 again confirmed that William was born at Weston-on-the-Green, and by that time he was 38 and living at Allens Lodge in Aldsworth, where his occupation was that of an agricultural cow man.  Living there with him was his wife Mary A Wise, aged 40 and from Alvescot, his four youngest daughters Elizabeth E Wise, aged 12, Sarah S Wise, aged 9, Eva A Wise who was two, and Martha E Wise who was only nine months old.  Also living with the family was William’s two sons William G Wise who was seven, and John T Wise who was five years old.  All of the children had been born at Alvescot.

 

 

 

After living at Aldsworth for a short while, the family moved again and, on that occasion, it was to the Oxfordshire village of Filkins, just two miles west of Alvescot.  And it was there that the couple’s last child, Sidney Wise, was born.  How long the family lived at Filkins has not been determined, but by the start of the new century they had moved three miles north to Holwell, just south-west of Burford.

 

 

 

At the time of the census in March 1901 William Wise, age 49, and his wife Mary A Wise, age 51, were living at Holwell Downs Farm, where William was working as a shepherd.  Curiously Mary’s place of birth was recorded as Marston in Oxford, rather than Alvescot where all but one of her children had been born.  William G Wise was 17, John J Wise was 15, Eva A Wise was 12, Martha E Wise was 10, while Sidney was seven.  This photograph of William and Mary was taken prior to the census day in 1901, on the occasion of the wedding of their daughter Elizabeth Ellen Wise.  Ten years later the couple was living alone at Alvescot, when William was 59 and Mary was 61. 

 

 

 

William Wise died eighteen years later on 15th November 1929 at the age of 77, his death recorded at Headington register office in Oxford.  His widow Mary Ann Wise nee Collett outlived her husband by just over seven years when she passed away at the age of 86, when her death was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 1979) during the first quarter of 1937.  Despite only 11 children being listed below, at the time of the census in 1911, William and Mary Ann completed the census return by stating that they had given birth to 13 children of which 12 had survived and were still alive that year.  That probably indicates the two missing children may have been born and died between 1867 and 1872.

 

 

 

28P61

Emma Collett

Born in 1867 at Alvescot

 

28P62

Minnie Wise m Charles Silman 47N12

Born in 1872 at Alvescot

 

28P63

Caroline Ann Wise

Born in 1873 at Alvescot

 

28P64

Edith Jane Wise

Born in April 1877 at Alvescot

 

28P65

Elizabeth Ellen Wise

Born in 1878 at Alvescot

 

28P66

Sarah Selina Wise

Born in 1881 at Alvescot

 

28P67

William G Wise

Born on 04.08.1883 at Alvescot

 

28P68

John Thomas Wise

Born in 1885 at Alvescot

 

28P69

Eva Alice Wise

Born in 1888 at Alvescot

 

28P70

Martha E Wise

Born during July 1890 at Alvescot

 

28P71

Sidney Wise

Born in 1893 at Filkins

 

 

 

 

28O50

John Collett was born at Alvescot in 1851 and was baptised there on 28th December 1851, another child of George and Jane Collett.  He married Selina Lewis in 1880 at Windsor in Berkshire.  In 1881 the couple were in service at the home of Frederick Llewellyn Budd an insurance broker at Parkside Villa in Old Windsor.  John was listed as being aged 29 and a gardener of Alvescot, while Selina was 26 and was a housekeeper born at Bromham near Bedford.  The couple’s first child was born at Sunningdale in Berkshire after which the family moved back to John’s home village of Alvescot where the other four children were born.  In the census of 1891 John was 39 and was listed as the Inn Keeper at The Red Lion public house in Alvescot.  Included in the census return with John, was his wife Selina 36, and their daughters Clara, who was nine, and Rosa Belinda, who was four, and their son John Charles who was six years old.  At the time of the census that year, on fifth April, Selina was with-child and was expecting the arrival of the couple’s fourth and last child, which was born during the few months of 1891.

 

 

 

During the next ten years the family, minus eldest son John, moved to north Oxfordshire where in March 1901 they were living at the Saye and Sele Arms Inn at Broughton near Banbury.  Lord and Lady Saye and Sele were the owners of Broughton Castle which in recent years was the location for many historical films.

 

 

 

John Collett of Alvescot was 45 and a butcher, while his wife Selina was 40 and was described as the manager of the (public) house where their daughter Clara, who was 18 and from Sunningdale, was a waitress.  The census return also confirmed that their daughter Rose Belinda, who was 14, and their son George who was nine, were both born at Alvescot.  John’s and Selina’s eldest son John had, returned to, or remained in Alvescot when the family moved to Banbury, as it was there that he was living and working as a carpenter and a wheelwright in 1901.

 

 

 

Selina Collett nee Lewis died just over five years later at the age of 52, when her death was recorded at the Banbury register office (Ref. 3a 628) during the third quarter of 1906.  Less than five years after that John Collett (senior) died at the age of 60 during the first three months of 1911 with the record of his passing also being registered at the Banbury Register Office (Ref. 3a 664) in the first quarter of that year, hence the reason for his absence from the family home on the census day which was 2nd April.  And so it was, according the census return that year, that three of their children were still living together at the same address within the Banbury registration area.

 

 

 

28P72

Clara Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1882 at Sunningdale

 

28P73

John Charles Collett

Born in 1885 at Alvescot

 

28P74

Rosa Belinda Collett

Born in 1887 at Alvescot

 

28P75

George Lewis Leslie Collett

Born in 1891 at Alvescot

 

 

 

 

28O51

George Collett was born at Alvescot on 6th February 1853, the son of George and Jane Collett.  He was eight years old in 1861 and was 18 in 1871, when he was living with his family at Alvescot on both occasions.  George later married Mary Elizabeth Southby, who was born at Wantage during 1855, although no record has ever been found that might suggest they ever had any children.  In 1881 George and Mary were living at Sand Pit Road in Easthampstead near Bracknell in Berkshire.  George Collett from Alvescot was listed as being a gardener at the age of 28, while his wife Mary E Collett was 25 and from Wantage.  The next census in 1891 once again recorded the couple residing within the Easthampstead & Bracknell registration district of Berkshire, but with the surname spelt as Collet, when George was 32 (a possible transcription error for 38) and Mary E Collet was 35.  It was the same situation ten years later with just the pair of them still living at Easthampstead where George, age 48, was still working as a gardener, while Mary was then 45.

 

 

 

According to the next census in April 1911 George Collett aged 58 and from Alvescot, together with his wife Mary Collett aged 55 and from Wantage, was still living in Easthampstead at that time.  Apart from that period of thirty years, it is understood that the couple lived most of the rest of their life at Black Bourton, which is the next village to Alvescot.  What is known is that George Collett died on 20th November 1936 aged 83, with Mary having died there earlier on 25th May 1929 aged 73.  The couple were buried at St Peter’s Church in Alvescot, the site being marked by a single gravestone with the following epitaph.

 

 

 

“In Loving Memory of Mary Elizabeth beloved wife of George Collett passed away May 25th 1929 aged 74 years – Gone but not forgotten, at rest in the Lord.  Also of George Collett beloved husband of the above died November 11th 1936 aged 83 – Blessed are they that have not seen, but yet have believed”  It may be of interest to note that in April 1911 there was another Collett family living in Easthampstead.  That was William George Collett who was born at Upper Clapham in 1869 and his wife Ruth, and their three children.  For more details on that family see Part 18 – The Suffolk Line (Ref. 18Q2).

 

 

 

 

28O52

Lucy Collett was born at Alvescot, and the date of her birth to George and Jane Collett was originally thought to have been 12th September 1858.  However, the information in the census returns for 1861 and 1871 bring this into question, and it is now believed that her date of birth has somehow been confused with that of her sister Anne (below).  So, it is more than likely that it was Lucy who was born at Alvescot on 26th November 1854, simply because she was recorded as Lucy Collet, aged six years living with her family in 1861, and as Lucy Collett, age 16, who was living and working in Alvescot in 1871, but not far from where her family was still living.

 

 

 

It was around four years later that unmarried Lucy gave birth to a daughter while she was working in the village of Shifford on the north bank of the River Thames near Kingston Bagpuize.  She married Henry Simms in 1877, presumably during the early months of that year, since she presented him with a son within that same year.  Once they were married the couple settled in the twin villages of Aston & Cote, just to the west of Shifford, and it was at Cote that their son was born, although for the birth of their second son they were living in Aston.  After they were married Lucy’s base-born daughter appears to have taken the Simms surname, as confirmed in the census of 1881. 

 

 

 

By that time in their lives the family was residing at Bull Street in Aston & Cote, Bull Street being the road that runs between the two villages.  Henry Simms from Marcham near Abingdon-on-Thames was 25 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Lucy from Alvescot was 26, and the three children living with the couple on that day were named as Alice Simms who was five and from Shifford, John Henry Simms who was four and from Cote, and George Simms who was two years old and born at Aston.

 

 

 

The base-born daughter of Lucy Collett had left the Simms family home in Aston & Cote by the time of the census in 1891 when she would have been around 15 years of age.  Likewise, her half-brother John Simms, who was 13, was absent from the family on that occasion due to his work having taken him to Burford in Oxfordshire.  However, by that time the family of Henry and Lucy had produced four more children.  The census in 1891 listed the couple with five of their children.  Henry Simms was 35, Lucy was 36, George was 12, Jesse Simms was nine, Elizabeth Simms was seven, Albert Simms was four, and Ernest Simms was two years of age.

 

 

 

During the next ten years a further three children were added to the family, although the third of them may well have been a grandchild bearing in mind the age of Lucy at the time of the birth.  According to the Aston & Cote census in March 1901 Henry Simms was an ordinary labourer at the age of 44, his wife Lucy was 45, and the children were Elizabeth Simms, age 17 and a domestic servant, Ernest Simms, age 12 who was seamsman, Arthur Simms who was eight, Edith Simms who was six, and Percy Simms who was one year old.  Also at that time, Lucy’s eldest son John Henry Simms was 24 and a footman at St Paul without Burton Hill within the Malmesbury registration district of Wiltshire.

 

 

 

Ten years later John Henry Simms from Aston in Oxfordshire was married with two children, when he was living in the Greenwich district of London.  John was 34, his wife Violet Kathleen Simms was 24, and their two children were Victor Henry Simms, who was one year of age, while Nora Beatrice Simms who was only seven months old.  John’s mother never lived to see her son married, since Lucy Simms nee Collett died during 1907.  Her husband Henry Simms survived her by seven years, when he died in 1914.

 

 

 

 

28O53

Anne Collett, who was known as Annie, was born at Alvescot.  However, as with the problem with the date of birth of her sister Lucy (above), it now seems likely that she was not born on 26th November 1854 as first published here in this family tree.  The ages of the two sisters in 1861 and 1871 places Lucy as older than Anne.  Therefore, it seems likely that Anne Collett was born on 12th September 1858, as she was two years old in 1861 and was 12 years of age in 1871.  By the time of the census in 1881 Annie Collett from Alvescot was living in Sunninghill near Bracknell and close to where her brother George Collett (above) was living with his wife Mary.  The census identified her incorrectly as being 27, when she was actually 22, and that she was employed as a domestic housemaid by elderly widower William B Brown, a general practitioner living at Heath House in Sunninghill.

 

 

 

Two and a half years later, on 13th October 1883, Anne Collett she married Charles Peachey.  Charles was the son of William and Ann Peachey and was born at Alvescot in 1860.  Charles was the brother of William Peachey who married Anne’s sister Elizabeth Collett (below).  In 1881 Charles Peachey, age 20, and his brother William, age 22, (see below) were still living with their parents at Alvescot, where they were both born and where they were both working as agricultural labourers like their father William Peachey.

 

 

 

Over the following years Anne presented Charles with a total of six children and by 1891 the family living at Alvescot comprised Charles Peachey, aged 30, his wife Annie, aged 31, and their first four children.  They were Frederick C Peachey who was five, Nora Annie Peachy who was four, George Edward Peachey who was two and Florence Louisa Peachey who was one year old.  Ten years later Charles was 40 when he was working as a shepherd on a farm at Alvescot, his wife Annie was 41 and living with them were the couple’s five children.  Frederick was 15 and was a teamster working on a farm whose place of birth was Southmoor, Nora was 14, George was 12, Florence was 11 and Albert was two years old.

 

 

 

It was the census in 1911 that confirmed Annie and Charles had been married for twenty-five years and that during those years Annie had presented Charles with six children who were all still alive in April 1911.  However, by that time the couple’s two eldest daughter had left the family home in Alvescot, and were presumably married by then.  The family of that occasion was listed as follows: Charles 50, Annie 51, Frederick Charles Peachey 25, George Edward Peachey 22, Albert Henry Peachey who was 12 and Edith Mary Peachey who was nine years of age. It was almost seventeen years after that when Charles Peachey passed away, his death at the age of 68 being recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 3a 2126) during the first quarter of 1929.

 

 

 

 

28O54

Caroline Collett was born at Alvescot on 16th October 1859.  She died the following year on 10th June 1860 and was buried at St Peter’s Church in Alvescot.

 

 

 

 

28O55

Elizabeth Collett was born at Alvescot on 26th May 1861 and was recorded as being nine years old in the census of 1871 when she was living with her family at Alvescot.  At the time of the next census in April 1881, Elizabeth was 19 and an unmarried mother still living at Alvescot with her parents George and Jane Collett, but with her two-year old base-born son Albert Collett.  To provide an income for her and her son Elizabeth was working alongside her father and her brother William (below) as an agricultural labourer.

 

 

 

To date no record has been found that provides any indication who the father of Albert Collett might have been.  What is known is that young Albert Collett continued to live with his grandparents until towards the end of the century.  Later that same year Elizabeth Collett married William Peachey on 8th November 1881.  It is feasible that Elizabeth’s sister Annie Collett (above) met William’s brother Charles Peachey at the wedding and as a result they too were married two years later.  The marriage of Elizabeth and William produced six children and all of them were born at Alvescot between 1882 and 1898.  According to the Alvescot census of 1891, when the family was living at Mill Lane with Elizabeth’s parents either next-door or living with them, William was 31 and Elizabeth was 29, and her first-born child Alfred Collett, already an agricultural labourer aged 12 years, together with the couple’s four children, William George Peachey (born 1883), John Frederick Peachey (born 1885), Victor Bernard S Peachey (born 1887), and Walter Percival Peachey (born 1890).

 

 

 

After a further twenty years, the Peachey family was again residing in Alvescot when William was 52 and Elizabeth was 49.  Still living there with them were six of their children, and they were William who was 28, John 25, Victor 23, Walter 20, Ernest 17, and Annie Peachey who was 13, all of them born at Alvescot.

 

 

 

28P76

Albert Collett

Born in 1879 at Alvescot

 

 

 

 

28O56

William Collett was born at Alvescot on 21st June 1863 and was seven years old in the Alvescot census of 1871.  He was one of only two children still living there with his parents in 1881 when he was 17 and working as an agricultural labourer with his sister Elizabeth (above).  Four years later he married Emma Townsend at Witney in 1885.  Emma was born at Brize Norton in 1868 and was the daughter of Leonard and Elizabeth Townsend of Bampton and Alvescot respectively. 

 

 

 

In 1891 the childless couple was very likely living at Alvescot within the Bampton & Witney registration district when William was 27 and Emma was 23.  However, after many years of being married Emma present William with a son just prior to the next census in 1901.  The Alvescot census that year recorded the family living at No 1 Foxes Row, where William, age 37 and of Alvescot, was an agricultural cattleman working on a nearby farm, while his wife Emma from Brize Norton was 33.  Living there with them was their Alvescot born son William G L Collett who was just one year old.  It is interesting to note the second and third Christian names given to the child were those of his two grandfathers.

 

 

 

Also staying with the family at that time were two other members of the Collett family, and they were William A Collett, who was six years old from Brize Norton who was described as a nephew to William Collett, and Henry Collett, age 17 and from Alvescot, who was also working on a farm, who was boarding with the family.  Just two dwellings away, at No 3 Foxes Row in Alvescot, was John C Collett, who was 16 and from Alvescot, who was an apprentice to carpenter and wheelwright David Taylor of Brize Norton who was 53.

 

 

 

It has now been determined that Henry Collett (Ref. 28Q38) was in fact the base-born son of William’s niece Emma Collett (Ref. 28P61), who in turn was the base-born daughter of William’s older sister Mary Ann Wise nee Collett (above).  By the time of the census of 1911 William and Emma were still living in Alvescot with their only child William.  The census return confirmed that William Collett was 47 and from Alvescot, that his wife Emma was 43 and from Brize Norton, and that their son William George Leonard Collett was 11 and born at Alvescot.  William Collett died in 1941 at the age of 78 and was buried at St Peter’s Church in Alvescot.

 

 

 

28P77

William George Leonard Collett

Born in 1900 at Alvescot

 

 

 

 

28O57

Mary Ann Richards was born at Alvescot in 1858, the eldest child of Ann Collett and Charles Richards.  She sailed to New Zealand on the ‘Wild Deer’ with her parents in 1874 and settled in Queenstown where she first married (1) Patrick Peter Clohesy in 1877 with whom she had two daughters Hanoria Jessie Clohesy and Annie Clohesy.  Patrick was a butcher and, whilst his business was successful, there were troubled times for his marriage, mostly caused by interference from his mother-in-law.  The family dispute eventually resulted in a court case – see Court report below.  However, the premature death of Patrick Peter Clohesy of Invercargill on 16th March 1880, a patient at the Riverton Hospital, was attributed to his drinking caused by family troubles.  During the next year Mary Ann took up with (2) William Logan, whom she married in Queenstown during November 1881, their son being born six months later.  Mary Ann Logan nee Richards was an active member of the Salvation Army in Queenstown and, following her death there at Lower Shotover on 5th June 1891, her funeral was the very first conducted by the Salvation Army in Queenstown, which was attended by around 200 people.  The obituary written for her mother Ann Mantle, maiden-name Collett (Ref. 28N32) in 1919 confirmed that her daughter Mary had already passed away.

 

 

 

Court report Clohesy v Clohesy: “Claim by plaintiff, wife of defendant, who sued her husband for the maintenance of their two children.  Plaintiff holds a separation order, and now asked for £1 per week to support the children, and also for their custody until they were eighteen years of age.  Mrs Clohesy in her evidence said that she would live with her husband again if they could agree.  Her mother would take charge of the children for £1 per week.  The defendant, in examination, said his wife was always nagging at him.  He had bought a piano and provided everything for her comfort, but nothing suited except having her mother about her, who caused all the disputes between himself and wife.  His business as a butcher was ruined almost through domestic difficulties.  His wife was right enough if left alone.  He could not support both wife and mother, and pay £1 per week.”

 

 

 

“Mr Stratford, in giving judgement, said that in adjourning the case till afternoon he had hoped that it would have been settled out of Court, and that his advice at the morning sitting for the husband and wife to agree as to care of children would at least have been listened to.  Mrs Clohesy must remember that she had an equal responsibility and could not persecute her husband.  She could help to support her children and must bear her share of the cost under these circumstances.  He was loath to say much more, but the order he would make was liable to be upset at any time, and if the defendant, in six months, proved that he was industrious and of sober habits, he (the magistrate) might rescind the order.  Order made for the payment of 5s per week for each child, payment to be made every four weeks.”  It was therefore not long after that Court ruling when Patrick Clohesy passed away.

 

 

 

 

28O58

William Charles Richards was born at Great Coxwell in 1860.  He sailed to New Zealand on the Wild Deer with his parents in 1874 and settled in Queenstown.  William died on 1st May 1910.  The obituary written for his mother Ann Mantle, maiden-name Collett in 1919 confirmed that her son William had already passed away.

 

 

 

 

28O59

Fred Richards was born at Woolstone in 1865, the son of Ann Collett and Charles Richards.  He sailed to New Zealand on the Wild Deer with his parents in 1874 and settled in Queenstown and he later married Agnes Keziah Bailey.  She was born on 6th March 1868 at Woodend, Canterbury NZ and together they had seven children including two sons Wilfred Collett Richards who was born in 1898 and Thomas Raymond Richards who was born at Pareora East, Canterbury on 20th March 1908.  The family lived at Pareora for the rest of their lives and Fred died there on 1st May 1938.  Wilfred Collett Richards was nineteen years old when he was sent overseas at the end of 1917.  However, he gave his birth date as 1897 on his Attestation for General Service when he was actually younger than he stated. 

 

He only spent 52 days on active service in France when he contracted Trench Fever and was repatriated home to New Zealand via England.  His health was never very good after that and he spent time in Waipiata Sanatorium with Tuberculosis which led to his early death at the age of 42 in 1940.  Fred’s son Thomas, who was known as Ray Richards, married Lillian Maud Bristow and their daughter June Yvette Richards born at Dunedin, Otago NZ on 25th November 1936 married Thomas Ernest Keating.  June’s brother Warwick Ernest Richards was also born at Dunedin but nine years later on 25th October 1945.

 

 

 

This is the family line of June Keating of New Zealand

who kindly provided the information during November 2006

 

 

 

 

28O60

Susan Richards was born at Great Coxwell in 1866.   She sailed to New Zealand on the Wild Deer with her parents in 1874 and settled in Queenstown.  She later entered into a relationship with Henry Richmond but, it is understood, that they were never married.  That liaison produced two daughters for Susan and Henry and both of them are credited with being the girls’ parents on their birth certificates.  Susan died on 13th April 1900 and in her Will she refers to her two illegitimate daughters Ivy and Daisy.  The obituary written for her mother Ann Mantle, maiden-name Collett, in 1919 confirmed that her daughter Susan had already passed away.

 

 

 

 

28O61

Bertram Edwin Richards was born at Queenstown (Arrowtown) in the Otago region of South Island New Zealand on 21st August 1875 just nine months before his father’s mysterious death.  The timing of his birth would indicate that he had been conceived halfway through the family’s sea voyage from England during the previous year, and two months prior to their arrival at Port Chalmers on 20th January 1875.  The birth certificate for Bertram named his father as baker Charles Richards and mother Ann Richards formerly Collett.  Rather curiously though the birth was registered by Bertram’s sister Mary Ann Richards who would have been only seventeen years of age.  Also curious is the fact that the place of birth was Arrowtown rather than Queenstown, which was where Charles and Ann and their family lived and worked.  At the time of his mother’s death in 1919 Bertram was living at Timaru in New Zealand.

 

 

 

 

28O62

WILLIAM JOHN COLLETT was born at Faringdon on 22nd July 1864, his birth recorded there (Ref. 2c 259).  It was also at Faringdon that he was baptised on 28th July 1864.  By the time of the census in 1881, and at the age of 16, William was working with his father as a brewer’s labourer while living at the family home on Stratton Green in Stratton St Margaret.  Five years later he married Ellen Beams in 1886 at nearby Highworth.  Ellen was the daughter of William Beams and Jane Lawrence and was born at Longworth in 1868.  It is interesting that this was not the first time the name of Beams was linked to the Collett family.  See also Frederick Beams (Ref. 28N18) born in 1874 at Epsom who may have been an older cousin to Ellen, whose brother born in 1870 was also named Frederick.

 

 

 

In the 1881 Census, Ellen’s parents, William and Jane Beams, were living with their family at Stratton Street in Stratton St Margaret where William was born, Jane having been born at Longcot as were some of their children.  As the oldest child of the family their daughter Ellen Beams had been born at Longworth (although she said Longcot near Faringdon in 1901 and 1911) but she was not living at the family home in April 1881 and perhaps it can be assumed that she was working in domestic service elsewhere.  A wide search for her has revealed just two Ellen Beams of around the right age in the whole of the UK in 1881, but neither of them was Ellen.  Where she was aged 12 remains a mystery.

 

 

 

Earlier family research indicated that William’s and Ellen’s first six children were all born at Stratton St Margaret, with the twins being born at Longworth and the remainder of the children born at Swindon.  However, no member of the family has been identified within the census of 1891.

 

 

 

Ten years later, the details recorded in the census of 1901, show the surviving twin Laura Collett was born at Stratton St Margaret as well, making the first eight children born there.  The remainder of the family that day were listed as William Collett from Faringdon who was 36 and a general labourer who was living at Stratton St Margaret with his with wife Ellen Collett aged 32, who stated she had been born at Longcot, just south of Faringdon.  With them were seven of their first eight children, who were William Collett aged 13 who was working as a general labourer, Ernest Collett who was 11, John Collett who was nine, Albert Collett who was seven, Sidney Collett who was five, Nelson Collett who was four, and Laura E Collett who was three months old, and all of them confirmed as having been born at Stratton St Margaret.

 

 

 

During the next decade a further five children were born into the family, amongst them a second set of twins, neither of whom survived.  It was also during those same ten years that the family moved into the nearby town of Swindon.  Curiously, within the completed census return for 1911, ALL of their surviving eight children were said to have been born in Swindon.  William Collett from Faringdon was 47 and a general labourer employed by Swindon Borough Council, so maybe they were living in a dwelling provided by the council.  Ellen Collett from Longcot was 43 and their eight children were William Collett who was 23 and a painter in the Loco Department of the Great Western Railway Works, Albert Collett who was 17 and a lamp-lighter also employed by the borough council, Sidney Collett who was 15 and a general labourer with the GWR rail mills, Nelson Collett who was 14 and an errand boy working for a local publican, Laura Collett was 10, Frank Collett who was eight, Alfred Collett who was six years old, and baby Kate Collett who was just four months old.  Sometime during the years between 1920 and 1927, the family left Swindon and moved to live at Elcombe near Wroughton, where sons Albert and Sidney had purchased a smallholding on leaving the army after the Great War.

 

 

 

At the time of the death of their two sons Ernest Collett and John Collett, during the First World War, William and Ellen were living at 13 Page Street in Swindon, later to be renamed Beckhampton Street.  William died at Swindon on 29th March 1936, as did Ellen six months earlier on 7th August 1935.  The single headstone that marks their grave at Stratton St Margaret has the following inscription “In Loving Memory of William John Collett who died March 29th 1936 aged 71 years, Also Ellen his beloved wife who died August 7th 1935 aged 68 years”

 

 

 

28P78

William Henry Collett

Born in 1887 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P79

Ernest George Collett

Born in 1889 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P80

John Collett

Born in 1891 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P81

Albert James Collett

Born in 1893 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P82

Sidney Collett

Born in 1895 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P83

Nelson Collett

Born in 1897 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P84

Laura Ellen Collett        twin

Born in 1901 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P85

Sarah Collett                 twin

Born in 1901 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P86

FRANK COLLETT

Born in 1903 at Swindon

 

28P87

Alfred Collett

Born in 1905 at Swindon

 

28P88

Elizabeth Ann Collett   twin

Born in 1906 at Swindon

 

28P89

Mary Jane Collett          twin

Born in 1906 at Swindon

 

28P90

Kate Collett

Born in 1910 at Swindon

 

 

 

 

28O63

Mary Ann Collett was born Faringdon in 1865 and was baptised there on 24th October 1866.  According to the 1881 Census she was living at Wilbury Lodge in Hove, the Sussex home of London born William M Mayersbach and his wife Caroline who was born at Faringdon in 1841.  Mary Ann Collett, age 16 and from Faringdon, was described as a niece and was a domestic servant.  The family connection was through Caroline who was the sister of Mary Ann’s mother, her maiden-name being Caroline Lander.  Caroline Lander had married William Mayersbach just after her sister Elizabeth Collett nee Lander gave birth to her seventh child in 1876, who was quickly followed by the birth of an eighth child two years later.  It may have been to help out with an overcrowding problem at the Collett home that resulted in Mary Ann Collett, as the eldest daughter, being taken in by the Mayersbach family.

 

 

 

Some years later it looks as though Mary Ann Collett returned home to Swindon where her parents were still living and where she met and married Charles H Adams.  Charles was born at Little Hinton near Swindon and was the son of groom Henry Adams of Stratton Green in Stratton St Margaret.  Although no record of the couple has been found in the census of 1911 it has now been determined that Mary Ann Adams was living at Wantage when she died, her death recorded there (Ref. 2c 699) at the age of 75 when she passed during the second quarter of 1941.

 

 

 

 

28O64

James Collett was born at Faringdon in 1867 and tragically suffered an infant death sometime prior to the census of 1881.

 

 

 

 

28O65

Caroline Collett was born at Faringdon in 1869 and was baptised there on 23rd May 1869, the fourth of the twelve children of William Collett and Elizabeth Lander.  Not long after she was born, the family moved to Cheltenham Street in Swindon New Town, where they were living in 1871, when Caroline was two years old.  By 1881 Caroline was twelve and attending school, when living with her family at Stratton Green in the Stratton St Margaret area of Swindon.  Nine years later, the marriage of Caroline Collett and Frederick Charles Smith was recorded at Malmesbury (Ref. 5a 172) during the second quarter of 1890.  Frederick was born at Shrewton, to the north of Salisbury, where he was baptised on 20th July 1862, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Smith.  Their marriage produced a total of three daughters and two sons.  A year after their wedding day, married Caroline Smith, aged 22, was staying at the home of her Collett parents at Whitehill Lane in Wootton Bassett, just prior to the birth of her first child.  Over the last decade of the old century, she gave birth to the first three children, who were living with the couple at Stratton St Margaret in 1901.

 

 

 

Frederick C Smith from Shrewton was 38 and a general agricultural labourer, Caroline Smith from Faringdon was 32, and their three children were Louisa C Smith who was ten and born in Glamorgan, Elizabeth D Smith who was seven and born at Blunsdon, and Frederick Charles Smith was born after the family has settled in Stratton St Margaret and was just one year old.  The dwelling also had two boarders that day, the first of them was Caroline’s younger brother George Collett from Swindon who was 29, and William Sharp from Tetbury who was 27.  The two eldest children were not living at Stratton St Margaret with the family in 1911, and were replaced by two new children.  Frederick Smith from Shrewton was 48 and a drayman brewer, Caroline was 43 who, on that occasion gave her place of birth as Dauntsey where her sister Fanny had been born.  The three children with them were Charles Smith who was 12, William Smith who was eight, and Gladys Smith who was four years old.  Those three children were confirmed as having been born in Upper Stratton St Margaret.  Seven years later, Frederick and Caroline were residing at 42 St Philip’s Street in Upper Stratton, Swindon, where they received the news that their eldest son had been killed in action on 29th September 1918 at the age of 19.  Private Frederick Charles Smith, service number 38993, was a member of the First Battalion The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.

 

 

 

 

28O66

George Royal Collett was born in 1871 at Rodbourne, which may have been Rodbourne Cheney in Swindon rather than Rodbourne near Malmesbury.  The birth took place after the census in April that year when his family was living at Cheltenham Street in Swindon, the son of William Collett and Elizabeth Lander.  By the time of the census of 1881, George Collet was 10 and was living with his parents at Stratton Green in Stratton St Margaret.  After a further ten years he and his parents were living at Whitehill Lane in Wootton Bassett where George Collett was 20 and a bricklayer’s labourer, but after that, as a single man, he was living with his married sister Caroline Smith nee Collett (above).  That situation was confirmed in the next census of 1901, when George Collett from Swindon was 29 and a general agricultural labourer was a boarder with the Smith family in Stratton St Margaret.  It was the same again in 1911, with George Collett from Swindon still living with his sister and her family at Stratton St Margaret at the age of 39, except that he was then described as a lodger and a farm labourer.  Those to references to his birthplace being in Swindon, has resulted in the finding of his birth recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a 8) during the first quarter of 1872, George Collett having be born at the end of 1871 at Rodbourne Cheney.  No mention of the name Royal has been found, but has been reported by later members of his family, who also said that he was an expert hedger and ditcher and his skills were much sort after and earned him lots of money.  Unfortunately, he was a bit of a wild character and spent most of his money on drink and often ended up being arrested and put in jail for being drunk and disorderly.  It is believed that he ended up his days in the Stratton St Margaret Workhouse.  George Collett was 74 years old when he died in Swindon, his death recorded there (Ref. 7c 393) during the third quarter of 1946.

 

 

 

 

28O67

Tom Alfred Collett was born at Swindon on 23rd December 1873 and that may have been in the Rodbourne Cheney area of the town.  For some strange reason Tom was not listed in the 1881 Census as living at home with his parents, instead he was being looked after by his possible aunt and uncle in Faringdon.  He was recorded as a visitor at the home of Charles and Sophie Lander at Gloucester Street in Faringdon and his age was given as seven years.  Charles Lander, aged 52 a builder’s labourer from London, was most likely the older brother of Tom’s mother Elizabeth Collett nee Lander (Ref. 28N36).  Again, Tom was not living with his parents in 1891, but five years later he married Florence Ann Gibbs on 7th November 1896 at Highworth.  Florence was the daughter of Thomas Gibbs and Julia Gough and was born at Bath on 17th March 1878.  The couple’s first three children were born at Stratton St Margaret and the last three at Swindon.

 

 

 

The 1901 Census confirmed that Tom 27 and Florence 23 were living at St Phillips Road in Stratton St Margaret.  Tom was a navvy born at Swindon while his wife was born at Bath.  With them were there two children Florence M Collett aged three years and Winifred D Collett who was one year old, both having been born at Stratton.  After the birth of the next child Tom and Florence moved into Swindon Town and it was there that the family was living in April 1911.  Tom was simply listed as T Collett 37 who was born in the town, his wife Florence was 34 and from Bath, and five of their six children were living with them at that time.  Only the couple’s eldest daughter Florence was missing for some reason.  The other children were confirmed as Winifred who was 11, Charles who was eight, Alice who was six, Stanley who was four, and one-year old Edward.

 

 

 

It seems very likely that sometime after the First World War, perhaps in the 1920s, the family emigrated to Canada with only daughter Winifred staying in England.  Their daughter Florence May certainly emigrated there prior to December 1919 as her first child was born there, and so it was that the family followed later, perhaps with the promise of a better life across the Atlantic.  Apart from Tom’s daughter Winifred, who stayed in England to marry Harry Parson in 1924, the only other member of the family not to go to Canada with the rest of the family was daughter Alice Primrose.  She was sent to South Africa where she was looked after by Tom’s brother John Collett (below) until such time as she married.  Florence Ann Collett nee Gibbs died at Aurora in Ontario on 29th July 1958, as did Tom a few years later on 22nd January 1965.

 

 

 

28P91

Florence May Collett

Born in 1897 at Stratton-St-Margaret

 

28P92

Winifred Dora Collett

Born in 1899 at Swindon

 

28P93

Charles Alfred Collett

Born in 1902 at Stratton-St-Margaret

 

28P94

Alice Primrose Collett

Born in 1905 at Swindon

 

28P95

Stanley Herbert Collett

Born in 1907 at Swindon

 

28P96

Edward Thomas Collett

Born in 1909 at Swindon

 

 

 

 

28O68

Fanny Collett was born at Dauntsey near Malmesbury in 1876 and in 1881 she was five years old and living with her family at Stratton Green in Stratton St Margaret.  In 1891 she was 14 and was still living with her family who were then living within the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade district.  She married George Henry Smith at Daglingworth near Cirencester in 1897.  George was born at Chirton east of Devizes in 1878.  By the time of the census in 1911 the couple had been married for twelve years, during which time they had had eight children, although only five daughters and two sons had survived and were living with the couple on that occasion.  The census return that year listed the family of nine living in a three-roomed dwelling at Chelworth, near Crudwell, within the Malmesbury registration district.  George Henry Smith, age 32 and from Chirton Hollow, was a farm labourer, his wife Fanny Smith was 34 and from Dauntsey, and their children were Ethel May Smith aged 11, Florence Elizabeth Smith who was nine, Caroline Smith who was seven, George Henry Smith who was four, Alice Smith who was two, and the twins Elsie Emily Smith and Albert William Smith, who were only three months old.

 

 

 

 

28O69

Frederick Collett was born at Wroughton in 1878 and was two years old in 1881 when living with his family at Stratton Green in Stratton St Margaret.  Ten years later when he was twelve, Frederick and his family were living within the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade registration district of Wiltshire.  He was referred to as ‘Sonny’ and he married Maud Maria Sims at Highworth in 1897.  Maud was the daughter of GWR labourer William and Ann Sims and was born at Westrop in Highworth in 1881 but after the census date of the third of April.  Her sister Elsie Sims married Frederick’s brother Albert Collett (below).

 

 

 

According to the 1901 Census for Stratton St Margaret, Frederick who was twenty-three and born at Wroughton, was working for the Great Western Railway as a general labourer.  His wife Maud was twenty years old and her place of birth was confirmed as Highworth.  Listed with the couple were their first two children Elizabeth who was two and born at Swindon and Frederick under one year old and born at Stratton.  The family continued to live at Stratton St Margaret until around 1904 where the couple’s next two children were born, before moving to the village of Stanton Fitzwarren, midway between Stratton and Highworth, where the next three children were born.

 

 

 

By April 1911 the family living in Stanton comprised Fred aged 34 who gave his place of birth as Stratton, his wife Maud who was 32 and from Highworth, and their seven children.  Fred and Maud had been married for thirteen years and Fred’s occupation was that of a cowman working on a nearby farm.  The couple’s seven children at that time were recorded as Lizzie who was 12, Fred who was 10, Willie who was nine, Annie who was seven, Lily who was six, Albert who was three, and baby James who was five months old.  At the time of the death of their son Leonard, who was killed in 1942 during the Second World War, Frederick and Maud were in their sixties and were living in the Gorse Hill district of Swindon.

 

 

 

It was at 17 Hinton Street in Swindon that the Fred and Maud were living when Fred died on 12th September 1948.  His Will was proved in London on 5th October that year, in favour of his wife Maud Maria.  His estate amounted to £180 11 Shillings and 10 Pence  His widow, Maud Maria Collett, was still residing at 17 Hinton Road in Swindon when she passed away on 19th July 1955, although the place of her death was recorded as 53 Francis Street at Stratford in London.  That was very likely the home of one of her sons, both of whom were named as executors of her Will which was provided in London on 20th August 1955.  Fred Collett was described as a fitter’s assistant, while Albert Collett was a railway shunter.

 

 

 

28P97

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1898 at Swindon

 

28P98

Frederick Collett

Born in 1900 at Stratton-St-Margaret

 

28P99

William Collett

Born in 1901 at Stratton-St-Margaret

 

28P100

Anne Collett

Born in 1903 at Stratton-St-Margaret

 

28P101

Lillian Collett

Born in 1904 at Stanton Fitzwarren

 

28P102

Albert Collett

Born in 1907 at Stanton Fitzwarren

 

28P103

James Collett

Born in 1910 at Stanton Fitzwarren

 

28P104

Ernest John Collett

Born in 1912 at Stanton Fitzwarren

 

28P105

Elsie Ann Collett

Born in 1913 at Stanton Fitzwarren

 

28P106

John Collett

Born in 1915 at Swindon

 

28P107

Edward Charles Collett

Born in 1918 at Swindon

 

28P108

Leonard Stanley Collett

Born in 1922 at Swindon

 

 

 

 

28O70

Elizabeth Collett was born at Stratton St Margaret in 1881, but that happened after the census day that year.  Because of her father’s work the family moved around a lot and in 1890 they were living in the village of Crudwell, and the following year the census in 1891 placed the family living within the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade area when Elizabeth was ten years.  By March 1901 Elizabeth and her family were back living in Stratton where she was recorded as being twenty.  It was during the following two years that Elizabeth married Arthur Mason and by 1911 the couple was living at Kingsdown Road in Upper Stratton St Margaret.  During the eight years they had been married Elizabeth had presented Arthur with seven children. 

 

 

 

The census return that year listed the family as Elizabeth Mason who was 29 and from Stratton, her husband Arthur who was 31 and a French polisher employed by the Great Western Railway, Leslie Mason who was seven, Hilda Mason who was five, Dennis Mason who was four, Sylvia Mason who was two and Vera Mason who was one year old.   It would appear that the couple spent their entire married life at Stratton St Margaret, and it was at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 16) where the death of Arthur Mason was recorded during the final three months of 1932 when he was 49.  Elizabeth Mason nee Collett survived her husband by nearly seventeen years, when her death at the age of 70 was recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 7c 578) during the first three months of 1950.

 

 

 

 

28O71

Cecil Albert John Collett, who was referred to as Jack, was born at Stratton St Margaret during the last quarter of 1884.  It was as Private 6360 John Collett that he Joined the 1st. Wiltshire Regiment on the 25th August 1903.  He was then posted to India on the 20th September 1904 where, in 1906, he signed to extend his service to eight years.  He was later posted to South Africa on the 30th October 1909, first to Durban, and then on the 10th November 1910 he was transferred to the Army Reserve in Pietermaritzberg, Natal where he was allowed to stay on condition that he was ready to be mobilised when and if required.  It was at a dance during the following year that he met Katie, whom he married on the 30th April 1912 at Pietermaritzberg, when she was already with-child.

 

 

 

Kathleen Adcock was many years younger than Jack Collett, and was the daughter of Linee E Dobner.  It is believed that she was born at Pietermaritzberg in 1897, which would mean that she was barely sixteen years old when she married Jack, who would have been twenty-seven.  Perhaps it was because of her young age that the Army Reserve Headquarters had to grant permission for Jack to married Katie.  Their only child, Catherine, was born at Pietermaritzberg just over five months after the date of their wedding.

 

 

 

At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Jack was mobilised and join the Wiltshire Regiment in August 1914.  He was then sent to France on the 4th May 1915 where he served with his regiment until 7th September 1917.  At that time, he was transferred to the Labour Corps and was given a new army number, when he became Corporal J Collett 382674.  He was later promoted to the rank of sergeant on 9th January 1918, and at the time he was demobbed from the Army in 1919 he was A/C QMS Collett.  John Collett was sent back to England from France in April 1919 and had to write several letters to his Regimental Headquarters as to why he was being detained in England whilst his home, his wife, his daughter, and all of his possessions were in South Africa.  He was at last granted a passage by ship back to South Africa on 22nd June 1919.

 

 

 

Once back in South Africa, he and his family spent the rest of their lives together living at Pietermaritzberg, where Cecil Albert John Collett died in 1970, followed a little while later by his wife Kathleen.  He did return to England briefly in 1939, but stayed only long enough to introduce his wife to all of his family, before they returned to South Africa, prior to the start of the Second World War.  For the years between 1921 and 1926 Jack was responsible for his niece Alice Primrose Collett, the daughter of his brother Tom Collett (above), prior to her marriage to James Brayshaw.  During that time, Alice used to live in a wooden hut next door to the home of Jack and his family at Pietermaritzberg, from where she was employed as the housemaid in Jack’s household.  See Ref. 28P94 for her life story.

 

 

 

28P109

Catherine Winifred Louise Collett

Born in 1912 at Pietermaritzberg

 

 

 

 

28O72

Albert Collett was born at Stratton St Margaret on 3rd February 1886 and in 1891 he was five years old and living with his family in the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade area of Wiltshire.  Sometime during the next decade, the family moved back to Stratton where they were living in 1901 when Albert was 15 and working as a general labourer.  Seven years later Albert married Elsie Ann Sims in 1908 at Swindon.  Elsie was also born at Stratton in 1886 and was the daughter of William and Ann Sims and the sister of Maud Sims who married Albert’s brother Frederick Collett (above).

 

 

 

In 1911 the couple was still living in Stratton St Margaret, and with them was their daughter Florence who was born also there.  Albert Collett was 25, as was his wife Elsie Ann, while Florence Ann was two years old.  Elsie Ann Collett nee Sims died on 20th April 1950, whereas Albert Collett survived for another nineteen months before he died on 15th December 1951, both deaths being registered in Swindon.  Although Albert died whilst he was attending the St Margaret’s Hospital in Stratton St Margaret, his home address was recorded as 21 The Circle in the Pinehurst district of Swindon town.  The Will for his estate of £759 9 Shillings and 8 Pence was proved on 26th February 1952, when his son and his daughter were both named as executors.  Albert William James Collett was a metal machinist, Albert’s daughter was confirmed as Florence Ann Davis, the wife of Alfred Henry Davis.

 

 

 

28P110

Florence Ann Collett

Born in 1908 at Swindon

 

28P111

Albert William James Collett

Born in 1922 at Swindon

 

 

 

 

28O73

James Collett was born at Crudwell near Malmesbury on 28th March 1890, as confirmed by the census returns for 1891, when he was one year old and living within the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade, and again in 1901 when he was eleven and living with his family in Stratton St Margaret.  Ten years later James was 21 and was the only member of the family still living with his parents at Stratton.  During the latter part of 1911 James married Alice Baldwin, the marriage being registered at Abingdon-on-Thames in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire).  Shortly after they were married the couple moved to Swindon where all three of their children were born.  By the time the 1939 Register was compiled, with war on the horizon, James and Alice were living at 181 Oxford Road in Stratton St Margaret, with just their youngest child still living there with them.  James was a general labourer with the Great Western Railway, his date of birth as above, Alice’s date of birth was 23rd November 1883, and daughter Myrtle Collett was 22 and had been born on 19th November 1916.  

 

 

 

James Collett who was born on 28th March 1890, was 82 years old when he died, his death recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 7c 2365) during the last three months of 1972.  His wife is believed to be Alice Ethel R Baldwin whose birth was recorded at Abingdon register office (Ref. 2c 286) during the first quarter of 1893.

 

 

 

28P112

Eileen Collett

Born in 1912 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P113

James Collett

Born in 1914 at Stratton St Margaret

 

28P114

Myrtle Alice Collett

Born in 1916 at Stratton St Margaret

 

 

 

 

28O74

Francis William Collett was born at Eynsham in 1872.  As Francis Collett aged eight, he was living with his parents in 1881 after the family had moved to Fyfield from Eynsham during the previous year.  At the age of 18 Francis Collett was still living with his parents at Fyfield in 1891, but during the next ten years he left Berkshire and moved into London where he was living and working in March 1901.  On that occasion he referred to himself as Frank Collett, age 28 and from Eynsham, when he was living in the Battersea area of the city and where he was employed as a carman for a laundry company.  It would appear that he was still a bachelor at that time, but that changed two years later.

 

 

 

It was on 11th April 1903 at Christchurch in Kensington that Francis William Collett, age 30 and a groom, the son of bailiff Joseph Collett, married Martha Richings who was 28 and the daughter of builder Edwin Richings deceased.  The address on the marriage certificate for both Francis and Martha was 69 Acklam Road, adjacent to the Great Western Main Line out of Paddington, at Kensal Town.  By April 1911 Francis William Collett from Eynsham was 38, while his wife Martha was 36, when the childless couple were still living in Kensal Town within the Kensington registration district of London.

 

 

 

 

28O75

Amelia Collett was born at Eynsham in 1874 and was six years old in the census of 1881.  By that time her parents had moved the seven miles south from Eynsham to Fyfield where the family lived until the late 1890s when they moved to Burcot east of Abingdon-on-Thames and north of Wallingford.  It would appear that Amelia was not living with her family at Fyfield in 1891, but that she had entered into domestic service at the age of 16 and as a result was living within the Wallingford registration district.  The census that year confirmed that she was born at Eynsham and was 16 years old.  Also living in that same area at that time was only one other person with the Collett name, and she was Mary Collett, age 27 from Eyford in the parish of Upper Slaughter who features in Part 14 (Ref. 14N19).

 

 

 

It was while Amelia was working in the Wallingford area that she met George Kent who had been born there around 1873.  It is likely that they were married during 1898 and within two years the marriage had produced their only child.  Just prior to end of the century Amelia and George were expecting the arrival of their son and it seems that Amelia returned home, to be with her mother for the birth, since in the census of 1901 the boy was recorded as having been born at Burcot, where Amelia’s family was still living on that occasion.

 

 

 

Very shortly after the child was born Amelia and George moved to London, and in March 1901 the family of three were living in the Kensington area of the city.  Amelia Kent was 26 and from Eynsham in Oxfordshire, her husband George E Kent was 27 and from Wallingford, and their son Francis E Kent of Burcot in Oxfordshire was one year old.  George’s occupation was that of a horse-keeper.  No further children were born into the family which, by April 1911, was still living in the Kensington district of London not far from Amelia’s older brother Francis William Collett (above).  The census that year confirmed the Kent family as George Edward Kent 37, Amelia Kent from Eynsham who was also 37, and their ten years old son Francis Edward Kent who was born in Oxfordshire before the couple moved to London.

 

 

 

 

28O76

Ada Collett was born at Eynsham in 1876 and shortly after she was born her family left Eynsham and moved to Fyfield where they were living in 1881 when Ada was four.  The family was still living in Fyfield ten years later when Ada was 14 but moved again before the end of the century.  The second family move for Ada took place during the following decade since by 1901 the family was living at Burcot to the east of Abingdon-on-Thames where Ada was 24.  Following the death of her mother Caroline in the first few years of the new century, Ada remained unmarried and continued to live with, and look after, her elderly father Joseph.  It would appear that following the death of his wife Joseph moved the short distance from Burcot to nearby Clifton Hampden where he and Ada were living in 1911 when Ada Collett was 34.  It is not known whether Ada was ever married after that time.

 

 

 

 

28O77

Louisa Caroline Collett was born at Fyfield in 1878 and was two years old in the Fyfield census of 1881 and twelve years old in the Fyfield census ten years later.  Like many of her brothers and sisters, Louisa ended up married and living in London before the next census in 1901.  By that time Louisa had married Joseph Baker and in April 1901 the couple were living in Ealing to the west of the city centre.  According to the 1901 census return, Louisa C Baker was 22 and from Fyfield, while her husband Joseph G Baker, was 28 and a jobbing gardener from Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire.  Sometime during the next ten years Louisa and Joseph moved out of London and travelled to the south coast where they sailed across the Solent to take up residency on the Isle of Wight.  By April 1911 the marriage of Louisa and Joseph had not produced any children, and at that time the couple were living in Shanklin on the IOW.  Joseph George Baker from Colnbrook was 38, and his wife Louisa Caroline Baker from Fyfield was 32.

 

 

 

 

28O78

Richard Edward Collett was born at Fyfield in 1881, the youngest son of Joseph Collett and his wife Caroline Robinson.  In the Fyfield census of 1891 Richard was included with his family simply as Edward Collett who was nine years old and born at Fyfield.  By 1901 Edward Collett was a lodger at 55 Bellenden Road in Peckham within the Camberwell district of London, from where he was working as a carman.  He was 19 and the census return confirmed that he had been born at Fyfield.  Four years later he married Alice Jane Finch, age 28, at Christchurch in Kensington, where his brother Francis William Collett (above) had been married two years earlier.  It was again as Edward Collett, age 23 and a groom like his brother, that he was named as the son of bailiff Joseph Collett, while his address was also that same as his brother’s, that being 69 Acklam Road in Kensal Town.

 

 

 

The marriage took place on 25th February 1905, when Alice’s father was named as George Finch, retired, and her address was also stated as being 69 Acklam Road.  Over the following years Edward and Alice had two children, although others may have been born to the couple after 1911.  According to the census that year Edward Collett was 29 when he was living with his family within the Fulham registration district of London.  His wife of six years Alice Jane was 34, and their two daughters were Dorothy Isabel, who was five, and Lillian Rose who was two years of age.

 

 

 

The family’s postal address was 14 Porten Road in West Kensington, which was a two-room tenement.  Once again Fyfield was confirmed as Edward’s place of birth, while his wife had been born at Bradfield, near Manningtree, in Essex.  Their youngest daughter had very likely been born at 14 Porten Road, with the couple’s eldest daughter’s birth having taken place at Westbourne Park, not far from Acklam Road.  Both locations were very close to the main line railway where Edward was employed by the Great Western Railway as a servant in the Horse Department.  Alice J Collett nee Finch died in London at the age of 87, her death recorded at Marylebone register office (Ref. 5d 403) during the first three months of that year.

 

 

 

28P115

Dorothy Isabel Collett

Born in 1906 at Westbourne Park

 

28P116

Lillian Rose Collett

Born in 1909 at West Kensington

 

 

 

 

28O79

Ellen M Collett was born at Fyfield in 1889.  Curiously, in the Fyfield census of 1891, Ellen was described as being five years old when, in the following two census returns she was 11 and 21.  It may have been that her parents said she was two years old in 1891 and the number was a simple misinterpretation.  Either way, by March 1901, Ellen M Collett, who was 11, and her family, had left Fyfield and had moved east of Abingdon-on-Thames to Burcot where she was living with her parents Joseph and Caroline Collett.  During the next few years her mother died and by April 1911 Ellen was married to William Wilsher and was living in the Faringdon area.  Ellen Wilsher from Fyfield was 21 and her husband was 22.

 

 

 

 

28O80

Gertrude Jane Collett was born at Fyfield in 1892 and sometime after she was born her family moved to Burcot where they were living in 1901 when Gertrude J Collett was eight years old.  Ten years later Gertrude Jane Collett was 18 and was living and working in the Wallingford area, not far from Clifton Hampden where her widowed father was living in 1911.

 

 

 

 

28P2

Alice Collett was born at Norwood in Middlesex in 1866, the eldest child of John Wheeler Collett and Mahaila Goodwin.  It was at a house in North Hyde Road at Hayes in Middlesex that she was living with her parents at the time of the census in 1871, when she was four years old and her place of birth was given as Norwood Precinct.  Following the death of her father five years later her mother re-married, so in the next census of 1881, Alice Collett, age 14, was living at 2 Curnocks Cottages, Western Road in Norwood, the home of her mother Mahaila Duffin and her stepfather George Duffin.  Alice was still attending school at that time, as were her two sisters Rosetta and Rachel (below).  At the same time, their brother John and youngest sister Emma were living nearby in Norwood with their mother’s parents.

 

 

 

It was just after the census in 1881 that both Alice and her sister Rosetta (below) left school.  Rosetta then helped around the house, while Alice refused to do any work in the home, and would sulk if she was asked to do so.  Alice Collett later married fish merchant Joe Shackle in Bush Hill Park in London, following they had five children.  Henry Shackle was born in 1887, Mahaila Shackle was born in 1891, Alice Shackle was born in 1892, Joseph Shackle was born in 1895, and John Shackle was born in 1897.  During the Great War, Joe’s fish business was very successful, and there is story within the family, that Alice used to sit on the cash box during the air raids, and that a Zeppelin was shot down in Enfield, not far from where the family was living at that time.

 

 

 

 

28P3

Rosetta Collett was born at Norwood in 1868, the second child of John Wheeler Collett and Mahaila Goodwin.  In 1871 she was recorded in the census that year as Rose Collett, who was two years old and born at Norwood Precinct.  After the death of her father, when Rosetta was only seven years old, her mother married George Duffin whose family was living next door to the Collett family in 1871.  By the time of the census in 1881, Rosetta Collett was 12 and a scholar at a nearby school.  She and her two sisters Alice (above) and Rachel (below) were living with their mother and stepfather at 2 Curnocks Cottages, Western Road in Norwood.  Not long after the census in 1881, Rosetta and her sister Alice (above) left school, and it was also around that time that their mother died during the birth of a third child by their stepfather.  It was then that Rosetta took over the care of her younger sister Rachel and helped out by carrying out domestic chores in the home.  Rosetta was also a very bright child, and could read and write quite well.

 

 

 

Rosetta Collett married Edward Henry Hill at St John’s Church in 1886 when Rosetta was 17 and Edward was 19, following which they had nine children over the next twenty-six years.  The story handed down through the family described the couple’s wedding breakfast as being four new-laid eggs given to them by a friend, and that was also the only gift they received.  The photograph (above) of Rosetta Hill nee Collett was kindly provided by Dave Considine in April 2014 and was given to him by his mother’s cousin Joyce Hill, the daughter of Caleb Ernest Hill, the fifth of Rosetta’s nine children.  The full picture also included Joyce’s mother.

 

 

 

Their nine children were Edward Hill who was born in 1888, Mary Ann Hill who was born in 1889, Albert Hill who was born in 1891, Herbert Howard Hill (1893-1974), Caleb Ernest Hill (1895-1988), George Mozart Hill (1896-1915), Rosetta Hill (1900-1901), Edwin Haydn Hill (1902-1977), and Rosalind Edith Hill who was born on 5th September 1912, when the family was living at 10 Waltham Road, Southall in Middlesex.  It seems likely from the stories Rosetta told her daughter Rosalind, that she had ten children, the missing child perhaps being still-born sometime between 1902 and 1912.

 

 

 

Eighteen months earlier, at the time of the census in April 1911, Rosetta Hill was 41 and was living with her family in the Uxbridge area of Middlesex.  Her husband was Edward Henry Hill 43, and their children were Herbert Howard 18, Caleb Ernest 16, George Mozart 12, and Edwin Haydn who was eight.  Missing from the census that year were the couple’s three eldest children Edward, Mary and Albert.  They had all died while they were still very young, during an epidemic of whooping cough and pneumonia, when Rosetta was only 21.  In addition to those three infant deaths, Rosetta’s daughter of the same name was born with a back deformity and only lived six months.

 

 

 

Of the five children who survived to adulthood, George Mozart Hill was a rifleman with the London Regiment (The Rangers) during the Great War and died a camp on 20th May 1915 at the age of 18 from spotted fever, and was buried at Havelock Cemetery in Church Road, Southall in Middlesex.  It was the story about her family, written by Rosalind Edith Hill, later Catelinet, when she was 86 in 1999, that has provided some of the more personal and interesting facts now included in this family line.  And it is thanks to Dave Considine that we now have access to her story, a copy of which was passed to him by his mother from her cousin Rosalind Catelinet, and which was subsequently serialised over six monthly episodes in the Collett Newsletter [No. 64 to 69] from October 2011 to March 2012.

 

 

 

 

28P4

John Wheeler Collett, who was known as Jack, was most likely born at Norwood Precinct in 1871, since his parents, John Wheeler Collett and Mahaila Goodwin, were living there at North Hyde Road a few months earlier for the census on the second of April.  During his later life, different records for him gave his place of birth as Norwood or Southall.  Following the death of his father around 1876, his mother Mahaila married George Duffin, the son of the Collett’s next-door neighbour in 1871.  However, with his mother and stepfather then having two children of their own at 2 Curnocks Cottages in Norwood, John and his younger sister Emma (below) went to live with their grandparents in Norwood.

 

 

 

That was certainly the situation at the time of the census in 1881, when grandson John Collett of Norwood aged nine years, and his sister Emma, were living with their grandparents James and Mahaila Goodwin at nearby 3 Crown Field in Norwood, leaving his three other sisters Alice, Rosetta, and Rachel to live with his mother and her two young Duffin children.  Ten years later John Collett, who was 19, and his sister Emma Collett, who was 14, were still living with their grandfather James Goodwin, although by then he was a widower at 64.  The three of them were then living in the Uxbridge & Hayes registration district of Middlesex.

 

 

 

Around the end of the century John married Annie Elizabeth Tubb of Harlington in Middlesex who was born there in 1874.  Annie Elizabeth was the daughter of hay binder and general labourer James Tubb of Harlington and his wife Elizabeth from Southampton.  In 1881, when Annie was six years old, she and her family were living at 1 Sunnyside Cottage in Harlington.  The marriage of John Wheeler Collett and Annie Elizabeth Tubb produced a total of six children for the couple, the first five children being born at Heston, with their last child being born after the family had made the move to live in Norwood. 

 

 

 

Just after the birth of their first child, the census in March 1901 confirmed that the family was still living at Heston.  The census return recorded that John W Collett of Southall was 29, and that his occupation was that of a stationary engine driver.  His wife Annie E Collett was listed as 26, while their daughter Ellen was only a few months old.  Over the next eight years Annie presented John with a further four children, following which the family left Heston and moved to Norwood where they were living in April 1911.  It is also known within the family that Jack and Annie spent some years of their life together living in the Southall area, not far from where Jack was born, and that would appear to have happened sometime after 1911.

 

 

 

The census that year confirmed that all five of their children had been born at Heston, while their father’s place of birth was again given as being at Southall.  The family living at Norwood at that time comprised John Wheeler Collett, age 39 and an engine driver, Annie Elizabeth, age 36, Ellen who was 10, Annie who was eight, Eric who was six, Margaret who was four, and John who was one year old.  The couple’s sixth and last child was born at Norwood during the following year.  The death of John W Collett, at the age of 68, was recorded at Uxbridge (Ref. 3a 314) during the first three months of 1940.

 

 

 

28Q1

Ellen Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1901 at Heston

 

28Q2

Annie Mahaila Collett

Born in 1902 at Heston

 

28Q3

Eric John Collett

Born in 1904 at Heston

 

28Q4

Margarita Collett

Born in 1907 at Heston

 

28Q5

John Lionel Collett

Born in 1909 at Heston

 

28Q6

Francis Wheeler Collett

Born in 1912 at Norwood

 

 

 

 

28P5

Rachel Collett was born at either Norwood or Southall in 1873, the daughter of John and Mahaila Collett.  Sadly, she was around three years old when her father died and, shortly after, her mother re-married.  In 1881 Rachel Collett of Norwood, at eight years of age, was living at 2 Curnocks Cottages, Western Road in Norwood, the home of her mother Mahaila Duffin and her stepfather George Duffin.  Rachel later married general labourer Charles James Batchelor with whom she had six children, the first of which was born while the couple was living in Tottenham, the second when they were at Ponders End, and the remainder after the family had finally settled in Bush Hill Park near Enfield.

 

 

 

Charles J Batchelor had been born at Sittingbourne in Kent in 1870, and by the time he was 11 years old (in 1881) his father had died and his mother was married to brick labourer John Nicholls, age 41 of Tong in Kent, when he was living with the Nicholls family at 7 Murston Road in Sittingbourne.  His mother was Sophia Nicholls age 43 who had been born in India.  Charles had been baptised on 24th April 1870, the son of John Batchelor and Sophia Bartlett.  Their six children were May Annie Batchelor who was born at Tottenham in 1896, Ethel Maud Batchelor who was born at Ponders End in 1898, Ivy Rosetta Batchelor who was born in 1901, Leslie Charles Batchelor who was born at Bush Hill Park in 1904, Albert Henry John Batchelor who was born at Bush Hill Park during September 1910, and Charles Batchelor who was born at Bush Hill Park after the census in April 1911.  Sadly, young Charlie Batchelor was killed in a road accident in 1926.

 

 

 

At the time of the census in 1911, Rachel Batchelor from Southall was 37 and was living at Bush Hill Park in the Edmonton registration district of north London, with her husband who was 41.  By that time five of their six children had been born and were living with the couple, all as detailed above.

 

 

 

 

28P6

Emma Collett was born at either Norwood or Southall in 1876, the youngest child of John and Mahaila Collett.  It was also around the time that she was born, that her father died or was killed in an accident at work.  Her mother then married George Duffin, taking with her just her three eldest daughters Alice, Rosetta and Rachel, to live with her at 2 Curnocks Cottages in Norwood.  Emma and her brother John Wheeler Collett (above) were then cared for by their grandparents James and Mahaila Goodwin at 3 Crown Field in Norwood, where they were living in 1881 when Emma was four years old.  Emma later married Tom Coombs and they lived at West Drayton not far from Southall, and their marriage produce five children.  Frederick Coombs was born in 1894, Alice Coombs was born in 1895, Emma Coombs was born in 1897, Lillian (Lily) Coombs was born in 1898, and Albert Coombs was born in 1900.  Emma Coombs later married to become Emma (Emmie) Keeping and she and her husband lived in Wales.

 

 

 

 

28P7

Ellen Collett was born at Stanford-in-the-Vale near Faringdon on 15th May 1872, the first base-born child of sixteen-year-old Ann Collett of Easton Hastings, near Buscot.  The birth of Ellen Collett was recorded at Faringdon (Ref. 2c 283) during the second quarter of 1872.  Banished from the home of Alfred Higgs, when Ann Collett was discovered to be pregnant, Ellen’s mother fled to the village of Stanford, where Ellen and her sister Susan were both born.  Ellen was four years old when her sister was born and in 1877 their mother died at the age of twenty-two, following which the two sisters was forced to live in the Faringdon Union Workhouse.  By 1881 Ellen and Susan were still inmates at the Union Workhouse in Faringdon, where they were listed as being aged eight and six, their place of birth confirmed as nearby Stanford (in the Vale).

 

 

 

Ten years later it would appear that Ellen and Susan had gone their separate ways.  The only Ellen Collett, age 18, was living at Hanover Square in the St Margaret area of London, while sister Susan (below) was living in Somerset.  Five years later Ellen Collett aged 24, was at Salford in Manchester where she married William Nuttall on 4th April 1896.  Following their wedding the couple was living at Church Place in Salford where, in 1901 Ellen Nuttall ‘from Middleton London’ (sic) was 29 and her husband William 31 from Manchester was working as a wood-turner.  Their children were William Nuttall aged six, Elizabeth Nuttall aged five, Joseph Nuttall who was three, and baby Henry Nuttall who was under one year old.  Over the next decade the couple extended their family with the births of another three children, John Nuttall, Amy Nuttall, and Annie Nuttall.  In April 1911 the complete family of eight was still living within the Salford registration district where Ellen was 38 and William was 39.  Descended from this family is Anita Nuttall who via Bob Collett in Swindon, kindly provided the details about the short life of Ann Collett.

 

 

 

 

28P8

Susan Collett was born at Stanford-in-the-Vale in 1876, the second base-born child of Ann Collett from Eaton Hastings to be born out of wedlock.  Tragically, Ann died in the spring of 1877 and, as orphans, Susan and her older sister Ellen (above) were taken in by the Faringdon Union Workhouse, where they were recorded as inmates in the Faringdon census of 1881.  According to the census return that year Susan Collett was born at from Stanford and was six years old and was living at the Faringdon Union Workhouse with her sister Ellen Collett who was eight years of age.  By the time of the next census in 1891, sixteen-year-old Susan Collett from Berkshire was living at Lower Ashbier, Elworthy in north Somerset.  At that time in her life, she was a general domestic servant employed at the home of farmer William D B Surridge, his wife Caroline and their two sons.

 

 

 

 

28P9

Norman Thomson Collett was very likely born at Little River in Victoria during 1883, the year after his parents Henry Thomas Collett and Annie Webster Thomson were married there.  According to the electoral rolls for 1909 Norman Thomson Collett was recorded as residing within the Carlton South sub-district of Melbourne in Victoria when he was working as a telephone linesman.  It was three years later during 1912 that he married Bernice Estelle Zillah Nelson, who was about ten years younger than Norman having been around 1892, the daughter of Thomas Nelson and Mary Ellen Evans.  The marriage of Norman and Bernice produced two children, and at the time of the death of Bernice in 1962 she was named as Zillah Bernice Estell Collett.  She died at Heidelberg in Victoria at the age of 70, the death recorded at Victoria register office (Ref. 1092).  Six years later, widower Norman Thomson Collett was recorded in the electoral roll for the sub-district of Rosanna in Scullin, Victoria when he would have been around 85 years of age.

 

 

 

28Q7

Clarence Lindon Collett

Date of birth unknown in Australia

 

28Q8

Thelma Dorothy Estelle Collett

Date of birth unknown in Australia

 

 

 

 

28P10

Una Esther Ellen was born at Horsham in Victoria in 1890.  She married William Irving in 1917, the son of John Irving and Elizabeth Widdicombe who was born in 1887.  Una died at Korumburra in Victoria in 1961 followed seven years later by her husband in 1968.  The marriage produced three children for Una and William including Rupert Raymond Irving, and Ivan Harold Irving who was born on 29th December 1922 but who died on 9th December 1938 at Loch in Victoria.  Rupert Raymond Irving was born at Korumburra in Victoria on 13th March 1918 and he married Ruby Doris Martin who died in 2001, and it was their daughter Heather Elizabeth Irving who married Barry Owen Preston, with whom she had one child.  It was Heather that kindly provided details of her Australian ancestors which enabled this family line to be developed to include this new information.

 

 

 

 

28P11

Eva Emmaline Collett was born at Hinnomunjie, Omeo in Victoria on 17th January 1895 and she married Cecil Ruse on 15th May 1943 at the Wesley Chapel in Sydney, New South Wales.  Cecil was the son of David S Ruse and Alice J Atkins and was born at Dungog in New South Wales in 1894.  Cecil’s younger brother Herbert Ruse had married Eva’s younger sister Edith Victoria Collett (below) seventeen years earlier and so it may have been through that family connection that Eva and Cecil were introduced.  Eva Emmaline Ruse nee Collett died on 5th February 1987 at Sydney.

 

 

 

 

28P12

Bessie Frances Collett was born at Omeo in the Gippsland Region of Victoria on 28th August 1896 and died at the age of 34 at Waterfall in New South Wales on 1st September 1930.  It is not known whether or not she was married.

 

 

 

 

28P13

Charles Thomas Collett was born at Benambra in Victoria on 24th September 1897, one of the children of William Collett and Fanny Mary Thomson.  He was involved in the First World War, as indicated by his service record below.  His entry in the Service Records of the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) confirms that he was born at Benambra, enlisted at Melbourne, given the service number was 3210, and his father and his next-of-kin was William Collett.  It was his daughter who, in 2018, proudly mentioned that her father had been awarded the Military Medal and Legion of Honour for his service in the Great War.  Charles married Mary Harris at Wee Waa in New South Wales on 28th August 1926.  Mary was born on 6th October 1902 at Ellangowan in New South Wales and died at Roseville on 2nd November 1983, where Charles died fifteen years later in October 1998.  Charles and Mary are known to have had only one child.

 

 

 

28Q9

Kathleen Mary Collett

Born on 17.12.1927 at Meadowbank, Sydney

 

 

 

 

28P14

Edith Victoria Collett was born at Benambra on 1st June 1899 and she married Herbert Ruse on 26th April 1924 at Wee Waa.  He was the son of David S Ruse and Alice J Atkins and brother of Cecil Ruse who married Eva Collett (above) in 1943.  Herbert was born at Musswellbrook in New South Wales on 23rd August 1896 and died in Sydney on 16th September 1976.  The marriage produced three children for Edith and Herbert, the eldest child being Dorothy Jean Ruse who was born at Barraba in New South Wales on 12th August 1924.  The other two were Joan Collett Ruse, who was born on 29th November 1926, and Nola Mary Ruse, who was born at Wee Waa on 1st January 1929.

 

 

 

 

28P15

Wilfred Herbert Collett was born at Benambra on 6th December 1900.  He married Marion Graham Richardson at Maitland in New South Wales on 17th January 1925.  Marion was the daughter of Walter and Marion L Richardson and was born at Wee Waa on 13th March 1901.  The couple had two children who were both living in 2007.  At the time that Wilfred and Marion were approaching their eightieth birthdays they were living at Tamworth in New South Wales where first Wilfred died on 7th October 1979, followed less than four years later by Marion who died there on 8th August 1983.

 

 

 

28Q10

Nancy Evelyn Collett

Born in 1931

 

28Q11

John Douglas Collett

Born in 1934 at Pendle Hill, NSW

 

 

 

 

28P16

Dorothy Lillian Collett was born at Benambra on 29th September 1903 and she married Thomas Charles Davis on 14th February 1927 at Narrabri in New South Wales.  Thomas was born on 10th May 1901 at Parkes in New South Wales and died on 23rd September 1989.  They had two children, honeymoon baby William John Davis, who was born on 3rd November 1927, and who tragically died during 1929, and a daughter Margaret Davis, who was born on 3rd August 1930, who married Anthony Veitch on 19th July 1976.

 

 

 

 

28P17

Violet Thomson Collett was born at Hinnomunjie, Omeo on 24th October 1905.  She married Thomas Dudley Seddon at Ryde in New South Wales in 1926.  He was the son of Tom and Sarah G Seddon and was born on 21st March 1902 at Balmain South in New South Wales.  They are known to have had two children while they were living at Penrith in New South Wales, Gwenyth Thomson Seddon, who was born on 12th July 1928, and Donald Keith Seddon, who was born on 17th December 1932.  Violet Seddon nee Collett died 3rd November 1943 in Sydney, while Thomas Seddon passed away many years later on 5th October 1975.

 

 

 

 

28P18

Crystal Mary Collett was born at Omeo within the Gippsland Region of Victoria during 1902, but sadly she died that same year at Bairnsdale.

 

 

 

 

28P19

Ethel Mary Collett was born Bairnsdale in 1903 and died at Malvern in Victoria during 1960.  It is thought that she never married.

 

 

 

 

28P20

Herbert George Collett was born at Bairnsdale in 1904 and he married Olive Constance Wood in Victoria in 1926.  Olive was the daughter of Henry Ashton Wood and Elizabeth Ann Wright and was born at Creswick in Victoria in 1905.  It has not been determined whether there were any children.

 

 

 

 

28P21

Hazel Jean Collett was born at Traralgon in Victoria in 1910 and it was in Victoria that she married Randolph Churchill Leonard Rosengrave in 1940.  He was the son of John Rosengrave and Mary McLeod and was born at Kerang in Victoria in 1889.  It is not known whether the marriage produced any children.  What is known is that Randolph died at Caulfield in 1968 and Hazel died twelve years later at Brighton in 1980.

 

 

 

 

28P23

Rolf Herbert Collett was born at Newcastle in 1901 and died in 1985.  During his life he married Vera Uttley with whom he had two children, both of which were still alive in 2007.

 

 

 

28Q12

Ruth Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

28Q13

Trevor Collett

Date of birth unknown

 

 

 

 

28P24

Neville Thomas Collett was born at Newcastle on 28th September 1902.  He was married twice and on both occasions the wedding took place at Narrabri.  In 1926 he married (1) Ida Duncan and twenty years later in 1946 he married (2) Audrey Annie Kitty Schiller who was born on 28th December 1910.  Neville’s first marriage produced two sons and the second marriage just the one child, with all three children still alive in 2007.  Little more is known about Neville, except that he died on 7th April 1966.

 

 

 

28Q14

John Thomas Collett

Born in 1926 at Narrabri

 

28Q15

Noel Louis Collett

Born in 1928 at Narrabri

 

28Q16

Peter Neville Collett

Born on 06.10.1949 at Narrabri

 

 

 

 

28P25

Eric Alexander Miller Collett was born on 10th December 1904 at New Lambton, a suburb of Newcastle, and he married Gladys Elizabeth Matthews on 3rd March 1936 at Benambra.  Gladys was the daughter of Albert Alfred Matthews and Ruby Hodgson and was born at Benambra in 1905.  The marriage produced two sons for Eric and Gladys, both of whom were still alive in 2007.  Sadly, Gladys died in her early fifties on 6th February 1957 at Port MacQuarie in New South Wales, where Eric died thirty-six years later on 17th January 1993.

 

 

 

28Q17

Adrian Neville Collett

Born in 1937 at Wee Waa, NSW

 

28Q18

Irwin Lindsay Collett

Born in 1940 at Wee Waa, NSW

 

 

 

 

28P26

Mirelle Elizabeth Jane Collett was born Wee Waa on 6th January 1907.  It was at Narrabri during 1930 that she married George Duncan Toogood who was born at Pahiatau on 21st August 1906 and who died on 21st October 1986 at Townsville in Queensland.  Mirelle died just over two years later at Maleny in Queensland on 28th January 1989.  An alternative, but so far unverified source, claims that George Duncan Toogood was born at Dannevirke in New Zealand in 1903.  Mirelle and George had three children, two of which were still alive in 2007.  They were Pamela Frances Toogood, who was born at Narrabri on 28th January 1931, Jennifer Toogood, who was born on 12th July 1934 at Ballina in New South Wales and who died at Wynnum in Queensland on 30th June 1992, and Thomas Russell Toogood, who was also born at Ballina but on 24th March 1936.

 

 

 

 

28P27

Gwendolyn Margaret Collett was born at Wee Waa in 1909.  She married (1) David Thompson at Narrabri in 1928 and (2) Idriess Morgan at Hamilton in New South Wales in 1941.  Both marriages produced two children for Gwendolyn.  The first two were Elizabeth Thompson, who later married David Bliss, and Margaret Thompson, while the second two were Owen Morgan and Thomas Morgan.  All four of her children were still alive in 2007.

 

 

 

 

28P28

Elwyn Frances Collett was born at Wee Waa in 1911 and died at Carlton in Victoria in 1941.  During her life she married William Baines with whom she had two children, Joy Baines and Judy Baines, who were both still alive in 2007.

 

 

 

 

28P29

Trevor David Collett was born at Wee Waa in 1913.  On 26th November 1934 at Hamilton, he married Olga Muriel Wiles who was born in 1905.  Once they were married the couple settled at Kokopo in Papua New Guinea where their daughter was born.  During the Second World War Trevor was working as an operator at the Seventh-Day Adventist’s Mission sawmill on Emira Island in New Ireland, one of the islands of Papua New Guinea.  Pearl Harbour had been attacked by the Japanese forces on 7th December 1941 and in late January 1942 they captured islands in the Papua New Guinea group including Emira which was taken on 26th January 1942.  Sometime later prisoners Trevor Collett (saw-miller), Charles Cook (plantation manager) and Arthur Atkins (SDA Pastor) were moved to Mussau Island.

 

 

 

Many attempts to escape from the Japanese were made by the civilian captives, most of which were unsuccessful.  In the case of Trevor Collett, he, together with Charles Cook and Arthur Atkins, managed to secure places on a boat (The Malalangi) which successfully sailed through St George’s Channel but when on the east coast of New Britain, they were forced ashore by a Japanese destroyer.  Charles Cook managed to escape, but Pastor Atkins was now in bad health and Trevor Collett gallantly stayed with him.  Both were taken to the town of Rabaul on New Britain Island that the Japanese had captured on 23rd January 1942 and where they had established a major base.

 

 

 

On 22nd June 1942 the 7,267 tons Japanese Navy auxiliary vessel left Rabaul with 1,053 military prisoners and 200 civilians on board bound for the island of Hainan south of mainland China.  The vessel was later spotted off Luzon in the northern Philippines by the US submarine Sturgeon which, at around 2.30 a.m. on the morning of 1st July, fired four torpedoes, two of which hit the ship causing it to sink.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission recorded that Trevor Collett, son of Thomas and Lucretia Collett and husband of Olga Muriel Collett, died on 1st July 1942 aged 29, when he drowned at sea whilst on board the MV Montevideo Maru.  Trevor’s widow Olga died in New South Wales on 23rd February 1990

 

 

 

28Q19

Anthea June Collett

Born in 1937 at Kokopo, Papua NG

 

 

 

 

28P30

Esther Lucretia Collett was born at Wee Waa in 1917.  She married Valentine Blake McDonnell Hall at Hamilton in 1944.  Val, as he was known, was the son of Charles Hall and Elizabeth B M and was born at Woollahra in New South Wales in 1908.  The marriage resulted in the birth of three children, Charles Thomas Hall, Jane Esther Hall, and Suzanne Jane Hall.

 

 

 

 

28P39

Mary Collett was born at Willaston in 1890, the first child born to Leonard Collett by his first wife Mary Boulton.  In 1901 she was living with her widowed father Leonard and her brothers and sisters, following the death of her mother when she was around six years of age.  She later married William A Vickers with whom she had a son John Vickers.

 

 

 

 

28P40

Janet Collett was born at Willaston on 26th October 1891, the second child of Leonard and Mary Collett who died when she was five years old.  She became a nurse in Queen Alexander's Imperial Military Nursing Service and travelled extensively during the First World War.  She lived at Shavington near Crewe, until she died in the late 1950s.  She never married.

 

 

 

 

28P41

Leonard Collett was born at Willaston in 1893 and sadly his mother died when he was only three years old.  His father re-married when Leonard was 14 and, three years later, he sailed to Canada when he was 17.  He became a clerk for the Royal Bank of Canada and volunteered to fight in the First World War, where he was involved in the Battle for Vimy Ridge.  The battle took place between the Canadian Corps and the German Sixth Army and began on 9th April 1917 and was successfully concluded on 12th April 1917.  He lived at Calgary in Alberta and returned to France to see King Edward VII unveil the Canadian National Vimy Memorial on 26th July 1936.  The monument took eleven years to build and cost 1.5 million dollars.  The unveiling ceremony was attended by more than 50,000 Canadian and French veterans and their families.  After the war he worked for a mining company and died in the 1960s, having never married.

 

 

 

 

28P42

William Collett was born at Willaston in 1894, the last child of Leonard Collett by his first wife Mary Boulton who died when William was two years old.  He was living with his widowed father at Willaston in 1901 who re-married in 1907.  William worked on farms and for the electricity board, living at Shrewsbury Road in Nantwich.  He married Fanny and lived in Nantwich all his life, although the marriage produced no children for the couple.

 

 

 

 

28P43

Joyce Collett was born at Willaston in 1908, the eldest child of the second marriage of Leonard Collett and his wife Gertrude Boulton, who was the younger sister of his first wife.  She became a nurse in children’s hospitals before the outbreak of the Second World War.  During the War she travelled through Africa, Italy and Germany.  After the War she moved to West Bromwich with her mother Gertrude, where she resumed work as a children's nurse for the local authority until she retired in 1963.  She then moved to Brixham in Devon where she died in the early 1970s.  She never married and in 1961 she was living at 61 The Broadway, Hill Top in West Bromwich with her mother, and it was Joyce Collett, a spinster, who was named as the executor of her mother’s estate of £2,510 3 Shillings and 9 Pence.

 

 

 

 

28P45

GEORGE COLLETT was born at Nantwich on 25th April 1912, the last child born to Leonard Collett and his second wife Gertrude Boulton.  He attended Nantwich Grammar School.  Upon leaving school he trained as a surveyor with Nantwich Council.  He married Katherine Proom who was born at Stoke-on-Trent on 21st January 1913 prior to the start of the Second World War.  In might be of interest to note that there were only sixty-three people with the Proom name living in the United Kingdom at the time of the 1881 Census and they were mostly centred around the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Kent and Durham.  During the WWII, George worked as a draughtsman on the Beaufighter aircraft.  After the war he worked for the City of Stoke-on-Trent as a civil engineer designing water treatment plants and sewerage systems.  His interests included motorbikes and model railways.  Both of the couple’s two sons were born at Stoke-on-Trent and sadly George died early in 1963, followed by Katherine in 1987.

 

 

 

28Q20

GEORGE LEONARD COLLETT

Born in 1941 at Stoke-on-Trent

 

28Q21

John Boulton Collett

Born on 03.09.1944 at Stoke-on-Trent

 

 

 

 

28P46

Martha F Collett was born at Bermondsey in 1875, the eldest child of Harry Leonard and Martha Sarah Collett.  Just after she was born her parents moved south a few miles to Camberwell, and in 1881 they were living there at 143 Kirkwood Road.  Martha was recorded as Martha F Collett in 1881 when she was five, and again in 1891 she was 15, by which time she was living with her family at 44 Barset Road in Nunhead, within the Camberwell & Peckham area of South London.  By the time of the next census in 1901, Martha had left the family home which was still at 44 Barset Road.  She would have been 25 and very likely married by then.  In London at that time was one likely Martha who was 25 and born at Bermondsey, and she was Martha L Maple living in the Lewisham area with her husband James Maple, 27 and from St Colomb in Cornwall, who was a clerk in the civil service, and their first two children.

 

 

 

Ten years later Martha Louise Maple of Bermondsey was 35 and was living in the Nunhead area with her family, close to where her parents were also still living at that time.  With her again was her husband from Cornwall James Maple 37, their sons Lewisham born Henry Leslie Maple who was 11, and Frank Charles Maple who was 10, and their daughter Winifred Helen Maple who was two years old.

 

 

 

 

28P47

Henry Jessie Collett, who was known as Harry, was born at Peckham in 1878, the eldest son of Harry Leonard Collett.  The birth may have taken place while his parents were living on the Old Kent Road in Camberwell, which is where his parents said he was born in the census of 1881.  At that time the family was living at 143 Kirkwood Road in Peckham, where ‘Henry’ J Collett was two years old.  Harry was again referred to as Henry J Collett in the census of 1891 when he was 12 years old and living with his family at 44 Barsett Road in Nunhead. 

 

 

 

However, by 1901 he was described as Harry J Collett, a bachelor of 22, from Peckham, and at that time he was still living with his parents at 44 Barsett Road, just a stones-throw from Nunhead Cemetery.  The same census return, gave his occupation as that of an engine fitter’s mate, which at least demonstrated that he did not follow his grandfather and his father into the traditional family occupation of being a tailor or military tailor in the case of his father.  It was three years after, during 1904, that Harry married Kate Penfold and by the end of the first decade of the new century the marriage had provided them with three children who were all born at Nunhead.  It was at Thorn Terrace in Nunhead Grove that the family was living on the occasion of the birth of their second child, as confirmed by the birth certificate, and also the following year as determined by the electoral roll for 1908.

 

 

 

By April 1911 the young family was recorded as living at 93b Tappesfield Road in Nunhead Green, not far from Kirkwood Road in Peckham where Henry and his parents had been living in 1881 and just around the corner from Barsett Road in Nunhead where they were living in 1891 and 1901.  Henry Jessie Collett from Camberwell was 32 and a fitter’s labourer, his wife Kate Collett was 29 and from Richmond in Surrey, while their first three children were listed as Harry Leonard Collett who was four, Edward A J Collett who was three and Kate M E Collett who was one year old.  The census return also confirmed that Harry and Kate had been married for six years.

 

 

 

It is now known that after the First World War two further children were added to the family of Harry and Kate, the first of them born in 1919 and the second born in 1922, whilst it is still possible that there may have been other children born into the family during the ten years up to 1919.  It is also established that Harry and Kate were living at 14 Rockells Place off Forest Hill Road in East Dulwich, South London, in 1931.  Sometime during the following years, the property, which overlooked the Camberwell Old Cemetery, was purchased by Harry’s son Edward who is known to have lived there with his wife and daughter for at least the last seventeen years of his life.  That may have been after Henry Jessie Collett passed away.  During his life he and his son Edward were members of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (The Buffs).

 

 

 

28Q22

Harry Leonard Collett

Born in 1906 at Nunhead, Camberwell

 

28Q23

Edward Alfred Frederick Collett

Born in 1907 at Nunhead, Camberwell

 

28Q24

Kate Margaret E Collett

Born in 1909 at Nunhead, Camberwell

 

28Q25

Thomas James Richard Collett

Born in 1919 at Nunhead, Camberwell

 

28Q26

Charles Ernest Collett

Born in 1922 at Nunhead, Camberwell

 

 

 

 

28P48

Edward B Collett was born at Peckham in 1882 and that may well have taken place at 143 Kirkwood Road in Peckham where his family had been living at the time of the 1881 Census.  It was at 44 Barsett Road in Nunhead that Edward and his family were living in 1891 when he was eight years old.  By the end of the century Edward B Collett was 19 and an electrical engine driver from Peckham who was still living with his family at 44 Barsett Road.  Edward continued to live in Nunhead after he was married, as confirmed by the next census in 1911.  Simply as Edward Collett aged 29 from Peckham, he was living there with his wife Gwendoline, who was 26, and their one-year-old son Edward.  It is very likely that further children were added to the family over the following years.

 

 

 

28Q27

Edward Collett

Born in 1909 at Nunhead, Camberwell

 

 

 

 

28P49

Leonard Charles Collett was born at Nunhead in 1884 the youngest of three sons of tailor Harry Leonard Collett.  It is possible that he was born at 143 Kirkwood Road in Peckham where the family had been living in 1881.  Leonard C Collett was six years of age in the Peckham census of 1891 when he and his family was recorded at 44 Barsett Road in Nunhead, less than half a mile south of Kirkwood Road.  By the time of the census in 1901, 16 years old Leonard Collett was still living with his family at 44 Barsett Road.  He had left school by then and was working as a railway porter and station cleaner, and very likely at Nunhead Station which was just a short walk from his parents’ home.  Around five years later, when he was in his early twenties, he married Amelia from Camberwell and by the time of the census in April 1911 the couple had two children living with them at Nunhead.  Leonard Collett 26, his wife Amelia was 29, and their two Camberwell born daughters were Ena who was three and Dorothy who was two.  Further children may have been added to the family after 1911.

 

 

 

At some time in their later life Leonard returned to the county of his family’s origins, since it was in Stratton St Margaret that both he and Amelia were buried.  Amelia Collett died on 21st May 1966 at the age of 84, placing her year of birth around 1882.  Leonard Charles Collett passed away six years later.  The single headstone on their grave carries the inscription

“Amelia Collett age 84 died 21 May 1966

Our Dear Mother Just Sleeping

Also, her beloved husband Leonard Charles died ......... 1972”

 

 

 

28Q28

Ena Collett

Born in 1907 at Camberwell

 

28Q29

Dorothy Collett

Born in 1908 at Camberwell

 

 

 

 

28P50

Mary E Collett was born at Nunhead in 1888 and was two years old in the census of 1891 when she and her family was living at 44 Barsett Road in Nunhead where she was very likely born.  By March 1901, Mary and her family were still living at 44 Barsett Road where she was recorded as being age 12 and born at Nunhead.  With no record of Mary E Collett of Nunhead located in the census of 1911, it must be assumed that she was married by then.

 

 

 

 

28P51

Elizabeth Collett was born at 44 Barsett Road in Nunhead in 1891, but after the fifth of April that year.  She was the youngest daughter of Harry Leonard and Martha Sarah Collett and in 1901 she was nine years old.  At that time, she and her family were still living at 44 Barsett Road and, ten years later when she was 20, she was the only child still living with her father at Nunhead.  Her mother was still alive and, on that occasion, was living nearby in Nunhead.

 

 

 

 

28P52

Frederick S J Collett was born at 44 Barsett Road in Nunhead in 1893, the last of seven children born to Harry Leonard and Martha Sarah Collett.  Rather oddly, no record of him has been found in the census of 1901, when the majority of his family was still living at 44 Barsett Road in Nunhead.  He was however, a gas fitter’s mate age 17 in the next census in April 1911, when he was living at 67 Linden Grove in Nunhead with his father and his sister Elizabeth (above).  Four years later the marriage of Frederick S J Collett and Nellie M Seeley was recorded at Greenwich register office in South London (Ref. 1d 3029) during the last three months of 1915.  Nellie May Seeley was also born in London and, shortly after their wedding day, Frederick signed up for active service in the First World War.  On his return the first of the couple’s four son was born. Frederick S J Collett died in 1963 and was survived by his wife for twelve years, when Nellie May Collett passed away in 1975.

 

 

 

28Q30

Frederick James Collett

Born in 1919 at Greenwich, London

 

28Q31

Ernest George Collett

Born in 1922 at Greenwich, London

 

28Q32

Sidney John Collett

Born in 1925 at Greenwich, London

 

28Q33

Edward Bartlett Collett

Born in 1930 at Deptford, London

 

 

 

 

28P53

George Frederick Collett was born at Mile End in London on 2nd February 1894, the eldest son of George Frederick Collett and Harriet Maria Jordan.  His birth was recorded at the Mile End register office (Ref. 1c 547) during the first quarter of that year.  He was listed as being aged seven in the census of 1901 when he was living at 6 Eleanor Street in Bromley with the rest of his family.  By April 1911 George was 17 and his occupation was that of a ‘general hand’ possibly working with his father George at the local iron works.  At that time, he and his family were living at 8 Suffolk Road in Plaistow in Essex.

 

 

 

 

28P54

Florence Ellen Collett was born at Bow in London in 1895, very likely while her family was living at 16 Helena Street where they were certainly living in 1897.  She was five years old at the time of the census of 1901, by which time she was living with her family at 6 Eleanor Street in Bromley.  Ten years later she had left school and was working as a box maker while living with her parents at 8 Suffolk Road in Plaistow.

 

 

 

 

28P55

Harry Leonard Collett was born at 16 Helena Street in London on 31st October 1897, following which he was baptised at the Church of St Stephen in Bow on 28th November 1897 the son of labourer George Frederick Collett and his wife Harriett Maria.  By the time he was three years old in March 1901 he and his family were living at 6 Eleanor Street Bromley, but sometime after that the family moved to 8 Suffolk Road in Plaistow where they were recorded in the census of 1911, when Harry was 13. 

 

 

 

On 31st May 1915, Harry 19-year-old enlisted with the British Army, following which he was assigned to the Dorsetshire Infantry Regiment based in Exeter on 4th June 1915.  His address at that time was 5 Ladysmith Road in Plaistow, from where he had been working as a draper.  Harry was twice married, on the first occasion he married (1) Maud Rose Rice at West Ham during the fourth quarter of 1923 [Ref. 4a390] and their only son was born during the following year.  He later married (2) Alice Cohen and continued to live in Plaistow up until Alice passed away.  Alice Collett, formerly Cohen, and her husband Harry, were residing at 301 Barking Road in Plaistow when she died on 15th March 1948.  Alice however was a patient at The Prince of Wales Hospital in Tottenham on the day she passed away.  Probate of her Will and her estate valued at £4,796 10 Shillings was proved in London on 30th April that year, when Harry was referred to as a hosier and a hatter.

 

 

 

28Q34

Leonard George Collett

Born in 1924; died in 2007

 

 

 

 

28P57

Lillian Alice Collett was born at Plaistow in the Canning Town area of East London on 5th June 1906, the daughter of George Frederick Collett and Harriet Maria Jordan.  She married Frederick Arthur Jones on 22nd August 1931 in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Essex.  They had a son Brian Jones who was born in Essex and who married Jean in 1965.  It would appear that the couple emigrated to South Australia, where they later died.  Their mother Lillian Alice Jones nee Collett died at the Essex County Hospital in London on 2nd January 1983.

 

 

 

 

28P58

Thomas Henry Collett was born at Plaistow in Canning Town during 1908, the son of George and Harriet Collett, and was very likely born at 8 Suffolk Road in Plaistow within the West Ham district of London where his family was living in April 1911 when Thomas H Collett was four years of age.  Two years prior to the start of the Second World War Thomas H Collett married Irene R Stanford, the event recorded at West Ham register office (Ref. 4a 224) during the third quarter of 1937.  Irene was also born at West Ham where her birth was recorded (Ref. 4a 351) during the final three months of 1916, when her mother’s maiden-name was noted as being Baker.  Five years later it was Irene’s younger sister who married Thomas’ younger brother Robert (below).

 

 

 

 

28P59

William George Collett was born at Canning Town on 22nd October 1910, a son of George and Maria Collett.  As William G Collett aged seven months, he was living with his family at 8 Suffolk Road in Plaistow.  Nothing further is currently known about his life, except that his death was recorded at Hounslow register office (Ref. 38b 211) during January 2001.

 

 

 

 

28P60

Robert Albert Collett was born at West Ham on 22nd April 1917 and was the last child of Harriet Maria Jordan and her husband George Frederick Collett.  The birth of Robert A Collett, the son of a mother whose maiden-name was Jordan, was recorded at West Ham register office (Ref. 4a 239) during the first quarter of 1917.  He was almost twenty-five years old when Robert A Collett married Helena Myra Stanford at Romford in Essex, where the wedding was recorded (Ref. 4a 1398) during the first three months of 1942.  Their marriage produced two daughters and a son about whom nothing is currently known.

 

 

 

The death of Robert Albert Collett on 24th April 1996 was recorded at Brentwood register office in Essex (Ref. B46b 4661b 235) when he was 79.  His wife Helena was born at West Ham on 9th February 1919, her mother’s maiden-name being Baker, and she passed away on 22nd September 2007.  Five years before she married Robert Collett, Helena’s older sister Irene R Stanford married Robert’s older brother Thomas Henry Collett (above).  During his life Robert was a very keen amateur family historian with much of his work having been handed down to his granddaughter.

 

 

 

28Q35

a Collett daughter

Born circa 1943 in Essex

 

28Q36

a Collett daughter

Born circa 1948 in Essex

 

28Q37

a Collett son

Born circa 1953 in Essex

 

 

 

 

28P61

Emma Collett was the base-born child of Mary Collett and she was born at Alvescot on 22nd September 1867.  In the census of 1871 Emma was four years old and was living with her grandparents George and Jane Collett (Ref. 28N29) at Alvescot.  A further ten years later, Emma at the age of 14, was a general servant at the home of John Edmonds, a farmer of 65 acres in Alvescot.  Two years after that in 1883, she gave birth to a base-born son Henry Collett.  Six years later on 24th December 1889 Emma married Joseph Fitchett who was born in 1865 at Buckland to the east of Faringdon, but the marriage produced no issue for the couple.  However, in the census 1891 Emma Fitchett of Alvescot was 24 and was living at Buckland with her seven years old son Henry Collett.

 

 

 

Emma was still living in Buckland in 1901 when she was 34, and again her place of birth was confirmed as Alvescot.  As in the census ten years earlier, Emma’s husband Joseph was missing again, which may indicate that he was a soldier with the British army.  By 1901, Emma’s son Henry had returned to live and work in Alvescot by then.  Ten years later, according to the census of 1911, Joseph Fitchett had returned to Buckland and was once again reunited with his wife.  Joseph was 45 and Emma was 43.  The death of Emma Fitchett nee Collett was recorded at Wantage in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire since 1974) (Ref. 6a 155) during the second quarter of 1956 when she was 89.

 

 

 

28Q38

Henry Collett

Born in 1883 at Alvescot

 

 

 

 

28P63

Caroline Ann Wise was born at Alvescot during May 1873, the daughter of William Wise and Mary Collett.  In 1892 she married William Thomas Clack who was born on 8th January 1872, the son of James Clack and Jane Booker.  The marriage produced ten children for Caroline and William, they being Elsie May (born 1892), Christopher (1893), William (1895), Sidney Victor (1897), twins John and Percy (1900), Caroline Annie Victoria (1902), Arthur (1906), Albert Edward (1908), and Lillian Gladys (1909).  Caroline’s husband William Clack died on 22nd December 1945 at Broughton Poggs, while Carole Ann Clack nee Wise died there on 19th May 1949.  Broughton Poggs where eight of their children were born is just about two miles west of Alvescot.  Caroline’s obituary in the local paper read as follows:

 

 

 

“Mrs C A Clack, one of the oldest inhabitants of the village, passed away in her sleep on May 15.  She was in her 74th year.  Although a native of Alvescot, she had resided at Broughton Poggs 55 years, her husband dying eighteen years ago.  A kind mother and good neighbour, she brought up a family of ten children, seven of whom survive her.  The two oldest sons, Christopher and William, gave their lives in the First World War, another son dying young”.  The mourners at the funeral were her sons Sidney, John, Arthur, Albert, and her daughter Elsie, Annie, and Lily.

 

 

 

 

28P65

Elizabeth Ellen Wise was born at Alvescot on 20th October 1878, where she was living with her parents William Wise and Mary Ann Collett in 1881 when she was two years old.  Ten years later Elizabeth, age 12, was still living with her family which, by that time, was living at Allens Lodge in Aldsworth in Gloucestershire.  She later married James Nathaniel Edgington, who was born at Black Bourton in 1876, where the couple’s only known child was also born.  Frederick James Edgington was born at Black Bourton in 1904.  He married Sarah Isabella Godfrey who was born at Sunderland in 1909, and who was the daughter of Jonathan and Isabella Godfrey.  Frederick and Sarah’s daughter was born at Greenford in West London in 1929.

 

 

 

Iris Isabella Edgington was born at Greenford in 1929 and died in 2004.  She married Harold Norman Hoskins who was born in 1928.  Their daughter Susan Naomi Hoskins was born at Uxbridge in Hillingdon in 1957 and she married Mr Smith.

 

 

28P66

Sarah Selina Wise was born at Alvescot in 1881 and was nine years old in 1891 when living at Allens Lodge in Aldsworth, Gloucestershire in 1891, where she was simply recorded as Sarah S Wise.  She was twenty-one when Sarah Selina Wise married William Butler at Kencott in Oxfordshire during 1903, with whom she had four daughters and two sons.  One of the daughters was Isobel D Butler born in 1920 who married Alwyn H Trulocke (the uncle of Jennie Cordner, her mother’s brother).  Another daughter was Doris Butler born in 1914 who married Mr Letts and their son John Letts married Rosemary Egerton, who were famous for the birth of sextuplets on 15th December 1969 at the University Hospital in London.  The children were five girls and a boy, with one of the girls still-born, thus becoming the famous Letts Quins, who featured on the front cover of the Radio Times in 1973.

 

 

 

 

28P68

John Thomas Wise was born at Alvescot on 9th August 1885, the son of William Wise and his wife Mary Ann Collett.  He married Lilian Sarah Batts Webb, the daughter of John Nicholas Webb and Elizabeth Sarah Batts, who was born at Bampton in 1886 and who died at nearby Carterton in 1975.  During their life together, Lilian presented John with eight children.  Violet Wise was born in 1910 and died in 1996, William Sidney Wise was born in 1911 and died in 1983, his twin brother suffered an infant death, Gladys Mary Wise was born in 1914 and died in 2004, Reginald Wise was born in 1916, Harold Ashley Wise was born in 1916 and died in 2000, Stanley James Wise was born in 1918 and died in 2001, and Jack Douglas Wise was born in 1917 and died during 1990. 

 

 

 

Jack Douglas Wise married Elvina Dulcie May Trulock who already had a son Karel Ferdinand Kepka Trulock who was born in December 1942, his father being a Polish pilot who was killed during the Second World War.  Following the marriage Karel was adopted by Jack and from then on was known as John Karel Wise.  Sadly, he died as the result of a car accident in 1980.  Jack and Dulcie had two children of their own, and they were Jennifer Wise, who was born in 1948, and Andrew Wise, who was born in 1949.  And it was Jennie Cordner nee Wise, who has kindly provided a great deal of information for the Collett website, not just Part 28.

 

 

 

 

28P69

Eva Alice Wise was born at Alvescot on 30th September 1888, the daughter of William Wise and his wife Mary Ann Collett.  She later married George Thomas Hambidge and died in 1977.

 

 

 

 

28P72

Clara Elizabeth Collett was born at Sunningdale in 1882 but shortly after she was born her parents moved back to Oxfordshire and the village of Alvescot where her father John Collett was born.  By the time of the census of 1891 Clara was nine years and was living with her parents at The Red lion Inn at Alvescot where her father was the inn keeper.  During the next ten years her parents were offered the chance to take over management of the Saye & Sele Arms at Broughton near Banbury.  That resulted in another move for the family although, according to the census in 1901, Clara’s brother John (below) had remained living and working in Alvescot.  At that time Clara was 18 and was employed as a waitress at the Saye & Sele Arms where her mother Selina was the manager.

 

 

 

Further changes happened for Clara during the early years of the new century, one of which was that she married Herbert Percy Harding.  Another was that she left Oxfordshire and headed south to London where in 1911, Clara and Herbert were recorded as living at Teddington where Herbert had been born.  Herbert was the youngest child of David and Fanny Harding who, at the time of his birth in 1880, were living at 1 Connaught Place on Walpole Road, just off Church Road in Teddington from where David worked as a decorator.  Over the following twenty years David Harding expanded the family business and by 1901 he was a successful builder and decorator.  Also, by that time, his son Herbert, who was twenty, was working for his father as a decorator.  Ten years later in 1911 the marriage of Clara and Herbert had not produced any children for the couple.  The census return on that occasion simply stated that Clara Elizabeth Harding from Sunningdale in Berkshire was 30 (she was actually 28) and her husband Herbert Percy Harding of Teddington was 31.

 

 

 

 

28P73

John Charles Collett was born at Alvescot in 1885 and was six years old in the Alvescot census of 1891 when he was living with his family at The Red Lion Inn.  Over the next few years his family moved north to the Banbury area and John may have initially gone with them.  However, by the time of the census of 1901 when he was 16, he was back in Alvescot where he was working as a carpenter and wheelwright while the rest of his family were managing the Saye & Sele Arms in Broughton near Banbury.  It is not proved whether both of John’s parents passed away during the following ten years, but neither of them has been identified in the census of 1911.  What is known is that John Collett of Alvescot who was 26 was living in the Banbury area, and living with him was his younger brother Lewis (below) of Alvescot.  Also living in the same area was their sister Rosa Collett (below).

 

 

 

For the time being, it has been assumed that John later married Constance, and that they continued to live within the Banbury area of Oxfordshire.  The reason for making this assumption is that a John Charles Collett died while he was residing at 10 Prospect Road in Banbury on 9th November 1948 when he might have been 63.  His Will was proved at Oxford on 23rd December that year, when his wife Constance Mabel Collett was named as the administrator of his estate amounting to £3,258 9 Shillings and 8 Pence.

 

 

 

 

28P74

Rosa Belinda Collett was born at Alvescot in 1887, the daughter of John and Selina Collett.  And it was as Rosa Belinda aged four years that she was listed in the Alvescot census of 1891 when she was living with her parents at The Red Lion Inn.  Ten years later she was recorded as Rose Belinda Collett aged 14 years, by which time her parents had taken over the management of The Saye & Sele Arms in Broughton near Banbury.  However, after another ten years, the Banbury district census of 1911 recorded her as simply Rosa Collett aged 23.  No other Collett was living with her, but her two brothers John and Lewis were living not far away. 

 

 

 

It was just over ten years later that Rosa B Collett married Cyril Archibald Litchfield, the marriage recorded at Banbury register office (Ref. 3a 2696) during the final three months of 1921.  Cyril had been born on 15th March 1893 and was the son of Charles Davis Litchfield and Margaret Minnie Litchfield.  Tragically, Rosa was only married for five years and her premature death may have occurred during childbirth, as it was at Banbury register office (Ref. 3a 1249) that the death of Rosa B Litchfield nee Collett was recorded during the last quarter of 1926 at the age of 39.  Her husband lived a long life and at the time of his death he was living in the London area, his passing recorded at Fulham register office (Ref. 12 0762) during the second quarter of 1975 when he was 82.

 

 

 

 

28P75

George Lewis Leslie Collett was born at Alvescot in 1891 with the birth taking place after the fifth April census day.  Sometime after he was born his family left Alvescot and moved to Broughton near Banbury where they took up residence at The Say & Sele Arms, George’s mother Selina was the manager, and where in 1901 George L Collett was nine years old.  During the next decade it would appear that both of George’s parents died, since by April 1911 he was living in Banbury with just his older brother John (above) who had returned from Alvescot where he had been working prior to the death of their parents. George was recorded as Lewis Collett who was 19.  Whether he became involved in the First World War has not been confirmed, but it was at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 27) that the death of George L L Collett was recorded during the third quarter of 1915 when he was twenty-three years old.

 

 

 

 

28P76

Albert Collett was born at Alvescot on 19th March 1879, the base-born son of Elizabeth Collett, his birth recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 764).  Elizabeth was married in November 1881 and it is established from the census return for earlier that same year that Albert was living with his mother at the Alvescot home of his grandparents George and Jane Collett (Ref. 28N29).  Elizabeth was 19 at that time on the third April 1881.

 

 

 

Ten years later in 1891, Albert Collett had already left school and was described as a 12-year-old agricultural labourer who was living with his mother’s Peachy family on Mill Lane in Alvescot, where his grandparents George and Jane Collett were also residing.  At this point previously, it was stated that no record of Albert had been found in the next census in 1901.  The reason for that may now be apparent, thanks to new information received from Roger Bullock, the grandson of the said Albert Collett.  It seems that Albert had a relationship with a widow by the name of Charlotte Bullock, with whom he had a base-born son and, although not named on the child’s birth certificate, his mother wanted to acknowledge Albert as his father by naming the child Albert Collett Bullock.  In fact, it was on the actual day of the census in 1901 that Albert Collett Bullock was born at Alvescot on 31st March. 

 

 

 

Ten years early Charlotte Bullock, aged 21 and from Alvescot, was living with her husband George Bullock, age 25, and their first child George William Bullock who was under one year old.  The couple had three more children during the 1890s, prior to the death of George Bullock, and in the census of 1901 Charlotte, aged 30, had living at Alvescot with her, William G Bullock aged ten, Mary B Bullock aged seven, Eva E Bullock aged five, Georgina A Bullock aged four, and an unnamed infant.  No record of Charlotte Bullock has been found in the later census of 1911, by which time she was very likely remarried.  However, her two youngest children were still living at Alvescot, most probably with her under her new married name, and they were Georgina Bullock was 14, and Albert Bullock was 10 years of age.

 

 

 

Less than four years after the birth of his illegitimate child in 1901, Albert Collett married (1) Susan Alice Goodway at Alvescot on 28th January 1905.  Susan was born in 1882 at Clanfield, just south of Black Bourton, but tragically died in 1906, a year after presenting Albert with at son, while the couple was living at Clanfield.  It seems very likely that she died during childbirth, either that of their first child George William Collett, or that of a second child who also did not survive the ordeal.  Shortly after that sad event Albert married (2) Elizabeth Edgington on 24th December 1907 again Alvescot.  Elizabeth, who was born at Dalston near Carlisle in 1883, presented Albert with a further three children, all of whom were born at Alvescot.

 

 

 

By April 1911 Albert and Elizabeth were still living in Alvescot, where it is understood the couple continued to live for many years and certainly into the 1930s.  The 1911 Census confirmed that Albert Collett of Alvescot was thirty-two and that his wife Lizzie was twenty-eight and had been born at Appleby Road in Dalston.  Albert’s occupations at that time were listed as being a contractor, a stone quarryman, and a wood cutter.  Living with the couple on that occasion was George Collett of Clanfield who was five and his half-brother Frederick Collett of Alvescot who was two years old.  The next two children were born either side of the Great War which may indicate that Albert was actively involved in the conflict. 

 

 

 

Certainly, after the war Albert seems to have done well for himself, bearing in mind his humble beginning.  Apart from the birth of their daughter in 1923, the only other information that has come to light about Albert has been taken from an article in the Oxford Mail newspaper on Monday 22nd June 2009 under the headline ‘Farmers’ Picture Poses Another Puzzle’.  The photograph in the item was taken in 1932 in front of Magdalen College in Oxford and included 46 of the college’s tenant farmers at that time.  The text under the picture included the following statement: “In the front row, fourth from the left, is Albert Collett who farmed at Alvescot”.  The picture on the right is an extract from the full published photograph and shows Albert Collett of Alvescot.

 

28Q39

Albert Collett Bullock

Born in 1901 at Alvescot

 

28Q40

George William Albert Collett

Born in 1905 at Clanfield

 

The following are the children of Albert Collett by his second wife Lizzie Edgington:

 

28Q41

Frederick John Collett

Born in 1908 at Alvescot

 

28Q42

Elsie Freda Mary Collett

Born in 1913 at Alvescot

 

28Q43

Dorothy May Violet Collett

Born in 1923 at Alvescot

 

 

 

 

28P77

William George Leonard Collett was born at Alvescot on 7th January 1900.  And it was there that he married Arabella Edith Godwin in the third quarter of 1925.  Arabella was born at Swindon on 6th November 1902 and the couple’s two children were originally believed to have been born at Alvescot, whereas new information discovered in 2014 suggests the second of the two children was born within the Headington area of Oxford.  It is possible that William George Leonard Collett died sometime after the birth of his son, since it would appear that Arabella E Collett married for a second time during the second quarter of 1939.  The event was recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 110) when she became Arabella Edith Simpson.  Once remarried she very likely returned to the Oxford area where her death was recorded (Ref. D46D 257) during the first three months of 1996 when she was 93.

 

 

 

28Q44

Eileen Emma Frances Collett

Born in 1926 at Alvescot

 

28Q45

William George Collett

Born in 1930 at Headington