PART THIRTY

The Suffolk and Norfolk Line – 1790 to 1990

(including Saxmundham and Diss)

Updated June 2023

This is the family line of Rob Collett (Ref. 30R5) of Lincolnshire

	The original first family in this line, that of William Collett and Mary Pretty, was established in 2007 and today has still not been proved. Further research work carried out in early 2012, revealed two further male Colletts, the brothers Charles and William, who were born within the same decade at Saxmundham.
	However, more recent research, undertaken during the summer of 2012, has thrown up some anomalies which now seem to indicate that Thomas Collett (Ref. 30O6), whose family line is the main branch running through this file, was in no way connected to the aforementioned Collett family of Saxmundham. Instead, it has now been determined that he came from Essex even though, for some reason in 1881, he said he was born at Bramfield near Halesworth in Suffolk. Thomas and his five older siblings were all born in Essex to William and Ann Collett, rather than to William Collett and Mary Pretty.
	Just before Christmas in 2012, further, more conclusive, information was very gratefully received from Grant Feltham whose wife is a direct descendant of William Collett (Ref. 30N5), all of which has now been inserted. This was added to in March 2014 with further details sent in by Grant, towards the end of 2013.
30N1	WILLIAM COLLETT may have been born near Diss in Norfolk or possibly in Essex. The fact that he was married in 1809 perhaps indicates that he may have been born around 1785-1788. The marriage between William Collett and Ann Fermow took place in the village of Scole near Diss on 8^th November 1809. Possibly for work reasons, the couple left Norfolk shortly after they were married and settled in Essex. They initially resided in Brentwood where their first two children were born, before moving to Barking where the next two children were born. The family’s last known location was Romford, midway between Brentwood and Barking, where the couple’s last two children were born. It is not known whether any more children were added to their family after 1822.
	Baptism records have been located for the two children who were born at Brentwood and for the two children who were born at Barking, but sadly no baptism records have been found for the couple’s two youngest children, both of whom later returned to the Norfolk and the village of Scole with their eldest sister who was married there in 1836.
	30O1	Mary Anne Collett			Born in 1812 at Brentwood, Essex
	30O2	William Collett			Born in 1814 at Brentwood, Essex
	30O3	Eliza Collett			Born in 1816 at Barking, Essex
	30O4	William Collett			Born in 1818 at Barking, Essex
	30O5	John Collett			Born in 1820 at Romford, Essex
	30O6	THOMAS COLLETT			Born in 1822 at Romford, Essex
30N2	Richard Collett, whose place and date of birth is not known, was married to Elizabeth with whom he had at least one child when they were living at Saxmundham. It is possible, although not proved, that Richard was the older brother of Samuel Collett (below).
	30O7	John Collett			Born in 1813 at Saxmundham
30N3	Samuel Collett, whose place and date of birth is not known, was married to Mary Ann with whom he had at least one child who was born when they were living at Saxmundham. It is possible, although not proved, that Samuel was the younger brother of Richard Collett (above).
	30O8	Mary Ann Collett			Born in 1817 at Saxmundham
30N4	Charles Collett (Ref. 18N37) was born at Saxmundham in 1795, the son of John Collett and his wife Elizabeth Thurlow, and the brother of William Collett (below). It was in 1803 when Charles was eight years old that his father died after he fell from a tree. It was also in Saxmundham where he was married, and where his children were born. He married Mary Ann Parker Richardson on 12^th April 1815, and it was at the end of that year that their first child was born. The baptism records at Saxmundham for all of the four children listed below confirm that their parents were Charles and Mary Ann Parker Collett. By the time of the census conducted in 1851, Charles Collett from Saxmundham was 57 when he was residing at Aston Place in Islington. His occupation was that of a journeyman plasterer, while living with him that day was his wife Mary Collett from Eye, south of Diss, who was 55 and a fruiterer and a grocer, together with her brother William Richardson, also born at Eye, who was 58.
	It was a similar situation in 1861, when Charles was 69 and Mary was 65, both with same occupations as ten years earlier. Living with them that day was their grandson William Clark from Holloway who was 12 and the eldest child of Jane Collett, the youngest of the four daughters of Charles and Mary Ann. William was training to be a plasterer like his grandfather. Just less than four year after that, the death of Mary Ann Parker Collett was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 279) during the first three months of 1865. Six years later Charles was still living at Islington in 1871, where his death was recorded (Ref. 1b 196) during the second quarter of that year.
	30O9		Fanny Charlotte Collett		Born in 1815 at Saxmundham
	30O10		Susan Collett		Born in 1818 at Saxmundham
	30O11		Emma Collett		Born in 1820 at Saxmundham
	30O12		Jane Collett		Born in 1823 at Saxmundham
30N5	William Collett (Ref. 18N38) was born at Saxmundham on 14^th March 1798, where he was baptised at the parish church on 6^th April 1798, the youngest known son of John Collett and Elizabeth Thurlow, and the younger brother of Charles Collett (above). For details of the ancestors of John Collett (Ref. 18M26) who married Elizabeth Thurlow go to Part 18 – The Suffolk Line 1745 to 1800, where they can be traced back to Henry Colet who was born around 1360.
	William was six weeks short of his fifth birthday when his father fell from a tree in Saxmundham and died as a result of his injuries. It is possible that Charles and William were the cousins of the brothers Richard and Samuel (above). It seems highly likely that William married (1) Mary Pretty at Saxmundham where their two confirmed children, Maria and William, were born. The baptism records for those two children gave William’s occupation as that of a bricklayer. One year after the birth of their second child, widower William Collett married (2) Hannah Blogg at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch, London, on 22^nd November 1824. That second marriage produced a further eight children, who were also born at Saxmundham and, on each occasion, William was described as a bricklayer. Hannah was privately baptised at St Michael’s Church in Ormesby, Norfolk, on 10^th April 1804, the daughter of William and Hannah Blogg.
	It may be of interest to note that an Ann Elizabeth Pretty who was born at Wortham in 1822, and who married William Collett in 1843, features in Part 20 – The Suffolk to Australia Line (Ref. 20O1). There is also a common connection with the town of Diss, as both William and Ann (Pretty) were living there in 1881 as were some of the children of William and Mary (Pretty). Somewhere within all of this may be the information necessary to link the two Collett families together.
	At the time of the Saxmundham census of 1841, William Collett has a rounded age of 40, Hannah Collett was 37, when they were living with elderly Mary Ann Dale at Turnpike Road, East Side in Saxmundham. The only child with them at that dwelling was their son Charles, who 12 years of age. Living close by, also at Turnpike Road in East Side, Saxmundham, but at the home of William and Susan Woods, were the couple’s two younger sons William Collett who was 10 and James Collett who was one year old. Two more children were added to the family in the 1840s and, by 1851, the family was residing at Park Side Thoroughfare in Saxmundham where William was 52 and born at Saxmundham, whose occupation was that of a journeyman bricklayer. His wife Hannah was 47 and from Little Hemsby in Norfolk, while five of their eight Saxmundham born children were living there with them. They were Charles Collett aged 23, William Collett aged 21, James Collett aged 10, Georgianna Collett who was six and Sarah Anne Collett who was two years of age.
	According to the next census in 1861, bricklayer William Collett was 60 and Hanna Collett was 55, when only child still living with them at Saxmundham was their youngest child Sarah Collett who was 12. Of their other child, only Georgianna Collett, who was 18, was employed as a housemaid with a family in Saxmundham, prior to her later move to London, where she was married. Daughter Sarah Anne Collett married Daniel English in 1868 and nine months later the death of Hannah Collett was recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. 4a 452) during the second quarter of 1869, when she was 63 years old. Two years after losing his wife, William Collett was still living in Saxmundham on the day of the census in 1871, but at the home of his married daughter Sarah and her husband Daniel English. William Collett, a widower, was said to be 75, when he was again working as a bricklayer.
	Just less than eight years later, William Collett died at Saxmundham on 13^th January 1879, his death recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. 4a 529), when he was accurately described as being 81. All of this new information, unearthed in 2019, has established that it was not this William and Hannah Collett who emigrated to South Africa in 1862, but their son William Henry Edward Collett. And it was the younger William who was the great-great-great-grandfather of Andrew Collett in South Africa, who has generously provided lots of information about his South African family, resulting in the compilation of a new family branch line from William Henry Edward Collett.
	30O13	Maria Collett			Born in 1821 at Saxmundham
	30O14	William Collett			Born in 1823 at Saxmundham
	The following are the children of William Collett and his second wife Hannah Blogg:
	30O15		Eliza Collett		Born in 1827 at Saxmundham
	30O16		Charles Collett		Born in 1828 at Saxmundham
	30O17		William Henry Edward Collett		Born in 1830 at Saxmundham
	30O18		Priscilla Collett		Born in 1833 at Saxmundham
	30O19		John Collett		Born in 1836 at Saxmundham
	30O20		James Collett		Born in 1839 at Saxmundham
	30O21		Georgianna Collett		Born in 1843 at Saxmundham
	30O22		Sarah Anne Collett		Born in 1848 at Saxmundham
30O1	Mary Anne Collett was born at Brentwood in Essex during 1812, where she was baptised on 20^th June 1813, the likely eldest child of William Collett and Ann Fermow. Her early life was spent in Essex from where she later returned to the village of Scole near Diss, which was probably the home of either her mother or father who were married there in 1809. It was at Scole on 9^th August 1836 that Mary Anne Collett married Joseph Oleff who was born there around 1811. In 1841 the childless couple was living in Scole when Jos Oleff was 29 and Mary Oleff was 25. Also living there was Mary Anne’s two brothers John Collett, who was married to Elizabeth Oleff in 1839, and Thomas who was not yet a married man.
	It was a similar situation ten years later in 1851 when Joseph Oleff, aged 38 and an agricultural labourer from Scole, was living there with his wife Mary Anne who was 37 and from Brentwood in Essex. Living right next door to the couple was Mary Anne’s brother John Collett with his wife Elizabeth Oleff and their family, which included Joseph’s disabled older brother John Oleff.
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30O2	William Collett was born at Brentwood in Essex during 1814 and it was there also that he was baptised on 3^rd July 1814, the eldest son of William Collett and Ann Fermow. Four years later the couple named another of their sons William, which very likely indicates that this particular William did not survive beyond infancy.
30O3	Eliza Collett was born at Barking in Essex in 1816 where she was baptised at St Margaret’s Church on 5^th May 1816, the daughter of William and Ann Collett. Sadly, she did not survive, and died just before Christmas day in the following year, after which Eliza Collett was buried at Barking on 24^th December 1817.
30O4	William Collett was born at Barking in Essex during 1818 and was baptised there at St Margaret’s Church on 14^th June 1818, the second son of that name to be born to William and Ann Collett.
30O5	John Collett was born at Romford in Essex during 1820 and was very likely the son of William Collett and his wife Ann Fermow. Like his sister Mary Anne (above), John also returned to the roots of his parents, when he settled in Scole near Diss, where he married Elizabeth Oleff, the event recorded at Depwade (Ref. xiii 59) during the second quarter of 1839. It was also at Scole where all of their children were born, the first of them born only a few months after the couple’s wedding day, but was only baptised just before she left home at the age of twenty. By the time of the Scole census in June 1841, John was 21 and was living there with his wife, who was 24, and their one-year-old daughter Emma. Elizabeth may well have been expecting the couple’s second child on the day of the census, since their son was born later that same year. Living with the family was Elizabeth’s older brother John Oleff, while nearby were two other members of John’s family, namely his sister Mary Anne and his younger brother Thomas (below).
	Four more children were added to the family while they were still living in Scole, so by 1851 the census that year provided the confirmation that John Collett, aged 30, was from Romford in Essex, and that he was an agricultural labourer. All of the other members of his family had been born at Scole and they were his wife Elizabeth, who was 33, and their four children who were Emma Collett, aged 11, William who was nine, Thomas who was five and Elizabeth who was one year old. Still living with the Collett family was unmarried John Oleff from nearby Wortham who was 48 and a pauper of unsound mind, described as brother, rather than brother-in-law. Living immediately adjacent to the family, in the dwelling next door, was another of Elizabeth’s brothers, Joseph Oleff from Scole, who was agricultural labourer married to Mary Anne Oleff (nee Collett) from Brentwood in Essex, the sister of John Collett .
	Shortly after the census day in 1851 Elizabeth presented John with their last child, as reflected in the next census in 1861. The family was still living in Scole where John Collett was 40, Elizabeth Collett was 42, and just four of their six children were still living there with them on that occasion. They were William, aged 19, Thomas aged 16, Elizabeth aged 11, and Bertha who was nine. The couple’s latest addition to the family, baby Eliza, had passed away just after she was born. Their eldest child Emma Collett, who was 22, was living and working nearby within the same Depwade & Diss registration district. Seven and a half years later, Elizabeth Collett passed away, her death recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 154) during the last three months of 1867, following which she was buried at Scole on 3^rd November 1867 at the age of 50 years. Curiously, no obviously record of the death of John Collett has so far been found.
	30P1		Emma Collett		Born in 1839 at Scole, near Diss
	30P2		William Collett		Born in 1841 at Scole, near Diss
	30P3		Thomas Collett		Born in 1845 at Scole, near Diss
	30P4		Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1849 at Scole, near Diss
	30P5		Bertha Collett		Born in 1851 at Scole, near Diss
	30P6		Eliza Collett		Born in 1856 at Scole, near Diss
30O6	THOMAS COLLETT was born at Romford in Essex during 1822, and was also most likely the son of William and Ann Collett. By the time of the census in 1841 Thos Collett, aged 18, was living within the Depwade & Diss registration district not far from his married sister Mary Anne Oleff (above) and his married brother John (above) who were living in the village of Scole just north-east of Diss. It was nine years later when Thomas Collett married Maria Candler at the parish church in Diss, Maria having been born at Rickinghall near Diss in 1825. The groom’s father was confirmed as William Collett, while the bridge’s father was named as John Candler. The Diss area census of 1851 recorded Maria Collett as 26 and head of the householder, living there at Gobbeth Yard with their first child Walter who was not yet one year old. Her absent husband on that day, was nearby at St Nicholas Street in Diss, the home of the Harrison family, when married Thomas Collett from Romford was 28 and a domestic servant.
	Over the next decade three more children were added to their family, as confirmed in the census return for Diss in 1861. Thomas Collett was 38 and a groom and gardener, Maria Collett was 36, and their four children were Walter who was ten, Thomas who was six, Anna Maria who was two, and Ellen Mary who was not yet one year old. On that occasion, when the family was living at Cock Street in Diss, Thomas’ place of birth was simply recorded as Essex.
	Thomas and Maria may well have been expecting the arrival of another child on the day of the census, because later that year a third son was added to their family, and after a further three years the couple’s last child was born. The Diss census in 1871 recorded the family as Thomas Collett from Romford, aged 48 and a servant, Maria Collett aged 46, Walter Collett who was 20, both of whom had been born at Rickinghall, Ellen Collett who was 11, Christopher Collett who was nine, and Louisa Collett who was six years old, the three of them all born at Diss.
	In 1881 the family was living in PH (private house) Denmark Street in Diss and comprised head of house Thomas Collett, a domestic gardener who was 57, who curiously said he was born at Bramfield, just south of Halesworth, in Suffolk, his wife Maria Collett nee Candler, aged 56 and born at Rickinghall, their son Christopher Collett aged 19, who was a brush-maker, and their daughter Louisa who was recorded incorrectly as Lansin Collett aged 16, who was a dressmaker. Both of the children were confirmed as having been born in Diss
	Also living with the family at that time was Maria’s brother John Candler, listed as ‘brother-in-law’ in relation to the head of the household. He was 60 years of age and his place of birth was also Rickinghall, and was recorded on the census return as being blind and with no occupation. In addition to John Candler, Thomas and Maria had two nieces living with them. They were Emma Collett, aged 13, who had been born at Luton, near Gillingham in Kent, and Florence Cameron who was seven and born at Cavendish Square in London. Emma Collett was the eldest child of Thomas’ nephew Thomas Collett (Ref. 30P3) and his wife Rachel Ledger, who were residing at North Marsh in Gillingham in 1881. Florence had been born during 1873 and may have been the daughter of a younger married sister, either on Thomas’ side of the family or Maria’s.
	According to the Diss census in 1891, Thomas and Maria were still living on Denmark Street in Diss, when Thomas Collett was 68 and a gardener and domestic servant, and his wife Maria was 66. Living with them at that time was their grandson Ernest Collett, the only child of their eldest son Walter, aged 18 and a general labourer. After a further decade the couple was still living in Diss St Mary where Thomas was still working as a jobbing gardener at the age of 78. On that occasion his place of birth was again given as Romford in Essex, while Maria was confirmed as being 76 and from Rickinghall. Nine years after that, the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 123) during the last three months of 1910, when he was 87 years of age.
	30P7		Walter Collett	Born in 1851 at Rickinghall
	30P8		Thomas Candler Collett	Born in 1854 at Diss
	30P9		Anna Maria Collett	Born in 1858 at Diss
	30P10		Ellen Mary Collett	Born in 1859 at Diss
	30P11		CHRISTOPHER COLLETT	Born in 1861 at Diss
	30P12		Emma Louisa (Lansin) Collett	Born in 1864 at Diss
30O7	John Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1813 and was originally thought to have been the son of William Collett and Mary Pretty (above). However, the John Collett who was baptised at Saxmundham on 15^th August 1813 was the son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett.
	This therefore is the story of John Collett of Saxmundham who was married on three occasions. He first married (1) Mary Ann Randal at Saxmundham on 24^th May 1836, and it was there also that their four identified children were born and baptised. Sadly, their eldest daughter was not living with the couple at Saxmundham in June 1841, when John and Mary both had a rounded age of 25, and their second daughter Elizabeth was one year old. Two more children were added to the family over the next four years but, tragically, around nine months after the birth of Chester Collett, the deaths of both mother and son were recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 235) during the fourth quarter of 1845.
	Having three young children to care for and a job of work still to do, John was married for a second time in 1848. The marriage of John Collett and (2) Hannah Wright was recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 523) during the first three months of that year, as confirmed by the census of 1851. John Collett from Saxmundham was 37 and employed as a labourer that year, when he was living at Mill Street in Saxmundham with his much younger wife Hannah Collett who was 21 and from Tunstall in Suffolk. Living with them were John’s two surviving children, Elizabeth Collett who was 12 and James Collett who was eight years old, both of them born at Saxmundham. His youngest son Chester may have died around the time that John lost his first wife. The next Saxmundham census in 1861 included just farm labourer John Collett who was 47, his wife Hannah who was 31, and their grand-daughter Louise Wright who was five years of age and born in London, Middlesex. Louise was the daughter of John’s daughter Elizabeth.
	No record of any children arising from his second marriage has been found although, the death of Hannah Collett was recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. 4a 425) during the first quarter of 1862. It is possible that she may have died during childbirth, the child also not surviving. It was therefore three years later, during the first quarter of 1865, that the marriage of John Collett and (3) Harriet Hammond was recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. 4a 849). According to the census in 1871, John Collett of Saxmundham was 56 and working as a carter, his wife Harriet was also 56, but from Bramfield in Suffolk, and with her was her son William Hament who was 21 and described as the son-in-law of John Collett. After a further ten years, it was at Mill Lane in Saxmundham that John Collett, aged 67 and a carter, was residing in 1881, together with his wife Harriet Collett who was also 67 and from Bramfield. Living there with them was Robert Crisp who was 40 and a labourer born in Saxmundham, who was described as a nephew of John Collett. Robert was in fact the son of John’s cousin Mary Ann Crisp nee Collett (below).
	For the third time in his life, John suffered the loss of his wife during the 1880s so, by 1891, John Collett was 77 and a widower with no occupation, when he was described as the father-in-law of William Wright, the husband of John’s daughter Elizabeth, with whom he was living at their Lovis Lane home in Saxmundham. Curious, when the death of John Collett was recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. 4a 797) during the first quarter of 1892, his age was reported to be 76, presumably a simple error made by the informant, who was most likely his son-in-law William Wright.
	30P13		Charlotte Collett		Born in 1838 at Saxmundham.
	30P14		Elizabeth Anne Collett		Born in 1839 at Saxmundham.
	30P15		James Collett		Born in 1843 at Saxmundham.
	30P16		Chester Collett		Born in 1845 at Saxmundham.
30O8	Mary Ann Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1817, where she was baptised on 12^th January 1819, the daughter of Samuel and Mary Ann Collett. It was also at Saxmundham when Mary was 17 that she married the much older William Crisp on 9^th July 1834. Previously it was stated here that Anne Collett had married George Steffe Crisp of Lowestoft, where their children were born. It is now known from information received from Tony Copsey, that this was incorrect, and that it was Anne Wells who married George S Crisp on 19^th September 1822.
	The census of 1841 placed William and Mary Crisp living at Saxmundham, by which time they had three children. William’s rounded age was 50, while his wife’s rounded age was 30, and their three children were Alethea Crisp, who was four, Mary Crisp, who was two, and Robert Crisp who was under one year old. One more child was added to their family during the following year, but the birth may have coincided with the death of William Crisp as his widow Mary remarried shortly thereafter. By 1851 Mary Ann Crisp nee Collett was living at Saxmundham with her new husband, where she also had three of her four children living with her.
	It seems likely that her daughter Mary Crisp had not survived, while Mary Ann’s other three children were described as Alethea Crisp, aged 15 and ‘wife’s daughter’, Robert Crisp, aged 11 and ‘wife’s son, and Ellen Crisp who was eight years old and also ‘wife’s daughter’, and all of them born at Saxmundham. Whilst the baptisms of the three female siblings have been found, it seems rather odd that no baptism record for Robert Crisp has been found. ‘Alitha’ Crisp was baptised on 6^th November 1836, Mary Ann Crisp was baptised on 29^th July 1838, and Ellen Crisp was baptised on 6^th August 1843. The parents in each case were named as William and Mary Ann Crisp.
	On leaving school Robert Crisp joined the Royal Navy, as confirmed by the census in 1861 which included Robert Crisp from Saxmundham who was 23 as serving with the Royal Navy at sea and in ports abroad. On leaving the navy during the 1870s Robert became a labourer and in 1881 he was staying with John Collett (above) and his wife Harriet at Mill Lane in Saxmundham. He was 40 and was curiously described as John’s nephew when he was actual the son of John’s cousin.
30O9	Fanny Charlotte Collett was born at Saxmundham during 1815, where she was baptised on 24^th December 1815, the eldest child of Charles Collett and his wife Mary Ann Parker Richardson. She was 23 years of age when the marriage of Fanny Charlotte Collett and Edmund Cowdell was conducted at St Leonards Church in Shoreditch on 23^rd June 1839, the event recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. ii 344).
30O10	Susan Collett was born at Saxmundham in late 1817 or very early in 1818 and was baptised there on 20^th February 1818, the daughter of Charles and Mary Collett.
30O11	Emma Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1820 and it was there also that she was baptised on 14^th June 1820, the daughter of Charles and Mary Collett.
30O12	Jane Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1823 and was baptised there on 21^st March 1824, the daughter of Charles and Mary Collett. It was on 18^th June 1848 when Jane Collett married (1) William Clark at Old Church in St Pancras, London, the event recorded at St Pancras (Ref. i 338). Three years later, Jane and her family were living at Aston Place in Islington, where her parents were also recorded in the census of 1851. William Clark was 24 and had been born in Middlesex, Jane Clark from Saxmundham was 27, and their son William Clark was one years old and born at Holloway, just north of Islington. Two years later, Jane gave birth to George Clark, but within a short while Jane was widowed and married again, to become Jane Edwards. That second marriage produced two more children, Thomas and Hannah Edwards, all four of Jane’s children born at Islington according to the census in 1871, by which time son William was a plasterer, as was Jane’s father. In 1861 he had been living with Jane’s parents, where he was likely being trained as a plasterer.
30O13	Maria Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1821 where she was baptised on 24^th July 1822, the daughter of bricklayer William Collett and his first wife Mary Pretty.
30O14	William Collett was born at Saxmundham during 1823, where he was baptised in 9^th November 1823, the son of bricklayer William Collett and his first wife Mary. It seems very likely, that his mother died during the birth or soon after, since his father re-married in 1824. It is also possible that William also suffered an infant death, as no record of him has been found in any subsequent census return.
30O15	Eliza Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1827, where she was baptised on 27^th January 1828, the eldest child of bricklayer William Collett and his wife Hannah.
30O16	Charles Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1828 and was baptised there on 13^th January 1829, the eldest son of William and Hannah Collett. On leaving school, Charles initially became a baker and in 1851, when he was 23, he was unmarried and was still living in Saxmundham with his parents. During the next few years, he met Caroline Collier who was baptised at Yoxford on 26^th June 1831, who already had a base-born son John born during 1851, and to whom he was married at Yoxford on 5^th August 1855, the event recorded at Blything (Ref. 4a 891). By 1861 Charles Collett, aged 36 (sic) and from Saxmundham, was a bricklayer residing at Brook Street in Yoxford with his wife Caroline who was 31, and three children. They were stepson John Collier who was 11, Richard Collett who was four, and Amelia Collett who was two years of age. Apart from Charles, every other member of the family had been born at Yoxford.
	Two further children were added to the family over the next four years, but tragically Charles died during January 1864, following which he was buried at Yoxford on 25^th January 1864, aged just 35. Sadly, he died before the birth of his last child. Six years later the census in 1871 recorded his family as living at the workhouse in Bulcamp near Blythburgh where Caroline, was 40 and a widow, and her four children were Richard, who was 15, Amelia, who was 13, Rosanna, who was 10, and Mary who was six years of age. Further tragedy hit the family just three days after the census in 1871, when Caroline Collett nee Collier passed away.
	30P17		Richard Henry/Hanbury Collett	Born in 1856 at Yoxford
	30P18		Amelia Collett	Born in 1858 at Yoxford
	30P19		Rosanna Collett	Born in 1861 at Yoxford
	30P20		Mary Collett	Born in 1864 at Yoxford
30O17	William Henry Edward Collett was born at Saxmundham on 25^th December 1829, where he was baptised just over a year later on 20^th February 1831, the son of William and Hannah Collett. He was 10 years old at the time of the census in 1841 when he was living with his family in Saxmundham. William was 21 years of age on the occasion of the Saxmundham census in 1851, by which time he was unmarried and was working as a labourer, while living there in the family home. For some reason, he was listed as the last child, strangely below all his younger siblings, which may indicate that he was only visiting his family. Certainly, it was shortly after that census day that William Collett married Elizabeth (Eliza) Knight at Saxmundham. Their first three children did not survive, with the couple’s next two children being born at Islington in London. By the time of the census in 1861, William from Saxmundham was a shoemaker, who said he was 29 instead of 32, because his wife Eliza, from Balon (?), was only 25. Their two children were William Collett aged two years and Ellen Collett who was one year old. It was later that year when the family emigrated to South Africa, arriving at Port Elizabeth very early in 1862, having sailed from England in September the previous year.
	For the continuation of this family line, go to Part 74 – The Suffolk to South Africa Line.
30O18	Priscilla Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1833 and was baptised there on 7^th April 1833, the daughter of William and Hannah Collett. With no later record of her it is assumed that she suffered an infant death.
30O19	John Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1836 and was baptised there on 24^th July 1836, the son of William and Hannah Collett.
30O20	James Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1839, where he was baptised on 6^th May 1840, the son of William and Hannah Collett. He was one year old and 10 years old in the two subsequent census returns when on both occasions he was living with his family in Saxmundham. Tragically, it was within the next six months that James Collett died at Saxmundham, his death recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 270) during the third quarter of 1851.
30O21	Georgianna Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1843 and was baptised there on 5^th January 1844, the daughter of William and Hannah Collett. By the time of the census in 1851 Georgianna was attending school in Saxmundham where her family was still living and where she was six years of age. Ten years later Georgianna was 18 and, whilst she was still living and working in Saxmundham, she was not residing at the same address as her parents and younger sister Sarah.
	It was around four years later that she married James E Akers from Lambeth in Surrey, and in each census thereafter she was recorded as Georgina Akers from Saxmundham. Over the years she gave birth to eight children, the first five being born in the Paddington district of London. In 1871 the Akers family in Paddington was recorded as James and Georgina, both 26, with their first three children William, who was four, James, who was two, and Elizabeth who was one year old.
	Three more children were added during the next decade, so by 1881, when the family was living at 9 Buckingham Terrace in Kensington James E Akers was a railway timekeeper at 36, his wife Georgina was 37, and their six children were William, aged 14, James, aged 12, Elizabeth, aged 10, Adelaide, who was eight, Charles, who was seven, and Harry who was three. Also listed as a visitor at their home was Rosa Collett who was 20 years old and from Yoxford, the daughter of Georgianna’s older brother Charles (above).
	The family was still living in Kensington when the couple’s last two children were born. So according to the Kensington census of 1891 James and Georgina were 47, William E Akers was 25, James A Akers was 22, Charles E Akers was 17, Harry R Akers was 13, Arthur J Akers was nine, and Sydney T Akers was eight years old.
30O22	Sarah Anne Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1848, her birth recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 391) during the third quarter of that year. It was also at Saxmundham where she was baptised on 8^th July 1848, the last known child of William and Hannah Collett. On the occasion of the Saxmundham census of 1851 she was two years old and ten year after that she was 12, when she was still living at Saxmundham with her elderly parents. The marriage of Sarah Anne Collett and Daniel English was recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. 4a 1058) during the third quarter of 1868, after which the couple initially settled in Saxmundham, where their first two daughters were born, before moved to Willingale in Epping Forest area of Essex where their third child was born. Sadly, within nine months of Sarah’s wedding day, her mother Hannah Collett passed away and, on the day of the Saxmundham census in 1871, Sarah’s widowed father William Collett was living with her and her family.
	That day, Daniel English was 29 and an agricultural labourer, Sarah English was 23, and their two children were Laura English who was two and Clara English was under one year old. By the time of the census in 1881, the family was residing at Beddington Lane in the Beddington district of Croydon, where Daniel English from Middleton in Suffolk was 40 and an agricultural labourer, Sarah English from Saxmundham was 33, and their three children were Clara English who was 10, Georgiana English (also name of Sarah’s older sister above) who was nine and Beatrice English who was not yet one year old.
30P1	Emma Collett was born at Scole, near Diss, in the summer of 1839, following the very recent marriage of her parents only a few months earlier. Her birth was recorded at Depwade (Ref. xiii 25) during the third quarter of that year, the eldest child of John Collett and Elizabeth Oleff. Emma was one year old in the Scole census of 1841 and was 11 years of age in the Scole census of 1851. Why she was not baptised when she was still an infant is a mystery, because it was on 19^th August 1860, at St Andrew’s Church in Frenze near Diss, that she was baptised in a joint ceremony with her eight-year-old sister Bertha Collett (below). Seven months after that, Emma Collett was 22 when she was living and working nearby at Diss as a domestic servant housemaid, at the home of the Farrow family.
30P2	William Collett was born at Scole during the latter half of 1841, or perhaps even in the first few months of the following year, since he was baptised at Scole on 28^th January 1842, the second child and eldest son of John and Elizabeth Collett. He was nine years old in the Scole census of 1851 and was 19 ten years later when he was still living with his family in Scole. Six years later the marriage of William Collett and Emma Mercy Elliott was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2b 757) during the fourth quarter of 1867, the same day as his brother Thomas Collett (below). The wedding took place after William had moved to Kent and had settled in Chatham, where Emma had been born in 1849, the daughter of Nicholas and Mercy Elliott. It was also at Chatham where the couple’s first child was born.
	All of that was confirmed in the census of 1871 when the young family was residing within the village of Lidsing, between Chatham and Maidstone. William Collett, aged 28, was an agricultural labourer who had been born at Scole in Norfolk, his wife Emma M Collett was 22, and their son Charles W Collett was two years old. The dwelling in which they were living was on Darland Road in Lidsing, and lodging there with them was Charles Cutts who was also 28 and an agricultural labourer from Scole.
	On the day of the census Emma was due to give birth to the couple’s second child, who was born within a month or two of that census day in 1871. It was then, two years after the birth of their daughter, that Emma presented William with a second son, before his untimely death during the following year. The death of William Collett, aged just 31, was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 268) during the second quarter of 1874. While the birth of his third child was also recorded at Medway, no record of him after that time has been found and, coupled with the fact he was not living with Emma at any time thereafter, it must therefore be assumed he had suffered an infant death. The census in 1881 confirmed that Emma Collett from Chatham was a widow at the age of 32, living at Queens Road in Chatham, from where she was working as a dressmaker. Living there with her were her two surviving children, Charles W Collett who was 12, and Bertha E Collett who was 10. Their place of birth was simply given as Gillingham.
	It was as Emma Mercy Collett of Chatham that she was recorded in the Chatham census of 1891, by which time when she was 41 and her daughter had left the family home, leaving just her son William still living there with her. It was the same situation in 1901 when widowed Emma M Collett was 52, with no stated occupation. Once again, the Chatham census of 1911, included Emma Mercy Collett, aged 62, who still had her son Charles William Collett living with her. One year later, the death of Emma M Collett was recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 722) during the second quarter of 1912.
	30Q1		Charles William Collett		Born in 1868 at Chatham, Kent
	30Q2		Bertha Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1871 at Lidsing, Kent
	30Q3		Stephen Richard William Collett		Born in 1873 at Lidsing, Kent
30P3	Thomas Collett was born at Scole near Diss in 1845, where he was baptised on 3^rd December 1845, and was the third child of John and Elizabeth Collett. All his early years were spent with his family at Scole where he was five in 1851 and was 16 by 1861. On leaving school it seems he joined his older brother William (above) when they both left Norfolk for work in Kent. Although about four years difference in their ages, both brothers would appear to have married around the same time during the mid-1860s. The wedding of Thomas Collett and (1) Rachel Ledger very likely took place in Chatham, and was a double wedding with Thomas’ older brother William (above). The marriage of Thomas Collett and Rachel Ledger was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 756) during the last quarter of 1867. His brother’s wedding was therefore recorded there as the next entry in the register (Ref. 2a 757). Thomas’ wife Rachel was the daughter of Edward and Eliza Ledger, and was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Chatham on 23^rd July 1848.
	Thomas and Rachel then settled in the chapelry of Luton within the Kent parish of Chatham, where their first five children were born, their remaining four children being born after the family moved the short distance to Gillingham. The first two children were born prior to the Gillingham census of 1871, which recorded the family as Thomas Collett aged 24, Rachel Collett aged 22, Emma Collett who was three, and William Collett who was one year old. Within a year of the census day in 1871 Rachel presented Thomas with a second son, and he was followed by two further children during the next decade. By 1881 the family was living at North Marsh in Gillingham, where the occupation of Thomas Collett from Diss was that of a shepherd. That census day, Thomas informed the census enumerator that was 36 years of age and that his absent wife was 33, and that the four children living there with him were William aged 11, John who was nine, Florence who was six, and Frederick who was three.
	In fact, by then, Thomas had another son who was one year old who was with his mother Rachel at the Luton Street, Chatham home of Rachel’s unmarried sister Eliza Ledger and her two base-born children. Also living with Thomas Collett and his family in 1881 was Rachel’s mother, the widow Eliza Ledger, aged 67 and from Lenham in Kent. Thomas and Rachel’s eldest daughter Emma Collett, aged 13, was staying with her great uncle Thomas Collett (Ref. 30O6) at his private house on Denmark Street in Diss, he being Emma’s grandfather’s brother. It is now understood that Thomas’ wife was suffering from some ailment or illness, and that was why she was staying with her sister Eliza, because it was later on that year that the death of Rachel Collett, aged only 32, was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 281) during the final quarter of 1881.
	However, in his hour of need, he was consoled by another woman, with whom he had three more children. In the absence of any baptism records, it is not known for sure who the mother was, although it does seem very unlikely that she was his second wife, Sarah Ann Barken, to whom he was married much later, since two of those three children were described as her stepsons. With no other marriage for Thomas Collett after 1881, it would appear that those three youngest children of Thomas Collett were born out of wedlock. The next Gillingham census in 1891, listed Thomas Collett, aged 45, as a widower looking after six of his nine children. They were recorded as John Collett who was 18, Frederick Collett who was 12, Thomas H Collett who was 11, Thomas E Collett who was seven, Charles E Collett who was six, and Jessie E Collett who was two years of age. At that same time, Thomas’ eldest daughter Emma Collett was living and working nearby in Chatham, although no trace has been found of his missing children William and Florence, who were both certainly still alive that year.
	Around eighteen months later, the marriage of Thomas Collett and (2) Sarah Ann Barken, from Wimbish near Saffron Walden in Essex, was recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 1033) during the last quarter of 1892. By March 1901, the family still living in Gillingham comprised Thomas Collett, aged 54 from Diss, who was working as a general dealer in poultry, his wife Ann Sarah who was 51 and from Wimbish, and four of Thomas’ children. They were Frederick Collett who was 23 from Luton in Kent, Thomas Henry Collett who was 21 and also from Luton, Thomas Edwin Collett who was 17 and from Gillingham, and Jessie Elizabeth Collett who was 12 and also born at Gillingham. A return to the family home had been made by Thomas’ eldest child Emma Elizabeth Perring who was 33 and born at Luton. Thomas’ missing youngest son Charles had joined the Royal Marine by then.
	Thomas Collett from Scole near Diss died six years later, when the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 536) during the first quarter of 1907. As a consequence of her loss, his widow and two of his unmarried sons were still living at the family home in Gillingham in 1911. Ann Sarah Collett from Braintree in Essex was 60, Fredrick Collett was 32 and Henry Thomas Collett was 30, both of them confirmed as her stepsons, who had been born at Gillingham. At that same time Thomas’ youngest child, Jessie E Collett, was 22 and was living and working in the Edmonton area of London.
	30Q4		Emma Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1868 at Luton, Kent
	30Q5		William John Collett		Born in 1870 at Luton, Kent
	30Q6		John Collett		Born in 1872 at Luton, Kent
	30Q7		Florence Louise Collett		Born in 1875 at Luton, Kent
	30Q8		Frederick Charles Collett		Born in 1878 at Luton, Kent
	30Q9		Thomas Henry Collett		Born in 1880 at Gillingham
	The following are the children of Thomas Collett born after the death of his wife Rachel Ledger:
	30Q10		Thomas Edwin Collett		Born in 1883 at Gillingham
	30Q11		Charles Edward Collett		Born in 1885 at Gillingham
	30Q12		Jessie Elizabeth Collett		Born in 1888 at Gillingham
30P4	Elizabeth Collett was born at Scole on 30^th May 1849 and was baptised there on that same day, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett. She was one year old and 11 years of age in the two Scole census returns in 1851 and 1861. Upon leaving school Elizabeth and her sister Bertha left Norfolk to seek employment in London, and it was there that they were living and working in 1871. Elizabeth Collett from Norfolk was 20 when she was working at The Rectory in Marylebone, where her younger sister Bertha was also recorded.
30P5	Bertha Collett was born at Scole in 1852, another daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett, whose birth was recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 224) during the second quarter of 1852, having been born on 16^th April 1852. She was however, not baptised until she was eight years old, by which time her family was residing at Frenze near Diss, when Bertha and her eldest sister Emma, who was 20 years old, were baptised together at St Andrew’s Church on 19^th August 1860. Bertha was nine years old in the Scole census of 1861. By 1871 Bertha and her sister Elizabeth were both living and working at The Rectory in Marylebone, where Bertha was 18.
30P6	Eliza Collett was born at Scole in 1856, the youngest child of John and Elizabeth Collett, who was baptised at Scole on 29^th February 1856. Her birth was recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 228) during the first two months of 1856, but tragically, the day that she was baptised, was also the day that she was buried at Scole parish church.
30P7	Walter Collett was born at Rickinghall at the end of 1850 with his birth recorded at Hartismere (Ref. xiii 477) during the first few days of 1851. He was then baptised at Rickinghall on 5^th January 1851, and was recorded as being under one year old in the Diss census of 1851 when he was living at Gobbeth Yard with just his mother Maria Collett, nee Candler, aged 26 and also born at Rickinghall. Ten years later, Walter’s father Thomas Collett was 38, his mother 36, when Walter was 10 years old, and in 1871 he was 20 when he was still living at Diss with his family, and working as a servant. It was shortly after that when the marriage of Walter Collett and Harriet Pooley was recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 621) during the last three months of 1872. As far is can be determined Harriet, who was born at Eye in Suffolk in 1845 only presented Walter with just one child.
	In 1881 the family was living at the Beehive Yard off Denmark Street in Diss, where Walter was a shop porter at the age of 30. His wife Harriet, aged 36, was a brush-maker like her brother-in-law Christopher Collett (below). Living with them was their son Ernest Collett who was eight years old, having been born at Diss. Also listed with the family was a young visitor by the name of Frederick Cameron who was 10 years old who had been born in West London. It is possible that Frederick was the nephew of Walter’s father Thomas Collett, and the brother of Florence Cameron the niece who was living in Denmark Street with the same Thomas Collett.
	It is possible that by 1891 Walter was not in good health and was being cared for by Harriet at Denmark Street in Diss, when living separately from them that but still nearby on Denmark Street in Diss, was their son who was living with his paternal grandparents. The completed census returns revealed that Walter Collett was 40 and a gardener and domestic servant, with Harriet being 48. At that same time Ernest Collett was 18 and a general labourer, the grandson of Thomas and Maria Collett. Less than twelve months later Walter Collett, aged 41, died at Denmark Street either towards the end of 1891, or at the start of 1892, with his death recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 231) during the first quarter of the latter. It would appear that Harriet Collett lived on her own for the quite a few years, earning an income from boarders, with her son not returning to be with her until after the next census in 1901.
	On that census day, head of the household Harriet did have two people staying with her at Denmark Street, when Harriet Collett from Eye in Suffolk was a widow at the age of 57. They were her niece Pearla Z Mitchell of Diss was seven years old, and 86-year-old boarder Martha Green. It was the Diss Electoral Lists of Lodgers that indicated her son Ernest, by then a married man, and his wife and their daughter were living with her from 1903 to around 1907. The list stated that Ernest Collett was using the front sitting room at Denmark Street, plus a bedroom on the first floor, both rooms being furnished. Harriet was still residing on Denmark Street in Diss for the next census in 1911 when she was 68, who still had living with her, her niece and a boarder Pearla Zenoba Mitchell who was a draper’s assistant aged 18, who later married Charles E Sore at Diss in 1917. That was also the same year in which Harriet passed away at the age of 73, the death of Harriet Collett recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 243) during the last three months of 1917.
	30Q13		Ernest Collett	Born in 1873 at Diss
30P8	Thomas Candler Collett was born at Diss during 1854 where he was baptised on 27^th May 1855, the son of Thomas Collett and Maria Candler. The Diss census in 1861 listed Thomas with his family living at Cock Street when he was six years old. Ten years later Thomas was no longer living with his family, but had already begun work as a page and at the age of 16, was one of a number of servants employed by elderly Mary Wing at her home in Bury-St-Edmunds in 1871.
	In 1881 unmarried Thomas Collett, aged 28 and from Diss in Norfolk was a railway goods porter who was boarder at the home of Marshall Green at Vimeria Cottage in Luscombe Street in Lambeth. It was at Scole near Diss, on 8^th May 1877, that Thomas Candler Collett married Elizabeth Louisa Bartram of Scole. However, it was during the following year that Elizabeth gave birth their daughter when she was still with her parents in Scole. After that, the family of three moved to London, where Thomas continued to work for the railway company. The family was residing within the Lambeth area of London in 1891, when railway porter Thomas and Eliza were both 36, and daughter Lottie was 12 years old.
	Ten years after that Thomas C Collett was once again living in the Lambeth, but at Meadow Road, where he was still employed as a railway porter. He and Elizabeth were both 46, while Lottie was 22 and was working as a sewing machinist on horse clothing. Presumably Lottie was married during the following years, since it was just Thomas Candler Collett and his wife Eliza Louisa Collett who were living alone in Lambeth in 1911, when they were 56. It was twelve years later, when the couple was still residing in Lambeth, that the death of Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 221) during the first three months of 1923, at the age of 69. Her husband survived for a further four years, when the death of Thomas C Collett died at the age of 72, his death also recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 353) during the first quarter of 1927.
	30Q14		Lottie Inez Bartram Collett	Born in 1878 at Scole, near Diss
30P9	Anna Maria Collett was born at Diss in 1859, her birth recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 243) during the first three months of that year. It was also at Diss where she was baptised on 3^rd April 1859, the daughter of Thomas and Maria Collett. In the Diss census of 1861 Anna Maria Collett was two years old and one of the four children living there with her parents. Just less than three years later, Anna Maria Collett died, following which her death was recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 170) during the first month of 1864. It was in the grounds of the parish church at Diss that she was buried on 21^st January 1864, at the age of five years.
30P10	Ellen Mary Collett was born at Diss in 1860 and was baptised there on 3^rd June 1860, the daughter of Thomas and Maria Collett. By the time of the census in early April 1861 she was recorded as being under one year old when she and her family were still living in Diss, which is where she was living with her parents in 1871 at the age of 11. At the age of 20 she was in service as a housemaid at the home of unmarried Harriet Simpson, aged 69 and from Leeds, at her home in St Johns Road in Palgrave. While she was working there, she gave birth to a base-born daughter who was born at Palgrave, to the south of Diss.
	On the occasion of the census in 1891 Ellen M Collett, aged 29 and from Diss, was living and working in Cavendish Square in St Marylebone, London. In March 1901 unmarried Ellen M Collett from Diss was employed a servant at a residence in St Marylebone in London at the age of 40. Working very nearby, as a maid, was her daughter Nellie Collett from Diss who was 19, but where she was in 1891 has yet to be discovered. Whatever happened to daughter Nellie is not known but, by April 1911, unmarried Ellen Mary Collett from Diss and 50 years of age, had returned to the town of her birth, where she was living and working as a foster-mother at a Doctor Barnardo’s Children’s Home in Diss.
	30Q15		Nellie Collett	Born in 1882 at Palgrave near Diss
30P11	CHRISTOPHER COLLETT was born at Diss in 1862, his birth recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 233) during the first quarter of 1862. It was also at Diss, where he was baptised on 6^th April 1862, the son of Thomas and Maria Collett. He was nine years old in 1871, and by 1881 he was listed as being aged 19 and a brush-maker, while still living at home with his parents at Denmark Street in Diss. On 23^rd March 1883 he married Rachel Otley of Tostock, which lies east of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. It seems very likely that some, if not all, of their children were born at Diss, their first home being on Victoria Road in the town, followed by Beehive Yard off Denmark Street in 1887, and at Mount Street in 1889. Certainly, the couple was residing at 36 Fair Green in Diss during 1918, as confirmed by the record of the death of their son Christopher William who died there, which also stated that he had been born there in 1891. It may be of interest that, from 1908 until at least 1915, it was Ernest Collett who lived at 13 Denmark Street in Diss, according to the electoral roll, he being the only son of Christopher’s eldest brother Walter (above).
	The next census in 1891 confirmed that the family was still living at Denmark Street in Diss, where Christopher was 29 and a letter carrier, his wife Rachel was 28, and their four children were then Ellen M Collett who was seven, Thomas F Collett who was five, Charles C Collett who was three, and Joseph O Collett who was under one year old. Christopher appears never to have left Diss, because he was still living there with his family at Denmark Street in 1901. Christopher was 39 and a town postman, Rachel was 38 and from Tostock, while every other member of her family had been born at Diss. And they were, Charles who was 13, Joseph who was 10, Walter who was eight, Christopher who was four, and Maria who was under one year old. Maria’s unnamed twin sister died immediately following her birth.
	The electoral roll in 1908 placed Christopher Collett living at 18 Fair Green in Diss, where he was certainly still living in 1915. On the day of the census in 1911, Christopher Collett was town postman at the age of 49, his wife Rachel from Tostock was also 49, when the only children still living at 18 Fair Green with them was their son, Christopher who was 14, and their daughter Maria who was 11, born of them confirmed as being born at Diss, like their father. A boarder with the family that day, was Sidney Victor Bond who was 15 and from Yaxley. Christopher Collett (senior) was 88 years old, when his death was recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 555) during the first quarter of 1951.
	30Q16		Ellen Mary Collett	Born in 1883 at Diss
	30Q17		Thomas Frederick Collett	Born in 1885 at Diss
	30Q18		Charles Candler Collett	Born in 1887 at Diss
	30Q19		JOSEPH OTLEY COLLETT	Born in 1890 at Diss
	30Q20		Walter Candler Collett	Born in 1893 at Diss
	30Q21		Christopher William Collett	Born in 1897 at Diss
	30Q22		Maria Candler Collett - twin	Born in 1900 at Diss
	30Q23		an unnamed twin daughter	Born in 1900 at Diss, died at birth
30P12	Emma Louisa Collett was born at Diss in 1865 and was baptised there on 5^th March 1865, the daughter of Thomas and Maria Collett. It was as Louisa, aged six years, that she was recorded with her family in 1871, while rather curiously in 1881 she was described as Lansin Collett, aged 16. At that time, she was a dressmaker living at home with her parents at PH Denmark Street in Diss.
30P13	Charlotte Collett was born at Saxmundham during the first three months of 1838, with her birth recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 362). She was baptised at Saxmundham on 22^nd April 1838, the eldest child of John Collett and Mary Ann Randall. Sadly, she survived for just over one year, when the death of Charlotte Collett was recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 283) during the second quarter of 1839.
30P14	Elizabeth Anne Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1839, her birth recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 343) during the fourth quarter of the year. It was also at Saxmundham where she was baptised on 20^th October 1839, the daughter of John Collett and his wife Mary Ann Randal. The three of them were recorded in the Saxmundham census of 1841, when Elizabeth was one year old, and she was still there with her parents in 1851 when she was 12. She later married William Wright and in 1891 they were residing at Lovis Lane in Saxmundham when Elizabeth’s widowed father was staying with them. William Wright was 61 and an ironwork labourer, Elizabeth Wright was 57 and from Saxmundham, while her father John Collett was 77 with no occupation. Also living with them on that occasion was William Wright’s niece Caroline Secrett who was 12 and from nearby Leiston.
30P15	James Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1843, his birth recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 370) during the third quarter of the year. although unlike his three siblings no baptism record for him has been found. However, in 1851 he was eight years old when he and his sister Elizabeth (above) were living at Saxmundham with their father John Collett and his second wife Hannah. When James left the family home in Saxmundham he did not travel very far and, in 1861, he was living and working in the Blything & Westleton registration district which included Leiston. The census that year recorded him as James Collett from Saxmundham who was 17. It was in that same area of Suffolk that he was living nine years later, when the marriage of James Collett and Elizabeth Burrell, a widow, was recorded by Blything (Ref. 4a 927) during the second quarter of 1870.
	It was in Leiston that they were living in 1871 with the first of their three children. James was 27 and a labourer, his wife was 31 and from Norwich, and their son James was under one year old. On that occasion, Elizabeth’s father Joseph Bull from Hornchurch in Essex was staying with the family and described as the father-in-law of James Collett. Two more sons were added to the family during the next decade while they continued to live at Leiston, but tragically James Collett died, at the age of 33, Just after the birth of the last child. His death was recorded at Blything (Ref. 4a 501) during the first three months of 1876, and confirmed in the census of 1881, when Elizabeth was described as a widow. At that time, she was 41 and a shoe binder from Norwich, and living with her at Mill Corner in Leiston were her three sons James, aged 10, Charles who was eight, and William who was five. Also lodging with the family was widower Robert Halls, aged 49, a carpenter from Easton in Suffolk.
	With her eldest son leaving school and heading to London for work, Elizabeth aged 51 and with no stated occupation, was temporarily living at Aldringham, just south of Leiston, in 1891. With her, were just her two youngest sons Charles who was 18, and William who was 15, plus Edith Stokes who was two years old and from London. Who she was is not known, except that during the following years Elizabeth adopted Edith Stokes, as confirmed within the next two census records. By 1901 Elizabeth Collett from Norwich was 62 and was again living in Leiston, with her adopted daughter Edith Stokes from London who was 12. Also on that day, her very recently married son James was visiting his mother with his wife Laura Collett, before settling in Dunstable. After a further ten years, when Elizabeth Collett was 71, she still had living with her at Leiston, her adopted daughter Edith Stokes who was 22 and a dressmaker, who had been born at St Pancras in London.
	Elizabeth Collett, formerly Elizabeth Burrell, nee Elizabeth Bull, was 83 years old when she died at Leiston. The death of Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Blything register office (Ref. 4a 1097) during the first three months of 1923. The birth of her adopted daughter was recorded at St Pancras (Ref. 1b 55) during the second quarter of 1889.
	30Q24		James Collett	Born in 1870 at Leiston
	30Q25		Charles Richard J Collett	Born in 1872 at Leiston
	30Q26		William Collett	Born in 1875 at Leiston
30P16	Chester Collett was born at Saxmundham in 1845, his birth recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 411) during the first two months of the year, and was baptised at Saxmundham on 2^nd March 1845, the last known child of John Collett and Mary Ann Randall. Less than nine months later, the death of Chester Collett was recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 235/117) during the last three months of 1845. Very shortly after, his mother also died, perhaps from the same illness, with the death of Mary Collett also recorded at Plomesgate (Ref. xii 235/124) during that same three-month period.
30P17	Richard Henry Collett/Richard Hanbury Collett was born at Yoxford on 29^th October 1856, the eldest child and only known son of Charles Collett and Caroline Collier. His birth, as simply Richard Collett, was registered at Blything (Ref. 4a 575) during the final three months of 1856 and, through the majority of his life, that was the name under which he was recorded, or Richard H Collett. However, on one occasion in 1911 he gave his name as Richard Henry Collett, with it recorded as Richard Hanbury Collett on the marriage certificate for his son John Henry Collett. It was at Brook Street in Yoxford that Richard Collett, aged four years, was living with his family in 1861, where he had been born. Less than three years after that census day Richard’s father died, either at the end of 1863 or just after the start of 1864
	According to the next census in 1871, Richard and his three sisters (below), together with their widowed mother, were inmates at the Bulcamp Workhouse near Blythburgh, when Richard Collett was 15 years old and attending school. Sadly, three days after that census was conducted, his mother died, leaving Richard and his three siblings as orphans. What happened to the children immediately after that very tragic event is not known. When Richard was 24, he became a married man, the marriage of Richard Henry Collett and (1) Catherine Hoten after the reading of banns was recorded at Mansfield (Ref. 7b 99) during the third quarter of 1880. Catherine was born at Pinxton in Derbyshire, the fourth child of Levi and Delina Hoten. Once married the couple settled in the town of Eastwood, which lies just north-west of Nottingham, on the county boundary between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
	It was at Eastwood that their daughter was born and where the family was residing at Princes Street when the census was conducted in 1881. Richard H Collett from Yoxford was 23 and his occupation was that of a plasterer. His wife Catherine was 20 and her place of birth was incorrectly interpreted as Lenton in Nottinghamshire, while their Eastwood born daughter Bertha was not yet one year old. Two more children were born into the family during the 1880s when they were still living in Eastwood.
	The next census in 1891 recorded the family of five living in the village of Branston near Burton-on-Trent area, on Branstone Road, where plasterer Richard H Collett from Suffolk was 34, Catherine his wife was 30, Bertha Collett was 10, Rose A Collett was eight, and John Henry Collett was five years old. Sometime during the next decade Catherine Collett and Richard became estranged and, by the time of the next census in March 1901, Catherine had departed with her two daughters, while plasterer Richard H Collett from Saxmundham was living at 20 Blenheim Street in the Chelsea St Lukes area of London, where he had living with him Rose Trussler from Frensham in Surrey. She was recorded as Rose Collett, wife of Richard. Rose Ellen Trussler was the daughter of agricultural labourer Frederick Trussler and his wife Ann who were living at Heath Cottages on Gong Hill in Frensham in 1881 when Rose was eight years old. Living with the couple that day, was John Henry Collett from Eastwood who was 15, and Richard Collett who was just six months old and born in Chelsea.
	While no positive identification of Richard’s estranged wife having been found in 1901, by 1911 she was residing in Nottingham, where Catherine Collett aged 49 and from Pinxton, was the housekeeper for 59-year-old Thomas Boyington from the Sneinton area of Nottingham, who was a plate-glass silverer.
	Not long after 1901 the family left Chelsea, when it seems likely that it was Richard’s work that took him elsewhere. During the next eleven years Rose presented Richard with seven more children, although two of them died not survive. That situation was confirmed by the census in 1911, when the family was living at Coulsdon within the Croydon registration district of Surrey. Richard Henry Collett from Saxmundham, was 55 and a plasterer in the building trade, Rose Ellen Collett was 38 and from Farnham in Surrey, Richard Frank Collett was 10 and from Chelsea, Ernest Frederick Collett was eight and from Eltham in Kent, Albert Edward Collett was seven and also from Eltham, Ronald Arthur Collett was two, and Alec Sydney Collett was eight months old, both of them born after the family moved to Coulsdon.
	What happened to Catherine Collett nee Hoten after she separated from Richard is not known precisely, but it is known that in 1919 she bigamously married for a second time while she was still officially married to Richard. However, that arrangement only last for three short years, when she died during 1922. It was only then that Richard Collett was free to marry Rose Ellen Trussler, which he did in 1923. Richard and Rose were still living at Coulsdon in Surrey when he died in 1943 at the age of 87, with Rose passing away five years later in 1948 when she was 72. The death of Richard H Collett was recorded at the Surrey South-Eastern register office (Ref. 2a 782) during the first quarter of 1943, while it was at the Mid-Eastern Surrey register office (Ref. 5g 237) that the death of Rose E Collett was recorded during the summer of 1948.
	30Q27		Bertha Collett	Born in 1880 at Eastwood, Notts
	30Q28		Rose Amelia Collett	Born in 1882 at Eastwood, Notts
	30Q29		John Henry Collett	Born in 1885 at Eastwood, Notts
	The following are the children of Richard Collett by his partner Rose Trussler:
	30Q30		Richard Frank Collett	Born in 1900 at Chelsea, London
	30Q31		Ernest Frederick Collett	Born in 1902 at Eltham, Greenwich
	30Q32		Albert Edward Collett	Born in 1904 at Eltham, Greenwich
	30Q33		a Collett child	Born circa 1904 in London?
	30Q34		a Collett child	Born circa 1906 at Croydon?
	30Q35		Ronald Arthur Collett	Born in 1908 at Croydon
	30Q36		Alec Sydney Collett	Born in 1910 at Croydon
	30Q37		Grace E Collett	Born in 1912 at Croydon
30P18	Amelia Collett was born at Yoxford during 1858 where she was baptised on 5^th September 1859, the only known daughter of Charles and Caroline Collett. In the Yoxford census of 1861 Amelia was two years old when she was living there with her family. Sadly, three years later her father died, following which she and her widowed mother and three siblings went to live in the workhouse in Bulcamp, where the family was recorded in the census of 1871 when Amelia was 13. Just three days after the census was conducted Amelia’s mother died leaving her four children as orphans. Ten years later Amelia Collett from Yoxford said she was 25 when she was a general servant at 484 Edgware Road in the St Marylebone district of London, the home of surgeon dentist Alfred W Wright and his very large family. It was seven years later that she married Thomas William Halliwell at Kensington on 6^th August 1888.
30P19	Rosanna Collett was born at Yoxford in 1861 but after the seventh of April that year, the daughter of Charles and Caroline Collett, although tragically her father died when she was still only three years old and her mother died when she was 10. That happened three days after the census in 1871 when Rosanna and her three siblings were inmates with their mother at the Bulcamp Workhouse near Blythburgh. Like her sister Amelia (above) Rosanna also moved to London to seek work, and in 1881 she was employed as a domestic servant. However, on the day of the census she was a visitor at the home of railway timekeeper James E Akers at 9 Buckingham Terrace in Kensington. His wife was Georgina Akers who was 37, who had been born at Saxmundham, the former Georgianna Collett (Ref. 30O19). Therefore, Rosa Collett from Yoxford, who was 20 years old in 1881, was visiting her father’s sister on that occasion.
	It was later that same year, during the second quarter, that Rosanna Collett married John Pitt in the St Saviour district of London. By 1891 the couple was living at 80 Portobello Road in North Kensington, and with them their first three children. The full household comprised John Pitt, aged 28, Rosa Pitt, aged 32, John C Pitt, who was eight, Henry R Pitt, who was six, and Percy E Pitt who was four years old. Ten years later Rosa was described in the Kensington census of 1901 at Rose Pitt, who was 42 and from Suffolk, who was living there with just three of her four sons John Charles Pitt, who was 18 and a railway porter, Percy Edward Pitt, who was 15 and a van boy, and William E Pitt who was 10 years old.
	All four of her sons had been born in Kensington, and the absent child was already living and working away from home by that time. Henry Rupert Pitt was 16 and was also working on the railway at Malvern, where he was a telegraph porter.
30P20	Mary Collett was born at Yoxford in 1864, the youngest of the four known children of Charles Collett and Caroline Collier, although by the time she was born her father had already died, when he was only 35. By the time she was six years old Mary and her three older siblings were living at the workhouse in Bulcamp with their widowed mother who died three days after the census in 1871. In 1881 the only possible Mary Collett was a servant in the house of coachman Charles Wall and his family at 2 Bolton Road in the St Marylebone area of London. On that occasion she was listed in the census as Maria Collett from Paddington (sic) who was 16.
30Q1	Charles William Collett was born at Chatham in Kent, possibly near the end of 1868 or early in 1869, with his birth recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 504) during the first quarter of 1869. He was the eldest child of William Collett and Emma Mercy Elliott and was two years old when he and his parents were living at Darland Road in the village of Lidsing, south of Chatham and Gillingham, in 1871. It was there that his sister Bertha (below) was born, and there also that his father died during 1874. Following the death of his father, his mother never remarried, but took her young family to living at Queens Road in Chatham, where they were living in 1881 when Charles W Collett was 12 years old and was still attending school. On that occasion his place of birth was given as Gillingham, like that of his sister Bertha who was ten.
	By 1891 Charles William Collett was 22 and a labourer from Chatham was living with his mother Emma Mercy Collett, aged 41 and a dressmaker, at Queens Road in Chatham. It was there also that he was living with his mother in 1901, when he was 32 and employed in shipbuilding as a labourer and a hand driller working in the Chatham shipyards. It was the same situation in 1911, with mother and son still residing in Chatham, where Charles William Collett he was 42 and working as iron hand driller employed in the government dockyards, his mother Emma being 62 by then. Charles never married and continued to live with his widowed mother at Chatham until her death in 1912. At the end of his life, he was 75 when he died, the death of Charles William Collett recorded at Yorkshire register office (Ref. 9d 458) in 1944.
30Q2	Bertha Elizabeth Collett was born at Darland Road in Lidsing, where her parents William and Emma Collett were living with Bertha’s brother on the day of census in 1871, awaiting her arrival. Her birth was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 454) during the second quarter of that year. She was only three years old when her father died and, by 1881, she was living with her widowed mother and brother Charles (above) at Queens Road in Chatham. She was 10 years old and her place of birth was given in the census return as Gillingham. Upon leaving school she set out to seek work, and in 1891 she was recorded as Bertha E Collett, aged 20 years, when she was a domestic servant and a cook, living and working at the Rochester home of the Prall family.
	Two years later, the marriage of Bertha Elizabeth Collett and Charles Ernest Kitts was recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 1039) during the second quarter of 1893. Charles was 25 and the son of Thomas Kitts, while Bertha, the daughter of William Collett (deceased), was 22, when they were married at Luton, near Gillingham, on 7^th June 1893. Before the end of the century Bertha presented Charles with two children, as confirmed in the census of 1901. Charles Kitts from Sheerness was 33 and an engineer at the nearby dockyard, Bertha was 29 and their two New Brompton born children were Ernest Kitts aged seven and Kathleen Kitts who was four. Whilst there may have been other children, it was twelve year after Kathleen was born, that the family was completed with the birth of Audrey Violet Mary Kitts at Gillingham in 1908. The family of five in 1911 was recorded as Charles 43, Bertha 40, Ernest 17, Kathleen 12 and Violet who was two years of age. The death of Bertha E Kitts was recorded at Bridge register office, south of Canterbury, (Ref. 5b 98) during the first three months of 1947, when she was 75.
30Q3	Stephen Richard William Collett was born at Darland Road in Lidsing during 1873, his birth recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 513) during the first three months of the year. He was the last of the three children of William Collett and Emma Mercy Elliott. Stephen was one year old when his father died and, it is possible that, whatever killed him, also took the life of Stephen, although no record of his death has so far been found.
30Q4	Emma Elizabeth Collett was born at Luton in Chatham, Kent, although her birth, like those of her younger siblings, was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 488) during the first three months of 1868. She was the first-born child of Thomas Collett from Norfolk and Rachel Ledger of Chatham and was three years of age in the Gillingham census of 1871. It was the census in 1881 which stated that Emma Collett had been born at Luton in Kent. However, on that day, Emma was 13 and a scholar who was staying with her grandfather’s brother, her elderly great uncle Thomas Collett (Ref. 30O6) from Bramfield in Suffolk and his wife Maria from Rickinghall in Norfolk, at their home on Denmark Street in Diss.
	During the following years, Emma returned to Kent and, according to the next census in 1891, she was 23, when she was living as a lodger at the home of spinster Elizabeth Bennett at West Court Street in Chatham, from where she was working as a laundress. Just less than one year later, the marriage of Emma Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 721) during the first three months of 1892, when she became Emma Elizabeth Perring. Curiously she was again staying with her father in Gillingham in 1901, when Emma Elizabeth Perring from Luton was 33.
30Q5	William John Collett was born at Luton (Kent) in 1870, his birth recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 487) during the first quarter of 1870, the eldest son of Thomas and Rachel Collett, who was one year old in 1871. In the census that year, as with the next census in 1881, his place of birth was said to be Gillingham, where the family was living on both occasions, and at North Marsh in the town for the latter, when William was 11. When he would have been 21, he was not living with his family, while it was during the third quarter of 1893 that the death of William Collett was recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 398) at the age of 23.
30Q6	John Collett was born at Luton (Kent) in 1872 and his birth was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 486) during the third quarter of 1872. By 1881, John and his family were residing in Gillingham, where John was nine years old. Ten year later, John Collett was 18 and a stoker who was on shore leave from the Royal Navy, the eldest child still recorded living with his parents. What happened to him after 1891 has not been discovered.
30Q7	Florence Louise Collett was born at Luton (Kent) in 1875, another daughter of Thomas and Rachel Collett, whose birth was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 491) during the third quarter of the year. She was six years old in 1881, when living with her family, but was absent in 1891. It was in the early autumn of 1894 that Florence Louise Collett married William John Daynes, their wedding recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 1014) during the third quarter of that year. The church service was conducted at St Mary’s Church in Chatham on 19^th September 1894, when William was 22 and the son of Thomas Daynes and Florence was 20 and the daughter of Thomas Collett.
30Q8	Frederick Charles Collett was born at Luton (Kent) in 1878, his birth also recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 532) during the third quarter of the year. He was three years old in 1881, when the census that year recorded his place of birth at Luton in Kent, and was 12 years of age in 1891 when he was still attending school in Gillingham. Once again, he was still living in Gillingham in 1901, with his father and his stepmother, the former Sarah Ann Barken, when Frederick Collett from Luton was 23 and an excavator at the nearby dockyards. After a further decade, Frederick was still unmarried and again living at the family home in Gillingham at the age of 32. He was working as a general labourer while living with his widowed stepmother from Braintree in Essex, and his younger brother Henry Thomas (below).
30Q9	Thomas Henry Collett was born at Luton (Kent), the son of Thomas Collett and his first wife Rachel Ledger, with his birth recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 537) during the first quarter of 1880. On the day of the census just a year later, Thomas H Collett, aged one year, and his mother Rachel were living at Luton Street in Chatham, the home of unmarried Eliza Ledger his mother’s older sister, who had with her, her two base-born children. Sadly, his mother died when he was just one year old, so at the age of 11 he was living at Gillingham with his widowed father and the rest of his family in 1891. His father remarried during the next year and, in 1901, Thomas Henry Collett was 21 and employed as an excavator in the dockyard – mostly likely working alongside his older brother Frederick (above), when they were still living with his father and his new wife at Gillingham. It was also the census return that year which recorded his place of birth as Luton in Kent.
	His father died in 1907 and, four years later, he was still living at Gillingham with his widowed stepmother and his brother Frederick, when the census of 1911 recorded him as Henry Thomas Collett from Gillingham who was 30 and employed as a general labourer. Six years later, the death of Thomas Henry Collett was recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 1240) during the first quarter of 1917, when he was 37 years old. It has not been determined yet, whether or not he was a victim of the war.
	This new information, discovered in 2019, means that the details previously written here do not apply to Thomas Henry Collett, the son of Thomas Collett and Rachel Ledger. That related to Thomas Henry Collett (Ref. 30Q9a), the husband of Emily Collett, who died on 12^th January 1939. His address was stated as bei.ng 3 Mereway Road in Twickenham and his effects, valued at £140 16 Shillings and 5 Pence, were subject to administration in London on 17^th March that year.
30Q10	Thomas Edwin Collett was born at Gillingham in 1883, the first of three children of Thomas Collett from Diss in Norfolk, whose wife died not long after the birth of their last child two years earlier. At the moment, the identity of his mother, and the mother of his two younger siblings, is not known. The birth of Thomas Edwin Collett was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 551) during the third quarter of 1883 and, as Thomas E Collett, he was seven years old in the Gillingham census of 1891, when he was living there with his widowed father. One year later his father married Sarah Ann Barken, with whom Thomas Edwin Collett was still living in Gillingham, by which time he was 17 and an apprentice engine fitter.
	No record of him has been found within the next census conducted in 1911, while four years after that, Thomas Edwin Collett, aged 30 years, was a member of 17^th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. His 1915 military service record confirmed that he had been born at Gillingham, where he was still residing upon entry to the army.
30Q11	Charles Edward Collett was born at Gillingham in 1885, the youngest son of Thomas Collett by an unknown mother. The birth of Charles Edward Collett was recorded at Medway (Ref. 2a 549) during the second quarter of that year. As Charles E Collett aged six years, he was living with his widowed father at Gillingham in 1891. Ten years after that, Charles had already left the family home in Gillingham and was already a private in the Royal Marines, although he was recorded, in error, as being 19, instead of 16 years of age. His absence from the next census in 1911 may indicate that he was serving abroad. However, it was in 1914, that the marriage of Charles E Collett and Ethel Sparks was recorded at Canterbury register office (Ref. 2a 2117) during the second quarter of that year.
	It may have been the fear of the approaching war that had led the couple to enter into an intimate relationship prior to their wedding day and, perhaps out of embarrassment of being with-child on their wedding day, had run away to Canterbury to be married, away from the respective families. The birth of their first child recorded at Canterbury register office (Ref. 2a 1903) during the third quarter of 1914, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Sparks. That happened around the time of the start of World War One, in which Charles played an active part, judging by his obvious absence from his home until after the war, when their second child was born.
	The birth of the couple’s last two children were also recorded at Canterbury register office when, again, their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Sparks. Gertrude J Collett was recorded there during the first three months of 1920 (Ref. 2a 2296), and it was during the third quarter of the following year for the birth of Charles R Collett (Ref. 2a 1896).
	30R1		Florence V M Collett	Born in 1914 at Canterbury
	30R2		Gertrude J Collett	Born in 1920 at Canterbury
	30R3		Charles R Collett	Born in 1921 at Canterbury
30Q12	Jessie Elizabeth Collett was born at Gillingham in 1888 the youngest child of Thomas and Rachel Collett. Her birth was recorded at Medway register office (Ref. 2a 580) during the fourth quarter of that year. However, either during the birth or shortly thereafter Jessie’s mother died leaving her widowed father at Gillingham with six of his nine children in the census of 1891 when Jessie E Collett was two years old. Before 1901 her father re-married and the census that year named Jessie Elizabeth Collett, aged 12, living at Gillingham with her father and her stepmother Ann. Ten years later Jessie E Collett from Gillingham was 22 and was living and working in the Edmonton area of London.
30Q13	Ernest Pooley Collett was born at Diss during 1873, the only child of Walter Collett and Harriet Pooley. No record of his birth has been found and throughout his life he was simply referred to as Ernest Collett. However, at the end of his life, his passing was recorded at Ernest Pooley Collett. In 1881 he was eight years old when he was living with his parents at Beehive Yard in Denmark Street in Diss. Ten years after that his parents were still living on Denmark Street in Diss where, on the census day in 1891, Ernest Collett from Diss was staying with his grandparents Thomas and Maria Collett, also on Denmark Street, when he was 18 years old and working as a general labourer. His father Walter died towards the end of that census year.
	After a further ten years, unmarried Ernest Collett from Diss was 29 and the caretaker of the post office on Mount Street in Diss in 1901. Around ten months after that census day, Ernest Collett married Mercy Kate Sore, the event recorded at Diss register office (Ref. 4b 423) during the first quarter of 1902, Mercy being ten years younger than Ernest. It is interesting that Ernest’s younger cousin Pearla Zenoba Mitchell, who was living with his widowed mother Harriet at Denmark Street, Diss in 1891 and 1901, married Charles E Sore at Diss in 1917
	Within the Parish of Diss, the Electoral Roll of Lodgers included, Ernest Collett as lodging at the home of his mother Harriet, presumably with his wife and daughter, when their furnished accommodation was described as the front sitting room and bedroom on the first floor at Denmark Street from 1902 through to 1907. Four years later, Ernest and Mercy were still residing in Diss, but at 13 Denmark Street, just along the street from where his mother was stilling. Ernest Collett from Diss, was 38 and a postman working for the General Post Office, his wife Mercy Kate Collett, also from Diss was 28, and their daughter was Ellen Pooley Collett, who was eight years old and born in Diss. The couple’s second daughter was born at Diss twelve months later, with their son born after a further two years. It is possible that other children may have been born to Ernest and Mercy during the nine years after the birth of their first child.
	The birth of Beryl D H Collett was recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 368) during the second quarter of 1912 and the birth of Bernard E W Collett was also recorded there (Ref. 4b 403) during the third quarter of 1914. In both cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Sore. In addition to which, the Electoral Roll for Diss in 1915, still identified the family of Ernest Collett as residing at 13 Denmark Street. The later death of Ernest Pooley Collett was recorded at Norfolk register office (Ref. 4b 178) in 1937, when he was 65 years old. Within the next two years, widow Mercy Kate Collett married Samuel Bale, their wedding day recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 585) during the second quarter of 1939.
	30R4		Ellen Pooley Collett	Born in 1903 at Diss
	30R5		Beryl D H Collett	Born in 1912 at Diss
	30R6		Bernard E W Collett	Born in 1914 at Diss
30Q14	Lottie Inez Bartram Collett was born at Scole, near Diss in 1878, following her parent’s marriage over twelve months earlier. It was also at Scole where she was baptised on 20^th October 1878, the only known child of John Candler Collett and Eliza Louisa Bartram. Her birth was recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 224), during the third quarter of 1878.
30Q15	Nellie Collett was born at Palgrave near Diss in 1882, base-born daughter of Ellen M Collett. Twenty years later Nellie Collett from Diss was 19 and working as a scullery maid at a large house in the St Marylebone district of London, the youngest of six female servants.
30Q16	Ellen Mary Collett was born at Denmark Street in Diss near the end of 1883, with her birth recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 235) during the last three months of 1883. She was very likely a honeymoon baby, following the March wedding, that same year, of her parents Christopher Collett and Rachel Otley. It was also at Diss that Ellen Mary Collett was baptised on 9^th January 1884. In the Diss census of 1891 Ellen M Collett was seven years old, although by the time she was 17 she had left Diss and her family. What is known is that she later married to become Ellen Mary Howlett, her husband coming from Southend, and together they had a son Fred Howlett.
30Q17	Thomas Frederick Collett was also born at Denmark Street in Diss, but towards the end of 1885, the second child and eldest son of Christopher and Rachel Collett, whose birth was recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 23) during the last quarter of 1885. Under his full name, he was baptised at Diss on 10^th January 1886. It was as Thomas F Collett that he was recorded with his family in Diss in 1891, when he was five years of age. On leaving school he left his family in Diss, and in March 1901 he was working as a grocer’s assistant in the Camberwell district of London. The census return that year listed him as Thos Fredk Collett from Diss in Norfolk, who was 17 (sic). Ten years later, Thomas Frederick Collett from Diss was residing at Romford in Essex, where he was unmarried at the age of 25 and was head of the household. His occupation at that time in his life was that of the manager of a provisions store. Supporting him were four shop assistants, all male and all under 24 years old, plus a house keeper.
	It was during the third quarter of that year when Thomas F Collett married Rose Bradley, the event recorded at Romford register office (Ref. 4a 998). The birth of the only known child of Thomas and Rose Collett was recorded at Romford register office (Ref. 4a 1018) during the second quarter of 1912, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Bradley. Thomas Frederick Collett was 82 years old when his death was recorded at Essex’s Havering register office (Ref. 5c 141) during the last three months of 1967.
	30R7		Bessie Mildred O Collett	Born in 1912 and lived in Canada
30Q18	Charles Candler Collett was born at Denmark street in Diss during 1887, his birth recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 237) during fourth quarter of that year. It was at Diss where he was baptised on 13^th December 1887. He was three years old in the Diss census of 1891, when he was included with his family as Charles C Collett, the son of Christopher and Rachel Collett. Ten years after that he was still living at Denmark Street in Diss with his family when he was simply Charles Collett, aged 13, who was already working as an errand boy. By April 1911 unmarried Charles was living and working in Coventry, when the census confirmed he was 23 and from Diss, who was employed as an iron moulder, a boarder at the home of Emily Gibbins. It was also two years after that, when the marriage of Charles C Collett and Elizabeth Price was recorded at Coventry register office (Ref. 6d 1116) during the second quarter of 1913.
	It was originally written here, that Christopher and his wife Lizzie (as she was known) had three daughters. However, only one daughter and one son have so far been discovered. The birth of Mavis I Collett was recorded at Coventry register office (Ref. 6d 1448) during the second quarter of 1914, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Price. The birth of Christopher N Collett was also recorded there (Ref. 6d 1026) during the last quarter of 1918. No more is known about the family, except that Charles Chandler Collett died during 1971.
	30R8		Mavis I Collett	Born in 1914 at Coventry
	30R9		Christopher N Collett	Born in 1918 at Coventry
30Q19	JOSEPH OTLEY COLLETT was born at Diss in 1890 and was under one year old on the day of the Diss census in 1891, when he was living there with his parents Christopher Collett and Rachel Collett nee Otley. On that occasion he was recorded as Joseph O Collett. Ten years later in 1901 he was just Joseph Collett, aged 10 years.
	Upon leaving school he left Diss and moved to South Wales, probably to seek employment. And it was at Newport in Monmouthshire that he was living and working in April 1911, when he was described as Joseph Collett from Diss in Norfolk who was 20. Sixteen years later, the marriage of Joseph O Collett and (1) Dorothea Colbeck was recorded at Leeds register office (Ref. 9b 785) during the fourth quarter of 1927. Just after the start of the Second World War Joseph married (2) Janet Oddie, that marriage was also recorded at Leeds register office (Ref. 9b 571) during the third quarter of 1940. His first three children were born as a result of his first marriage, with the fourth child being from the second. Joseph Otley Collett was still living within the Leeds area of Yorkshire when he died in 1953, his death recorded there (Ref. 2c 215) during the last three months of that year, when he was 63 years old.
	30R10		Christopher Collett	Born in 1928 at Diss
	30R11		Patricia Collett	Born in 1929 at Diss
	30R12		ROBERT OTLEY COLLETT	Born in 1931 at Diss
	The following is the son of Joseph Otley Collett and his second wife Janet Oddie:
	30R13		Timothy John Collett	Born in 1945 at Diss
30Q20	Walter Candler Collett was born at Denmark Street in Diss on 2^nd February 1893, the son of Christopher Collett and Rachel Otley, whose birth was recorded at Depwade (Ref. 4b 241) during the first three months of the year. In the Diss census of 1901 he was eight years old and living at Denmark Street with his family. On completing his education, and after leaving the family home, Walter took up employment at an ironmonger’s shop in Sheringham, on the north Norfolk coast. That situation was confirmed in the next census in 1911, when Walter Christopher Collett from Diss was 20 years old and an assistant ironmonger, while living as a boarder at the home-in at the home Sheringham home of George Grover and his family.
	It was previous written here that Walter later married Dolly at Sanderstead, which lies within the London Borough of Croydon, in Surrey. However, the only Surrey marriage for Walter C Collett was recorded at Reigate register office (Ref. 2a 567) during the fourth quarter of 1915, when his bride was Agnes M Blaker, who may have been known as Dolly. Although no children have been identified for the couple, it was on 5^th March 1950 that Walter Candler Collett died, with his death recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 349) during the first quarter of 1950, when he was 57 years of age, placing his year of birth as 1893. Ten years after, Agnes M Collett was 71, when her death was also recorded at the Surrey South-Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 777) during the second quarter of 1960.
30Q21	Christopher William Collett was born at Denmark Street in Diss during 1897, the son of Christopher Collett and Rachel Otley. He was four years old in the March census for Diss in 1901 and by April 1911, at the age of 14, he was one of only two children still living with his parents, but at 18 Fair Green in Diss. Tragically he was killed in action during the First World War, when he died on 15^th May 1918 in Mesopotamia. He was buried in the Baghdad North Gate War Cemetery in Iraq. Christopher was Private 9673 with The Royal Warwickshire Regiment and his military record confirmed that he was Christopher William Collett, aged 21 and from Diss, the son of Christopher and Rachel Collett of 36 Fair Green at Diss in Norfolk.
30Q22	Maria Candler Collett was a surviving twin sister who was born at Denmark Street in Diss on 11^th July 1900, the last child of Christopher Candler Collett and his wife Rachel Otley. Her birth was recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 218/285) during the third quarter of 1900, her deceased unnamed twin sister’s birth recorded as Ref. 4b 218/294. Sometime between 1901, when she was eight months old, and 1911, her family moved the short distance from Denmark Street to 18 Fair Green in Diss, where Maria Collett was 11 years of age in the census of 1911. She never married and lived all of her life in Diss, when the death of Maria Candler Collett was recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 10 1105) towards the end of 1982.
30Q24	James Collett was born at Leiston towards the end 1870, the eldest son of James Collett of Saxmundham and his wife Elizabeth Burrell (nee Bull) from Norwich. His birth was recorded at Blything (Ref. 4a 647) during the last three months of 1870, following which, he was baptised at Leiston on 16^th January 1871. He was under six months old on the occasion of the Leiston census of 1871 and was 10 years of age in 1881, by which time his father had died and he was living with his widowed mother and two brothers at Mill Corner in Leiston. Upon leaving school he set out for London to seek work, and in 1891 he was recorded as James Collett from Leiston who was 20 and a printer’s compositor, a boarder at the Islington home of the Buck family. It was while he was in London that he met and married Laura Jarrold from Ipswich.
	The marriage of James Collett, aged 29 and the son of James Collett, took place at All Saints Church in Leyton, Essex, during 1900, his bride being Laura Jarrold, who was also 29 and the daughter of Joshua Jarrold. By the end of March in the following year, they were temporarily living in Leiston at the home of James’ widowed mother Elizabeth Collett. James Collett from Leiston was 30 and working for the local newspaper as a press reader, and his wife Laura was also 30. During the next few months, James’ work took the family to Dunstable where their only known child was born the following year, and where the three of them were living in 1911. On that occasion, James Collett from Leiston was 40 and still employed as a printer’s reader at a nearby printing works, his wife Laura from Ipswich was also 40, and their son Eric James Collett was nine years old.
	Laura Collett, nee Jarrold, of Bedfordshire, died in 1949 at the age of 80, her death recorded at Luton register office (Ref. 4a 144) during the fourth quarter of the year. Her Will passed through probate in London on 31^st December that year, when her widowed husband and their son were named as the sole beneficiaries. Tragically, James Collett passed away very shortly after his wife, with his death recorded at Luton (Ref. 4a 128) during the first three months of 1950, when he was 79.
	30R14		Eric James Collett	Born in 1902 at Dunstable
30Q25	Charles Richard J Collett was born at Leiston, possibly at the end of 1872 or early in 1873, the second of the three sons of James and Elizabeth Collett. His birth, using his full name, was recorded at Blything (Ref. 4a 571) during the first three months of 1873. One year after the birth of his younger brother William (below), tragedy hit the family with the death of their father. So, in 1881, Charles Collett was eight years old when he was living at Mill Corner in Leiston with just his widowed mother and his two brothers. Ten years later, at the age of 18, Charles was working as a blacksmith when he was the eldest of the two sons still living with their mother, but at nearby Aldringham.
	It was right at the start of the new century when the marriage of Charles Richard J Collett and Annie Knights from the village of Parham in Suffolk, was recorded at Plomesgate register office (Ref. 4a 1123) during the first three months of 1900. Annie was born at Parham in 1869, the daughter of William and Ann Knights. Once married, the couple settled in Leiston, where the childless couple was living at the time of the census in 1901, when blacksmith Charles was 28 and Annie was 32. Over the next few years Annie presented Charles with two children and the family of four was still residing in Leiston on the day of the census in 1911.
	By that time Charles Collett from Leiston was 38 and employed as a tool-smith for an engineering company, Annie Collett from Parham was 40, their son Frederick Collett was eight and born at Leiston, while their daughter Florence Collett was seven years old and had been born at Creeking St Mary to the north of Needham Market. The death of Annie Collett, nee Knights, was recorded at Blything register office (Ref. 4a 1274) during the first quarter of 1918, when she was 48. Charles spent the last eight years of his life as a widowed at Leiston when, at the age of 53, the death of Charles R J Collett was recorded at Blything register office (Ref. 4a 1122) during the last quarter of 1926. He was then laid to rest, with his wife, in the grounds of St Margaret’s Church in Leiston.
	30R15		Frederick Charles Collett	Born in 1902 at Leiston
	30R16		Florence Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1904 at Creeking St Mary
30Q26	William Collett was born at Leiston in 1875, the youngest of the three children of James Collett and Elizabeth Burrell, his birth recorded at Blything (Ref. 4a 753) during the second quarter of the year. He was under one year old when his father suffered a premature death during the early weeks of 1876. It was at Mill Corner in Leiston where William Collett, aged five years, was living with his widowed mother and two older brothers in 1881. After a further ten years, the next census in 1891 recorded the family residing in Aldringham, just south of Leiston, where William Collett was 15 and already working as a gardener. William’s life was cut short four years later, when the death of William Collett, aged 19, was recorded at Blything register office (Ref. 4a 549) during the second quarter of 1895.
30Q27	Bertha Collett was born at Princes Street in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, the eldest child of Richard Henry Collett from Suffolk and his first wife Catherine Hoten from Derbyshire. Her birth was recorded at Basford (Ref. 7b 131) during the first three months of 1881. Therefore, she was only a few months old in the Eastwood census of 1881 when she and her parents were residing at Princes Street in the town. Following the birth of her two younger siblings at Eastwood, the family then moved to Burton-on-Trent, where they were living in 1891 when Bertha was 10 years old. No more children were added to the family, instead Bertha’s parents faced a personal turmoil which resulted in the family being broken up, with Bertha and her sister Rose (below) staying with their mother, while their brother John travelled to London with the girls’ father.
	Six months prior to the next census, the marriage of Bertha Collett and George Manners was recorded at Marylebone register office (Ref. 1a 1221) during the third quarter of 1900. On the occasion of the census in 1901, the young family was living at 61 Balcombe Street in the St Marylebone district of London. It was at St Marylebone that George Manners, aged 25, had been born and, on that day, he was employed as a railway carter. His wife Bertha from Eastwood was 20, and their three-week-old daughter Bertha A Manners had also been born at St Marylebone. No record of either of the Bertha Manners has been found within the next census of 1911, although it is believed that the family later moved to Coulsdon in Surrey to be near to Bertha’s elderly father and her stepmother whom he had married after the death of Bertha’s mother and from whom he had been separated for almost twenty years.
	Historical Note: It was at 22b Balcombe Street in St Marylebone that the infamous IRA siege took place over six days in December 1975.
30Q28	Rose Amelia Collett was born at Princes Street in Eastwood, the second child of Richard and Catherine Collett, her birth recorded at Basford (Ref. 7b 123) during the first quarter of 1883. She was eight years old when she was living with her family at Princes Street in Eastwood in 1891. However, it was during the next few years that there was a splitting up of the marriage of her parents when it seems likely that Rose and her sister Bertha (above) went to live with their mother, while her brother John and her family sought a new life in London. According to the census in 1901 Rose Collett from Nottinghamshire was 18 when she was employed as a general domestic servant at the home of elderly couple George and Rachel Taylor in the St Marylebone area of London.
	After a further four years, Rose gave birth to a base-born daughter, when she was in Nottingham. Eighteen months later she was still living in Nottingham where, at the register office (Ref. 7b 796) there, the marriage of Rose Amelia Collett and James Hancock was recorded during the last three months of 1906. Five years later, and after presenting James with two children, they were living at Pinxton, where Rose’s mother had been born and where James was also born. In census return for Pinxton in 1991 the family was recorded as James Hancock from Pinxton who was 29 and a coal miner and stall-man working for a contractor underground, his wife Rose Amelia Hancock who was 28 and from Eastwood, John George Hancock who was three and Gerald Hancock who was one year old, both born at Pinxton.
	Also living with the family, and described as the stepdaughter of James Hancock, was Rose’s six-year-old daughter Frances Collett who had been born at Bagthorpe in Nottinghamshire. The family’s later children were Millicent G Hancock, born in 1912, twins James K Hancock and Winston F Hancock, both born in 1914 and Frank Hancock in 1921, all of the births recorded the mother’s maiden-name as Collett. It was during the first three months of 1950 when the death of Rose A Hancock, nee Collett, was recorded at Nottingham register office (Ref. 3c 291) at the age of 67.
	30R17		Frances Collett	Born in 1905 at Bagthorpe, Notts.
30Q29	John Henry Collett was born at Eastwood in 1885, his birth recorded at Basford (Ref. 7b 108) during the third quarter of the year, the eldest son of Richard and Catherine Collett. He was five years of age in the census of 1891, when living in Burton-on-Trent, and by 1901 his parents had separated, John remaining with his father, while his two older sisters were with his mother. John was 15 years old when he living at 20 Blenheim Street in the Chelsea St Lukes area of London with his father and his partner and companion Rose Trussler. On that census day John Henry Collett from Eastwood was working as a caterer with the Pattison Fire Guard.
	Just one month before the day of the census in 1911, John Henry Collett was married by banns to Laura Rosetta Maude Gibbs at Coulsdon parish church on 27^th February 1911. The record of their marriage confirmed the following details. The bride was 19 and the daughter of labourer George Gibbs and his wife Jane, who both signed the register as the witnesses. The groom was 24 and a plaster, as was his father, who was named as Richard Hanbury Collett. The same address for both John and Laura was recorded as 15 Chipstead Villas in Coulsdon, presumably the home of George and Jane Maria Gibbs. John and Laura also both signed the register in their own hand.
	However, just two weeks after their wedding day, Laura gave birth to a son on 14^th March 1911, who was privately baptised at home at 15 Chipstead Villas on 1^st April 1911 by the vicar of St Andrews Church in Coulsdon. Their son was only twenty days old when he died and was buried at St Andrews Church on 8^th April 1911. That tragic time for the couple, was very likely the reason why they did not have the opportunity to complete the census return that year. It was during the following years that the first of their four surviving children were born at Coulsdon, with the births recorded at Croydon register office where their mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Gibbs.
	John Henry Collett was 72 when he died, with his death recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 393) during the first three months of 1958. After four years as a widow, the death of Laura R M Collett was recorded at Surrey register office (Ref. 5g 352) in 1962, when she was 71. Laura had been born at Coulsdon in Surrey on 12^th August 1891, where she was baptised on 3^rd October 1891.
	30R18		John George Henry Collett	Born in 1911 at Coulsdon, Surrey
	30R19		Kathleen Collett	Born in 1912 at Coulsdon, Surrey
	30R20		Percy C Collett	Born in 1913 at Coulsdon, Surrey
	30R21		Florence L Collett	Born in 1916 at Coulsdon, Surrey
	30R22		Nellie Collett	Born in 1919 at Coulsdon, Surrey
30Q30	Richard Frank Collett was born at Chelsea in 1900, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 1a 385) during the fourth quarter of the year. He was the first child born to Rose Ellen Trussler and Richard Henry Collett who was separated from his first wife, who refused to divorce him. When he was baptised at Christ Church in Chelsea on 25^th November 1900, the record incorrectly gave his parents’ names as Richard Collett and Rose Collett. Four months later, the family was still residing in Chelsea when Richard Frank Collett was or six months old. By 1902 the family was living at Eltham in Kent, from where they later moved to Coulsdon near Croydon, where Richard Frank Collett from Chelsea was 10 years of age in 1911.
	He was 24 when the marriage of Richard F Collett and Beatrice V Hiscock was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 676) during the third quarter of 1925. Beatrice Victoria Hiscock was born on 21^st October 1902 at Southwark in London. As far as can be determined, the marriage produced four children, the birth of the first three all recorded at Croydon register office, the last at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 2a 303) during the first quarter of 1937. Their first daughter’s birth was recorded during the fourth quarter of 1926 (Ref. 2c 658), the second during the second quarter of 1930 (Ref. 2c 701) and the third during the last three months of 1931 (Ref. 2a 661). In all for cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hiscock. The death of Richard F Collett was recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 469) during the first three months of 1956, when he was 55 years age. Twenty-one years later, the death of Beatrice Victoria Collett aged 74 was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 11 93) at the start of 1977.
	30R23		Barbara R Collett	Born in 1926 at Croydon
	30R24		Daphne J Collett	Born in 1930 at Croydon
	30R25		Jean M Collett	Born in 1931 at Croydon
	30R26		John B Collett	Born in 1937 in Surrey
30Q31	Ernest Frederick Collett was born at Eltham in the Greenwich area of London during the early part of 1902, with his birth recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 1134) in the second quarter of that year. He was another son of estranged Richard Collett by his common-law wife Rose Trussler, and was eight years old in the Coulsdon (Croydon) census of 1911. His later marriage to Doris G Henley was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1817) during the last quarter of 1925. The births of their two sons were recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 658) during the fourth quarter of 1926 and (Ref. 2a 079) during the fourth quarter of 1928. In both cases the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Henley.
	30R27		Ernest D Collett	Born in 1926 at Croydon
	30R28		Ronald Frederick Collett	Born in 1928 at Croydon
30Q32	Albert Edward Collett was born at Eltham in 1904, although his birth was also recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 1191) during in the first three months of that year. Not long after he was born his family moved to the Croydon area of Surrey, where Albert was seven years old in 1911. From the records found, it seems that he was married on two occasions. The first marriage of Albert E Collett and Gladys S Cox was recorded at Lewisham (Ref. 1d 2710) during the third quarter of 1938, the second between Albert E Collett and June M Samways also recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 5d 39) during the second quarter of 1957.
30Q35	Ronald Arthur Collett was born at Croydon in 1908, another son of Richard Collett and Rose Trussler who were unable to marry until 1923, following the death of Richard’s first wife. His birth was recorded at Croydon (Ref. 2a 409) during the second quarter of 1908. Ronald was two years old in 1911 when he was living with his family at Coulsdon in the Croydon area of Surrey. He was in his late twenties when he married Susannah May Hendry who was from New Wallbottle in Northumberland. However, it was at the Exeter register office (Ref. 5b 235) that their wedding was recorded during the third quarter of 1937. The first of their two children was born in Devon, the second recorded in Newcastle. Tragically, their father lost his life before they were five years old. Ronald Arthur Collett was a sergeant, service no. 5618020, with the Second Battalion Devonshire Regiment and was killed in action in Sicily on 2^nd August 1943, following which he was buried at Syracuse War Cemetery in the island of Sicily.
	Ron Collett was the great uncle of Jacqui Mee nee Collett who kindly provided the new information for the July 2015 update of this family line. The birth of Jacqui Collett was recorded at the Surrey North-Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 806) during the second quarter of 1961, when her mother’s maiden-name was given as Johnson. It has not yet been determined which male member of this Collett family was her father. What is known is that the marriage of Jacqui Collett and Anthony D J Mee was recorded at Merton register office in Surrey (Ref. 14 683) during the summer of 1992, following which their daughter Sophie Jean Mee was born during the summer of the next year and recorded at Mid-Eastern Surrey register office.
	In April 2023, Tracey Ann Oeffelen spotted an article in a wartime newspaper in which, under the headline ‘North-East Roll of Honour’, were details of the men from the Gateshead/Newcastle area who had lost their lives while on active duty in Sicily in 1943. The item was accompanied by three photograph, one of which was Sergeant R A Collett. The section of the article relating to him read as follows: “Mrs S Collett (nee Hendry) of 11 Claverdon Street in North Walbottle, has received news that her husband, Sergt. R. A. Collett, age 35, has died of his wounds in Sicily”
	30R29		James A Collett	Born in 1938 at Exeter
	30R30		Patricia A Collett	Born in 1939 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne
30Q36	Alec Sydney Collett was born at Coulsdon on 23^rd July 1910, his birth recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 378). He was eight months old in the Coulsdon census of 1911 and was the youngest known child of Richard Collett and Rose Ellen Trussler who were only able to be married in 1923, after Richard had been freed from his first wife when she died in 1922. It would appear that Alec was married twice in his life, the first time to Phoebe Scarlett, their wedding recorded at the Surrey South register office (Ref. 2a 793) during the first quarter of 1936. Fifteen years after that, the marriage of Alec S Collett and June E M Clarke was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 5g 313) during the third quarter of 1951. The later death of Alec Sydney Collett was also recorded at Croydon (Ref. 11 1601) during the spring of 1981.
30Q37	Grace E Collett was born at Coulsdon near the end of 1912, the last child of Richard Collett and Rose Trussler. Her birth was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 726) during the first three months of 1913 when her mother was confirmed as Rose Trussler, who was still unable to be married to her father, due to not being divorced from his estranged wife. Just after the start of the Second World War, the marriage of Grace E Collett and Joseph W Pearson was recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 2a 1057) during the first quarter of 1940.
30R4	Ellen Pooley Collett was born at Diss in 1903, the birth recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 233) during the second quarter of that year, the first child of Ernest Collett and Mercy Kate Sore. Ellen was only nineteen when her marriage to Austin T Lincoln was recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 595) during the second quarter of 1922. It is highly likely that she was already with-child on their wedding day because, within the next six months Ellen gave birth to a daughter, Pamela M Lincoln, the birth recorded at Depwade register office (Ref. 4b 323) during the fourth quarter of the same year, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.
30R10	Christopher Collett was born in 1928, the eldest child of Joseph Otley Collett and his wife Dorothea Colbeck, whose birth was recorded at Leeds register office (Ref. 9b 499) during the third quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Colbeck. He was married twice during his life, when the marriage of Christopher Collett and (1) Kathleen M Elliot was recorded at Northumberland South register office (Ref. 1b 550) during the second quarter of 1954. That marriage produced a son for Christopher, while it was thirty-three years later that the marriage of Christopher Collett and (2) Sheila Vernon was recorded at Newcastle-upon-Tyne register office (Ref. 2 257) during the spring of 1993. Christopher was an accountant with Price Waterhouse Coopers.
	30S1		Sefton Collett	Born in 1961 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne
30R11	Patricia Collett was born in 1929, the only daughter of Joseph and Dorothea Collett. Her birth was recorded at Leeds register office (Ref. 9b 414) during the fourth quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Colbeck. She later married Peter G Wright, their marriage recorded at Leeds register office (Ref. 2c 407) during the last three months of 1954. Their marriage produced three sons, Geoffrey Wright, Nicholas Wright, and Andrew Wright.
30R12	ROBERT OTLEY COLLETT, referred to as Rob, was born in 1931 and was the last child of Joseph Otley Collett by his first wife Dorothea Colbeck. He was born in Yorkshire and his birth was recorded at the Leeds North register office (Ref. 3b 316) during the second quarter of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Colbeck. His later marriage to Dorothy Jean Ellison, known as Jean, was recorded at Wharfedale register office (Ref. 2d 1220) during the second quarter of 1955. Once married the couple moved from Yorkshire to Lincolnshire where their children were all born and where, much later during the 1990s, they were farming at The Manor in Spridlington, midway between Lincoln and Market Rasen. The birth of their youngest child was recorded at Lincoln register office (Ref. 3b 538) during the third quarter of 1968, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Ellison.
	30S2		Richard Otley Collett	Born in 1956 at Lincoln
	30S3		Sandra M Collett	Born in 1958 at Lincoln
	30S4		Joanna Collett	Born in 1968 at Lincoln
30R13	Timothy John Collett was born in 1945 and was the only child of Joseph Otley Collett by his second wife Janet Oddie. His birth was recorded at Leeds register office (Ref. 9b 244b) during the first three months of year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Oddie. He was married twice, the first time to (1) Bella Embid Marco, although no record of their marriage has yet been found. The birth of the first of their two children was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 5d 661) at the start of 1972, the birth of their daughter recorded at Tonbridge register officer in Kent (Ref. 5f 2252) early in 1974. No both occasion the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Embid.
	Five years later, the second marriage of Timothy J Collett and (2) Rosalyn P Taylor was also recorded at Tonbridge register office (Ref. 16 2133) during the summer months of 1979, and also produced two children, both of them born in Bristol. The birth of their son was recorded there (Ref. 22 1431) towards the end of 1980 and the birth of their daughter (Ref. 22 1384) during the early months of 1982.
	30S5		Christopher John Collett	Born in 1972 at Lambeth, London
	30S6		Luisa Jane Collett	Born in 1974 at Tonbridge, Kent
	The following are the children of Timothy John Collett by his second wife Rosalyn P Taylor:
	30S7		Samuel James Collett	Born in 1980 at Bristol
	30S8		Sarah Kate Collett	Born in 1982 at Bristol
30R14	Frederick Charles Collett was born at Leiston in 1902, his birth recorded at Blything register office (Ref. 4a 1096) during the third quarter of the year. He was the eldest of the two known children of Charles Richard J Collett and Annie Knights and was eight years of age in the Leiston census of 1911.
30R15	Florence Elizabeth Collett was born at Creeking St Mary, near Needham Market, on 10^th February 1904 and her birth was recorded at Bosmere register office (Ref. 4a 1041). As simply, Florence Collett aged seven years, she was living with her family at Leiston in 1911. Just over fourteen years later, and following the death of her mother in 1918, the marriage of Florence E Collett and Ernest W Woolf was recorded at Blything register office (Ref. 4a 2588) during the final three months of 1925, only years before her father also passed away. It seems likely that no children were born to the couple, with the death of Florence Elizabeth Woolf recorded at Ipswich register office (Ref. 7471c c9b) near the end of 1993, when she was 89 years old.
30R16	Eric James Collett was born at Dunstable on 23^rd February 1902, his birth recorded at Luton register office (Ref. 3b 389) during the second quarter of that year. He was the only known child of James Collett and Laura Jarrold and was nine years of age in the Dunstable census of 1911 and, although not proved, it seems likely that he was around 42 years old when he became a married man. The marriage of Eric J Collett and Beatrice M Hill was recorded at Watford register office (Ref. 3a 2217) during the first quarter of 1944. Five years later, and following the death of his mother, Eric James Collett was named as the second beneficiary to her estate during the probate process in London on 31^st December 1949, his father James Collett being the first beneficiary. He was 81 years old, when the death of Eric James Collett was recorded at Luton register office (Ref. 9 0479) during the summer of 1983.
30R17	Frances Collett was born in 1905 at Bagthorpe in Nottinghamshire, the child of unmarried Rose Amelia Collett by an unknown man. The birth of Frances Collett was recorded at Nottingham register office (Ref. 7b 453) during the second quarter of that year. Her mother married James Hancock before Frances was two years old and in 1911, at the age of six, stepdaughter Frances Collett from Bagthorpe was living with James and Rose Hancock at Pinxton in Nottinghamshire. She was 23 years of age when the marriage of Frances Collett and Tom Loach was recorded at Basford register office (Ref. 7b 616) during the second quarter of 1928. Their only known child, son Malcom F Loach, was born in 1933, his birth recorded at Nottingham register office (Ref. 7b 562) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.
30R19	Kathleen Collett was born at Coulsdon, Surrey in 1912 and was the first of the four children of John Henry Collett and Laura Rosetta Maude Gibbs. It was at Croydon register office that her birth was recorded (Ref. 2a 472) during the second quarter of 1912, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Gibbs.
30R20	Percy C Collett was born at Coulsdon, the only son of John Henry Collett and Laura Rosetta Maude Gibbs, whose birth was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 443) during the fourth quarter of 1913 with his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Gibbs. It was possibly the intervention of the Second World War that caused Percy to be married later in his life, with the only marriage of a Percy C Collett being that which was recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 5c 2639) during the summer of 1949, when the bride was Millicent Collins.
30R21	Florence L Collett was born in 1916 at Coulsdon, another child of John and Laura Collett. As with all of her siblings, her birth was also recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 438 during the spring of that year, with her mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Gibbs. She was not of full age when the marriage of Florence L Collett and Frederick G E Harris was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 1046) in the spring of 1933. As had been the case with her mother, Florence was in an advanced state of pregnancy on her wedding day, with the birth of a son, MacDonald Frederick E Harris, also recorded at Croydon (Ref. 2a 410) during the same quarter of 1933. Five years later the birth of their second child, Peter J Harris, was recorded at Croydon (Ref. 2a 1067) during the second quarter of 1938. In both cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.
30R22	Nellie Collett was the last child of John Henry Collett and Laura Rosetta Maude Gibbs. She was born at Coulsdon in 1919 with her birth recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 2a 749) during the last three months of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Gibbs. Nellie was nearly 21 when she married Geoffrey R Finch in 1940, with the event recorded at Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Ref. 2a 723) during the third quarter of that year. Their marriage produced two children, Paul R F Finch in 1944 (Ref. 2a 431), and Jennifer A Finch in 1947 (Ref. 5g 1320), the births of both of them recorded at Surrey register office, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.
30R28	Ronald Frederick Collett was born at Croydon in 1928 where his birth was recorded during the last three months of that year (Ref. 2a 079). He was the second son of Ernest Frederick Collett and Doris G Henley. His marriage to Jill Reynolds was recorded at the Surrey North-Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 818) during the second quarter of 1959. After being married for ten years, Jill presented Ronald with a daughter, whose birth was recorded at Sutton register office (Ref. 5e 786) during the third quarter of 1969, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Reynolds.
	30S9		Tanya Collett	Born in 1969 at Sutton, Surrey
30R29	James A Collett was born in Devon in 1938, his birth recorded at Exeter register office (Ref. 5b 65) during the last four months of the year. He was the eldest of the two children of Ronald Arthur Collett and Susannah May Hendry. Following the death of his father during the Second World War, the family return to the north of England where his mother had been born. It was there, at the Northumberland West register office (Ref. 1b 950), that the marriage of James A Collett and Margaret H Barron was recorded during the first three months of 1962.
30R30	Patricia A Collett was born in 1939, her birth recorded at Newcastle-upon-Tyne register office (Ref. 10b 143) during the last quarter of 1939. She was four years old when her father was killed in the war, and it was seventeen years after that sad event when the marriage of Patricia A Collett and John T Proud was recorded at Northumberland South register office (Ref. 1b 16) during the first quarter of 1960.
30S1	Sefton Collett was born in 1961, his birth recorded at Newcastle-upon-Tyne register office (Ref. 1b 62) during the first three months of the year. He was the only known child of Christopher Collett and his first wife Kate Elliot. Twenty-five years later, the marriage of Sefton Collett and Kathryn A Smith was recorded at Wigan register office (Ref. 39 2438) during the summer 1986. Their daughter was born six years after their wedding day and was recorded at Preston and South Ribble register office (Ref. 5881d d55c), when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Smith.
	30T1		Holly Grace Collett	Born in 1994 at Preston, Lancs.
30S2	Richard Otley Collett was born in 1956 and his birth was recorded at Lincoln register office (Ref. 3b 467) during the first quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Ellison. Like his sister Sandra (below), Richard was also married in 1985, but earlier that year and at Grimsby. The marriage of Richard O Collett and Rebecca Marshall was recorded there (Ref. 7 407) during the spring of 1985. The couple’s first two children were born in the Grimsby area, where their births were recorded (Ref. 7 710) during the summer of 1988 and (Ref. 7 769) during the autumn of 1990. With Richard’s father farming at Spridlington, Richard may have joined his parents there, since the birth of his third and last child was recorded at Lincoln register office (Ref. 6191c c65c) during the spring of 1996. In all three cases, the children’s mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Marshall.
	30T2		Katy Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1988 at Grimsby
	30T3		Annie Grace Collett	Born in 1990 at Grimsby
	30T4		Alfred George Otley Collett	Born in 1996 at Lincoln
30S3	Sandra M Collett was born in 1958 and her birth was also recorded at Lincoln register office (Ref. 3b 466) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Ellison. At the age of twenty-seven, the marriage of Sandra M Collett and Duncan T Johnstone was recorded at Lincoln register office (Ref. 7 1168) towards the end of 1985.
	APPENDIX During the revision of this file in 2012 a further Collett baptism was found at Saxmundham, but as yet the parent recorded in the parish register has not been identified.
30AO1	Elizabeth Collett, who was probably born around 1808, was the mother of Frances Maria Collett who was baptised at Saxmundham on 31^st March 1828. With no father named, it seems likely that Frances Maria was the base-born daughter of unmarried Elizabeth Collett, or Elizabeth may have been a widow whose husband has not been determined. It is also possible that she was the daughter of Richard Collett (Ref. 30N1) whose son was born at Saxmundham in 1813.
	30AP1		Frances Maria Collett	Born circa 1828