PART THIRTY-ONE

The Third Wiltshire Line

Updated February 2019

This is the family line of Ian King of Plymouth whose great great grandmother was Sarah Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 31N34) and Carol Lyn Davis from Fort Worth in Texas whose mother was Barbara Jean Collett (Ref. 31Q23), their line indicated by the names in capital letters. It was the information generously provided by Carol in 2014 that resulted in her family line being established here in Part 31 when, prior to this, it was included in Part 44 – The First Broughton Gifford Line.

Previously this line started with William Collett (Ref. 44K7) whose family, dating back to 1595, can now be found in Part 44 – The First Broughton Gifford Line.

However, new information received from Brian Townsend during 2011 indicated that this family line had earlier ancestors living within the village of South Wraxall near Bradford-on-Avon, where this line of the Collett family now starts. Furthermore, the details provided by Brian have now been fully validated by the details received from the aforementioned Carol Lyn Davis. It is also of interest that Part 44 also includes another contingent of the Collett family of South Wraxall, the brothers John and Drinkwater Collett (Ref. 44L7 & Ref. 44L8).

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All of the locations referred to in this family line, such as South Wraxall, Bradford-on-Avon, Atworth, Box, Monkton Farleigh, Walcot in Bath, Frankleigh in Bradford, and Melksham, all lie within a few miles of each other

In addition to the Colletts of South Wraxall listed in this family line (and in Part 44), many others with a South Wraxall connection have been found during the research. So, for completeness, and for future reference, in the hope that they might one day be included in the main body of one of the family lines, the so far unconnected Colletts of South Wraxall have been placed in two appendices at the end of this file. Appendix One focuses on one family, that of Thomas Collett who was born at South Wraxall in 1819, while Appendix Two includes details of unplaced South Wraxall Collett families taken from the various census records.

This family line also leads to Llanelly and Abertillery in South Wales where other Colletts were also living from the time of census that was conducted in 1881.

Within the Wiltshire Wills Index at Sarum (Salisbury) are five Colletts of South Wraxall, four of them husbandmen and one a broad-weaver. The first was for Richard Collett, dated 13^th January 1539, which mentioned his wife and their eldest son John Collett. Next was John Collett, whose Will was dated 26^th December 1584, another husbandman. The third was for John Collett was made on 4^th May 1620, while the fourth was for William Collet made in 1632. The last of them was for Thomas Collett, the broad-weaver, made on 13^th September 1671 (Ref. 31H1). Some Inventories were also listed, and they were for John Collett is dated 9^th February 1548 and Anthony Collett in 1602, as were two Bonds, for William Collet (above) in 1633 and John Collett in 1650. The 1620 Will of John Collett is very interesting as it mentions a Thomas Batten, the Batten and Collett families being united many years after through the marriage of Jonathan Collett (Ref. 31K8) and Elizabeth Jane Batten in 1778. In addition to that, the wife of John Collett was also still alive, as were at least six of his children. They were named as John, Anthony, Thomas, Richard, Margaret and Elizabeth. His son Anthony was also one of the executors of the Will. It is thanks to the aforementioned Carol Lyn Davis that we now have these details.

31G1

Thomas Collett may well have been the older brother of William Collett of South Wraxall (below). According to the Bishop’s Transcripts for South Wraxall the baptism of Thomas Collett, the son of Thomas Collett, was recorded at South Wraxall on 17^th July 1623, while the later baptism on 24^th November 1627 for Elizabeth Collett, the daughter of Thomas Collett, also described Thomas Collett as a parish clerk. During the following year the death and burial of Mary Anne Collett, the daughter of Thomas Collett was recorded at South Wraxall on 26^th April 1628. The Will of Thomas Collett of South Wraxall was signed on 9^th July 1650.

31H1

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 17.07.1623 at South Wraxall

31H2

Mary Anne Collett

Born circa 1625 at South Wraxall

31H3

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 24.11.1627 at South Wraxall

31G2

WILLIAM COLLETT, who was very likely born around 1600, and his wife Hannah were both buried at St James’ Church in South Wraxall. According to the Bishop’s Transcripts it was during 1626 that William Collett was married at South Wraxall, although the actual date and the name of the bride were not recorded. His son Thomas, who likely named after his older brother (above) or perhaps even his own father, was baptised at South Wraxall on 27^th May 1627. It is understood that the marriage produced a further two children, including a Jonathan who was later referred to Jonathan Collett of Monkton Farleigh.

William Collett was a husbandman who was buried at South Wraxall on 23^rd March 1671 and his Inventory was drawn up on the eleventh day of September 1672 by William Watts and Bartholomew Groome which was signed off on 17^th October 1672. It was seven years later that his widow passed away, following which she was buried there on 11^th April 1679, when she was described as a clothier. The Inventory for Hannah Collett, clothier of South Wraxall, was drawn up on April the fourteenth in 1680 by William Gibbons and William Moxam and was signed off by them on 17^th April 1680.

31H4

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 27.05.1627 at South Wraxall

31H5

Jonathan Collett

Born circa 1630 at South Wraxall

31H6

JOHN COLLETT

Baptised on 24.03.1632 at South Wraxall

31H1

Thomas Collett was baptised at South Wraxall on 17^th July 1623, the son of Thomas Collett. The Will of Thomas Collett of South Wraxall, a broad-weaver, was dated 13^th September 1671.

31H6

JOHN COLLETT was baptised at South Wraxall on 24^th March 1632, the son of William and Hannah Collett. His marriage to Mary produced seven children, all identified below. John was a carpenter and a churchwarden of South Wraxall and his Inventory, and that of his wife, was drawn with the help of Jonathan Collett, a yeoman of Monkton Farleigh - most likely his brother, and Thomas Godwyn of Ford Farm. John’s Inventory was made on 5^th April 1698 and was signed off on 16^th May 1698. It was also on 5^th April 1698 that the Inventory of his wife Mary was made, which stated they were living at Monkton Farleigh at that time in their lives.

The seven children of John Collett, carpenter of South Wraxall, were named in his Will made on 10^th February 1697. They were his married daughters Mary, Sarah, Jane and Elizabeth each of whom received one shilling, his son John who received four acres of first lands, his unmarried daughter Dorothy who inherited the house, orchard, garden and barkside of Thomas Chambers, while his wife Mary was bequeathed six pounds every year for the rest of her natural life, with their son Thomas receiving the rest and the residue of his estate. The Will was signed by John Collett and witnessed by Thomas Garstain, John Little and Mary Gibbins and was proved on 16^th May 1698, the same date as his Inventory, while the sole executor was named as his son Thomas. It has been assumed, that the order of the children named in the Will was also the order in which they were born.

31I1

Mary Collett

Born circa 1654 at South Wraxall

31I2

Sarah Collett

Born circa 1656 at South Wraxall

31I3

Jane Collett

Born circa 1658 at South Wraxall

31I4

Elizabeth Collett

Born circa 1660 at South Wraxall

31I5

THOMAS COLLETT

Born in 1662 at South Wraxall

31I6

John Collett

Born circa 1664 at South Wraxall

31I7

Dorothy Collett

Born circa 1666 at South Wraxall

31I1

Mary Collett, who was very likely born in the 1650s and probably at South Wraxall, was the daughter of John and Mary Collett. At the time of the death of her father around 1698 she was named in his Will, made in 1697, as his loving daughter Mary the wife of Samuel Flower.

31I2

Sarah Collett, who was very likely born in the 1650s and probably at South Wraxall, was the daughter of John and Mary Collett. At the time of the death of her father around 1698 she was named in his Will, made in 1697, as his loving daughter Sarah the wife of Richard Escourt.

31I3

Jane Collett, who was very likely born in the 1650s and probably at South Wraxall, was the daughter of John and Mary Collett. At the time of the death of her father around 1698 she was named in his Will, made in 1697, as his loving daughter Jane the wife of Cornelius Broad.

31I4

Elizabeth Collett, who was very likely born in the 1650s and probably at South Wraxall, was the daughter of John and Mary Collett. At the time of the death of her father around 1698 she was named in his Will, made in 1697, as his loving daughter Elizabeth the wife of Thomas Hillier.

31I5

THOMAS COLLETT was born at South Wraxall around 1662 one of the seven children of John and Mary Collett. Upon the death of his father after 1697, Thomas - as executor, received the rest and residue of the estate of carpenter John Collett, his house, lands, leases, tenements, goods and chattels, moneys and debts. Within the same Will Thomas’ brother John inherited four acres of land, while his sister Dorothy inherited his father’s house, orchard and garden called Rainbows occupied by tenant Thomas Chambers. Shortly after the death of his father Thomas married Elizabeth, who was born in 1664 and with whom he had six children, while only two of them were named in his later Will. Also, by the time he made his Will, he must have been a widower since there was no mention of Elizabeth. Thomas Collett died when his son John was around thirty years of age with his being signed by him on 7^th October 1728 and proved on the 9^th May 1731 at Salisbury (Sarum). The Will is transcribed below.

“In the name of God amen, I Thomas Collett of South Wraxall in the Parish of Bradford in the County of Wiltshire, carpenter, being of sound and proper mind and memory do make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament in manner and form following. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Mary one guinea. Then I give unto my son-in-law William Blathly five shillings. Then all the rest and residue of my goods and chattels, lands, tenements and farmhouse, whatsoever and wheresoever I give and bequeath unto my son John Collett and him the said John Collett I do make and ordain be sole and only executor of this my Last Will and Testament. In witness whereof I have now unto set my hand and seal the seventh day of October in the second year of the reign of our sovereign lord King George the Second over Great Britain.”

An article published in the Trowbridge Chronicle on 10^th January 1880 provided details of the Church of St James at South Wraxall. One section of the article made a reference to Thomas Collett who was the churchwarden in 1769, the same year that the six bells in the church tower were re-cast. It is therefore possible that he may have been a descendent of Thomas Collett of South Wraxall (1662-1730).

31J1

Thomas Collett

Date of birth unknown

31J2

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised on 20.05.1694 at South Wraxall

31J3

Mary Collett

Date of birth unknown

31J4

JOHN COLLETT

Born in 1700 at South Wraxall

31J5

Elizabeth Collett; buried 22.07.1703

Baptised on 03.01.1703 at South Wraxall

31J6

Sarah Collett

Baptised on 13.05.1704 at South Wraxall

31J4

JOHN COLLETT was born at South Wraxall on 6^th November 1700. He was a carpenter and a wheelwright and it was around the time he was thirty years old when he married Elizabeth of South Wraxall, with whom he had ten children, although only nine were named in his Will. At the time of the baptism of his daughter Mary, John Collett was a parish clerk, while he was a churchwarden when his daughter Jane was baptised. The fact that his son Jonathan was born at South Wraxall when John would have been fifty may suggest that his wife was much younger than him, or that Elizabeth was his second wife. It is also very interesting that around that same time “the lease of land, some 39 acres, from Thomas Long Esq, at a yearly rent of £40 was leased for three years in February 1750 to brothers John Collett and Thomas Collett”, the latter being John’s eldest brother about whom nothing is known. The name of another John Collett was a freeholder of land at South Wraxall over two hundred years earlier during the 1550s.

Just over ten years later, the Will of John Collett, wheelwright and carpenter, signed by him, was made on 29^th March 1761 and was proved at Salisbury on 5^th December 1775, following his death that year, when his son Jonathan Collett of Corsham and Thomas Spencer of Little Chalfield were named as Trustees. His widow Elizabeth was present at the proving of his Will, while it was ten years later that she passed away. Her Will, made on 7^th February 1778, was proved on 19^th April 1785 by her son Jonathan Collett who was duly sworn in at Winkfield, the sole executor. Elizabeth had signed the Will by making the mark of a cross.

The following children of John Collett were recorded in his Will, each of them receiving one shilling. They were Thomas, William, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Bridget, Mary, Jane, Anne and Eleanor. The remainder of his estate was inherited by his wife Elizabeth. Within the later Will of Elizabeth Collett, the following children and grandchildren were specifically named. Sons Thomas and William and daughters Elizabeth and Bridget – each receiving five shillings. The grandchildren of her late daughter Mary Gorish by her husband Edward Gorish, plus the grandchildren of her late daughter Jane Pillanger by her husband William Pillanger – each receiving one shilling. Her daughter Ann Cottle, the wife of James Cottle, received ten pounds, while daughter Eleanor received five pounds. The remainder of her estate, including several pieces and parcels of freehold ground at South Wraxall, were inherited by her son Jonathan. The Cottle name also features on two further occasions in this family line with the marriages of William Collett and Ellen Cottle in the 1840s and Mary Arabella Collett and William Augusta Cottle in 1872.

31K1

Thomas Collett

Born circa 1731 at South Wraxall

31K2

Elizabeth Collett

Baptised in 1733 at South Wraxall

31K3

Bridget Collett

Born circa 1737 at South Wraxall

31K4

Mary Collett

Baptised on 17.03.1741 at South Wraxall

31K5

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1744 at South Wraxall

31K6

Jane Collett

Born in 1746 at South Wraxall

31K7

Anne Collett

Born circa 1748 at South Wraxall

31K8

Jonathan Collett

Born in 1750 at South Wraxall

31K9

Eleanor Collett

Born circa 1752 at South Wraxall

31K1

Thomas Collett was born at South Wraxall around 1731, the eldest child of John and Mary Collett. He would have been married during the 1750s and was possibly the father of Thomas Collett who was born at South Wraxall in 1761.

31L1

Thomas Collett

Born in 1761 at South Wraxall

31K2

Elizabeth Collett was the eldest daughter and second child of John and Elizabeth Collett and was baptised at South Wraxall in 1733. Elizabeth was around twenty-two years old when she married George Morris by licence at South Wraxall in 1755. The two bondsmen for the licence were Thomas Collett, most likely Elizabeth’s old brother, and George Morris who deposited £100. Elizabeth’s father’s Will of 1761 provides the proof of her marriage into the Morris family. In the document, John Collett, wheelwright and carpenter, bequeathed one shilling to his daughter Elizabeth Morrice (sic).

Elizabeth was widowed when her husband died, while the Will of George Morris, made in 1784, named only his wife and two minor children Walter Morris and Ann Morris. By that time the couple’s older daughter Charlotte Morris, who was baptised at South Wraxall during 1764, was married at South Wraxall in 1782. She was the ancestor of the wife of Duncan Pierce who provided this new information in 2016. It is interesting to note that the only son of Elizabeth’s brother William Collett (immediately below) was a widower when he married Ann Morris in 1791. Ann had been born at Lower Wraxall in 1771 and was very likely the minor child mentioned in the 1784 Will of George Morris.

31K5

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at South Wraxall during June 1744, one of the ten children of John and Elizabeth Collett. It was on 13^th September 1764 at St James’ Church in South Wraxall that he was married by licence to Jane Spender or Spenden. As far as can be determined, the marriage only produced the one son, William junior. William senior was mentioned in the Will of his father in 1775, when he received one shilling, whilst it was five shillings that he received following the death of his mother three years later. Unlike his brother Jonathan (below), who took over the family’s carpentry business from his father, no Will has been found for William Collett, nor would it appear that William was involved in the family business.

31L2

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1767 at South Wraxall

31K8

Jonathan Collett was born at South Wraxall on 1^st July 1750 where he was baptised on 8^th July 1751, the son of John and Elizabeth Collett of South Wraxall. According to the parish records for St James’ Church in South Wraxall, Jonathan Collett was 26, single and a carpenter of that parish, when he married Elizabeth (Betty) Jane Batten, age 25 and spinster of that parish, on the 23^rd March 1778. Also listed in the records of the church (shown right) are the details of only four of the couple’s twelve children, and they are William, James, James, and Mary.

Following the death of his father around 1774-75 Jonathan received one shilling under the terms of the Will proved at Salisbury on 5^th December 1775, plus a half share in the family’s carpentry and wheelwright business. Then, following the death of his mother three years later, he was named as Jonathan Collett the sole executor of her estate, and inherited several pieces or parcels of freehold land in South Wraxall, plus the rest and residue of her goods, chattels, rights and effects of her estate. Jonathan died after 24^th March 1808, since that was the day that the last Will and Testament of Jonathan Collett as carpenter of Bradford Leigh was made which was later proved at Salisbury. The document was signed that day with his full name, when the two witnesses were John Batten, a relative of his wife, and Edward Luxford.

Thanks to Carol L Davis we now have a copy of the 1808 Will of Jonathan Collett, a transcribed copy of which can be found in Legal Documents on the Collett website. Mentioned in the Will are his wife Elizabeth Collett, his son John Collett, and his three daughters Jane Collett, Ann Collett and Elizabeth Wiltshire - the wife of Thomas Wiltshire. Of his other nine children, four of them had suffered childhood deaths, but why the other five, including eldest son Jonathan, were not mentioned remains a mystery.

31L3

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1779 at South Wraxall

31L4

Jonathan Collett

Born in 1780 at South Wraxall

31L5

Mary Collett

Born in 1781 at South Wraxall

31L6

William Collett

Born in 1782 at South Wraxall

31L7

Jane Collett

Born in 1783 at South Wraxall

31L8

William Collett

Born in 1784 at South Wraxall

31L9

John Collett

Born in 1787 at South Wraxall

31L10

Ann Collett

Born in 1788 at South Wraxall

31L11

William Collett

Born in 1790 at South Wraxall

31L12

James Collett

Born in 1792 at South Wraxall

31L13

James Collett

Born in 1795 at South Wraxall

31L14

Mary Collett

Born in 1797 at South Wraxall

31K9

Eleanor Collett was born at South Wraxall around 1752, the last child born to John and Elizabeth Collett. Whilst no birth or baptism record has been found for Eleanor, her existence in the family has been provided by her inclusion in the 1761 Will of her father, when she received one shilling – as did all of her siblings, and then again in the 1778 Will of her mother, when she received five pounds. It seems highly likely that she never married, since the premature death of Eleanor Collett took place at South Wraxall in 1779, where she was buried on 3^rd June 1779.

31L1

Thomas Collett was born on 15^th June 1761 and he married Mary S Watson during 1784 at Holy Trinity Church in Bradford-on-Avon. Included in the list of ten children below, previously displayed in Appendix Two, is the couple’s last child, their son Thomas Collett who was born in 1802. Another Thomas Collett (Ref. 31M12), born at South Wraxall around that same time, was the brother of William and George Collett who were the confirmed as the sons of William Collett (below) and Ann Morris. That Thomas was unmarried in 1841 but was married later that same year to Sarah Baggs, not to be confused with Thomas the son of Thomas and Mary who married Sarah Humphries in 1839, as detailed below.

31M1

Hannah Collett

Born circa 1785; died in 1789

31M2

Harry Collett

Born circa 1786; died in 1793

31M3

William Collett

Born in 1788

31M4

Hannah Collett

Born circa 1789

31M5

Rachel Collett

Born circa 1791; died in 1795

31M6

Thirza Collett m Samuel Mizen in 1816

Born circa 1793

31M7

Anna Collett

Born circa 1795; died in 1795

31M8

Mary Collett

Born in 1798

31M9

Bridget Collett

Born circa 1800; died in 1805

31M10

Thomas Collett

Born in 1802

31L2

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at South Wraxall in 1767, the only known child of William Collett and Jane Spender and was baptised there on 5^th June 1767. It was around 1787 when he was first married, that marriage lasting less than four years, leaving widower William Collett free to marry Ann Morris at South Wraxall on 6^th October 1791. Ann had been born at Lower Wraxall in 1771 – see earlier details regarding the marriage between Elizabeth Collett (William’s aunt) and George Morris who were married at South Wraxall in 1755, whose daughter Ann Morris was named as a minor in her father’s Will of 1784. William Collett was a butcher and he died during the years 1836 and 1837. His widow Ann Collett nee Morris passed away during the following years, presumably before 1841, since no record of her has been found in the census that year. It is believed that William had a total of twelve children from his two marriages, although only three are listed below.

Also born at South Wraxall around the same time as his three known sons, named below, were the two grandsons of Thomas Collett (Ref. 44J12) and Jane Woodman, whose father was another William Collett (Ref. 44K4). However, when they were baptised at St James’ Church in South Wraxall it was only the boy’s father’s name that was written in the parish register. Therefore, the previous assumption that his wife was Ann Morris, has now been disproved thanks to new information received from Carol Lyn Davis in Fort Worth, Texas. The very detailed information kindly provided by Carol in 2014 has confirmed that George, Thomas and William were indeed the sons of William Collett by his second wife Ann Morris.

31M11

George Collett

Born in 1796 at South Wraxall

31M12

Thomas Collett

Born in 1802 at South Wraxall

31M13

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1805 at South Wraxall

31L3

Elizabeth Collett was born at South Wraxall during 1779, the first of the thirteen children of Jonathan Collett and Elizabeth Jane Batten. From the contents of the 1808 Will of her father it is established that she married Thomas Wiltshire who were both still alive in March that year, with Elizabeth receiving the sum of twenty Pounds.

31L4

Jonathan Collett was born at South Wraxall around 1780 and was the eldest son of Jonathan Collett and Elizabeth Jane Batten. He later married Jane and, originally printed here, their only known child, John Batten Collett, named after his maternal grandmother, was born at South Wraxall, where he also died at the age of just five years in 1811. It has since been discovered in 2013 that Jane Collett, a pauper and a widow with a rounded age 60, was residing at a dwelling in White Hill off Woolley Street in Bradford-on-Avon at the time of the census in 1841. Living there with her were a further two children, George Collett who was 17 and Harriet Collett who was 14, both of them born in Wiltshire and both of them employed as F S (farm servants).

Furthermore, the baptism of George and Harriet were both recorded in the parish records at South Wraxall. This new information therefore places twenty years between the couple’s first-born child and their last. That latter event also means that Jonathan Collett of South Wraxall died after 1826. Therefore, it seems safe to assume that other children were born to Jonathan and Jane during the years from 1807 to 1821. The later record of the marriage of their son George in 1847 stated that his father, Jonathan Collett, was a shepherd.

31M14

John Batten Collett

Born in 1806 at South Wraxall

31M15

George Collett

Born in 1822 at South Wraxall

31M16

Harriet Collett

Born in 1826 at South Wraxall

31L6

William Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1782 and died there that same year, the son of Jonathan Collett and Betty Batten.

31L7

Jane Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1783 and was baptised at Bradford-on-Avon on 12^th October 1783, the daughter of Jonathan and Betty Collett. When her father made his Will in 1808, unmarried Jane Collett was one of only four of his thirteen children named therein, to receive Twenty Pounds.

31L8

William Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1784 and died there two years later during 1786, the son of Jonathan and Betty Collett.

31L9

John Collett was born at South Wraxall during August 1787, the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Jane Collett. He was around twenty-one when his father died, following which, John Collett was one of the four siblings, together with their mother, who were named as beneficiaries under the terms of his Will made in 1808. Three years later John Collett was married at Melksham by banns to Charlotte Crook on 28^th November 1811. The marriage register entry confirmed that John was a bachelor of Bradford and that Charlotte was a spinster of the parish of Melksham. Both signed the book in their own hand and one of the witnesses was Richard Crook, Charlotte’s father or brother. During his life John was a yeoman farmer and a carpenter and he died at South Wraxall two years before his wife on 22^nd August 1835 at the age of 48, following which he was buried there in the family tomb – see details below.

John Collett, a farmer of South Wraxall, made his Will on 2^nd March 1833 in which just his wife Charlotte and his son William were specifically named. It was exactly seven months after his death that an affidavit was signed by his wife on 22^nd March 1836, following which the Will of John Collett was proved on 11^th September 1837. His widow Charlotte Collett nee Crook was born in 1789 and came from the village of Beanacre, near Melksham. She died at South Wraxall on 9^th September 1837 at the age of 48, just two days before her husband’s Will was proved, following which she was buried with her husband in the family tomb on 14^th September. Upon the earlier death of his father in 1808 John helped his widowed mother on the family’s farm and following her later death he inherited 2½ acres of leasehold land at South Wraxall, plus an equal share of the rest of her estate.

In the first national census of 1841 the children of John and Charlotte Collett were living at “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford”, within the Bradford Union North Western registration district. This is understood to be South Wraxall, which lies two miles north of Bradford-on-Avon which distinguishes it from Wraxall in Somerset, to the south of Shepton Mallet, and Wraxall near Nailsea to the west of Bristol.

Up until his death in 1835 farmer John Collett had leased Court Farm (right), the lease for which was subsequently taken over by his son William Batten Collett, who is known to have continued to farm there during the 1840s. John and Charlotte are known to have had nine children between 1811 and 1830, with eight of them listed below, and all of them were born at South Wraxall. However, only the baptism records for two of the children have been located and they are for the brothers John and Andrew.

At the baptism of the aforementioned brothers John and Andrew in the Church of St James at South Wraxall their parents were confirmed as John and Charlotte Collett. In addition, the brothers’ appearance in the census of 1841 also serves to confirm another three siblings, William, Betsy and Arabella. In the census return that year for ‘Upper Wraxhall within the Wraxhall Chapelry’ the children of the family were still involved in farming, since all of the siblings, irrespective of their age and gender, were recorded as being yeoman. They were Wm Collett aged 24, John Collett aged 20, Andrew Collett aged 11, Betsy Collett aged 23, Arabella Collett aged 19, Sarah Collett aged 23 and Matilda Collett who was one year old, the latter two being the wife and first child of William Batten Collett, the head of the household, following the death of his parents prior to 1841.

Also living at ‘Upper Wraxhall’ in 1841 were three other Collett families, all related to each other and all living adjacent to each other, but some dwellings away from the family of William Batten Collett (Ref. 31M8). They were his cousins, one-step removed, the first of them being carpenter Thomas Collett (Ref. 31M12) who was 35. Living next door to him was his older brother and widower George Collett (Ref. 31M11), a sawyer of 44, who had living with him his three children Thos Collett aged 20, Geo Collett aged 18 and Sarah Collett who was 14, all of them agricultural labourers. Immediately next door to them was George’s widowed brother William Collett (Ref. 31M13) aged 34 and an agricultural labourer who had with him, his two children John Collett who was eight and Jane Collett who was seven. The brothers George and William were still living at Upper Wraxhall in 1851, but by then they were living in the same dwelling.

The Will of yeoman farmer John Collett made on 2^nd March 1833, filed on 22^nd March 1836 and proved at Bradford on 11^th September 1837, named his wife Charlotte as the executor of his estate, in which everything was bequeathed to his wife Charlotte and, upon her death, to his son William - providing that she did not re-marry following his demise. With Charlotte dying just two years after John, the estate presumably then passed onto their surviving children. It was shortly after the census in 1841, that the children of John and Charlotte moved to London, with the exception of their son Andrew who went to live in Bath.

The churchyard of St James in South Wraxall contains the tomb of this particular Collett family, where John and his wife Charlotte are laid to rest with their children Matilda and Edward, and possibly others although the names have long since disappeared with age. On one side are the words, “Also Edward the infant son of John and Charlotte Collett who died Feb 27^th 1828 aged 14 months. Also Matilda their daughter who died May 14^th 1841 aged 24 years” This means that she could not have been alive at the time of the 1841 census which took place on 6^th June, suggesting that Betsey Collett was not an alternative name for Matilda, but a separate child.

31M17

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1812 at South Wraxall

31M18

William Batten Collett

Born in 1815 at South Wraxall

31M19

Matilda Collett

Born in 1817 at South Wraxall

31M20

Betsy Collett

Born in 1818 at South Wraxall

31M21

John Collett

Born in 1820 at South Wraxall

31M22

Arabella Jane Collett

Born in 1822 at South Wraxall

31M23

Edward Collett

Born in 1826 at South Wraxall

31M24

Andrew William Collett

Born in 1829 at South Wraxall

31L10

Ann Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1788 and was baptised at Bradford-n-Avon on 13^th April 1788, the daughter of Jonathan and Betty Collett. Like her older sisters Elizabeth Wiltshire nee Collett and Jane Collett (both above) Ann Collett also received Twenty Pounds under the terms of the 1808 Will of her father.

31L11

William Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1790 and was the fifth son and the third of that name born to Jonathan Collett by his wife Elizabeth Jane Batten, who was baptised at Bradford-on-Avon on 26^th September 1790. William is believed to have married Ann Harding at Box, just north of South Wraxall, on 3^rd May 1818, and their only child so far discovered is Catherine. She is of particular interest because she later married Stephen Collett (Ref. 35N16) of Melksham, with whom she raised a family of her own.

By the time of the first census in 1841, William Collett had passed away, leaving his widow Ann Collett, aged 50 and an agricultural labourer, living at Lower Wraxall with her daughter Catherine Collett, who was 18 and also working as an agricultural labourer, presumably with her mother. Ten years after that Ann Collett of ‘Raxall’ [Wraxall] was 60 and was living with the family of her married daughter Catherine Collett, nee Collett, at Melksham in 1851. It seems reasonable to assume that, just over one month later, the Ann Collett who was buried at South Wraxall on 2^nd May 1851, was the widow of William Collett.

31M25

Catherine Collett

Born circa 1827 at South Wraxall

See Part 35 – The Melksham to Wisconsin and Ontario Line (Ref. 35N16) for more details

31L12

James Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1792 and was baptised at Bradford-on-Avon on 20^th May 1792. He was the son of Jonathan Collett and Betty Batten, but tragically died in 1795 when he was around three years old.

31L14

Mary Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1797, where she died shortly after, the last child born to Jonathan Collett and Betty Collett.

31M3

William Collett was born on 20^th November 1788 and is believed to be the third child of Thomas Collett and Mary S Watson. On Boxing Day in 1839, William Collett signed the wedding register at the South Wraxall Chapel on the occasion of his youngest brother’s wedding to Sarah Humphries (above). In the census for Lower Wraxall in June 1841 he was 53 years old and a carpenter living on Ivy Lane with his family. His wife was Elizabeth Deverill who was 55, and living with the couple that year were four of their children. They were Elizabeth Collett who was 25, William Adams Collett who was 20 and a carpenter working with his father, Rachel Collett who was 18 and Urbane Collett who was 16 and also a carpenter. Ten years later William Collett of South Wraxall was 65 and was still working as a carpenter while he and his wife Elizabeth, age 67, were still living in South Wraxall. Staying with the couple that day was their granddaughter Charlotte Adams, aged seven years, who was daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Adams nee Collett, their daughter, who were living nearby.

William and Elizabeth were still living at South Wraxall, near their daughter Elizabeth, in 1861 when William was 75 and Elizabeth was 77. Just over four years later Elizabeth Collett nee Deverill, from Winsley in Wiltshire, died at South Wraxall on 12^th October 1865 and it was less than two years later when William Collett passed away on 28^th May 1867. A single headstone in the graveyard at St James Church in South Wraxall marks their grave, which also includes the body of the youngest son Urbane Collett who was killed seven weeks prior to the death of his mother.

31N1

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1813 at South Wraxall

31N2

Sarah Collett

Born in 1817 at South Wraxall

31N3

William Adams Collett

Born in 1820 at South Wraxall

31N4

Rachel Collett

Born in 1822 at South Wraxall

31N5

Urbane Collett

Born in 1824 at South Wraxall

31M8

Mary Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1798, a daughter of Thomas Collett and Mary Watson, who was baptised there on 12^th May 1799, when she was confirmed as the daughter of carpenter Thomas Collett and his wife Mary. She later married Thomas Rudman at St James’ Church in South Wraxall on 4^th January 1820, when Mary was confirmed as the daughter of carpenter Thomas Collett and his wife Mary. Nineteen years later, Thomas Rudman was one of the witnesses at the wedding of Thomas Collett, Mary’s brother (below), and Sarah Humphries.

Thomas Rudman was baptised at South Wraxall on 11^th March 1798 and his marriage to Mary Collett produced ten children for the couple, and all of them baptised at South Wraxall. They were Samuel Rudman (bap. 12.08.1821), William Rudman (bap. 25.12.1822 - died 30.04.1864), Thomas Rudman (bap. 29.08.1824), George Rudman (bap. 07.06.1827), Michael Rudman (bn. 27.03.1831 - died b/f 1839), John Rudman (bap. 23.02.1834), Mary Watson Rudman (bap. 10.06.1836), Caleb Rudman (bap. 18.03.1838 - died b/f 1880), Michael Rudman (bap. 09.06.1839), and Henry Rudman (bap. 27.03.1842).

Thomas Rudman was a journeyman blacksmith, a profession also taken up by his son and namesake Thomas Rudman junior. It is interesting that when he was 28, Thomas Rudman junior was a lodger at the Grittleton, near Chippenham, home of Thomas Collett aged 30 and from Broughton Gifford. The third blacksmith at the dwelling was William Granger Hulbert from Rowde, between Melksham and Devizes who was 18. He was the eldest son of Mary Ann Collett (Ref. 35M29) from Broughton Gifford and William Granger Hulbert, while Thomas Collett was the younger brother of Mary Ann Hulbert.

31M10

Thomas Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1802, the last child of Thomas Collett and Mary Watson. He was approaching forty years of age when Thomas Collett married Sarah Humphries on 26^th December 1839 at the Chapel in the parish of South Wraxall. The marriage register for that couple contains the following details. Thomas Collett was a bachelor of 36 years and a resident of South Wraxall, a parish clerk and the son of Thomas Collett who was a carpenter and a parish clerk. Sarah Humphries was a spinster of 27 and a domestic servant from Notton at Lacock, the daughter of John Humphries, a gardener. The couple signed the book in their own hand and, in addition to the two the witnesses, the parish record also included the name of William Collett, who signed his name as Wm Collett. He was most likely Thomas’ older brother (above). The two witnesses were Jessie Pearce and Thomas Rudman, the latter being the brother-in-law of Thomas Collett and the husband of his sister Mary Collett (above).

By the time of the South Wraxall census of 1851, Thomas from South Wraxhall was 48 and was still working as a carpenter and was also a parish clerk. His wife Sarah was 38 and her place of birth was confirmed as Lacock, just north of Melksham (as confirmed in their marriage record). The five children living with them at “Upper Wraxhall in the village of Wraxhall” were Mary aged 10, Thomas who was eight, Sarah who was six, Thirza who was four and Henry who was one year old, with the three oldest children attending the village school. It is very interesting that living next door to the family in 1851 was Daniel Adams and his wife Elizabeth Collett, the daughter of William Collett [65 in 1851] and Elizabeth Deverill [67 in 1851], while Thomas’ brother William (below) [42 in 1851] had married Mary Ann Deverill. It seems likely that immediately after the census day in 1851 Sarah gave birth to a daughter, Ann Maria Collett, who was baptised at South Wraxall on 6^th April 1851, but who sadly did not survive.

After a further ten years Thomas Collett was 59 and a carpenter residing at Water Lane in Lower Wraxall. His wife Sarah from Lacock was 49 and their four children on the day of the census in 1861 were Thomas Collett who was 18 and an ag lab, Sarah who was 16, Henry who was 11 and Harriet who was nine years of age. The couple’s missing daughters had already left the family home by then. Mary Collett from South Wraxall was 19 and was recorded in the Bridgwater area of Somerset, while Thirza Collett was living in the Corsham area of Wiltshire, where she was referred to as Theresa A Collett, aged 14, who was also born at South Wraxall.

By the time of the census in 1871 the family was living at South Wraxall, where Thomas Collett was 68 and a carpenter and also the parish clerk. His wife Sarah was 58, and the only children still living with the couple were their unmarried sons Thomas who was 28 and Henry who was 21, neither of them described as having any occupation. It was later that same year when Thomas Collett died, following which he was buried at South Wraxall on 20^th December 1871. His death was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 82) when he was 69 years of age. His passing was confirmed in the next census of 1881, when Sarah Collett was a widow living with her married daughter Thirza Gale at 1 Bridge Cottages, in the village of Box in Wiltshire.

Curiously in the census of 1881, the birth place of the widow Sarah Collett, aged 69, was stated as being South Wraxall, rather than Lacock. Her daughter, Thirza A Gale was 34 and her place of birth was correctly given at South Wraxall, so perhaps it was Thirza who provided the census enumerator with her mother’s details. Thirza’s husband was Samuel Gale, aged 39, a stone quarry foreman who had been born at Box. And living with them was their son George H Gale who was 10 and their daughter Sarah Gale who was seven years old, both of them recorded as having been born at Box, only a couple of miles north of South Wraxall. With no later record of Sarah Collett in the census of 1891, it is probably safe to assume that she died during the 1880s.

31N6

Mary Collett

Born in 1841 at South Wraxall

31N7

Thomas Collett

Born in 1842 at South Wraxall

31N8

Sarah Collett

Born in 1843 at South Wraxall

31N9

Thirza Anna Collett

Born in 1847 at South Wraxall

31N10

Henry Collett

Born in 1849 at South Wraxall

31N11

Eliza Harriet Collett

Born in 1852 at South Wraxall

31M11

George Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1796 and was the son of William Collett and his second wife Ann Morris, who were married there in 1791. By the time he was twenty George was a married man, having a son named after George’s father. By the time of the census in 1841, his eldest son had left the family home at Upper Wraxhall within the “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford-on-Avon”, leaving George with just three of his children. George Collett had a rounded age of 45 and was a sawyer, Thomas Collett was 20, George was 19 and Sarah was 14 years old. Contained within the same census return [HO107] but two pages further on, was the slightly older Mary, who had also been born at South Wraxall, with three of her children. Mary had a rounded age of 55 and the children living with her at Upper Wraxhall were Thomas Collett who was 20 and William Collett who was 16. Her absent daughter Rachel, aged 17, was already working as a servant at the home of farmer Henry Gishford at Mount Pleasant in Upper Wraxhall, for whom her mother Mary was the housekeeper in 1851. The big question is, were George and Mary a married couple who had separated, with son Thomas being the go-between for the two halves of the family. Furthermore, both George and Mary said that they were widowed in the next census in 1851.

Living next door to George Collett and his family in 1841, on one side, was his unmarried brother Thomas (below), while on the other side was his widowed brother William Collett (below) with his young family. Over the following years the two brothers George and William joined forces and, by 1851, they were sharing the same abode at “Upper Wraxhall in the village of South Wraxhall”. Head of the household was George Collett, aged 54 and born at South Wraxall, whose occupation was still that of a sawyer. The only member of his immediate family still living with him was his unmarried son Thomas who was 30. The three other members of the household were William Collett aged 49, described as brother, John Collett aged 18, who was George’s nephew and Jane Collett aged 15, who was described as ‘niece at home’, presumably indicating that she was acting as housekeeper for the men of the house. George’s own daughter Sarah, was very likely married by then.

What is very interesting is that George’s marital status was said to be widower, following his separation from Mary who was living nearby in Upper Wraxhall, where she had taken on the role of housekeeper from her daughter Rachel, at the home of retired farmer Henry Gishford. The census return in 1851, also described Mary Collett aged 65, as a widow. Seven years later, the burial of George Collett of Upper Wraxall took place at South Wraxall on 8^th July 1858 when his age was recorded as being 61 years.

31N12

William Collett

Born in 1816 at South Wraxall

31N13

Thomas Collett

Born in 1820 at South Wraxall

31N14

George Collett

Born in 1821 at South Wraxall

31N15

Rachel Collett

Born in 1823 at South Wraxall

31N16

William Collett

Born in 1825 at South Wraxall; died in 1851

31N17

Sarah Collett

Born in 1827 at South Wraxall

31M12

Thomas Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1802 and was the son of William Collett and Ann Morris, and the brother of George and Mary (above) and William (below). In the census of 1841 he had a rounded age of 35 and, at that time, he was living in “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford” where he was working as a carpenter. Living in the dwelling next to Thomas, was his widowed brother George (above) with his family and, next door to him, was his other widowed brother William (below) with his family. It now seems highly likely that Thomas Collett of South Wraxall married Sarah Baggs.

31M13

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at South Wraxall where he was baptised on 23^rd October 1805, the son of William Collett and his second wife Ann Morris, and the brother of George and Thomas (above). It was on 5^th December 1825 that he married (1) Jane Walters at Biddestone. As far as can be determined the marriage produced at least one child for William and his wife before she died, either during the birth of their son or during the birth of a second child who also did not survive. Following the death of his wife, William was then married at South Wraxall by banns to (2) Mary Ann Deverill from Winsley on 23^rd March 1835. Their daughter was born sometime during the next twelve months and she was named after William’s late wife. It is understood that William fathered a total of four children, although only the three listed below are confirmed at this time.

It may be of interest that another older William Collett (Ref. 31M13) married Elizabeth Deverill around 1810 and, in 1851, their daughter Elizabeth and her husband Daniel Adams were living next door to the family of William’s brother Thomas Collett (above).

According to the census in 1841, widower William Collett, aged 34, was an agricultural labourer living at Upper Wraxhall in the “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford” with his two children, John who was eight and Jane who was seven years old. Living next door to the family was William’s brother George (above) with whom they were living by the time next census was conducted in 1851. Widower William Collett, aged 44 and an agricultural labourer from South Wraxall, was recorded as the brother of head of the household George Collett aged 54. Likewise, his two children were confirmed as John Collett aged 18, the nephew of George Collett, and Jane Collett aged 15, the niece of George Collett.

It was at Upper Street in South Wraxall that William Collett was living in 1861 when he was 53 and still working as an agricultural labourer. Living there with him was his daughter Jane Collett who was 25. Also staying with them were two of William’s grandchildren and they were Tom (Henry Thomas) Collett who was five and born at South Wraxall and John (William John) Collett who was two years old and also from South Wraxall. This raises speculation that they were the children from an earlier marriage of his son John who was living in South Wales by then, although he said he was a bachelor when he married in 1862. Equally they could have been the children of one of William’s unlisted sons or the base-born children of his unmarried daughter Jane. However, with the lack of any further information, it is under the latter assumption that they have been included in this family line. It is known that William Collett died at South Wraxall during the 1860s, perhaps even, just prior to the 1871 census.

31N18

JOHN COLLETT

Born in 1833 at South Wraxall

The following are the daughters of William Collett by his second wife Mary Ann Deverill:

31N19

Jane Collett

Born in 1835 at South Wraxall

31N20

Anne Collett

Born in 1837 at South Wraxall

31M14

John Batten Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1806, the eldest child of Jonathan and Jane Collett. Tragically John Batten Collett was only five years when he died at South Wraxall during 1811.

31M15

George Collett was born at South Wraxall during 1822, the son of Jonathan and Jane Collett. George’s father died sometime after the birth of his younger sister in 1926 since, by the time of the census in 1841, George and his sister Harriet were the only ones living with their widowed mother at White Hill in Bradford-on-Avon. George Collett was 17 on that occasion, while sometime later he left Wiltshire to seek work in Yorkshire. Just prior to him becoming a married man he was living in the Holbeck district of South Leeds, and it was there that he met his future wife.

The marriage of labourer George Collett of Holbeck, the son of shepherd Jonathan Collett, took place at St Peter’s Church in Leeds on 22^nd November 1847 when he wed Susannah Child of Holbeck, the daughter of mason William Child. Both the bride and the groom made the mark of a cross when signing the register. Within two years the couple moved to Halifax and it was there that their only known child was born. In the census of 1851 George was a mason’s labourer aged 25 when he was living at 5 Davy’s Yard on Foundry Street in Halifax. With him was his wife Susanna who was 20 and a worsted reeler from Calverly near Horsforth in West Yorkshire, together with their son William Collett who was one year old and born in Halifax.

Another family move took place during the 1850s when they left Yorkshire and moved to the Middlesbrough area of the country where they were recorded in the census of 1861. George Collett from South Wraxall in Wiltshire was 35 when he was living at Kirkleatham near Guisborough with his wife Susannah who was 29 and their Halifax born son William Collett who was 11. Ten years later the same family was living at Chaloner Street in Guisborough, near Middlesbrough, when George was 45, Susannah was 39 and their son William was 21. Also listed with the family was Hannah J Collett who was two years old and from Eston in Yorkshire (see 1881 Census below for explanation), and Sarah Walker a servant. It was two years later that their son William Collett became a married man and moved out of the family home.

George Collett, age 55, and his wife Susannah, age 49 and from Idle in Bradford, were living at 16 Chaloner Street in Guisborough in 1881, where George was a grocer from ‘Rexel in Wiltshire’ (Wraxall). Living with the couple on that occasion was their niece Hannah J Child, who was 12 and from Eston in Middlesbrough, while Sarah Bennard, who was 15 and from Marske in Yorkshire, was employed by the couple as a domestic servant. The niece Hannah J Child, previously Hannah J Collett in 1871, may have been the base-born child of Susannah’s sister and as such was taken in by the Collett family shortly after she was born, but for some reason later reverted to her mother’s maiden name.

It was two years later that George Collett from South Wraxall passed away at the age of 57, his death recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 361) during the second quarter of 1883. His widow Susannah was still living at Guisborough in 1901 when she was listed as being 68 and a retired grocer. It cannot be ignored that an unconfirmed internet record states that the parents of George Collett, who married Susannah Child, were William Collett and Elizabeth Blissett. However, this completely conflicts with the information contained within the record of his marriage.

Hannah Jane Collett, aka Hannah Jane Child, was born at Guisborough in 1868 where her birth was recorded (Ref. 9d 459) during the third quarter of that year. She later married John Teasdale when she was only 18, the marriage being recorded at Guisborough (Ref. 6d 685) during the second quarter of 1886 when the witnesses were William Millward and Emma Taylor.

31N21

William Collett

Born in 1849 at Halifax

31M17

Elizabeth Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1812, the eldest child of John Collett and Charlotte Crook. It would appear that she only survived for a few years, when she died in 1815.

31M18

William Batten Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1815 and was baptised there on 4^th June 1815, the son of John Collett and Charlotte Crook. Around the time that he was twenty years old his father died during 1835 and, two years after that, his mother died in 1837 leaving William to look after the welfare of his four younger surviving siblings. That he did by taking over the lease of Court Farm in South Wraxall, which was previously held by his father, thus providing a place for the young family to continue to live. William, as the eldest son, was the only child named in the Will of farmer John Collett, which was made in 1833 when William was only eighteen years old. His father’s Will was subsequently proved on 11^th September 1837, two days after the death of his widow, leaving son William to take on the family’s farm.

After a further two years yeoman farmer William Batten Collett aged 24 from South Wraxall and the son of John Collett farmer, married Sarah Penelope James, from nearby Holt, at the Chapel in South Wraxall on 13^th June 1839. The marriage was witnessed by William’s sister Matilda Collett – who died two years after – and Eleanor Collett, although it is not yet determined who she was. All four of them signed the book in their own hand. The marriage was registered at Bradford-on-Avon during the second quarter of that year. Sarah was also 24 years old and had been born at Newgate Street in London in 1816, the daughter of Francis James, an officer in the army, and his wife Mary Miles. Once they were married the couple initially settled in South Wraxall at Court Farm, where their first child was born in 1840.

The census of 1841 recorded that William and Sarah were living at “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford” in Wiltshire with their first child Matilda who was one-year old. William’s occupation was stated as being that of a yeoman, def. ‘a man who cultivates his own land’. It was as Wm Collett, age 24, that he was recorded, while his wife Sarah was 23. Living at Court Farm with the couple and their daughter were four of William’s siblings, and they were Betsey age 23, John age 20, Arabella who was 19 and Andrew who was 11. All of them were noted as yeoman. Serving the family at that time was Ann Shepherd, age 20, who was employed as a servant.

Shortly after the census day in June that year the family was extended by the birth of a son while William and Sarah were still living at Court Farm in South Wraxall, where they are known to have lived and worked until sometime later in the 1840s. By the time of the birth of the couple’s fourth child the family had left Wiltshire and was living in London where the children, including their second son, were baptised. The second child’s second forename, like that of five of his siblings, was Miles, most likely a tribute to Sarah’s mother Mary Miles.

It now also appears that three out of the four siblings of William, who were living with him at South Wraxall in 1841, also made the journey to London, either with him or sometime thereafter. Only his youngest brother Andrew William Collett (below) seems not to have made that move, since he is known to have moved to Bath when he was still in his teenage years. It is also interesting that, after the move to London, some of his younger siblings may have been supported by the Reverend Robert Miles who later employed William’s sister Arabella Collett (below) and eventually took her to Nottinghamshire.

It seems rather curious that no further children were added to William and Sarah’s family during the remainder of the 1840s, unless of course they suffered premature death, which is certainly the case for three of their known children. By the time of the 1851 Census William and Sarah were living in London when their family home was at 20 Prospect Place in St Mary Stoke Newington, within the Finsbury & Hackney registration district of the city. William, age 36 and from Bradford, Wilts, was a gardener, and with him was his wife Sarah, age 35 and from London, and their three children.

Curiously William and his two eldest children were all recorded as having an impediment, either indicating that they were blind, deaf or dumb, since for each of them there was a tick in the final column of the census return. A number of the later members of this family line were deaf or had hearing problems, which may have been hereditary. The three children living with William in 1851 were Mary Matilda Collett, age 11 and a scholar from Bradford in Wiltshire, William Henry Miles Collett who was nine and also a scholar from Bradford, and John Miles Collett who was only two months old and born at Stoke Newington. John Miles Collett was nearly two years old when he died and was buried at St John’s Church in Hackney on 30^th October 1852.

Just one month prior to losing her son, Sarah gave birth to a daughter who also did not survive. Constance Jessie Miles Collett, the daughter of William Batten Collett and his wife Sarah Penelope was baptised at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire on 26^th September 1852, following her birth on 27^th August that year. Tragically the death of Constance Jessie Miles Collett was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 86) during the last three months of 1853, where the earlier death of her brother John Miles Collett was also recorded (Ref. 3a 14). A further death, that of Charlotte Miles Collett, was also recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 113) during the fourth quarter of 1853, although no birth or baptism for her has been found.

Ten years later in 1861 William B Collett, aged 46 and from Bradford in Wiltshire, was still a gardener but with the addition of being a journeyman as well. On that occasion he and his family were living at Sewerage Cottage within the High Cross Ward of the Tottenham registration district, and with him was his wife Sarah P Collett, age 45, and three of their five surviving children. They were Henry who was 20, Amy who was seven and Francis who was four years old. Their son Edward, aged nine years, was a pupil at a school in nearby Edmonton on the day of the census.

William’s occupation had changed back to farmer by 1871, that being consistent with him being described as a yeoman, thirty years earlier. The family living at Tottenham comprised William B Collett age 56, his wife Sarah Collett, age 54, their daughter Amy Collett who was 15, and their son ‘Frank’ Collett (Francis) who was 13.

According to the next census of 1881 William and his wife were living at The Poplars, 9 Markfield Road in Tottenham. Markfield Road was still there in 2009, and at that same time in 1881 William’s eldest son William was living nearby at 2 Markfield Road with his family. William Collett [senior] gave his place of birth as South Wraxall, his age as 67, and his occupation was that of a dairyman. His wife Sarah was 63 and her place of birth was confirmed as the City of London. Living with William and Sarah was their youngest daughter Amy who was then married to James Watson of London.

Also listed with the family in 1881 was granddaughter Ada Collett, age 13, a milkmaid born at Tottenham, who was the daughter of the couple’s aforementioned eldest son William Henry Miles Collett. It can safely be assumed that Ada was working with her grandfather William at that time, in the same dairy business.

Sarah Penelope Collett nee James died at Tottenham on 22^nd May 1888, her death recorded at Edmonton during the second quarter of 1888. She was followed one year later by her husband William Batten Collett who also died at Tottenham on 14^th April 1889 and whose passing was also recorded at Edmonton during the second quarter of 1889.

31N22

Mary Matilda Collett

Born in 1840 at South Wraxall

31N23

William Henry Miles Collett

Born in 1841 at South Wraxall

31N24

Charlotte Louisa Collett

Born in 1842 at South Wraxall

31N25

John Miles Collett

Born in 1851 at Tottenham, London

31N26

Constance Jessie Miles Collett

Born in 1852 at Tottenham, London

31N27

Charlotte Miles Collett

Born in 1852 at Tottenham, London

31N28

Edward Collett

Born in 1853 at Tottenham, London

31N29

Amy Charlotte Miles Collett

Born in 1854 at Tottenham, London

31N30

Francis James Miles Collett

Born in 1857 at Tottenham, London

31M19

Matilda Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1817, the daughter of John and Charlotte Collett. Sadly, following the death of first her father in 1835, and then her mother in 1837, Matilda died on 11^th May 1841 at the age of 24, when her body was placed inside the Collett family tomb with her parents and her younger brother Edward Collett (below).

31M20

Betsy Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1818, the daughter of John and Charlotte Collett. With both of her parents having died during the six years prior to the census on 6^th June 1841, Betsy and her three younger siblings were looked after by her older married brother William Collett and his wife Sarah. So, in the 1841 Census for “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford”, Betsy was recorded as Betsey Collett age 23, living at the South Wraxall home of her brother William, with all of her surviving brothers and sister.

In the previous version of this family line, Betsy Collett and Matilda Collett (above) were considered to be the same person, but the inscription on the family tomb at St James Church in South Wraxall, proves that Matilda had died prior to the census in 1841 and therefore she could not have been Betsy Collett, hence the reason for her inclusion now as an additional child of John and Charlotte Collett.

Just a short while later Betsy’s married brother William Batten Collett left South Wraxall when he and his family moved to London. Betsy and her brother John and her sister Arabella also travelled to London, although it has not been determined if that happened at the same time as William’s move, or a little while thereafter. With no further record found of Betsy Collett, it must be assumed that she was very likely married in London during the 1840s.

31M21

John Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1820, but was baptised at Bradford-on-Avon on 17^th May 1820, the son of farmer John and Charlotte Collett. He was only 15 years old when his father died, and two years after that his mother died in 1837. According to the census in 1841, John Collett was 20 and was living in “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford” within the Bradford Union North Western registration district with his older married brother William who was head of the household. Other members of his family living in the same dwelling were John’s sisters Betsy (above) and Arabella (below), together with his younger brother Andrew (below). All of them, including the girls, were described as yeoman.

It is known that John’s married brother William Batten Collett settled in London during the early 1840s, and that John and his sisters Betsy and Arabella also left Wiltshire for the city, either at that same time or shortly thereafter. It is established that the orphaned siblings had some contact with the Reverend Miles while in London, with John’s older brother William naming his children after him and his younger sister Arabella being employed by him. It is also known that when the Reverend Miles and his wife left London for Bingham in Nottinghamshire, Arabella went with them. It is therefore possible that John also ended up in Bingham, since it was there that a John Collett died during the first quarter of 1851.

As an aside to this, there was another John Collett, a labourer, who was recorded at 6 West Row in the Chelsea St Luke area of London in 1851 who was 28 and born at Bradford in Wiltshire, less than two miles from South Wraxall. Living there with him was his wife Ellen Collett from Kent (formerly Ellen Page of Medway, Kent) who was 21 and a laundress. However, John Collett from South Wraxall would have been thirty or thirty-one years of age in 1851, so perhaps he reduced his age because his wife was so much younger than him. Certainly, the children of their marriage had names from John’s Collett family, they being Arabella Jane Collett (like his sister, below), John Collett, Charlotte Collett (like his deceased mother), Ellen Collett, and William Charles Collett (as his older brother Wm and his deceased father Chas). While the births have been located at Chelsea, no record of the family has been found in any of the subsequent census returns, while Arabella Jane Collett married George Edward Freeman at Camberwell in 1873. One other, very mystery Collett was born and died at Camberwell in 1888, and that was another Arabella Jane Collett of unknown parents, with the death of Arabella Jane Freeman recorded at Kingston-on-Thames in 1929.

31M22

Arabella Jane Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1822. It was as Arrabella Collett, age 19, that she was recorded in the 1841 census for “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford”, when she was living there with her older married brother William Batten Collett (above), following the deaths of both of their parents during the previous five years. It was also during the 1840s that the orphaned Collett children gave up living in South Wraxall, when they moved to London, either with or just after their married brother William moved there. It may have been after they arrived in London that they were comforted in their grief at the loss of their parents by the Reverend Robert Miles. At the time of the census in 1841 the Rev. Miles was living in London where he was receiving training for the ministry.

What is known is the Rev. Miles became a married man during the 1840s and that after that he left London when he took up a position at Bingham in Nottinghamshire. His move north may have also coincided with his offer of work to Arabella Collett, who eventually joined him and his wife there. By the time of the Bingham census in 1851 the Rev. Robert Henry William Miles, age 32, and his wife Mary Miles, age 27, had six children, and to help look after the family they employed eight servants, Arabella Collett from South Wraxall was 28 and a lady’s maid. Ten years later Arabella Collett was still one of eight paid servants of the Reverend Miles (Rector of Bingham) when, according to the census in 1861, she was unmarried at the age of 38, a lady’s maid from Wraxall in Wiltshire. At that time the Miles family was living at a house in Church Street, Bingham, just to the east of Nottingham.

It was five years later at Bingham, and during the first quarter of 1866, that Arabella Collett married George Oaks. At the time of the Bingham census in 1871 the couple was residing at a dwelling in the Market Place where George Oakes, age 54 and from Nottinghamshire, was a printer and an auctioneer, while his wife Arabella Oakes from Wraxhall in Wiltshire was 48. George Oaks was born in 1817 at Mansfield Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire and, at the time of the previous census in 1861, he was married to Ann by whom he had a daughter Jane who was born in 1844. Sadly for George, his second marriage to Arabella only lasted for ten years, when he died at Derby during 1876, at the age of 59.

Following the death of her husband, Arabella was living at Alma Cottage in Chilwell, to the west of Nottingham, in 1881 when she was recorded as being an annuitant. It was also while she was still living in Nottinghamshire that she died there in 1890, at the age of 68.

31M23

Edward Collett was born at South Wraxall in December 1826, the son of John Collett and Charlotte Crook, but also died there on 27^th February 1828 when he was only fourteen months old. With the death of his parents in 1835 and 1837 and then the death of his sister Matilda in 1841, a family tomb was erected in the churchyard of St James Church in South Wraxall where they were all laid to rest.

31M24

Andrew William Collett was born at South Wraxall on 1^st April 1829 and was baptised that same day at St James’ Church in South Wraxall, the son of John and Charlotte Collett nee Crook. Following the death of his father when he was only six years old, followed by the death of his mother when he was only eight years of age, Andrew William Collett was placed under the care of his older married brother William Collett (above) at his home in “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford” where he was 11 years old in the census of 1841.

At the time of his marriage to Sarah Curnick, nine years later on 12^th May 1850 at Walcot Parish Church in Bath, Andrew was a resident at 7 Guinea Lane in the Walcot district of the city. In addition to that, the marriage register also confirmed that his late father’s name was John Collett and that he was a farmer. Sarah was the daughter of Robert and Hester Curnick and was baptised on 3^rd June 1827 at Winsley, a village to the west of Bradford-on-Avon. In 1841 Sarah was living with her parents at Beanacre near Melksham but, at the time of the wedding, her address was given as being 5 Myrtle Place in Walcot.

Ten months after their wedding day the couple was living at Atworth in the Melksham registration area where they were recorded in the 1851 Census. Andrew, age 22, was a cabinet maker, and his wife Sarah was 24. Shortly after that the couple moved to live at Portsea in Portsmouth where their first child was born. It would appear that they were only at Portsea for a short while, since their next two children were born while the family was living south of the River Thames in London. However, their fourth and fifth children, Sarah and William, were born at Shepton Mallet and at Clifton in Bristol respectively, before the family returned to London where the last two children were born. The rapid change of address in quick succession perhaps indicated that it was Andrew’s occupation as a cabinet maker that was the reason for their mobility.

At the time of the birth of their son John Collett in March 1856, Andrew and Sarah were living at 54 Hardwick Place in Plumstead near Woolwich, but five years later in 1861 the census confirmed that the family had moved again and, on that occasion, they were living at 20 Holywell Row in Shoreditch. The family at that time comprised Andrew, who was 32, his wife Sarah, and their children, Margaret Collett (who must have been Mary) was eight years old and born at Portsmouth, Thomas R Collett (who must have been John R) was five, Sarah E Collett was three and William A Collett was under one year old. In addition to the changed names for the couple’s two oldest children, there was no daughter Charlotte. Instead there was a child by the name of Blanche who was the corresponding age of six years that Charlotte would have been. The differing name for their oldest son continued in subsequent censuses.

Further changes of address took place during the 1860s and the 1870s. In 1871 they were living at 5 Pleasant Row in Shoreditch, at which time the family comprised Andrew, aged 42, his wife Sarah who was 44, and their children Mary A Collett aged 18, John R Collett aged 15, William A Collett aged 11, Henry Collett who was five and George Collett who was two years old. It may be of interest to note that in 1881, 11 Pleasant Row in nearby Islington was the home of Andrew’s cousin Frederick William Collett (above) who was born at Shoreditch.

By the twenty-second of April in 1877 the family was residing at George Street in Bethnal Green, but four years after that they had moved yet again and were recorded in the 1881 Census as living at 31 Homer Road in the Homerton area of Hackney. The family at that time was made up of cabinet maker Andrew who was 52, Sarah who was 54 and an upholstress born at Winsley in Wiltshire, their married son Thomas Collett [John Robert] who was 24 and of Woolwich together with his pregnant wife Sarah from Shoreditch who was 23, and their three other sons William Collett age 20 who had been born at Bristol, Henry Collett age 15 who had been born within the City of London and George Collett who was 11 who had been born at Shoreditch. The house at 31 Homer Road must have been a fairly substantial property since it was also home to Andrew’s and Sarah’s eldest married daughter Mary and her husband William Cottle and their four children.

Sometime during the next ten to fifteen years Andrew and Sarah moved to 2 The Grove in Mare Street in Hackney where they were living at the time of Andrew’s death. Andrew William Collett died at the Homerton Infirmary (Hackney Wick Infirmary) in Hackney on 28^th October 1899, the cause of death being recorded as senile decay and acute pneumonia with which he had suffered during the previous eight days.

Following the death of her husband, Sarah left The Grove and settled in her new home at 72 Chalgrove Road in Hackney, where she continued to work as an upholsterer. However, Sarah was only a widow for just over two years when she died on 12^th January 1902 at the Braxton Infirmary in Hackney. The cause of death was recorded as senile decay and bronchitis.

31N31

Mary Arabella Collett

Born in 1852 at Portsea, Hants

31N32

Charlotte Matilda Collett

Born in 1854 at Peckham, Kent

31N33

John Robert Collett

Born in 1856 at Woolwich, London

31N34

Sarah Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1858 at Shoreditch, London

31N35

William Andrew Collett

Born in 1860 at Clifton, Bristol

31N36

Henry John Collett

Born in 1865 at London

31N37

George Collett

Born in 1869 at Shoreditch

31N1

Elizabeth Collett was born at South Wraxall on 4^th April 1813 and had a rounded age of 25 when she was living at South Wraxall with her parents William Collett and Elizabeth Deverill in 1841. She was a school teacher and it was during the following year that she married Daniel Adams from Atworth on 28^th August 1842. Daniel was a plasterer, as was his father Daniel Adams. Their first child was born at South Wraxall the very next year and by 1851 their marriage had given them a daughter and two sons. Furthermore, on the day of the census that year, their daughter Charlotte Adams was seven years old and was staying with Elizabeth’s parents in South Wraxall. Elizabeth Adams nee Collett was 38 by then and was 48 in 1861 when her husband Daniel was 50, son William was 15 and son Daniel was 13, both of them farm servants.

By 1871 Daniel Adams was 59 and his wife Eliza Adams was 58 and a schoolmistress. Two members of their family were living with them at South Wraxall on that occasion and they were their unmarried daughter Louisa Adams who was 20 and their grandson William Henry Adams who was six years old. Five years earlier it was very likely their daughter Charlotte Adams who was one of the witnesses at the wedding of Thirza Anne Collett (Ref. 31N9) and Samuel Gale which was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon in 1866. At headstone in the churchyard of St James Church in South Wraxall confirms that Eliza Adams nee Collett died at South Wraxall on 3^rd November 1895. The inscription reads “A worthy instructress of children of this village .... Many of her grateful scholars and other friends have joined the vicar and her sons in raising this memorial to a good and useful life”.

31N5

Urbane Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1824, the son of William Collett and Elizabeth Deverill. In 1841 he was 16 and a carpenter working alongside his father and older brother. He married Thirza Sophia Budman on 13^th August 1861 with whom he had two sons. Urbane was a marine artillery man who may have been killed in action, as he died on 23^rd August 1865. A gravestone close to the rear wall of St James Church in South Wraxall records the death of Urbane Collett, together with those of his parents, as follows: “In Memory of William Collett died 28 May 1867 aged 83 and Elizabeth his wife died October 12 1865 aged 84 Also Urbane their son who died August 23 1865 age 40”

On the occasion of the next census in 1871 Sophia, his widow, was 38 when she was living at Bobbingworth, not far from High Ongar in Essex, with her two sons. They were William Collett who was eight, and Arthur Collett who was six years old and very likely born after the death of his father. Ten years later the widow Thirza Sophia Collett, aged 49 and from Wraxall in Wiltshire, was living on her own at Paslow Common in High Ongar in 1881.

Also by 1881, according to the census return that year, her son Arthur Collett, who was 16 and born at Bath, was living at 10 Gresham Street in St John Zachary in London from where he was employed as a cashier. He was described as nephew to head of the household Henry Cooper who was 45 and a packer and porter from Walton-on-Thames. His wife Rhoda Cooper was 47 and had been born at South Wraxall and therefore she was in all probability his mother’s younger sister, the former Rhoda Budman.

It was just over nine years after that when Thirza Sophia Collett nee Budman died at the age of 58, her death recorded at Ongar register office (Ref. 4a 163) during the third quarter of 1890. During her life Thirza was a school mistress at Nine Ashes Infant School in High Ongar which was built in 1865. In addition to this, the Kelly’s Directory in 1878 also confirmed that there was an average of 33 children at the school. It is interesting that Elizabeth Adams nee Collett (above), the older sister of Thirza’s husband Urbane Collett, was also a school teacher, so perhaps they worked together at South Wraxall before they were married.

31O1

William Collett

Born in 1862 at Bath

31O2

Arthur Collett

Born in 1864 at Bath

31N6

Mary Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1841, the eldest child of Thomas Collett and Sarah Humphries. In the census of 1851 Mary Collett was 10 years old when she and her family were residing at Upper Wraxall in the village of Wraxall. However, ten years later Mary Collett from South Wraxall was 19 when she was recorded in the Bridgwater area of Somerset. No other member of her family has been identified within the census of 1861 except for Mary’s younger sister Thirza, recorded in error as Theresa A Collett aged 14, who was a nursemaid, living and working in the Wiltshire village of Box.

31N7

Thomas Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1842, where he was baptised on 16^th October 1842, the son of Thomas and Sarah Collett. He was eight years old in the 1851 Census for “Upper Wraxhall in the village of South Wraxhall” within the Bradford-on-Avon South-Eastern registration district where he was living with his parents Thomas and Sarah, and the rest of his family. Twenty years later at the age of 28 Thomas was living within the north-western registration area of Bradford which once again confirmed he was born at South Wraxall.

It was four years later that he married (1) Martha Legg who was ten years younger than Thomas, Martha having been born at Annington-on-Avon (?) in 1852. Their marriage was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 210a) during the third quarter of 1875, when she was only 31. According to the 1881 Census Thomas Collett of South Wraxall was 38 and was employed as a sawyer and parish clerk at Lower Wraxall, while his wife Martha was 28. The marriage had produced four children for the couple by that time and all of them had been born at South Wraxall. They were Thomas Jonathan (?) Collett who was four, Henry Collett who was three, Alice Collett who was two and William Collett who was just three months old.

Less than four years later, the death of Martha Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 82) during the fourth quarter of 1884. After two years as a widower, Thomas Collett married (2) Cecilia Ann Morris during the second quarter of 1887, the event recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 241). Cecilia was the daughter of George Morris of South Wraxall and his wife Ann, with whom she was still living at Lower Wraxall in 1881 aged 28. In the next two censuses of 1891 and 1901, Thomas and his wife Cecilia were still residing in South Wraxall. In the first of them, Thomas was 48 and Cecilia was 38, when all four children from his first marriage were again living with him. They were Thomas who was 14, Henry who was 13, Alice who was 12 and William who was 10 years of age.

However, just after the turn of the century only Thomas, at the age of 58 and Cecilia, age 50, were still living at South Wraxall. The census of 1901 confirmed that Cecilia was born at South Wraxall like Thomas, who was working as a domestic gardener. Their daughter Alice had left home to be married by then and two of their sons had moved to Yorkshire, where they were employed on the railway. The couple’s other son Henry was still living locally in Bradford-on-Avon. Eight years later, the death of Cecilia Collett was recorded at Devizes register office (Ref. 5a 48) during the third quarter of 1909, when she was 56. Losing his wife may be the reason that Thomas has not been easily identified with the census of 1911, while it was after a further eight years that his death was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 5a 127) during the last four months of 1919.

31O4

Thomas Emanuel Collett

Born in 1876 at South Wraxall

31O5

Henry Collett

Born in 1877 at South Wraxall

31O6

Alice Collett

Born in 1878 at South Wraxall

31O7

William Collett

Born in 1880 at South Wraxall

31N8

Sarah Collett was born at South Wraxall at the end of 1843 and was baptised there on 5^th January 1844, another child of Thomas Collett and Sarah Humphries. She was six years old in the 1851 Census, when she was living at Upper Wraxhall with her family. However, no record of her or her family has been located in the census of 1861, nor has any record of Sarah been found in 1871, by which time she was very likely married.

31N9

Thirza Anne Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1847 where she was four years old in 1851, when living at “Upper Wraxhall” with her parents. In 1861, at the age of 14, when she was recorded as Theresa Collett, a nursemaid, who was living and working at ‘Henley’ in the Wiltshire village of Box, the home of the Pinchin family. Five years later Thirza Anna Collett married Samuel Gale, the son of George Gale, at South Wraxall on 26^th December 1866, when her father was confirmed as Thomas Collett. Thirza had met Samuel while she was in Box, where he had been born, and with whom she had three children. Their marriage was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 5a 275) during the last three months of 1866, when the witnesses were Charles Gullis and Charlotte Adams, the likely daughter of Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 1841/2) and Daniel Adams. According to the 1881 Census Thirza A Gale, aged 34, and her husband Samuel, who was 39 and a stone quarry foreman, were living at 1 Bridge Cottages in Box. Living with them were their two daughters Alice Gale, aged 12, and Sarah Gale who was seven and their son George H Gale who was 10, and all three of them born at Box. Also living with the family was Thirza’s widowed mother Sarah Collett, aged 69, whose relationship to Samuel Gale as head of the house was that of mother-in-law. Just under six years later, the death of Thirza A Gale was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 42) during the first three months of 1887, when she was 40 years old.

31N10

Henry Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1849, where he was baptised on 8^th July 1849 and was one year old at the time of the 1851 Census. On that occasion he was the youngest of the five children living at “Upper Wraxhall” with his parents, carpenter Thomas Collett and his wife Sarah. No other record has been found for Henry until the 1881 Census by which time he was married with three children. During those intervening years Henry had married Elizabeth Drew on 27^th October 1876 and shortly after their first child was born. Although Elizabeth had been born at Marshfield in Gloucestershire in 1853, once they were married the couple lived at Bath, where their three children were born.

According to the census of 1881 Henry and his family were living at 2 Yew Cottages in the Lyncombe-with-Widcombe district of Bath, just a mile from the city centre. Henry of South Wraxall was 31 and was working as a dairyman. His wife Elizabeth of Marshfield was 27 and listed with the couple were their three children Alice who was four, Thomas who was three and Frank who was just three months old, all confirmed as having been born at Bath.

Ten years later the family still living at Lyncombe-with-Widcombe was Henry age 41, Elizabeth age 38, Alice age 14, Thomas age 13 and Frank who was 10. It is this link to Lyncombe-with-Widcombe which may be the key to unlocking the family’s origins in the late 1700s and early 1880s. The whole family was still living at Bath just after the turn of the century. In the Bath census of 1901 Henry was no longer a dairyman but was described as a farmer aged 51, his wife Elizabeth was 48, and their unmarried children were Alice age 24, Thomas age 23 and Frank who was 19.

It was four years later on 21^st March 1905 that Elizabeth Collett nee Drew died at Bath, as confirmed by the census of 1911 in which Henry was a widower at the age of 61. The census return also confirmed that he was a farmer who had been born at South Wraxall. On that occasion he was living at Violet Bank in Widcombe Hill in Bath, at the home of his eldest son Thomas Henry Collett and his wife and their three daughters.

31O8

Alice Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1876 at Bath

31O9

Thomas Henry Collett

Born in 1877 at Bath

31O10

Frank Albert Collett

Born in 1880 at Bath

31N11

Eliza Harriet Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1852, the last child of Thomas Collett and Sarah Humphries. She was baptised at South Wraxall on 7^th March 1852, when her parents were confirmed as Thomas and Sarah Collett. In the census of 1861, it was as Harriet Collett aged nine years that she was living with her family at Water Lane in Lower Wraxall. She had not reach full age, when she married William Adams, the event recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 175) during the first three months of 1869, when she was around eighteen years of age.

31N12

William Collett was born at South Wraxall during 1816, the eldest child of George Collett, sawyer of South Wraxall. Like his father, William also worked with wood and later became a carpenter. By 1841 he was no longer living with his father at South Wraxall but, instead, was living and working nearby within the same North-Western registration district of Bradford-on-Avon at the age of 24. It was during the next few years that he married Ellen Cottle who had been born at Monkton Farleigh in 1818. The village of Monkton Farleigh lies just to the north-west of South Wraxall, and it was there that the couple settled, and where all of their children were born.

By the time of the next census in 1851, the family of William and Ellen Collett was living at Rubbell (Rubble) Hill (Rubble Heep in 1861 and Bubble Heap in 1881) in Monkton Farleigh, where William from South Wraxall was 34 and a carpenter. His wife Ellen from Monkton Farleigh was 32, although in the census return her age was incorrectly recorded as 38. On that occasion William and Ellen already had four children, all born at Monkton Farleigh, and they were Edwin Collett who was five, Ann Collett who was four, Whyatt Collett who was three and William Collett who was two years old. The family was supported by a general domestic servant, Mary Elliott who was 15 and from Bradford-on-Avon. Ellen was most likely expecting the arrival of her next child on the day of the census, since their second daughter was born later that same year. However, her absence from the census in 1861 indicates that she suffered a childhood death, and it was probably the same outcome for the couple’s following child, their fourth son Frederick Thomas.

During the next decade the two deceased children were replaced by two more, who were given the names of their departed siblings. The family was listed within the census of 1861 as residing at Rubble Heep in Monkton Farleigh where William Collett, aged 44 and from ‘South Wraxhall’, was a carpenter, while his wife Helen was 42 and from Monkton Farleigh. Living there with them were their eight surviving children who were all born at Monkton Farleigh, and they were Edwin Collet, aged 15 who was also a carpenter, Ann Collett, aged 14 who was a servant, Whyatt Collett, aged 13, who was still at school, as was William Collett who was 12, Thomas Collett who was eight and Helen Collett who was four. The two youngest members of the family were George Collett who was three, while the couple’s youngest child was named in error as May Collett, who was one year old.

Part of the family was still living at Monkton Farleigh in 1871, when William Collett was 56, Helen Collett was 52, and the four children still living at home with them were Whyatt, age 23, Ellen who was 15, George who was 12 and Mary who was ten years old. By the time of the census in 1881 a much-reduced family was still living at Bubble Heap in Monkton Farleigh. William Collett, aged 64 and from South Wraxall, was still working as a carpenter, while with his wife Helen Collett was 62. The only child still living with the elderly couple was their unmarried son George Collett who was 22. George was confirmed as having been born at Monkton Farleigh and his occupation was that of a carpenter, like his father William, and his older brothers Edwin and Whyatt.

With their advancing years and, their apparent absence from the census returns in 1891, it is assumed that both William and Ellen both died at Monkton Farleigh during the 1880s.

31O11

Edwin Collett

Born in 1845 at Monkton Farleigh

31O12

Ann Cottle Collett

Born in 1846 at Monkton Farleigh

31O13

Whyatt Collett

Born in 1847 at Monkton Farleigh

31O14

William Collett

Born in 1849 at Monkton Farleigh

31O15

Mary Jane Collett

Born in 1851 at Monkton Farleigh

31O16

Frederick Thomas Collett

Born in 1852 at Monkton Farleigh

31O17

Thomas Collett

Born in 1853 at Monkton Farleigh

31O18

Helen Collett

Born in 1856 at Monkton Farleigh

31O19

George Collett

Born in 1858 at Monkton Farleigh

31O20

Mary Collett

Born in 1859 at Monkton Farleigh

31N13

Thomas Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1820, the son of George Collett. Thomas was still living with his father at Upper Wraxhall in the “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford” in 1841 when he was 20 and was working as an agricultural labourer with his brother George and sister Sarah (below). He was still unmarried in 1851 when he was 30 and he was still living with his father George at Upper Wraxhall, where he was still employed as an agricultural labourer. Living with him and his father, was his uncle William Collett and his two cousins John Collett and Jane Collett, they being the two children of widower William Collett. It was three year later, during the fourth quarter of 1854 that Thomas Collett married Harriet Nate, the event recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 253). It was on 1^st October 1854 that they were married at South Wraxall, when Thomas’ father was confirmed as George Collett and Harriet’s father was named as Joseph Nate. Harriet had been born on 13^th December 1833, the child of Joseph and Ellen Nate.

No positive sighting of the couple has been found within the census of 1861 and that may be because, at Bradford-on-Avon during the second quarter of 1859, the death of Harriet Collett was recorded (Ref. 5a 81) while previously, on 1^st July 1856, Thomas Collett was laid to rest at South Wraxall.

31N14

George Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1822 and was the son of sawyer George Collett. It was there also where he was baptised on 8^th September 1822. In 1841 George junior was living at Upper Wraxhall in the “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford-on-Avon” with his widowed father and his older brother Thomas (above) and his sister Sarah, when he was 19 and an agricultural labourer, working with his brother and sister.

31N15

Rachel Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1823 and, on the day of the census in 1841 she was a servant at the home of farmer Henry Gishford at Mount Pleasant in Upper Wraxhall, when she was 17 years old. Ten years later, it was Rachel’s mother, Mary Collett, who was the housekeeper for retired farmer Henry Gishford. At that same time, Rachel Collett was 26 and a house servant at the home of the Redman family in Seend near Melksham. After a further six years, the marriage of Rachel Collett and Joseph Viles was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 215) during the third quarter of 1857. Two children were born to the couple, Rebecca Viles born on 28^th March 1861 and Albert Viles born on 21^st May 1863, who was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in Bradford on 19^th July that year.

31N17

Sarah Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1827, the last child of George Collett, with whom she was living at Upper Wraxhall in 1841, when she was 14 years of age. Just over three years later, the marriage of Sarah Collett, daughter of George Collett, and Arthur Waterfall, son of James Waterfall, took place at South Wraxall on 27^th June 1854.

31N18

JOHN COLLETT was born at South Wraxall on 26^th August 1833, the eldest known child of agricultural labourer William Collett and his first wife Jane Walters. During the next year or so, John’s mother died, mostly likely in childbirth, after which his father re-married. However, further tragedy struck the family when John’s stepmother Mary Ann Deverill also died during childbirth in 1837. So, by the time of the census in 1841, John and his half-sister Jane (below) were living at “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford” with their widowed father. By that time, even at the age of only eight and seven respectively, both John and Jane were recorded as being agricultural labourers, which very likely means that they did not receive a school education. Living next door to the family of three was John’s uncle George Collett, and it was with him and his son Thomas that John and Jane and their father were living in 1851. On that occasion ‘nephew’ John Collett from South Wraxall was 18 and was still working as an agricultural labourer, probably working alongside his father, while he was living at “Upper Wraxhall”.

During the next decade John moved to Daren Velen (now Darenfelen) in South Wales where he was a lodger at the home of widow Mary Jones and her son on the occasion of the census in 1861 when he was a coal miner at the age of 27. It was just over a year later on 13^th May 1862 at Bersheba Baptist Chapel in Llanelly when John, a bachelor and a miner of 28 from Daren Velen and the son of William Collett husbandman, married Mary Hannah Jenkins a spinster of Daren Velen who was 27. She was born at Llanelly on 7^th August 1835, the daughter of colliery worker Benjamin Jenkins who was one of the two witnesses at the wedding ceremony (Ref. 11b 220). Both the bride and the groom were unable to sign the register, so made their marks, each with a cross. One-year earlier Mary was employed as a mine tipper at Penffyddlwyr in the census of 1861. It was also in Llanelly that the couple settled after they were married and there also where all of their children were born. Up to the time of the census in 1871 Mary had presented John with four children, although sadly two of them did not survive.

According to the census return that year for Slopes in Llanelly Hill in 1871, John Collett, age 38 and from South Wraxall, was working as a coal miner. His wife Mary was 35, and just three of their children were listed with them. They were Mary A Collett who was eight, John Collett who was six and Jane Collett who was eleven months year old who had probably been named after John’s late mother and perhaps even his half-sister who was living nearby in Llanelly. Staying with the family was Jane’s eldest son Tom H Collett from Wraxall who was 15. Sadly, baby Jane died less than two years later.

Three more children were added to the family during the 1870s, so by 1881 John and Mary had five children living with them at Slopes, Llanelly Hill in Llanelly within the Crickhowell registration district. John from South Wraxall was 48 and a coal miner, his wife Mary was 45 and was from Llanelly, and their five Llanelly born children were Mary A Collett, age 18, who was a general labourer, John D Collett who was 16 and a coal miner, William who was eight and Henry who was six, both attending school, and daughter Harriet who was four years old.

Ten years later, John Collett from South Wraxall, was still living at Llanelly in 1891, when he was 58, his wife Mary was 55, and the children still living with them on that occasion were William Collett who was 18, Henry Collett who was 16 and Harriet Collett who was 13. Tragically, over eight years later, Mary Hannah Collett nee Jenkins died at Gilwern, Llanelly, on 19^th December 1899 at the age of 64, following which she was buried with her two young children in the churchyard of St Elli’s Church in Llanelly.

By 1901 John Collett of South Wraxall was a widower at the age of 68. Even at that age, he was still working as a coal miner and hewer, while he was still living at Slopes Houses in Llanelly with two of his unmarried adult children. John Dd Collett was 36 and a coal miner hewer, and keeping house for him and his father was Harriet Collett who was 23. Living in the house but one next door was George Collett (Ref. 1O69) from Painswick and Cirencester and his second wife Mary Ann Collett, together with George’s stepson John Pritchard, both men working as coal miners and hewers. George and his family had also been living in the Clydach area of Llanelly since the late 1850s. See Part 1 – The Gloucestershire Main Line 1800 to 1830 for details of his separate Collett family.

During the next year John’s only surviving daughter Harriet was married, but died three years later. By the time of the census in 1911, John was living in the Clydach area of Llanelly and Crickhowell at the age of 78, and still living with him was his unmarried son John David Collett who was 46. It was four years later that John Collett died on 2^nd March 1915 when he was 82. He was then buried at the Church of St Elli in Llanelly with his wife and their two children, where a single headstone marks the grave. The headstone also includes the names of two grandchildren who died as infants prior to 1901 and, with a lack of any better information, they have been assumed to be the first two children born to their son Henry Albert.

31O21

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1863 at Llanelly

31O22

John David Collett

Born in 1865 at Llanelly

31O23

William Collett

Born in 1867 at Llanelly

31O24

Jane Collett

Born in 1870 at Slopes, Llanelly Hill, Llanelly

31O25

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1873 at Slopes, Llanelly Hill, Llanelly

31O26

Henry Albert Collett

Born in 1875 at Slopes, Llanelly Hill, Llanelly

31O27

Harriet Collett

Born in 1877 at Slopes, Llanelly Hill, Llanelly

31N19

Jane Collett was born at South Wraxall where she was baptised on 26^th July 1835 and was the daughter of labourer William Collett and his second wife Mary Ann Deverill from Winsley, who sadly died during childbirth in 1837. It would also appear that she was named after her father’s first wife who also died in childbirth. By the time of the census in 1841 Jane, aged seven years, was living at “Wraxhall Chapelry, Bradford” with her widowed father William and her older half-brother John (above). Surprisingly at such a young age, Jane was already classed as an agricultural labourer.

However, the position changed for her over the following years, when she and her family moved in with her uncle George Collett who was living next door to the family in 1841. According to the South Wraxall census of 1851, Jane Collett, aged 15 of South Wraxall, was working as the housekeeper for her father and her brother, at the “Upper Wraxhall” home of her uncle George and her cousin Thomas Collett. She was still with her father ten years later, when the census in 1861 confirmed that she was 25 and living at Upper Street in South Wraxall. The census that year raises a number of issues, the first being that living with Jane and her father were two grandchildren of William Collett, they being Tom Collett who was five and John Collett who was two, both born at South Wraxall. Jane’s half-brother John was living at Daren Velen in South Wales on that day and was an unmarried man, who was described as a bachelor in 1862 when he was married. So, with her younger sister Anne (below) having died some years earlier, those two grandchildren must have been the base-born children of unmarried Jane Collett.

It would appear that Jane left South Wraxall following the death of her father during the 1860s, to be reunited with her half-brother John, since it was there at Slopes in Llanelly Hill where John was living with his family in 1871, which included Jane’s son Tom H Collett who was 15 and from Wraxall. Living nearby at Waenllapria in Llanelly Hill was Jane Collett who was 35, whose place of birth was given as Bradford-on-Avon. On that occasion Jane was unmarried and was the housekeeper for widower Joseph Piner and his two children. At that same time in 1871 her youngest son William J Collett, age 13, was a general servant at Pippet Street in Bradford, the home of widow and retired publican Elizabeth Fielding.

During the next decade Jane was reunited with her youngest son when he left Bradford to join her in Llanelly. At the time of the next census in 1881, Jane Collett, age 45, was living at a property referred to as Llamarch in Llannelly with her coal miner son William J Collett who was 22. Curiously both Jane and William were listed in the census return as having been born at Bradford-on-Avon, with Jane also described in error as a widow. However, it was after 1881 that she married widower Richard Bradley who already had seven children, because thereafter she was known as Jane Bradley. In 1891 Jane Bradley was 55 and Richard Bradley was 57, when they were still living in Llanelly. However, by 1901 Jane Bradley, age 65, was a widow living at Llanelly.

31O28

Henry Thomas Collett

Born in 1855 at South Wraxall

31O29

William John Collett

Born in 1858 at South Wraxall

31N20

Anne Collett was baptised at South Wraxall on 10^th December 1837, the daughter of labourer William Collett of Bradford Leigh and his wife Mary Ann. Her absence from the family in the census of 1841 suggests that she suffered an infant death.

31N21

William Collett was born at Halifax during 1849 the only known child of George Collett and Susannah Child. He was one year old in the Halifax census of 1851 but by 1861 he and his parents were living at Kirkleatham near Guisborough, Middlesbrough when he was 11. It was at Guisborough that William was living with his parents in 1871 at the age of 21, while it was just over two years later that he married Emma Jane Storey. The event was recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 1027) during the last three months of 1873 when the two witnesses were John Hewison and Hannah Upton.

By the time of the census in 1881 William Collett from Halifax was 29 (sic), while his wife Emma J Collett was 24. Living with them at 25 and 27 Redcar Road in Guisborough were their three children who were Edith J Collett who was six, George W Collett who was four and Maud M Collett who was one year old. Emma and her children were all born at Guisborough. William’s occupation was that of a grocer like his father George, and he and his family were supported by Eliza Bennett, age 15 and from Bransby in Lincolnshire, who was a servant at their home.

Living in the premises next door, at 29 and 31 Redcar Road was the family of George Collett from Wortham in Suffolk (Ref. 20P14). George was also a grocer who, at the age of 36, was married to Sarah Jane from Leeds who was 35. Living with them were their five children, and they were Ada E Collett age 11, Maria A Collett who was nine, Sarah E Collett who was six, Maud E Collett who was four and George E Collett who was two. All of the children had been born at Guisborough and the family was support by servant Amelia Nincks who was 17 and from Germany.

See Part 20 – The Suffolk to Australia Line for further family details

In 1891 the family of William Collett from Halifax comprised William who was 41, his wife Emma who was 38, and their children Edith J Collett age 16, George W Collett age 14, Maud M Collett age 11, Elizabeth E Collett who was nine, Ethel Collett who was five, Evelyn Collett who was two and Arthur Collett who was under one year old. Emma was very likely expecting her last child on that day, as the couple’s son Arthur was born later that same year.

By March 1901 William Collett of Halifax was 51 and was working as a house painter, while he was still living at Guisborough with his family. His wife Emma J Collett was 48, and the only children still living at the family home with them were Edith Collett, age 26, who was a cook/domestic servant, Ethel Collett who was 15, Evelyn Collett who was 12 and Arthur Collett who was 10 years old.

Ten years later in April 1911, William Collett of Halifax and his wife had left Guisborough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and had settled north of the River Tees at Stockton, in the neighbouring county of Durham. William was 61, his wife Emma Jane Collett was 58, and still living with the couple were their two unmarried daughters Ethel who was 25 and Evelyn who was 22, although it is established that Ethel was later married during 1916.

Perhaps William later returned to Guisborough to be nearer his son and grandchildren, because it was at Guisborough that the death of William Collett was recorded on 14^th March 1921. At that time, he and Emma Jane were residing at 18 Chapel Street in Guisborough and it was to his wife that probate was granted in Yorkshire on 6^th May 1921, William’s personal effects amounting to £1,260 11 Shillings 6d. Emma Jane lived the life of a widow for a further ten years and she was still living at 18 Chapel Street in Guisborough when she passed away on 10^th March 1931. Emma Jane Collett nee Storey was 78 and her death was recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 808). Probate of her personal effects valued at £869 9 Shillings 9d was granted at Durham jointly to her two eldest sons George William Collett, a tailor, and Arthur Collett who was a draper.

31O30

Edith J Collett

Born in 1874 at Guisborough

31O31

George William Collett

Born in 1876 at Guisborough

31O32

Maud M Collett

Born in 1879 at Guisborough

31O33

Elizabeth E Collett

Born in 1882 at Guisborough

31O34

Ethel Collett

Born in 1885 at Guisborough

31O35

Evelyn Collett

Born in 1888 at Guisborough

31O36

Arthur Collett

Born in 1891 at Guisborough

31N22

Mary Matilda Collett was born at South Wraxall during the first half of 1840 and was baptised at Holt near Bradford-on-Avon on 9^th March 1840, the eldest child of William Batten Collett and Sarah Penelope James. She was listed as being one year old in the 1841 Census for Bradford-on-Avon registration district which included South Wraxall. Towards the end of the decade the family moved to London and in 1851 they were recorded in the census that year at 20 Prospect Place in St Mary Stoke Newington where Mary Matilda from Bradford in Wiltshire was 11 years of age. The same census return also described Mary and her father and her brother William as being blind, deaf or dumb.

Curiously ten years earlier the death of another Mary Matilda Collett took place at South Wraxall on 11^th May 1841, while the marriage of Mary Matilda Collett was recorded at Clerkenwell (Ref. 1b 616) in London during the first quarter of 1861 when she married Thomas Sturgeon or Charles John Haydon.

31N23

William Henry Miles Collett, who was referred to as Henry, was born at South Wraxall in 1841 but after the sixth of June when the first national census was conducted that year. It was also at South Wraxall that he was baptised on 21^st October 1841. By the time of the census in 1861 he was 20 and an agricultural labourer living with his parents at the family home at Sewerage Cottage in Tottenham. By the end of that same year William Henry Collett had married either (1) Esther Butler or Betsey Jones, the event recorded at Lambeth in London (Ref. 1d 629) during the last quarter of 1861. However, it would appear that she presented William with his first child but died either during the birth or shortly thereafter.

Faced with a two-year old son to look after, William married (2) Elizabeth Page on 7^th January 1864 at the Church of St Mary & St Stephen in Spitalfields within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The marriage licence confirmed that William Henry Miles Collett was 23 and a publican, the son of farmer William Batten Collett, and that Elizabeth Page was a spinster aged 26 from 30 Brick Lane, the daughter of carpenter Barlow Page. The witnesses were William Bastin and Catherine Bastin, while it is significant that William was not described as a bachelor, nor was he named as a widower. Virtually nine months later Elizabeth gave birth to the first of their two children, while a double tragedy struck the family around the time of the birth of the couple’s second child. That was when William was once again made a widower, for the second time in just a few short years, and when his son and name sake William Henry Miles Collett suffered an infant death.

It was therefore at the same church in Spitalfields that William then married (3) Mary Ann Herbert on 19^th March 1867. By that time widower William was 26 and was again named as the son of William Batten Collett, with Mary Ann being 31 and the daughter of Edward Herbert. That marriage for William produced a further two children although, once again, the younger of the two children did not survive beyond a few years. According to the census return for 1871 William Henry Miles Collett, age 29, was living with his family in the Edmonton & Tottenham district of London. His wife was Mary Ann Collett, age 35, while just three of William’s five children were listed with the couple, when it is known that four of them were still alive at that time. The three children were Sidney Collett who was nine, Ada Miles Collett who was three and Henry Miles Collett who was under one year old, all three of them having been born at Tottenham. Where missing daughter Elizabeth was at that time is not known when she would have been five years old.

Just after that census day the family suffered with the death of baby Henry Miles Collett, as a result of which there was only one child living with William and Mary in 1881, although it is established that another two were also still alive at that time. The family of three was recorded as living at 2 Cambrian Cottages on Markfield Road in Tottenham in 1881, where William H Collett, age 39, was an out of work publican who had been born at South Wraxall, his wife Mary A Collett was 48 and had been born at Ipswich, while previously absent daughter Elizabeth Collett from Tottenham was 15.

The couple’s younger daughter Ada Collett was 13 and was recorded in that same census as living close by at the home of her grandfather William Collett at The Poplars, 9 Markfield Road in Tottenham. Her occupation was that of dairymaid, so she was presumably working with her grandfather who was a dairyman, while their missing son Sidney was already working in a London Hotel. Whatever happened to the family after 1881 is not known at this time, nor has their whereabouts been revealed in the next census of 1891. What is known is that William Henry Miles Collett died when he was 56, his death being recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 181) during the second quarter of 1897.

31O37

Sidney Collett

Born in 1862 at Tottenham, London

The following children are the result of the second marriage of William H M Collett and Elizabeth Page:

31O38

William Henry Miles Collett

Born in 1864 at Tottenham, London

31O39

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1865 at Tottenham, London

The following children are the offspring of William H M Collett by his third wife Mary Ann Herbert:

31O40

Ada Miles Collett

Born in 1868 at Tottenham, London

31O41

Henry Miles Collett

Born in 1870 at Tottenham, London

31N24

Charlotte Louisa Collett was born at South Wraxall, probably towards the end of 1842, the daughter of William Batten Collett and Sarah Penelope James. She was baptised at South Wraxall on 19^th January 1843 and shortly thereafter her parents moved to London where they were living in 1851. However, Charlotte Louisa Collett had died two years earlier when she was nearly seven years old, her death recorded at Romford in Essex (Ref. 12 156) during the last three months of 1849.

31N28

Edward Collett was born at Tottenham in 1852 and was nine years old in 1861, by which time he was a pupil attending a school on the High Road in Edmonton. What happened to him after that has still to be established. However, the death of an Edward Charles Collett, born in 1852, was recorded at Marylebone in London during the first three months of 1893 (Ref. 1a 425).

31N29

Amy Charlotte Miles Collett was born at Tottenham on 22^nd October 1854 and was recorded as such in the parish register for the Borough of Haringey, the daughter of William Batten Collett and his wife Sarah Penelope. It was also at Tottenham that she was living with her family at the age of seven years in 1861 and again in 1871 when she 15 years old. She was recorded simply as Amy Miles Collett when she married James Edward Watson at All Hallows Church in Tottenham on 16^th December 1880. The Haringey parish register confirmed that Amy was 26 and the daughter of William Batten Collett, while James, aged 25, was the son of John James Watson. Three months after their wedding day James and Amy were living with Amy’s parents at The Poplars, 9 Markfield Road in Tottenham when the census in 1881 was conducted. James Watson was still 25 and a hairdresser who had been born within the City of London, while Amy Watson was still 26.

Over the following decade Amy gave birth to at least three children, with a big gap between the second and the third child, when perhaps there may have been a fourth child who did not survive. All three children were born while James and Amy were still living in Tottenham, and it was there also that the family was still living in 1891. The census that year listed the family as James and Amy Watson, who were both incorrectly recorded as being 34, their daughter Hilda Watson was nine, son Leslie Watson was eight and Claude Watson was four years old.

During the following year another daughter was added to their family and two years after that Amy presented James with their last child, by which time the family had left Tottenham and were living in Hackney. Their time at Hackney was short-lived because in the March census of 1901 the family was residing at 8 Beaulieu Villas on the Seven Sisters Road in Stoke Newington. Living there with the couple were their five children, the first four born at Tottenham and the last at Hackney.

By that time in their lives James from Clerkenwell and Amy from Tottenham were both 45 and described as living on their own means. Their children were confirmed as Hilda Watson who was 20, Leslie Watson - who was 19 and a wholesale newsagent’s assistant, Claude Watson who was 14 - with no stated occupation so perhaps he was in his last year at school, Violet Watson who was eight and Lilian Watson who was six.

Seven years later James Edward Watson passed away, his death recorded at Hackney register office (Ref. 1b 205) during the second quarter of 1908. It is interesting that the probate process provided information that he had addresses at 95 Stamford Hill and 25 Dalston Lane, Dalston in Middlesex and that he died on 26^th April 1908 at 95 Stamford Hill in Stoke Newington. His widow Amy Charlotte Miles Watson was named as the executor of his personal effects valued at £1,890. That sad event may have been the reason why the family moved house and why Amy had to become the breadwinner for her family. The census in 1911 placed Amy Watson, age 57, living just five hundred metres from Stamford Hill at 32 Forburg Road in Stoke Newington when she was described as a widow and a wholesale newsagent. Still living with her was her unmarried daughter Hilda who was 29, and her two youngest daughters Violet who was 18 and Lilian who was 16.

Not long after the census day Amy made another very local move, on that occasion to 32 Darenth Road in Stamford Hill. Tragically it was there that Amy Charlotte Miles Watson nee Collett, aged 57, died on 26^th July 1911, her death recorded at Hackney register office (Ref. 1b 453). Probate was granted to her daughter Hilda Mary Amy Watson, a spinster, for her personal effects amounting to £989 5 Shillings 10d.

The baptism records for her two sons are as follows. Leslie Allan Wilfred Watson was baptised at All Hallows Church in Tottenham on 8^th February 1883, as was his brother Claude Julian Samuel Miles Watson who was baptised there on 21^st April 1887.

31N30

Francis James Miles Collett, who was often referred to as Frank, was born at Tottenham in 1857. He was four years old and 13 years of age in the censuses of 1861 and 1871, when he was living with his parents at their home in Tottenham. Six years later Francis married Elizabeth Jane Atkinson on 27^th January 1877 at Holy Trinity Church in Hoxton. The parish register for the Borough of Hackney gave their age as 20, when the father of the groom was William Batten Collett and the father of the bride was Walter William Atkinson. By the time of the census in 1881 they were living at 12 Bridport Place in Hoxton, overlooking Shoreditch Park. Francis was listed as being aged 24, a packing case maker and carpenter, while his wife Elizabeth was a wooden box maker aged 25 who had also been born at Tottenham. Living with them was their four-month old daughter Florence, who was also born there.

Five more children were added to their family over the next twenty years, two of them born prior to the census in 1891. On that occasion the family was residing in Tottenham but was incorrectly recorded under the surname Collets. Francis was 35, Elizabeth was 36, Florence was 10, Matilda was six and Leslie was two years old. Elizabeth was expecting the couple’s fourth child on the day of the census, with another daughter being born just six weeks later. Over the next eight years the couple’s final two children were added to their family.

All of this was verified in the next census conducted at the end of March 1901 when the completed family was living at 28 Steele Road in Tottenham. Francis James Collett of Tottenham was 44 and a cabinet maker, his wife Elizabeth Jane from Shoreditch was 45, and their eldest child was Florence Amy Collett who was 20 and from Hoxton. All of the other children had been born at Tottenham, and they were Matilda A Collett who was 16, Leslie Wm Collett who was 12, Edith May Collett who was nine, Lilian Penelope Collett who was six and Alice Elizabeth Collett who was two.

Ten years later in April 1911 the family was still living in Tottenham, although by that time the couple’s eldest daughter had left the family home and was living and working nearby in Hackney. The remainder of the family at Tottenham was recorded as Francis who was 54, Elizabeth who was 55, Matilda who was 26, Leslie who was 22, May who was 19, Lillian who was 14 and Alice who was 12.

It was eleven years after that when Francis James Miles Collett died at the age of 65, his death being recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 866) during the first three months of 1922. Elizabeth Jane Collett nee Atkinson was a widow for the next six years and was still living in Tottenham when she passed away aged 72. Her death was also recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 704) during the first quarter of 1928.

31O42

Florence Amy Collett

Born in 1880 at Hoxton, London

31O43

Matilda Ellen Miles Collett

Born in 1885 at Tottenham, London

31O44

Leslie William Miles Collett

Born in 1888 at Tottenham, London

31O45

May Edith Miles Collett

Born in 1891 at Tottenham, London

31O46

Lilian Penelope Miles Collett

Born in 1894 at Tottenham, London

31O47

Alice Elizabeth Miles Collett

Born in 1898 at Tottenham, London

31N31

Mary Arabella Collett was born at Portsea in Portsmouth during either later 1852 or early 1853, since her birth was registered at Portsea (Ref. 2b 407) in the first three months of 1853. Shortly after she was born, the family moved to London where, in 1856, they were living at 54 Hardwick Place in Plumstead. Rather oddly she was referred to as Margaret aged eight in the 1861 Census and was living with her family at 20 Holywell Row in Shoreditch. Ten years later, at the age of 18, she was listed as Mary, when she was still living with her parents who, by then, had moved to 5 Pleasant Row in Shoreditch St Leonards, from where she was working as a carpet sewer.

It was at Shoreditch in 1872 when Mary married chair maker and cabinet maker William Augustus Cottle who had been born at Shoreditch in 1850. Over the next nine years the marriage produced four children for the couple. In 1881 the census revealed that the family was living at 31 Homer Road in Hackney, which was the home of Mary’s parents Andrew and Sarah Collett. The census also confirmed that she was born at Portsmouth and that she was 28. Her occupation at that time was stated as being that of a carpet sewer as it had been ten years earlier, that being the same occupation also taken up by her sister Sarah (below).

Mary and William’s first child was Andrew Cottle who was seven and named after his grandfather, who had been born at Shoreditch, followed by William Cottle who was three and named after his father, who had been born at the City Road Hospital in London. In addition to them there were two further grandchildren who were both 18 months old and they were daughter Alice Cottle and a second William Cottle, and both of them had been born at Hackney. It seems rather curious that the couple’s second and fourth child appear to share the same christian name being listed in the census as ‘William Collett’ and ‘Wm Collett’. However, it was later confirmed they were William John and William Henry.

The family was still living in Hackney on 28^th October 1899, but on that date had moved to 2 Grove Passage off Mare Street, although no record of them at all has so far been found in the census of 1901. The couple’s four children were Andrew Cottle who was born in 1873 at Shoreditch, William John Cottle who was born in London in 1877, Alice Cottle who was born at Hackney during September 1879 and William H Cottle who was born at Hackney in March 1881.

William John Cottle later married Elizabeth Rebecca who was also born in 1877, and by 1911 they were living at 19 Northampton Grove in Canonbury within the London Borough of Islington. They already had four children by then, while staying with the family at that time was William’s widowed mother Mary Arabella Cottle who was 58 and a carpet sewer from Portsmouth.

31N32

Charlotte Matilda Collett was born at Peckham near Southwark in Kent during 1854. In 1856 she was living with her parents at 54 Hardwick Place in Plumstead but by 1861 they had moved to 20 Holywell Row in Shoreditch where she was referred to as Blanche aged six years. Ten years later as Charlotte Collett, age 16, she was a resident of St Lukes in Finsbury. Three years after in 1874 she married (1) Charles Pollikett at Bethnal Green. He was the son of John and Hannah Pollikett and was born in the City of London during 1853. In 1861 he and his parents were living at 2 Constitution Hill off Southwood Lane in Hornsey and ten years later they had moved to 5 Constitution Hill. It was at that latter address that Charles and Charlotte made their home and it was there also where all of their eight children were born.

According to the 1881 Census, Charlotte, age 26 and born at Woolwich, was living with her husband Charles, age 27, a domestic gardener who had been born at City Road Hospital. Living with them were their first three children Edith Pollikett who was six, Frederick Pollikett who was four and William Pollikett who was 18 months old. Also listed with the family was lodger and widower Alfred Pearl, age 40, a harness maker. In 1881 Charlotte’s mother-in-law Hannah Pollikett, a widow and a nurse of 66 years was a visitor at Seeley’s Farm in Back Lane, Streatham in Surrey, the home of cowman John and Eliza Hart.

The family lived all of their life at 5 Constitution Hill in Hornsey as confirmed by the census returns for 1881, 1891 and 1901. By the time of the latter census, Charlotte from Woolwich, who was 46 by then, had been made a widow by the earlier death of Charles Pollikett and still had her whole family living there with her, with the exception of her married son Frederick. He had left the family home and was married to Alice Beatrice Housden and, at the age of 24, he was living at another address in Hornsey from where he was working as a toilet attendance at a local museum. The Hornsey born children of Charles and Charlotte were Edith Pollikett born in 1875, Frederick Pollikett born in 1877, William Pollikett born in 1879, Arthur Pollikett born in 1883, Sidney Pollikett born in 1885, Walter Pollikett born in 1887, Herbert Pollikett born in 1890 and Ethel Pollikett who was born in 1894.

Sometime during the first decade of the new century widow Charlotte Matilda Pollikett married for a second time in Edmonton when she became Charlotte Matilda Newman, the wife of Henry James Newman. In the Edmonton census of 1911 the couple was residing in Hornsey where Henry and Charlotte were both 55. Still living with Charlotte were five of her Pollikett children, and they were Arthur George who was 28, Sidney who was 26, Walter who was 24, Herbert who was 21 and Ethel Pollikett who was 15. In addition to those five children, Henry also had his son William Newman still living with him at the age of 18. Twenty years later the death of Charlotte M Newman was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 754) during the first three months of 1931 when she was 76.

31N33

John Robert Collett, who was referred to in different ways during his life, was born on 21^st March 1856, the son of Andrew Collett and Sarah Curnick. At the time of his birth they were living at 54 Hardwick Road in Plumstead near Woolwich. In the 1861 Census he was referred to as Thomas R Collett aged five years, when he was living with his family at 20 Holywell Row in Shoreditch. By 1871 he and his parents had moved house and were living at 5 Pleasant Row in Shoreditch where he was referred to as John R Collett, age 15. Exactly five years later, and immediately following his twentieth birthday, he became a married man.

He married Sarah Elizabeth Sharpington on 27^th March 1876 at St Thomas’ Church in Bethnal Green. Sarah was born in 1857 at St Lukes in Shoreditch and was the daughter of John and Frances Sharpington of 10 Hill Street in Shoreditch. In the 1871 Census Sarah’s occupation was that of a domestic servant. According to the next census in 1881 he was again named as Thomas Collett, age 24, who had been born at Woolwich. His occupation at that time was that of a French polisher. His wife Sarah was 23 and of Shoreditch and, whilst she was also listed as a French polisher, she was expecting the birth of the couple’s first child. On that occasion Thomas (aka John) and Sarah were living at 31 Homer Road in Hackney, the home of his parents Andrew and Sarah Collett, and it was also in Hackney where all of their five children were born, with the first two certainly born at 31 Homer Road.

John and Sarah’s first child, their son William, was born later that same year. There is however some confusion with his year of birth since he was described as being 11, 21 and 31 in the following census returns, which might indicate he was born prior to the census of 1881, although that appears to be not the case. It was in 1891 that John, age 35, and his wife Sarah, age 33, were residents in the West Hackney area of London when living with the couple by then were their first four children. William Collett who was 11, Sarah Collett who was eight, John Collett who was three and Henry Collett who was one year old.

Just less than three years later John Robert Collett died on 23^rd January 1894 while he was living at 3 Haywoods Buildings in Homerton in Hackney. It is not known if he died before or after the birth of his final child. However, following the death of her husband Sarah married (2) John Cook in 1896, with whom she had three more children. By the time of the next census in March 1901 Sarah Cook, age 43 and from Shoreditch, was living with her husband brick-maker John Cook, age 44 and from Wandsworth, at 1 Suther Street in Hackney. Also living at that address was the five Hackney born children of Sarah and John Collett, as well as Sarah’s three children by John Cook.

Sarah’s eldest son William Collett, age 21, was working as a glass blower, while his sister Sarah Collett, aged 18, was a Gladstone bag maker. Sarah’s three youngest sons were listed as John Collett age 14, Henry Collett age 12, and Frank Collett who was six years old, and all of them were still attending school. The three Cook children were twins Robert Cook and Thomas Cook, both four years old, plus Harriet Cook who was two years old. Sarah’s daughter Sarah Matilda Collett had left the Cook’s family home prior to the census in 1911, presumably to be married, as had her son John George Collett.

By the time of the census that year only Sarah’s three sons William, Henry and Frank Collett were still living with Sarah and John at 32 White Post Lane, Victoria Park at Hackney Wick, a five roomed dwelling. Sarah Cook was 54, while John Cook was 57. The couple had been married for fifteen years and John was a boot finisher from Salisbury in Wiltshire and Sarah’s place of birth was Shoreditch. The five children of John Cook by his wife Sarah were Charles Cook, age 28 and a glass bottle maker, Elizabeth Cook, age 21 who was working in a jam factory, Robert Cook, age 14 who was a printer’s boy, Thomas Cook, also 14 who was a printer’s joiner, and Harriet Cook who was 12 and still attending school.

The three remaining members of the Collett family still living with the Cook family in 1911 were William Collett, who was 31 and a glass bottle maker, Henry Collett, who was 21 and a printer’s joiner, and Frank Collett who was 17 and a printer’s layer-on. All three of them were confirmed as having been born at Hackney, as had all of the Cook children. One other person was living with the family on that occasion, and he was one-year old Frank Cook from Poplar, who was described as the grandson of John Cook. It was thirteen years after that, when Sarah Cook formerly Collett, nee Sharpington, died at Bow during 1924.

31O48

William Andrew Collett

Born in 1881 at Hackney, London

31O49

Sarah Matilda Collett

Born in 1883 at Hackney, London

31O50

John George Collett

Born in 1887 at Hackney, London

31O51

Henry (Harry) Francis Collett

Born in 1890 at Hackney, London

31O52

Frank Collett

Born in 1894 at Hackney, London

31N34

Sarah Elizabeth Collett, who was also known as Elizabeth, was born at Town Street in Shepton Mallet on 23^rd April 1858. Within the first two years of her life her parents moved from Shepton Mallet to Clifton in Bristol and, shortly after, back to London, where they had lived before Sarah was born. That was confirmed by the 1861 Census in which Sarah was three years old and was living with her family at 20 Holywell Row in Shoreditch. Upon leaving school she took up the occupation of a carpet sewer like her older sister Mary Arabella (above).

She married Walter Clarence William Lifford on 22^nd April 1877 at St Thomas’ Church in Bethnal Green, when her address was given as George Street in Bethnal Green. Walter’s address was given as Cambridge Heath Road, also in Bethnal Green. Walter was the son of Joseph and Amelia Jane Andrews of 9a Seabright Street in Bethnal Green, who was born on 26^th March 1858 at 2 Wood Street in Clerkenwell. He was baptised at St Thomas Charterhouse in Finsbury on 24^th April 1859. His first job was as an errand boy, but his later occupation was that of a French polisher.

What is of interest is that in 1871 Sarah and Walter were neighbours and possibly childhood sweethearts. The Collett family was living at 5 Pleasant Row, while the Lifford family home was at 4 Pleasant Row in Shoreditch. Eight months after they were married Sarah gave birth to their first child while living in Shoreditch. However, at the time the birth was registered their address was given as 31 Homer Road in Hackney, the home of Sarah’s parents Andrew and Sarah Collett.

In 1881 Sarah and Walter had moved back to Shoreditch where all of their other children were born. Living with them at that time at 32 Union Street in Shoreditch were their daughters Sarah Amelia aged three years and baby Agnes who was seven months old. By 1891 the family had moved back to Hackney and were living at 11 Bower Road where Walter and Sarah spent the remainder of their lives together. In April 1911 Walter was 53 and Sarah was 52, and the only members of the family still living with them were Harry who was 24 and Jane who was 20.

It was over eleven years later that Sarah Elizabeth Lifford nee Collett died at 11 Bower Road in Hackney Wick on 3^rd September 1922, the cause of death being valvular disease of the heart. Walter Clarence William Lifford died very soon after his wife on 16^th October 1922, by which time he was listed as living at 230 High Street in Hackney. He officially died of pulmonary congestion from a throat wound caused by suicide whilst of unsound mind. Perhaps he found it difficult to come to terms with the death of his wife only six weeks earlier.

31O53

Sarah Amelia Lifford

Born on 12.12.1877

31O54

Agnes Edith Lifford

Born in Aug 1880 at Shoreditch

31O55

Walter Clarence Lifford – a cabinet maker

Born in 1883 at Shoreditch

31O56

Harry Joseph Lifford

Born in 1886 at Shoreditch

31O57

Jane Lifford

Born in 1890 at Shoreditch

31N35

William Andrew Collett was born at Clifton in Bristol during 1860 and shortly after he was born the family returned to London. For the census the following year, and under one year old, William was living with his parents at 20 Holywell Row and ten years later at 11 years of age they had moved again and were living at 5 Pleasant Row, both in Shoreditch.

By 1881 the family had left Shoreditch and had moved to Hackney and were living at 31 Homer Road where William was 20 and his occupation was that of a porter. Shortly after that in 1883, William married Emily Smith at West Ham in London. Emily was born in 1863 at Bow in London. Their first child was born while the couple was living at Clapton, with all of their remaining children born at 229 Wick Road in Hackney.

In 1901 the family had moved again and was living at 222 Morning Lane in Hackney. The census recorded William aged 40 as having been born in Bristol and that he had changed his occupation and was a carpet planner, a trade allied to that of his older sisters who were carpet sewers. The rest of his family living at Morning Lane comprised his wife Emily aged 37 who was born at Bow, and their daughters Emily aged 17, Isabella aged 13, Harriett aged 11, Maud who was four and Rose who was two years old.

Ten years later in 1911, William and his daughters were living in the West Ham area of London but, so far, no trace has been found of his wife. William was 51, Emily was 27, Isabella was 23, Harriet was 21, Edith was 14 and Rose was 12. What happened over the next twenty-five years is not known at this time, but it was at the South-Western register office for Essex where the death of William Andrew Collett was recorded (Ref. 4a 298) during the final three months of 1936 when he was 76 years old.

31O58

Emily Collett

Born in 1883 at Clapton, London

31O59

Isabella Collett

Born in 1887 at Hackney, London

31O60

Harriet Louise Collett

Born in 1889 at Hackney, London

31O61

Edith Maud Collett

Born in 1896 at Hackney, London

31O62

Rose Collett

Born in 1898 at Hackney, London

31N36

Henry John Collett was born in the City of London in 1865. In both 1871 and 1881 he was living in the family home at 5 Pleasant Row in Shoreditch and at 31 Homer Road in Hackney respectively, and while at the latter he was working as a carman’s van boy at the age of 15. By the time he was 25 he was still single when he was living at 4 Union Street in Chatham in Kent from where he was working as a horse keeper in 1891. Three years later Henry married Marion Rider in 1894 at Hackney with Marion having been born at Poplar in London during 1869. Their first two children were born while the couple were living at Hackney, while the last three children were born at Stoke Newington.

According to the 1901 Census the family was living at 26 Arthur Road in Stoke Newington from where Henry aged 36 was employed as a bricklayer’s labourer. Marian was confirmed as being aged 32 and born at Poplar, while their children were Sarah Collett who was six, Marian Collett who was four, Edith Collett who was three and Henry Collett who was two. Tragically for the young family Henry John Collett died when he was only 44, his death recorded at Hackney register office (Ref. 1b 340) during the first quarter of 1909.

By the time of the census in April 1911 Marion Collett was a widow of 46 (sic) living in the Hackney area of London with four of her five children. They were Sarah Collett who was 16, Marion Amelia Collett who was 14, Henry C Collett who was 12 and Andrew Collett who was 11. Missing daughter Edith would have been thirteen years of age so had perhaps not survived long after the day of the previous census.

31O63

Sarah Collett

Born in 1895 at Hackney, London

31O64

Marion Amelia Collett

Born in 1896 at Hackney, London

31O65

Edith Collett

Born in 1897 at Stoke Newington

31O66

Henry C Collett

Born in 1898 at Stoke Newington

31O67

Andrew Collett

Born in 1899 at Stoke Newington

31N37

George Collett was born at Shoreditch in London during 1869, the son of Andrew William Collett and Sarah Curnick. Two years after the birth he was living with his family at 5 Pleasant Row at the age of two, and ten years after that they were living at 31 Homer Road when he was11. Both addresses were in Shoreditch. Rather curiously no obvious record of George has been found in any census after 1881, and only one other George, who was actually George Frederick Collett (Ref. 28O49) from Holborn, was born around the same time and he and his family can be found in Part 28 – The Faringdon Line.

31O4

Thomas Emanuel Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1876, the son of Thomas Collett and Martha Legg. It was as Thomas Emanuel Collett that he was baptised at South Wraxall on 14^th May 1876 when his parents were confirmed as Thomas and Martha. However, he was described in error as Thomas Jonathan Collett aged four years in the Lower Wraxall census of 1881 when he was living there with his parents and where his father was the parish clerk. He was still there ten years later when, simply as Thomas Collett, he was 14 years old while, within the following decade, he travelled north to Yorkshire. By the time of 1901 Census he was a lodger with the Haywood family at Wombwell, just south of Barnsley, where he was 24 and was working as a railway goods guard, with South Wraxall confirmed as his place of birth

It was three years after that when he married the widow (1) Emily Gill, nee Wheeler, who already had three daughters and two sons by her first husband William Henry Gill. It was around that time in his life that he began referring to himself by his baptised name of Thomas Emanuel Collett. In fact, he signed his name as Thomas Emanuel Collett in the census of 1911, by which time he and his wife and her Gill family were residing at Farm Lea, 60 Long Lane in Hollinwood, one mile south of Chadderton to the west of Oldham in Lancashire. The census return confirmed that Thomas from South Wraxall near Bradford-on-Avon was 34 and a gardener and a labourer employed by Oldham Corporation who had been married to Emily for seven years. Emily was 55 and had been born at West Bromwich. She had been married previously for twenty-two years, during which time she had given birth to eight children, five of whom were still living with Thomas and Emily. They were twins Ethel and May Gill who were 21, Florrie Gill who was 20, and twins Herbert and Horace Gill who were 18, all of them born at Darley Dale in Derbyshire.

Curiously there were four other Colletts living in Wombwell in March 1901, two of whom were also working on the railway. They were Thomas J Collett, age 45 of Bidford–on-Avon who was a station master, his wife Emily H E Collett, age 48 of Stonehouse in Gloucestershire, and their two sons Martin who was 21 and a college student, and Walter 18 who was a railway clerk. The details of Thomas James and Emily Harriet Elizabeth Collett, and their family, can be found in Appendix 1 within Part 56 – The Alcester & Bidford-on-Avon Line under Ref. 56o1.

Being over twenty years older than Thomas, it is very likely that Emily died a few years after 1911 since, seven years after that census day, Thomas Emanuel Collett, a widower, married Catherine Curran on 12^th April 1918 at St Charles Chapel in Glasgow. The marriage certificate not only confirmed that the father of the groom was Thomas Collett, a farmer labourer, but also that he was deceased. In fact, Thomas’ stepmother had passed away nine years earlier, while his father only died towards the end of 1919 at South Wraxall. It is therefore possible that father and son had not been in contact with each other since Thomas had left Wiltshire over thirty years ago.

During the First World War, Thomas Emanuel Collett served as a Corporal with the Royal Artillery Medical Corps and, on the day of his wedding to Catherine, his address was stated as being the War Hospital in Crookston, Glasgow, where he may have been working or convalescing from some injury sustained during the campaign. Catherine Curran had been born in Glasgow during 1888 and was a spinster, whose occupation was that of a hospital laundress. It was therefore possible that they met while Thomas was working or a patient in the hospital. Six years after they were married, Catherine presented Thomas with their only child, their daughter Mary Collett who was born in Leeds on 6^th December 1924. On that day, the pair of them were living at Kirby Wiske in North Yorkshire, from where Thomas was employed as a gardener at the nearby Sion Hill Hall. And it was at Kirby Wiske that he died in 1960.

31P1

Mary Collett

Born in 1924 at Leeds

31O5

Henry Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1877 and was three years old in 1881 when he was living with his parents at Lower Wraxall where his father was the parish clerk. He was still living there in 1891 and in 1901, at the age of 23, he was working as a groom while living at Bradford-on-Avon Without Entire.

31O6

Alice Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1878 and was two years old in 1881 and was living with her family at Lower Wraxall where she was also living ten years later at the age of 12. Her absence from the 1901 Census may be an indication that she was married by then.

31O7

William Collett was born at South Wraxall in December 1880 and was recorded as being three months old on the third of April, the census day, in 1881. At the age of ten years he was still living at Lower Wraxall with his parents but, like his older brother Thomas (above), he too moved north to Yorkshire to seek work around the turn of the century. According to the 1901 Census he was living at Normanton near Wakefield where, at the age of 20, he was working as a railway horse driver.

31O8

Alice Elizabeth Collett was born at Bath in 1876 not long after her parents Henry Collett and Elizabeth Drew were married. She was four years old in the census of 1881 and at that time the family was living at 2 Yew Cottages in the Lyncombe-with-Widcombe district of Bath. By the turn of the century Alice was still a spinster at 24 and was continuing to live with her mother and her father in Bath.

31O9

Thomas Henry Collett was born at Bath in 1877 and three years later was recorded living with his family at 2 Yew Cottages in Lyncombe-with-Widcombe just one-mile south-east from the centre of Bath. The whole family was still together in Bath twenty years later when Thomas was 23 and was working with his father Henry, and was simply described as a farmer’s son. It was later that same year that Thomas married Florence Buck on 26^th December 1901 with whom he had three daughters over the following four years. It was during that period in his life when his mother Elizabeth Collett nee Drew died, so Thomas and his wife and their family remained living with Thomas’ father to help him run the farm.

By April 1911 the family was confirmed as still living with Thomas’ father, the widower and farmer Henry Collett at Violet Bank in Widcombe Hill, just south-east of the City of Bath. Thomas Henry Collett, age 33 and born at Widcombe, was described as a farmer and the son of Henry Collett. His wife of nine years was Florence Collett, age 34 and also of Widcombe, who was described as daughter-in-law. Living with them were their three daughters Gladys Winifred Collett who was seven, Kathleen Florence Collett who was six and Margery Millicent Collett who was five years old, and all three of them listed as having been born at Widcombe. Three more children were added to their family over the following years, although it is likely others may have been born between 1905 and 1913, but did not survive. The death of Thomas Henry Collett was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 555) during the second quarter of 1943, when he was 65.

31P2

Gladys Winifred Collett

Born in 1903 at Widcombe, Bath

31P3

Kathleen Florence Collett

Born in 1904 at Widcombe, Bath

31P4

Margery Millicent Collett

Born in 1905 at Widcombe, Bath

31P5

Esme V Collett

Born in 1913 at Widcombe, Bath

31P6

Kenneth Henry Collett

Born in 1914 at Widcombe, Bath

31P7

Eileen M Collett

Born in 1917 at Widcombe, Bath

31O10

Frank Albert Collett was born at Bath in December 1880 and shortly after he was born the family was recorded as living at 2 Yew Cottages in the Bath district of Lyncombe-with-Widcombe. The 1881 Census gave his age as being just three months. Like his older brother Thomas (above), Frank also worked with his father when he left school and, in 1901, he was 19 and was described as a farmer’s son while still living with his family in Bath. During the second quarter of 1905, Frank married Ada Alice Stennard who was born at Bath in 1879, the event recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 1105). and she presented him with a son the year after they were married. By April 1911 the family of three was living at Lyncombe Vale Farm in Bath, where Frank Albert Collett aged 30 was a dairyman. Living there with him was his wife Ada who was 31 and his four-year-old son Henry.

31P8

Frank Henry Collett

Born in 1906 at Bath

31P9

Cyril T H Collett

Born in 1912 at Bath

31P10

Reginald Arthur E Collett

Born in 1915 at Bath

31O11

Edwin Collett was born at Monkton Farleigh during 1845, the eldest child of carpenter William Collett his wife Ellen Cottle. By the time of the census in 1851 Edwin from Monkton Farleigh was listed as being aged five years when he was living at Rubble (Rubbell) Hill in Monk Farleigh with his family. Ten years later in 1861 he was 15 and had already left school and was working with his father as a carpenter. On both occasions he was living with his family in Monkton Farleigh and, for the latter, their address was Rubble Heep which may well be the same place as in 1851.

It seems likely that it was his occupation as a carpenter that resulted in him travelling around a lot to find work and, at the time of the next census in 1871, the only Edwin Collett of the right age was living and working within the Bath & Abbey registration district of Somerset. He was recorded as Edwin Colletts, age 25, and from Wiltshire. Shortly after that it would appear that he married Mary Ann at Bath, where their first child was born. Within a year the family of three had moved to Bristol where their second child was born, before returning to Bath for the birth of their third child. It is possible that it was during those years in the late 1870s that Edwin suffered an accident that rendered him blind, which forced him to give up his work as a carpenter.

According to the 1881 Census, Edwin and Mary Ann Collett were living at 7 Dover Terrace in the Walcot district of Bath. The census return on that occasion confirmed that Edwin, age 35, had been born at Monkton Farleigh and that he was blind and an out of work carpenter. His wife was 31 and her place of birth was confirmed as Bath. The couple’s three sons at that time were listed as William H Collett, age six years, who had been born at Bath, Edwin G Collett, age four, who was born at Bristol, and ten months old Reginald H Collett who had also been born at Bath.

With Edwin unable to earn a wage, his wife Mary Ann was the income provider through her work as a milliner. The family also took in lodgers to supplement Mary’s income and living with them at that time was lodger and bird stuffer Julia Stower, age 24 from Box. The couple’s fourth son was born during the following year when the family was still living at Walcot in Bath. Sometime after 1882 and before Christmas Day in 1887 the family moved from 7 Dover Terrace to nearby 2 Snow Hill, still in the Walcot area of the City of Bath. And it was there that Edwin Collett died on 25^th December 1887. The Will of Edwin Collett of 2 Snow Hill was proved at Bristol on 30^th April 1888, when his widow was named as Mary Anne Collett of 2 Myrtle Place, Walcot, who was the sole executor of his personal estate amounting to £50 6 Shillings.

By the time of the next census in 1891 his widow and three of his four sons were still living at 2 Myrtle Place in Walcot. Mary Ann Collett was 41 and a milliner, William H Collett was 16, Edwin G Collett was 14 and Arthur T Collett was eight years old. By 1901 his wife Mary A Collett of Bath, age 51 and a widow, was continuing her occupation as a milliner while still living in Bath. With her was her youngest son Arthur who was 18 and also born at Bath. Mary Ann Collett was again recorded as living at Bath in April 1911 when she was 61. And it was while she was living at 6 Highbury Terrace in Bath during October 1917 that she received the tragic news of the death of her youngest son Arthur who was killed at Ypres in the Great War.

The death of Mary Anne Collett, the former wife of Edwin Collett, was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 593) during the second quarter of 1934, when she was 84. An obituary published at that time confirmed the date of her passing as 2^nd June 1934, the widow of Edwin Collett deceased.

31P11

William Herbert Collett

Born in 1874 at Bath

31P12

Edwin George Collett

Born in 1876 at Bristol

31P13

Reginald H Collett

Born in 1880 at Bath

31P14

Arthur Thomas Collett

Born in 1882 at Walcot, Bath

31O12

Ann Cottle Collett was born at Monkton Farleigh in 1846, where she was baptised on 9^th August 1846, the daughter of William and Ellen Collett. She was four years old in the Monkton Farleigh census of 1851 when she was one of four children living there at Bubble Hill with her parents. Ten years later, in the Monkton Farleigh census of 1851, she was still living there at Rubble Heep with her family when she was 14 years old. At the age of 35 she was still a spinster and was working as a domestic servant and housemaid at Clifton in Bristol. The census of 1881 recorded her as Annie Collett aged 35 when she was living and working at the home of George R Woodward a magistrate, alderman and vinegar maker of 1 Cornwallis Grove in Clifton.

It would appear that she never married and, after a further twenty years, Anne Collett from Monkton Farleigh was 54 when she was living and working at Bath within the Bathwick parish of John the Baptist where she was a servant at the home of 51-year old Frank Beck. Ann Collett was 64 in the Bath census of 1911. However, by then she and Frank Beck, age 62, were staying at 6 Norfolk Buildings in Bath, the home Harry Pym a leather dressmaker of 57 years. Also staying at that address was Elizabeth Ann Collett, Ann’s sister-in-law. She had been born at Truro and was a widow at 54 whose occupation was recorded as a fruiterer and a florist until 1909, but since then having no business in America, currently a visitor at the home of Harry Pym. At that time Ann Collett was described as a retired housekeeper.

It is not clear at this time how Ann and Elizabeth were related, but for completeness it is established that Elizabeth Ann Collett (born in 1856) died in 1931 when probate was granted to Elizabeth Mary Bowden, a spinster, for her personal effects valued at £2,536 5 Shillings 1d.

31O13

Whyatt Collett was born at Monkton Farleigh in 1847, the son of William and Ellen Collett. It was at Bubble Hill that he and his family were living in 1851 and at Rubble Heep in Monkton Farleigh in 1861 when he was 13 and still attending the village school. It was there also that he was living ten years later in 1871 when he was 23. Two years later, the marriage of Whyatt Collett and Jane Goldstone was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 295) during the fourth quarter of 1873. By the time of the census in 1881 Whyatt, aged 33, was a carpenter like his father and eldest brother Edwin (above), when he was living at 8 Lambridge Street in the Walcot district of Bath. Living with him was his wife Jane, aged 37, who was confirmed as having been born at Churchill in Somerset, and their sons Edgar Collett who was six years old and from Atworth, Whyatt Collett who was three years of age and from Frankleigh in Bradford-on-Avon, and Frederick Collett who was one year old, who had been born at Walcot. The final member of the household was their daughter Frances Collett who was five years old and also born at Frankleigh.

Three more children were added to the family over the next ten years and, sometime between 1884 and 1888, the family left Walcot and were recorded as living at West Avenue in Twerton to the west of Bath, in 1891. That year’s census recorded the family as Whyatt Collett aged 43 and a carpenter, Jane Collett aged 47 and their children Edgar W Collett who was 16, Frances E Collett who was 15, Whyatt Collett who was 12, Frederick J Collett who was nine, Sidney Collett who was eight, Albert Collett who was five and Helen who was four years old.

After the turn of the century they were still living at West Avenue in Twerton, where 53-year-old Whyatt Collett was employed as a carpenter and a binder. Jane was then 57 when just five of their children were still living in the family home with them, and they were Whyatt Collett aged 23, Frederick J Collett aged 21, Sidney Collett aged 18, Albert E Collett aged 16 and Helen Collett who was 14 years of age. The Bath census of 1911 confirmed that Whyatt and Jane had been married for 37 years and that they were living at 106 West Avenue in Twerton. Carpenter and joiner Whyatt Collett of Monkton Farleigh was 63 and working within the building industry, while his wife Jane Collett from Churchill near Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset was 67. The only member of their family still living with them at that time was their married son Whyatt Collett who was 33 and a house painter and decorator.

Fifteen years later, the death of Whyatt Collett was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 638) during the second quarter of 1926, when he was 78 years old. It was during the following year that his widow died on 8^th August 1927, her death recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 510), when she was 83. Settlement of her estate took a while for some reason, and was resolved at Bath on 25^th February 1928 in favour of beneficiaries Whyatt Collett and Frederick John Collett.

31P15

Edgar William Collett

Born in 1874 at Atworth

31P16

Frances Eliza Collett

Born in 1876 at Frankleigh

31P17

Whyatt Collett

Born in 1877 at Frankleigh

31P18

Frederick John Collett

Born in 1879 at Walcot, Bath

31P19

Sydney James Collett

Born in 1882 at Walcot, Bath

31P20

Albert Edward Collett

Born in 1884 at Walcot, Bath

31P21

Helen Collett

Born in 1887 at Twerton

31O14

William Collett was born at Monkton Farleigh in 1849, where he was living with his family at Bubble Hill in 1851 and at Rubble Heep in 1861, at the age of two and 12. Just after he was twenty years of age, he married Harriet who was eight years older than William, she having been born in London in 1840. Although no picture of William has been unearthed to date, the smart young lady shown on the right is believed to be his wife Harriet ‘Hetty’ Collett, the photograph possibly being taken on her wedding day. The eldest daughter of Florence Collett (Ref. 31Q17) from Bath was Olive, also born there in the mid-1920s, who remembers visiting her ninety-year-old Great Aunt Hetty Collett during 1930, which ties in with the fact that Hetty Collett passed away during 1934 aged 93.

The early married years for the couple were spent in London, initially at Putney where their first child was born, and later at Hoxton just north of Shoreditch. Like many of the Collett men in this family line, William was a carpenter and joiner and it was his work that then took him to Birmingham, where the couple’s third child was born. From the later census in 1911 is in now known that the couple had a fourth child who did not survive. By 1881 William and his family had left Birmingham and were then living at 84 Warrington Road in Prescot near St Helens in Lancashire. He was 33 and was working as a joiner. His wife Harriet was 40 and their three children were Annie Collett who was 10, Helen Collett who was eight and Minnie Collett who was seven years of age.

Although no record of the family has so far been located in 1891, William and Harriet left Prescot sometime during the twenty years after 1881 and had moved to the Manchester area. That move, like those before, may have been as a result of William securing new work. By the end of the century all of the couple’s three daughters were married and had moved out of the family home, leaving their parents living alone at Salford in Manchester. In the 1901 Census for Salford, William was 52 and a timber joiner from Monkton Farleigh, while his wife Harriet was 60 and of Islington in London.

On the day of the next census in April 1911, William Collett from Monkton Farleigh near Bradford in Wiltshire was a visitor at 123 Henry Street in Church near Blackburn in Lancashire, the home of his youngest married daughter Minnie Heys and her husband James Henry Heys. William Collett was married and a joiner at the age of 62. On that same day William’s wife Harriet Collett from London was 70 when she was visiting her eldest married daughter Annie Jackson and her husband Fred at 10 Davy Street in Accrington. The census return described Harriet as the mother-in-law of Fred Jackson, who had been married for forty years, during which time she had given birth to four children, three of them still living. It is established that Harriet Collett was a widow when she died in 1934.

31P22

Annie A H Collett

Born in 1870 at Putney, London

31P23

Helen Collett

Born in 1872 at Hoxton, London

31P24

Minnie Collett

Born in 1873 at Birmingham

31O17

Thomas Collett was born at Monkton Farleigh in 1853 and was eight years old in the April census of 1861 when he and his family were living at Rubble Heep in the village. By the time of the next census in 1871 Thomas was no longer living with his family and, after a further ten years, he was listed in the census of 1881 as being a bachelor at the age of 27. The census record also confirmed that his place of birth had been Monkton Farleigh. On that occasion in his life Thomas working as a butler in the service of Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire Horatio N Goddard at his home at The Manor, Clyffe Pypard south of Wootton Bassett. Seven other servants were employed at the house supporting Horatio and his wife, their daughter and her husband, and their two grandchildren children.

During the next few years Thomas married Mary, as confirmed by the census in 1891, when Thomas was 40 (sic) and Mary, described in error as May Collett aged 41 and from Spalding in Lincolnshire who were living within the St Augustine district of Bristol. According to the next census in 1901 Thomas Collett from Bradford-on-Avon was head of the household at Bristol St Paul when he was described as an ex-butler at the age of 47. His wife Mary Collett was 53 and again her place of birth was named as Spalding in Lincolnshire.

31O18

Helen Collett was born at Monkton Farleigh in 1856 and was four years old at the time of the 1861 Census when she was living with her family at Rubble Heep, while attending the village school in Monkton Farleigh. It was as Ellen Collett, age 15, that she was recorded with her parents in the next census for Monkton Farleigh in 1871. Thereafter there is no record of her as Helen or Ellen Collett, so it must be assumed that she was married by 1881.

31O19

George Collett was born at Monkton Farleigh in 1858 and was three years old and living at Rubble Heep in Monkton Farleigh with his family in 1861. He was 12 years of age ten years late in 1871, when still living there, and was a bachelor at the age of 22 in 1881. On that occasion George was still living with his parents William and Helen Collett at Bubble Heap in Monkton Farleigh, when his occupation was that of a carpenter like his father and his older brothers Edwin, Whyatt and William (above).

31O20

Mary Collett was born at Monkton Farleigh in 1859 and was one year old at the time of census in 1861 when she was recorded as May Collett, the youngest child of Edwin Collett and his wife Helen. It seems very likely that she was named in honour of her older sister who died when she was still very young. She was correctly recorded as Mary Collett, age ten years, in 1871 when she and her family were still living at Monkton Farleigh. Ten years after that, Mary Collett of Monkton Farleigh was curiously recorded as being 25 years old, when she was still single and was employed as a parlour maid by the Rector of Monkton Farleigh Thomas H Tooke. It is assumed that after that time she became a married lady.

31O21

Mary Ann Collett was born at Llanelly in 1863, the eldest child of John Collett and Mary Hannah Jenkins, her birth recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 138) during the second quarter of that year. As Mary A Collett she was eight years of age and 18 years old when she was living at Slopes, Llanelly Hill in Llanelly in 1871 and 1881, and by the latter census she was working as a general labourer. Her marriage to William James Williams was recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 114) with whom she had a son Thomas John Williams and a daughter Mary Ann Williams. The family lived at Llanelly Hill and it was during January 1942 that Mary Ann Williams nee Collett passed away. Her daughter married Thomas Miles and it was in Birmingham that they raised their three children John Miles, Clifford Miles and Edna Miles.

31O22

John David Collett was born at Llanelly in 1865, his birth recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 142) during the first quarter of the year. In 1871 he was simply recorded in the census that year as John Collett aged six years when his family was settled at Slopes, Llanelly Hill in Llanelly, where he was also living in 1881, by which time he was 16 and a coal miner. No record of him has so far been found in 1891, but in the next census in 1901 he was back living with his widowed father, his mother having died two years earlier. By that time unmarried John D Collett was 36 and a coal miner and a hewer. He was once again living with his father in 1911 when, as John David Collett, he was still a bachelor at the age of 46. It therefore is likely that he never married.

31O23

William Collett was born at Llanelly towards the end of 1867 and was the second son and third child of John and Mary Collett. His birth was recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 123) during the final quarter of the year. He only survived for twenty-one months and passed away at Llanelly on 24^th September 1869. He was then the first to be buried in the family plot at the Church of St Elli in Llanelly where he was later joined by his sister Jane (below) and both of his parents. A single headstone with their four names engraved on it marks the grave.

31O24

Jane Collett was born at the family home in Slopes, Llanelly Hill in Llanelly during the second quarter of 1870. She was still living there with her family at the time of the census in 1871 when she was eleven months old. It was less than two years later when Jane Collett, the fourth child of John and Mary Collett, died at Slopes on 25^th January 1873 when she was recorded as being two years and nine months old, her death recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 100) during the first quarter of the year. She was then buried with her brother William (above) in a grave at St Elli Church in Llanelly where her parents were also later buried.

31O25

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Slopes, Llanelly Hill in Llanelly on 1^st January 1873, the son of miner John Collett of South Wraxall and his wife Mary Hannah Jenkins from Llanelly. It was his mother who registered the birth, the entry bearing her mark of a cross rather than her written signature. He was attending school with his brother Henry (below) in 1881 when he was eight years old and living with his family at Slopes in Llanelly. Ten years after that in 1891 and at the age of 18, William was still living there with his family. However, it was later that same decade when William Collett was married to Sephorah Rosser from Abertillery at Bersheba Chapel in Brynmawr on 1^st February 1897, with whom he had a daughter two years later, the first of the couple’s four children. That child, like all of their children, was born at the family home at 31 Princess Street in Abertillery.

Sephorah Rosser, who was 23 on her wedding day, which was recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 123), was the daughter of John Rosser and Jane Rees and was born on 15^th October 1872. The Rosser family grave can be found in the grounds of St Elli Church in Llanelly where a single headstone includes the names of John Rosser who died on 28^th October 1907 aged 77, Jane Rosser who died on 7^th January 1915 at the age of 81, and their son Thomas Rosser who died on 19^th June 1893 when he was only 37. The last name on the headstone is that of Rosser Rosser who passed away on 6^th September 1943. He was a coal hewer who died of pneumonia at Waenlapra in Llanelly Hill at the age of 65 yrs. It was his niece Beattie Jane Smith of 8 Cromwell Road in Abertillery who informed the register office of his passing.

In March 1901 William was 28 and a coal miner and a hewer living at 31 Princess Street with his wife who was 27 and their daughter Ethel Mary (sic) Collett was one year old. Sephorah was well into the pregnancy for her second child on the day of the census, with their son being born within the next three months. The couple’s third child was added to the family six years later, and by April 1911 the family was living at Ty Bryn, 68 Duke Street in Abertillery. The census that year listed the family as William and Sephorah who were both 38, and their children as Ethel May Collett who was 11, John Gordon Collett who was nine and Eveline (sic) Collett who was three years old. Just like ten years earlier Sephorah was again expecting the birth of their fourth child and last child on that day, her third daughter being born just over three months later.

William was a coal miner all his life, a job he really loved and enjoyed, and he and Sephorah, together with their youngest daughter Beattie, remained living at 68 Duke Street in Abertillery for the rest of the lives. His current family have a number of safety certificates associated with his work, starting with a mining certificate for examiners to fire shots made out on 13^th July 1912. That same year, on 16^th December, he was awarded a second certificate of qualifications for a fireman examiner or deputy. The next three certificates relate to Vivian Pit: a certificate for an officer, fireman and shot-man; a certificate for a fireman dated 21^st March 1929; and two certificates for a fireman dated 14^th July 1937 and 2^nd January 1945.

On 19^th May 1925 William Collett completed an Unemployment Insurance Act 1920 form for the Employment Exchange, when his home address was confirmed as 68 Duke Street in Abertillery, the same form confirming his place and date of birth, together with the names of his parents, including his mother’s maiden name. Twenty-nine years later Sephorah Collett nee Rosser died on 3^rd September 1954 at 68 Duke Street and was buried in the grounds of the Church of St Elli in Llanelly when she was referred to as the beloved wife of William Collett of Abertillery.

A lengthy obituary for Sephorah Collett was printed in the South Wales Gazette on 8^th October 1954 which ran over two columns of the newspaper. It opened with the words “The death has occurred of Mrs Sephorah Collett, the wife of William Collett of 68 Duke Street in Abertillery. Mrs Collett was a member of one of the most highly respected families in the district and held in high esteem by a large circle of friends. The funeral took place at Llanelly Churchyard following services at Ebenezer Baptist Church and Llanelly Church. The mourners were: Messrs William Collett, widower; John Gordon Collett, son; H B Collett, nephew; Frank Collett, cousin” plus many others. The mourners at home included: “E M Bainton, E Rogers and B J Collett, daughters; E Collett, daughter-in-law; Miss M Collett, niece” plus many others.

It was just over five years after losing his wife that William Collett died in Tredegar Hospital on 12^th February 1961 at the age of 88 and, following a funeral service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on 15^th February, he was buried with Sephorah where a single headstone marks their joint grave. The family home at 68 Duke was then inherited by the couple’s youngest child Beatrice Jane Collett. The local newspaper printed the following tribute in respect of the late William Collett. It read as follows: “The death has taken place of William Collett, and again the church has lost a most loyal and faithful member. He was a winsome character, ever ready with a smile, whose interest was in God’s house, the success of the Gospel and the praise and songs of Zion. Our deepest sympathy is extended to the son, daughters – one of whom is Mrs E M Bainton, secretary of the church – and the rest of the family.”

31P25

Ethel May Collett

Born in 1899 at Abertillery

31P26

JOHN GORDON COLLETT

Born in 1901 at Abertillery

31P27

Evelyn Collett

Born in 1907 at Abertillery

31P28

Beatrice Jane Collett

Born in 1911 at Abertillery

31O26

Henry Albert Collett was born at Llanelly in 1875, his birth recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 126) during the third quarter of that year. As Henry Collett he was six years old in 1881 when he was living with his family at Slopes in Llanelly, from where he was attending the local school. He was still living with his family in 1891 when Henry was 16. He was employed as a miner at the Vivian Colliery and, like a true Welshman, he was very interested in choral music. It was during the first three months of 1899 that he married Mary Hannah Evans (1875-1948), the event recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 115).

Their marriage produced seven children, although only two of them survived. The first two of those children had already died by the time of the census in March 1901. Henry Collett, who was 25 and coal miner and a hewer by then, was living at 20 Cromwell Street in Abertillery with his wife Mary H Collett who was 26. Both of them were recorded as having been born at Llanelly.

Over the next decade Mary gave birth to five more children and sadly it was only the last two who survived. The enumerator for the Abertillery census in 1911 misinterpreted the family’s spoken surname when he entered the name as Callett. The four members of the family at that time were Henry Collett who was 35, Mary Hannah Collett who was 36, Henry Byron Collett who was three and Marion Augusta Collett who was one year old.

Henry Albert Collett was 66 when he died on 22^nd November 1941 at 20 Cromwell Street in Abertillery and was buried at the Church of St Elli in Abertillery. After six years as a widow Mary Hannah Collett nee Evans passed away on 13^th March 1948 at the age of 73, following which she was buried with her husband. Her death was recorded at Crickhowell register office (Ref. 11b 137), when the family home passed to the unmarried daughter Marion.

The obituary for Henry Albert Collett was printed in the local newspaper, as follows: “The death has taken place of Mr Henry Collett of 20 Cromwell Street who was a native of Llanelly Hill and came to Abertillery forty years ago. He worked at the Vivian Colliery during most of that time. The mourners were Messrs H Byron Collett, son; William Collett, brother; and nephews T I Watkins, Wilfred Rogers and Albert Bainton. At the house was Mrs M H Collett, widow; Miss Marion A Collett, daughter; Mesdames R Meredith and W Collett, sisters-in-law; and nieces E Roger, E Bainton, and Miss Beatrice Collett”

31P29

Elizabeth May Collett

Born in 1898 at Abertillery

31P30

Gertrude Collett

Born in 1900 at Abertillery

31P31

Lily Collett

Born in 1902 at Abertillery

31P32

May Collett

Born in 1903 at Abertillery

31P33

Reginald Clifford Collett

Born in 1905 at Abertillery

31P34

Henry Byron Collett

Born in 1908 at Abertillery

31P35

Marion Augusta Collett

Born in 1909 at Abertillery

31O27

Harriet Collett was born at Slopes, Llanelly Hill, Llanelly in 1877, the last child of John Collett and Mary Jenkins, whose birth was recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 133) during the fourth quarter of that year. Harriet was four years old in 1881 and was 13 in 1891. Following the death of her mother in 1899 it was Harriet, aged 23, who was acting as housekeeper for her widowed father in March 1901 when they were living at Slopes Houses in Llanelly. It was sixteen months later when Harriet Collett married widower Thomas Watkins, the event recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 174) during the third quarter of 1902. During the following year Harriet presented Tom with a son Tom I Watkins (1903-1978). Tragically it was just two years later that Harriet Watkins nee Collett died during 1905 at the age of 28.

31O28

Henry Thomas Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1855 and is assumed to be the base-born son of unmarried Jane Collett by an unknown father. In the census of 1861 he was recorded as Tom Collett aged five years, the grandson of William Collett whose daughter Jane was also living at the dwelling in Upper Street in South Wraxall with Tom’s younger brother John (below). Following the death of his grandfather, Tom and his mother Jane left South Wraxall when they moved to Llanelly to live with Jane’s married brother John Collett and his family. And it was with that family that Tom H Collett, age 15 and a coal miner from Wraxall, was living in 1871, when his mother Jane was living nearby in Llanelly. In 1881, when his brother was staying with their mother Jane at Llamarch in Llanelly, Henry T Collett from South Wraxall was a bachelor aged 25 who was still working as a coal miner, when he was a lodger in the Ystradyfodwg home of Rees James at 80 Dumfries Street in Llanelly.

Seven years later Henry Tom Collett married Mary Rebecca Hughes during the first three months of 1888. The marriage was recorded at Crickhowell register office (Ref. 11b 155) when the witnesses were Joseph John Maynard and Caroline Palmer. Mary was born at Llanelly and later presented Henry with three children before his untimely death in 1892. Just prior to the next census the birth of their daughter Lily Jane Collett was recorded at Crickhowell register office (Ref. 11b 112) during the first quarter of 1890.

Henry T Collett from South Wraxall was residing at Old Road in the village of Aberbaiden within the parish of Llanelly in 1891 when he was 35 and a colliery timber-man. His wife Mary Rebecca was 25, their son Idris Thomas Collett was three and their daughter Lily Jane Collett was fifteen months old. Living with the family was Mary’s widowed grandmother Mary Ann Hughes who was 74. On the day of the census Henry’s wife was expecting the birth of their third child who was born later that same year. Twenty years prior to that Mary R Hughes, aged five years, was living with her grandmother, while in 1881 Mary Rebecca Hughes was 15 and a domestic servant living and working at the Old Road home in Aberbaiden of her widowed grandmother Mary Ann Hughes. It is likely that the young Collett family was living in the same dwelling in Old Road during 1891.

Living just four dwellings away from the family in 1891 was another Collett family, that of James Collett (Ref. 1P51), a coalminer of 31 from Clydach, Llanelly. His wife was Sarah Ann Collett who was 33 and their son Beignalt James Collett who was one year old. The details of that family can be found in Part 1 – The Gloucestershire Main Line 1830 to 1880.

Tragically Henry Thomas Collett was killed while working underground in Abertillery as result of a mining accident in 1892, following which his death was recorded at Newport register office (Ref. 11a 141) during the second quarter of that year. By then Mary had presented Henry with their second son, while two years after the death of her husband Mary gave birth to a daughter, the father of which is not known. By March 1901 Mary Rebecca Collett was a widow at 35 when she and her family were living at Station Road in Clydach, Llanelly – four dwellings from Clydach Station. Missing from the family at that time was her eldest daughter Lily Jane Collett who was 11 and was living with the family of her uncle John Thomas at 2 Hope Street in Aberystruth. Still living with Mary were her three other children. Idris Collett was already a coal miner and a hewer at the age of 13, while the two other children were still attending school and they were William Collett who was 10 and Mary Collett who was six years old

The birth of Mary Ann Collett was recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 100) during the first three months of 1895 and, therefore, she could not have been the daughter of Henry Thomas Collett, as he had died at least two years earlier. One year after the census in 1901, the marriage of Mary Rebecca Collett and William Phipps was recorded as Crickhowell register office (Ref. 11b 153) during the first quarter of 1902. By 1911 Mary Rebecca Phipps had living with her at Clydach, her daughter Alice May Phipps, who was eight, together with her two unmarried sons Idris Collett who was 23 and his younger brother William Henry Collett who was 19. Their sister Mary Ann Collett was 17 and she was living and working in nearby Abergavenny.

Ten years earlier, William Phipps, a coal miner and hewer who was 36, was still living with his elderly widowed mother Mary Phipps at Station Road in Clydach, where living the Collett family was also living at that time. His absence from his wife and daughter in 1911 was because he was again visiting his aging mother in Clydach, when he was described as being 46, a married man, who was a timberman working underground in a nearby coal mine.

31P36

Idris Thomas Collett

Born in 1887 at Aberbaiden, Llanelly

31P37

Lily Jane Collett

Born in 1890 at Aberbaiden, Llanelly

31P38

William Henry Collett

Born in 1891 at Aberbaiden, Llanelly

31P39

Mary Ann Collett – father unknown

Born in 1893 at Aberbaiden, Llanelly

31O29

William John Collett was born at South Wraxall in 1858 the younger of the two likely sons of Jane Collett. He was known as John Collett, aged two years in 1861, when he and his brother Tom (Henry Thomas above) were with their mother Jane at the home of her William Collett at Upper Street in South Wraxall. His grandfather died during the 1860s at which time his mother and older brother Tom travelled to Llanelly to be with Jane’s married half-brother John and his family. Ten years later, when his mother and his brother were confirmed to be living in Llanelly, William J Collett was 13 and a general servant for Elizabeth Fielding, a widow and retired publican at her home on Pippet Street in Bradford-on-Avon. On that occasion the census enumerator entered ‘birthplace unknown’ on the census form.

Ten years later, at the time of the next census in 1881, Jane Collett, age 45, was living at Llanmarch in Llanelly with her coal miner son William J Collett who was 22. Rather curiously Jane and William were both listed as having been born at Bradford-on-Avon. Around seven of eight months later, the marriage of William John Collett and Emma Williams was recorded at Crickhowell (Ref. 11b 233) during the last quarter of 1881. Their marriage provided at least six known over the next twelve years, although his wife was named as Emily Collett in all the records. It was as John William Collett, aged 32 and from Wiltshire, that he was listed in the Llanelly census of 1891 when he and the family was living on Butchers Row, from where John was a coal miner. His wife Emily Collett was 33 and their four children were Flora Jane Collett who was eight, Frank Henry Collett who was six, Ernest Tom Collett who was three and Frederick William who was two years old. Serving the family was domestic servant Elizabeth Puddle who was 16. On that day, Emily was pregnant with the couple’s fifth child, while two years later their family was completed with the birth of a sixth child.

The census of 1901 confirmed that William John Collett from Bradford-on-Avon was 42 and was he was living at Abertillery where he was a coal miner and a grocer. His wife Emily from Llanelly was 43, while just four of their six children were still living with the couple. They were Frank Hy Collett who was 16 and a coal miner and a hewer, Frank (Fred) Wm Collett who was 11, Mary Ann Collett who was nine and Frances Emily Collett who was seven years old. The couple’s eldest daughter, Florrie Collett who was 18, was still living in the Llanelly area, where she was working as a shop assistant, and it was also in Llanelly that their son Ernest was living at the age of 13, perhaps even with his sister.

During the first few years of the new century, the three eldest children were married. By April 1911 the children still living with their parents at Clydach were the three youngest ones. William John Collett was a grocer aged 52, as was his wife Emily, while the three children were Frederick William Collett who was 21, Mary Ann Collett who was 19 and Frances Emily Collett who was 17 and a milliner working for Thomas & Sons. It is very likely that, although born at South Wraxall, William was very young when he settled in Bradford-on-Avon which caused him to say he was born there in every census after 1871.

31P40

Flora Jane Collett

Born in 1882 at Llanelly

31P41

Frank Henry Collett

Born in 1884 at Llanelly

31P42

Ernest Tom Collett

Born in 1887 at Llanelly

31P43

Frederick William Collett

Born in 1889 at Llanelly

31P44

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1891 at Llanelly

31P45

Frances Emily Collett

Born in 1893 at Llanelly

31O31

George William Collett was born at Guisborough in 1876 and was four years old in the Guisborough census of 1881 when he was living with his parents at 25-27 Redcar Road. He was still living in Guisborough with his family ten years later at the age of 14. Towards the end of the next decade he met and married Eliza from Falmouth in Cornwall, although where they were married has not yet been discovered. So, by the time of the census in March 1901, George and his wife and their first child were still residing in Guisborough not far from his parents. George, who was a tailor, and his wife were both 24, and Eliza had recently presented her husband with their first children, Harold Collett who was still under one year old. It is likely further children were added to their family during the first ten years of the new century, even though only two children were with the couple in 1911.

By that time the family was still living in Guisborough where George William Collett was 34 and his wife Eliza was also 34. The couple’s eldest son Harold William Collett was 10, while the other male child had only just been born and had yet to be given a name. He was simply referred to as ‘baby Collett’. Sadly, the couple’s eldest son Harold William Collett was only 23 when he died, his death recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 551) during the last three months of 1923. Eight years later George’s widowed mother passed away at Guisborough, when George William Collett, a tailor, was named as joint executor of her estate with his brother Arthur who was a draper. George was only a widower for four years, when the death of George W Collett was recorded at Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 585) during the fourth quarter of 1935, when he was 58 years old.

31P46

Harold William Collett

Born in 1900 at Guisborough

31P47

Ronald Collett

Born in 1911 at Guisborough

31O34

Ethel Collett was born at Guisborough in 1885, the daughter of William Collett and Emma Jane Storey. She was five years old in the Guisborough census of 1891 and was 15 when she was still living there with her family in 1901. The family moved to Stockton-on-Tees during the next few years, and it was there that Ethel Collett, age 25, was still living with her elderly parents in 1911 although they returned to live in Guisborough once again shortly thereafter. Ethel was married five years later at the age of thirty. A record of the marriage was made at the Guisborough register office (Ref. 9d 897) during the fourth quarter of 1916 when Ethel Collett became Ethel Phelps.

31O37

Sidney Collett was born at Tottenham in London during 1862, the only child of William Henry Miles Collett and his first wife who died around the same time he was born. In 1871 he was nine years old when he was living with his father in Tottenham who, by that time had been married three times. Sidney had left the family home after a further ten years and, on finishing his education, it seems likely he entered into domestic service. The census in 1881 confirmed that he was working as a waiter at a hotel in London, while residing at 19 Smithfield, in the St Sepulchre without Newgate district of the city. He was recorded as Sidney Collett who was 19 and a lodger who had been born in London. However, no record of him or any member of his family has been found after that time, while it is known that his father died in 1897.

31O38

William Henry Miles Collett was born at Tottenham in London while his birth was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 142) during third quarter of 1864. He was the son of William Henry Miles Collett and his second wife Elizabeth Page who were married nine months before he was born. Tragically he only survived for around twelve months, when the death of William Henry Miles Collett was recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 103) during the third quarter of 1865.

31O39

Elizabeth Collett was born at Tottenham in 1865, the daughter of William Henry Miles Collett and Elizabeth Page, who sadly died not long after she was born. According to the census in 1871 Elizabeth was not living with her family on that day, nor has her whereabouts been discovered at that time. However, she was back living with her father and his third wife Mary Ann in 1881, when she was 15 years old and the only one of William’s children living with them at 2 Cambrian Cottages, Markfield Road in Tottenham.

31O40

Ada Miles Collett was born at Tottenham in 1868 the first of the two children of William Henry Miles Collett and Mary Ann Herbert. She was three years old in the census of 1871 and was 13 in 1881. By that time Ada was a milkmaid working with her grandfather dairyman William Collett of South Wraxall, while living with him at his home at The Poplars, 9 Markfield Road in Tottenham. Ten years later, according to the Tottenham census of 1891, Ada Collett, age 21 and from Tottenham was describe as the niece of James E Watson, with whose family she was living. It was two years later, on 20^th March 1893 at St Faith’s Church in Stoke Newington, that Ada Miles Collett married Edmund Cuttriss Clark, the son of John Clark. Edmund was 35, while Ada was only 25, and named as the daughter of William Henry Miles Collett.

According to the census in 1911 Ada Miles Clark from Tottenham was 42 when she was living at 90 Brighton Road in Stoke Newington with her family. The census return that year confirmed that she had been married for 19 years to Edmund Cuttriss Clark who was 52. The three children living with them were Edmund Miles Clark who was 17, Sidney Herbert Clark who was 15 and Ada Elizabeth Cuttriss Clark who was 11. During the next few years Ada was made a widow by the death of her older husband and at the time of her death on 11^th March 1929 Ada Miles Clark nee Collett was still living at 90 Brighton Road in Stoke Newington. Administration of her personal effects was resolved in London on 31^st July 1929 and was granted jointly to her son Edmund Miles Clark, a sorter with the General Post Office, and her married daughter Ada Elizabeth Cuttriss Elkin nee Clark.

31O41

Henry Miles Collett was born at Tottenham in 1870, the youngest child of William Henry Miles Collett by his third wife Mary Ann Herbert. He was under one year old at the time of the Tottenham census in 1871, but sadly died shortly after, his death recorded at Edmonton (Ref. 3a 132) during the third quarter of 1871.

31O42

Florence Amy Collett was born at Hoxton during the last couple of months of 1880 and was baptised at Shoreditch on 19^th December 1880. She was four months old in the census of 1881 when she and her parents, Francis James Miles Collett and Elizabeth Jane Atkinson, were living at 12 Bridport Place in Hoxton. The family then moved to Tottenham where Florence was 10 years old in 1891. By 1901 she was 20 and was still living with her parents in Tottenham, although she may have been supporting her mother as she had no stated occupation at that time.

However, during the next few years Florence Amy Collett did leave home, most likely for work reasons, and was 30 years old in the Hackney census of 1911 when her place of birth was given as Tottenham. The address at which she was living and working as a domestic servant was 13 Gloucester Road in Finsbury Park, the home of William and Elizabeth Gamble and their three children.

31O43

Matilda Ellen Miles Collett was born at Tottenham in London on 1^st April 1885, the daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Collett. Matilda was six years old in the Tottenham census of 1891 and in 1901 she was 16 and living with her family at 28 Steele Road in Tottenham. She was still unmarried in 1911 when Matilda was 26 and the oldest child still living with her family at Tottenham. It was also at Tottenham just over three years later that she married Arthur Charles Ballard on 1^st August 1914. Arthur was born 10^th July 1880 and it was his sister Jane Ballard who married Matilda’s brother Leslie Collett (below). Matilda Ellen Miles Ballard nee Collett was living at Clacton-on-Sea when he died on 4^th July 1967. It is known that one of the older sisters of Leslie William Miles Collett, either Matilda or Florence (above) was deaf, an affliction for their great grandfather William Collett in 1851 and his two eldest children.

31O44

Leslie William Miles Collett was born at the home of his grandparents at 9 Markfield Road in Tottenham on 24^th December 1888 and was baptised there on 10^th March 1889, the third child and only son of Francis James Miles Collett and Elizabeth Jane Atkinson. It was as Leslie Colletts aged two years that he was listed with his family in the Tottenham census of 1891, and it was at 28 Steele Road in Tottenham that Leslie Wm Collett was still living with his parents when he was 12. He was also still living at the family home in Tottenham in 1911 when he was 22. During the following year Leslie emigrated to Brisbane in Australia and it was at Brisbane on 28^th October 1912 that he married Jane Ballard the sister of Arthur Ballard who later married Leslie’s sister Matilda (above). Jane was born on 2^nd May 1882 at 35 Suffolk Road, Haggerston within the London Borough of Hackney.

The year after they were married, Leslie William Miles Collett was recorded within the 1913 Electoral Rolls for the town of Oxley in Queensland, Australia, where was still residing in 1925. However, the death of Leslie William Miles Collett was recorded at Brisbane on 29^th December 1949 when his parents were confirmed as Francis and Elizabeth Collett, his mother’s maiden name written in error as Aitkenson. His widow survived him by just over sixteen years when Jane Collett nee Ballard died on 3^rd March 1966. It is understood that the marriage of Leslie and Jane produced just one child, their daughter Rita who had two daughters, Cathy (1859-1988), who married Mark, and Margaret who had twin girls in 1992.

31P48

Rita Collett

Date of birth unknown

31O45

May Edith Miles Collett was born at Tottenham on 22^nd May 1891, the third of the five daughters of Francis and Elizabeth Collett. As Edith May Collett she was nine years old in 1901 when she and her family were residing at 28 Steele Road in Tottenham, where they were still living in 1911 when May Collett was 19. The marriage of May Edith Miles Collett and George Alfred James Carney took place at Holy Trinity Church in Tottenham on 28^th August 1918 when May was 27 and George was 26. The bride’s father was confirmed as Francis James Miles Collett, while the father of the groom was named as James Carney.

Over the following years May presented George with three children. Joyce Carney was born at Reading, a son who lived on the Isle of Wight and another daughter Moira Carney, the two youngest children both suffering with hearing difficulties, an ailment suffered by previous generations of this family. At the end of her life May was living within the Croydon area of Surrey, and it was at Croydon register office (Ref. 11 1734) that the death of May Edith M Carney was recorded on 18^th April 1980 when she was 89.

31O46

Lilian Penelope Miles Collett was born at Tottenham on 12^th April 1894, the daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Collett. As Lilian Penelope Collett was six years old in 1901 when she and her family were recorded at 28 Steele Road in Tottenham, where she was still living in 1911 simply as Lilian Collett when she was noted in error as being only 14. Eight years later Lilian married William Robert Taylor at West Ham on 19^th April 1919 and the only other known fact about her is that she died on 9^th October 1973 at Bug Hill.

31O47

Alice Elizabeth Miles Collett was born at Tottenham on 17^th June 1898, the last child of Francis James Miles Collett and Elizabeth Jane Atkinson. It was as Alice Elizabeth that she was two years old in the census of 1901 when she was recorded with her family at 28 Steele Road in Tottenham. It was on 23th November 1932 when she married Frederick Augustus Monk at Edmonton in London. He was over twenty years older than Alice, having been born on 14^th May 1877. They had only married for sixteen years when Frederick died on 26^th August 1949 at Walthamstow, while Alice Elizabeth Miles Monk nee Collett was living at Clacton-on-Sea when she died on 21^st December 1983, where her older sister Matilda died in 1967.

31O48

William Andrew Collett was born at 31 Homer Road in South Hackney after the census day on the third April 1881. Three years before the death of his father John in 1894, the census in 1891 placed William Collett, age 11, living with his parents and his three younger siblings in the West Hackney district of London. Following the death of his father, his mother married John Cook in 1896. At the age of 21 years William Collett was a glass blower living at 1 Suther Street in Hackney with his widowed mother Sarah and his stepfather John Cook. Also living there were William’s sister Sarah, and his three brothers John, Henry, and Frank (below), together with his two half-brothers Robert and Thomas Cook and half-sister Harriet Cook.

In April 1911 William Collett from Hackney was 31 and was still earning a living as a glass bottle maker while living at the home of his re-married mother Sarah Cook and her family at 32 White Post Lane near Victoria Park in Hackney Wick. Around eighteen months later, the marriage of William A Collett and Elisa Elizabeth Lloyd was recorded at Hackney (Ref. 1b 1210) during the third quarter of 1912. They only had one child, their son Peter Collett, whose birth was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 1144) during the first three months of 1913, when the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Lloyd. Tragically, the death of Peter Collett was recorded at Chelsea register office (Ref. 1a 408) during the third quarter of that same year. The only other known fact is, that William A Collett died less than two years after his son, his death recorded at Poplar (Ref. 1c 596) during the first quarter of 1915, when he was only 35. With no apparent involvement in military service, it is possible that he may have been a civilian casualty of the Great War.

31P49

Peter Collett

Born in 1913 at Wandsworth; died 1913

31O49

Sarah Matilda Collett was born at 31 Homer Road in South Hackney on 30^th December 1882, the daughter of John Robert Collett and Sarah Elizabeth Sharpington. Her birth was notified to the South Hackney register office on 9^th February 1883 by her mother, who made the mark of a cross. In 1891 she was eight years old, and by the time of the census in 1901, Sarah Collett, age 18, was a Gladstone bag maker living with her mother Sarah Cook and stepfather John Cook. Also living at 1 Suther Street in Hackney were her four brothers and the three children from her mother’s second marriage.

Five years later in 1906 she married George Perkins at Hackney. According to the next census conducted in April 1911, Sarah and her new family were living in the three-roomed dwelling that was 19 Abbotsford Avenue in Tottenham within the Edmonton registration district of London. George Perkins was a housepainter from Bethnal Green who was 28, as was his wife of five years Sarah Matilda Perkins from Hackney. During those five years Sarah had given birth to two children and they were Doris Perkins who was three and Ivy Velina Perkins who was one year old. The couple’s first child had been born in Hackney, while the second was born after the family had settled in Tottenham. Sarah was with-child on the day of the census, with her only son born later that same year.

Tragically it was just six years later that Sarah Matilda Perkins nee Collett died during 1917 when she was only around thirty-four years of age, around the same age as her brother William (above) who had died two years earlier. Her daughter Ivy Velina Perkins (1909 to 1988) later married Albert William Townsend, and it was her son, Brian Townsend in Wales, who kindly provided some details about his ancestors. Of her two other children, Doris May Perkins (1907 to 1996) was married three times, the first marriage producing two children, while her son George Alfred John Perkins (1911 to 2000) married Enid Roberts.

31O50

John George Collett was born at Hackney in 1887, the son of John and Sarah Collett. He was three years old in the West Hackney census of 1891 when he was living there with his family. John was six years old when his father died in 1894, following which his mother married John Cook in 1896. According to the census in 1901 John Collett, age 14, was still attending school while he was living at 1 Suther Street in Hackney with his mother and his stepfather and their three Cook children, plus the other four members of his Collett family.

Ten years later in April 1911, John George Collett, age 23 and born at Hackney, was still living in the Hackney area of London, just prior to his marriage to Elizabeth Davenport not long after. It was also later that same year that the couple’s first child was born and he was followed by a further three children over the next six years, although tragically the last of them died when he was just one year old.

31P50

John George Collett

Born in 1911 at Hackney

31P51

William Henry F Collett

Born in 1913 at Hackney

31P52

Sarah Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1915 at Hackney

31P53

Frederick Collett

Born in 1917; died in 1918

31O51

Henry Francis Collett, who was also known as Harry, was born at Hackney on 8^th March 1890 and was baptised at the Church of St Barnabas in Homerton on 23^rd January 1891, the son of John Robert Collett and Sarah Elizabeth Sharpington. It was as Henry Collett that he was recorded in the West Hackney census of 1891 when he was one year old and living with his family. Three years after that his father died and two years later his mother married John Cook in 1896 with whom she had three children before 1901. On the day of the census in March that year Henry Collett from Hackney was 12 and was still attending school when he was living at 1 Suther Street in Hackney with his mother and her new husband, their three children, and Henry’s brothers and sister.

Henry was still living with his mother and stepfather ten years later in April 1911 who, by then, were living at 32 White Post Lane near Victoria Park in Hackney Wick. Stepson Henry Collett from Hackney was 21 and was employed as a printer’s joiner on that occasion. However, another eighteen years would pass before he married Gladys Rose Wood in 1929, by which time he was forty years old. Gladys may have been of a similar age, since no children arising from the marriage have been found.

Henry Francis Collett later married Metabella Robinson who were both listed in the Electoral Roll for 1939. At that time in their life they were residing at 47 Southdown Road in Eltham in Kent, and it was at that same address that they were both living when they passed away. Whatever his occupation, Harry must have been very successful because, at the proving of his Will he was credited with a considerable fortune, including two other adjacent properties in Eltham. Henry Francis Collett died on 2^nd May 1945 at 25 Egerton Drive in Hale, Cheshire, when probate was granted to his widow Metabella Robinson Collett for his estate valued at £30,194 9 Shillings 4d. The same report confirmed the couple’s home address was at 47 Southwood Road in Eltham and that Henry also owned the properties at 387 and 389 Footscray Road in Eltham, South London. Today Footscray Road is the A211 running from Eltham to Sidcup.

It is known that his widow survived him by over twenty years since she was recorded in the Electoral Roll for 1965, when Metabella R Collett was still living at 47 Southwood Road in Eltham within the Parliamentary Constituency of Woolwich West.

31O52

Frank Collett was born at Hackney in 1894, the youngest child of John Robert Collett and Sarah Elizabeth Sharpington. His birth may have taken place just before, or just after, his father died in January 1894. Two years later his mother re-married and by the census in 1901 Frank Collett age six years was living at 1 Suther Street, the home of John Cook and his wife Sarah, Frank’s mother. Also living there were Franks’ four siblings, and with the three Cook children of his mother. He was still living with them at 32 White Post Lane near Victoria Park in Hackney Wick in 1911 when he was 17 and was working with his brother Henry (above) as a printer’s layer-on. Just eleven years after that Frank Collett married Mabel E Lutterloch in 1922 and they had two children. Sadly, the youngest child was only two years old when Frank Collett died in 1934 at the age of only 40.

31P54

Frank Collett

Born in 1923 at Hackney, London

31P55

Gerald Collett

Born in 1932 at Hackney, London

31O53

Sarah Amelia Lifford, who was often referred to as Amelia, was born on 12^th December 1877 at Shoreditch – as recorded in the 1881 Census. However, at the time of registration of the birth, and perhaps because of problems after her birth, Sarah Amelia (and presumably her mother) was living at the home of her grandfather Andrew William Collett at 31 Homer Road in the Homerton area of Hackney. That appears to have been only a temporary arrangement since by 1881 she and her parents, together with her younger sister Agnes were listed as living at 32 Union Street in Shoreditch. Ten years later she and the family were living at 11 Bower Road in Hackney.

Sarah left the family home in the Spring of 1898 when she married (1) William John Challis in Poplar. William was born in 1876 but tragically died shortly after they were married. He died between October and December 1899 at St Olaves in Bermondsey. According to the census of 1901, Amelia Challis at 23 was a widow living at 12 Bower Road in Hackney and her occupation was given as being a carpet sewer, that being the same occupation as her mother who was still living at 11 Bower Road in Hackney.

After four and a half years as a young widow Sarah married (2) William Charles Pocock on 23^rd July 1904 at the Parish Church of St Mark in Victoria Park, Poplar. At the time of the wedding Sarah’s address was curiously given as 11 Bower Road in Poplar rather than in Hackney. That might also indicate she was living with her mother, rather than at 12 Bower Road. William’s address was given as 1 Salter Street in Poplar. However, by the end of 1904 Sarah and William were living at 18 Finnisen Road in North Finchley, as confirmed by the registration of the birth of their first child in December that year. Further changes of address were recorded for the birth of the couple’s other children and they were 2 Frederick Place at Friern Barnet in North Finchley in June 1906, 13 Fifth Avenue in Enfield in August 1907, and 155 Bynes Road in South Croydon in February 1910.

The census of 1911 confirmed that the family living at Bynes Road was made up of William Pocock, age 28, Amelia Pocock, age 33, and their children William Pocock who was six, Amelia Pocock who was four, Walter Pocock who was three and Charley Pocock who was just one year old. By 1912 the family had moved a few doors along the street to 131 Bynes Road from where the couple’s remaining children were born. It was also there that Sarah Amelia died on 13^th March 1934 and where William died two years later on 7^th February 1936.

William Pocock was born on 22^nd April 1882 and was the son of Charles Pocock and Mary Ann Crittle. His parents were living at Stone Street Farm in Crockham Hill, Westerham near Sevenoaks in Kent, at the time of his birth. In 1891 he and his parents were living at Station Approach in Oxted, Surrey and ten years later they were living at 8 Stanhope Road in Finchley. His occupation at the time of his marriage to Sarah Amelia Challis was that of a general labourer. In 1907 he was working for a stonemason but returned to being a general labourer until around 1918 when he was employed by the local corporation, gaining promotion to road foreman in the late 1920s.

31P56

William Charles Pocock

Born on 26.12.1904

31P57

Amelia Pocock

Born on 01.06.1906

31P58

Walter Pocock

Born on 23.08.1907 at Enfield

31P59

Charley Pocock

Born on 27.02.1910 at Croydon

31P60

Richard Pocock

Born on 26.03.1912 at Croydon

31P61

Elizabeth Pocock

Born on 02.08.1914 at Croydon

31P62

Jane Pocock

Born on 25.05.1916 at Croydon

31P63

Mary Ann Pocock

Born on 23.09.1919 at Croydon

31P64

Molly Pocock

Born on 08.07.1921 at Croydon

31P65

Henry Pocock

Born on 05.09.1923

31O58

Emily Collett was born at Clapton in London during 1883 but shortly after she was born her parents moved to 229 Wick Road in Hackney. On leaving school she took up the work of a tailoress and was living with her parents at 222 Morning Lane in Hackney in 1901 at the age of 17. Sometime during the years following 1901 Emily’s mother died and by April 1911 unmarried Emily, who was 27, was living at West Ham with her father and all of her sisters.

31O59

Isabella Collett was born at 229 Wick Road in Hackney in 1887. At the age of 13 she had left school and was working as a boot beader while living in the family home at 222 Morning Lane in Hackney. By April 1911 Isabella Collett of Hackney was 23 and was living in the West Ham area of London with her widowed father William Collett and her four sisters.

31O60

Harriet Louise Collett was born at 229 Wick Road in Hackney during 1889, the third of the five daughters of William Andrew Collett and Emily Smith. By 1901, when Harriet was 11, she and her family were living at 222 Morning Lane in Hackney. It would appear that her mother died during the next decade, since in 1911 Harriet at 21 was living with her father and her four sisters in the West Ham area of London. Just over four years later she married Ernest Edward Cockett at St Mary’s Church in West Ham on 28^th August 1915. Their marriage produced two children, one of whom was Olive Margaret Cockett, who was born in 1920, who died in 1995. The other child is presumed to have been alive in 2013.

Harriet Louisa (?) Cockett nee Collett of 33 Eastern Avenue in Southend-on-Sea died on 17^th September 1965 at the age of 76. Her husband was still alive and it was Ernest Edward Cockett, a retired maintenance engineer, who was named during the probate processing of her personal effects of £355 in London on 28^th October 1965.

31O61

Edith Maud Collett was born at 229 Wick Road in Hackney during 1896, the daughter of William and Emily Collett. According to the census in 1901 Edith was four years old when she and her family were recorded at 222 Morning Lane in Hackney, shortly after which, perhaps prompted by the death of her mother, the family moved to West Ham. In the West Ham area census of 1911 Edith Collett was 14 years old when she was living there with her father and all four of her sisters. Edith Maud Collett married Victor Wright at West Ham during 1924.

31O62

Rose Collett was born at 229 Wick Road in Hackney during 1899, the last of the five children of William Andrew Collett and his wife Emily Smith. By 1901 the full family was living at 222 Morning Lane in Hackney where Rose was two years old. During the next few years her mother passed away and in 1911 Rose and her family were living in West Ham when she was 12 years old. Rose later married Leonard G Lloyd at West Ham in 1923 with whom she had two children, Patricia Lloyd who was born in 1931 and Maureen Lloyd who was born in 1937.

31P1

Mary Collett was born at Leeds on 6^th December 1924, the only child of Thomas Emanuel Collett and Catherine Curran, whose birth was recorded at Leeds register office (Ref. 9b 637), when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Curran. Mary left the family home when she was 14 years of age and worked as a nursery maid and later as an assistant nurse at a TB hospital in South England. She was eventually taken on as a trainee nurse at the Derby Royal Infirmary during 1942. Ten years later she married David Bertram Sugden, a doctor at the DRI, the event recorded at Thirsk in Yorkshire (Ref. 1b 1419) during the last three months of 1952. Mary Sugden, nee Collett, passed away on 17^th November 2010 and was buried at St Martin's Parish Church in Alfreton, Derbyshire.

The couple’s only child, Ruth E Sugden, was born on 19^th April 1963, the birth recorded at Mansfield register office (Ref. 3c 225) in Nottinghamshire. It was at Chesterfield that the marriage of Ruth E Sugden and Michael A Bacigalupo was recorded (Ref. 6 604) during the spring of 1988. And it was Ruth who generously provided all of the new details regarding her mother and her grandfather T E Collett in 2017. Ruth is trying to trace the families of her grandfather’s siblings, one of which was her mother’s cousin Violet May Collet in Australia, with whom she corresponded during the 1960s and 1970s. It is understood that Violet’s married name may have been Bose.

31P2

Gladys Winifred Collett was born at Widcombe near Bath on 19^th May 1903, the eldest of the three daughters of Thomas Henry Collett and his wife Florence Buck, whose birth was recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 316). In 1911 Gladys Winifred Collett was seven years of age when living at Violet Bank in Widcombe Hill. It would appear that she was known within the family as Winnifred and she married Arthur Reginald F Chapman on 17^th December 1926, Arthur having been born on 23^rd June 1901. The marriage is known to have produced at least one child, Martin H Chapman of Cheltenham, who kindly provided the information for the May 2012 update of this family line. Gladys Winifred Chapman nee Collett died on 11^th June 1963, while her husband survived for a further fourteen years when he died on 2^nd July 1977.

31P3

Kathleen Florence Collett was born at Widcombe in 1904, her birth was recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 497) during the third quarter of that year, the second child of Thomas and Florence Collett. She was six years old in 1911 when her family was residing at Violet Bank in Widcombe Hill near Bath. Kathleen was twenty-five when she married William L Silcox, their wedding recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 1331) during the fourth quarter of 1930. Seven years later Kathleen presented William with the first of their two known children, Roger W Silcox, whose birth was recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 532) during the last three months of 1937. The birth of their daughter, Margaret K Silcox, was also recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 1577) during the first quarter of 1940. On both occasions, the children’s mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett.

31P4

Margery Millicent Collett was born at Widcombe in 1905, with the birth recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 479) during the first three months of that year, and it was at Violet Bank in Widcombe Hill that Margery was five years old in 1911. The marriage of Margery M Collett and Kenneth S Burgess was recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 1322) during the third quarter of 1933.

31P5

Esme V Collett was born at Widcombe Hill near Bath in 1913 and it was at Bath register office where her birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 836) during the first quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Buck, the fourth daughter of Thomas and Florence Collett.

31P6

Kenneth Henry Collett was born at Widcombe Hill in 1914, his birth recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 808) during the last three months of that year, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Buck. It was also at Bath that his death, at the age of four years, was recorded (Ref. 5c 518) during the third quarter of 1919, perhaps from the influenza pandemic that swept across the country after the Great War.

31P7

Eileen M Collett was born at Widcombe, perhaps at the end of 1917, the last known child of Thomas Collett and Florence Buck. Her birth, like those of her older siblings, was also recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 630) during the first quarter of 1918 when, once again, her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Buck. She was twenty-three years old when she married Roy L Luxton, the event recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 1927) during the second quarter of 1941. After three years, their son Anthony R Luxton was born, his birth recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 765) during the second quarter of 1944, when the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett.

31P8

Frank Henry Collett was born at Bath on 1^st December 1906, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 463) during the first three months of 1907, the eldest child of Frank Albert Collett and Ada Alice Stennard. He may have been born at Lyncombe Vale Farm in Bath, where Henry Collett aged four years was living with his parents in 1911, where his father was a dairyman. He was still living within the Bath area of Somerset in 1936 when he married Isabel Short, the event recorded there (Ref. 5c 1333) during the second quarter of 1936. As far as can be determined, their marriage produced two daughters. The birth of Margaret Collett was recorded at Bath, as was that of Marion Collett, the first of them during the second quarter of 1938 (Ref. 5c 584) and the second during the third quarter of 1939 (Ref. 5c 851). In both cases, the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Short. The death of Frank Henry Collett was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 22 0002) during the spring of 1982.

31Q1

Margaret Collett

Born in 1938 at Bath

31Q2

Marion Collett

Born in 1939 at Bath

31P9

Cyril T H Collett was born at Bath in 1912, with his birth recorded there (Ref. 5c 888) during the third quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Stennard. He was still residing within the Bath area of the country when he married Gwendoline M Broom in 1936, since it was at Bath that the event was recorded (Ref. 5c 1389) during the final three months of the year. No record of the birth of any children for the couple has been found.

31P10

Reginald Arthur E Collett was born at Bath on 23^rd June 1915, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 760) during the third quarter of the year. He was the youngest of the three sons of Frank Collett and Ada Stennard. It has not been confirmed whether or not he ever married, but he was still living in the Bath area when he died in 1995, where his death was recorded towards the end of that year.

31P11

William Herbert Collett was born at Bath in 1874, the eldest child of Edwin and Mary Ann Collett. It was as William H Collett that he was recorded in the census of 1881 when he was six years old and living with his family at 7 Dover Terrace in Walcot. Ten years later, and following the death of his father, William had left school and was already a carpenter’s apprentice at the age of 16, when he and his widowed mother and his young siblings were residing at 2 Myrtle Place in Walcot. When he was 21 years of age, William Herbert Collett married Clara Maud Witcombe, the event recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 1113) during the second quarter of 1896. Shortly thereafter, Clara presented William with the first of their three children. By the end of March in 1901, William H Collett was 28 and his occupation was that of a joiner. He was still living in the Walcot area of Bath on that occasion, at Upper Mount Pleasant, and living there with him was his wife Clara M Collett who was 24, and four-year-old son Edwin H Collett, when all three of them were confirmed as being born at Bath.

Ten years later the family was still living in Bath, but at 4 Hanover Place in the Kensington district of the town. All four occupants of the premises were confirmed as having been born at Bath, and they were William Collett, who was 37 and a carpenter, his wife C Collett who was 30 (sic), their son Harry Collett who was 13 and their daughter Ethel Collett who was seven years of age. Just less than three years later a third child was added to the family with the arrival of Dorothy May Collett in February 1914.

31Q3

Edwin Harry Collett

Born in 1897 at Bath

31Q4

Ethel Maud Collett

Born in 1902 at Bath

31Q5

Dorothy May Collett

Born in 1914 at Bath

31P12

Edwin George Collett was born at Bristol in 1876 and was just four years old at the time of the 1881 Census. Towards the end of the century, around 1898 he married Lily May who was born at Wellow just south of Bath and with whom he had five daughters and all of them were born while the family was living in the Walcot area of Bath. According to the Bath census of 1901 the couple’s first child had already been born. Edwin was 24 and his occupation was that of a plumber and a gas fitter. His wife Lily was 22 and their daughter Violet was one year old.

Ten years later in 1911, the family was still living at Walcot and the census that year recorded their address as 5 Dover Terrace in Walcot in Bath, and that Edwin and Lily had been married for twelve years. Edwin George Collett age 34 and from the St Pauls district of Bristol was still working as a plumber and a gasfitter. His wife Lily May was 33 and their five children were Violet May Collett age 11, Gladys Mary Collett who was nine, Kathleen Lily Collett who was seven Hilary Edith Collett who was four and Georgina Daisy who was two years old. Also living with the family at that time was ‘step-brother’ George William Batch who was 13 and from Compton Martin near Cheddar. In addition to him, seventy-one-year-old widower James R Hooper of Bath and ‘of independent means’ was also living with the family on that occasion.

31Q6

Violet May Collett

Born in 1899 at Walcot, Bath

31Q7

Gladys Mary Collett

Born in 1901 at Walcot, Bath

31Q8

Kathleen Lily Collett

Born in 1903 at Walcot, Bath

31Q9

Hilary Edith Collett

Born in 1906 at Walcot, Bath

31Q10

Georgina Daisy Collett

Born in 1908 at Walcot, Bath

31P13

Reginald H Collett was born in June 1880 according to the census of 1881 for the Walcot district of Bath, which listed him was being ten months old while he was living with his family at 2 Yew Cottages. His absence from his family at the time of the next census in 1891 and the later one in 1901 probably indicates that he did not survive and very likely died around the same time as his father Edwin during the 1880s.

31P14

Arthur Thomas Collett was born at Bath in 1882 and most likely at 7 Dover Terrace in the Walcot area of the city where his family had been living during the previous year. He was the youngest of the four sons of Edwin and Mary Ann Collett and, following the death of his father when he was only a few years old, Arthur T Collett aged eight years was living with his widowed mother and two older brothers at Walcot in 1891. At the age of 18 he was still living with his widowed mother Mary at the family home in Bath, when his occupation was that of a leather renderer. While no record of him has been found so far in the census of 1911, it was at Bath during 1912 that Arthur Thomas Collett married Beatrice Owen with whom he had a daughter whose birth was recorded at the Bath register office (Ref. 5c 869).

When he was around thirty years old, he joined the British army to fight for King and Country. He was Private T/205129 with The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment and was tragically killed during The Third Battle of Ypres on 4^th October 1917, aged 34. At that time, he was married to Beatrice E Collett of 26 Belgrave Crescent in Bath. The details recorded at the time of his death confirmed that he was the son of Mrs M A Collett of 6 Highbury Terrace in Bath, and that corresponds to Mary A Collett, a milliner, who was married to Edwin Collett and was living at 7 Dover Terrace in Walcot in 1881. Arthur’s name appears on the Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 14 to 17, 162) which is situated north-east of Ieper. It is one of four memorials to those missing in the Belgian Flanders area of the Ypres Salient. The memorial bears the names of 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.

31Q11

Joyce B L Collett

Born in 1914 at Bath

31P15

Edgar William Collett was born at Atworth in 1874 and, shortly after he was born, he and his parents moved from Atworth to live at Monkton Farleigh north of Bradford-on-Avon and three miles east of Bath. And it was at Monkton Farleigh where he was baptised on 8^th November 1874, when he was confirmed as the son of Whyatt Collett and Jane Goldstone. The move there only lasted a few years before the family moved again to Walcot in Bath, where Edgar was recorded as being six years old in the 1881 Census. The family was living at 8 Lambridge Street in Walcot but, five years later in 1886, the family moved house again, that time to the west side of Bath, to settle at Twerton. Ten years later Edgar and his family were still living at Twerton, where Edgar W Collett was 16 and a draper’s assistant.

It was during the summer of 1900 that Edgar became a married man, when the marriage of Edgar William Collett and Ellen Elizabeth Holborrow was recorded at Tetbury register office (Ref. 6c 797) in Gloucestershire during the third quarter of that year. Ellen had been born at Westonbirt in Gloucestershire in 1876 and, immediately after they were married, the couple moved north to Lancashire. By the end of March in 1901, Edgar was a journeyman carpenter and joiner aged 27, and it was his work that had taken him and his new bride to the Old Trafford district of Manchester. The pair of them were residing at Collins Street at that time, when his wife was confirmed as Ellen Collett who was 24 and from Westonbirt near Tetbury. Ellen may well have been with-child on the census day, since it was later that year when their first child was born. Within the following year the family of three travelled south and, in 1903, they were living in Swindon, where the second of their two daughters was born.

Not long after that, Edgar and Ellen returned to Bath where they were recorded in April 1911 when living at 196 Coronation Avenue in Twerton. Edgar William Collett was 36 and he gave his place of birth as being the Wiltshire village of Monkton Farleigh near Bath. His occupation at that time was still that of a journeyman carpenter, employed by a house builder. The census also confirmed that the couple had been married for ten years. Edgar’s wife was listed as Helen Elizabeth Collett, aged 34 and from Westonbirt, and their two daughters were nine-year-old Helen Elizabeth Collett from Manchester and Dorothy Melinda from Swindon, who was seven years of age.

Just two years later, the death of Edgar W Collett was recorded at Wells register office (Ref. 5c 490) during the third quarter of 1913, when he was just 38 years of age. The birth of his first child was recorded at the Lancashire register office in Chorlton-cum-Hardy (Ref. 8c 903) during the last three months of 1901, following which she was baptised as Helen Elizabeth L Collett at the Church of St Michael in nearby Hulme on 3^rd November 1901, the daughter of Edgar William Collett and Helen Elizabeth Collett. The birth of Dorothy Melanda Collett was recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 31) during the second quarter of 1904. She later married Lester Rogers in Dorset, the wedding taking place in the village of Broadwindsor, just north-west of Beaminster, on 1^st October 1925. Lester was 25 and the son of Charlie Rogers and Dorothy Melanda Jane was 21 and the daughter of Edgar William Collett.

31Q12

Helen Elizabeth L Collett

Born in 1901 at Manchester

31Q13

Dorothy Melanda Jane Collett

Born in 1904 at Swindon

31P16

Frances Eliza Collett was born at Frankleigh near Bradford-on-Avon in 1876 and it was at the latter where her birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 138) during the second quarter of the year. However, like her older brother Edgar (above), she was baptised at Monkton Fairleigh on 4^th June 1876, the daughter of Whyatt and Jane Collett. She was recorded in the 1881 Census as being five years old, when she was living at 8 Lambridge Street in Walcot with her family. Ten years later Frances and her family were living at Twerton where she was 15 years of age. While no record of Frances has been found within the next census 1901, it was just over four years later that the marriage of Frances Eliza Collett and Alfred Small was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 1194) during the fourth quarter of 1905. Alfred had been made a widower in 1898 when his wife Ada had died during the birth of their second child.

By 1911 Frances had given birth to two children, with all six members of the family residing in Twerton. Alfred Small was 42, Frances Small was 35, Charles Small was 14, Irene Small was 11, Dorothy Small was five and Charlotte Small was three years of age.

31P17

Whyatt Collett was born at Frankleigh in 1877, his birth recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 136) during the second quarter of that year, the third child of Whyatt Collett and Jane Goldstone. He was three years of age in April 1881, when he and his family were living at Walcot, and was 12 years old in 1891 after the family has settled in nearby Twerton. He took up work as a painter and glazier and in 1901 was living with his parents at Twerton. His place of birth on that occasion was given as Bath and his age was 23. Although he was recorded as being a married man in the next census of 1911, he was still living with his elderly parents at their house at 106 West Avenue in Twerton. Whyatt Collett was 33 and a house painter and decorator and his place of birth was confirmed as Frankleigh. It was three years earlier, when the marriage of Whyatt Collett and Florence Honor Raggatt was recorded at Bristol register office (Ref. 6a 234) during the third quarter of 1908.

The birth of Florence Honor Raggatt was recorded at Barton Regis in Bristol (Ref. 6a 89) during the first three months of 1879, the third child and eldest daughter of William Raggatt and Harriet Goldstone. At the age of 12 years, Florence was the only person living with her elderly maternal grandmother Eliza Goldstone, who was 74, at her home in Churchill Batch within the Somerset parish of Winscombe. It seems likely she had already left school and was waiting on her grandmother, possibly as her housekeeper. Ten years earlier, widow Eliza Goldstone was living with Florence’s family at Higham Road in Bedminster, to the south of Bristol. Eliza was also, not only Florence’s grandmother, she was also the maternal grandmother of Whyatt Collett, being the mother of Jane Goldstone who married his father, who was living with the Collett family Twerton in 1901. Eighteen months later, the death of Eliza Goldstone was recorded at Bath during the summer of 1902.

When Whyatt was visiting his parents at 106 West Avenue in Twerton on the day of the census in 1911, his wife and their first child were visiting her parents in Bristol. The census return that year recorded the family group as William Raggatt who was 58 and a circular distributor from Oxford, his wife Harriet Raggatt who was 63 and from Churchill in Somerset, their daughter Florence Collett who was 33 and born at Montpelier in north Bristol, together with her one-year-old son Whyatt Collett who was born at Bath.

In all probability Florence Collett was staying with her parents in 1911 because she was already with-child and, within the next six months of that year, she gave birth to the first of her two daughters. The five-year gap between those two children may have been the result of Whyatt’s absence during the first years of the Great War. Both girls were possibly born at Twerton, with their births recorded at Bath register office, Hilda H Collett (Ref. 5c 830) in Q4 1911 and Gladys M Collett (Ref. 5c 867) in Q2 1916. The couple’s youngest daughter was 29 years only when the death of Whyatt Collett was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 642) during the last three months of 1945, when he was 67 years old. His widow survived him by nearly twelve years, when the death of Florence H Collett, nee Raggatt, was also recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 7c 38) during the third quarter of 1957, when she was 78.

31Q14

Whyatt Collett

Born in 1909 at Bath

31Q15

Hilda Harriet Collett

Born in 1911 at Bath

31Q16

Gladys M Collett

Born in 1916 at Bath

31P18

Frederick John Collett was born at Larkhall in the Walcot area of Bath in 1879, his birth recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 602) during the last three months of that year. By the time he was one year old, he and his family were living at 8 Lambridge Street in Walcot, while in 1891 it was at West Avenue in Twerton, near Bath, that he was 11 years old. He was the son of Whyatt Collett and Jane Goldstone and a school photograph of ‘Jack Collett’, on the right, is believed to be Frederick John Collett, since it is in the same style as the school photograph of his younger brother Albert Collett (below) taken a few years later. Perhaps Jack was his school name.

According to the Twerton census conducted in 1901, Frederick J Collett from Larkhall Bath was a stonemason aged 21 who was still living there with his parents. Just six months after that census day Frederick John Collett married Rhoda Mills, who was also born at Bath in 1879, the event recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 1103) during the fourth quarter of 1901. The couple remained living in Bath and it was there also that their four children were born and where the family was living in April 1911. The census that year confirmed the family was living at 49 Lower Bristol Road where Frederick John Collett, aged 33, was a mason and a builder who had been born in Bath and who had been married for ten years. His wife was Rhoda Collett aged 33 and their children were Florrie Collett who was eight and Emily Collett who was two years old.

It was during the next few years, after the census in 1911, that Frederick and Rhoda added to their family with a third daughter. However, it was much later that their only son was born. That time lapse was caused by the Great War, in which Frederick saw active service with the 8^th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment as Private 302272 Frederick John Collett. It was during the campaign that he sustained an injury. The certificate issued to Frederick at the time of his discharge from the army carried the following words: “No 302272 Pte Frederick John Collett of the Manchester Regiment - Served with honour and was disabled in the Great War. Honourably discharged on 20^th December 1918”.

This family group photograph was taken in the back garden of their Bath home during 1924 when Frederick’s and Rhoda’s youngest child was one year old. From left to right, the picture shows the couple’s three daughters: 16-year-old Emily Collett (standing); 22-year-old Florence Collett (seated); and Ivy Collett (holding a book). Standing behind them is the suited Frederick John Collett himself, who would have been in his mid-forties and seated in front of him and holding their baby son Edgar, is his wife Rhoda Collett nee Mills.

Frederick was 83 when he passed away when he was still living in the Bath area of Somerset. The death of Frederick J Collett was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 7c 15) during the first three months of 1963.

31Q17

Florence Jessie Collett

Born in 1902 at Bath

31Q18

Emily Collett

Born in 1908 at Bath

31Q19

Ivy Collett

Born in 1913 at Bath

31Q20

Edgar William Collett

Born in 1922 at Bath

31P19

Sydney James Collett was born at Larkhall in Walcot in 1882, his birth recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 611) during the fourth quarter of the year. In 1881 his parents were living at 8 Lambridge Street in Walcot, where he may have been born. He was eight years old in 1891 when he was living with his family in nearby Twerton at West Avenue. On leaving school he joined the Royal Navy and in 1901 he was 17 and was serving with the navy at Devonport (Plymouth, where he was described as Sidney James Collett having been born at Larkhall, a boy first class, a boy under training.

No record of Sydney or Sidney has been found in 1911, when he may have been serving overseas. However, he later returned to Bath, where the marriage of Sidney J Collett and Elizabeth Anthony was recorded (Ref. 5c 853) during the first quarter of 1924. Tragically, it was exactly eight years later that Sidney died, his death recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 789) as Sidney J Collett during the first three months of 1932, when he was said to be 49 years old.

31P20

Albert Edward Collett was born at Larkhall in Walcot in 1884, another son of Whyatt and Jane Collett, whose birth was recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 623) during the last three months of that year. This may have taken place at 8 Lawbridge Street where Albert’s family was living four years earlier in 1881. Not long after he was born his family moved from Walcot when they settled in Twerton to the west of the city and where Albert was five years old in 1891. On leaving school he began his working life as a carpenter, working alongside his father Whyatt. That was confirmed in the census of 1901 when Albert E Collett from Larkhall Bath was 16 and described as a house carpenter, who was still living at Twerton with his parents. This photograph of Albert was likely taken during the last year of his schooling.

Four years after that day, the marriage of Albert Edward Collett, the son of Whyatt Collett, and Florence Annie ethel Ferris, the daughter of William Ferris, took place at Wootton Bassett on 7^th August 1905, when the bridge and the groom were both 21 years of age. By April 1911, Albert Collett from Bath was 26 and a carpenter and a joiner working in the building industry, when he was living at Eglwysilan, Caerphilly in Glamorganshire, South Wales. With him that census day was his wife Florence Collett from Dauntsey – a few miles west of Wootton Bassett, who was also 26, and the couple’s first child, two-month-old Ellen Collett who had been born in Caerphilly. Four years later their son was born at Caerphilly, where he was baptised at the Church of St Martin, when the family was residing at 9 Southern Street in Caerphilly. The births of both children were recorded at Pontypridd register office, Ellen during the first month of 1911 and Sidney during the third quarter of 1915.

31Q21

Ellen Collett

Born in 1911 at Caerphilly

31Q22

Sidney James Collett

Born in 1915 at Caerphilly

31P21

Helen Edith Collett was born at Twerton in Bath on 19^th January 1887, the last child of Whyatt Collett and Jane Goldstone. It was at Bath that her birth was recorded (Ref. 5c 555) during the first quarter of 1887. It was at West Avenue in Twerton where she was living with her parents in 1891, when she was four years old, and again in 1901 when Helen was still attending the local school at the age of 14. Seven years after that day, Helen Edith Collett married Alick Percy Viles, the event recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 897) during the first three months of 1908.

Helen gave birth to two daughters before the next census, the first born at Bradford-on-Avon, the second at Bath, while it was at Twerton that the family of four was residing in 1911. Alick Viles from Bradford-on-Avon was 25, his wife Ellen Viles from Bath was 24, Iris Amelia Viles was two years of age and Doris Edith Viles was not yet one-year-old. Two sons were added to their family at Twerton in the following years and they were Roy A Viles and Cyril P Viles whose births were recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 826 in Q4 1913) and (Ref. 5c 693 in Q4 1918) when, in each case, the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett. After a long life living in the Bath area, it was there that her death was recorded (Ref. 22 0218) during the spring of 1974, when she was 87.