PART THIRTY-THREE

The Bourton-on-the-Water Line 1685 to 2010

Updated January 2023

Part 14 – The John Kyte Collett Line also deals with many Colletts of Bourton-on-the-Water

It seems likely, although not yet proved, that the origins of this line stem from

William Collett (Ref. 2H20) who was baptised at Bourton in 1624

This is the family line of Carole Hiscock to whom thanks must go for

providing much detailed information and photographs relating to her family

An earlier version of this family line included John Brain Collett and his great granddaughters Shirley and Trisha Collett of New Zealand, who kindly provided details of their family. However, a major discovery in 2015 revealed that their origins actually lay within Part 2 – The Second Gloucestershire Line (Ref. 2O5).

33J1

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Bourton-on-the-Water around 1685 and may have been the grandson of William Collett (Ref. 2H20) of Bourton-on-the Water. It seems likely that he married Elizabeth with whom he had a number of children, all of them baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water where they were possibly born. The dates of baptism of four of the children all fall within three years, with the latter three of them being baptised within a period of only eight months. The dates may therefore not be necessarily indicative of the age of each child, but perhaps just the order in which they were born. It is more than likely that those four children were actually born during the years 1720, 1722, 1723 and 1724. Knowing this family line includes blacksmiths, it is possible that this William Collett is the one who died in 1737 and was buried at Upper Slaughter on 25^th July 1737, whose occupation was simply recorded as a smith.

33K1

Thomas Collett

Born circa 1718 at Bourton; died 1718

33K2

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born circa 1720 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33K3

John Collett

Born circa 1722 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33K4

Thomas Collett

Born circa 1723 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33K5

Joshua Collett

Born circa 1724 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33K6

Elizabeth Collett

Born circa 1728 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33K7

Jane Collett

Born circa 1730 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33K2

WILLIAM COLLETT was baptised at Bourton-on-the Water on 25^th June 1721 when he might have been nearly one year old. The baptism record confirmed that he was the son of William and Elizabeth Collett and not the son of William Collett and Mary Below, as suggested by an alternative source. William also married an Elizabeth who may well have been Elizabeth Keen who was born at Stow-on-the-Wold on 31^st January 1721. She may have been the daughter of Samuel Keen and his wife Elizabeth Beal, whose daughter Rebecca Keen married Richard Collett at Stow-on-the-Wold on 3^rd October 1741, around the same time that William and Elizabeth were married. Who Richard Collett (born circa 1717) was, has still to be resolved and for the time being his brief family details are contained within the Appendix at the end of Part 2 – The Second Gloucestershire Line 1550 to 1830 (Ref. 2PA3).

So far, only two sons have been identified as the children of William and Elizabeth and, while the first of them was born when the couple was living at Lower Slaughter, the birth was recorded in the non-conformist records at Bourton Baptist Church. However, neither of the couple’s sons were baptised until much later in their life, when they were baptised together in a joint ceremony at Upper Slaughter during June 1768, when they were described as being in riper years. By that time, son William was already a married man.

33L1

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1743 at Lower Slaughter

33L2

Henry Collett

Born in 1755 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33K3

John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1723 where he was baptised on 10^th November 1723, another son of William and Elizabeth Collett.

33K4

Thomas Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, most likely during 1722 or possibly in 1723, and it was there also that he was baptised on 24^th January 1724. He married Sarah and all of their children were born and baptised at Bourton. From the later details relating to their eldest son Thomas, it might appear that the child was not baptised during his infant years but perhaps when he was around seven years of age. And that would support the idea that Thomas married Sarah when he was in his late twenties, rather than during his mid-thirties.

33L3

Thomas Collett

Born circa 1757 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33L4

John Collett

Born circa 1761 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33L5

William Collett

Born circa 1763 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33L6

Elizabeth Collett

Born circa 1765 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33K5

Joshua Collett was another son of William and Elizabeth who was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, where he was baptised on 5^th July 1724.

33K6

Elizabeth Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water around 1726, the eldest daughter of William and Elizabeth Collett. It was also at Bourton where she later married Thomas Smith on 7^th October 1748.

33K7

Jane Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was possibly the youngest child of William and Elizabeth Collett, since it was during 1756 that she married Richard Packer at Bourton.

33L1

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Lower Slaughter on 28^th March 1743, the older of the two sons of William Collett and Elizabeth Keen of the parish of Lower Slaughter. The birth was registered at Bourton Baptist Church, the entry for which states “the birth was registered, by his own request, by me Thos Coles Protestant Dissenting Minister” who is known to have made a great many later entries in the register, some dated as late as 12^th November 1811. However, it would also appear that he was baptised in a joint ceremony with his younger brother Henry, when William was 25 years of age, the event taking place as an adult baptism at Upper Slaughter during June 1768. Both of them were described as being of riper years, when their parents were confirmed as William and Elizabeth Collett. Six years prior to that, William had married Anne Matthews on 12^th May 1762 at Upper Slaughter, just one mile from his place of birth. Anne or Anna was also later referred to as Hannah. In 1802 Sarah Collett, the eldest daughter of William’s cousin Thomas Collett, married William Matthews at Bourton-on-the-Water, thus creating another link between the two families.

It was one year after the birth of the couple’s third child that William was the subject of his adult baptism, and it would have been around that time when his wife Anne announced she was expecting their fourth child. So perhaps that may have been the reason why he then decided to be baptised. The Upper Slaughter baptism register confirmed that William Collett was the husband of Anne Collett and the son of William and Elizabeth Collett. The same register also included the adult baptism of his much younger brother Henry Collett in June that same year, both baptisms possibly conducted on the same day.

All of William and Anne’s children were born and baptised at Upper Slaughter where, in 1772, it is established that blacksmith William Collett of Upper Slaughter took on land, the blacksmith’s shop, and Pool’s Close, all as part of a 99-year lease from 29^th September 1772. The owner of the property, from whom it was leased, was Mary Tracy, the widow of Thomas Tracy. The lease also made reference to his sons William Collett and Joseph Collett, the former eventually taking over the lease on the death of his father. William Collett died in 1820, aged 78, and was buried on 10^th December 1820 at Bourton-on-the-Water, as recorded in the non-conformist records at the Baptist Church.

The Will of William Collett, blacksmith of Upper Slaughter, was made on 1^st October 1801 and signed in his own hand. Within the short document there is no mention of his wife who therefore must have passed away between the birth of the couple’s last child and that time. Of his ten children only nine were named in the Will, daughter Hannah being the one that was missing. Curiously the three children appointed as executors of the estate of William Collett were Thomas, Richard and Sarah, who also shared the bulk of their father’s estate. However, following his death in 1820, it was only his daughter Sarah Iles who was sworn in at the proving of the Will, which took place on 5^th June 1822. It was during the following year that the lease for land, the blacksmith’s shop, and Pool’s Close was formally transferred to his son Thomas Collett in 1823 (see Will in Legal Documents)

Further evidence that Sarah Iles was the daughter of the late William Collett was provided by the Account of the Property of William Collett, deceased, which was administered to Sarah Iles at Stow-on-the-Wold on 5^th June 1822 in the sum of £88 and 11 Shillings. That sum comprised: £20 for the lease on the house, the blacksmith’s shop and garden; £25 and 4 Shillings for household furniture; £36 and 7 Shillings for stock in trade; plus £7 being the balance of cash after the payment of debts.

33M1

Mary Collett

Born in 1763 at Upper Slaughter

33M2

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1765 at Upper Slaughter

33M3

Hannah Collett

Born in 1767 at Upper Slaughter

33M4

Joseph Collett

Born in 1768 at Upper Slaughter

33M5

Sarah Jane Collett

Born in 1770 at Upper Slaughter

33M6

John Collett

Born in 1772 at Upper Slaughter

33M7

Richard Collett

Born in 1774 at Upper Slaughter

33M8

Thomas Collett

Born in 1776 at Upper Slaughter

33M9

Edward Collett

Born in 1778 at Upper Slaughter

33M10

Benjamin Collett

Born in 1780 at Upper Slaughter

33L2

Henry Collett was born at Bourton-on-the Water in 1755 but was not baptised at that time. Instead, he was the subject of a joint baptism with his older brother William Collett (above) at Upper Slaughter in June 1768.

33L3

Thomas Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water and baptised there on 22^nd May 1757. It is possible that Thomas was around ten years of age when he was baptised. And it was at Bourton on 8^th October 1778 that he married Elizabeth Cooper of Lower Slaughter. From her age on the date of her death, it is established that Elizabeth was born around 1750 so, assuming she was a similar age to Thomas, he would have been around seven years old at the time of his baptism.

Whilst all of their children were baptised at the church in Bourton, it is possibly that the family was living at nearby Lower Slaughter, from whence Elizabeth came and where she was buried. The Will of Thomas Collett was made on 1^st March 1804, shortly after which he died. His wife Elizabeth was named as the sole executrix, and the only other members of his family named therein were his daughters Sarah and Mary who would inherit his estate in the event that his widow remarried. His eldest son Thomas was also mentioned, but only in the capacity of being able to use the farmland passed onto his mother, who would determine the appropriate and proper cost. No mention was made of his youngest son John would have been 13 years of age, and the absence of his name in the Will very likely indicates that he did not survive beyond infancy.

The document provided sufficient information to confirm that Thomas Collett was a yeoman of Lower Slaughter having cows and horses, a dairy farmer with pasture land and an arable farmer growing grain crops. And it was his widow Elizabeth Collett who was sworn in on the day the Will was proved on 7^th June 1804, placing the date of his death sometime during the months of April and May that year (see Will in Legal Documents)

Elizabeth Collett nee Cooper died on 26^th October 1827 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church at Lower Slaughter. The headstone epitaph there reads; “Elizabeth wife of Thomas Collett died October 26^th 1827 aged 77”. Her Will, made during April 1825, refers to her as Elizabeth Collett, widow of Lower Slaughter. There were two main beneficiaries under the terms of the Will, the first named was her brother Richard Cooper, a gentleman of Little Rissington, the other being her son Thomas Collett, a yeoman of Slaughter Hill, who jointly shared her estate. A sum of money was also placed in trust for her daughter Sarah, the wife of William Matthews, an innkeeper at Bourton-on-the-Water, and for John, Sarah, William, Thomas and Elizabeth Smith, the children of her late daughter Mary, deceased. Elizabeth Collett nee Cooper signed the Will in her own hand.

33M11

Sarah Collett

Born in 1779 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33M12

Thomas Collett

Born in 1781 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33M13

Mary Maria Collett

Born in 1786 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33M14

John Collett

Born in 1791 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33L4

John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1761, where he was baptised on 14^th June 1761, another child of Thomas and Sarah Collett.

33L5

William Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water around 1763, the third known son of Thomas and Sarah Collett. William was around seven years old when he died and was buried at Bourton on 20^th February 1770.

33L6

Elizabeth Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water around 1765, the only known daughter of Thomas and Sarah Collett. It was also at Bourton that she died and was buried on 19^th July 1777.

33M1

Mary Collett was born around 1763 at Upper Slaughter, where she was baptised on 29^th July 1764, the eldest child of William Collett and Anne Matthews. For some reason Mary Hall, the daughter of blacksmith William Collett, and her younger brother Edward Collett (below), were only left one shilling in the 1801 Will of their father, compared to much larger sums for their other siblings. Mary had already married Anthony Hall on 23^rd February 1792 at Eyford, which lies to the north of Upper Slaughter and south-west of Stow-on-the-Wold. It is worth pointing out that Mary’s cousin, one-step-removed, Thomas Collett (Ref. 33M12) married Elizabeth Hall in 1804 who may have been a relative of Anthony Hall, perhaps even his younger sister.

33M2

WILLIAM COLLETT was born in 1765 at Upper Slaughter, where he was also baptised on 24^th December 1765, the eldest son of William Collett, blacksmith, and Anne Matthews. He married Sarah Hollands by licence on 12^th August 1789 at Upper Slaughter, and it was at Upper Slaughter that all of their children were later baptised. As the eldest son of blacksmith William Collett, it is curious why William was not named as one of the three executors of his late father’s estate, that duty being assigned to three of his younger siblings Richard, Thomas and Sarah. The Will did however bequeath ten pounds to son William, while it was William’s brother Thomas who took over the family blacksmith business upon the death of their father. William Collett was buried at Upper Slaughter on 2^nd September 1847 at the age of 81. Just over six years before that William was 75 years old when he was recorded as a widower in the Upper Slaughter census of 1841. It is interesting that in the later national census returns some of his children gave other nearby locations as the place of their birth.

In addition to what is written above, regarding William Collett, the younger blacksmith, he is the first of four brothers mentioned in the ‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ being the diary records of Francis Witts, the clergyman at Upper Slaughter during the first half of the nineteenth century, as compiled by Alan Sutton and published in 2017, the relevant diary entries being as follows:

4^th April 1835 - Dismissed my old Parish Clerk, William Collett; the churchwardens and principal parishioners acquiescing in the measure. However, being unwilling to act with severity, I told him that I had arranged with the successor whom I had appointed, Thomas Collett, a young carpenter of the village, that he should be allowed, while he lived, a sovereign, out of the perquisites of the office, annually 28^th December 1846 - Preparing a Will for Wm. Collett, to be executed by him in favour of his daughter 13^th January to 18^th June 1847 - Visiting and reading prayers with an aged and sick parishioner, W. Collett 22^nd June, 26^th June, 9^th July, 24^th July 1847 - Visited an apparently dying parishioner, W. Collett 31^st July, 22^nd August, 30^th August 1847 - My aged parishioner W. Collett died today, 2^nd September

33N1

Anne Collett

Born in 1790 at Upper Slaughter

33N2

Paris Collett

Born in 1792 at Upper Slaughter

33N3

James Collett

Born in 1793 at Upper Slaughter

33N4

Thomas Collett

Born in 1794 at Upper Slaughter

33N5

John Collett

Born in 1797 at Upper Slaughter

33N6

Hannah Collett

Born in 1800 at Upper Slaughter

33N7

RICHARD COLLETT

Born in 1803 at Upper Slaughter

33M3

Hannah Collett was born in 1767 at Upper Slaughter, where she was baptised on 24^th May 1767, the daughter of William and Anne Collett. Hannah, who may have been known as Betty, married Thomas Yearp at Upper Slaughter on 28^th July 1794 and they had a daughter Rachel Yearp during the following year, and later a son Thomas Yearp, both of them baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water. Their daughter Rachel was recorded as Rebecca Yearp when she married George Collett in 1831 at the age of 36, while their son Thomas was a farmer at Lower Slaughter in 1881. Living and working with Thomas Yearp junior in 1881 was Charles Collett (Ref. 33P6), aged 15 from Maugersbury, the great grandson of Hannah’s brother William Collett (above).

33N8

Rachel Yearp – see Ref. 33N11

Baptised on 22.04.1807 at Bourton

33N9

Thomas Yearp – see Ref. 33P6

Baptised on 14.03.1813 at Bourton

33M4

Joseph Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1768, where he was baptised on 25^th September 1768, the son of William and Anne Collett. He was left five pounds in his father’s Will of 1801. In the Upper Slaughter census of 1841 Joseph was 73, and again in 1851 he was 82, when he was living with his younger brother Thomas Collett (below) at his Upper Slaughter home. Both men were described as an ‘annuitant born at Upper Slaughter’. The death of Joseph Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 202) during the last three months of 1855, when he would have been 87. Who his wife was, referred to below, has still to be determined and whether they had any issue.

Just as with his older brother William (above) and younger brothers Thomas and Edward (below), Joseph Collett, a farmer, was also mentioned in ‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ by Alan Sutton, as were other members of the Collett families of Upper Slaughter listed in Parts 1 and 2 on the Collett Family History website. The diary entries for Joseph Collett read as follows:

27^th March 1845 - Transacting business with Forty and Jos. Collett 22^nd April 1848 - Visited Mrs. Jos. Collett, and Mrs. Gregory, both being unwell 16^th January 1850 - Visited sick and aged parishioners — Mary Forty, Mrs. Jos. Collett 24^th December 1853 - Visiting Joseph Collett, a very aged parishioner, till now enjoying firm health, considering his advanced years, but within the two or three days last past, appearing to be broken in body, & more especially in mind 25^th December 1853 - Visited Joseph Collett, who appears to have rallied both as to mind and body

33M5

Sarah Jane Collett was born at Upper Slaughter where she was baptised on 22^nd October 1770, the daughter of William Collett and Anne Matthews. It would appear that she lived with her parents well into their later years since she was forty-nine when Sarah Collett was married to John Iles at Upper Slaughter during 1819, as listed in the Boyd’s Marriage Index. Sarah and her two younger brothers Richard and Thomas were named as the three executors for her father’s Will which was made in 1801. However, following his death in 1822, the only one of the three of them present at the proving of the Will in Stow-on-the-Wold on 5^th June 1822 was Sarah Iles the daughter of the deceased, even though it is known that her younger brother Thomas was still alive at that time. According to the census in 1841 John and Sarah Iles were still living at Upper Slaughter and eight years later the death of Sarah Iles was recorded at Bourton-on-the-Water during 1848 when she was 77.

33M6

John Collett was born at Upper Slaughter and was baptised there on 14^th June 1773, the son of William and Anne Collett. He too was left five pounds in his father’s Will of 1801. From the Upper Slaughter lease agreements for his brother Thomas (below), it has been ascertained that John was very likely married twice during his life. It would appear that he married (1) Martha around 1800 with whom he had at least two children and then, following the death of Martha around 1810, he married (2) Leah Hobbs at Cheltenham on 30^th October 1811, with whom he had at least two more children. No record of the death of John Collett, or his marriage to Martha, have been found.

All of the children of John Collett were born and baptised at Stow-on-the-Wold, and it was there also that his widow Leah Collett was living in 1841 at the age of 60, meaning that she was around eight years younger than John. According to the Stow census return that year, Leah had her unmarried son William still living with her at Sheep Street. It towards the end of that same year, when the death of Leah Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 36) during the last three months of 1841.

33N10

Mary Collett

Born in 1801 at Stow-on-the-Wold

33N11

George Collett

Born in 1806 at Stow-on-the-Wold

The following are the two children of John Collett and his second wife Leah Hobbs:

33N12

Sarah Collett

Born in 1811 at Stow-on-the-Wold

33N13

Jane Collett

Born in 1812 at Stow-on-the-Wold

33N14

Ann Collett

Born in 1814 at Stow-on-the-Wold

33N15

William Collett

Born in 1816 at Stow-on-the-Wold

33M7

Richard Collett was born at Upper Slaughter and was baptised there on 26^th June 1774, the seventh child and fourth son of blacksmith William Collett and his wife Anne Matthews. Nothing more is currently known about Richard except that he was named as one of the three executors of his father’s Will at the time of the making of the Will in 1801 but that he was not present for the proving of the Will in 1822 when it was just his older sister Sarah (above) who was sworn in. So perhaps the death of Richard Collett had preceded that of his father, whilst it is established that the third executor to the Will, his brother Thomas (below), was still alive but was absent from the proving of the Will at Stow-on-the-Wold on 5^th June 1822.

33M8

Thomas Collett was born in 1776 at Upper Slaughter where he was baptised that same year, the son of William and Anne Collett. It was Thomas, his brother Richard and their sister Sarah (both above), who were named as the three executors of their father’s Will made in 1801, although it was only Sarah who was sworn in at the proving of the Will at Stow-on-Wold on 5^th June 1822. Thomas Collett, a smith from Upper Slaughter like his father, was mentioned in the Lease of Thomas Tracy, when the land in question had previously been leased by two generations of the Andrews family back to 1763, prior to it being assigned to Thomas Collett on 28^th February 1811. At that time, the estate of the late Thomas Tracy was being managed by his widow Mary Tracy who died in 1812, following which it passed to the Rt Hon John Dutton, Lord of Sherborne.

In 1823 the Right Honorable John Dutton leased land, the blacksmith’s shop, and Pool’s Close to Thomas Collett, blacksmith of Upper Slaughter, the property formerly occupied by William Collett [his father] deceased. Ten years earlier on 4^th January 1813 the Rt Hon John Dutton leased land to farmer Thomas Collett who was already the leasee of the former Tracy/Andrews land referred to above. That same lease agreement also made reference to his nephews Thomas Collett (Ref. 33N4) who was 17 and Richard Collett (Ref. 33N7) who was nine, the sons of his brother William (above), who presumably helped Thomas work the land.

It is slightly curious that the later lease of 1823, transferred to Thomas upon the death of his father in 1820, made reference to the nephews of Thomas Collett, they being George Collett (Ref. 33N11), who was 16 years old and the son of John and Martha Collett, and William Collett (Ref. 33N15) who was seven and the son of John and Leah Collett. It is now established that both of them were the two sons of the same John Collett, the older boy being the son of his first wife and the younger boy being his son by his second wife.

It would appear that Thomas was married twice in his life because, when he married Elizabeth Goodwin Eddles he was a widower. Elizabeth was born around 1792 at Kingham, not far from Chipping Norton, and there, Elizabeth Huckvale, the daughter of William and Elizabeth, was baptised on 17^th April 1792. Whether she was the wife of this Thomas Collett has still to be proved. In the first national census conducted in June 1841, Thomas Collett of Upper Slaughter was 65 and his wife Elizabeth was 49. Ten years later in the Upper Slaughter census of 1851, the pair of them were recorded as Thomas Collett who was 75 and an annuitant of Upper Slaughter, when his wife Elizabeth G Collett of Kingham who was 58. Living with them that day, as he had been ten years earlier, was Thomas’ older brother Joseph Collett (above) who was also described as an annuitant, born at Upper Slaughter. Four years later the death of Elizabeth Goodwin Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 189) during the third quarter of 1855 and, just over a year after that, the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 211) during the last three months of 1856, when he would have been around 80 years of age. Thomas Collett left a three-page Will

‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ by Alan Sutton includes just one diary entry for Thomas Collett, a farrier and blacksmith, as reproduced below. The nephew referred to in the entry, is William Collett the youngest son of Thomas’ brother John Collett (above). 3^rd to 7^th August 1854 - Having been desired to call at Thos. Collett’s, in respect of his nephew, William’s, cottages here, as to which I have requested to Tipping to negotiate a sale to me, conferred with Mrs. T.C

33M9

Edward Collett was born at Upper Slaughter where he was baptised on 15^th February 1778, the son of William and Anne Collett. Edward was named in his father’s Will made in 1801 when he was given the sum of one shilling, compared to five pounds set aside for his younger brother Benjamin (below). His occupation was that of a tailor, and it is believed that he never married. On the day of the census in 1841 Edward Collett was 63 years old and residing in the Manor House in Upper Slaughter. It was just less than ten years later that the death of Edward Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 346) during the first three months of 1851 and before the day of the census that year. The item below indicates that he very likely died on 17^th February 1851, following which he was buried at Upper Slaughter on 19^th February that year. It was around the time that Edward visited the local parson (see below), when he made his Will. In that document, the bulk of his personal estate and effects was bequeath to his nephew William Collett, the last child of Edward’s older brother John Collett (above). Other, minor beneficiaries under the terms of the Will, were eight of Edward’s nieces and nephews, each of whom received a small amount of money. They were brothers Thomas Collett (Ref. 33N4), John Collett (Ref. 33N5) and Richard Collett (Ref. 33N7), their cousin George Collett (Ref. 33N11), and sisters Sarah Fletcher (Ref. 33N12), Jane Price (Ref. 33N13) and Ann Harbert (Ref. 33N14). The final named niece was Elizabeth Chapman, whose identity has still to be discovered.

‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ by Alan Sutton includes just two diary entries that mentions the name of Edward Collett, and this is reproduced below. 13^th February 1851 - I had called at Stow on Edward Collett, the Tailor, an old parishioner, who has been residing for some time past with his nephew. The poor old man is dangerously ill and appears to approach his latter end: but he knew me and seemed grateful for the visit 19^th February 1851 - Officiated at the funeral of the late Edward Collett, who died two days after my late visit to him.

33M10

Benjamin Collett was born at Upper Slaughter and it was there also that he was baptised on 10^th January 1780, the last child born to blacksmith William Collett and his wife Anne Matthews. He was named in his father’s Will of 1801 in which it was stated he would receive five pounds, but whether he was alive to receive it in 1822, when his father passed away, is not known.

33M11

Sarah Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1779 and was baptised there on 15^th May 1780, the eldest child of Thomas Collett and his wife Elizabeth Cooper. She later married William Matthews (born in 1772) at Bourton on 2^nd September 1802. Just less than two years later her father passed away and, in his Will, made on 1^st March 1804 she was simply referred to as Sarah, one of the two daughters of Thomas Collett. It is of interest that in 1762 William Collett (Ref. 33L1), who was the cousin of Sarah’s father Thomas Collett, married Ann Matthews at Upper Slaughter, thus creating an earlier link between the two families.

The marriage between Sarah and William Matthews produced a number of children, including Thomas C (Collett?) Matthews (who was born in 1804), twins Elizabeth Matthews and John Matthews (who were born in 1809), and Marianne (Mary Ann) Matthews (who was born during 1818). By the time Sarah’s mother made her Will in April 1825, William Matthews was an innkeeper in Bourton-on-the-Water, where presumably Sarah, a beneficiary under the terms of the Will, and her family were living around that time.

The couple’s eldest son Thomas married Ann and they lived the early part of their married life at Bourton before moving to live in Surrey, but it seems likely their first-born son was William Matthews born in 1831. In 1861 farmer William Matthews, aged 29, was living at Lower Slaughter with his young wife Mary Matthews nee Stephens, aged 20, and their eight months old daughter Mary. Living with them was Mary’s brother Thomas Stephens, who was 15, and a 16-year-old servant girl Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 33O17) of Bourton, the daughter of Richard Collett and his wife Sarah Cross.

Sarah’s and William’s youngest daughter Marianne Matthews married Thomas Downing at Bourton on 5^th July 1838 and the ceremony was witnessed by Marianne’s brother Thomas Matthews and her mother Sarah Matthews nee Collett. According to the census of 1851 William Matthews was 79 years old and a widower who had been born at Bourton, when his occupation was stated as being that of church warden. Living with him on 30^th March 1851 was his married daughter Elizabeth Colin, aged 40, who was working as a dressmaker.

As Elizabeth Matthews she had married William Colin at Bourton on 27^th May 1829. By 1861 William Matthews had passed away, but his daughter Elizabeth Colin, then a milliner aged 52, was still living at Bourton and again without her husband who, it is believed died when he was 45. Elizabeth Colin was 60 and was retired by the time of the census in 1871 when she was still a resident at Bourton, but during the next few years she must have passed away during the 1870s since she was not listed in the 1881 Census.

33M12

Thomas Collett was born at Lower Slaughter in 1781, while it was at Bourton-on-the-Water, where he was baptised on 25^th December 1781, the eldest son of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Cooper. Under the terms of his father’s Will of 1804, Thomas may have taken over the running of the family farm at Lower Slaughter, which had been left to Thomas’ mother “to manage, as she saw fit”. It may also have been around that same time, in the spring of 1804, or during the previous year, when Thomas Collett married Elizabeth Hall, who had been born at Northleach, around 1779. Elizabeth Hall may have been the younger sister of Anthony Hall who married Mary Collett (Ref. 33M1) in 1792, who was Thomas’ cousin one-step-removed. All of the children of Thomas and Elizabeth were born at Lower Slaughter and were baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water although, sadly, the couple’s first two children, both named Thomas, did not survive, their third child also give the name Thomas.

Just over twenty years later, during 1827, Thomas’ mother Elizabeth Collett, nee Cooper, died and was buried in the graveyard of the Church of St Mary at Lower Slaughter. The grave is marked by a headstone with an inscription that includes her grandson. It reads; “Elizabeth wife of Thomas Collett died October 26^th 1827 aged 77 – Also Thomas their grandson who died February 1806 aged 4 months”. Under the terms of the Will of his mother, Thomas Collett a yeoman of Slaughter Hill, jointly inherited his mother’s estate with her brother Richard Cooper, a gentleman of Little Rissington.

Two other events confirm a connection with Lower Slaughter. The first being that their son Joseph was born there in 1814, and secondly that it was there that Thomas Collett died on 4^th June 1850 and was laid to rest in a tomb within the churchyard of St Mary’s Church. The tombstone he shared with his wife confirmed that “Thomas Collett died June 4^th 1850 aged 68”. Nine years prior to his passing, on the day of the census conducted in June 1841, the family was residing at Wyck Hill Farm in Wick Rissington, when Thomas Collett was 59, Elizabeth Collett was 60, and their sons were Thomas Collett was 29, John Collett was 28 and Joseph Collett was 26. Completing the household were domestic servants Sarah Carl, who was 22, and William Wheeler who was 15

Following the death of her husband, Elizabeth appears to have moved back to the nearby village of Wick Rissington, where she was residing at the time of the census in 1851. The census return recorded that she was the head of the household at 71, and that she was a widow. At that time, she was the farmer of 350 acres of land, while living there with her was her son Joseph Collett, who was 36 and born at Lower Slaughter.

Also with her, was her granddaughter Elizabeth Amelia Collett who was four years old and born at Wick Rissington, the child of her son Thomas James Collett, who also farmed in Wick Rissington. The family employed two servants, Sarah Earle who was 32 and from Northleach, and Thomas Harris who was 24 and from Churchill in Oxfordshire. When Elizabeth died, just over five years later, she was buried with her husband in the tomb in the ground of St Mary’s Church at Lower Slaughter. The tombstone epitaph above that of her husband’s reads; “Elizabeth wife of Thomas Collett who died September 25^th 1856 aged 77 years”.

33N16

Thomas Collett

Born in 1805 at Lower Slaughter

33N17

Thomas Collett

Born in 1807 at Lower Slaughter

33N18

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1809 at Lower Slaughter

33N19

Thomas James Turner Collett

Born in 1811 at Lower Slaughter

33N20

John Collett

Born in 1813 at Lower Slaughter

33N21

Joseph Collett

Born in 1815 at Lower Slaughter

33M13

Mary Maria Collett may have been born at Lower Slaughter in 1786 and was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water on 9^th October 1786, the second known daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett. It was as Mary Collett that she was recorded in the 1804 Will of her father, who died during the month of April of May that same year. Mary later married Jonas Smith with whom she had at least five children, there being five children named in the Will of Mary’s mother Elizabeth Collett nee Cooper who died in 1827. Furthermore, Mary had already died by the time the Will was written in 1825. The section from the Will, which established money in trust for the children, read as follows; “John, Sarah, William, Thomas, and Elizabeth Smith, the children of my late daughter Mary deceased.”

33M14

John Collett was very likely born at Lower Slaughter in 1791, but was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water on 1^st April 1791, the youngest of the four known children of Thomas Collett and his wife Elizabeth Cooper. He would have been thirteen years of age at the time of the death of his father, but upon the proving of the Will on 7^th June 1804 there was no mention of John in the Will. The omission of his name, when his three siblings were all listed, clearly indicates that John Collett died as a child.

33N1

Anne Collett was the first-born child of William Collett and Sarah Hollands, was born in 1790 and baptised at Upper Slaughter on 25^th July 1790.

33N2

Paris Collett was born in 1792, the eldest son of William and Sarah Collett, who was baptised at Upper Slaughter on 22^nd February 1792.

33N3

James Collett was born in 1793 and was baptised at Upper Slaughter on 14^th July 1793, another son of William and Sarah Collett.

33N4

Thomas Collett was born at Upper Slaughter and was baptised there on 11^th January 1795, the son of William and Sarah Collett. Upon leaving school Thomas worked on the farm in Upper Slaughter run by his uncle Thomas Collett, and he and his younger brother Richard were both specifically named in the lease agreement produced on 4^th January 1813. Just over ten years later Thomas married Ann Eden at Lower Slaughter on 13^th October 1823. Not long after they were married, the couple moved just over the county boundary into Oxfordshire, where they settled in the village of Fifield where their first two children were born.

The fact that nothing so far has been revealed about Thomas’ older brother Paris Collett might indicate that he suffered an early death and that it was that sad event which prompted Thomas to name his first-born son after his late brother. Sometime later the family moved to Longborough north of Stow-on-the-Wold where their first daughter was born and baptised. Their time at Longborough was short-lived since their next three children were born and baptised at Little Rissington.

Sadly, by June 1841, Thomas was a widower living at Little Rissington with five of his six children, youngest son Stephen having already suffered an infant death. That year’s census revealed the family was made up of Thomas, with a ‘rounded age’ of 45, and his children Paris who was 16, George who was 13, Hannah who was 11, William who was nine, and Lucy who was seven. It was originally written here that Thomas Collett died at Little Rissington in 1850, and that by the day of the census in 1851 his eldest son Paris was living with Thomas’ brother John Collett (below) at Little Rissington, while daughter Hannah Collett was living and working in Cheltenham on that day.

It now appears that Thomas must have been still living in Little Rissington during the 1850s, since it was there on 23^rd September 1860 that Thomas Collett, aged 66, a widower and a labourer, the son of William Collett, a blacksmith, married Mary Hill, aged 74, a widow and a labourer, the daughter of Joseph Watson, a labourer. Six months later the Little Rissington census in 1861 recorded the couple as Thomas Collett from Upper Slaughter who was 66 and a carter, while his wife was named in error as Nancy Collett from Kingham in Oxfordshire who was 75. The burial records at Little Rissington confirm that Mary Collett was buried there on 26^th June 1862, aged 76, while just less than four years later, Thomas Collett was buried there on 21^st February 1866, when he was 71. Mary Watson married Richard Hill at Little Rissington on 13^th May 1811, and her death was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 212). The death of Thomas Collett was also recorded at Stow (Ref. 6a 288).

33O1

Paris Collett

Born in 1825 at Fifield by Burford, Oxon

33O2

George Collett

Born in 1827 at Fifield by Burford, Oxon

33O3

Hannah Collett

Born in 1829 at Longborough

33O4

William Collett

Born in 1831 at Little Rissington

33O5

Lucy Ann Collett

Born in 1833 at Little Rissington

33O6

Stephen Collett

Born in 1835 at Little Rissington

33N5

John Collett was born at Upper Slaughter and was baptised there on 7^th May 1797. He was an agricultural labourer and he married (1) Mary Greening at Upper Slaughter on 21^st November 1822. That first marriage for John produced all of his children, with the first four being born at Bourton-on-the-Water and the last one listed below born at Little Rissington. There may have been other children born between 1832 and 1840. By June 1841 the family was established at Little Rissington and comprised John, aged 40, and Mary who was 35, and their four children William who was 13, Thomas who was 11, Elizabeth who was eight, and Job who was just one year old. However, the couple’s eldest daughter, who would have been 15, was missing, so either she was away from home or she had died prior to 1841.

Less than two years later Mary tragically died on 13^th March 1843, at the age of 40, and was buried in the family grave at St Lawrence’s Church Cemetery in Bourton. After seven years being a widower, John eventually married (2) Phoebe Duncombe from Wilstone near Tring, in Hertfordshire. Their wedding was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 7) during the third quarter of 1850. Nine months later they were living at Little Rissington on the day of the census in 1851. John Collett from Upper Slaughter was 53 and an agricultural labourer, when his wife Phoebe from Wilstone was also 53. Living with the couple were John’s son Job Collett, born at Little Rissington and aged ten years, and John’s nephew Paris Collett from Fifield-by-Burford in Oxfordshire, who 26 and another agricultural labourer. Paris had been living with John following the death of his own father, Thomas Collett (above), during the previous year.

By the time of the next census for Little Rissington in 1861, John and Phoebe were living there on their own, with three of John’s children having already died and the other two having left home by then. John Collett from Upper Slaughter was 64 and was still working as an agricultural labourer, while Phoebe Collett from Wilstone was 63. Phoebe Collett died at Bourton on 14^th December 1869 aged 72 and was followed by husband just over two years later when John Collett died on 23^rd March 1872 aged 76. However, following the death of his wife, John spent the last years of his life living with the family of his youngest son Job, as confirmed by the census in 1871 when John Collett was 74. Both Mary and John were buried in the family grave in the cemetery at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. In total, the family grave contained the bodies of John, his two wives and his children William, Thomas and Elizabeth (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33O7

Sarah Collett

Born on 09.04.1825 at Bourton

33O8

William Collett

Born in 1827 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33O9

Thomas Collett

Born in 1829 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33O10

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1832 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33O11

Job Collett

Born in 1840 at Little Rissington

33N6

Hannah Collett was baptised at Upper Slaughter on 21^st September 1800, the youngest daughter of William Collett and his wife Sarah Hollands. It is possible that she was married to John Fox at Bourton-on-the-Water on 3^rd January 1822, since listed there in the records of the Baptist Chapel is a Hannah Collett who was married by licence.

33N7

RICHARD COLLETT was born at Upper Slaughter and was baptised there on 1^st January 1804 in the Reign of King George III. After completing his schooling Richard joined his older brother Thomas (above) working on the farm at Upper Slaughter managed by their uncle Thomas Collett, as confirmed in the lease agreement signed on 4^th January 1813 in which the brothers were mentioned, even though Richard was only nine years old at the time. It also seems likely that when his brother married in 1823, Richard continued to work with his uncle, possibly up until the occasion of his own marriage.

Richard Collett married Sarah Cross at Bourton-on-the-Water on 6^th January 1830, with whom he had eight children, and all of them born and baptised at Bourton where Sarah had been born in 1810. Richard and his family were listed in consecutive census records for Bourton from 1841 to 1871 as being an agricultural labourer. The family listed in the first of them was made up of Richard Collett who was 37, Sarah Collett who was 32, Amy Collett who was 10, Robert Collett who was six, John Collett who was four, and Emma Collett who was one year old.

Ten years later in 1851, Richard Collett from Upper Slaughter was 44 and an ag lab, his wife Sarah Collett from Bourton was 42 and employed as a charwoman, while the children recorded with them were Robert Collett was 17 and a shepherd, John Collett was 14 and another agricultural labourer, Emma Collett was 11, Job Collett was nine, Elizabeth Collett was six, and Esther Collett was only four months old, and all of them born at Bourton. The couple’s eldest daughter Amy was 21 and was working away from home on that occasion, while their younger daughter Ann had already suffered an infant death two years earlier.

By the time of the next census in 1861, nearly all of the children had left the family home at Sherborne Street in Bourton-on-the-Water, where Richard Collett was 57 and an agricultural labourer, Sarah Collett was 53, and only their youngest daughter Esther Collett aged 11 was with them. The spare space in the dwelling had been taken up by Sarah’s elderly mother, 73-year-old Elizabeth Cross, a labourer from Bourton-on-the-Water.

All of the children had left the family home at Bourton by 1871, but on the day of the census Richard, aged 67, and Sarah, aged 62, were looking after their granddaughter Lydia Collett (Ref. 33P24) who was six years old and born at Stow-on-the-Wold, the second child of their son John Collett. She may have been a sick child as she did not appear in the census ten years later and it is known that two of her siblings also died while very young.

The details recorded in the later census of 1881 for Bourton-on-the-Water listed only Richard Collett as a general labourer at the age of 77, who was born at Upper Slaughter, and his wife Sarah Collett, who was 71 and born at Bourton. On that occasion they were living at a house on Sherborne Street in Bourton. Ten years later the Bourton census of 1891 included Richard, then 87, and Sarah, who was 82, the only change being that Richard had retired by then and was described as a former general labourer. It is interesting to note that Hannah Collett, the widow of Richard and Sarah’s son Job Collett, was also living in Sherborne Street in both 1881 and 1891, and only about five doors away from Richard and Sarah.

33O12

Amy Collett

Born in 1831 at Bourton

33O13

Robert Collett

Born in 1834 at Bourton

33O14

John Collett

Born in 1836 at Bourton

33O15

Emma Collett

Born in 1839 at Bourton

33O16

JOB COLLETT

Born in 1840 at Bourton

33O17

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1844 at Bourton

33O18

Ann Collett

Born in 1848 at Bourton

33O19

Esther Collett

Born in 1850 at Bourton

33N10

Mary Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1801, and was baptised there on 10^th May 1801, the daughter of John Collett and his first wife Martha. She was around thirty years of age when she married Gloucestershire born Daniel Walford, who was ten years older than Mary. Daniel’s work took the couple over the county boundary, to Finstock, north of Witney in Oxfordshire, where their first two children were born, before they eventually return to Stow-on-the-Wold, where a further two children were added to their family. The first of the four children was Edward Walford who was baptised at the Wesleyan Church in Witney on 13^th October 1833. It was there also that the couple’s second son Ebenezer Walford was baptised on 14^th February 1836, following his birth on 5^th January that year, both of them confirmed as the children of Daniel and Mary Walford. Just after the that, the family of four travelled back to Stow, where the birth of Sarah Walford was recorded (Ref. xi 8) during the third quarter of 1838. The Stow census in 1841 recorded the family at Sheep Street as Daniel Walford who was 50, Mary Walford who was 40, Edward Walford who was seven, Ebenezer Walford who was five and Sarah Walford who was two years of age. On that day, Mary was already expecting the birth of her fourth child, with the birth of William Walford being recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 12) during the third quarter of 1841, who died at Tewkesbury in 1918. William was just over four years old, when the death of Mary Walford, nee Collett, was recorded at Stow (Ref. xi 110) during the last three months of 1845, at which time young William Walford went to live with Ann Harbert nee Collett (below), his mother’s younger married half-sister, at Tarns Row in Stow-on-the-Wold, where he was nine years of age in 1851. On the same day, and living nearby at the Market Place in Stow, Mary’s eldest son Edward Walford, aged 17 was staying at the home of Mary’s half-brother William Collett, Ann’s brother. The two middle children, Ebenezer Walford from Finstock, Oxfordshire, who was 15, and Sarah Walford from Stow-on-the-Wold who was 13, were placed with another of Mary’s younger married half-sisters, Sarah Fletcher nee Collett, at Westgate Street in Gloucester.

33N11

George Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1806, where he was baptised on 7^th January 1807, the son of John Collett and his first wife Martha. Apart from his baptism record, it is the lease agreement of 1823 held by his uncle Thomas Collett (Ref. 33M8) that confirms his place within this family line, in which he was named as the nephew of the aforesaid Thomas Collett, and the son of John and Martha Collett, john being Thomas’ brother. That would also indicate George had joined his uncle to work on his farm at Upper Slaughter upon leaving school.

It is also known that George Collett married Rebecca (Rachel) Yearp at Upper Slaughter on 15^th August 1831. It was as Rachel Yearp that she was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water on 22^nd April 1807, the daughter of George’s aunt Hannah Collett and her husband Thomas Yearp, Hannah being the sister of George’s father William Collett. That being the case, George and Rebecca were first cousins. Also, of interest is the fact that, at the time of the census in 1881, Rebecca’s brother Thomas Yearp had living with him on his farm at Lower Slaughter, one Charles Collett (Ref. 33P6), another member of this family line.

The marriage of George and Rebecca produced five children for the couple, with the first four being baptised at Upper Slaughter, while the fifth was baptised just two miles away at Wick Rissington. The baptism of each of the five children recorded the parents as George and Rebecca Collett. At the time of the census in June 1841, the family was living at Rectory House in Upper Slaughter when George Collett who 34 and his wife Rebecca Collett had a rounded age of 30 years. Their four children were Charles who was eight, Edward who was seven, Frederick who was five, and Martha who was three years of age. Also listed at the address was William Yearp aged 36, a relative of Rebecca, and Winifred Smith who was 20 and very likely a servant.

Within the book, ‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ by Alan Sutton, George Collett, the blacksmith from Upper Slaughter, is mentioned on three occasions, in 1836, 1840 and again in 1853. The diary entries are reproduced below. 31^st July 1836 - A letter from Mr. Trenfield on the subject of a fraud perpetrated at Winchcomb Fair on Thursday on two parishioners of mine, G. Collett and R. Humphries, by giving a £10 note of a Gloucester Bank which stopped payment many years ago in payment for a pony 17^th January 1840 - Thos. Andrews, who having gone to a Sale at Bourton, and taken too much liquor, as he returned home last night, fell out with the ex‑blacksmith, Geo. Collett, who is a man of very excitable temperament, and almost mad when drunk, and who, moreover, has been of late in a very restless, unhappy mood, owing to his own indiscretion in giving up a good business to emigrate to America, from whence he returned disappointed, and has lost his work 15^th January 1853 - Having been applied to for an admission into the Gloucester Infirmary for a son of George Collett of Bourton on the Water, formerly of this parish, wrote to Mr. Moore, Surgeon 18^th January 1853 - Gave a recommendation, as an inpatient to the Gloucester Infirmary, to Charles Collett of Bourton on the Water 7^th April 1853 - George Collett, of Bourton on the Water, having called to solicit me to renew my recommendation of his son as an inpatient of the Gloucester infirmary, I wrote to Miss Hall, of Bourton, begging her to furnish a second order of admission.

Two years earlier, the 1851 Census confirmed that the family was living at Bourton-on-the-Water, where George Collett from Stow, was a blacksmith at the age of 44, while his wife was then recorded as Rachel Collett aged 56 (sic) from Wick. The fact she used her baptism name was slightly curious, after many years of being Rebecca. The family at that time comprised sons Charles who was 19 and a porter, Edward who was 17, Frederick who was 15 and a blacksmith/agricultural labourer, and daughter Martha A Collett who was 14. Emma, the couple’s fifth child was not listed with the family and therefore may have been subject to an infant death. It was also in 1851, that George Collett, the nephew of Edward Collett, was named as inheriting a minor sum of money in his Will made only three days prior to his death.

Just over eight years after that census year, Rachel Collett died on 29^th June 1859, her death recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 36) during the third quarter of the year. Curiously, the Will of Rachel Collett, proved in Gloucestershire on 29^th July 1859, named Richard Pigott as a beneficiary. On the occasion of the following census in 1861, George Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold was widowed at the age of 54, when he was still working as a blacksmith, while he was living at Lansdowne, in Bourton-on-the-Water, with just three of his unmarried children. They were Edward Collett who was 26 and an agricultural labourer, Frederick Collett who was 25 and a blacksmith like his father, and Martha A Collett who had taken on the role of lady of the house and housekeeper, at the age of 23, all of them born at Upper Slaughter.

By the time of the next census in 1871, only the blacksmith father and son partnership of George and Frederick were still recorded as continuing to live in Bourton. George Collett was 64 and a widower, and Frederick Collett was 36. It may be assumed that daughter Martha Ann Collett was married by that time. Eight years later, George Collett died on 31^st August 1879, his death recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 208) when he was 72 years of age. He was buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton-on-the-Water, where a headstone marks the site of the grave and, buried in the same plot, but five years earlier, was George’s son Frederick Collett (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33O20

Charles Collett

Born in 1832 at Upper Slaughter

33O21

Edward Collett

Born in 1834 at Upper Slaughter

33O22

Frederick Collett

Born in 1836 at Upper Slaughter

33O23

Martha Ann Collett

Born in 1837 at Upper Slaughter

33O24

Emma Collett

Born in 1842 at Wick Rissington

33N12

Sarah Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold either at the end of 1811, just a few months after her father John Collett married Leah Hobbs - his second wife, or at some time during 1912. That assumption has been made, based on the lack of any recorded birth or baptism, and solely on the fact that her name precedes that of her sister Jane (below), within the 1851 Will of her uncle. Her sister was baptism at Stow-on-the-Wold in November 1812. Another option could be that Sarah and Jane were twin sisters. However, she has been placed here because, under her married name, she was named as one of the nieces of Edward Collett (Ref. 33M9) who died in 1851. Whilst it was Sarah’s younger brother William Collett (below) who was the main beneficiary, the other minor beneficiaries included Sarah’s half-brother George Collett (above) and her two sisters Jane Price and Ann Harbert (below). The other four minor beneficiaries, all of whom received a small sum of money, were the three sons of William Collett and Sarah Hollands - Thomas Collett (Ref. 33N4), John Collett (Ref. 33N5), and Richard Collett (Ref. 33N7), with the last named was Elizabeth Chapman, of whom, nothing is so far known.

Sarah’s husband was George Fletcher who was baptised on 7^th January 1810 at Bourton-on-the-Water, the son of Robert and Mary Fletcher. The marriage of Sarah Collett and George Fletcher was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 82) during the fourth quarter of 1844, the couple blessed with three children prior to the census in 1851, by which time the family was residing at Westgate Street in the centre of Gloucester. Head of the household George Fletcher from Bourton was a grocer aged 40, his wife Sarah from Stow was 38, and their three children were George H Fletcher who was five, Mary L Fletcher who was three, and Lucy C Fletcher who was under one year old. With the death in 1845 of Sarah’s older married half-sister Mary Walford nee Collett (above), from their father’s first wife, Mary’s young children were placed in the care of other family members, two of them living at Westgate Street with the Fletcher family. They were Ebenezer Walford from Finstock, Oxfordshire, who was 15, and Sarah Walford from Stow-on-the-Wold who was 13. Their youngest sibling, William Walford aged nine years, was placed with the family of Sarah’s younger sister Ann Harbert (below), while their eldest sibling, Edward Walford aged 17, was living with Sarah’s brother William Collett (below).

The family was again living at Westgate Street in 1861, by which time George Fletcher was a tobacconist and a grocer who was 50, Sarah was 48, son George H was 15 and a railway clerk, Mary L was 13, and Lucy C was 10 years of age. Seven years later, the death of George Fletcher, aged 57, was recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 41) during the first three months of 1868. Having lost her husband, Sarah was in lodgings at Barton St Mary in Gloucester by 1871, when her age was incorrectly recorded as 60. Just less than five years after that census day, when she was 63, the death of Sarah Fletcher was recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 136) during the first quarter of 1875.

33N13

Jane Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold during 1812 and was baptised there on 8^th November 1812, the daughter of John Collett and his second wife Leah Hobbs. She was twenty-five years of age when she married William Price with whom she had four children, all of them born at Elmley Castle, three miles south of Pershore in Worcestershire. The marriage was recorded at Evesham (Ref. xviii 12) during the first three months of 1838. By 1851, the completed family was residing at Hill Lane in Elmley Castle, where William Price from Upper Slaughter was 37 and an agricultural labourer, and Jane Price from Stow-on-the-Wold was 38. The children with them were Ann Price who was 10, Joseph Price who was six, Thomas Price who was four, and Mary Price who was two years of age. It was also in 1851, that Jane’s uncle passed away, following which Jane Price, niece of Edward Collett (Ref. 33M9), was a minor beneficiary in his Will, made three days before he died. Tragically, only eighteen months later, Jane Price died and was buried at Elmley Castle on 17^th January 1852, her death recorded at Pershore (Ref. 6c 1).

33N14

Ann Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1814, another daughter of John and Leah Collett. It is established that she married James Harbert who was older than Ann by a few years, having been born at Maugersbury around 1807. No birth record or baptism has been found for Ann and James, nor has any record of their wedding day. That would have taken place during the mid-1830s, when Ann was approaching full age. Over the following years, Ann and James had at least four children, details of whom were recorded with the couple within the census returns completed in 1841, 1851 and 1861 when, on each occasion they were residing in Stow-on-the-Wold. In the first of them James Harbert had a rounded age of 30, Ann Harbert had a rounded age of 20, when their two sons Reuben Harbert and Henry Harbert were five years and one-year-old respectively. Ten years later, the occupation of James Harbert from Maugersbury, aged 44, was confirmed as that of a gardener and a seedsman who was living with his enlarged family at Tarns Row in Stow. His wife Ann Harbert from Stow was 36, and their four children were Reuben, who was 14 and also born at Maugersbury, Henry, who was 11, Sarah who was eight and Harriet who was six, all three of them having been born after the family settled in Stow-on-the-Wold. Staying with the family that day, was Ann’s nephew William Walford aged nine and also from Stow, who was the youngest and last child of Ann’s deceased older married half-sister Mary Walford nee Collett (above), whose eldest son had been taken in by Ann’s younger brother William Collett (below).

Just a few weeks prior to that census day in 1851, Ann Harbert was one of eight nieces and nephews named in the 1851 Will of their uncle Edward Collett (Ref. 33M9). All eight of them were minor beneficiaries under the terms of the Will, each receiving a small sum of money, including Ann’s two older married sisters Sarah and Jane (above), and their half-brother George, the youngest child of their father by his first wife. The main beneficiary was Ann’s brother William Collett (below). By 1861, it was at Sheep Street in Stow, that the family was living and where James Harbert was a market gardener at the age of 54, who had working with him his eldest son, recorded at James R Harbert who was single, 24 and a market gardener. Unlike previous years, every member of the household was said to have been born at Stow, with Ann Harbert being 46, Henry Harbert being 21, Sarah Harbert being 18 and Harriet Harbert being 16. The latest and last child of James and Ann, was Elizabeth A Harbert who was five years of age. Before the end of that year, James Harbert died at Stow-on-the-Wold, where his death was recorded (Ref. 6a 11) during the last three months of 1861. It should be pointed out, that for the majority of his life, his surname was recorded as Harbert but, just occasionally, it was written as Herbert.

33N15

William Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1816, the son of John Collett and Leah Hobbs. The name of William Collett, the son of John and Leah Collett and the nephew of Thomas Collett (Ref. 33M8) was included in the lease agreement of 1823. The agreement related to farm land, a blacksmith’s shop, and Pool’s Close, all in Upper Slaughter, possibly because it was with his uncle, that it was planned that he would work, on completing his education.

By the time of the census in 1841 William Collett, aged 25, was living at Sheep Street in Stow-on-the-Wold with his widowed mother Leah who was 60. Shortly after that his mother died, following which the marriage of William Collett and Lucy Green was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 89) during the second quarter of 1845. By 1851, William and Lucy were living in premises on the Market Place in Stow-on-the-Wold, where William Collett from Stow was working as a tailor and a grocer, employing one man. William was 34, while his wife Lucy Collett from Naunton was 43 and a milliner. Living with the couple on that occasion, was William’s nephew Edward Walford who was 17 and a solicitor’s writing clerk from Finstock in Oxfordshire, and Eliza Marshall who was 15 and a house servant from Swell. The aforementioned Edward Walford was the eldest child of William’s older half-sister Mary Walford nee Collett (above), whose mother had died in 1845. Edward Walford’s youngest brother William Walford, had only been four years old when their mother passed away, at which time young William had been taken into the family of William’s married sister Ann Harbert (above).

It was also in 1851, that William Collett, nephew of Edward Collett (Ref. 33M9), was the main beneficiary under the terms of his Will, made just three days before he passed away, while another eight nieces and nephews were minor beneficiaries in the Will. No record of William or Lucy Collett has been found in any census after 1851, so perhaps the inheritance enabled the couple to leave England for a new life elsewhere.

33N16

Thomas Collett was born at Lower Slaughter during October 1805, the first child born to Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Hall. Tragically, he died just a few months later and was buried at Lower Slaughter during February 1806, when he was laid to rest in the grave of his grandmother.

33N17

Thomas Collett was born at Lower Slaughter in 1807 and was baptised at Bourton-on-the-water on 1^st December 1807. It would also seem logical that, like the first-born child of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett after whom he was named, he too died while still a child, since the couple’s next son was also given the name Thomas.

33N18

Elizabeth Collett was born at Lower Slaughter who was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water on 29^th May 1809, the only known daughter of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Hall.

33N19

Thomas James Turner Collett was born at Lower Slaughter towards the end of 1811, where his father had a farm, although he was baptised at nearby Bourton-on-the-Water on 7^th January 1812, the eldest surviving son of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Hall. He married Elizabeth Amelia Allen with their wedding recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold during the second quarter of 1846 (Ref. xi 523), Elizabeth having been born at Northleach around 1813. The marriage resulted in the birth of five children, two of them given their grandmother’s maiden-name, while the family was residing in Wick Rissington, with their births recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold. It was at Wick Rissington where the young family was living in 1851, which comprised Thomas James Collett from Lower Slaughter who was 39, as was his wife Elizabeth Amelia Collett from Northleach, Thomas James Collett junior was two, Mary Hall Collett who was one, and Martha Jane Collett who was just three months old.

Absent from the family group that day, was the couple’s eldest daughter, four-year-old Elizabeth Amelia Collett, who was staying with her elderly grandmother on a neighbouring farm in Wick Rissington, where she was recorded as the grandchild of Elizabeth Collett, aged 71, who had living with her, her unmarried son Joseph Collett, aged 36, the younger brother of Elizabeth Amelia’s father, Thomas James Collett. All four children were confirmed as having been born at Wick Rissington while, at that time in his life, Thomas James Collett was a farmer occupying 220-acres of land, who employed ten labourers. Completing his household was Hannah Wilcox, a nurse from Great Rissington, and Jane Bowl an 18-year-old servant from Lower Slaughter.

Two years later, Elizabeth presented Thomas with their fifth and last child while the family was still living in Wick Rissington, sometime after which the family left the Gloucestershire village, when they moved to the Warwickshire village of Oldberrow, to the west of Henley-in-Arden. And it was there, at Little Weathercock Farm, that the family was living in 1861, but not with all five of their children. Farmer Thomas J Collett of Lower Slaughter was 49, his wife Elizabeth A Collett from Northleach was also 49, and their three children were recorded in the census as Elizabeth A Collett aged 14, Martha J Collett who was 10, and John Hall Collett who was seven years old. The Collett family at that time had five servants, including one carter, two cowmen, one plough boy, and one housemaid.

Once again there were children absent from the family home that day, the first of them being daughter Mary Hall Collett, aged 11 and from Wick Rissington, who was described as a visitor at the Church Street home in Handsworth, of London born builder John Hall Clark, aged 29, and his wife Elizabeth who was 25 and from Henley-in-Arden. The big question is, was Mary more than just a visitor; was she in some way related, having the Hall name in common with builder John. That same day, the couple’s eldest son, scholar Thomas J Collett aged 12 years, was staying with his uncle Joseph Collett (below) and his wife, on their farm at Lower Slaughter. Ten years later, it was farmer Thomas James Collett senior, aged 59, who was visiting his married brother Joseph at Upper Slaughter, when he was accompanied by his daughter Martha Jane Collett.

On that census day in 1871, the remainder of the family of Thomas James Collett was residing at Bishop’s Farm in Oldberrow, near Henley-in-Arden, where Elizabeth Amelia Collett, aged 59 and from Northleach, was recorded as married and a farmer’s wife, who had three of her children living there with her. They were Elizabeth A Collett who was 24, Mary Hall Collett who was 21, and John Hall Collett who was 17, the three of them confirmed as having been born at Wick Rissington, and simply recorded at the children of a farmer. The family was assisted by two farm servants, Thomas Hutton who was 20, and Walter Whyatt who was 17. Towards the end of that decade, the family moved the short distance to Wootton Wawen, just south of Henley-in-Arden, where Thomas James Collett senior, a yeoman of Henley-in-Arden, died in 1879, his death recorded at Stratford-on-Avon during the second quarter of that year (Ref. 6d 389). He was then buried at St Peter’s Church in Wootton Wawen on 7^th May 1879, where a grand and elaborate headstone marks his grave with the following inscription:

“The Memory of the Just is Blessed – In Loving Memory of Thomas James Collett of Henley in Arden who departed this life May 2^nd 1879 aged 67 years Mark the perfect man and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace”

Two years after losing her husband, Elizabeth was living her final days in the village of Wootton Waven, at a dwelling on the High Street there. Living at the address with 69-year-old widow Elizabeth, an annuitant, was her youngest daughter Martha J Collett from Wick Rissington who was 30, with no stated occupation. Just over three years later, Elizabeth Amelia Collett nee Allen passed away at the age of 72, her death was recorded at Stratford-on-Avon (Ref. 6d 417) during the third quarter of 1884. It was also at Wootton Wawen that she was laid to rest with her husband on 13^th August 1884 in the Churchyard of St Peter’s Church. The inscription, below that of her late husband reads as follows:

“Also of Elizabeth Amelia wife of the above who died August 10^th 1884 aged 72 years The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”

The fact that two of the children of Thomas James Collett and Elizabeth Amelia Allen had been given the second forename of Hall, from Thomas’ mother’s maiden-name, may mean that she was somehow related to Anthony Hall who married Mary Collett (Ref. 33M1) in 1792. In addition to that, there were other connections between the Collett and Hall families, for example 11-year-old Emily Rebecca Collett living with unmarried milliner Amy Hall, aged 42, at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1871. There was also the aforementioned census record in 1861 which placed one of their own children, Mary Hall Collett, as staying with John Hall Clark and his wife Elizabeth in Handsworth, north of Birmingham. There were also later descendants from Thomas James and Elizabeth Amelia who were given the name Hall as a second forename.

33O25

Elizabeth Amelia Collett

Born in 1846 at Wick Rissington

33O26

Thomas James Collett

Born in 1847 at Wick Rissington

33O27

Mary Hall Collett

Born in 1849 at Wick Rissington

33O28

Martha Jane Collett

Born in 1851 at Wick Rissington

33O29

John Hall Collett

Born in 1853 at Wick Rissington

33N20

John Collett was born at Lower Slaughter and was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water on 13^th July 1813, another son of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett.

33N21

Joseph Collett was born at Lower Slaughter in 1815, the youngest son of Thomas Collett of Bourton-on-the-Water and his wife Elizabeth Turner from Northleach. By the time of the 1851 Census, unmarried Joseph Collett from Lower Slaughter was 36 and a farmer at his mother’s 350-acre holding at Wick Rissington. With him, on the day of the census, was his niece Elizabeth Amelia Collett who was four years old and the daughter of his brother Thomas James Collett (above). Ten years later, and just five days before the census was conducted in 1861, Joseph Collett married his Eliza Collett at Stow-on-the Wold on 2^nd April 1861. The recorded details confirmed that Joseph was a bachelor aged 46 and the son of Thomas Collett, a farmer of Lower Slaughter, while the bride was a spinster of 38 and the daughter of Thomas Collett, a farmer at Stow-on-the-Wold. That situation was confirmed on 7^th April, when married Joseph Collett was 46 and was a farmer of only 50 acres at Lower Slaughter, having moved there from Wick Rissington. His wife of five days was recorded at Eliza Collett from Lower Swell who was 38. To assist Joseph working the farm, he employed two men and two boys, one of the boys being his nephew Thomas J Collett who was 12 and born at Wick Rissington, another child of Joseph’s brother Thomas (above). Around nine months later, Eliza apparently present Joseph with twins, although only the son survived. His twin sister may have been Mary since, two years later, Eliza gave birth to another daughter who was also given the name Mary. It is also worth saying that, despite there being over 17,000 birth Colletts on the database in 2020, the origins of Eliza Collett and her farmer father Thomas, has still not been determined.

By 1871 Joseph had moved again, that time to Upper Slaughter, where he was still a farmer at the age of 56. Living with him was his wife Eliza who was 48, together with their daughter Mary Elizabeth Collett from Upper Slaughter who was six years old. Also visiting the family was Joseph’s brother, farmer Thomas James Collett (above), aged 59, who had with him his daughter Martha Jane Collett, who was 20. Although farming on a much smaller scale than in earlier times, the family still had a servant in the form of Ann Arthurs who was 17 years old and from Stow-on-the-Wold. On that same day in 1871, the couple’s son Thomas Collett was nine years old and living with the family of master tailor and draper William Walton at the Market Place in Stow-on-the-Wold, when he was curiously described as a nephew. Also living at the Walton family home was niece Emily Collett (Ref. 2O41) from Guiting Power who was 16 and employed as an assistant in William Walton’s drapers’ shop. Emily was the niece of Anne Walton nee Collett (Ref. 2N19). Nine years later the death of Joseph Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 307) during the second quarter of 1880, when he was 65. One year after being widowed, Eliza Collett from Lower Swell was 58 and was a visitor at the home of tailor, draper, and postmaster, William Walton, aged 60 and a widower from Longborough, at the Market Place in Stow-on-the-Wold.

33O30

Thomas Collett

Born in 1862 at Lower Slaughter

33O31

Mary Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1864 at Upper Slaughter

33O1

Paris Collett was born in 1824 just a short distance from Little Rissington in the Oxfordshire village of Fifield by Burford. And it was there that he was baptised on 28^th October 1824. The Bishop’s Transcript for the parish church at Fifield near Burford confirmed that his parents were Thomas and Ann Collett. At some time after he was born his family first moved to Longborough and then to Little Rissington where they were in June 1841 and where Paris was aged 16. His mother Ann had died just a few years earlier leaving Paris and his siblings to be brought up by their widowed father Thomas. Ten years later Paris’ occupation was that of an agricultural labourer and according to the 1851 Census he was 26 and was not married but was living with his father’s younger brother John Collett (Ref. 33N5) at his home in Little Rissington. It was later that same year that Paris Collett married Lucy Ann Palmer, the event recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 11 523) during the third quarter of 1851. By 1861 he and his young family were living at Bourton-on-the-Water. Paris was 37 and an agricultural labourer, Lucy 37 was a dressmaker born at Bourton, and their children were William who was nine, Lucy Ann who was five, and Paris who was one year old, all of whom were born at Bourton.

Living with them was Lucy’s father and agricultural labourer William Palmer, aged 71 and a widower who was born at Bourton in 1790. There is an earlier reference to a Thomas Palmer who was born in 1800 and was a grocer of Bourton in 1851, but not in 1861, by which time Charles Collett (above) had taken over the business. Therefore, William and Thomas Palmer may have been brothers. In all, the marriage between Paris and Lucy produced five children, the fifth being born at Bourton around the mid-1860s. By 1871 the family was still living at Bourton and comprised agricultural labourer Paris and Lucy, both aged 46, and their children William aged 19 an agricultural labourer like his father, Lucy aged 15, Paris aged 11, and Thomas who was four. Still living with the family was Paris’ father-in-law William Palmer who was 81.

According to the Bourton census of 1881, Paris Collett aged 56 a labourer from Fifield, and his wife Lucy Ann also 56 of Bourton, were living at The Bank in Bourton with four of their children and two of their grandchildren. They were sons William 27, Paris 23, and Thomas 15, and daughter Lucy Ann 25. Only eldest son William was married, although tragically his wife had died three years earlier, leaving him a widower with his two children Emily who was six and Ellen S Collett who was three, both of them having been born at Bourton. It is of interest that in 1881 The Bank was also the address for Albert Collett (Ref. 2O56) aged 40.

Ten years later in 1891 Paris, an agricultural labourer, and Lucy Ann were still living in Bourton, both of them by then being 66 years old. Living with them on that occasion was their unmarried daughter Lucy Ann Collett who was incorrectly recorded as being 30 rather than 35, their unmarried son Paris who was 27 instead of 32, and unmarried Thomas who was correctly recorded as 24 years of age, both of them employed as agricultural labourers. In addition to them, the family was also caring for three grandchildren, and they were their granddaughters Emily Collett who was 15 and Ellen Collett who was 13, the children from the first marriage of their son William, and grandson William Collett who was seven years old and the base-born son of their married daughter Mary Ann Bowles, nee Collett, who was living a few miles away with her husband at Donnington.

Just after the turn of the century Paris, then a retired farm labourer at 76, and his wife Lucy also 76, were still living at Clapton Row in Bourton and the only member of the family still living there with them on that occasion was their grandson William George Collett who was 17. The death of Paris Collett was recorded at Stow register office (Ref. 6a 254) during the fourth quarter of 1903, when he was 79. Having been widowed, Lucy spent her last few years living with her married daughter Lucy Ann Stratford, as confirmed in the census of Bourton-on-the-Water census in 1911. Lucy Ann Stratford was 55, when she and her daughter Edith Lucy Stratford, aged 15, had with them Lucy Collett who was 86. Just over one year later Lucy Ann Collett nee Palmer died during the summer of 1912 at the age of 87, her death recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 400). It is interesting that Clapton Row was also where George Stratford was living with his family in 1891, so it was perhaps through that connection that George met and married Lucy’s eldest daughter.

33P1

William Collett

Born in 1853 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P2

Lucy Ann Collett

Born in 1855 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P3

Paris Collett

Born in 1859 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P4

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1860 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P5

Thomas Collett

Born in 1866 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33O2

George Collett was born at Fifield in 1827. Not long after he was born the family moved north to Longborough where they stayed for just over a couple of years. Another moved followed, that time to Little Rissington where George was 13 in June 1841.

33O3

Hannah Collett was born in 1829 at Longborough, north of Stow-on-the-Wold, and was baptised there on 25^th October 1829. By the time of the census of 1841, Hannah and her widowed father, together with her four surviving siblings, were living at Little Rissington, where she was listed as being 11 years of age. On leaving school Hannah entered into domestic service and by 1851 she was 21 and a house servant from Longborough, employed at Oriel House on Bath Road in Cheltenham, the home of stone mason Robert Hewer. The marriage of Hannah Collett, who was 28, and the much older Joseph Jarvis, who was 65, was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 519) during the first three months of 1859. No record of the couple has been found in 1861, but by 1871 labourer Joseph Jarvis from Cherington was 78 and Hannah Jarvis from Longborough was 41 were residing in Upper Slaughter. Joseph Davis Jarvis, aged 86, was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 305) during the first quarter of 1879, following which, he was buried at Upper Slaughter. It was towards the end of the following year, that the marriage of widow Hannah Jarvis, aged 51, and Charles Webb, aged 63, was recorded at Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire (Ref. 6d 78) during the last quarter of 1880.

33O4

William Collett was born at Little Rissington in 1831 and was nine years old in the 1841 Census for that village. No further record of William has so far been located.

33O5

Lucy Ann Collett was born at Little Rissington in 1833 and was baptised there on 19^th October 1834. She was still there in 1841 when she was seven years of age, although later record of Lucy has been found in any subsequent census record. It is very likely that Lucy never married, since the death of Lucy Collett was recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 258) during the first quarter of 1869 at the age of 37.

33O6

Stephen Collett was born at Little Rissington early in the year of 1835. And it was there that he was baptised on 12^th April 1835, the son of Thomas and Ann Collett. The death of Stephen Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 11 372) during the first three months of 1838. Further tragedy also hit the family around that same time when Stephen’s mother also died, leaving his father a widower by the time of the census in June 1841.

33O8

William Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1827 and was baptised there on 27^th August 1827. He was recorded as being 13 in the 1841 Census and it has not been determined if he ever married. William Collett died at the age of 32 on 26^th November 1859 at Bourton, where he was buried in the family grave at St Lawrence’s Church (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33O9

Thomas Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 18^th October 1829 and in 1851 Thomas was 20 when he was working as a servant on the 900-acre farm of 70-year-old Thomas Hyatt at Snowhill. It has not been determined whether he married or not over the following eight years, but he died on 19^th March 1859 at the age of 30 and was buried in the family grave at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33O10

Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water on 30^th July 1832. In 1851 Elizabeth was 19 and was working as a servant on the 300-acre farm of 50-year-old George James at Guiting Power. Tragically she died three years later on 31^st July 1854 when she was only 22, following which she was buried in the family grave at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33O11

Job Collett was born at Little Rissington in 1840, with his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 379) during the second quarter of the year, the last child born to John Collett and Mary Greening. He was one year old in the June census of 1841 and was almost three years old when his mother died. His father then re-married and, in the Little Rissington census of 1851, ten-year-old Job Collett was living with his father John and stepmother Phoebe, who also had Job’s cousin Paris Collett (above), aged 26 and from Fyfield in Oxfordshire, staying with them that day. By 1861, Job Collett was living and working in Stow-on-the-Wold when, at the age of 20, he was employed as a groom, while a lodger at the Church Street home of Robert and Ann Clarke. Job Collett married Mary Jenkins of Maugersbury, one mile from Stow-on-the-Wold where their wedding was recorded (Ref. 6a 38) during the first quarter of 1865. It was also at Maugersbury that the couple initially settled, where their son and five of their six daughters were born. Their sixth child was born at Sherborne before the family returned to Maugersbury, where their last child was born.

By the time of the census in 1871, the family living at Maugersbury comprised Job Collett who was 30 and from Little Rissington, whose occupation was that of a grocer’s porter, his wife Mary from Maugersbury who was 27, and three of their children, Charles Collett who was five and born at Stow-on-the-Wold, Emma Collett who was four, and Ellen Collett who was two years of age, both daughters having been born at Maugersbury. Living with the young family was Job’s father, John Collett who was 74. The family was still living in Maugersbury, at 22 Well Lane in 1881. Job was 40 and a non-domestic groom from Little Rissington, his wife Mary was 38 and of Maugersbury, and their daughters were Helen E Collett who was 12, Annie Collett who was 10, Agnes M Collett who was eight, Rosa Collett who was six, and Edith M Collett who was only five months old. Living with the family at Well Lane was unmarried lodger John Jenkins, aged 67, an agricultural labourer from Bibury, who may have been related in some way to Job’s wife.

It would appear from the census ten years later, that Job Collett from Little Rissington was 50 and a coal haulier living at Park Street in Stow-on-the-Wold with his wife Mary Collett, who was 47, and daughter Edith May Collett who was ten years old. The only odd thing is that he was recorded as Joseph Collett, his name Job misinterpreted as Joe, and hence noted as Joseph. The fourth member of the household was Gloucestershire-born William Collett who was 30 and a baker, who had recently been widowed. He was actually Henry William Collett (Ref. 5P26) from Broadwell, whose two children were being cared for by his parents-in-law. Go to Part 5 – The Tewkesbury Line for more details. By the time of the 1901 census for Stow-on-the-Wold, Job Collett from Little Rissington was 60 and a carman working for a coal merchant, who was again named in error as Joseph Collett. The only person living with him, at Enoch’s Row Farm, was his wife Mary Collett who was 58 and from Stow-on-the-Wold, one mile from where she was actually born. Fortunately, in 1911, the head of the household at Enoch Row in Stow-on-the-Wold was 70-year-old Job Collett from Little Rissington who was still employed as a carman by a local coal merchant. Living with him that day was his wife Mary Collett, aged 68, and unmarried daughter Edith May Collett, aged 30, both mother and daughter described as born at Stow, rather than Maugersbury, and both of them undertaking home duties.

In addition to the above details, the census return completed in 1911 confirmed that Job and his wife had given birth to nine children, seven of whom were still living. That means there are two children missing from the list of their offspring below. After a further eight years, the death of Mary Collett, nee Jenkins, when recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 38) during the third quarter of 1919, when she was said to be 75 years of age. Widower Job Collett spent the next five years of his life at Stow, where he was buried with his wife, following his death, which was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 122) during the first three months of 1925, at the age of 84.

33P6

Charles Edward Collett

Born in 1865 at Maugersbury

33P7

Emma Collett

Born in 1866 at Maugersbury

33P8

Helen Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1869 at Maugersbury

33P9

Annie Collett

Born in 1870 at Maugersbury

33P10

Agnes Mary Collett

Born in 1872 at Maugersbury

33P11

Rosa Collett

Born in 1874 at Sherborne

33P12

Edith May Collett

Born in 1880 at Maugersbury

33O12

Amy Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1831, where her parents Richard Collett and Sarah Cross were married at the start of the previous year. Knowing that the family resided at Sherborne Street in Bourton may account for why Amy stated in later census returns that she was born at Sherborne in Gloucestershire. She had already left the family home by 1851, while twenty years later, unmarried Amy Collett from Sherborne was 40, with no stated occupation, when she was a visitor at the Dunstable home of Reuben Horn a warehouse man from Ivinghoe Aston in Buckinghamshire who was 34, and his wife Jane 38 and from Little Gaddesden. Ten years after that, Amy Collett from Sherborne was a dressmaker who was again described as a visitor at the home of Reuben and Jane Horn which, by then, was at Princess Street in Dunstable. Working with Amy was 15-year-old Sarah Horn, the couple’s youngest child and a dressmaker’s apprentice. The couple’s only other child was pupil teacher William Horn who was 17.

33O13

Robert Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water and was baptised there on 14^th September 1834. In the Bourton census of 1841 Robert Collett was six years old. Ten years after that, at the age of 17, Robert was still living at home with his parents in Bourton where, in the Census of 1851, he was listed as an unmarried shepherd born at Bourton. Nearly nine years after that census day, the marriage of Robert Collett and Sarah Davis was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 17) during the last quarter of 1859. It was also at Stow-on-the-Wold where the birth of Sarah Davis was recorded (Ref. xi 8) during the last three months of 1839, following being born at nearby Great Rissington. The birth of the couple first child was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold only a few months after their wedding day, suggesting that Sarah was already an expectant mother on that day.

The couple’s first six children were all born and baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water, with all of the births recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold. The next three children were born at Upper Slaughter and their last child was born at Cold Aston. By the time the census was conducted in 1861, the couple’s eldest child, daughter Emily, would have been one year old, although no record of her, or her parents, has been discovered for that year. Ten years later, the family was living at Upper Slaughter and comprised Robert Collett from Bourton who was 37 and a labourer, his wife Sarah Collett from Little Rissington was 31, and their first six children. They were, Emily Collett who was eleven, Ann Collett who was nine, Charles Collett who was seven, John Collett who was five, Mary Collett who was three, and Job Collett who was nine months old. Curiously, all of the children, except John, were confirmed as having been born at Bourton; while his place of birth was recorded in the census return as Slaughter, as it was again in 1901.

The birth of the next three children at Upper Slaughter means that the family’s next move to the village of Guiting Power, about five miles away, took place between 1878 and 1881, since it was there that the enlarged family was living for the next census. Robert Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was then working as an agricultural labourer and shepherd at the age of 47. Living with him was his wife Sarah Collett from Great Rissington who was 41, together with seven of their nine children. Those seven children were Ann Collett aged 20, John Collett aged 16, Mary Collett who was 12, Job Collett who was 11, all of them born at Bourton-on-the-Water, plus Frank Collett who was eight, Thomas Collett who was five, and Ellen Collett who was four years old, who were all born at Upper Slaughter. The two missing children were their eldest daughter Emily, who was married by then, and their eldest son Charles who was working away from home by that time in his life.

It was only short time that the family spent at Guiting Power, since it was at Cold Aston that the couple’s last child was born there in 1883, sometime after which the family moved again, that time to Bibury, where they were recorded at Arlington in the census of 1891. In error, the census return described Robert Collett as being only 55 years of age, when he was again working as an agricultural labourer. Sarah Collett was 51, and their sons were John Collett aged 25, and Thomas Collett aged 15, who were both agricultural labourers. Daughter Ellen Collett was 12 years old and the couple’s most recent arrival, Amy Collett, was seven and had been born at Cold Aston. Around eighteen months after that census day, the death of Robert Collett was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 165) during the last three months of 1892, at the age of 58. Her loss was confirmed in the March census of 1901, when Sarah Collett was recorded as a widow and a laundress, at the age of 60, who was still living at Bibury, her place of birth again stated to be Great Rissington. The only one of her nine children still living there with her, was her unmarried son John Collett, aged 35, whose place of birth was said to be Lower Slaughter. On that same day, Sarah’s youngest daughter Amy Collett, aged 17 and from Bourton-on-the-Water (sic), was employed as a domestic nurse at the home of middle-aged Charles Russell in Mayfield, East Sussex.

Ten years later, it was Sarah’s son John Collett who was the head of the household in Bibury, who also had his younger Frank Collett living there with him, when 71-year-old Sarah Collett from Great Rissington was acting as the house keeper for her two sons. While no details have been found regarding the lives of three of the couple’s children listed below, apart that is from that written above, their birth records have been found at Stow-on-the-Wold and are included here. The birth of Job Collett was recorded during the third month of 1870 (Ref. 6a 52), the birth of Thomas Collett was recorded during the first quarter of 1876 (Ref. 6a 235), and the birth of Ellen Sarah Collett was recorded during the third quarter of 1877 (Ref. 6a 167). It is possible that Ellen never married and lived to be 80 years old age, because the death of Ellen S Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 9c 55) during the quarter of 1957.

33P13

Emily Collett

Born in 1860 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P14

Ann Collett

Born in 1861 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P15

Charles Collett

Born in 1863 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P16

John Collett

Born in 1865 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P17

Mary Collett

Born in 1868 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P18

Job Collett

Born in 1870 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P19

Frank Collett

Born in 1873 at Upper Slaughter

33P20

Thomas Collett

Born in 1876 at Upper Slaughter

33P21

Ellen Sarah Collett

Born in 1877 at Upper Slaughter

33P22

Amy Collett

Born in 1884 at Cold Aston

33O14

John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1836 and he was four years old in the Bourton census of 1841. Just like his older brother Robert Collett (above), he married a girl from Great Rissington. So, the question might be, were the two girls, actually sisters? John Collett married Ruth Caroline Timms on 9^th February 1862 by licence at Great Rissington, Ruth having been born there in 1840. In the two censuses that preceded his wedding John was listed as being aged 14 and an agricultural labourer living and working at Bourton in 1851, and was 24 and an unmarried carter working at the Lower Slaughter home of miller Edward Bee in 1861.

There would appear to be other connections between the Collett and Timms families. In the 1851 Census shoemaker John Timms, aged 36 from Chipping Norton, was lodging with shoemaker Joseph Collett (Ref. 2N41) of Sherborne and his wife Elizabeth at Little Rissington. John and Caroline are believed to have had four children. However, it may have been only the youngest daughter who survived beyond childhood and she was born after John and Ruth had left Gloucestershire, following the death of their only son. The move to Cudham near Biggin Hill in Kent took place around 1867. It was at Cudham that the family was living in 1871, and where their daughter was baptised, when her parents were confirmed as John and Ruth Caroline Collett.

According to the Cudham census of 1871 John Collett, aged 34, was a carman who said he was born at Slaughter, his wife was named as Caroline Collett, who was 31 and from Great Rissington, and their two daughters were Elizabeth Collett, who was nine and born at Bourton-on-the-Water, and Eliza Collett, who was two years old and born at Cudham. At that time the family was living at Cottage No. 2 on Horns Green Road in the Horns Green area of Cudham. Their son John must have died by then, while the couple’s other daughter Lydia, aged six, was staying with her paternal grandparents Richard and Sarah Collett at Bourton-on-the-Water.

By the time of the next census in 1881 John was 44 and, on that occasion, he gave his place of birth as Bourton-on-the-Water. He and his wife Caroline, aged 41, were living at 10 Devonshire Street in Camberwell in Surrey, from where John was continuing to work as a carman. Living there with them was their daughter Eliza Collett who was 12 and from Cudham who was still attending the local school. It is interesting to note that another John Collett (Ref. 14N24) who was 45 and born at Bourton in 1835, the son of Thomas Collett and Mary Ransford, was living nearby in Camberwell at that same time in 1881.

Ten years later the family of three was recorded as still living at Camberwell at the time of the census in 1891, when John was 52 (sic), Caroline was 51, and their daughter Eliza was 22. By March 1901 Caroline may have died because john Collett from Gloucestershire was recorded in London as a retired carman, although his age was 68 which may be a transcription error for 63. In April 1911 John was living in an institution in the Lewisham district of London, when he was 74 and his place of birth was once again confirmed as Bourton-on-the-Water.

33P23

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1862 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P24

Lydia Collett

Born in 1864 at Stow-on-the-Wold

33P25

John Collett

Born in 1866 at Stow-on-the-Wold

33P26

Eliza Collett

Born in 1868 at Cudham, Kent

33O15

Emma Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1839, the daughter of Richard and Sarah Collett, whose birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 38) during the second quarter of that year. Emma was one year old in the census of 1841, when she was living at Bourton with her family. Ten years later she was still living with her family in Bourton, when she was 11, whereas after a further ten years, Emma Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was a servant at a residence in the St Michael’s district of Coventry. On that occasion though, her age was stated as being 23.

33O16

JOB COLLETT was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1842, his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 414) during the second quarter of the year. It was also at Bourton where he was baptised on 17^th June 1842 and probably at St Lawrence’s Church, another son of Richard Collett and Sarah Cross. He was confirmed as being nine years and of Bourton in the census of 1851, when he was living there with his family. Ten years later, according to the census in 1861, Job Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was 17, when he was working as a carter for master baker and grocer George Giles, with whom he was living at The Green in Northleach. It is very interesting that in 1861, living in the dwelling next to where the family of Job Collett was living in Bourton, was the Goodway family, whose daughter Hannah became with-child, most likely fathered by Job, whom he eventually married in 1874. Where Job was in 1871 has still not been discovered, perhaps in India (see below), while it was three years later that he became a married man.

The marriage of Job Collett and Hannah Freeman Goodway took place at the Church of St Michael on Market Street in Paddington, the event recorded at Kensington during the third quarter of 1874 (Ref. 1a 301). The marriage certificate stated that Job Collett was 32 and a bachelor living at 30 Market Street, who was a railway stoker and the son of Richard Collett. Hannah was described as a spinster at 30 years of age, suggesting incorrectly, that she was born around 1844. However, Hannah F Goodway was born at Bagendon, just north of Cirencester, in 1840, where she was living with her parents Joseph Goodway and Elizabeth Freeman in 1841. Hannah was said to be one year old, the eldest daughter and third child of Joseph and Elizabeth. By 1861 the Goodway family had left Bagendon and was living in Bourton-on-the-Water, next door to Richard and Sarah Collett, where their daughter Hannah, aged 20, gave birth to a base-born daughter early in 1862. According to Bourton census of 1871, unmarried Hannah F Goodway was 28 and a laundress, when she and her daughter were still living with her parents, her nine-year-old daughter, Ellen Elizabeth Goodway, described as the granddaughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Goodway.

It was nine months after the census day that Hannah gave birth to her daughter at Bourton-on-the-Water on 27^th January 1862. The next big event in Hannah’s life was her marriage to Job Collett and, less than a year later, after the couple had left London and returned to Bourton-on-the-Water, Hannah presented Job with a son Joseph, who was born at Bourton. Tragically, Job Collett died two years later, near the end of 1877, at the relatively young age of 34, his death recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 256) during the last three months of that year. There is also a theory that he may have been in India at some stage of his life.

Four years after the passing of her husband, Hannah was confirmed as a widow in the census of 1881. At the age of 38, she was still working as a laundress, when she was living at Sherborne Street in Bourton-on-the-Water, just a short distance from her parents-in-law, Richard and Sarah Collett. The census that year also revealed that living with her was her son Joseph Collett who was six years old, who had been born at Bourton, and her grandson John C Parsons who was one month old and born at Charlbury, in Oxfordshire. He was the son of her married daughter Ellen who tragically, had not survived through the ordeal of her son’s birth. Also living with Hannah Collett, was her unmarried older brother John Goodway, aged 47, a general labourer who was born at Moor Wood in Bagendon, which was also where Hannah said she was born on that occasion, even though all of the earlier information confirmed that she was born at Bagendon, near Cirencester.

In 1891, Hannah was still a laundress living in Bourton who, by then, was 50 and her only living companion was her brother John Goodway. Unlike ten years earlier, both of them confirmed their place of birth was Bagendon, while ten years after that, widow Hannah Collett from Moor Wood (Bagendon) was a retired laundress of 61 years, who was still in Bourton-on-the-Water, but at the home of her married son Joseph and his young family. Five years later, the death of Hannah Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 214) during the third quarter of 1906, when she was 67. Footnote: Today, in 2020, Moor Wood is a Grade II Listed Building in Bagendon.

33P27

Ellen Elizabeth Goodway

Born in 1862 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P28

JOSEPH COLLETT

Born in 1875 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33O17

Elizabeth Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1844, as confirmed in the 1851 Census when she was six years old. Ten years on and Elizabeth at 16 was working as a servant at the Lower Slaughter home of 29-year-old farmer William Matthews of Fifield and his wife Mary Stephens who was 20 and their eight months old daughter Mary. The great grandparents of Elizabeth Collett were William Collett (Ref. 33L1) and his wife Anne Matthews and the cousin of William Collett was Thomas Collett (Ref. 33L3) whose daughter Sarah Collett married William Matthews of Bourton. William Matthews of Fifield (above) was very likely the nephew of William Matthews of Bourton, being the eldest son of his brother Thomas Matthews.

33O18

Ann Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1848, the second daughter of Richard and Sarah Collett to be given that name. Her birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 5) during the fourth quarter of that year. Tragically, she was under nine months old when she died, the death of Ann Collett also recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 131) during the second quarter of 1849.

33O19

Esther Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water towards the end of 1850, her birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 4) during the last three months of the year. She was the seventh and last child born to Richard Collett and his wife Sarah Cross. She was four months old at the time of the Bourton census of 1851 and was 11 in 1861, the only child still living with her parents at Sherborne Street in Bourton. However, upon leaving school she entered into domestic service like her older sister Emma (above), and in 1871 Esther Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was employed as a servant at the Cheltenham home of William and Emma Gillard, when she was 20 years of age. No positive sighting of Esther has been found after that census day.

33O20

Charles Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1832, where he was baptised on 9^th September 1832. In 1851 he was 18 when he was working as a porter while living at home in Bourton-on-the-Water with his family. During the first four months of 1853 Charles had a health problem for which his father George approached Francis Witts, the parson at Upper Slaughter, pleading for a placement as an inpatient at Gloucester Infirmary. Unfortunately, the parish diary notes did not allude to what was the problem. Sometime prior to 1859 he married Sarah who was born at Bourton, also in 1832. It seems very likely that Sarah was Sarah Thornton who was 19 at the time of the census in 1851, when she was a servant at the Bourton home of grocer Thomas Palmer, particularly as Charles Collett himself was listed as a grocer by 1861, so it may have been through Thomas Palmer that they met.

The marriage produced six children for Charles and Sarah, and all of them were born and baptised at Bourton. Only their daughter Emily Collett appeared with her parents in the census return for 1861, which indicated that their son Charles was born after 7^th April, the day the census was carried out that year. By the time of the next census in 1871 grocer Charles Collett, aged 38, and his wife Sarah, aged 39, were still living at Bourton with their children Charles who was nine, Albert who was four, and George who was two. The family at that time had two domestic servants, George Bowles who was 14, and Elizabeth Townsend who was 15. On that same day, Charles’ eldest daughter Emily R Collett, aged 11, was listed as staying with her maiden aunt Amy Hall, aged 42 and a milliner, nearby in the town of Bourton-on-the Water, where Amy Hall had been born, the daughter of John and Amy Hall. Also, no record has been found that year of his other missing daughter, Amy L Collett, who was later living at Lansdowne in Bourton in both 1881 and again 1891.

According to the 1881 Census the family was living at Lansdowne in Bourton-on-the-Water when Charles was 48 and grocer from Upper Slaughter. His wife Sarah and their six children were all described as being of Bourton, including daughter Emily Rebecca Collett, who was 21 and absent from the family home ten years earlier. Only the family’s eldest son John, aged 19, was working in 1881 and he was a grocer like his father. Daughter Amy, aged 17, who was also absent from the household in 1871 had returned to the family and was listed with Albert, who was 14, George, who was 12, and Florence who was seven. Working in the family business with Charles and his son John, was Albert T Edgington who was 16 and an apprentice grocer from Turkdean.

Charles and Sarah were still living at Bourton in 1891 and were 58 and 59 respectively. Charles’ occupation was still that of a grocer, as was that of his son Albert who was 24, while his son George was described as a grocer’s assistance at the age of 22. Charles’ other son John had already left home to be married by then, although he and his wife were living nearby in Bourton. Of his daughters, neither Amy who was 27, nor Florence who was only 17, were married, whereas his absent daughter Emily was married by 1891 and was living in Sevenoaks in Kent. Supporting the Collett at Bourton was just one servant that year, and she was Sarah Weller who was 15 and from Filkins to the north of Lechlade.

By 1901 Charles, at the age of 68, had expanded his grocer’s business in Bourton to include an agency agreement which allowed him to sell coal. He was still with Sarah his wife, who was 69, and living with the couple was their unmarried daughter Florence, aged 27, and their unmarried sons Albert who was 34 and George who was 32. However, just over four years later Sarah Collett died at Bourton on 29^th April 1904 aged 72 and was followed by Charles Collett who died two years later on 19^th May 1906 aged 73. Both of them were buried at Bourton-on-the-Water was a gravestone bears their names (see Headstone Epitaphs). It may be of interest to note that Charles’ son Albert was living at Lansdowne with his own family in 1911.

33P29

Emily Rebecca Collett

Born in 1859 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P30

John Charles Collett

Born in 1861 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P31

Amy L Collett

Born in 1863 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P32

Albert William Collett

Born in 1866 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P33

George F Collett

Born in 1868 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P34

Florence Mary Collett

Born in 1873 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33O21

Edward Collett was born at Upper Slaughter during 1834 and was baptised there on 22^nd June 1834. He appeared in the census of 1851 at the age of 17, when he was living with his parents at Bourton-on-the-Water, and again in 1861 when he was 26 and living with his widower father. By 1871 he had left the family home and was perhaps married. However, no obvious match for him has been found in the 1881 Census, while ten years after that Edward Collett, a single farm labourer was 57 and a patient at the Barnwood House Hospital for the Insane, where he was additionally described as a lunatic. The institution was also known as the Gloucester Second County Lunatic Asylum at Barnwood. Just less than twelve months after that census day, the death of Edward Collett, aged 58, was recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 56) during the first three months of 1892.

33O22

Frederick Collett was born in 1836 at Upper Slaughter where he was baptised on 25^th December 1836. By 1851 Frederick, aged 15, and his parents had moved to Bourton-on-the Water where he was residing at the time of each of the two following censuses in 1861, aged 25, and again in 1871 when he was 36 and was living with his widower father George Collett, while having the same occupation as his father, that of a blacksmith. Tragically, unmarried Frederick Collett died on 18^th September 1874 aged 38 and was buried in the churchyard at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton-on-the-Water. A headstone marks the site of the grave which was shared with his father George Collett who died five years later in 1879 (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33O23

Martha Ann Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1837, and it was there also that she was baptised on 25^th December 1837, the daughter of George Collett and his wife Rebecca/Rachel Yearp.

33O24

Emma Collett was born at Wick Rissington in the first half of 1842, her birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 9) during the second quarter of the year. She was baptised at Wick Rissington on 18^th July 1842, the last child of George Collett and Rebecca (Rachel) Yearp. It was also at Stow that her death was recorded (Ref. xi 3) during the fourth quarter of 1845.

33O25

Elizabeth Amelia Collett was born at Wick Rissington near the end of 1846, the eldest known child of Thomas James Collett of Lower Slaughter and his wife Elizabeth Amelia Allen from Northleach. The birth of Elizabeth Amelia Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 15) during the first three months of 1847. She was not living with her parents on their farm at Wick Rissington in 1851 when she was four years old, instead she was staying at the nearby farm of her grandmother Elizabeth Collett, where her unmarried uncle Joseph Collett was also still living with his mother. Later, in the middle of the next decade, Elizabeth’s parents left their farm at Wick Rissington, when they took over Bishop’s Farm at Oldberrow near Studley and Henley-in-Arden. And it was there that Elizabeth A Collett, aged 14 and from Wick Rissington, was living with her family in 1861.

Ten years later Elizabeth, aged 24, was still unmarried when she was living with her mother at Bishop’s Farm, while her father was visiting his brother Joseph Collett in Upper Slaughter. It was at Stratford-on-Avon that the marriage of Elizabeth Amelia Collett and Thomas Alward was recorded during the second quarter of 1875 (Ref. 6d 767). Thomas was born at Solihull in Warwickshire in the first three months of 1847 (Ref. xvi 532) while, it was at Stratford-on-Avon, that he died during the second quarter of 1932 (Ref. 6d 2). Once they were wed, the couple settled in the village of Lapworth, to the south of Solihull, where the childless couple was living at Stratford Road in 1881. Carpenter Thomas Alward from Tanworth was 34, as was his wife Elizabeth A Alward from Wick Rissington. The next census in 1891, identified the pair of them living at Hockley Heath within the Parish of St Thomas Nuthurst, just one mile north-west of Lapworth, where they were both 44 years of age, by which time Thomas was a retired builder, living on his own means. Living there with the couple was Thomas’ sister-in-law, unmarried Martha Jane Collett (below) who was described as a visitor. She had been living with her widowed mother up until her death in 1884. It was only seven years later that Elizabeth Amelia Alward, nee Collett, aged 51, died at Hockley Heath, her death recorded at Solihull (Ref. 6d 329) during the second quarter of 1898. Following the death of his wife, Thomas continued to have his sister-in-law, Martha Jane Collett, living with him at Hockley Heath, Nuthurst St Thomas, as confirmed in the census of 1901, and again in 1911, when Martha Jane Collett was acting as his housekeeper.

33O26

Thomas James Collett was born at Wick Rissington in 1848, the eldest son of Thomas James and Elizabeth Amelia Collett, his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 26) during the last quarter of that year. At the age of two years, he was one of three children still living with his parents on their farm at Wick Rissington in 1851, when his older sister Elizabeth (above), was living close by with their grandmother. It was around four years later that Thomas’ parents moved to a new farm at Oldberrow in Warwickshire, and it was there that his family was recorded in both 1861 and 1871. However, in 1861 Thomas J Collett, aged 12 and a scholar from Wick Rissington, was living with his uncle, farmer Joseph Collett and his wife Eliza at their farmhouse in Lower Slaughter, where he was recorded as their nephew. Curiously, no record of him has been found in 1871 when he would have been 22.

33O27

Mary Hall Collett was born at Wick Rissington in 1849, the second of three daughters of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Amelia Allen. Her birth was registered at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 388) during the last three months of 1849. She was one year old in the census of 1851, when she was living with her parents on their farm at Wick Rissington. Ten years later, and by the time her parents were living at Oldberrow near Studley, Mary Hall Collett, aged 11 from Wick Rissington, was a visitor at Church Street in Handsworth, to the north of Birmingham, where she was staying with the family of John Hall Clark from London who was 29. John’s wife Elizabeth Clark was 25 and from Henley-in-Arden, where their two daughters had been born; Elizabeth A Clark was two years of age, and Kate M Clark was four months old. John Hall Clark was a builder of some considerable business, since he employed 35 men and 3 boys, plus a general domestic servant.

It is still not known why she was there, or whether she was related to them in some way. Ten years after that in 1871, Mary Hall Collett, aged 21, was once again living at her parents’ farm, Bishop’s Farm in Oldberrow, although her father was away at Upper Slaughter on the day of the census. It was later that same year when 22-year-old Mary Hall Collett married David Reuben Pritchett, aged 21, at Oldberrow on 22^nd November 1871, the event recorded at nearby Alcester (Ref. 6d 1081). Reuben, as he was named on the day of the wedding, was the son of Edmund Suckling Pritchett, while Mary’s father was confirmed as Thomas James Collett. Both the bride and the groom were residing in Oldberrow prior to their wedding day, with both described as being ‘of this parish’, with the licence to be married signed on 19^th November that year. David Reuben Pritchett was born at Solihull in the latter months of 1850 (Ref. xvi 530).

Not long after they were married Mary and Reuben emigrated to America and settled in the State of Kansas where their four known children were born. They were Raymond Pritchett (born 1880; 1928), Albert Edmond Pritchett (born 1883), Nellie May Pritchett (born 1888) and Elizabeth Amelia Pritchett (born 1889). Mary’s youngest child was only ten years old when she died in Texas on 12^th April 1899. The Will of Mary Hall Pritchett was proved at London, back in England, on 30^th June 1900, when it was stated that she was of Jasper County in Texas, the wife of farmer David Rueben Pritchett to whom probate was granted for her personal estate of £514 and 3 Shillings.

As a result of the death of his wife, Reuben travelled to England with his two daughters and a nursemaid later that same year. It was on board the passenger ship Cymric that the group sailed out of New York on 12^th October 1900 bound for Liverpool when Rueben Pritchett, aged 49, was described on the passenger list as a clergyman travelling with Nellie Pritchett and Elizabeth Pritchett, plus Miss Ariss. Father and son, Reuben and Raymond, both passed away in 1928, following which a memorial stone was laid in the ground bearing their names and acknowledging that their wife and mother was Mary Collett Pritchett. Raymond died on 1^st November 1928 at Butler County, Kansas and was buried at Burrton Cemetery, Harvey County, Kansas, when the memorial stone was placed by his surviving siblings. The inscription reads as follows:

PRITCHETT Reuben 1849 – 1929 Raymond 1880 – 1928 Husband and son of Mary (Collett) Pritchett 1848 - 1899

33O28

Martha Jane Collett was born at Wick Rissington in January 1851 and it was at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. xi 415) that her birth was recorded during the second quarter of that year. She was just three months old at the time of the Wick Rissington census of 1851, when she was living there with her parents and two older siblings (above). During the mid-1850s the family gave up their farm at Wick Rissington, when they moved to another farm at Oldberrow. And it was there that she was living with her parents in 1861 when as Martha J Collett she was 10 years old. With her family still living at Bishop’s Farm in Oldberrow in 1871, Martha Jane Collett aged 20 was a visitor with her father Thomas James Collett at his brother’s farm in Upper Slaughter. Not long after that census day Martha’s father passed away and by April 1881 Martha and her widowed mother Elizabeth Amelia Collett had left Oldberrow and were living at Wootton Wawen in Warwickshire. Unmarried Martha J Collett of Wick Rissington was 30 years old with no stated occupation, so presumably she was looking after her elderly mother, who died during 1884.

After her mother passed away, Martha was welcomed into the home of her married sister Elizabeth Amelia Alward, nee Collett (above), at Lapworth near Solihull, where she was 40 in 1891. Even after her sister died in 1898, Martha continued to live with her brother-in-law at Hockley Heath, where Martha Jane Collett from Wick Rissington was 50 in 1901 and was 59 years old in 1911 where she was the housekeeper for widower Thomas Alward. It is likely that she remained living there for the next eight years, since the death of Martha Jane Collett was recorded at Solihull register office (Ref. 6d 742) during the last three months of 1919. The legal documentation confirmed that Martha Jane Collett of Nuthurst, Hockley Heath, died on 10^th November 1919 and her Will was proved at Birmingham on 31^st January 1920. Her personal estate of £877 1 Shilling and 9 Pence was managed by her executors, and they were her older brother Thomas James Collett (above), a gentleman, and Jane Elizabeth Astbury, the wife of Charles Astbury, who was the eldest daughter of Martha’s brother John Hall Collett (below).

33O29

John Hall Collett was born at Wick Rissington, either at the end of 1853 or early in 1854, the youngest of the five known children of Thomas James Collett and his wife Elizabeth Amelia Allen. His birth, like all of his older siblings, was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 326) during the first three months of 1854. Not long after he was born his parents left their farm in Wick Rissington when they moved to Oldberrow, near Studley and Henley-in-Arden. And it was there that he was living with part of his family in 1861, at the age of seven. He was still living there, at Bishop’s Farm, in 1871 with his mother and two of his sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, while his father was away at Upper Slaughter. John Hall Collett of Wick Rissington, aged 17, was simply listed as a farmer’s son.

Three years later the marriage of John Hall Collett and Jane Wilson from Kibworth in Leicestershire was conducted at Wroxall west of Kenilworth on 27^th October 1874. The birth of Jane Wilson was recorded at Lutterworth in Leicestershire (Ref. 7a 3) during the last three months of 1853. During the year following their wedding day John and Jane were living in Norfolk for the birth of their first child. However, virtually immediately after the child was born the family moved to the village of Goldington in Bedfordshire, where their next two children were born. There then followed a move into the town of Bedford itself, where the couple’s fourth child was born. According to the census in 1881, John Hall Collett, aged 27 and from Wick in Gloucestershire, was a farm manager and a farm bailiff living at the Goldington Road Irrigation Farm in the St Cuthbert parish of Bedford. Living there with him was his wife Jane who was also 27, and their four children, Jane E Collett who was five, Mary H Collett who was four, Thomas J Collett who was two years old, and Amelia W Collett who was only eleven months old. Supporting the family was servant Elizabeth Ann Bone, aged 20.

A further four children were added to the family over the next ten years, and by 1891 John and Jane were still residing in Bedford with their eight children. John and his wife Jane were both 38, and their children were Jane E Collett 15, Mary H Collett 14, Thomas J Collett 12, Amelia W Collett 10, Olive A Collett who was seven, Margaret H Collett who was five, John H Collett who was three, and Joseph W Collett who was one year old.

The final two children were born into the family at Bedford during the next four years and, by the time of the next census in March 1901, John’s two eldest daughters Jane and Mary had left the family home by 1901 when they would have been 25 and 24 respectively. The remainder of the family living at the Sewage Farm in Bedford St Cuthberts comprised farm manager John H Collett, aged 47 and an employer from Wick, his wife Jane also 47 and from Kibworth, and their eight children, Thomas 22, Amelia 20, Olive 18, Margaret 16, John 13, Joseph 11, Winifred who was eight, and Jessie who was five years old.

Three years after that census day, John Hall Collett died, following which his death was recorded at Bedford register office (Ref. 3b 207) during the first quarter of the 1904. By the time of the next census in April 1911, Jane Collett was described as a widow at the age of 58, when she was living within the Kempston district of Bedford, but with just three of her children. They were Thomas James Collett of Goldington who was 32, Winifred Annie Collett who was 18, and her youngest daughter Jessie Wilson Collett who was 15. After a further sixteen years Jane Collett nee Wilson passed away, when her death was also recorded at Bedford register office (Ref. 3b 309) during the fourth quarter of 1927.

33P35

Jane Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1875 at Massingham, Norfolk

33P36

Mary Henrietta Collett

Born in 1877 at Goldington, Beds

33P37

Thomas James Collett

Born in 1878 at Goldington, Beds

33P38

Amelia Wilson Collett

Born in 1880 at Bedford

33P39

Olive Allen Collett

Born in 1882 at Bedford

33P40

Margaret Hall Collett

Born in 1885 at Bedford

33P41

John Hall Collett

Born in 1887 at Bedford

33P42

Joseph William Collett

Born in 1889 at Bedford

33P43

Winifred Annie Collett

Born in 1893 at Bedford

33P44

Jessie Wilson Collett

Born in 1895 at Bedford

33O30

Thomas Collett was born at Lower Slaughter, possibly at the end of 1861, his parents married nine months earlier, or after the start of 1862, since his birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 155) during the first three months of 1862. His parents were Joseph Collett and Eliza Collett, both born with the Collett name, and both of them into the middle-age. By the time his was nine years old, Thomas Collett was attending school in Stow-on-the-Wold, when he was living with the family of master tailor and draper William Walton at the Market Place in the town. Even though the Stow census in 1871 described him as the nephew of William Walton, whose wife was the former Anne Collett (Ref. 2N19), no direct connection between two separate branches of the family has been made. Also living at the Walton family home at that time was niece Emily Collett (Ref. 2O41) from Guiting Power who was 16 and who was employed as an assistant in William Walton’s drapers’ shop, with Emily confirmed as the niece of William’s wife Anne Walton nee Collett, but definitely not the sister of ‘nephew’ Thomas Collett.

Ten years later, according to the census of 1881, Thomas Collett of Lower Slaughter was nineteen years old and was an apprentice ironmonger working and living with ironmonger John Fisher at his home at 34 Winchcombe Street in Cheltenham. The wife of John Fisher was Mary Ann Collett, the eldest daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 2N30). Thomas’ interest in ironmongery may have come from Walter Walton, the son of William and Anne Walton (nee Collett) who, in 1871 was an out-of-work ironmonger. By 1891 Thomas Collett, aged 28 and from Slaughter, was living and working in the Ashton-under-Lyne area of Staffordshire where he was unmarried and continuing to work as an ironmonger. It would appear that he was still a bachelor ten years later in March 1901, by which time he was living in Wolverhampton where he was described as Thomas Collett, aged 38 and from Slaughter, an ironmonger’s assistant and a boarder at the home of Elizabeth Richards. No record of him has been found in the next census in 1911

33O31

Mary Elizabeth Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1864, whose birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 399) during the last three months of the year. She was living at Lower Slaughter with her parents Joseph and Eliza Collett in 1871, when she was described as Mary Elizabeth Collett aged six years. Her father died in 1880 and her widowed mother was living in Stow-on-the-Wold in 1881. By that time Mary was working in domestic service across the county boundary in Oxfordshire. As Mary Elizabeth Collett, aged 16 of Upper Slaughter, she was a general domestic servant living and working with farmer Thomas Henry Powell and his family at Churchill Grounds Farm House in Churchill. Four years later in 1885, Mary Elizabeth Collett married Henry Sanger, who was the brother of Fanny Sanger who was married to John Makin. The marriage of Mary and Henry produced two children, Arthur Sanger who was born in 1886, who died in 1914, and Helena Collett Sanger who was born in 1890 and who died in 1968.

33P1

William Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1853, the eldest child of Paris Collett and Lucy Ann Palmer. He was unmarried in 1871 and five years later the marriage of William Collett and Ellen Elizabeth Gibson was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 164) during the last quarter of 1876. It was also at Stow, during the last three months of the previous year that the birth of the couple’s first child was recorded and where Ellen’s own birth was recorded (Ref. 6a 37) during the third quarter of 1855. Tragically, just twenty-four hours after the birth of the couple’s second child Ellen died, her baby daughter given her name. The death of Ellen Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 319) during the third quarter of 1877, when she was only 22 years old. According to the Bourton census of 1881, William Collett of Bourton was a widower at 27 and was working as a labourer, who had with him his two daughters Emily Collett who was six, and Ellen S Collett who was three, when the three of them were recorded at the home of his William’s father Paris Collett at The Bank in Bourton. Both of William’s children were confirmed as having been born at Bourton.

After nine years as a widower, William Collett married (2) Sarah Jane Waring, a spinster of Bledington, in that village on 25^th December 1886. William’s occupation was that of a postman, while his father was confirmed as Paris Collett, a labourer. Sarah was the daughter of labourer John Waring and was thirteen years younger than William. The witnesses at the wedding ceremony were William Stratford and Mary Waring, possibly Sarah’s mother or her sister. Once married, Sarah presented William with at least four children before the end of the century. The first of them was born in Bledington, where Sarah was born, possibly at the home of her parents, while the second and the fourth children were born at Bourton-on-the-Water, with the third child being born at Lower Slaughter, perhaps indicating that the family moved as William’s work changed.

In the 1891 Census the two children from his first marriage were still in the care of their grandparents Paris and Lucy Ann Collett at Bourton, when Emily was 16 and Ellen was 13. Also, William and his new wife Sarah, and their two sons, were back living in Bourton. William was 39 and a general labourer, while Sarah was 26, and their sons were Percival who was three years old and Ernest who was just ten months. During the next decade two daughters were added to the family, the first at Lower Slaughter and the second at Bourton.

The family of six was still living together at the fifth dwelling along Clapton Row from Sherborne Street in Bourton for the census in 1901. William Collett from Bourton was 49 and was still working as a general labourer, while his wife Sarah J Collett from Bledington was 36. The couple’s eldest son was referred to as Percival W Collett aged 13 also born at Bledington, while their youngest son was referred to as Ernest R J Collett aged 10 from Bourton. The couple’s two daughters were recorded as Blanche B M Collett who was seven and Winnifred G M Collett who was just three months old.

During the next ten years the two sons left the family home and went away to work for the Great Western Railway. By April 1911 the family comprised William of Bourton who was 59, his wife Sarah 46 and of Bledington, and their two daughters Blanche 17, and Winifred who was ten. Six years later William and Sarah took over the care of William’s granddaughter Dorothy Jepson who was born in 1917, whose mother, the former Edith Emily Collett, William’s eldest daughter, was unable to look after her. It seems likely that it was the death of William Collett that resulted in the child then being raised by his married daughter Blanche.

33Q1

Edith Emily Collett

Born in 1875 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q2

Ellen Sarah Collett

Born in 1877 at Bourton-on-the-Water

The following children are from the marriage of William Collett and his second wife Sarah:

33Q3

Percival William Collett

Born in 1887 at Bledington

33Q4

Ernest Reginald John Collett

Born in 1890 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q5

Blanche Beatrice M Collett

Born in 1893 at Lower Slaughter

33Q6

Winifred Olive May Collett

Born in 1901 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P2

Lucy Ann Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1855, the daughter of Paris Collett and Lucy Ann Palmer. She was living with her family at Bourton in 1861 when Lucy Ann was five, in 1871 as Lucy aged 15, and at The Bank in Bourton in 1881 as Lucy Ann aged 25. Nearly three years later Lucy Ann Collett gave birth to a base-born son, who was living with unmarried Lucy A Collett at her parents’ home in Bourton in 1891. In the census return Lucy was incorrectly recorded as being aged 30, instead of 35, while her son William was seven years old and described as the grandson of Paris Collett. Four years after that the marriage of Lucy Ann Collett and George Stratford was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 506) during the first three months of 1895.

In March 1901, George Stratford from Dumbleton in Gloucestershire was 31 and a general labourer residing at High Street South in Bourton-on-the-Water, where his wife Lucy A Stratford was 42. Living with the couple was their daughter Edith Stratford who was five years old and born at Bourton, like her mother. The fourth member of the household was William G Collett aged 17 and also from Bourton, who was described as the stepson of George Stratford. The early death of George Stratford was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 259) during the final quarter of 1905, when he was only 36. He was the son of Albert and Elizabeth Mary Stratford and was born at Dumbleton in 1869. In 1891 George was a carter living with his family at Clapton Row in Bourton, the same street as the Collett family. Shortly before her husband died, Lucy’s father also passed away of old age, following which her widowed mother Lucy lived out her life with Lucy in Bourton-on-the-Water. That was the situation in 1911 when Lucy A Stratford was a charwoman who was 55. In addition to her elderly mother, Lucy’s daughter Edith Stratford completed the census return. The death of Lucy A Stratford nee Collett was recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 6a 570) during the last quarter of 1937 when she was 81.

33Q7

William George Collett

Born in 1884 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P3

Paris Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1859 and was the son of Paris and Lucy Collett, his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 316) during the third quarter of the year. During the earlier census returns in his life his date of birth fluctuated between 1857 and 1860, for example in 1881 he was 23 and a labourer living with his parents at The Bank in Bourton. During the third quarter of 1892 Paris Collett married Kate Burdock, the marriage recorded at Stow (Ref. 6a 709), with whom he had four children during the following nine years. Kate was the sister of Ruth Burdock who married Paris’s distant cousin (two times removed) Joseph Collett (Ref. 33P28) at Bourton in 1895.

By March 1901 Paris and his family was living at Station Street in Bourton where he was 41 and employed as a general labourer, his wife Kate was 34, and their four children were Herbert P Collett who was seven, Arthur E Collett who was six, Walter G Collett who was four, and Kathleen E Collett who was one year old, all four children having been born at Bourton.

During the next few years, a second daughter was added to the while they were still living at Bourton, where they were also living in April 1911. The census return that year recorded the family as Paris Collett from Bourton who was 51 and a general labourer, his wife Kate who was 43 and from Lower Slaughter, Herbert Paris Collett who was 18, Arthur Edward Collett who was 16, Walter George Collett who was 14, Kathleen Eva Collett who was 11, and Amy Collett who was seven years old. Over twenty-five years later Paris Collett passed away at the age of 76, when his death was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 504) during the second quarter of 1936.

33Q8

Herbert Paris Collett

Born in 1893 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q9

Arthur Edward Collett

Born in 1895 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q10

Walter George Collett

Born in 1897 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q11

Kathleen Eva Collett

Born in 1899 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q12

Amy Collett

Born in 1903 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P4

Mary Ann Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1860, the youngest of the two daughters of Paris Collett and Lucy Ann Palmer. It was during 1888 when Mary Ann Collett married Charles Bowles from Broadwell, the couple settling in the Gloucestershire village of Donnington, near Stow-on-the-Wold, where Mary Bowles was 31 and Charles Bowles was 28 in the census of 1891. Not long after that Mary gave birth to a daughter Alice Maud Bowles who was born during the third quarter of 1892 at Donnington, where the family of three was residing in March 1901. The census revealed that Charles Bowles was 38 and a general carter from Broadwell, his wife Mary Ann Bowles was 41 from Bourton-on-the Hill, while their daughter was eight years old.

According to the next census in 1911 Mary Ann Bowles from Bourton-on-the-Hill was 51 when she was living at Donnington near Moreton-in-Marsh with her husband Charles Bowles who was 48. The same census return stated that Mary had given birth to two children who were both still alive in 1911, and that she and Charles had been married for twenty-three years, which confirmed that they were married around 1888. Also living nearby in the same Stow-on-the-Wold registration district was their daughter Alice Maud Bowles who was 18 and a domestic servant. It was twenty-seven years after that when Mary Ann Bowles nee Collett died in Gloucestershire on 3^rd March 1938, although it was seventeen years later that probate of her personal effects was granted to Frank Bowles, a gardener, at Oxford on 12^th May 1955. What caused that considerable delay is not known at this time.

33P5

Thomas Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1866, his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 16) during the final three months of the year, the last child of Paris Collett and Lucy Ann Palmer. He was four years old in 1871 and was 15 and a labourer in 1881, when he was living with his family at The Bank in Bourton. Ten years later he was unmarried at 24 and again living with his parents at Bourton, where he was employed as an agricultural labourer. It was five years later that he married Mary Jane Brown from Great Rissington, their wedding recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 316) during the second quarter of 1896. Mary Jane Brown was born at Great Rissington, with her birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 287) during the last three months of 1871. Shortly after their wedding day, Mary presented him with their only known child. By the time of the Bourton census in 1901 the family was residing on the High Street in the town from where Thomas Collett, aged 34, was employed as a general labourer, his wife Mary J Collett from Great Rissington was 29, and their daughter Dorothy M Collett was two years old. Their home was just three doors from the Rectory of St Lawrence’s Church.

Ten years later in April 1911, Thomas and his wife and their daughter were living in a three-roomed dwelling in Bourton-on-the-Water. By that time in his life, Thomas Collett from Bourton was 45 and a mason working for a local builder. His wife of fourteen years was named as Mary Jane Collett from Great Rissington who was 39, while their daughter Dorothy Mary Collett was 12 years of age and still attending school. The census return also confirmed that only one child had been born to the couple during their fourteen years together. It was just under six years later when the death of Thomas Collett of Bourton was recorded at Stow-in-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 107) during the first three months of 1917, when he was 50 years old. His widow lived a long and full life, with the death of Mary J Collett aged 88 recorded at Northleach register office (Ref. 7b 62) during the first quarter of 1958.

33Q13

Dorothy Mary Collett

Born in 1899 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P6

Charles Edward Collett was born at Maugersbury in 1865 and was the eldest son of Job and Mary Collett, his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 349) during the second quarter of that year. At the time of the 1871 census, Charles Collett was five years old and was living with his parents at Stow-on-the-Wold. The village of Maugersbury lies less than one mile from Stow where Charles said he was born in later census records. Ten years later, at the age of 15, he had left the family home, which was then in Maugersbury, and instead was living and working in the picturesque village of Lower Slaughter. His occupation was stated as being that of an agricultural servant and his employer was sixty-eight years old Thomas Yearp, a farmer of Lower Slaughter. Thomas Yearp was the son of Hannah (Betty) Collett (Ref. 33M3) and Thomas Yearp, which means that he was a distance relative of Charles Collett, being the cousin of Charles’ grandfather John Collett.

In addition to Charles Collett, the Yearp household in 1881 comprised Thomas and his wife Ann aged 70 and of Ashton-under-Hill, his married son Thomas Yearp, a butcher, and his wife Sarah Ann (both aged 35 and of Lower Slaughter), and general servant Lucy Ann Pearce 21 of Lower Slaughter. It is interesting that from his experience of living with the Yearp family, that Charles later became a butcher himself. It was at Sherborne that Charles Edward Collett married Fanny Stevens of Sherborne, the event recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 623) during the third quarter of 1887. Once they were married the couple left Gloucestershire for Birmingham, where they were living when their three known children were born.

On the occasion of the Birmingham census in 1891 the family was residing at Newtown Row in Birmingham and described as Charles Collett aged 25 and a butcher, Annie Collett who was 28, and Ellen E Collett who was two years of age. No specific place of birth was given for any of the three of them, listed with the family that day was Charles’ younger unmarried sister Annie Collett (below) from Gloucestershire. By the time the next census day in 1901 their family was complete, when they were recorded living at Bell Barn Road in Birmingham where Charles E Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold was 35 and a butcher’s assistant. His wife Fanny from Sherborne was 38, and their three Birmingham born children were Ellen who was 12, Frederick who was eight, and Frances who was six years old.

No more children were added to the family, which was recorded at Balsall Heath in Worcestershire in April 1911. Butcher Charles Edward Collett was 46, Fanny Collett was 48, Ellen Ethel Collett was 22, Frederick Charles Collett was 18, and Frances Emily Collett was 16. Fifteen years after that, when Charles was 60 years old, his death as Charles E Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 618) during the first three months of 1926.

33Q14

Ellen Ethel Collett

Born in 1888 at Birmingham

33Q15

Frederick Charles Collett

Born in 1892 at Birmingham

33Q16

Frances Emily Collett

Born in 1894 at Birmingham

33P7

Emma Collett was born at Maugersbury near Stow-on-the-Wold in 1867, her birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 385) during the second quarter of that year. She was four years of age at the time of the Stow census of 1871 and ten years later she had left school and, at the age of 14, was working at The Manse House on the High Street in Bourton-on-the-Water where she was a general servant at the home of miller George Bumpus and his family. On that occasion, as later on, her place of birth was recorded as being Stow-on-the-Wold. By the time of the next census in 1891 Emma Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold was 24 when she was a servant at the Cheltenham home of eighty-five-year-old Caroline Bernard. It is now established that Emma married James Upton on the same day that her younger sister Helen (below) married John Silman in the first three months of 1894. Interestingly, both James and John were from the Oxfordshire village of Milton-under-Wychwood. Their marriage did not produce any children and in 1901 the couple was residing at Westfield Road in Wheatley, Oxon, where both James and Emma were 33. Sadly, Emma was made a widow during the next decade, and in 1911 was living with her sister Helen.

33P8

Helen Elizabeth Collett was born at Maugersbury in 1869, a daughter of Job and Mary Collett, whose birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 404) during the first three months of 1869. She was two years old in the Maugersbury census of 1871 in which she was simply named as Ellen Collett, but it was as Helen E Collett aged 12 years, a scholar, living at Well Lane in Maugersbury with her family in 1881. Thirteen years later Helen Elizabeth Collett married John Thomas Silman, the event recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 619) during the first quarter of 1894. John had been born at Milton-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire, and it was at nearby Lyneham that the couple set up home and where their daughter was born. The census in 1901 listed the family as John Thomas Silman aged 32, as was his wife Helen Elizabeth Silman, while their three-year-old daughter was Elsie May Silman. Employed by the family was servant William Farbrother who was 18. It was the same situation ten years later, when the Lyneham census in 1911 recorded the family of three as John and Helen who were 42 and daughter Elsie was 13. Staying with the family was Helen’s widowed married sister Emma Upton (above).

33P9

Annie Collett was born at Maugersbury in 1870, another daughter of Job and Mary Collett. She was ten years of age in the census of 1881 when she and her family were living at 22 Well Lane in Maugersbury. In the census of 1891 Annie Collett aged 20 was a visitor at the home of her older married brother Charles Edward Collett (above) at Newtown Row in Birmingham. It was at Holyhead, Anglesey, on 21^st November 1900 that Annie Collett married John Golding Franey. Annie was 29 and said to be the daughter of Joseph Collett, while John was 32 and the son of Stephen Franey. In 1901 her husband was serving with the British Army in South Africa, when he was actively taking part in the Boer War. Back home in North Wales, on the day of the census in 1901, Annie Franey aged 28 (sic) and from Gloucestershire, was described as the head of the household at Holyhead. Staying with Annie that day was her younger unmarried sister Edith May Collett who was 19, and boarder Jane C Ayres aged 22. According to the next census in 1911, John Golding Franey from Upton in Huntingdon was 42 and a detective with the London North Western Railway, when he and his family was residing at Pendleton in Lancashire. His wife was Annie Franey from Stow-on-the-Wold who was 40, and their two children were Arthur John Golding Franey who was seven and born at Holyhead, and Stephen Alfred Franey from Stafford who was two years of age.

33P10

Agnes Mary Collett was born at Maugersbury in 1872. Just after she was born her parents first moved south to Sherborne before returning to Maugersbury near to Stow-on-the-Wold, where the family was living at 22 Well Lane at the time of the census of 1881 when Agnes was eight years old. In her later life Agnes more commonly used her second name of Mary. However, it was as Agnes M Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold that she was recorded in the census of 1891 when she was 18 and a servant in the employ of Fitzroy Jones and his wife Eva at their home in Portsea, Hampshire. Ten years later she was still in domestic service at the home of Charles O’Brian Harding and his large family at Eastbourne in Sussex. On that occasion Agnes Collett gave her age as 30 and her place of birth as Stow-on-the-Wold. It is possible that she was married sometime after 1901, with no recorded of Agnes Collett from Maugersbury found in 1911.

33P11

Rosa Collett was born in 1874 and was the only member of her family to be born at Sherborne, although her birth was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 377) during the third quarter of the year. It was also at Sherborne that she was baptised on 25^th October 1874, the baptism record confirming that she was the daughter of Job Collett and Mary Jenkins. On both of those two occasions, and within the two following census returns, she was referred to as Rosa while later on, for an important moment in her life, she was recorded in an official document as Rose Collett. Shortly after she was born her parents moved back to Maugersbury, near Stow-on-the-Wold and, by 1881 the family was living at 22 Well Lane in Maugersbury, where Rosa Collett was listed as being six years old and from Sherborne. On leaving school she entered domestic service and in 1891, again as Rosa Collett from Sherborne, she was 17 when she was one of ten servants employed at Adlestrop House in Adlestrop, the home of Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Arnold, a Justice of the Peace from Liverpool. She was described as the schoolroom maid, presumably looking after the needs of the two Arnold daughters, who were 13 and 14.

Sometime during the next decade, unmarried Rose Collett gave birth to a base-born child, although it is unclear whether it was a boy or a girl. By 1901 Rose Collett from Sherborne was 27 and a general domestic servant at the Uplands, Stroud home of bank cashier Fitzroy Frederick Charles Jones who was 41 and from Painswick. It is possible that she may have been expecting the birth of the child that census day, or had already given birth prior to then. Certainly, no record of the child has been found, while it was six months after the census day, when Rose Collett of Stroud was arrested on 29^th September 1901. Four days after her arrest, Rose attended the Stroud court quarter session on 3^rd October where she was charged with abandoning and exposing her child in a manner likely to cause it unnecessary suffering. As a result, she was confined in The County Gaol in Gloucester for one calendar month, when the following details were recorded under entry 682. Rose Collett, a domestic servant in Stroud, was 28 years of age, 5 feet 2½ inches, with black hair, a member of the Church of England from Sherborne. With nil previous convictions, she was released from gaol on 1^st November 1902.

Rather curiously, living next door to the Arnold family in 1891, was Harry Collett who was one year old and born at Stow-on-the-Wold. He was described as the grandson of Thomas Haynes of Adlestrop who was 58 and an agricultural labourer. His wife was Maria Haynes and she was 54 and from Charlbury in Oxfordshire. The household at Adlestrop Lodge was completed by the couple’s son Charles Haynes who was a gardener aged 25 and their daughter Ada Haynes who was 23, both of them born at Adlestrop. It was their deceased daughter Helen Haynes who was the mother of Harry Collett, and the wife of Henry William Collett. Ten years later Harry Collett was 11 years old when he was living at Stow-on-the-Wold with his father Henry William Collett from Broadwell and his second wife Annie Brooks.

Henry William Collett was born at Broadwell, with his birth registered at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 320) during the third quarter of 1859. The later marriage of Henry William Collett and Helen Haynes was recorded at Stow (Ref. 6a 771) during the quarter of 1885. Helen’s birth was registered at Stow (Ref. 6a 364) during the first three months of 1892. The birth of their son Harry Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 383) during the last three months of 1889, his mother not surviving the ordeal. Just over two years later the marriage of widower Henry William Collett and (2) Annie Brooks was recorded at Stow register office (Ref. 6a 842) during the fourth quarter of 1891.

The census in 1901 recorded the family residing at Well Lane Farm, Oddfellows Row in Stow as Henry W Collett who was 41 and a baker, his wife Annie Collett who was 37 and also from Broadwell, Harry Collett who was 11, Emily S Collett who was eight, Daisy E Collett who was four and William C Collett who was one year old, the four children all born at Stow. Annie gave birth to their last child three years later, so in 1911 the Stow family was recorded as Henry William Collett aged 51 and a journeyman baker, Annie Collett aged 47, William Charles Collett aged 11 and attending school, as was Kathleen Mabel Collett who was six years old. No record of daughters Emily and Daisy have been found in 1911. By that time Harry Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold was 21 when he was staying at a boarding house within the Islington district of London, from where he was working as a compositor and printer employed by a letterpress printing company. The later death of Henry W Collett aged 89 was recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 7b 297) in 1949.

Curiously in 1911, Thomas Haynes, aged 78, and his unmarried daughter Ada Haynes, aged 43, had living with them at Adlestrop Helen Hope Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold, his granddaughter of 20 years, who was the base-born child of Emma Collett (Ref. 55Q18) from Devizes, the daughter of Richard Isaac Collett from Leeds and his wife Mary Ann Few from Devizes as detailed in Part 55 – The Wakefield & Leeds Line. Twenty years earlier, when Helen Hope Collett was only five months old, she was described as the niece of Harry Jeffries from Wantage, aged 38, and his wife Marie Jeffries, aged 32 and from Adlestrop, with whom she was living at 17 Cross Street in Winchester. That raises the question; was Marie Jeffries the daughter of Thomas and Marie Haynes?

33P12

Edith May Collett was born at Maugersbury (one mile from Stow-on-the-Wold) near the end of 1880, her birth recorded at Stow (Ref. 6a 374) during the last quarter of that year. It was there at 22 Well Lane that her family was living in April 1881 when Edith was just five months old. Edith appeared to be the only member of the family still living with her parents at Stow by the time of the census of 1891 when she was ten. By 1901, Edith May Collett aged 19 was staying with her recently married sister Annie Franey at Holyhead in Anglesey, although later that decade, Edith returned to Stow to look after her elderly parents. It was as Edith May Collett aged 30 and from Stow-on-the-Wold that she was listed in the April census of 1911 living at Enoch Row in Stow-on-the-Wold, where she was described as unmarried and performing house duties for her parents.

It was at the end of the following year when Edith May Collett married Joseph Sowden on 8^th December 1912. The wedding took place at Stow-on-the-Wold, the parish register recording that Edith was 31 and the daughter of Job Collett, while Joseph was 36 and the son of Hart Sowden. During the next two years Edith presented Joseph with a son, Leonard Snowden Sowden, and in 1915, when Joseph entered the war, the family of three was residing at 4 Buckingham Road in Bicester, Oxfordshire. His military records confirm that his occupation at the time of enlisted was that of a grocer, that he served in Salonika, and that after the war the family was living at Filkins, a village near Lechlade in Gloucestershire.

33P13

Emily Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water only a few months after her parents were married there during the last three months of 1859. The birth of Emily Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 78) during the first three months of 1860. Unfortunately, no record of Emily, or her parents Robert Collett and Sarah Davis, has been found within the census of 1861. It was the following census in 1871, that confirmed 11-year-old Emily Collett had been born at Bourton-on-the-Water, when she and her family were residing in Upper Slaughter. Nine year later, on 14^th February 1880, at Chipping Norton, Emily Collett married James Pearse who had been born at Kingham in Oxfordshire during 1854, where he was baptised on 4^th June 1854, the son of Charles Pearse and Maria Howes. Once they were married it would appear that they lived their life together at Kingham, where Emily Pearse nee Collett died and was buried on 23^rd August 1950. The couple are known to have had a son James Pearse who was born in 1887 and who was still living with Emily and James at Kingham in 1911. It was the Kingham census of 1901 in which Emily’s place of birth was confirmed as being Bourton-on-the-Water. Emily was 40 and her husband James was 46 and an engine driver, and their son James was 13.

33P14

Ann Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1861, her birth at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 18) during the fourth quarter of 1861, another daughter of Robert and Sarah Collett. By the time she was three years old, Ann and her family were living in Upper Slaughter, where they were living in 1871 when Ann Collett from Bourton was nine years of age. Towards the end of the 1870s, her parents moved again and, by 1881, the family was living at Guiting Power where Ann Collett was 20 and a domestic servant from Bourton-on-the-Water.

33P15

Charles Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1863, his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 359) during the second quarter of the year. He was two years old when his family left Bourton and moved to Upper Slaughter, where they were living in 1871, when Charles Collett from Bourton was seven years of age. By the time of the census of 1881, his family had moved again, to Guiting Power, while Charles had left his family and was working on a farm, ten miles north-west of Bourton at Snowhill. The census return listed Charles Collett as being 18, unmarried and a carter and agricultural labourer who was born at Bourton. At that time, he was employed by Alfred Barrett, who was 48 and from Cheltenham, on his 130-acre Little Brockhampton Farm at Snowhill.

It was at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 778) during the last three months of 1884 that Charles Collett married Lucy Ann Woolley, the daughter of witness Alfred Woolley, with whom he had had five children by the spring of 1901. Prior to that though, in 1891, Charles and Lucy Ann were residing in Miserden, near Stroud, where 27-year-old Charles was a farm servant. Only a few days earlier Lucy had given birth to the couple’s second child who was unnamed on the day of the census and confirmed as having been born at Miserden, while their first child was Charles R Collett who was two years of age. According to the March census of 1901, Charles was living at Cot Abbey in Winstone where he was a carter on a farm. His age was given as 37 and his place of birth as Bourton-on-the-Water. His wife Lucy A Collett was also 37, but had been born at Winstone, where all of the couple’s children were said to have been born. All five children were recorded with them and they were Charles R Collett who was 12, William H Collett who was 10, Albert E Collett who was five, Gladys E Collett who was two, and Amy Collett who was only eleven months old. Charles’ eldest son Charles was very likely working with his father, since he was also a carter on a farm.

During the following decade Charles’ work resulted in a move away from Winstone and by the time of the census in 1911 the family, less the couple’s eldest son, was recorded in the village of Coberley four miles south of Cheltenham. The census return that year recorded the family as Charles Collett from Bourton who was 47 and working as a waggoner on a farm, his wife Lucy from Winstone was also 47, and their four youngest children were Henry Collett from Miserden who was 20, Albert Collett was 15, Gladys Collett was 12 and Amy Collett who was ten, all three of them confirmed as having been born at Winstone.

33Q17

Charles Robert Collett

Born in 1888 at Winstone

33Q18

William Henry Collett

Born in 1891 at Miserden

33Q19

Albert Edward Collett

Born in 1895 at Winstone

33Q20

Gladys Emma Collett

Born in 1898 at Winstone

33Q21

Amy Georgina M Collett

Born in May 1900 at Winstone

33P16

John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1865, with his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 142) during the last quarter of that year, another son of Robert and Sarah Collett. When he still very young, his family moved to Upper Slaughter, where they were living in 1871, when John Collett from Slaughter was five years of age. Another move for the family, took them to Guiting Power where they were recorded in 1881. That year, John Collett was 16 and an agricultural labourer, his place of birth recorded as Bourton-on-the-Water. Over the following years, the Collett family settled at Arlington in Bibury, where 25-year-old John Collett was an agricultural labourer. By the time he was 35, he was still unmarried and the only child living at Bibury with his widowed mother, where he was a general labourer, although the census return in 1901 gave his place of birth as being Lower Slaughter. After another ten years, it was John who was head of the household, when again his place of birth was recorded as Lower Slaughter and, at the age of 45, he was employed as a farm labourer. That same day, he had living with him, his brother Frank Collett (below), with whom he was working, plus his elderly mother Sarah, who was the housekeeper. Only five years after that census day, the death of John Collett was recorded at Northleach register office (Ref. 6a 100) during the second quarter of 1916, at the age of 50.

33P17

Mary Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1868, her birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 207) during the first three months of the year, and was three years of age in the Upper Slaughter census of 1871. During the following decade the family moved to Guiting Power, where Mary Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was 12 and at school. By the time she was 22, she was still unmarried and living at Bibury, to where her parents had moved, when she working as a servant at the home of 93-year-old widow Hannah Miles of Coln St Dennis, who was listed in the census of 1891 as on ‘parish relief’.

33P19

Frank Collett was born at Upper Slaughter in 1873, with his birth recorded during the third quarter of the year at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 174), another child of Robert and Sarah Collett. Curiously, Frank was only recorded with his parent in the census of 1881, by which time the family was residing at Guiting Power, where Frank Collett from Upper Slaughter was eight years old. From Guiting Power, his family finally settled in Bibury, where his mother was recorded from 1891 through to 1911 when, for the latter, Frank Collett aged 35 and from Upper Slaughter was a farm labourer who was still not married. On that occasion, Frank was living at the home of his older brother John (above) with whom he working, their elderly mother acting as their housekeeper. Where Frank was in 1891 and 1901 has still not been determined. With his sister Amy (below) known to live and pass away in Cheltenham, it seems highly likely that the death of Frank Collett, aged 88, recorded at Cheltenham register office (Ref. 7b 134) during the first three months of 1962, was Frank from Upper Slaughter.

33P22

Amy Collett was born at Cold Aston on 22^nd July 1884, the youngest child of Robert Collett and Sarah Davis, her birth recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 267) during the third quarter of that year. Sometime after she was born her family settled at Arlington in Bibury, where they were living in 1891 when Amy Collett was seven years old. Upon leaving school Amy entered into domestic service and, by 1901, she was living and working at Mayfield in East Sussex, where she was employed by Charles Russell, a 50-year-old chicken fatter, as a domestic nurse at the age of 17. The census return recorded her place of birth in error as Bourton-on-the-Water. She eventually returned to Gloucestershire, with the marriage of Amy Collett and Charles Arter recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 99) during the second quarter of 1904. Charles Robert McHale Arter was from Cheltenham and was 34 in the Cheltenham census of 1911, when he was described as a cab driver and a fly proprietor. His wife Amy Arter was 26 and again said she was born at Bourton-on-the-Water. Staying with the couple that day was Charles’ niece Ida Lavina Alexandra Arter from Cheltenham, who was eight years of age. Amy was 89 when she died at Cheltenham in 1973, her death recorded there (Ref. 7b 60) towards the end of that year.

33P23

Elizabeth Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water towards the end of 1862, following the wedding of her parents John Collett and Ruth Caroline Timms in February that same year. Perhaps it was her father’s work as a carman, or the premature death of her brother John (below) when the family was living in Stow-on-the-Wold, that prompted the family to move to Kent in 1867. Curiously her sister Lydia did not travel with the family, instead she was looked after by her paternal grandparents. Elizabeth Collett, from Bourton-on-the-Water, was nine years old in the census of 1871, when she was living at 2 Horns Green Road in the Horns Green area of Cudham with her parents and her younger sister Eliza (below). However, no further record of Elizabeth has been found in any subsequent census return.

33P24

Lydia Collett was born at Stow-in-the Wold in 1864, the daughter of John and Ruth Collett. Following the death of her younger brother, her parents moved to Kent, although it would appear that Lydia went to live with her grandparents Richard and Sarah Collett at Bourton-on-the-Water, where she was six years old in 1871. By 1881 when Lydia would have been 16 her parents were living at 10 Devonshire Street in Camberwell, London, while no record of Lydia has been found in that year’s census returns. However, ten years later Lydia Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was 26 when she was employed as servant at the Portsea, Hampshire home of Ann Beckley who was 43. She was still working in domestic service in March 1901 when she was recorded as Lydia Collett aged 36 from Bourton, at the Hammersmith home of elderly William Daunt and his family. In the next census of 1911, it was her age that was incorrect, when Lydia Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was 42 (sic) and working as a cook at 36 Brunswick Place in Hove near Brighton in Sussex, the home of Caroline Cameron who was 72.

33P25

John Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1866, but sadly he was only a few months old when he died at there. Not long after that his parents John and Ruth left Gloucestershire when they took two of their three daughters to Kent.

33P26

Eliza Collett was born at Cudham in Kent during 1868, where she was baptised on 6^th June 1869. She was very likely the only one of the four children of John and Ruth Caroline Collett to survive beyond childhood. In 1871 Eliza was two years old when she was living with her parents and older sister Elizabeth (above) at 2 Horns Green Road in the Horns Green area of Cudham. Ten years later in 1881 when she was 12 and still at school, Eliza was the only child living with her parents at 10 Devonshire Street in Camberwell. Eliza was still living with her parents at Camberwell in 1891 when she was 22. However, it seems that her mother died before the end of the century because her widowed father was recorded living alone in London in 1901 and again in 1911 when he was at an institution in Lewisham. On the occasion of the census in 1901 Eliza was described as Elizabeth Collett, aged 32 and from Cudham in Kent, when she was still living in Camberwell where she was employed as a shirt machinist.

During the next few years Eliza married the much younger Charles Filmer who was born at Rye in Sussex in 1882. He was the son of William and Harriet Filmer who also had a great many years between them, with William being 51 in 1881, while his wife was 35, when they were living at the Main Street in Rye with their five eldest children. Ten years later in 1891, when Charles Filmer was eight years old, he was one of seven children still living with William and Harriet at Rye. At the time when Eliza was a shirt machinist in Camberwell aged 32, Charles Filmer was 18 and a bricklayer’s labourer at Gillingham in Kent. During 1905 Eliza presented her young husband with a daughter, as confirmed in the next census in 1911, when the three members of the family were recorded living within the Chelsea area of London. Charles Filmer from Rye was 28, Eliza Filmer from Cudham was 42, and Dorothy Filmer was five years old.

33P27

Ellen Elizabeth Goodway was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 27^th January 1862, the base-born daughter of Hannah Freeman Goodway of Bagendon, by her future husband Job Collett (Ref. 33O16) to whom she was married in 1874. Ellen was 18 years old when she married John Charles Parsons on 27^th March 1880, when the witnesses were Mary Parsons and Hubert Reuben Collett, the latter being from Little Rissington whose Collett family are featured in Part Two – The Second Gloucestershire Line 1830 to 1890 (Ref. 2O75). By the time of Ellen’s nineteenth birthday in January 1881, she was expecting the birth of her first child. And so it was, during the last days of February that year, when Ellen and John Parsons welcome their son into their family. However, the joy at his being born was tempered by the tragic death of his mother who died on 26^th February 1881. Ellen Elizabeth Parsons was buried at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton-On-The-Water, where a headstone marks her grave. That sad event was confirmed one month later in the census that year, when one-month-old John Parsons had been taken into the care of his grandparents Job and Hannah Collett at Bourton, the child having been born at Charlbury in Oxfordshire.

On that same census day in 1881, the widowed husband of Ellen Parsons, John Parsons from Northleach was still only 18 years of age, when he was a lodger and agricultural labourer at the Colcutt home of grocer Isaac Smith in Coln St Dennis. Ellen’s connection with Coln St Dennis was that it was that village where her grandmother Elizabeth Goodway nee Freeman was born. In addition to which there was also another lodger at the house in Colcutt, who was Arthur Hall, aged 22 and from Northleach, another agricultural labourer, there being earlier Collett connections with Northleach and the Hall family.

33Q22

John Charles Goodway Parsons

Born in 1881 at Charlbury

33P28

JOSEPH COLLETT was born at Bourton-on-the-Water during March in 1875. At the age of 16, according to the 1891 Census, Joseph was an apprentice carpenter and wheelwright at the Bourton home of 62 years old Joseph Griffin of Lower Slaughter and his wife Elizabeth aged 66 of Bourton. By 1901 Joseph Collett was a fully-fledged carpenter at Bourton. Nine months after his twentieth birthday, on 25^th December 1895, he married Ruth Burdock at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. Three years earlier, Ruth’s sister, Kate Burdock from Birmingham, had married Paris Collett (Ref. 33P3) at Bourton.

Ruth, who was born in 1877 at Great Rissington, was the daughter of journeyman baker Edward Burdock of Ablington in Gloucestershire and his wife Hannah of Enstone in Oxfordshire. At the time of the 1901 Census, Joseph Collett was 26 and a house carpenter, his wife Ruth Collett was 24, when they and their two children were living at Sherborne Street in Bourton-on-the-Water. The couple’s two children were recorded as Wilfred Collett who was four, and Victor Collett who was two, both of them born at Bourton. Completing the household was Joseph’s elderly widowed mother Hannah Collett, while it was just six weeks after that census day, that the couple’s only daughter Doris Collett was born.

All of Joseph and Ruth’s children were born at Bourton-on-the-Water, and the previous inclusion of a son John Edward Collett was proved to be incorrect according to the census of 1911, when there was no such child listed with the family. He has therefore been removed. According to the April census of 1911, the family comprised Joseph, aged 36, his wife Ruth, aged 34, and their five surviving children Wilfred aged 14, Victor aged 12, Doris who was 10, Allan who was seven, and Ivor who was two years old.

Joseph Collett died on 8^th May 1950 at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol and was buried that same month at St Lawrence's Church Cemetery in Bourton. Almost five years later Ruth Collett nee Burdock passed away on 13^th April 1955 and was laid to rest with her husband at St Lawrence’s Church, where a long side stone on the grave carries their names (see Headstone Epitaphs). Ruth did not leave a Will, instead her personal effects, amounting to £208 and 1 Shilling, were subject to administration at Gloucester on 16^th June 1955, when her son Allan George Collett, a carpenter, was named as the administrator for her estate.

33Q23

Wilfred Harry Collett

Born in 1896 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q24

Frank Collett

Born in 1897 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q25

Victor Joseph Collett

Born in 1898 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q26

DORIS MAY COLLETT

Born in 1901 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q27

Allan George Collett

Born in 1903 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q28

Ivor John Collett

Born in 1910 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P29

Emily Rebecca Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 5^th December 1859. She was one year old in the 1861 Census when she was the only child at that time living with her parents Charles Collett, a grocer in Bourton, and his wife Sarah, who may have been Sarah Thornton. Ten years later, on the occasion of the census in 1871, Emily R Collett was 11 and living with her maiden auntie Amy Hall a 42-year-old milliner of Bourton. The new census in 1881 for Bourton revealed that Emily was back living with her family at the age of 21 and was not yet married. However, it is established from her gravestone in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton that she later married Thomas Parsons who was born at Islington in London in 1860.

By 1891 Emily Parsons was 31 and her husband Thomas was 30, when they were living at Sevenoaks in Kent with their daughter Dora Mary Parsons who was two years old. Over the next ten years further children were born into the family, including Basil, Ruby, Florence, William and Eva. Just after the turn of the century the family was still living at Sevenoaks and comprised Emily R Parsons, aged 41 and from Bourton-on-the-Water, Thomas Parsons who was 40 and born at Islington, and their children Basil Parsons 13, Dora Parsons 12, Ruby Parsons, who was nine, Florence Parsons, who was seven, William Parsons, who was two, and Eva Parsons who was one year old. All of the children had been born at Sevenoaks, where Thomas was working as a chemist and a druggist.

Emily Rebecca Parsons nee Collett lived an exceptionally long life and died on 12^th August 1960 at the age of 101. She was buried with her husband at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton, where a gravestone bears her married name and her maiden-name. The grave adjoining that of Emily and her husband was shared by her brother George Collett (below) and his wife (see Headstone Epitaphs). Thomas Parsons died on 29^th September 1939 aged 79, and the couple’s joint headstone reads as follows: “In Loving Memory of Thomas Parsons who entered into rest on 29^th September 1939. Also Beloved wife of above Emily Rebecca (nee Collett) born 5^th December 1859 died 12^th August 1960.”

33P30

John Charles Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in the second half of 1861 and appeared in the 1871 Census as Charles Collett aged nine years but was restored to being John C Collett by 1881. In that year’s census he was living at Lansdowne in Bourton with his parents, where he was a grocer like his father Charles Collett. During the following decade he married Kate Elizabeth who was born at Notgrove in 1861 and together the couple appear in the 1891 Census for Bourton-on-the-Water, but with no children at that time. John was described as a farmer of Bourton aged 29, with his wife Kate also 29 but of Notgrove.

By March 1901 farmer John C Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was 39 when he and his family was residing in the village of Little Rissington. His wife Kate E Collett was also 39 and completing the family was their son Cyril C Collet who was six years old, and his place of birth was confirmed as Bourton-on-the-Water. During the following year their daughter was born while the family was still living in Little Rissington. Therefore, by the time of the Little Rissington census in 1911, the family was made up of John Charles Collett and Kate Elizabeth Collett who were both 49, their son Cyril Charles who was 16, and their daughter Doris Irene who was eight, the household being completed by visitor Gertrude Ada Castin who was 48. The census return also confirmed that farmer John and Kate had been married for twenty-one years, during which time Kate had given birth to just the two children listed with them on that day.

Kate Elizabeth Collett of Little Rissington, the wife of John Charles Collett, died on 1^st February 1928. However, her estate of £140 8 Shillings and 3 Pence was not settled until after the death of her husband, which was subject to administration at Gloucester on 9^th January 1940 in favour of her son Cyril Charles Collett, a farmer. It was six years earlier that John Charles Collett, aged 73, had died in 1934, his death recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 466) during the last three months of that year. Probate for his personal effects valued at £3,131 13 Shillings and 9 Pence confirmed that John Charles Collett of Little Rissington passed away on 8^th October 1934 at Bourton-on-the-Water and that the executors of his estate were his son Cyril Charles Collett, a farmer, and Cecil Vivian Watkins, a retired grocer.

33Q29

Cyril Charles Collett

Born in 1894 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q30

Doris Irene Collett

Born in 1902 at Little Rissington

33P31

Amy L Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1863, but curiously she was absent from the family home on 2^nd April 1871. However, she was back with her family at Lansdowne in Bourton in 1881 and in 1891 when she was 17 and 27 respectively and unmarried. It was not long after the census day in 1891 that Amy L Collett married John Wilkins, which was witnessed by Emma Harris and Reuben John White. The event was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 701) during the second quarter of 1891. However, by the time of the Bourton census in 1901 Amy L Wilkins from Bourton-on-the-Water was a widow and head of the household at the age of 37 when she was described as living on her own means.

33P32

Albert William Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1866 and, like his sisters and his brother he was living with his parents at Bourton in 1871 and 1881, and again 1891 when he was unmarried. His occupation was that of a grocer like his father, with whom it is assumed he worked at the family business. It was sometime during 1893 or 1894 when Albert married Edith Florence who was born at Lower Slaughter in 1868. Albert was still a grocer at Bourton in 1901 at the age of 33, while his wife was Edith F Collett who was 32. The marriage had produced two children for the couple by that time, son Walter who was three and daughter Freda who was two years old, both of the children having been born at Bourton.

Two further daughters were added to the family, one just after the census in 1901 and the second during the following year. At the time of the next census in April 1911 the family was still living in Bourton at Lansdowne when it comprised Albert who was 44 and a grocer, Edith who was 42, and their four children Walter 13, Freda 12, Hilda 10, and Iris who was eight. The couple’s three oldest children were attending the local school, but curiously not Iris.

At that time in 1911, the Collett family was supported by a general domestic servant by the name of Gladys Davis who was 17 and from nearby Naunton. The census return also stated that Albert and Edith had been married for seventeen years, and during that time Edith had given birth to just the four children who were still living with the couple. It is interesting to note that their address in 1911 was Lansdowne, the same as where Albert was living with his family in 1881. All five members of the family were buried in the same grave at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. Albert William Collett died on 1^st April 1947 aged 80 and was followed exactly five months later by Edith Florence Collett who passed away on 1^st September 1947 aged 79 (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33Q31

Walter John Collett

Born in 1897 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q32

Freda Mary Collett

Born in 1898 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q33

Hilda Gertrude Collett

Born in 1901 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q34

Iris Marjorie Collett

Born in 1902 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P33

George F Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1868, his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 372) as simply George Collett, during the second quarter of that year. As with his older brother Albert (above), he too was listed in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 census returns as living at the home of his grocer father and mother. And just like his brother, he followed in his father’s profession as a grocer and was a grocer’s assistance in 1891, when he was 22, becoming a fully-fledged grocer by 1901. Although it was single in 1891, when he was living with his widowed mother at Lansdowne in Bourton, he later married Mary Jane during the middle of the 1890s with whom he had three sons. Mary may have been Mary Jane Batsford since on 17^th December 1899 their three-month old son Roy Batsford Collett died and was buried at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton (see Headstone Epitaphs)

According to the March census of 1901, the family was living at Lansdowne in Bourton, where George was 32 and a grocer of Bourton. His wife Mary J Collett was 31 and from Whatcote, near Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, and their two surviving sons were Bernard G Collett who was three, and Howard J Collett who was two. Helping Mary look after the home and her two sons was servant Beatrice Jones who was 14 and from Upper Slaughter. Ten years later the complete family was still living in Bourton where grocer George was 42, Mary Jane was 41, Bernard George Collett was 13, and Howard John Collett was 12. The family still had a servant, Letty Tipper who was 15 and from Stockwell.

George F Collett died on 11^th June 1925 aged 57, his death recorded at Stow-on-the-Water (Ref. 6a 511). Many years later his widow Mary Jane Collett died on 23^rd May 1958 at the age of 88. Both of them were buried at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton where a single gravestone marks the plot (see Headstone Epitaphs). Also buried with George and Mary Jane in the adjacent and adjoining grave was George’s sister Emily Rebecca Parsons nee Collett (above), who died thirty-one months after Mary Jane, and who was buried with her late husband Thomas Parsons (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33Q35

Bernard George Collett

Born in 1897 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q36

Howard John Collett

Born in 1898 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q37

Roy Batsford Collett

Born in 1899 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33P34

Florence Mary Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1873 and was listed in the 1881 and 1891 census returns as seven years old and 17, when living with her parents and her family at Lansdowne in Bourton. She was still not married at the time of the 1901 Census when she was 27 and was still living at home with her parents. It was during the last three months of 1904 when Florence Mary Collett married Christopher Potter, the event recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 923). And it was as Florence Mary Potter, aged 37 and from Bourton-on-the-Water, that she was living in Oxford in April 1911 with her husband Christopher Potter who was 44, together with their two sons Christopher Bruce Potter who was five and John Gordon Potter who was two years old.

33P35

Jane Elizabeth Collett was born at Massingham in Norfolk during 1875, the eldest child of John Hall Collett and his wife Jane Wilson. Her birth was recorded at Freebridge Lynn in Norfolk during the third quarter of 1875 (Ref. 4b 301). Almost immediately after she was born her parents moved to the village of Goldington in Bedfordshire, and a few years later the family was living within the town of Bedford where Jane E Collett was five years old in 1881. She was 15 in the Bedford census of 1891 when she was still living there with her family. She later left the family home to take up the occupation of a draper’s assistant in the St Peter le Bailey district of Oxford City, where she was recorded in the 1901 Census as Jane E Collett, aged 25, from Massingham. Not long after that census day, Jane Elizbeth Collett married Henry George Astbury during the second quarter of 1901 (Ref. 3b 698). Henry was born at St Saviour Southwark in London in early 1870 (Ref. 1d 167). The marriage produced two children, although by 1911 only one of them was still living. The census return that year recorded the family residing in the Croydon area of Surrey where Henry George Astbury was 41 and a broker at the Stock Exchange, who had been married to Jane Elizabeth Astbury, aged 35, for ten years, when their surviving child was their daughter Catherine Olive Astbury was two years of age.

Curiously in 1919, within the Will of Jane’s aunt, the spinster Martha Jane Collett, one of the three executors of the Will proved in Birmingham on 31^st January 1920 was named as Jane Elizabeth Astbury, the wife of Charles Astbury. That appears to have been a genuine mistake on the part of her aunt, because Henry George Astbury was still alive nearly twenty years later. Henry George Astbury died on 18^th March 1939 when he and Jane were residing at Nuthurst on Copse Lane in Walberton, near Arundel, Sussex, following which probate of his estate of £3,345 5 Shillings and 8 Pence was granted to his widow Jane Elizabeth Astbury. His death at the age of 69 was recorded at Chichester register office (Ref. 2b 710) during the first quarter of 1939. Jane survived for a further twenty-five years, by which time she was living at Ravenna House on Richmond Avenue in West Bognor Regis, Sussex, her death also recorded at Chichester (Ref. 5h 721) at the start of 1964. Probate for the personal effects valued at £13,210 of the widow Jane Elizabeth Astbury, who died at home on 8^th January 1964, was granted in London on 17^th February 1964 to her married daughter Catherine Olive Latham.

Their daughter, Catherine Olive Astbury, was born at Wandsworth in London during the first quarter of 1909 (Ref. 1d 647) and she died at Shepway in Kent in 1994. In 1935 she married Roy Worthington Latham at Croydon in Surrey, who was born at Bromley in Kent at the end of 1909 and who died at Chichester in Sussex in 2000. The couple’s only known child was Gillian Latham who was born at Croydon in 1940. Henry George Astbury died at Chichester in Sussex in the first quarter of 1939 (Ref. 2b 710), while it was twenty-five years after his death that his widow Jane Elizabeth Astbury nee Collett also died

33P36

Mary Henrietta Collett was born at Goldington in Bedfordshire in 1877, the second child of John and Jane Collett. Her birth was recorded at Bedford register office (Ref. 3b 48) during the first three months of that year. She and her family were living at the Goldington Road Irrigation Farm in the St Cuthbert parish of Bedford in 1881 when the census that year included Mary H Collett who was four, who was still there in 1891 when she was 14. Although no record of her has been found in 1901 it was on 14^th September 1902 that Mary Henrietta Collett married Alfred George Board at St John’s Church in Melcombe Regis near Weymouth in Dorset. The banns confirmed that Mary was a spinster from the Parish of St Cuthberts in Bedford, the marriage actually recorded at Bedford register office (Ref. 3b 10). Alfred George Board was born at Weymouth, where his birth recorded (Ref. 5a 316) during the last three years of 1874, the son of Samuel and Ellen Board, with whom he was still living at Melcombe Regis in 1901 when he was 25 and a foreman supervising a team of joiners. Over the remainder of that first decade of the new century, Mary presented Alfred with two sons and a daughter, all of them born when the couple was living at Weymouth.

By the time of the census in 1911 Mary and Alfred were still living within the Weymouth registration district and had living with them their three children. Alfred George Board was 35 and a builder, Mary Henrietta Board from Bedford was 33, Milner Hall Board was five, Clifford Collett Board was two, and Ellen Doreen Board was ten months old. Helping Mary look after the house and children was general domestic servant Florence Kate Symes of Weymouth who was 19. Members of their family were subsequently recorded at Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. The later death of Alfred George Board was recorded at Weymouth register office during the first three months of 1955 (Ref. 6a 1), while it was just over one year later that his widow Mary Henrietta Board nee Collett was still residing in Weymouth when she died on 15^th April 1956 at the age of 79. Her passing was also recorded at Weymouth register office (Ref. 6a 2), when her address was 1 Spring Avenue within the Rodwell area of Weymouth. Probate of her personal effects, amounting to £9,751 18 Shillings and 2 Pence, was granted to Williams Frank Davies, a company director.

33P37

Thomas James Collett was born at Goldington near Bedford in 1878, the third child and eldest son of John Hall Collett and his wife Jane Wilson. He was still an infant when his father’s work as a farm bailiff took the family to Goldington Road Irrigation Farm in the St Cuthbert parish of Bedford, where Thomas J Collett was two years old in 1881. It was also as Thomas J Collett that he was recorded in the next census of 1891 when he was 12, and again in 1901 when he was 22, by which time he was employed as a gas fitter. Following the death of his father in the early 1900s, unmarried Thomas James Collett, aged 32 and from Goldington, was living in the Kempston area of Bedford with his widowed mother and two younger sisters.

Thomas eventually married Harriet Ellen and they lived in Bedford for the remainder of their lives together. They were residing at 4 Pembroke Street in the town when Harriet Ellen Collett died on 11^th December 1951. The administration of her estate of £56 11 Shillings and 3 Pence was handled at Peterborough on 20^th March 1952 by her husband, Thomas James Collett, a retired fitter. Just over seven years after losing his wife, the death of Thomas J Collett, aged 82, was recorded at Biggleswade register office (Ref. 4a 54) during the first quarter of 1959.

33P38

Amelia Wilson Collett was born at Bedford around May 1880, the daughter of John Hall Collett and Jane Wilson whose birth was recorded during the second quarter of the year. She was eleven months old in the Bedford census of 1881 when Amelia W Collett was living at Goldington Road with her family, as she was ten years later in 1891 when she was 10 years old. Upon leaving school Amelia became a draper’s assistance, as confirmed in the Bedford census of 1901 when she was 20. It was most likely through her work that Amelia was introduced to the much older Ernest Winpenny the son of Francis Winpenny a woollen draper and a tailor who employed a large workforce.

It was at Wandsworth register office in London that her marriage to Ernest Winpenny was recorded (Ref. 1d 1097) during the second quarter of 1907 when she was 27. He was the son of Francis and Jane A Winpenny and was many years older than Amelia, having been born at Barnard Castle in County Durham. It was at Teesdale in County Durham where the birth was recorded during the first three months of 1862 (Ref. 10a 211). Once married the couple left London and moved north to County Durham where their first child was born later that same year, either as a honeymoon baby or because Amelia was already with-child on her wedding day. According to the April census in 1911 the family was residing in Stockton, by which time Amelia had given birth to two children, only one of which had survived. The census return stated that Amelia Wilson Winpenny from Bedford was 30, while her husband Ernest Winpenny was 49. Living with the couple at Stockton was their second son George Ernest Winpenny who was only ten months old, the couple’s first son having died before his first birthday.

Nine years later, following the death of Amelia’s maiden aunt Martha Jane Collett, Amelia Wilson Winpenny, the wife of Ernest Winpenny, was named as one of the three executors of her Will in Birmingham on 31^st January 1920, together with her married sister Jane Elizabeth Astbury nee Collett (above) and Martha’s brother Thomas James Collett. Amelia Wilson Winpenny nee Collett died in County Durham when her passing was recorded at Durham North-Western register office (Ref. 10a 473) during the second quarter of 1948, Ernest having died eighteen years earlier at Stockton, his death recorded at Durham in the third quarter of 1930 (Ref. 10a 3).

Their first son was Charles Collett Winpenny who was born at Teesdale in County Durham during the last three months of 1907 (Ref. 10a 283), but tragically he died at Stockton, his death recorded during the third quarter of 1908. George Ernest Winpenny was born at Stockton in the second quarter of 1910 (Ref. 10a 90) and he died at Central Cleveland in Yorkshire during the third quarter of 1992 (Vol. 3 2566). It was in the second quarter of 1940 when he married Margaret Paling Wray at Middlesbrough (Ref. 9d 1632), where she had been born in the last quarter of 1918 (Ref. 9d 910). She died at Stockton in County at the end of 1999.

Margaret presented George with two children; Susan M Winpenny was born at Durham South Eastern in the second quarter of 1944 (Ref. 10a 169) and Richard E Winpenny was also born there during the third quarter of 1948 (Ref. 10a 880). Richard appears to have remained a bachelor all his life and the records at Stockton confirm that he died during the second quarter of 2003.

33P39

Olive Allen Collett was born at Bedford in 1882, her birth recorded at Bedford register office (Ref. 3b 313) during the third quarter of 1882. She was seven years old in 1891 and was 18 in 1901, when she was working as a draper’s assistant, possibly with her older sister Amelia (above). Like her sister Amelia, Olive also met her future husband through her work in the drapery business, since she later married John Hemstock from Bristol. John, who was born in 1879 and the son of Henry and Grace Hemstock, was a draper’s assistant in Northampton in 1901. Once they were married Olive and John travelled to the north of England like her sister, and in 1911 they were recorded in the Tynemouth area where John Hemstock from Bristol was 31 and Olive Aclan (sic) Hemstock from Bedford was 28.

33P40

Margaret Hall Collett was born at Bedford in 1885 and was five years old in the Bedford census of 1891. For whatever reason she was not baptised at Bedford until 7^th May 1895 when she was confirmed as the daughter of John Hall Collett and his wife Jane. She was still living in the family home at Bedford in 1901 when she was the third daughter of John Hall Collett and Jane Wilson to be employed as a draper’s assistant when she was 16 years of age. It is assumed that she was married by 1911, as no record of her has been found in Great Britain that year. She may have been the wife of William Moore who, in 1906 was named as the brother-in-law of Margaret’s brother Joseph Collett (below) and the person who paid for his passage to Baldwin in Kansas. However, this is purely supposition.

33P41

John Hall Collett was born at Bedford on 28^th October 1887, the son of John Hall Collett senior and his wife Jane Wilson. John H Collett was three years old in the Bedford census of 1891 and was 13 in 1901, but by 1911 he was no longer living there with his family, having already emigrated to America three years earlier, perhaps prompted by his younger brother Joseph (below) who had already gone to Kansas via Canada in 1906. It was on board the SS Saint Paul that he sailed out of Southampton on 25^th July 1908 later arriving in New York. The passenger list described him as single and a butcher, whose ultimate destination was Baldwin in Kansas, where his aunt (his father’s older sister) Mary Hall Collett had settled during the 1870s after she was married in England. His brother Joseph was already living in Baldwin by that time at the home of William Moore who was described as their brother-in-law

Once Stateside John worked as a hired man and a farm labourer while living in the Jarden household at Willow Springs in Douglas County in Kansas, where he was recorded as John Collett aged 22 from England in the census of 1910. Five years later he married Millie from Illinois after the couple settled in the township of McPherson in Pratt County, Kansas. Their only known child was also born there in early 1917, the same year in which John later joined the army. His military record confirmed that he was from Bedford in England, a married farmer living in Pratt County with his wife and child. It was also in McPherson township that he was recorded as living in the census returns for 1920, 1930 and 1930.

In the first of them John H Collett was 32, his wife Millie was 30, and their son John Hall Collett junior was three years old. It was the same situation in 1930 when farmer John H Collett was 42, Millie Collett was 40 and John Hall Collett was 13. Their son eventually left the family home in McPherson and in 1940 John and Millie were still living in the same house as ten years previous. With his advancing years John H Collett aged 52 was employing a hired hand by then to help him on the farm. Charley Hildreth of Kansas was 33, while John’s wife Millie was 50. Thirty-three years later John Hall Collett died at Pratt County in Kansas during 1973 when he was 85.

33Q38

John Hall Collett

Born in 1917 at McPherson, Kansas

33P42

Joseph William Collett was born at Bedford on 28^th October 1889, another child of John and Jane Collett. As Joseph W Collett aged one year he was listed with his family at Bedford in 1891, where he was again in 1901 when he was 11. Just five years late Joseph sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on board the SS Kensington which left Liverpool on 14^th June 1906, arriving at Quebec in Canada on 24^th June 1906. The passenger listed included his details as being single and a farmer, with a final destination of Kansas. In his possession was £80, while his passage had been paid by his brother-in-law, William Moore in Baldwin of Douglas County in Kansas, with whom he was intending to stay.

After nine years in the New World Joseph became a married man according to the Pratt County Marriage Records in Kansas. Joseph William Collett, aged 25 and of Pratt, was married to Effie Alice Herrick, aged 22 and also of Pratt on 25^th September 1915 in a service at Pratt conducted by Minister Loren W Kemp. The marriage produced a total of six children over the following ten years, all of them born in Kansas and most likely the first two in Pratt County with the others born in Barber County. The next record found for Joseph was in 1917 and that was in the First World War Draft Registration Card, when his home address was RR No 1, Pratt County in Kansas, where his brother John Hall Collett (above) and his family was living that same year. At that time in his life, he was described as a farmer from Bedford in England who was married with two children.

Three years later the census in 1920 placed the family living in neighbouring Barber County at Kiowa in Kansas, so not far away from his brother John Hall Collett. Joseph W Collett was 28 and a farmer, his wife Effie A Collett from Missouri was 26, and their children were daughter Jessie M Collett who was three and Ethel Collett who was one year old. Where the couple’s eldest child Raymond was on that day is not known, while living with the family in 1920 was Fred O Womble who was 23 and also from Missouri, so he may have been related to Effie, particular as one unconfirmed source says she was Effie Alice Womble.

Three more children were added to the family during the next five years, although in the census of 1930 the family’s surname was recorded as Collette. Farmer Joseph W Collette was 39 when he and his family were still residing in Kiowa. Effie A Collette was 37, Raymond A Collette was 19 (?), Jessie M Collette was 13, Ethel Collette was 11, Bernard Collett was nine, son Loran T Collette was seven, and Edward P Collette was five. Both daughters and the couple’s eldest son had left the family home in Kiowa Township by the time the next census was conducted in 1930. Joseph W Collett was 50, Effie A Collett was 46, Bernard W Collett was 19, Loran T Collett was 17 and Edward P Collett was 15. It was forty-five years later when Joseph William Collett died in Kansas on 29^th January 1985 at the age of 95.

33Q39

Raymond R Collett

Born in 1915 at Pratt County, Kansas

33Q40

Jessie M Collett

Born in 1917 at Pratt County, Kansas

33Q41

Ethel Collett

Born in 1919 at Kiowa, Barber County

33Q42

Bernard W Collett

Born in 1921 at Kiowa, Barber County

33Q43

Loran T Collett

Born in 1923 at Kiowa, Barber County

33Q44

Edward P Collett

Born in 1925 at Kiowa, Barber County

33P43

Winifred Annie Collett was born at Bedford in 1893, her birth recorded at Bedford (Ref. 3b 320) during the first quarter of that year. It was over two years later that Winifred Annie Collett was baptised at Bedford on 5^th May 1895, the daughter of John H Collett and his wife Jane. She was eight years old in the Bedford census of 1901, when living there with her family, but ten years later, at the age of 18, it was with her widowed mother that she was still living in Bedford. Winifred never married, and her death was recorded at Luton register office (Ref. 4a 154) during the second quarter of 1955 when she was 61.

33P44

Jessie Wilson Collett was born at Bedford in 1895, the youngest child of John Hall Collett and his wife Jane Wilson. Jessie was five years old in 1901 and in 1911 she was recorded in the census that year under her full name of Jessie Wilson Collett who was 15. Tragically it was during 1915 that Jessie Wilson Collett died in Bedford, her death recorded at Bedford register office (Ref. 3b 567) during the first three months of that year.

33Q1

Edith Emily Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1875, her birth as Emily Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 9) during the last three months of that year, and a year before her parents William Collett and Ellen Elizabeth Gibson were married. It was immediately following the birth of Edith’s sister Helen (below) that her mother died in 1877. In 1881, when Emily Collett was six years old, she and her father and her younger sister Ellen (below), were living with their paternal grandparents at The Bank in Bourton. The girls’ father was remarried in 1886, and started a new family, leaving Emily and Ellen still living with his parents in Bourton in 1891, when Emily Collett was 15. Around the middle of the 1890s Emily married William Packer of Bourton-on-the-Water and not long after they were married their first child was born at Bourton. The couple then moved to Birmingham where their daughter was born after the turn of the century. It was very likely William’s work that took them north since in 1901 his occupation was that of a railway goods porter.

According to the census of 1901 the family was recorded as residing within the Aston district of Birmingham where railway goods porter William was 33 and Emily, who was referred to as Edith, was 25, and both of them described as being from Bourton-on-the-Water. Their son was listed as William Packer who was five years old. Emily may have been expecting the couple’s second child on the census day in 1901, since later that year or early in the following year she gave birth to a daughter. During the next few years, the family of four returned to Bourton where they were living in 1911. William was 43, Edith Emily was 35, and their son Harlon William Packer was 15, while their daughter Polly Packer was nine.

What happened to the family after 1911 is not known for sure. One option is that William Packer died within the next few years, following which Emily remarried someone by the name of Jepson. In 1917, when she would have been around 41, Emily Jepson (formerly Collett) gave birth to a daughter, Dorothy Mary Jepson. Perhaps through reasons of poor health, baby Dorothy was initially passed into the care of her grandfather William Collett and his second wife Sarah, prior to being raised by her mother’s half-sister Blanche Beatrice M Clarke nee Collett (below). Edith Emily Jepson was still living in Bourton-on-the-Water in 1923/24 as her daughter Dorothy recalls visiting her there when she was six or seven years old.

33Q2

Ellen Sarah Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1877, her mother never recovering from the ordeal, who passed away twenty-four hours after the birth, which was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 167) during the third quarter of that year. Following the death of their mother, Ellen and her sister Emily (above), together with their father, were taken in by their grandparents Paris and Lucy Collett to live with them in their home at The Bank in Bourton, when Ellen S Collett was three years of age. When their father remarried in 1886, the two sisters remained living with their grandparents, where Ellen Collett was 13. After a further ten years, Ellen S Collett from Gloucestershire was 23 and a domestic servant and a housemaid at the Coventry home of Edward and Margaret Dorrington. Contrary to what was written here prior to 2020, it is now understood that Ellen Sarah Collett never married, and was living in Birmingham, where her death was recorded (Ref. 9c 55) during the last three months of 1957, when she was 80 years old.

33Q3

Percival William Collett was born at Bledington on 24^th October 1887 and possibly at the home of his grandparents on his mother’s side of the family, since his parents are known to have been living at Bourton-on-the-Water at that time. It was also at Bledington that he was baptised on 29^th January 1888, when his parents were confirmed as William Collett, a labourer, and his wife Sarah. By 1891 Percival, who was three, and his brother Ernest (below) were living with their parents at Bourton. Just after the turn of the century in March 1901 the family had been increased by two daughters and the family of six was still living at Clapton Row, Sherborne Street in Bourton where Percival W Collett was then employed as a grocer’s errand boy at the age of 13.

Almost exactly five years later, on 13^th March 1906 at the age of 18, Percival was taken on by the Great Western Railway. Where that actually happened was not noted in the GWR Staff Records, but just over twelve months later he finished with the GWR on 26^th March 1907 and that happened at Fairford. Four years later at the time of the census of 1911, an unmarried Percival Collett of Bledington was 23 and was still living at Fairford.

33Q4

Ernest Reginald John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 6^th June 1890 and was ten months old and living in Bourton with his family according to the census of 1891. He was recorded as Ernest R J Collett, aged 10, in the census return of 1901 when he was still living at Clapton Row in Bourton with his parents, his brother Percival (above) and his two younger sisters. Six and a half years after that, his full name and date of birth was listed in the Great Western Staff Records as starting work with the company on 25^th September 1907. He continued working for the company until 18^th October 1910 when his employment was recorded as ending while at Chippenham. And it was at Chippenham that single Ernest Reginald Collett was still living by April 1911 when he was listed in the census return as being twenty years old and from Bourton-on-the-Water.

Just over two years later, at St Marylebone (Ref. 1a 1611) during the third quarter of 1913, Ernest R J Collett married Emma Elizabeth Griffin following which the couple continued to live in Chippenham where the births of their three children were registered. It was also at Chippenham that the couple was recorded as living during the Second World War when they received the news that their son had been killed in action in August 1942. It was six years after that when the death of Ernest R J Collett was recorded at Chippenham register office (Ref. 7c 1135) during the third quarter of 1948. The same entry also gives the surname of his spouse as Watson, which may indicate that he was married twice during his life.

33R1

Royston Ernest Collett

Born in 1918 at Chippenham

33R2

Stanley John Collett

Born in 1920 at Chippenham

33R3

Gwendoline Joan Collett

Born in 1924 at Chippenham

33Q5

Blanche Beatrice M Collett was born at Lower Slaughter during 1893, the daughter of William Collett and his second wife Sarah. Her birth, using her full name, was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 391) during the third quarter of the year. It may have been only a short few years later that the family lived at Lower Slaughter since, at the time of the census two years earlier and the next one eight years later, Blanche’s parents had been recorded in Bourton-on-the-Water. In 1901 she was described as Blanche B M Collett when she was seven years of age and living at Clapton Row in Bourton, and ten years later she was still living in Bourton with her parents when she was 17.

Despite what was previously written here, regarding her marrying Gladwyn Humphries, it is now established that Blanche B M Collett married Arthur Clarke, the event recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 1073) during the second quarter of 1915. Sometime later Blanche and Arthur took over the care of baby Dorothy Mary Jepson, the daughter of Blanche’s older half-sister Edith Emily Collett (above), who had originally been looked after by Blanche’s parents William and Sarah Collett from the time of her birth in 1917. Whether the child’s mother suffered with some ailment or illness that made it impossible to care for her own baby is not known, but certainly Dorothy was eventually brought up as the child of Blanche and Arthur Clarke and was adopted by them.

It is also of interest that a trust fund was set up by the people of Bourton-on-the-Water for the education of Dorothy Mary Jepson, who recalled later in her life that she had visited her real mother at Bourton up to around the time she was six or seven years old. Dorothy, who also talked about her Aunt Lucy (Ref. 33P2), and her Aunt Kate and Uncle Paris Collett (Ref. 33P3), was the grandmother of Liz Wood who kindly provided these new family details during 2012.

33Q6

Winifred Olive May Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in January 1901, the youngest known child of William Collett and his second wife Sarah. Her birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 405) during the first three months of the year under the name of Winifred Olive M Collett. She was living with her family at Clapton Row in Bourton for the census of 1901 when she was three months old, although on that occasion she was incorrectly recorded as Winnifred G M Collett.

She never married and her death was recorded at Cheltenham register office (Ref. 7b 314) during the second quarter of 1965 at the age of 64, following which she was buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton-on-the-Water. A headstone marks her grave with the inscription “In Loving Memory of Winifred Olive May Collett, died 19^th April 1965, aged 64” (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33Q7

William George Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1884 and was the base-born son of Lucy Ann Collett. His birth was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 388) during the first three months of that year. It was also at Bourton that he and his unmarried mother were living with William’s grandparents on the day of the census in 1891. His mother married George Stratford in 1895 and it was as his stepson that William G Collett was 17 in the March census of 1901 when he was living at High Street South in Bourton with his mother Lucy A Stratford and his half-sister Edith Stratford aged five years. At that time in his life, William was a railway porter working for the Great Western Railway.

During the final three months of 1905, the marriage of William George Collett and Maggie Amelia Iles was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 819) and, over the remainder of the decade, they had three children. All of that was confirmed in the next census conducted in 1911, when William George Collett from Bourton-on-the-Water was a married man with a young family living in Fairford. He was 27 years of age and still employed by the Great Western Railway as a signalman porter. His wife of six years was Maggie Amelia Collett from Bradwell in Oxfordshire, just south of Burford, who was 26, and their three children were Maggie Amelia Collett, aged five years from Bourton, Cyril George Collett who was four and Harold Collett who was only a few weeks old. Both sons had been born after the family settled in Fairford and, while their birth records have been found, no such record has been found for the eldest child.

Despite their relatively young ages, only one more child seems to have been added to the family while they were still residing in Fairford. Thereafter William continued to work for the GWR and is known to have worked at stations in the Oxfordshire villages of Langford and Alvescot. It was the records held by the GWR which confirm that W G Collett was the Station Master at Kelmscot, three miles south of Alvescot, and from the six different classifications of employees, William was Class 6, with a salary of 27 Shillings.

33R4

Maggie Amelia Collett

Born in 1906 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R5

Cyril George Collett

Born in 1907 at Fairford

33R6

Harold Collett

Born in 1911 at Fairford

33R7

William George Collett

Born in 1913 at Fairford

33Q8

Herbert Paris Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1893 and it was there that he was living, at Station Street, with his family in March 1901 when he was seven, and again in April 1911 when he was 18. With the onset of the Great War three years later, Herbert joined the 7^th Battalion The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment with whom he was Private Collett 242048. The regiment had previously been known as the Somerset Light Infantry. Sadly, towards the end of the war he was killed in France while fighting in the Aisne area of the country. Herbert Paris Collett died on 23^rd May 1918 and was buried in the British Extension of the Chauny Communal Cemetery at Aisne – Plot 1, Row A, Grave 11. The British Extension to the cemetery was established after the Armistice and was used for the burial of remains brought in from the battlefields of Aisne and the smaller cemeteries from the surrounding countryside.

Over 1,000 casualties from the 1914-18 War are commemorated on the site, the majority of them having died in 1918. Included in the total figure are six soldiers of the United Kingdom whose identity has been established with reasonable, but not absolute certainty, who are commemorated by special memorial headstones bearing the superscription 'Believed To Be'. In addition to them, there are 26 soldiers of the United Kingdom and five from Canada whose graves can be identified collectively, but not individually, and who are commemorated by special memorial headstones bearing the superscription 'Buried Near This Spot'.

The 1914-1918 War Memorial on the High Street in Bourton-on-the-Water includes the name of just one member of the Collett family, and that is Herbert Paris Collett. According to the SDGW [Soldier Died in the Great War] he was recorded as Corporal T/212048 of 7^th Battalion, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) and was killed in action on 23^rd March 1918 – different to that written above. The Roll of Honour confirms that he was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, that he enlisted at Cheltenham, where he was residing at the time, and he initially served as 21052 with the Somerset Light Infantry. The name of Herbert Collett is also included on a wooden plaque inside the Church of St Lawrence in Bourton.

In addition to this, there is another such plaque at Bourton which lists the names of Walter George Collett (Ref. 33Q10), plus four others who have yet to be identified. They are Walter J Collett, Arthur Collett, Wilfred Collett, and Victor Collett.

33Q9

Arthur Edward Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1895, his birth recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 381) during the second quarter of the year. At the time of the census of 1901, he was recorded as Arthur E Collett who was six years old and living at Station Street in Bourton with his family. Ten years later in the April census of 1911 he was listed under his full name of Arthur Edward Collett when he was still living in the family home at Bourton at the age of 16. It was four years later that Arthur enlisted with the army when he was 20. Arthur was given the service number 23693 and upon entry his occupation was that of a gardener when he was still living at Station Road in Bourton-on-the-Water, the address given by his brother Walter (below). In the battlefield he suffered a compound fracture of the arm which resulted in it being amputated, following which he was discharged in 1917. He was awarded the Star Medal and Victory War Medal.

On 29^th June 1918 Arthur, as A E Collett of Station Road in Bourton, formerly of 10^th Gloucestershire Regiment, wrote a letter to Infantry Records Office No. 7 District in Warwick saying “I should very much like to have one of the certificates awarded by the King for discharge and hope it will not be putting you under any great inconvenience. I feel I should very much like to have one if you would kindly forward it on as soon as possible and should be greatly obliged.”

It was sometime later, that Arthur E Collett eventually married Irene V Strange of Oxford with whom he had three daughters. The marriage took place in Oxford, where it was recorded (Ref. 3a 2438) during the last three months of 1926. Irene Violet Strange was nearly ten years younger than Arthur, having been born at Oxford in 1904, the fourth of the twelve children of James H Strange from Manchester and his wife Sarah from Oxford. In March 1901 James was 22 and his occupation was that of a bookmaker and repairer. At that time his wife Sarah was 20 and living with the couple in the St Thomas district of Oxford was their first child Florence M Strange who was one year old.

Ten years later the family was still living in Oxford, when the family comprised James Strange 32, his wife Sarah who was 30, and their seven children. They were Florence Strange who was 11, Gladys Strange who was nine, son Leslie Strange who was eight, Irene Strange who was six, Marjorie Strange who was four, Gwendoline Strange who was two and Margaret Strange who was eleven months old. Further children were added to the family after 1911 and they included Muriel, Ronald, Winifred, Eileen, and Evelyn.

Once Arthur and Irene were married, they settled back in Arthur’s home county of Gloucestershire, where their three daughters were born, most likely at Bourton-on-the-Water. After thirty years of marriage, the death of Arthur E Collett was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 7b 479) during the second quarter of 1956 when he was 61.

33R8

Barbara I Collett

Born in 1927

33R9

Marion E Collett

Born in 1930

33R10

Doreen Collett

Born in 1931

33Q10

Walter George Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water during 1897, the third child of Paris and Kate Collett. In the Bourton census of 1901 Walter Collett was four years of age and ten years later he was still living there with his family when the census of 1911 recorded him as Walter George Collett aged14. Four years after that, and following the outbreak of World War One, Walter enlisted with the Gloucestershire Bantam Regiment. His entry record stated that he was19 and residing at Station Road in Bourton-on-the-Water and was allocated the service number 25562. However, after only serving for 109 days he was discharged on the grounds it was unlikely that he would ever become an efficient soldier. After the war it seems that he wrote to the War Office requesting a war badge which he felt he was entitled to, and eventually he did receive a war badge and an accompanying certificate. Nothing more is known about him except that the death of Walter G Collett was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 6b 949) during the third quarter of 1967 when he was 70 years of age, with his name included on the 1914-1918 War plaque inside a Church at Bourton-on-the-Water under Other Ranks.

33Q11

Kathleen Eva Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 19^th October 1899 and her birth was recorded at Stow-in-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 419) during the last three months of the year. She was the eldest of the two daughters of Paris and Kate Collett with whom she was living at Station Street in the town in 1901 when she was one year old. Kathleen Eva Collett, aged 11 years, and her family were still residing in Bourton on the day of the census in 1911. It can only be assumed that she never married, since the death of Kathleen Eva Collett was recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Vol. 22 2108) towards the end of 1984, the death certificate confirming her date of birth above.

33Q12

Amy Collett was born at Station Street in Bourton-on-the-Water in 1903, the last child of Paris and Kate Collett. Her birth was recorded at Stow-in-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 416) during the third quarter of that year and she was seven years old in the Bourton census of 1911.

33Q13

Dorothy Mary Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1899, with her birth recorded at Stow-in-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 445) during the first three months of the year. She was the only known child of mason Thomas Collett and Mary Jane Brown with whom she was living at Bourton in both 1901 and 1911. She never married and the death of Dorothy Collett, aged 28, was recorded at Stow-in-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 469) in the last three months of 1928.

33Q14

Ellen Ethel Collett was born at Birmingham in 1888, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 6d 99) during third the quarter of that year. She was the eldest of the three children of butcher Charles Edward Collett and his wife Fanny Stevens. She and her family were living in Birmingham in 1891, at Newtown Road, when she was two years of age, and again in 1901, but at Bell Barn Row, when she was 12. After a further ten years Ellen Ethel Collett was 22 and working as a clerk, when she was still living at the family which was in Balsall Heath in 1911. Ellen was 38 years old when she married 33-years-old William Horace Dean at Sparkbrook in the Aston district of Birmingham on 3^rd August 1927, just over a year after the death of her father. The father of Ellen Ethel Collett was confirmed as Charles E Collett, while William’s father was named as George Dean.

33Q15

Frederick Charles Collett was born at Birmingham in 1892 and it was there also that his birth was registered (Ref. 6d 110) during the third quarter of the year. He was the only son of Charles Edward Collett and Fanny Stevens and was eight years old in the Birmingham census of 1901 when he and his family were living in Bell Barn Road. Ten years later Frederick was working as a chemist when he was 18 and when his family was residing in Balsall Heath. Beyond this information, the only other known fact about him is, that the death of Frederick C Collett aged 73 was recorded at Sutton Coalfield (Ref. 9c 1004) during the second quarter of 1966.

33Q16

Frances Emily Collett was born at Birmingham in 1894, the youngest of the three children of Charles and Fanny Collett, her birth recorded there (Ref. 6d 61) during third quarter of that year. She was six years old when living at Bell Barn Road in Birmingham in 1901 and was 16 and a dressmaker in 1911 living with her family at Balsall Heath.

33Q17

Charles Robert Collett was born at Winstone in 1888, the son of Charles Collett and Lucy Ann Woolley. He was still living there with his family in March 1901 when he was 12 years old and had already started work as a carter on a farm, probably with his father Charles who was also a carter on a farm in Winstone. During the following few years Charles’ family moved north to Cheltenham although he was not living there with them in April 1911. Instead, unmarried Charles Robert Collett, aged 22 and of Winstone in Gloucestershire, had moved much further north to Derbyshire, where he was living within the registration district of Bakewell. The census return on that occasion described him as boarding with the Hill family at Bank Terrace in the village of Tideswell, from where he was working as a railway porter.

Charles Robert Collett was 42 and a railway employee when he married Violet Mary Mounsey on 5^th January 1931 at St Paul’s Church in Monk Bretton near Barnsley, Yorkshire. The marriage register confirmed that the groom’s father was Charles Collett, a farm worker, while Violet’s father was named as Joseph Mounsey. However, it would seem that Charles had known Violet since just after the start of the First World War. At the time he enlisted with the British Army in 1915 he was in lodgings at Lowick House, Barnsley Road in Cudworth near Barnsley, the home of a Mrs Mounsey. Charles Robert Collett was 27 when he joined the H Machine Gun Corps Training Battalion on 20^th November 1915. His trade on entry was that of a railway sidings porter, his place of birth was named as Winstone (between Cirencester and Gloucester) and his next-of-kin was Charles Collett of Clapton-on-the-Hill, Cheltenham. His service number was 181224 and on leaving the army in 1919 his address was stated as Laurel House in Cudworth near Barnsley, Yorkshire.

The Mrs Mounsey named in his military record was the widow Mary Jane Mounsey who was born at Cudworth in 1863. Four years earlier in the census of 1911 she was 47 and had living with her within the Holbeck area of Leeds her son Joseph who was 21, Elizabeth Ellen who was 19, and Violet Mary who was 17, meaning that she was five years younger than her future husband.

33Q18

William Henry Collett was born at Miserden near Stroud, and it was at Stroud (Ref. 6a 332) that his birth was recorded during the second quarter of 1891, the second son of Charles and Lucy Collett. William was only a few days old on the day of the Miserden census of 1891 and was recorded with his parents, but with no christian name. His mother and his older brother were both born at Winstone near Cirencester, which was where the family was living when William’s three younger siblings were born. All of that was confirmed in the Winstone census of 1901, when William H Collett from Miserden was ten years old. After a further ten years, he was still living with his family which, by 1911, had settled in Coberley, south of Cheltenham, where Henry Collett from Miserden was 20 and a farm labourer. It is likely he was working alongside his father, who was a waggoner on a farm, and his brother who was described a working with horses on a farm. What happened to him after that time is not known, although current family members recall that he married Queenie Whitfield, with whom he is believed to have had two sons. It would also appear that his death, as William H Collett aged 72, was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 7b 337) during the third quarter of 1963.

33R11

a Collett son

Date of birth unknown

33R12

a Collett son

Date of birth unknown

33Q19

Albert Edward Collett was born at Winstone in 1895, his birth recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 370) during the third quarter of the year. He was five years old by March 1901 and was still living in Winstone with his family. A little later Albert and his parents moved to Coberley near Cheltenham where they were recorded as living in 1911 when Albert was 15 and working with horses on a farm, where his father Charles and brother William also worked. It is established that it was within that same area of Gloucestershire, Albert E Collett married Maud E Mansell, the event recorded at Cheltenham register office (Ref. 6a 1196) during the third quarter of 1929. Their marriage is understood to have produced four children, whose names have been withheld. It is also known that their only son married Ena Goodhall and that they in turn had a Collett son of their own whose name has also been withheld, when the original information was supplied during 2007. The death of Albert E Collett was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 7b 509) during the first three months of 1959, when he was 63.

33R13

a Collett daughter

Date of birth unknown

33R14

a Collett son

Date of birth unknown

33R15

a Collett daughter

Date of birth unknown

33R16

a Collett daughter

Date of birth unknown

33Q20

Gladys Emma Collett was born at Winstone in 1898, following which her birth was recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 352) during the third quarter of 1898. Gladys E Collett was two years old in the 1901 census of Winstone prior to a family move to Coberley near Cheltenham where Gladys was 12 years of age in 1911.

33Q21

Amy Georgina M Collett was born at Winstone in 1900, the last child born to Charles Collett and Lucy Ann Woolley, her birth recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 405) during the second quarter of that year. She was eleven months old on the day of the census in 1901 when Amy and her family were still living in Winstone, but some time thereafter they moved to Coberley near Cheltenham, where they were recorded in the next census of 1911. By that time Amy Collett was 10 years old.

33Q22

John Charles Goodway Parsons was born at Charlbury during February 1881, the base-born son of Ellen Elizabeth Goodway aged 19 and John Parsons who was 18. Because of the embarrassment to the family, Ellen’s son was immediately taken into the care of maternal grandmother Hannah Collett, the wife of Joseph Collett at Bourton, where John Parsons was one month old and born at Charlbury in Oxfordshire. John Charles Goodway Parsons married Mary Binks and served with the British Army during the First World War, Gunner Collett 95738 with the Gloucestershire Royal Artillery. After the war, John and Mary were living at 34 Duke Street in Staveley, near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, where he was employed as a checker at the Staveley Coal & Iron Company, and where he died during 1920.

33Q23

Wilfred Harry Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1896, the eldest child of Joseph Collett and his wife Ruth Burdock. That was confirmed by the Bourton census in 1901, when he was four years old and living there with his parents and brother Joseph (below) at Sherborne Street. Ten years later he had left school and was already working at a grocer’s shop in Bourton at the age of 14, while he was still living at the family home. He later married Agnes Botrill of Witney in Oxfordshire who was a nursery nurse. Wilfred is also known to have worked in sales at the company of McVitie & Price.

A calendar printed in the name of W H Collett Grocer Confectioner Fruiter and Tobacconist of Lansdown in Bourton-on-the-Water seems likely to relate to Wilfred. The marriage of Wilfred and Agnes produced two children, but up until 2016 their names had been with-held. However, they can now be revealed thanks to receipt of new information initially received from Wilfred’s granddaughter Felicity Vaughan, and subsequently confirmed by Wilfred’s daughter Sue. Wilfred Harry Collett died at Oxford during 1988. The 1935 Kelly’s Directory for Gloucestershire includes Harry Collett, a butcher of Church Street in Bourton-on-the-Water.

33R17

Gordon Clifton Collett

Born in 1933 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R18

Susan Maureen Collett

Born in 1940 at Oxford

33Q24

Frank Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 15^th November 1897, the second son born to Joseph and Ruth Collett. Tragically the child did not survive beyond infancy and died shortly after he was born, as a result of which he was not mentioned in the Bourton census of 1901.

33Q25

Victor Joseph Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1899, the son of Joseph and Ruth Collett, as confirmed in the Bourton 1901 Census. The census return confirmed that he was two years old, and that he was living with his family at Sherborne Street in Bourton. Victor was a motor engineer and founded the company V J Collett Garage at Bourton in 1921. He married Phyllis Winifred Ravenhill who was born at Knighton in Radnor in 1898, the daughter of Alfred S Ravenhill and Mary A Lloyd who were from Leominster in Herefordshire.

The couple had a total of five children born at Bourton, of which two were still alive in 2007, the youngest son being the current owner of V J Collett Garage at Bourton. Victor Joseph Collett died from a heart attack at 9 a.m. on 14^th March 1959 and was buried in St Lawrence’s Church Cemetery at Bourton on 17^th March 1959. Phyllis lived as a widow for the next seventeen years before she too died on 20^th February 1976, following which she was buried with her husband at Bourton (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33R19

Olive Beryl Collett

Born in 1924 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R20

Donald Victor Collett

Born in 1928 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R21

Brian John Collett

Born in 1935 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R22

Shirley Collett

Born in 1937 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R23

Michael Collett

Born in 1942 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q26

DORIS MAY COLLETT was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 12^th May 1901, where she was baptised on 7^th July 1901, the daughter of Joseph and Ruth Collett. She was Confirmed on 13^th December 1916 and received her First Communion on Christmas Day that same year. She married Bert Owen Hiscock of Salem Avenue at Wimborne in Dorset, Doris being his third wife. It would appear that the wedding possibly took place in 1928 after which the couple seem to have moved to live at The Mill House in Lansdowne at Bourton. The property is still there today, and it was at Bourton-on-the-Water that their three sons were born.

Almost immediately after the birth of the couple’s last child, the family moved to Wimborne in Dorset, with the birth of their youngest child recorded at Blandford, following his birth at Bourton. In the early 1940s the family returned to live at Wimborne where their eldest son attended the Canford School for Boys. Tragically Bert died from a sudden heart attack in 1947 leaving Doris with three young sons. Some years later for just a couple of years Doris lived in a caravan, but by the 1970s she was living at 70 West Borough in Wimborne.

Doris Hiscock nee Collett, who was known to play the mandolin (see photo above), died at Poole General Hospital on 27^th March 1978 and was buried in Wimborne Cemetery with her husband in an un-consecrated plot (grave 10182) having no memorial plaque. An update received from Carole Hiscock in December 2013 informs us that a memorial stone was placed on their graves by their son Victor just one year prior to his own death in 2010.

33R24

Derek Owen Joseph Hiscock

Born in 1929 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R25

a Hiscock son

Born on 28.12.1934 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R26

VICTOR BERT HISCOCK

Born in 1939 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33Q27

Allan George Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 9^th September 1903. He married Mabel Lord of Sherborne in Gloucestershire, but shortly after the ceremony he was made a widower when Mabel died. As a result of that tragic event Allan remained a single gentleman for the rest of his life and lived with his parents Joseph and Ruth Collett at Bourton. His occupation was that of a carpenter and in the 1920s he was working for a Gloucester builder. That fact was confirmed in 1955 when Allan George Collett, a carpenter, was named as the administrator for his mother’s estate of just over £200.

It was nine years after the death of his mother that Allan George Collett died at Bourton on 9^th December 1964 aged 61, following which he was buried at St Lawrence’s Church Cemetery on 11^th December 1964 where a memorial stone marks the grave (see Headstone Epitaphs). Also buried at Bourton, but so far unconnected to this family, was Winifred Olive May Collett who died on 19^th April 1965 aged 64 (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33Q28

Ivor John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1910 and his occupation was that of a garage mechanic. He married (1) Alice Winifred James who came from Littlebredy near Weymouth and with whom he had three children. In 2007 the eldest child was living in the London area, the second at Swindon, and the third at Weymouth. Tragedy struck the family in 1943 when Alice died at only 36 years of age. Her gravestone in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton reads; “Cherished Memories Alice Winifred Collett 1907 – 1943 Beloved wife of Ivor - Dear mother of John, Pat and Gill” (see Headstone Epitaphs)

Ivor later married (2) Edith Northing, probably at the end of the Second World War, and that coupling produced a further two children for Ivor. The youngest daughter Pauline was living at Oxford in 2007. It was at Oxford in the Radcliffe Hospital that Ivor John Collett died on 28^th February 1961. He was buried a few days later at St Lawrence’s Church Cemetery in Bourton on 3^rd March 1961 but, at the time, without a memorial to mark the plot. However, by the summer of 2008 the situation had been rectified with a new headstone for both Ivor and Edith. It reads; “Treasured Memories Ivor John Collett 1910 – 1961 Beloved husband and father Edith Collett 1914 – 2005 Loving wife and mother of Peter and Pauline” (see Headstone Epitaphs)

It has been assumed that all of Ivor’s children were born at Bourton-on-the-Water, while the registration of the births of two of them has been uncovered at Stow-on-the-Wold register office. The birth of Patricia W Collett was recorded there (Ref. 6a 520) during the last three months of 1932, with the birth of Gillian M G Collett also recorded there (Ref. 6a 1241) during the first quarter of 1940. In both cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as James. In the churchyard of St James’ Church in Badsey is a new headstone for an Ivor John Collett who was born on 28^th January 1930 who died on 16^th July 2016 aged 86. The epitaph mentions her was the much-loved husband and father. Whether he was the eldest son of Ivor John Collett has still to be confirmed.

33R27

John Collett

Born in 1930 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R28

Patricia W Collett

Born in 1932 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33R29

Gillian M G Collett

Born in 1940 at Bourton-on-the-Water

The following are the children of Ivor John Collett and his second wife Edith Northing:

33R30

Peter Collett

Born in 1946

33R31

Pauline Collett

Born in 1952

33Q29

Cyril Charles Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water during 1894, the only son of John Charles Collett and Kate Elizabeth Collett. Within the census of 1901 he was incorrectly recorded as Cyril C Collet aged six years when he and his parents had settled in nearby Little Rissington. However, the enlarged family was recorded at Rissington Road in Bourton in April 1911 by which time Cyril Charles Collett had a sister and had left school to be assisting his father on their farm at the age of 16. It would appear that he never married, since the only member of his family mentioned during the probate of his Will was his cousin Walter John Collett (below). His mother Kate died at Little Rissington in 1928, although her estate was not settled until 1940, six years after his father died there in 1934. On both occasions Cyril Charles Collett was named as executor, when his occupation was that of a farmer.

The death of Cyril C Collett was recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 6a 706) during the first three months of 1946 when he was 51. The probate process for his Will described him as Cyril Charles Collett of Hill View in Bourton-on-the-Water who died on 14^th February 1946 at Meadow Side, Rissington Road in Bourton. That might indicate that he died while working at the farm at Meadow Side, while his place of residence was a property known as Hill View. Probate of his personal estate of £5,935 5 Shillings and 10 Pence was processed at Oxford on 2^nd July 1946 and was granted jointly to his cousin Walter John Collett, a coal merchant, and Donald Leslie Driver, a bank clerk. In the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton-on-the-Water there is a headstone that reads “In Loving Memory of Cyril Charles Collett passed away 14^th February 1946” (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33Q30

Doris Irene Collett was born at Little Rissington during 1902 and was eight years old in the Little Rissington census of 1911 when she was living there with her parents John Charles Collett and Kate Elizabeth Collett, and her brother Cyril Charles Collett (above). All that is currently known about her is that she married Frederick E Hayward during the third quarter of 1932, the event recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 1088), and that she died in Gloucestershire on 4^th February 1962, following which her Will was proved on 14^th June 1962.

33Q31

Walter John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1897 and was three years old when she was living at Bourton with his family in 1901. He was 13 and still attending school at the time of the next census in 1911 when he and his family were residing at Lansdowne in Bourton. It was at Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire on 15^th August 1931 that at the age of 34 he married 23-year-old Ena Katherine Goodall who was born on 28^th August 1908. The father of Walter John Collett was confirmed as Albert William Collett, while Ella’s father was named as Charles Goodall.

Walter was living at 1 The Avenue in Bourton-on-the-Water when he died on 18^th April 1966. He was 68 and his death was recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 503) during the second quarter of the year, following which probate for his estate of £10,228 was granted to Lloyds Bank and to solicitor William Geoffrey Davies. His widow survived him by eight years, when Ena Katherine Collett nee Goodall passed away at Bourton in 1974 at the age of 66, following which her death was also recorded at North Cotswold register office (Vol. 22 1886) during the third quarter of that year.

Twenty years before he passed away Walter John Collett, a coal merchant, was named as one of the joint executors of the Will of Cyril Charles Collett (above) his cousin. The only other information currently to hand regarding Walter has been gathered from his gravestone at Bourton. That indicates he married Ena Katherine, that he was born in 1897, and died in 1966. Ena Katherine died in 1974 and both of them were buried with Walter’s parents and his two spinster sisters Freda and Hilda (below) in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church at Bourton (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33Q32

Freda Mary Collett was born in Bourton-on-the-Water in 1899 and was two years of age and 12 years old in the next two Bourton census returns in 1901 and 1911. She never married but lived a long life and died on 7^th June 1979 aged 80. Freda was buried with her parents and two siblings at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton where a headstone, coupled with her brother’s flat gravestone, identify the location of the grave (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33Q33

Hilda Gertrude Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in the latter part of 1901 and certainly after the first of April that year, meaning that she was 10 years old in the Bourton census of 1911. She died on 6^th July 1983 aged 82 and just like her older brother and her sister (both above), Hilda was buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton. Hilda also remained a spinster during her life like her sister (see Headstone Epitaphs)

33Q34

Iris Marjorie Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 17^th July 1902, the youngest of the four known children of Albert William Collett and his wife Edith, her birth being recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold register office (Ref. 6a 424) during the third quarter of the year. It was simply as Iris aged eight that she featured with her family in April 1911 when they were living in Lansdowne in Bourton. Sixteen years after that Iris M Collett married Frederick H Wheeler, the event recorded at the register office (Ref. 6a 976) in Stow-on-the-Wold during the second quarter of 1927. Iris Marjorie Wheeler nee Collett was living in Somerset when she died in 1990 at the age of 88, her death recorded at West Somerset register office (Vol. 23 1668) during the last quarter of the year.

33Q35

Bernard George Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 1^st May 1897, the eldest of the three known sons of George F Collett and his wife Mary Jane Batsford, who was three years old in 1901. It was under his full name that he was one of the two surviving sons still living at Bourton in 1911 when he was 13. Having already suffered the loss of their youngest sibling, Bernard and his brother Howard (below) lived to a good age, although nothing is currently known about their lives after 1911, except that the death of Bernard George Collett was recorded at North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 1021) during the month of September in 1969 when he was 72 years of age.

33Q36

Howard John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 25^th August 1898, the second son of George and Mary Collett who was two years of age in 1901 and as Howard John Collett was 12 in the Bourton census on 1911. Like his sole surviving brother Bernard (above), Howard John Collett enjoyed a long life when his death was also recorded at North Cotswold register office (Vol. 22 2091) during the month of December 1982 when he was 84.

33Q37

Roy Batsford Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water during September 1899, the third of three sons of George F Collett and his wife Mary Jane Batsford. Sadly, he survived for only three months, when he died at Bourton on 17^th December 1899.

33Q38

John Hall Collett was born at McPherson Township in Pratt County, Kansas in 1917, the only child of John Hall Collett from England and his wife Millie from Illinois. He was three in the McPherson census of 1920 and was 13 ten years later when he was still living there with his parents. By 1940 he had moved out, and the only possible record of him after that may have been the John H Collett who was residing at Mulvane in Kansas in 1987 when the only other Collett living there was Mary, who may have been his wife.

33R1

Royston Ernest Collett was born at Chippenham in 1918 where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 90) during the first three months of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Griffin. Royston was the eldest of the three known children of Ernest Reginald John Collett and Emma Elizabeth Griffin. He was twenty-four of age when Royston E Collett married Joan E Ellis, their wedding recorded at the Essex register office in Ilford (Ref. 4a 1100) during the third quarter of 1942. It was also in Essex where their three children were born. The birth of their daughter was recorded at the Essex South Western register office (Ref. 4a 364) during the first quarter of 1946. The birth of son Michael was recorded at Romford register office (Ref. 5a 781) during the second quarter of 1949, while it was at Ilford register office (Ref. 5a 397) that the birth of their youngest child was recorded during the second quarter of 1960. In the case of all three births, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Ellis. The death of Royston Ernest Collett was recorded at Colchester (Ref. 4691d d75c) towards the end of 1996, when his date of birth was stated to be 28^th January 1918.

33S1

Ann E Collett

Born in 1946

33S2

Michael Royston Collett

Born in 1949

33S3

Nigel J Collett

Born in 1960

33R2

Stanley John Collett was born in 1920 and very likely at Chippenham, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 165) during the first quarter of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Griffin. It is also known that his father was living there prior to his wedding day, and where Stanley’s parents were recorded as living during the Second World War. At the outbreak of war in 1939, Stanley joined the Royal Air Volunteer Reserve and eventually rose through the ranks to become Flight Sergeant Collett 1186962. Sadly, he was killed in action on 22^nd August 1942 at the age of 22. His parents were named as his next-of-kin and they were confirmed as Ernest Reginald John and Emma Elizabeth Collett of Chippenham. The name of Stanley John Collett is included on Panel 73 of the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial at Englefield Green in Egham. The Runnymede Memorial commemorates the names of over 20,000 airmen who lost their lives in Europe during WWII who have no known grave.

33R3

Gwendoline Joan Collett was born at Chippenham in 1924, her birth recorded there (Ref. 5a 103) during the last three months of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Griffin. She never married and the death of Gwendoline Joan Collett was recorded at Trowbridge (Vol. 23 2425) at the end of 1984. The record of her passing also included the date of her birth as 9^th September 1924.

33R5

Cyril George Collett was born at Fairford on 17^th March 1907, the second child and eldest son of William George Collet and Maggie Amelia Iles. His birth was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 393) during the second quarter of 1907. And it was at Fairford where he was living with his family in 1911 at the age of four years. He later married Doris P Cooper, the event recorded at Faringdon register office (Ref. 2c 811) during the last three months of 1928, following which their daughter was born, her birth recorded at Witney. He was 86 when he died in 1993, his passing recorded at the West Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 22 261) during the last three months of that year.

33S4

Phyllis Collett

Born in 1933 at Witney

33R6

Harold Collett was born at Fairford during the first quarter of 1911, to William and Maggie Collett, his birth also recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 360, like his older brother (above). He was one month old at the time of the Fairford census of 1911. He later married Kate Jefford at Faringdon where it was recorded (Ref. 2c 587) during the first three months of 1933, and the marriage produce a son for Harold and Kate who was born towards the end of the same year, very likely a honeymoon baby. And the only other detail known about him is that Harold Collett died at Langford in 2000.

33S5

Mervyn Collett

Born in 1933 at Witney

33R7

William George Collett, whose date of birth is not known, was born a few years after 1911 when his parents William George Collett and Maggie Iles were living at Fairford. What is known is that he married Ethel Serman during the last three months of 1928, the wedding recorded at Faringdon register office (Ref. 2c 793). The marriage produced a son and a daughter for William and Ethel. Ethel’s brother, Harry Serman, was a plumber and lived at Carterton in one of two bungalows near to St Joseph’s Hall.

33S6

Donald George Collett

Born in 1929 at Faringdon

33S7

Jean Collett

Born in 1933 at Witney

33R8

Barbara I Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1927, the first of the three daughters of Arthur Edward Collett of Bourton-on-the-Water and Irene Violet Strange of Oxford. The birth of Barbara I Collett was recorded at register office in Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 522) during the fourth quarter of 1927, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Strange. Barbara was nineteen when she married George B Mollyneaux, the event recorded at North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 905) during the first quarter of 1947. It is thanks to new the information received from Barbara’s granddaughter, Jaye Mollyneaux, that this family line has been extended. It is also hoped that further information about this branch of the family, and that of Jaye’s great grandfather Arthur Edward Collett, will be received in due course.

33R9

Marion E Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1930, her birth recorded at the nearby Stow register office (Ref. 6a 589) during the third quarter of 1930, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Strange. It was at the North Cotswold register office that her premature death was recorded (Ref. 6a 652) during the first three months quarter of 1943 when she was only 12 years old.

33R10

Doreen Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1931, the last of the three children of Arthur and Irene Collett. As with her two older sisters (above), her birth was also recorded at Stow register office (Ref. 6a 534) during the last quarter of 1931, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Strange. She later married Herbert J Eldridge, with the event recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 1255) during the third quarter of 1952. At the time of the death of Doreen Collett Eldridge her death certificate revealed that she was born on 2^nd September 1931. It was at Moreton-in-Marsh where she died on 17^th November 1987, following which she was buried in the church cemetery there.

33R17

Gordon Clifton Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 22^nd August 1933, the eldest of the two children of Wilfred and Agnes Collett. Gordon was twenty-nine when he married Pamela J Eastham during the third quarter of 1962, the event recorded at Stockport register office in Cheshire (Ref. 10a 1406) where Pamela’s birth was recorded in 1937. Their marriage produced three children before Gordon passed away in 2009. The births of his two daughters was recorded at Oxford register office, while the birth of his son was recorded within the offices of Bullingdon Rural District Council, in South Oxfordshire, which was abolished in the local government re-organisation in 1974.

33S8

Marita J Collett

Born in 1963 at Oxford

33S9

Adrian Graham Collett

Born in 1966 at Bullingdon

33S10

Fiona Melanie Collett

Born in 1973 at Oxford

33R18

Susan Maureen Collett was born in Oxford during 1940, the daughter of Wilfred Harry Collett and Agnes Botrill. She was 21 when she married (1) Peter Vaughan at Christchurch Cathedral in Oxford during 1961, with whom she had four children, two girls and two boys. In 1968 Sue and her family moved north to Scotland and lived in Glasgow for three years before settling at Helensburgh in Argyll & Bute. Following a divorced in 1991, Sue married (2) James Conyers Ashby during 2008 and continues to live in Helensburgh. At the end of 2015 Sue’s daughter Felicity Vaughan provided new details for the family, and that was followed by the receipt of further information from Sue herself in January 2017.

33R19

Olive Beryl Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 9^th June 1924, the first child of Victor Joseph Collett and his wife Phyllis Winifred Ravenhill. She married Toric Zachariah, an Indian Royal Air Force Officer, at Calcutta on 3^rd July 1949. Toric was the son of Seema Cohen (1885-1968) and Shaikh Mohammed Joseph Zachariah (1881-1948) whose family possible originated in Persia. Joseph Zachariah was a Muslim who converted to Judaism in order to marry Seema whose ancestors were persecuted Jews who left Spain for India during the Spanish Inquisition.

Olive and Toric’s family lived in India until around 1960 when they returned to Harrow in Middlesex, where Toric became an insurance advisor. The married produced five children, four of which were born in India with the third child born in Gloucestershire, while four of the five was still alive in 2007. The only that had passed away was Toric David Zachariah who was born on 27^th June 1950 but died just over a month later on 2^nd August 1950 and was buried in a Jewish Cemetery in Delhi. Olive was believed to have written a book about her early life in the town of Bourton before she died in 2001, her husband having died eleven years earlier in 1990.

33R20

Donald Victor Collett, referred to as Don, was previously believed to have been born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 27^th April 1927, the son of Victor Joseph Collett and his wife Phyllis Winifred Ravenhill. However, his birth as Donald V Collett, was recorded at Stow-on-the-Wold (Ref. 6a 557) during the last three months of 1928, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Ravenhill. He married Patricia Lawrence of Morden in Surrey in 1953, the wedding recorded at Surrey North Eastern register office (Ref. 5g 1226) during the third quarter of that year. The marriage produced three children for the couple and all were still alive in 2007 and living in Wales, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. Following the death of his father in 1959, Don took over running the garage at Bourton established by his father, and continued to operate the business under the name V J Collett Garage.

Don managed the family business right up until his death in 1983, his passing recorded at Cheltenham (Vol. 22 1572) during the spring that year, when his date of birth was stated to have been 10^th November 1928. There is a memorial plaque at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton to mark his passing. It reads; “In Loving Memory of Donald Victor Collett 9^th May 1983 aged 54”. After the death of Don Collett, the ownership of the garage was transferred to the founder’s youngest son Michael Collett (below).

33S11

Sharon V L Collett

Born in 1955 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33S12

Nicola J L Collett

Born in 1959 at Bourton-on-the-Water

33S13

Victor John Collett

Born in 1960 at Bourton-on-the Water

33R21

Brian John Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1935 to Victor and Phyllis Collett, but tragically he died that same year.

33R22

Shirley Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1937, the daughter of Victor and Phyllis Collett, and she was later married to become Shirley War.

33R23

Michael Collett was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in 1942, the last child born to Victor Joseph Collett and Phyllis Winifred Ravenhill. Upon the death of his father in 1959 Michael’s older brother Don Collett (above) took over the running of V J Collett Garage of Bourton, and following his death in 1983 Michael took over management of the family business.

33R24

Derek Owen Joseph Hiscock, referred to as Joe, was born at Bourton-on-the-Water on 25^th May 1929 where he was baptised on 18^th August 1929. His Godparents at the ceremony were his father Bert Owen Hiscock, his grandfather Joseph Collett, and Linda Hiscock the daughter of Bert Owen Hiscock from a previous marriage. The birth of Derek O J Hiscock was recorded at Northleach register office (Ref. 6a 29), where his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed at Collett. At the time of the birth of his younger brother (below), the family was residing in the Blandford area of Dorset, with Derek educated at Canford School of Boys in Wimborne. He later enlisted with the Dorsetshire Regiment as Private 19193363, and was awarded ‘Best Recruit’ in No 14 Platoon, and travelled extensively while in the army.

Derek was twice marriage, the first time when Derek O J Hiscock married (1) Cicely G M Barrett, a hotel keeper in Brighton, the event recorded at Brighton register office (Ref. 5h 91) during the first quarter of 1956. They were later divorced without issue and in 1968 the second marriage Derek OJ Hiscock and Ellen Daly was recorded at Brighton register office (Ref. 5h 137) during the second quarter of that year. Ellen was from County Cork in Ireland but again, there were no children. During his life Derek was an insurance advisor, a printer, a freemason, and was a computer wizard and collector of stamps and coins. Derek and his second wife lived at Chertsey in Surrey, where he suffered an unexpected heart attack while at home and was rushed to Chertsey District Hospital where he died. The death of Derek O J Hiscock was recorded at the Surrey North Western register office (Vol. 75 81b) towards the end of 1994. Following the loss of her husband, Ellen returned to Ireland to live at Cobh in County Cork, where she died in 2012 at Cobh Hospital.

33R26

VICTOR BERT HISCOCK was born on 8^th February 1939 at Park View Nursing Home in Bourton-on-the-Water, although it was at Blandford register office in Dorset where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 29), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett, by which time the family was living at Wimborne. He was an accomplished power boat racer and was awarded a gold medal for first place in an event at Bristol Docks. He married Rita Irene Russell on 15^th February 1958, the marriage recorded at the Shropshire Wellington register office (Ref. 9a 60).

Their marriage produced two children, son born at Tamworth in Staffordshire and a daughter whose birth was recorded at Birmingham register office. In 2007, Victor was a widower living at Heath Hayes in Cannock, Staffordshire, and was the retired former proprietor of the Heath Hayes Marines/HHM Black & Decker & Dewalth authorised service centre now operated jointly by his son and his daughter, but under his watchful eye. Sadly, he died at home on 12^th March 2010 at the age of 71.

33S14

ANTHONY HISCOCK

Born in 1961 at Tamworth

33S15

Kerry Anne Hiscock

Born in 1966 at Birmingham

33S4

Phyllis Collett was born in 1933, the only child of Cyril George Collett and Doris P Cooper. Her birth was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 1894) during the second quarter of that year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Cooper. She was married twice in her life, the first time to (1) Terence (Terry) R Cox, that marriage recorded at Witney (Ref. 6b 2485) during the third quarter of 1958. That first marriage resulted in the birth of a son Martin Cox and a daughter Alison Cox. It was much later in her life, that Phyllis Cox, nee Collett, married (2) David J Cooper and that event was recorded at Wantage (Vol. 20 1962) during the last months 1983.

33S5

Mervyn Collett was born towards the end of 1933, the only child of William Collett and Kate Jefford. The birth was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 1570) during the fourth quarter of that year, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Jefford. The marriage of Mervyn Collett and Lorna B Wootton was recorded at Wantage (Ref. 6a 327) during the final quarter of 1958. The birth of Lorna B Wootton was recorded at Salisbury during 1936. The marriage produced two daughters and in December 2007 Mervyn was aged 73 when he was living at Langford. And it was at Langford, almost two years later, that Mervyn Collett died on Sunday 4^th October 2009 and was buried there on 9^th October 2009 at the age of 76.

33T1

Nicola J Collett

Born in 1961 at Cirencester

33T2

Sarah Collett

Date of birth unknown

33S6

Donald George Collett was born on 17^th March 1929, the eldest of the two children of William Collett and Ethel Serman. His birth recorded at Faringdon (Ref. 2c 478) during the second quarter of the year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Serman. It was during the summer of 1955 that he married Margaret Ann Oakey, the daughter of Baden Pryor Oakey and Martha Florence Eustace. Their marriage was recorded at Witney (Ref. 6b 2435) during the third quarter of 1955. The marriage produced two children for Donald and Margaret before Donald died at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford in 1985. His death, as Donald George Collett, was recorded at Oxford (Vol. 20 3217). Following the death of her husband, Margaret married (2) Leslie Albert Prew.

33T3

Andrew T Collett

Born in 1960 at Cirencester

33T4

Jane L Collett

Born in 1961 at Swindon

33S7

Jean Collett was born in 1933, the daughter of William and Ethel Collett, whose birth was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 1808) during the first three months of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Serman. Her marriage to Kenneth L Tinson was recorded at Witney (Ref. 6b 2445) during the third quarter of 1955, with whom she had a son Paul Tinson.

33S8

Marita J Collett was previously thought to have been born during August in 1962, but that now proves not to be true, as the birth of Marita J Collett was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 6b 1679) during the second quarter of 1963, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Eastham. She was the first of the three children of Gordon Clifton Collett and Pamela J Eastman who were married at Stockport in 1962. All that is currently known about Marita is that she married Robert J Collins in South Oxfordshire (Vol. 699 0553) during the summer of 1995, with whom she had no children of her own.

33S9

Adrian Graham Collett was the only son and second child of Gordon and Pamela Collett who were married in 1962. The birth of Adrian G Collett was recorded at Bullingdon Rural District Council register office (Ref. 6b 1638) during the third quarter of 1966, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Eastham. In an earlier edition of this family line, Adrian was credited with being married to Daniella, with whom he had two sons, and from whom he was subsequently divorced. However, the marriage of Adrian G Collett and Susan C Dover was recorded at nearby Wantage (Vol. 20 3830) during the summer of 1986.

33T5

Giorgio Collett

Date of birth unknown

33T6

Tomaso Collett

Date of birth unknown

33S10

Fiona Melanie Collett was the third child of Gordon Clifton Collett and Pamela J Eastman and her birth was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 6b 3764) during the summer of 1973, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Eastham. Fiona later married Paul Clanfield and over the following years Fiona presented Paul with two children, daughter Zoe Clanfield and son Max Clanfield.

33S11

Sharon V L Collett was the eldest of the three children of Donald Victor Collett and Patricia Lawrence, whose birth was recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 643) during the last three months of 1955, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Lawrence. Upon being married she became Sharon Roberts.

33S12

Nicola J L Collett, whose birth was recorded at the North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 794) was born during the first three months of 1959, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Lawrence, the second daughter of Donald Victor Collett. She later married Clive D Harrison, with their wedding recorded at North Cotswold register office (Vol. 22 0773s) during the summer of 1980.

33S13

Victor John Collett was born on 3^rd June 1960, the third child and only son of Donald Victor Collett and his wife Patricia Lawrence, whose birth was recorded at North Cotswold register office (Ref. 7b 837). It was in 1986 at Gloucester that the marriage of Victor J Collett and Ann E Parry was recorded (Vol. 22 1230) towards the end of that year. The marriage produced three children, and it was Victor’s son Joseph who kindly provided the information for the version of this family line that was issued in June 2012. The birth of the couple’s first child was recorded at Gloucester (Vol. 22 2631), while the birth of the other two children was recorded at Bristol (Vol. 22 606) and (Vol. 22 1126) when, on each occasion, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Parry.

33T7

Jennifer Diana Collett

Born on 26.05.1986 at Gloucester

33T8

Sarah Rosemary Victoria Collett

Born on 09.03.1990 at Bristol

33T9

Joseph Victor Henry Collett

Born on 07.01.1992 at Bristol

33S14

ANTHONY HISCOCK was born at Tamworth on 22^nd December 1961, his birth recorded at Sutton Coldfield register office (Ref. 9c 122), when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Russell. He married Carole Sylvia Clemson on 3^rd October 1992 at St Luke’s Church in Cannock. Carole, who was born on 14^th November 1961 at Stafford was the daughter of Cyril Clemson (born 14^th February 1915 at Chasetown near Burntwood) and Lily White (born 26^th July 1920 at Hednesford). All three of their children were born at Stafford, with the two boys being interested in music and playing the guitar, while their daughter is a dancer and gymnast.

Currently Anthony is a resting Formula 1 Power Boat Racer and holds the record for the youngest person to race at Bristol Docks. He has also raced power boats around the world including Spain, Italy, Northern Ireland and South Africa where he became engaged to water-colourist Carole. Up until 2017, Anthony was a marine engineer and power tool technician, working in the family business alongside his sister.

33T10

Aaron Anthony Joseph Hiscock

Born in 1994

33T11

Noah Kristian Cormac Hiscock

Born in 1996

33T12

Megenta Rita Lily Hiscock

Born in 2000

33T1

Nicola J Collett was the eldest of the two daughters of Mervyn Collett and Lorna B Wootton, whose birth was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 7b 614) during the third quarter of 1961. Her marriage to Richard J Webb was recorded at Witney (Vol. 20 0512s) during the summer of 1980.

33T2

Sarah L Collett was the youngest of the two daughters of Mervyn and Lorna Collett but, unlike her older sister (above), no birth record has been so far found for her. What is known, is that the marriage of Sarah L Collett and Martin K New was recorded at the West Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 20 3123) during the spring of 1985, and that Martin was born in Oxford in 1961.

33T3

Andrew T Collett was born in 1960, the first of the two children of Donald George Collett and Margaret Ann Oakey. His birth was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 7b 561) during the third quarter of that year, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Oakey. He was nearly twenty-four when he married Julie L Maycock, the event recorded at the West Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 20 3024) during the spring of 1984. Julie was the daughter of Michael and Marge Maycock and Marge Maycock, and her marriage to Andrew produced two sons. The birth of both children was recorded in Oxford (Vol. 20 3299) and (Ref. 7021b b108d), the first during the summer of 1991 and the second towards the end of 1994. On both occasions the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Maycock.

33U1

Joseph William Collett

Born in 1991 at Oxford

33U2

Alexander George Collett

Born in 1994 at Oxford

33T4

Jane L Collett was born during the second quarter of 1961, her birth recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 7c 751), when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Oakey. The marriage of Jane L Collett and Neil J Holloway was recorded at the West Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 20 2931) during the spring of 1988. The birth of their son Tomas George Holloway was recorded at the Surrey Mid-Eastern register office (Vol. 17 54) during the summer of 1989, his mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Collett.