Part 35 The Melksham to Wisconcin and Ontario Line 1600 to 1850

PART THIRTY-FIVE

The Melksham to Wisconsin & Ontario Line – 1600 to 1850

This is the first of two sections of this family line

Updated June 2023

At the end of 2019 Stephen Carpenter generously provided copies of the Wiltshire Parish Registers of Birth, Deaths & Marriages, transcribed by the Wiltshire Family History Society

The version of this file, released in April 2019, was produced with the help of

Roger H Collett (Ref. 35R48) of London, Ontario, who provided lots of early records of

the Collett families of Broughton Gifford. The work involved, has resulted in a complete

re-ordering of the early generations of this family line, through to the present day.

A big thank you must go to Rob Campbell of Lake Mills, Wisconsin in the USA, who has been researching the early settler families of Pierce County in Wisconsin. During the project Rob discovered two, seemingly separate, Collett families from the same Wiltshire village of Broughton Gifford. Prior to November 2014 those two branches of the family had been identified as two unrelated families, as set out in Part 35 and Part 62, the family of James Collett in the former and the family of Samuel Collett in the latter.

Samuel had sailed across the Atlantic in 1856 and was following by James in 1858. However, a significant discovery in the autumn of 2014 revealed that they were related and that Samuel Collett (Ref. 35O38) and James Collett (Ref. 35O45) were first cousins, the grandsons of James Collett (Ref. 35M4) of Broughton Gifford. Therefore, the previous line of Samuel Collett in Part 62 has been removed from that file and is now correctly installed here in Part 35.

In addition to this major change, another significant transfer of data has also taken place for the update in November 2014. That involved the discovery that John Collett of Broughton Gifford, whose family details had previously been entered in Part 31 – The Third Wiltshire Line [later renamed The New Wiltshire & Somerset Line], indicated he was the son of Stephen Collett (Ref. 35M8) and his wife Hannah Mortimer. Therefore, the branch line from John Collett (Ref. 35N39 renumbered 35O1) has been removed from Part 31 and inserted here, which extends to Ontario, hence the title-change and the need to divide this, now much larger, file into two sections. However, it is now known that the John whose family extended to Ontario, was in fact another John Collett, the son of William Collett and Jane Webb, hence the new Ref. 35O1.

The aforementioned Part 62 – The Trowbridge to New Zealand Line was first launched on the Collett Family History website in October 2012 using information previously included in Part 35 – The Melksham line and Part 44 – The Wiltshire to New Zealand Line. Earlier information generously provided by Maureen Iliffe nee Collett (Ref. 64R23) in 2009 confirmed that Part 44 – The Wiltshire to New Zealand Line also commenced in Broughton Gifford and confirmed the vital link that connects Part 35 to Part 44. In 2021 Part 62 was renamed The Wiltshire Line to New Zealand & America.

A previous update of this file was thanks to information received from Gloria Davies which helped to determine some of the earlier generations of this family, which previously had just been estimations.

The information used in the December 2008 update of this file was kindly provided by Barry Collett of the USA who was then carrying out a Collett DNA Study. The line confirmed by DNA testing is denoted by the names that are underlined.

The village of Broughton Gifford lies approximately one mile west of Melksham and it was there that this family line commenced in the late 1500s, as set out in Part 44 – The New Malmesbury Line. Broughton Gifford also features in Part 62 – The Wiltshire Line to New Zealand & Australia.

Luke Collett, who starts this line, was the younger brother of William Collett (Ref. 44H2) of Broughton Gifford, and the second known son of Daniel Collett (Ref. 44G2) of Broughton Gifford who, in turn, was the son of Anthony Collett (Ref. 44F1) of Great Chalfield, a very small hamlet just one mile from Broughton Gifford. All of these details can be found in Part 44 – The New Malmesbury Line.



35H1	Luke Collett (Ref. 44H3) may have been born around 1640, one of only two sons of Daniel Collett. He was married to Grace around 1666 and all of their children were baptised at Broughton Gifford, including twin sons Joseph and John Collett. When the couple’s youngest child was barely three years old, Grace Collett, wife of Luke Collett, died at Broughton Gifford, where she was buried on 11^th December 1684. After losing his wife, Luke entered into a relationship with Edith who, upon her death in 1688, three months after the death of Luke’s youngest child Grace, she was referred to as the ‘pretend wife of Luke Collett, following which she was buried at Broughton Gifford on 30^th April 1688.

	35I1	Thomas Collett			Baptised on 24.05.1668 at Broughton Gifford
	35I2	Luke Collett			Baptised on 31.01.1670 at Broughton Gifford
	35I3	William Collett			Baptised on 18.02.1672 at Broughton Gifford
	35I4	Joseph Collett twin			Baptised on 20.09.1674 at Broughton Gifford
	35I5	John Collett twin			Baptised on 20.09.1674 at Broughton Gifford
	35I6	Jane Collett			Baptised on 04.12.1681 at Broughton Gifford
	35I7	Grace Collett			Baptised on 11.11.1683 at Broughton Gifford


35I2	Luke Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 31^st January 1670, the second child of Luke and Grace Collett. No record of a marriage has been discovered so far, while it was at Broughton Gifford that Sybilla Collett, wife of Luke Collett, was buried there on 24^th May 1710. Two and a half years later, Luke Collett was also buried at Broughton Gifford on 7^th November 1712.


35I3	William Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 18^th February 1671, the third of seven known children of Luke and Grace Collett. It would appear that he was married around 1693, with his wife presenting him with a son during the following year. If his wife was Jane, then she outlived her husband, since Jane Collett, a widow, was buried at Broughton Gifford on 18^th December 1727.

	35J1	John Collett			Born in 1694 at Broughton Gifford


35I4	Joseph Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 20^th September 1674, in a joint ceremony with his twin brother John (below). Joseph later married Mary Wakeley early in 1699, although the parish register at Broughton Gifford stated that ‘the marriage did not take place here’. Once they were married, Mary presented Joseph with eight children, all of them were baptised at Broughton Gifford. The Wakeley surname appears many times in the records for Broughton Gifford and, on two occasions, it was again linked to the Collett family. The first of them was the marriage of Martha Collett (Joseph’s granddaughter through his son Joseph) to John Wakeley in 1762 and later, when the daughter of Joshua Mortimer and Ruth Wakeley married Benjamin Collett. In addition to this, the Mortimer family also had many ties with the Collett family. By the time Mary Collett nee Wakeley died at Broughton Gifford in 1738 she was already a widow, when she was buried there on 4^th April 1738.

	35J2	Martha Collett			Born before 1699 at Broughton Gifford
	35J3	Jane Collett			Born in 1701 at Broughton Gifford
	35J4	John Collett			Born in 1705 at Broughton Gifford
	35J5	Mary Collett			Born in 1710 at Broughton Gifford
	35J6	Joseph Collett			Born in 1714 at Broughton Gifford
	35J7	Leah Collett			Born in 1717 at Broughton Gifford
	35J8	Daniel Collett			Born in 1720 at Broughton Gifford
	35J9	James Collett			Born in 1722 at Broughton Gifford


35I5	John Collett was the twin brother of Joseph (above), with whom he was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 20^th September 1674, another child of Luke and Grace Collett. Under two months later he died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 15^th November 1674.


35I6	Jane Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where she was baptised on 4^th December 1681, the penultimate child of Luke and Grace Collett. When she was just over six years of age, Jane died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 9^th February 1688.


35J1	John Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1694, the only known child of William Collett. It was also at Broughton Gifford that John later married Ann Archer of Melksham on 18^th April 1720, although no record of any issue for John and Ann has so far been found. John Collett died at Broughton Gifford, where he was buried on 28^th September 1729. Ann Collett, nee Archer, died in Broughton Gifford, where she was buried over thirty years after her husband on 7^th December 1766.


35J2	Martha Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, most likely prior to 1699, the eldest daughter of Joseph Collett and Mary Wakeley, who was baptised there on 15^th October 1699. It was also at Broughton Gifford that a Martha Collett married Stephen Dark, of Calne, on 25^th December 1714, while another record states that Martha Collett married John Young at Broughton Gifford on 4^th March 1716. Having regard to the date of her baptism, it would seem more than likely that her husband was John Young.


35J3	Jane Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 11^th June 1701, another daughter of Joseph and Mary Collett. Two years and two days later, she died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 13^th June 1703. Therefore, she was not the Jane Collett who married William Brossire, of Bradford-on-Avon, at Broughton Gifford on 8^th June 1721.


35J4	John Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 5^th August 1705, the eldest son of Joseph Collett and Mary Wakeley. He was twenty-three years old when he married Millicent (Millie) Gearish at Broughton Gifford on 7^th August 1728, when he was confirmed as the son of Joseph Collett. Millie had been born around 1707 and she presented John with four children, and all of whom were born and baptised at Broughton Gifford. John Collett died at Broughton Gifford during February 1766, and was buried there on 20^th February 1766. His widow, described as Milly Collett died nine years later, during 1775, and was buried with her husband at Broughton Gifford on 7^th July 1775.

	35K1	Patience Collett			Born in 1730 at Broughton Gifford
	35K2	Mary Collett			Born in 1733 at Broughton Gifford
	35K3	Millicent Collett			Born in 1736 at Broughton Gifford
	35K4	John Collett			Born in 1739 at Broughton Gifford


35J5	Mary Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1710 and was baptised there on 31^st January 1711, another daughter of Joseph and Mary Collett. She later married John Bull at Broughton Gifford on 16^th November 1728, when they were both described as junior. Once married, the couple settled in Broughton Gifford where their son William was born and was baptised on 15^th October 1732. Almost twenty years later William Bull married Martha Mortimer at Broughton Gifford on 17^th September 1752. They were married for twenty-six years, when Martha died and was buried in the churchyard of the parish church at Broughton Gifford on 16^th July 1778. It is very likely that the couple’s grandchild was Martha Bull who was born in 1779, who married George Mortimer in 1801. However, following her death in 1804, George married Amelia (Millicent) Collett (Ref. 35M6).


35J6	Joseph Collett was probably born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 24^th October 1714, another child of Joseph and Mary Collett. He married (1) Anne Redman at Broughton Gifford on 23^rd December 1736 and, together, they had five daughters who were all baptised at Broughton Gifford. Anne’s name was spelt without an e until the baptism of the fifth child, when both the child’s name and the mother’s name were recorded as ‘Anne’. Shortly after the birth of their fifth child, or even during the birth itself, Anne Collett nee Redman, died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 7^th January 1750, the child baptised there one week later. Within the next twelve months Joseph married (2) Mary with whom he had a further two children, both of them being baptised at Broughton Gifford. Joseph and Mary Collett both died very close together, since they were buried together at Broughton Gifford on 24^th October 1766, when their youngest child was only twelve years old.

	35K5	Mary Collett			Born in 1738 at Broughton Gifford
	35K6	Martha Collett			Born in 1740 at Broughton Gifford
	35K7	Betty Collett			Born in 1743 at Broughton Gifford
	35K8	Sarah Collett			Born in 1745 at Broughton Gifford
	35K9	Anne Collett			Born in 1750 at Broughton Gifford
	The baptism records for the next two children gave the parents as Joseph and Mary:
	35K10	Rebecca Collett			Born in 1751 at Broughton Gifford
	35K11	Joseph Collett			Born in 1754 at Broughton Gifford


35J7	Leah Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 8^th September 1717, another daughter of Joseph and Mary Collett.


35J8	Daniel Collett was possibly born around 1720, the son of Joseph and Mary Collett. He later married Ruth Burbridge from Seend on 19^th February 1752 at Broughton Gifford, where their first three children were born and baptised there. The couple’s last two children were born and baptised at Great Cheverell and, the day after the second of them was baptised there, Ruth Collett nee Burbridge, was buried at Broughton Gifford on 21^st April 1767, having not survived the ordeal of the birth of her last child. The parish burial record described her husband as Daniel Collett of Great Cheverell, which lies five miles south of Devizes. After just over six years as a widower, Daniel Collett was buried at Broughton Gifford on 10^th May 1773. The parish burial record described him as Daniel Collett of Melksham, Broughton Gifford being less than two miles from Melksham.

	35K12	Thomas Collett			Born in 1753 at Broughton Gifford
	35K13	Ruth Collett			Born in 1756 at Broughton Gifford
	35K14	Ann Collett			Born in 1758 at Broughton Gifford
	35K15	Daniel Collett			Born in 1762 at Great Cheverell
	35K16	William Collett			Born in 1767 at Great Cheverell


35J9	James Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 17^th March 1722, the youngest child of Joseph Collett and Mary Wakeley.


35K1	Patience Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 11^th June 1730, the eldest of the four children of John Collett and Millicent Gearish. It was much later in her life, when Patience married widower Samuel Mayell at Broughton Gifford on 27^th December 1778.


35K2	Mary Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 30^th August 1733, the second daughter of John and Millie Collett. It was also at Broughton Gifford where she married James Keen on 17^th November 1753.


35K3	Millicent Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and it was there that she was baptised on 9^th August 1736, another daughter of John and Millie Collett. And it was at Broughton Gifford that she married James Hill on 3^rd February 1761.


35K4	John Collett born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 16^th May 1739, the fourth and last child of John Collett and Millicent Gearish. When he was around 24 years of age, he was married by banns to Ann Matthews at Broughton Gifford on 31^st March 1763. John signed the register in his own hand, when the witnesses were William and Elizabeth Gearish. Four months earlier, and on the same page of the parish register, was the marriage of John’s cousin Martha Collett (Ref. 35K9) and John Wakeley. The first-born child of John and Ann Collett, James, was born shortly after their wedding day and was baptised two months into their married life together. At the baptism of all of their children in Broughton Gifford, the parents were confirmed as John and Ann Collett.

	35L1	James Collett			Born in 1763 at Broughton Gifford
	35L2	Martha Collett			Born in 1766 at Broughton Gifford
	35L3	Henry Collett			Born in 1769 at Broughton Gifford


35K5	Mary Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there on 14^th July 1738, the first-born child of Joseph Collett by his first wife Anne Redman. It was also at Broughton Gifford that Mary Collett married Moses Hooper on 13^th December 1763.


35K6	Martha Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 24^th February 1740, the daughter of Joseph and Anne Collett. It was also there where she was married by banns to John Wakeley on 5^th December 1762, her grandmother having been Mary Wakeley, so it seems likely that John was a member of the same family. Martha and John signed the register with the mark of a cross, while the witnesses were Isaac Rudman and John Bull, two more surnames with links to the Collett family.


35K7	Betty Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 17^th April 1743, the third child of Joseph Collett and Anne Redman.


35K8	Sarah Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 23^rd June 1745, another daughter of Joseph and Anne Collett. It was also at Broughton Gifford, on 24^th April 1768, that she married Stephen Bevan of North Bradley.


35K9	Anne Collett was born at Broughton Gifford very early in 1750 and, tragically during the birth or just after Anne’s mother died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 7^th January 1750. One week later, Anne Collett, the daughter of Joseph and Anne Collett, was baptised there on 14^th January 1750. She was therefore the last child of Joseph Collett by his first wife Anne Redman. Anne Collett was nine months old when she died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 11^th October 1750.


35K10	Rebecca Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where she was baptised on 16^th November 1751, the first child of Joseph Collett by his second wife Mary.


35K11	Joseph Collet was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 20^th October 1754, the last child of Joseph Collett and his second child by his second wife Mary. Joseph was not yet three years old when he died at Broughton Gifford, where he was buried on 24^th April 1757.


35K12	Thomas Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 25^th December 1753, the eldest of the four known children of Daniel Collett of Broughton Gifford and Ruth Burbridge from Seend.


35K13	Ruth Collett was named after her mother when she was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 2^nd February 1756, the second child of Daniel and Ruth Collett.


35K14	Ann Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 24^th February 1758, the third child of Daniel and Ruth Collett. No further information is known about her, except that at Broughton Gifford on 21^st April 1794, an Ann Collett was buried there.


35K15	Daniel Collett was born at Great Cheverell in 1762, the fourth of the five known children of Daniel and Ruth Collett, who was baptised there on 14^th June 1762.


35K16	William Collett was born at Great Cheverell, where he was baptised on 20^th April 1767, the last known child of Daniel Collett and Ruth Burbridge. Tragically, his mother never recovered from the ordeal of his birth and was buried at Broughton Gifford the following day. His father died six years later and was also buried at Broughton Gifford, where William Collett was buried on 6^th December 1778, when he was 11 years old and confirmed as the son of Daniel and Ruth Collett.


35L0	HENRY COLLETT was originally thought to have been born at Broughton Gifford around 1746, a son of John and Ann Collett. That has now been proved to be incorrect, since the parish register does list all of the children of John and Ann Collett, but not one named Henry. Who his parents were, has still to be determined. However, he did marry Mary Hayward at Broughton Gifford on 20^th June 1768, where all of their children were born and baptised, as confirmed by the parish records, kindly supplied by Stephen Carpenter in 2019. In the earlier edition of this family, line the Wiltshire IGI Records stated, in error, that Henry and Anne Collett were the parents of James who was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 5^th April 1776, now re-affirmed as the child of Henry and Mary. On the occasion of the birth of the couple’s last child, both Henry’s wife died, as did the child, one week later.

	It was on 26^th July 1789 that Mary Collett, the wife of Henry Collett, was buried at Broughton Gifford, the same day that her baby daughter Mary was baptised there. Following his loss, it is assumed, but not proved, that Henry would have had eight children, the eldest child, Ann, perhaps acting as the family’s housekeeper. Henry Collett survived his wife by nearly thirty-five years when he died at Broughton Gifford, where he was buried on 22^nd February 1824.

	35M1	Ann Collett			Born in 1768 at Broughton Gifford
	35M2	John Collett			Born in 1771 at Broughton Gifford
	35M3	HENRY (Harry) COLLETT			Born in 1774 at Broughton Gifford
	35M4	James Collett			Born in 1776 at Broughton Gifford
	35M5	William Collett			Born in 1778 at Broughton Gifford
	35M6	Amelia (Millicent) Collett			Born in 1781 at Broughton Gifford
	35M7	Thomas Collett			Born in 1784 at Broughton Gifford
	35M8	Stephen Collett			Born in 1787 at Broughton Gifford
	35M9	Mary Collett			Born in 1789 at Broughton Gifford


35L1	James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1763 and was baptised there on 22^nd May 1763. His parents, John Collett and Ann Matthews, had only been married for less than two months prior to his baptism. James Collett was married by banns to Margaret Addams of Chalfield, at Broughton Gifford on 31^st October 1787. Both of them signed the register with the mark of a cross, when the witnesses were John Baggs and Thomas Oating. Two years later, James and Margaret were still living there when their three known sons and one daughter were born.

	35M10	John Collett			Born in 1789 at Broughton Gifford
	35M11	Daniel Collett			Born in 1794 at Broughton Gifford
	35M12	James Collett			Born in 1799 at Broughton Gifford
	35M13	Mary Collett			Born in 1808 at Broughton Gifford


35L2	Martha Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where she was baptised 11^th May 1766, the daughter of John and Ann Collett. Nearly eighteen months later Martha Collett died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 28^th October 1767.


35L3	Henry Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 19^th February 1769, the third child of John Collett and Ann Matthews, who must have been married twice in his life. It was also at Broughton Gifford that Henry Collett, a widower, was married by banns to Susannah Mortimer, a widow, on 4^th January 1801, both of them signing the register with the mark of a cross. Nine months later the first of their five children was born and baptised at Broughton Gifford, before the family settled in or near Melksham, where their remaining children were baptised. The parish baptism record for that first child named the parents as Harry and Ann, most likely a shortening of Susannah. It is possible their second child may have been born at Broughton Gifford, with the baptism delayed until after the move to Melksham, where their second and third child were baptised together on the same day. In each case, as with the last child, their parents were named as Henry Collett and his wife Ann. Before the couple’s youngest child was four years old, Susannah Collett nee Mortimer, and the wife of Henry Collett, died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 5^th February 1812.

	Another member of the Mortimer family linked to the Collett family, was Hannah Mortimer, the daughter of William Mortimer and Mary Rudman, and she married Stephen Collett (below) at Broughton Gifford in 1808, while Susannah’s brother, George Mortimer, married Amelia Collett (below) at Broughton Gifford in 1804. Amelia and Stephen were siblings and cousins of Henry Collett

	35M14	Thomas Collett			Born in 1801 at Broughton Gifford
	35M15	William Collett			Born in 1804 at Broughton/Melksham
	35M16	Ann Collett			Born in 1806 at Melksham
	35M17	Hannah Collett			Born in 1808 at Melksham
	35M18	Maria Collett			Born in 1811 at Melksham


35M1	Ann Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 25^th December 1768, the first child of Henry Collett and Mary Hayward. It was on 25^th October 1790 that Anne Collett of the parish of Broughton Gifford was married by banns to Aaron Gay, also of the same parish. Each of them signed the church register with the mark of a cross.


35M2	John Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where he was baptised on 20^th October 1771, the eldest son and second child of Henry and Mary Collett. It was also at Broughton Gifford when he was twenty-one that he married Mary White on 20^th November 1792, who gave birth to their first child within the next four months. The baptism records for all of their children have been found at Broughton Gifford, when the parents were named as John and Mary Collett. Mary White was baptised at Yatton Keynell in Wiltshire on 14^th February 1771 and, as Mary Collett the wife of John Collett, she died at Broughton Gifford, where she was buried on 25^th December 1813, at the age of 41.

	35N1	William Collett			Born in 1793 at Broughton Gifford
	35N2	Mary Collett			Born in 1795 at Broughton Gifford
	35N3	Robert Collett			Born in 1796 at Broughton Gifford
	35N4	Henry Collett			Born in 1798 at Broughton Gifford
	35N5	Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1800 at Broughton Gifford
	35N6	Millicent Collett			Born in 1803 at Broughton Gifford


35M3	HENRY (Harry) COLLETT was born at Broughton Gifford, either at the end of 1773 or very early in 1774, and was baptised there on 31^st January 1774, the third child of Henry Collett and Mary Hayward. It was around the turn of the century that he married Maria. All of their children were born at Broughton Gifford, although only the baptism records for three of them have been found so far.

	35N7	William Collett			Born in 1801 at Broughton Gifford
	35N8	Daniel Collett			Born in 1805 at Broughton Gifford
	35N9	Thomas Collett			Born in 1807 at Broughton Gifford
	35N10	Maria Collett			Born in 1812 at Broughton Gifford
	35N11	STEPHEN COLLETT			Born in 1819 at Broughton Gifford


35M4	James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there on 5^th April 1776, a son of Henry and Anne Collett. James was thirty years of age when he married Sarah Clack at Broughton on 24^th May 1806, where all of their children were born and baptised. Sarah was slightly younger than James, having been baptised at Broughton Gifford on 14^th July 1782, the daughter of Thomas and Betty Clack. James and Sarah, of Broughton Gifford, both featured in the first national census. On that day in June 1841, James Collett had a rounded age of 65, while his wife Sarah had a rounded age of 55. Living with the couple, at their home on Broughton Street that day, were five of their children, Elizabeth who was 25, Sarah, Mary and Henry - all with a rounded age of 20, and Jane with a rounded age of 15. Their son James, who would have been 22, had already died by then. Also, by that time their eldest surviving son, Samuel was married with children of his own, and that may also have been the reason for the absence of their eldest daughter Ann. Eight years later, the death of James Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 221) during the third quarter of 1849, following which he was buried at Broughton Gifford on 19^th September 1849, at the age of 73.

	During his life, James Collett was a publican/inn keeper from around 1813 until after the baptism of his son James in 1818, as confirmed by the baptism records of his four children during that time. On the occasion of the baptism of his last child, his occupation was that of a labourer. Less than two years later, James’ widow was living with their married son Thomas and his family at Slipper Lane, off Church Street, in Broughton Gifford. The census in 1851 described her as a pauper.

	35N12	Thomas Collett			Born in 1807 at Broughton Gifford
	35N13	Samuel Collett			Born in 1808 at Broughton Gifford
	35N14	Ann Collett			Born in 1810 at Broughton Gifford
	35N15	Samuel Collett			Born in 1811 at Broughton Gifford
	35N16	Elizabeth Clack Collett			Born in 1813 at Broughton Gifford
	35N17	Sarah Collett			Born in 1815 at Broughton Gifford
	35N18	Mary Collett			Born in 1817 at Broughton Gifford
	35N19	James Collett			Born in 1818 at Broughton Gifford
	35N20	Henry Clack Collett			Born in 1820 at Broughton Gifford
	35N21	Jane Collett			Born in 1825 at Broughton Gifford


35M5	William Collett, who was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 28^th September 1778, another son of Henry and Mary Collett, married Mary Line from Winkfield (today Wingfield), where they were married on 17^th April 1804. Once married, the couple settled in Broughton Gifford, where their three known children were baptised. Tragically their son James did not survive to adulthood and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 12^th January 1826. The couple’s second son was baptised on the same day as another William Collett, the son of Thomas and Maria Collett (below). Eighteen years after the birth of the couple’s first grandchild, William Granger Hulbert, the eldest son of their married daughter Mary Ann, William Hulbert was living at Grittleton with his unmarried uncle Thomas Collett, aged 30 and from Broughton Gifford. If the census in 1851 was absolutely correct in stating their relationship to each other, then that would indicate Thomas Collett was the brother of Mary Ann Hulbert nee Collett, and therefore a later son of William Collett and Mary Line, hence his inclusion below.

	35N22	James Collett			Born in 1807 at Broughton Gifford
	35N23	William Collett			Born in 1809 at Broughton Gifford
	35N24	Mary Ann Collett			Born in 1811 at Broughton Gifford
	35N25	Thomas Collett			Born in 1820 at Broughton Gifford


35M6	Amelia (Millicent) Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where she was baptised in the parish church on 4^th March 1781. She was the sixth child and second daughter of Henry and Mary Collett of Broughton Gifford and was married twice before she reached twenty-five years of age. At the time of her marriage to (1) Thomas Gore at Broughton Gifford on 24^th August 1801, she was referred to as Millicent Collett, when both of them made the mark of a cross. However, within a very short time, she was made a widow. As a result of her loss, it was just three years after she was first married that Amelia, a widow, married (2) George Mortimer, widower, at the parish church in Broughton Gifford on 24^th September 1804. George was the youngest son of William Mortimer and Mary Rudman and was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 9^th October 1785. George’s sister Hannah Mortimer married Amelia’s brother Stephen Collett (below).

	Prior to his marriage to Amelia, George had been married to Martha Bull at Broughton Gifford on 18^th January 1801. Tragically, Martha died just three years later and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 10^th January 1804. It was over eight months later, that same year, when he married Amelia Collett. George died sometime between 1841 and 1850, and was followed by Amelia, who was buried at the Baptist Chapel in Broughton Gifford on 23^rd November 1850.

	Amelia’s and George’s eldest son Henry (Harry) Mortimer, who was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 30^th June 1805, later married (1) Eliza Gay at Broughton Gifford on 7^th April 1828. Just as had happened to his father George Mortimer, Harry’s first wife also died shortly after they were married, and less than a year later, on 15^th January 1829, he married (2) Anne Mortimer who was born at Kington Langley in 1809. It seems highly likely that Anne was his cousin. Harry Mortimer was 47 when he died in 1852, following which he was buried in the graveyard at the Baptist Chapel in Broughton Gifford on 27^th March 1852, just sixteen months after his mother Amelia had been buried there.

	The only member of the family to have their life story extended, is that of George and Amelia’s fourth child, their daughter Hannah. The couple’s other Broughton Gifford-born children, apart from eldest son Henry, were Joseph (1807-1808), Sarah (born 1809), George (born 1815), Joseph (born 1817) and Elizabeth (born 1818).

	35N26	Hannah Elizabeth Mortimer				Born in 1813 at Broughton Gifford


35M7	Thomas Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 30^th May 1784, another son of Henry Collett and his wife Mary Hayward. He married (1) Maria Spencer at Melksham on 26^th August 1805 and once married they lived in Broughton Gifford, where their children were born, and then baptised at Melksham, when the occupation of Thomas Collett was revealed as that of a weaver. Maria was born at Biddestone, near Chippenham, on 3th August 1784, where she was also baptised on 19^th December 1784, the daughter of Anthony and Elizabeth Spencer. Maria Collett, wife of Thomas, died at the age of 38 and was buried at Melksham on 2^nd June 1822. Widower Thomas Collett, a butcher by that time, then married (2) Jane Marks of Melksham, at Winsley, on 16^th September 1823, with their three sons born at Melksham. For the birth of the third of those children, Thomas Collett was working as an inn keeper. The couple emigrated to America in 1829 with their sons Thomas, Henry, John, Job and Jacob. Their son Harry had died aged one year in 1817, hence why the couple’s next child was given the name Henry. Thomas’ second wife Jane was born on 30^th November 1801, and was the daughter of Moses Marks and his wife Martha, who was baptised at St Edmund’s Church in Salisbury on 30^th December 1801.

	Looking for a new life in the New World, the family entered America through New York, following which they resided at Hamden in Connecticut, and Lowell in Massachusetts, before finally settling in Bangor, Maine, in 1845 where they founded a file cutting business to serve the lumber trade. Nine years prior to that Thomas Collett, his wife, and three children were recorded as attending public worship at the Grace Episcopal Church in Hamden during March in 1836. By 1846, Thomas Collett senior and Thomas Collett junior were both living on Pine Street in Bangor, where they were working as file cutters. Following the death of his second wife Jane at home in Bangor on 23^rd April 1862 at the age of 68, Thomas was visiting relatives at St. Louis in Missouri when he died, after which he was buried there. However, his wife Jane and other members of his family were buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, where six Collett memorial headstones are set aside in a family group.

	35N27	Stephen Collett			Born in 1807 at Broughton Gifford
	35N28	William Collett			Born in 1809 at Broughton Gifford
	35N29	Thomas Collett			Born in 1811 at Broughton Gifford
	35N30	Harriet Collett			Born in 1813 at Broughton Gifford
	35N31	John Collett			Born in 1815 at Broughton Gifford
	35N32	Harry Collett			Born in 1816 at Broughton Gifford
	35N33	Henry Collett			Born in 1818 at Broughton Gifford
	35N34	James Collett			Born in 1820 at Broughton Gifford
	The following are the sons of Thomas Collett by his second wife Jane Marks:
	35N35	John Collett			Born in 1824 at Melksham
	35N36	Job Collett			Born in 1825 at Melksham
	35N37	Jacob F Collett			Born in 1826 at Melksham


35M8	Stephen Collett was possibly born in 1786 and was baptised on 4^th March 1787 at Broughton Gifford, a son of Henry Collett and Mary Hayward. Stephen married Hannah Mortimer, after the reading of banns, on 31^st May 1808 at Broughton Gifford, where their children were born and baptised. The church register was signed by the bride and the groom with the mark of a cross, while the two witnesses were Stephen’s older brother James and Collett and Eliza Mortimer in her own hand. Hannah Mortimer was the sister of George Mortimer who had married Stephen’s sister Amelia (above) in 1804. Also, at Broughton Gifford on 6^th April 1837, another Hannah E Mortimer (Ref. 35N26) married Samuel Collett (Ref. 35N15), his first wife. Hannah was Samuel’s cousin ‘one-step removed’ and was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 24^th July 1813, being the daughter of George Mortimer and Amelia (Millicent) Collett (Ref. 35M6), who was a cousin of Samuel’s father.

	All of the children of Stephen and Hannah Collett were born and baptised at Broughton Gifford and, in each case, the parish records confirmed that Stephen was a shoemaker, as they did at the time of the marriage of their daughter Mary in 1839. Furthermore, that was the occupation taken up by all his sons John, Harry and Simeon, the older two boys being baptised on the same day in 1817 who, may or may not, have been twin brothers. In the Broughton Gifford census of 1841, Stephen and Hannah were the only ones still living at the family home on ‘the street’ in the village, when Stephen had a rounded age of 50 and Hannah a rounded age of 60. Both of them were recorded as having been born in Wiltshire. It was the same situation in 1851, by which time the pair of them were living on The Common in Broughton Gifford. Stephen Collett from Broughton Gifford was 64 and a former shoemaker, who was described as a pauper. Hannah Collett, also of Broughton Gifford was 70 years of age and ‘a pauper’s wife’. Almost exactly one year later, the death of Stephen Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 33) during the second quarter of 1852. Although much older than her departed husband, his wife survived for another eighteen months, when the death of Hannah Collett, nee Mortimer, was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 39) during the last three months of 1853.

	Where there is a complication with their children, is with regard to their eldest son John Collett. Whilst he is correctly placed within the family, he is NOT the John Collett who later married Sarah Halstead Wiggell in London in 1842, who emigrated to Ontario. And there are two valid reasons for this, the first being the census of 1841 when, unmarried John Collett, with a rounded age of 20, was the only child still living with his widowed father at Atworth. However, that person was William Collett who had a rounded age of 55. Within the next two years, shoemaker John Collett from Wiltshire was married in London, when his father was recorded as shoemaker William Collett.

	The first two children of William Collett (Ref. 35N1) of Broughton Gifford and Jane Webb were born in 1816 and 1820. William’s father was John Collett, but has not a child of that name within his own family, which is unusual. Therefore, it is possible that, missing from his family is John Collett born around 1818. Whilst all of the baptisms of the children of William and Jane have been identified in the parish records, none has been found with the name of John. So, until this conundrum can be solved, John Collett, the shoemaker and son of William Collett, has been added to his family (Ref. 35O1) but, to avoid a very major change to the layout of this family line, the Ref. 35O1 must lead to a second Ref. 35N39.

	35N38	Sarah Collett			Born in 1809 at Broughton Gifford
	35N39	Anne Collett			Born in 1812 at Broughton Gifford
	35N40	John Collett			Born in 1814 at Broughton Gifford
	35N41	Henry Collett			Born in 1816 at Broughton Gifford
	35N42	Mary Collett			Born in 1819 at Broughton Gifford
	35N43	Simeon Collett			Born in 1823 at Broughton Gifford


35M9	Mary Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and was the last child of Henry Collett and his wife Mary Hayward. Just like all of her older siblings, Mary Collett was also baptised at Broughton Gifford on 25^th July 1789, the same day that her mother was buried there, having died during the birth. One week later, baby Mary Collett was buried at Broughton Gifford on 2^nd August 1789.


35M10	John Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1789 and was baptised there on 1^st November 1789, the eldest child of James Collett and Margaret Addams. Around the time he was 22, John married Sarah Elmes at Broughton Gifford on 29^th July 1811. Sarah was the daughter of William and Jane Elmes and was baptised at North Wraxall on 8^th February 1789, whereas previously it had been stated here that she had been baptised at Broughton Gifford on 9^th May 1790. It was also at Broughton Gifford where they settled after they were married, and where all of their known children were born and baptised, their baptism records confirming their father John was a labourer. In the first national census held in the UK in June 1841, John was recorded with a rounded age of 50, as was his wife Sarah. Living with them at that time Church Brook in the village were four of their children, and they were Samuel who was 25, William who was 20, Sarah who was 11 and Eliza who was nine years old.

	Ten years later the Broughton Gifford census of 1851 revealed that agricultural labourer John Collett was 62 and his wife Sarah from Broughton Gifford was 60. Living at the same dwelling was the widowed daughter of John and Sarah, Elizabeth Ashman from Broughton Gifford who was 32, who had with her, her son James Ashman aged seven years and from Marylebone in London, described as the couple’s grandson. Next door was an unoccupied property, while adjacent to that was the home of John’s brother’s family, wool weaver Sarah Collett aged 58, the widow of Daniel Collett (below), with her son James Collett who was 17 and another agricultural labourer.

	35N44	Anne Collett			Born in 1811 at Broughton Gifford
	35N45	Thomas Collett			Born in 1814 at Broughton Gifford
	35N46	Samuel Collett			Born in 1816 at Broughton Gifford
	35N47	Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1818 at Broughton Gifford
	35N48	William Collett			Born in 1821 at Broughton Gifford
	35N49	Anne Collett			Born in 1823 at Broughton Gifford
	35N50	Anne Collett			Born in 1825 at Broughton Gifford
	35N51	Mary Collett			Born in 1826 at Broughton Gifford
	35N52	Sarah Collett			Born in 1830 at Broughton Gifford
	35N53	Eliza Collett			Born in 1832 at Broughton Gifford


35M11	Daniel Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 23^rd November 1794, the second son of James and Margaret Collett. He was just over 21 years of age when he married Sarah Gowin at Broughton Gifford on 24^th December 1815. The parish register confirmed the event as follows. “Daniel Collett, aged 21 years of this parish, and Sarah Gowin, aged 23 years of this parish, were married in this church by banns this twenty-fourth day of December in the year One Thousand eight hundred and fifteen by me James Gisborne, curate. This marriage was solemnised between us Daniel Collett (who signed his name) and Sarah Gowin (who made her mark) in the presence of Thomas Gowin and James Bugg.”

	In 1841 Daniel and Sarah were both 45 when they and their family were recorded in the census for Broughton Gifford. Their children on that day were listed as George who was 20, Mary who was 15, Daniel who was 10, and James who was seven years old. The absence of earlier son James and his sister Sarah have both been confirmed by the record of their deaths, fifteen years and five years earlier respectively. As regards the couple’s two eldest daughters, Ann had married her cousin Thomas Collett (Ref. 35N44) during the previous year when she was 21, so it is possible that the slightly older Maria was also married by that time or perhaps she too had suffered the same fate as her two younger siblings. Just over five years later Daniel Collett died at Broughton Gifford on 23^rd August 1846, his death recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 164) during the third quarter of the year.

	The Broughton Gifford census in 1851 listed just Sarah Collett, a widow of 58 who was a wool weaver, who had living with her James Collett aged 17, her youngest child. Both of them were born at Broughton Gifford and, while the adjacent dwelling was unoccupied, the next property contained the family of John Collett (above) her late husband’s brother and his wife Sarah. Living with the couple was their widowed daughter, Elizabeth Wheeler aged 32 and from Broughton Gifford who had with her, her son John Wheeler who was seven years of age and from St Marylebone in London.

	35N54	Maria Collett			Born in 1816 at Broughton Gifford
	35N55	Ann Collett			Born in 1818 at Broughton Gifford
	35N56	George Collett			Born in 1821 at Broughton Gifford
	35N57	Mary Collett			Born in 1824 at Broughton Gifford
	35N58	James Collett			Born in 1826 at Broughton Gifford
	35N59	Sarah Collett			Born in 1827 at Broughton Gifford
	35N60	Daniel Collett			Born in 1831 at Broughton Gifford
	35N61	James Collett			Born in 1834 at Broughton Gifford


35M12	James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford around 1797, where he was baptised on 20^th June 1799, the third son of James and Margaret Collett. James was still living at Broughton Gifford when he married Martha Tarrant on 2^nd April 1821, both with the consent of their parents. According to the census of 1841 James had a rounded age of 40, while his wife Martha was 44. On the occasion of the baptism of each of his children, James’ occupation was that of a labourer. The children living with the couple at Broughton Street in 1841 were Mary and Ann, both 15, George who was 12, Elizabeth who was 10, Margaret who was nine, Jane who was six, and Martha who was two years old, having suffered the loss of their sixth child seven years earlier. On the day of the Broughton Gifford census in 1851, James Collett was 53 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Martha was 55, and the only children still living with them were Elizabeth who was 20 and Martha who was 11.

	Seven years later, James Collett died at Broughton Gifford, his death recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 66) during the third quarter of 1858, when he was 61, following which he was buried at Broughton Gifford on 26^th September 1858. It was two years later, and also at Broughton Gifford, that his widow Martha Collett was buried there on 11^th November 1860, just three months after her youngest daughter Martha was married there. The death of Martha Collett, aged 64, was also recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 68).

	35N62	Mary Collett							Born in 1823 at Broughton Gifford
	35N63	Anne Collett							Born in 1825 at Broughton Gifford
	35N64	George Tarrant Collett							Born in 1827 at Broughton Gifford
	35N65	Elizabeth Collett							Born in 1829 at Broughton Gifford
	35N66	Margaret Collett							Born in 1831 at Broughton Gifford
	35N67	Jane Collett							Born in 1833 at Broughton Gifford
	35N68	Jane Collett							Born in 1835 at Broughton Gifford
	35N69	Martha Collett							Born in 1839 at Broughton Gifford


35M13	Mary Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1808 and was baptised there on 25^th December 1808, the last child of James Collett and Margaret Addams, according to the parish records. Curiously, the IGI records the date as 25^th January 1808.


35M14	Thomas Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 27^th September 1801, the son of Henry Collett and Susannah Mortimer. The parish register recorded them as Harry Collett, a widower, and Ann Mortimer, a widow. On the first occasion, a Thomas Collett married Ann Taylor at Melksham on 26^th May 1823. Ann was the daughter of William and Ann Taylor who had been born at Melksham in 1801, but was not baptised at Melksham until 1822. Once they were married, Thomas and Ann settled in the hamlet of Whitley, two miles north-west of Melksham, with all of them baptised at St Michael & All Angels Church in Melksham. The parish records for each child described Thomas Collett as being weaver of Whitley.

	According to the first national census in June 1841, Thomas and his family were still residing in Whitley. Thomas had a rounded age of 40 and Ann had a rounded age of 35. Their children were listed as Stephen Collett was 15, as was Jane Collett, Maria Collett was 12, James Collett was 10, William Collett was seven, Henry Collett was five, Sarah Collett was two years of age, and Frederick Collett was just two months old.

	Ten years later, in 1851, when Thomas Collett was 50, his occupation was no longer that of a weaver, instead he was a butcher who was living at the family home in Whitley. With him was his wife Ann, who was 48 and from Melksham, James Collett, aged 20, William Collett, aged 17, Sarah Collett, who was 12, and Frederick Collett who was 10 years old and still attending the local school. By that time, the couple’s eldest son Stephen was married with children of his own, daughter Jane was a domestic servant at Shaw Hill House in Melksham, while son Henry had already died by then.

	Although no census record for the family has been located in 1861 and 1871 it is established that Thomas Collett died during the month of June in 1872, while his wife Ann died less than two years later on 10^th January 1874.

	35N70	Stephen Collett					Born in 1824 at Whitley, nr Melksham
	35N71	Jane Collett					Born in 1826 at Whitley, nr Melksham
	35N72	Maria Collett					Born in 1829 at Whitley, nr Melksham
	35N73	James Collett					Born in 1831 at Whitley, nr Melksham
	35N74	William Collett					Born in 1834 at Whitley, nr Melksham
	35N75	Henry Collett					Born in 1835 at Whitley, nr Melksham
	35N76	Sarah Collett					Born in 1838 at Whitley, nr Melksham
	35N77	Frederick Collett					Born in 1841 at Whitley, nr Melksham


35M15	William Collett was possibly born at Broughton Gifford around 1804 before his parents moved to Melksham, where William was baptised in a combined service with his sister Ann (below) on 7^th September 1806, the children of Henry and Ann (Susannah).


35M16	Ann Collett was baptised at Melksham on 7^th September 1806, the same day as her brother William (above), the daughter of Henry and Ann Collett.


35M17	Hannah Collett was baptised at Melksham on 5^th June 1808, another daughter of Henry and Ann Collett. She was said to be 17 years old, when Hannah died and was buried at Melksham on 10^th May 1826.


35M18	Maria Collett was baptised at Melksham on 19^th May 1811, the last child of Henry Collett and Susannah Mortimer.


35N1	William Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 17^th February 1793, the eldest child of John Collett and his wife Mary White, who were only married there on 20^th November the previous year. It was also at Broughton Gifford that William Collett married (1) Jane Webb around the same time that his sister Mary Collett (below) married Jane’s brother James Webb there on 18^th December 1813. Jane Allen Webb was born at Broughton Gifford, where she was also baptised on 5^th April 1795, the daughter of Robert and Eleanor Webb. William Collett was a shoemaker and all of his children were born and baptised at Broughton Gifford, but from two marriages. There is a chance that Jane gave birth to William’s first child before they were married, since the parish register included the entry of the child’s baptism on 7^th July 1816, as Tabitha Webb, the daughter of Jane, a weaver, and William Collett, a cordwainer.

	Previously, William and Jane were credited with just two children. However, the four-year gap between their daughters could be filled by the birth of a son, named John after William’s father. The reason for suggesting this, are the facts that in 1841 William Collett had his son John living with him at Atworth, just a short distance north of Broughton Gifford. William had a rounded age of 55, with John having a rounded age of 20 years. Not long after that, John was married, when his father was recorded as William Collett, a shoemaker. For these two separate validated details, William has been credited with son John born in 1818, even though no birth or baptism record has been found. However, in order to avoid an extensive re-writing/re-formatting of this family line, the continuation of the life John Collett can be found from Ref. 35N39, where he was original placed, in error, as the son of Stephen Collett and Hannah Mortimer.

	Between the years 1820 and 1822, William’s wife’s name changed from Jane to (2) Elizabeth for the baptism for his last three children at Broughton Gifford. To date, no record has been found for the premature death of Jane Collett nee Webb, either around the time of the birth of her daughter Elizabeth, or shortly thereafter. In addition to this, it is perhaps interesting to note that no record of the first or second marriage of shoemaker William Collett has been found anywhere within the Wiltshire parish records. William Collett of Broughton Gifford, a former shoemaker, presumably retired by then, was visiting the home of the Pullen family from Atworth at Bradford-on-Avon in 1851. It is possible he came friendly with Francis and Rebecca Pullen when William was living in Atworth, where they and their three young children had been born between 1841 and 1851.

	35O0		Tabitha Collett			Born in 1816 at Broughton Gifford
	35O1 go to 35N38		John Collett			Born in 1818 at Broughton Gifford
	35O2		Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1820 at Broughton Gifford
	The following are the three children of William Collett and Elizabeth:
	35O3		Hannah Collett			Born in 1822 at Broughton Gifford
	35O4		Eliza Collett			Born in 1826 at Broughton Gifford
	35O5		William Collett			Born in 1828 at Broughton Gifford


35N2	Mary Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where she was baptised on 5^th April 1795, the second child of John Collett and Mary White. It seems that she may have been the twin sister of Robert Collett (below), as they were both baptised there on the same day. The marriage of Mary Collett and James Webb was conducted at Broughton Gifford on 18^th December 1813. James was born at Broughton Gifford in 1790 and was the son of Robert and Eleanor Webb, her brother William (above) being married there to James’ younger sister Jane Webb two years later. As far as can be determined, the marriage of Mary and James produced two sons. The first of them was James Webb who was born on 26^th December 1816, the second being Thomas Webb who was born on 28^th December 1818, both of them later baptised in a joint ceremony at Broughton Gifford on 26^th November 1820, when they were confirmed as the children of James and Mary Collett. The death of Mary Webb was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 19) during the first quarter of 1838.


35N3	Robert Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on the same day as his sister Mary (above), that being 5^th April 1795, another son of John Collett and Mary White.


35N4	Henry Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 29^th April 1798, the son of John and Mary Collett. Henry married Mary Morris on 3^rd May 1825 at Melksham, where they settled and where all of their children were born. Very shortly after their wedding day, Mary gave birth to their first child, who did not survive. At the baptism of all of his children, Henry Collett was described as a shoemaker / a cordwainer. By the time of the census in June 1841, the family living at Town Tything in Melksham comprised Henry aged 40, who was listed as Harry, his wife Mary who was also 40, and their seven children. They were Henry and Sarah who were both 14, Eliza aged 12, Elizabeth (Betsy) who was nine, Ann who was six, Everest who was four and John who was two years old. The family had been reduced in number by then, following the premature deaths of the couple’s first-born child Ann, a later child being given the same name.

	Eighteen months later, Mary gave birth to her second set of twins but, tragically first Mary and then the twins all suffered premature deaths. The death of Mary Collett, the mother, was recorded at Melksham (Ref. viii 247) during the third quarter of 1842. Her two babies, George and Mary, were baptised together at Melksham on 11^th August 1842, when their parents were confirmed as Henry and Mary Collett. After losing his wife, Henry then suffered the death of his to recent arrivals. The births of George and Mary Collett were recorded at Melksham (Ref. viii 344) during the third quarter of 1842, the same period that their deaths were recorded there (Ref. viii 248).

	Henry Collett from Broughton Gifford was described as being 51 and a widower and a shoemaker in the Melksham census of 1851. Living with him on that day was his daughter Sarah who was 24 and acting as his housekeeper, his son Henry who was also recorded as being 24, together with four more of his children. They were Eliza who was 22, Ann who was 16, Everest who was 14 and John Collett who was 11 years old. It was seven years later that the death of Harry Collett was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 56) during the third quarter of 1858. Ten years after that, at the time of the marriage in London of his youngest surviving daughter Everest in 1868, her father was referred to as Henry Collett deceased.

	35O6	Ann Collett			Born in 1825 at Melksham
	35O7	Henry Collett twin			Born in 1827 at Melksham
	35O8	Sarah Collett twin			Born in 1827 at Melksham
	35O9	Eliza Collett			Born in 1829 at Melksham
	35O10	Betsy (Elizabeth) Collett			Born in 1831 at Melksham
	35O11	Ann Collett			Born in 1835 at Melksham
	35O12	Everest Collett			Born in 1837 at Melksham
	35O13	John Collett			Born in 1839 at Melksham
	35O14	George Collett twin			Born in 1842 at Melksham
	35O15	Mary Collett twin			Born in 1842 at Melksham


35N5	Elizabeth Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1800 and was baptised there on 23^rd November 1800, the last child of John Collett and Mary White. When Elizabeth was 24 years old, she married Francis Miles of Weston near Bath, the marriage taking place in the village of Weston on 12^th October 1824. Francis had been born at Priston in Somerset during 1799. The marriage produced four children for Elizabeth and Francis, and they were Mary Miles who was born in 1825, John Miles born in 1827, Francis Miles born in 1830, and Thomas Miles who was born in 1836. By the time of the first national census in June 1841, the family was still living within the Bath registration district and comprised Francis who was 40 (rounded age), Elizabeth who was 35 (rounded age), and their four children, Mary 15, John 13, Francis 10, and Thomas who was four years old.

	Ten years later the family was recorded living in the Bath & Lansdown area, which included the village of Weston. The census of 1851 listed the family as Francis 52, Elizabeth 49, and their two sons Francis who was 22 and Thomas who was 14. By 1861 Elizabeth was a widow aged 59 who was living within the Bath & Walcot area with her unmarried son Francis Miles, who was 30 years old. It was eight years later that Elizabeth Miles nee Collett died at Bath in 1869.

	Her son Thomas Miles, born at Bath during November 1836, later married Emma Viner Russell who was born during 1839 at Walcot in Bath, and they had a daughter Emily Clara Miles who was also born there on 29^th October 1866. Emily later married William Albert Smith who was born on 6^th September 1865 at Limpley Stoke, Bradford-on-Avon, whose parents were Henry Charles Smith and Sylvia Wicks. Sylvia was the sister of Sarah Deborah Wicks who married Charles Collett (Ref. 64O17), Sarah being the great grandmother of Maureen Iliffe Collett (Ref. 64R15), who kindly provided this information.


35N6	Millicent Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there on 11^th September 1803, the last child of John Collett and Mary White. Although not proved to be this Millicent, a Millicent Collett was buried at Broughton Gifford on 25^th December 1803, with parents named or age stated.


35N7	William Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 27^th October 1801, the son of Henry and Maria Collett. He later married Jane Gardner and once they were married the couple settled in Melksham area of Wiltshire, not far from Broughton Gifford. It was while they were living there, that their children were born and baptised, when the parents were described as William Collett, a weaver of Melksham Forest, and his wife Jane.

	Around the same time that William’s daughter was born, another Elizabeth Collett was baptised at Christian Malford to the north-east of Chippenham. That Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 35O16a) was born at Christian Malford on 3^rd February 1827, and was baptised there one year later on 11^th March 1828, the daughter of William Collett (Ref. 35N7a) and his wife Mary. That Elizabeth Collett never married and she was still living in Christian Malford when she died on 13^th June 1866. William and Mary also had a second daughter Anne Collett (Ref. 35O16b) who was baptised at Christian Malford on 8^th February 1829. Their details have been included here for completeness.

	It was at Cannonfield Tything in Melksham that the family was recorded on the day of the census in 1841. William Collett was 35, his wife Jane Collett was also 35, while their three surviving children were Elizabeth Collett who was 13, Thomas Collett who was 10 and William Collett who was seven years of age.

	New information has revealed that there is a headstone at the Church of St Nicholas in Biddestone which bears the name of William Collett and his wife Jane Gardner, on which the date of his death is 15^th September 1844, when he was 44. The same headstone also carries the name of his wife, Jane Gardner, who died on 26^th November 1858, aged 50 years.

	35O16	Charles Collett							Born in 1826 at Melksham
	35O17	Elizabeth Collett							Born in 1828 at Melksham
	35O18	Thomas Walters Collett							Born in 1830 at Melksham
	35O19	Thomas Walters Collett							Born in 1832 at Melksham
	35O20	William Collett							Born in 1834 at Melksham


35N8	Daniel Collett was probably born during the middle of first decade of the 1800s, the son of Henry and Maria Collett of Broughton Gifford, where he was very likely also born, as were his other siblings. In the Broughton Gifford census of 1841, Daniel had a rounded age of 30 and by that time he was married to Sarah who also had a rounded age of 30. It was ten years or so earlier that he had married Sarah, since the three children with them in 1841 were Ann Collett who was eight, Stephen Collett who was three and Mary Collett who was still under one-year old. The five years between their eldest child and the second one was possibly filled by a further child who may have been the victim of an infant death. No record of any member of the family has been found after 1841.

	35O21	Ann Collett							Born in 1832 at Broughton Gifford
	35O22	Stephen Collett							Born in 1837 at Broughton Gifford
	35O23	Mary Collett							Born in 1840 at Broughton Gifford


35N9	Thomas Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there on 18^th October 1807, another son of Henry and Maria Collett.


35N10	Maria Collett who was born at Melksham around 1812 later married to become Maria Daniels. In 1881 she was a widow aged 69 when she was living with her brother Stephen Collett (below) at Broughton Road in Melksham, when her place of birth was given as Melksham.


35N11	STEPHEN COLLETT was born at Melksham in 1819 and by June 1841 he was married with a child when living at Woodrow Tything in Melksham with his widowed father Henry Collett. It was in 1840 when the marriage of Stephen Collett and (1) Grace Brinsdon was recorded at Melksham. Stephen was 21 and confirmed as the son of Henry Collett, while Grace was 23 and named as the daughter of John Brinsdon. In the census of 1841 Stephen was described as a woollen weaver with a rounded age of 20, the same rounded age given to his wife Grace who is known to have been slightly older than her husband. The very recent marriage of Stephen and Grace had already produced their first of the couple’s ten children born and baptised at Melksham, their son George was still under one-year old.

	In 1851 the family comprised Stephen 31 who was an agricultural labourer, Grace 34 who was a yarn wool quiller, George who was ten, Hannah who was nine, Jemima who was seven, Emma who was six, John who was three, and baby William who was not one-year old on the thirtieth of March that year. By the time of the next census in 1861 only eight of the ten children were still living with their parents at Broughton Road in Melksham. On that day Stephen Collett was 41, and employed as an agricultural labourer, and Grace Collett was 46. Their children were George aged 20, Emma aged 15, John aged 13, William aged 11, Ellen who was nine, Thomas who was six, Maria who was five, and Frederick who was three years old.

	It was just shortly before the next census that Grace Collett nee Brinsdon passed away, her death recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 81) during the first three months of 1871 when she was 54. As a consequence, by the time of the Melksham census of 1871, Stephen Collett was a widower and a gardener at the age of 51 years. Still living there with him were his three youngest children, Thomas Collett who was 17, Maria Collett who was 16, and Frederick Collett who was 13. Living nearby in Melksham on that same day was Stephen’s son William, aged 22, and his new wife Sarah A Collett who was 21. It would appear that Stephen may have already remarried by that time since, his second wife (2) Susan H Hayward, who was born at Plymouth in 1832, was recorded in the Charles district of Plymouth in the census in 1871 as Susan Collett aged 38. On that day she seems to have been visiting or staying with her parents in Plymouth, perhaps because she was pregnant with Emily, the first of the three children she had with Stephen.

	Ten years later, according to the 1881 Census, Stephen Collett was a gardener at 61, and was born at Melksham. Living with him at that time were his two of his three youngest children. They were Emily who was nine, and Sidney who was six, both of them having been born at Melksham. Stephen’s wife Susan H Collett, who was 48 and from Plymouth, was described in the 1881 Census as a gardener’s wife and a visitor at the Plymouth home of James Taylor and his family. Accompanying Susan on her trip to Devon was her youngest son Frank S Collett who was three and born at Melksham.

	During his wife’s absence in April 1881, Stephen’s married sister Maria Daniels nee Collett (above) was living with him and his two children, Emily and Sidney, at Broughton Road in Melksham, presumably taking over the role of housekeeper. It was also in Broughton Road that Stephen’s two cousins, the brothers Henry and Simeon Collett, were living at that time. Also, by 1881, five of Stephen’s older children had left England and had sailed to North America, where they had settled in Michigan and Connecticut.

	Stephen and Susan were reunited for the census of 1891. Gardener Stephen was 71 and Susan was 58 when, living with the couple at Union Street in Melksham was their youngest child Frank Collett who was 13. No record of their daughter Emily or their son Sidney has been found in 1891. By March 1901 Stephen and Susan were recorded as living at New Broughton Road in Melksham Within, where gardener Stephen from Melksham was 81 and his wife from Plymouth was 69. Eight years later the death of Stephen Collett was recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 83) during the first quarter of 1909 when his age was thought to be 89.

	35O24	George Collett					Born circa 1840 at Melksham
	35O25	Hannah Collett					Baptised on 27.03.1842 at Melksham
	35O26	Jemima Collett					Born in 1843 at Melksham
	35O27	Emma Collett					Baptised on 26.10.1845 at Melksham
	35O28	John Collett					Born circa 1848 at Melksham
	35O29	WILLIAM COLLETT					Born circa 1849 at Melksham
	35O30	Ellen Collett					Born in 1851 at Melksham
	35O31	Thomas Collett					Born circa 1854 at Melksham
	35O32	Maria Collett					Born in 1855 at Melksham
	35O33	Frederick Collett					Born circa 1858 at Melksham
	The children from Stephen’s second marriage and living with him in 1881 were:
	35O34	Emily Collett					Born circa 1871 at Melksham
	35O35	Sidney Collett					Born circa 1875 at Melksham
	35O36	Frank S Collett					Born circa 1877 at Melksham


35N12	Thomas Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1807 and was baptised there on 1^st November 1807, when he was confirmed as the first-born child of James Collett and Sarah Clack. By the time of the census in 1841, Thomas Collett had been married for nearly eleven years, since it was on 14^th October 1830 at Broughton Gifford that he had married Joan Elizabeth Button, when he was nearly twenty-three years of age. The individual baptism records for all of their children, listed below, described them as the children of labourer Thomas and Elizabeth Collett, while in that first census in 1841 his wife was curiously recorded as Ann Collett. However, she was correctly named as Betty (Elizabeth) in 1851.

	The Broughton Gifford census of 1841 listed the family at Chally Mead, as Thomas and Ann Collett, both with a rounded age of 30, while their children were confirmed as Samuel who was eight, Ann who was six, Elizabeth who was four and James who was one-year old. Sadly, by then, the family had suffered the loss of their eldest daughter and their fifth child, the first of the couple’s two son named James. Two more children were added to the family over the next two years, with Thomas’ wife expecting the birth of the first of them on the day of the census, son Henry being born just a few weeks later.

	The family was still living in Broughton Gifford in 1851 when they were living at Slipper Lane off Church Street. Thomas Collett, aged 43, was an agricultural labourer, and his wife Betty Collett, aged 42, was a washing woman. The children living with them on that occasion were Betsy Collett aged 14, James Collett aged 11, Henry Collett who was nine, and Simeon Collett who was seven years old. Every member of the family was confirmed as having been born at Broughton Gifford, while staying with Thomas and his family was his widowed mother Sarah Collett who was 68 and a pauper, together with his unmarried sister Mary Collett, who was described as a general servant at the age of 32. Thomas’ other two children were also living nearby in the village, and they were Samuel Collett who was 18 and Ann Collett who was 16.

	Next door to the Collett dwelling were two unoccupied properties, but adjacent to them was the home of James Gerrish, aged 33, and his wife Mary, who was 28 and the youngest sister of Thomas Collett (below). Living there with them, their three children were Sarah who was eight, Elizabeth who was five, and Mary Anne who was four months old. It was another Sarah Gerrish, the daughter of Samuel Gerrish and his wife Hannah Bull, who married Thomas’ eldest son Samuel Collett at Broughton Gifford in 1855, before they sailed to America during 1857.

	After that time every member of the family was missing from the next census in 1861. However, by 1871 three of them were once again listed as residing in Broughton Gifford, and they were Thomas Collett who was 60, as was his wife Elizabeth, while the only child living there with them was their son James who was still a bachelor at the age of 32. Thomas Collett died in 1880 and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 9^th October 1880 at the age of 73. While no record of any other member of his family has been found in Great Britain after 1871, it is possible that, during the 1870s, some of them travelled to America where the couple’s eldest son Samuel has positively been identified within the US Census of 1880.

	35O37	Caroline Collett				Born in 1830 at Broughton Gifford
	35O38	Samuel Collett				Born in 1832 at Broughton Gifford
	35O39	Anna Maria Collett				Born in 1834 at Broughton Gifford
	35O40	Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1836 at Broughton Gifford
	35O41	James Collett				Born in 1838 at Broughton Gifford
	35O42	James Collett				Born in 1840 at Broughton Gifford
	35O43	Henry Collett				Born in 1841 at Broughton Gifford
	35O44	Simeon Collett				Born in 1843 at Broughton Gifford


35N13	Samuel Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where he baptised on 25^th December 1808, another son of James and Sarah Collett. Six weeks after being baptised, Samuel died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 7^th February 1809. Two and a half years later, Sarah gave birth to her third child, who was also given the name Samuel, in honour of the couple’s first child.


35N14	Ann Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and it was there also that she was baptised on 5^th August 1810, the first daughter of James and Sarah Collett.


35N15	Samuel Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1811 and was the fourth child of James and Sarah Collett and was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 15^th November 1811. He later married (1) Hannah Elizabeth Mortimer (Ref. 35N26) on 6^th April 1837. Hannah was Samuel’s cousin ‘one-step removed’ and was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 24^th July 1813. She was the daughter of George Mortimer and Amelia (Millicent) Collett (Ref. 35M6), who was a cousin of Samuel’s father.

	This was yet another of the many links between the Collett and Mortimer families. Others were (a) Ann Mortimer who married James Gay, who were the parents of Jacob Gay who later married Mary Collett (Ref. 35N41), the daughter of Stephen Collett (Ref. 35M8) and Hannah Mortimer, and (b) Ruth Mortimer the daughter of Joshua Mortimer and Ruth Wakeley, who married Benjamin H Collett (Ref. 35O106) the son of Stephen and Catherine Collett. By June 1841 the family living at Broughton Gifford comprised Samuel, with a rounded age of 30, his wife Hannah who was 25, and their two children, James aged three years, and baby Sarah who was one-year old.

	All of Samuel’s and Hannah’s children were born and baptised at Broughton Gifford and, according to the next census in 1851, Samuel was an agricultural labourer at 39 and was living in the main street in Broughton Gifford with his wife Hannah, aged 37, and the rest of his family. The children listed with them on that occasion were children James who was 13, Sarah who was 11, and George who was two years old. Missing from the family home in Broughton Gifford, which was only two doors from the home of Samuel’s ‘one-step removed’ cousin Simeon Collett (Ref. 35N42), was their son Edwin who had died six years earlier.

	Further tragedy struck the family in late 1853, when Hannah Collett died and was buried at the Baptist Chapel in Broughton Gifford on 1^st December 1853. Possibly following his loss, Samuel took his family at live in Bradford and, towards the end of the decade, he married (2) Fanny, who was 14 years younger than Samuel. That was confirmed in the Bradford census of 1861, when Samuel Collett was 49 and a gardener, living in the Budbury area of the town. Living there with him was his new wife, Fanny Collett who was 36 and their daughter Anne Collett who was under six months old. Completing the household were three of Samuel’s children from his previous marriage, and they were Sarah Collett who was 21, George Collett who was 14 and Mary Ann Collett who was 12. No record of birth or baptism has been found for Mary Ann Collett, nor was she listed with the Collett family ten years earlier. She was therefore most likely to be the daughter of Fanny, possibly from an earlier marriage, who had taken on her mother’s new married name.

	By 1871, the family had left Bradford and, on that occasion, they were living at Bedminster near Bristol, where Samuel was 59, Fanny was 45, and the only children still living with them were Ann who was 10, Eliza who was eight, and Samuel who was three. Ten years later in 1881, Samuel was a gardener aged 69 and was recorded as living at 154 East Street in Bedminster with his wife Fanny, aged 55, who was the proprietor of a grocer’s shop employing one assistant. The census details confirmed that Samuel was born at Broughton Gifford and that that his wife Fanny had been born at Corston, near Malmesbury. Living with them was their 18-year-old daughter Eliza Collett who was born at Bradford-on-Avon, and it was she that was the aforementioned grocer’s shop assistant to her mother. No further record of the family has been found after 1881, so it is likely that both Samuel and Fanny died during the 1880s.

	A little over four years later, the death of Samuel Collett was recorded at Bedminster (Ref. 5c 456) during the last three months of 1855, when he was 74. It was also at Bedminster, in Bristol, where he was buried on 22^nd December 1855 in the churchyard of St John’s Church.

	35O45	James Collett					Born in 1837 at Broughton Gifford
	35O46	Sarah Ann Collett					Born in 1840 at Broughton Gifford
	35O47	Edwin Collett					Born in 1844 at Broughton Gifford
	35O48	George Collett					Born in 1848 at Broughton Gifford
	(dau of Fanny)	Mary Ann Collett – adopted?					Born in 1848 at Bradford-on-Avon
	The following are the three children of Samuel Collett by his second wife Fanny:
	35O49	Annie Collett					Born in 1860 at Bradford-on-Avon
	35O50	Eliza Collett					Born in 1862 at Bradford-on-Avon
	35O51	Samuel Collett					Born in 1867 at Bradford-on-Avon


35N16	Elizabeth Clack Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 1^st November 1813, another daughter of publican James Collett and Sarah Clack. By June 1841 she was a spinster with a rounded age of 25, when she was still living with her parents at Broughton Gifford.


35N17	Sarah Collett was probably born at Broughton Gifford sometime between her siblings Elizabeth (above) and Mary (below), although the exact date is not known. It is also possible that she may have been a twin with her sister Mary, since they were both baptised at Broughton Gifford in a joint ceremony on 23^rd February 1817. On that occasion her father, James Collett, was described as an inn keeper. Both of his daughters were also listed with a rounded age of 20 in the Broughton Gifford census of 1841, when they were still living with her parents James and Sarah Collett.


35N18	Mary Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 23^rd February 1817 in a joint ceremony with her sister Sarah (above). At the time of the 1841 Census she was given a rounded age of 20, the same as her sister Sarah, which may indicate that they were twins. Ten years later, her age was more accurately recorded as 32 in the Broughton Gifford census of 1851. Unmarried Mary Collett, aged 32 and a general domestic servant, was with her recently widowed mother Sarah, staying at the home of her older married brother Thomas Collett and his family, at Slipper Lane off Church Street. Also living there, was Mary’s recently married youngest sister Jane Tippett (nee Collett) and her husband Alfred.


35N19	James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there on 18^th October 1818, another son of inn keeper James Collett and his wife Sarah Collett. The death of James Collett, aged 20 years, was recorded in Wiltshire, following which he was buried on 28^th February 1839, most likely at Broughton Gifford.


35N20	Henry Clack Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 2^nd July 1820, the last son born to James Collett, a labourer, and Sarah Clack. His age was confirmed as being 20 in the census of 1841, when he was still living at the family home in Broughton Gifford. Just over four years later, bachelor Henry Collett and the son of James Collett, married spinster Maria Gore, the daughter of Thomas Gore, at Broughton Gifford on 30^th October 1845, where Maria had also been born during 1822. It was at Broughton Gifford that the couple initially settled, where their first two children were born, before moving to Combe Down, just south-east of Bath, where the third of their five known children was born. Sadly, their second child died shortly after he was born. James Collett, whose birth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 271) during the third quarter of 1848, mother’s maiden name Gore, died at Broughton Gifford on 19^th September 1849. By 1851 the family of four was still residing at Combe Down where Henry Collett was 31, Maria Collett was 30 and their two children were Elizabeth Collett who was five and Thomas Collett who was one-year old.

	Sometime thereafter Henry took his family to Monkton Combe, close by Combe Down, where the couple’s last two children were born. In was also at Monkton Combe that Henry and Maria appear to have lived out their lives. The census in 1861 confirmed the birth there of their third child when Henry was 41, Maria was 39, Elizabeth was 15, Thomas was 10 and Jane was four years of age. Two years later the final child was added to the family while, perhaps towards the end of the next decade, the two older children left the family home. So, according to the Monkton Combe census of 1871, Henry was 50, Maria was 47, their daughter Jane was 14, and their son James was seven.

	Ten years after that Henry Collett was 61 and a shepherd living there with just his wife Maria and his son James. Living with the family in 1881, as a boarder and described as a domestic servant, was James Allan who was 18 and from Glasgow. Son James was still a bachelor living with his parents in 1891 when Henry Collett 70 and his wife Maria was 67.

	35O52	Elizabeth Collett				Born in 1846 at Broughton Gifford
	35O53	James Collett				Born in 1848 at Broughton Gifford
	35O54	Thomas Collett				Born in 1850 at Combe Down near Bath
	35O55	Jane Collett				Born in 1856 at Monkton Combe nr Bath
	35O56	James Collett				Born in 1863 at Monkton Combe nr Bath


35N21	Jane Collett was the last child of James Collett and Sarah Clack, who was possibly born around 1827, considering her stated age in the census of 1851. She was therefore around six years of age when she was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 20^th January 1833, while in the Broughton Gifford census of 1841, Jane Collett had a rounded age of 15 years. By 1851 she was married to Alfred Tippett from Lower Easton in Gloucestershire. The census that year recorded the couple as Alfred Tippett who was 23 and a plasterer and Jane Tippett from Broughton Gifford who was 27, when they and Jane’s mother Sarah Collett, and older sister Mary Collett, were staying with Jane’s older married brother Thomas Collett and his family at Slipper Lane off Church Street in Broughton Gifford.


35N22	James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where he was baptised on 12^th April 1807, the eldest of the four known children of William Collett and Mary Line. Whether it was an injured sustained at work, or natural causes, James Collett was only 18 years of age when he was buried at Broughton Gifford on 12^th January 1826.


35N23	William Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and it was there he was baptised on 12^th February 1809, another son of William and Mary Collett.


35N24	Mary Ann Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 14^th January 1811, the daughter of William Collett and Mary Line. She later married William Granger Hulbert at some time prior to 1833, with whom she had nine children. That was confirmed in part by the census in 1841 when William and his wife Mary Ann Hulbert were living within the Melksham area of Wiltshire. Listed with the couple were their six older children, all of whom were baptised at Rowde, midway between Melksham and Devizes. The couple’s five youngest children were born after 1837 and are shown in the GRO index with mother's maiden name Collett.

	Ten years later, in the census of 1851, William and Mary Ann were both listed as having been born at Broughton, when they were living at North Petherton, in Somerset, with eight of their nine children, just the eldest son missing. He was William Granger Hulbert, baptised on 4^th March 1833 at Rowde, and in 1851 he was one of three men working as a journeyman blacksmith who were living and working at Grittleton, north of Chippenham. William Hulbert was 18 and born at Rowde, the nephew of head of the household Thomas Collett, who was 30 and born at Broughton Gifford. The third blacksmith was Thomas Rudman, aged 28 and born at South Wraxall, who was one of the sons of Mary Collett (Ref. 31N8) and Thomas Rudman, a journeyman blacksmith himself. Another member of the later Collett family, Martha (Ref. 35N68), married Michael Rudman at Broughton Gifford on 9^th August 1860.

	William Granger Hulbert was born in 1805, whose death was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 74) during the last three months of 1872, when he was 67 years old. Just under two months later, probate was granted at Salisbury on 18^th January 1873 to his widow Mary Ann Hulbert, the document also confirmed that William passed away on 25^th November 1872. Nearly seven years after losing her husband, Mary Ann Hulbert died at Atworth, where she was buried on 17^th October 1878, her death also recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 83) at the age of 66. Likewise, it was at Salisbury, on 28^th December 1878, that the executors of her estate were named as her sons Frederick and William Hulbert.

	The inscription on the Hulbert family tomb at Atworth, although badly frost damaged, is known to read as follows: “Sacred to the memory of Betty Hulbert who departed this life January 26th 1827 aged 72 years. Also to the memory of William Hulbert who departed this life April 16th 1829 aged 74 years. Also to the memory of William Granger Hulbert grandson of William and Betty Hulbert who died November 25th 1872 aged 68 years. Also to the memory of Mary Ann the beloved wife of William Granger Hulbert who died October 17th 1878 aged 67 years. Frederick Hulbert son of the above died May 1st 1926 aged 77. Sarah Anna wife of Frederick Hulbert died April 20th 1932 aged 82.”


35N25	Thomas Collett was born at Broughton Gifford around 1820, although it is yet to be proved that he was the son of William Collett and Mary Line. The only reason for his inclusion here is that in 1851 he was the uncle of William Hulbert, the eldest son of Mary Ann Hulbert nee Collett (above). That year he was a journeyman blacksmith and head of the household at Grittleton, when the census return confirmed he was 30 years old and born at Broughton Gifford. William Hulbert was also a journeyman blacksmith at the age of 18 and had been born at Rowde. The final person at the same dwelling was Thomas Rudman, another journeyman blacksmith, who was 28 and from South Wraxall, the son of Mary Collett (Ref. 31N8) and Thomas Rudman.

	Ten years later unmarried Thomas Collett from Broughton in Wiltshire was 38 and a blacksmith, a boarder at the home of the Burdon family in Devers Lane at Bathford in Somerset. No further record of Thomas Collett from Broughton Gifford has been found, although the death of a Thomas Collett was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 32) during the third quarter of 1871. However, whoever reported his passing on 13^th September 1871, gave his age as 53.


35N26	Hannah Elizabeth Mortimer was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 24^th July 1813. She was the daughter of George Mortimer and Amelia (Millicent) Collett and eventually married one of her Collett cousins – go to Ref. 35N15 for the continuation of her life as Hannah Elizabeth Collett.


35N27	Stephen Collett was born around 1805 at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 30^th August 1807, the first-born child of Thomas and Maria Collett. It seems possible that, before he was twenty years of age, he married Mary who was around five or six years older than Stephen. It would also appear that the marriage produced just three children for the couple, before Stephen died just after 1841.

	By the time of the first national census the family had left the Melksham area, where their son was born, and had moved to the Chepstow & Monmouth registration district. Stephen’s rounded age was 35, while Mary’s was 40, and living with them were their two daughters Sarah 14 and Caroline who was nine years old. Ten years later in 1851 Mary was a widow aged 52, when she was living within the area of Usk & Pontypool with her daughters, Sarah who was 23 and Caroline who was 20.

	35O57	Sarah Collett					Born in 1827 at Melksham
	35O58	Caroline Collett					Born in 1830 at Melksham


35N28	William Collett was born at Broughton Gifford when he was baptised on 12^th February 1809, the second son of Thomas and Maria Collett. It was on 8^th October 1840 that William married Elizabeth Gunstone at Melksham and during the next eleven months their first child was born. Elizabeth was baptised at Melksham on 23^rd July 1812, the daughter of John Gunstone and Sarah Gale. William would have been approaching thirty-two when he married Elizabeth, so it is possible that William may have first married Catherine when he was around twenty-one since, a certain Mary Collett, the daughter of William and Catherine Collett, was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 29^th April 1832, who could have been named after his mother.

	35O59	Sarah Collett					Born in 1841 at Melksham


35N29	Thomas Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 2^nd June 1811, another son of Thomas and Maria Collett. He may have been around ten years old when his mother died, following which his father was remarried and in 1829 Thomas sailed to America with his father, step-mother and three half-brothers John, Job and Jacob (below). Initially, Thomas worked with his father at Bangor in Maine where, in 1845, they founded a file cutting business to serve the local lumber trade and during the following year father and son were both living on Pine Street in Bangor, where they were recorded as file cutters. During the next few years Thomas’ half-brother John was married, most likely in Maine, before moving to Hamden in New Haven, Connecticut. According to the Hamden census in 1850 the half-brothers were living next door to each other, when they were both described as butchers, perhaps even working together.

	By that time, Thomas from England, aged 37, was married to Ann, who was 34 and from England, and they had with them daughter Harriet A Collett who was two years of age and born at Connecticut. Ten years later Thomas and Ann were still residing in Hamden, when the 1860 recorded their slightly larger family as Thomas Collett who was 47, Ann Collett who was 45, Harriet Collett who was 12, Daniel Collett who was nine and Stephen Collett who was seven. Thomas was no longer living next door to his half-brother John, who had moved away by then.

	It was after a further ten years when Thomas H Collett aged 59 and from England was granted American citizenship at New Haven on 16^th March 1870. That same year, the census included just Thomas aged 59, Ann who was 55 and their son Daniel who was 19. By then Thomas was a farmer, Ann was keeping house and Daniel was working at an auger shop.

	35O60	Harriet Ann Collett					Born in 1848 at Hamden, Connecticut
	35O61	Daniel T Collett					Born in 1850 at Hamden, Connecticut
	35O62	Stephen Collett					Born in 1852 at Hamden, Connecticut


35N30	Harriet Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, but was baptised at nearby Melksham on 19^th December 1813, the only daughter of Thomas Collett, a weaver, and Maria Spencer, who had five sons.


35N31	John Collett was born at Broughton Gifford around 1815, another son of Thomas and Maria Collett. His mother died when he was only a few years old, following which his father remarried and, eventually in 1829, the family sailed off to a new life in America. However, John Collett from Broughton Gifford may have stayed in the village of his birth, where he was a married man in the census returns for 1851 and 1861. In the first of them, the childless couple was recorded as John Collett who was 36, an inn keeper and a shoemaker, and Jane Collett who was 43 from Wales, when they were living in Bradford-on-Avon, with a servant girl and an elderly gentleman lodger. Ten years later they were residing at The Common in Holt, two miles from Bradford-on-Avon, when John from Broughton Gifford was 46 and a shoemaker, and Jane from South Wales was 53. To supplement the income earned by her husband, Jane took in lodgers and, on that census day in 1861, there were three middle-aged boarders staying with the couple. Nine years later, the death of John Collett, aged 55, was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 96) during the first three months of 1870.


35N32	Harry Collett was baptised at Melksham on 29^th September 1816, the fifth of the six children born to weaver Thomas and Maria Collett. It is more than likely that he was born at Broughton Gifford earlier in 1816, where his siblings were born, with baptisms also conducted at Melksham. Sadly, Harry Collett was one-year-old when he died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 27^th April 1817.


35N33	Henry Collett was very likely born at Broughton Gifford in 1818, like most of his older siblings, being the sixth child of Thomas Collett by his first wife Maria Spencer. Also, as with most of his older siblings, Henry Collett, aged two years, was baptised at Melksham on 21^st May 1820, when his parents were incorrectly recorded as James and Maria Collett. Also baptised with him that same day was his younger brother James (below). The deciding factor in this, is that the occupation of the father of Henry Collett was confirmed as that of a weaver, which had previously been established as his job of work on the occasion of earlier sibling baptisms. Henry’s mother died in 1822, after which his father married Jane Marks. Thanks to Laura Swenson Akerman in America, who generously provided lots of details of the life of Henry Collett, we now know that he accompanied his father and his stepmother Jane, when they sailed to America with two of Henry’s older brothers, plus three half-brothers.

	Once in America, and at the age of 21, Henry Collett from England married Maria Maslen (1820-1900) in New York on 2^nd June 1839. Maria was the daughter of Stephen and Jane Maslen of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire, where Maria was baptised on 24^th December 1820. The two witnesses were Maria’s sister Jane C Maslen and her future husband Lorenzo Demmond. Two days later, Henry purchased a property in Jackson County, Illinois, where the couple was living in 1841 after the birth of their first child in New York. A second property was acquired there on 1^st January 1841. Nine years later the census in 1850 identified the family living at Hamden in New Haven, Connecticut, where Henry purchased two more properties, which he eventually sold to two residents of Hamden. In the census that year Henry Collett from England was 32 and a mechanic, Maria was 29 and also born in England, and their three sons were Walsingham H Collett aged ten, William M Collett aged eight, both born in Illinois, and Charles C Collett who was two years old and born after the family settled in Hamden.

	It was later than same year that the couple’s last child was born in Hamden, and when Henry purchased a property at Orono, Penobscot, in Maine on 20^th October 1850. No record of the family has been found in 1860. By 1868 it was back at Hamden, Centreville, Mount Carmel in New Haven where they were living while, after a further two years, it was at Buffalo, Prince Edward, Virginia, that they were recorded in the census of 1870, conducted during the month of September that year. On that occasion Henry was 53 years old and working as a farmer, although the surname was incorrectly recorded as Corlette, when Maria was 48 and keeping house. Staying with the couple were two of their sons, who were married and already each had a child of their own. They were William M Collett, with his wife and their one-year-old son, and Charles C Collett and his wife with their two-month-old son.

	And it was there at Buffalo, nine months later, that Henry purchase a property on 2^nd March 1871. Seven months later, in October 1871 another property was purchased at Orono, Penobscot. It was only four months after that, when Henry Collett died on 12^th February 1872 at Ware in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. According to one report, he dropped dead in the street near Mister Addison Sanford, who lived several doors down from the house of his sister-in-law, Jane C Demond nee Maslen, in Ware. He was buried at Central Burying Grounds in Hamden, New Haven, with his Will proved there later that same year. Although not mentioned in the Will, there was known to be an outstanding debt owed to Henry by his half-brother Job Collett (below) of Bangor, Maine, which may account for a death notice being printed in the Bangor Daily Whig & Courier – “In Hamden, Conn., suddenly of a heart decease, Henry Collett aged about 58 years.”

	His obituary was published in the Massachusetts Spy; Worcester, on Friday February 18^th 1872, under the heading “Our New England Dispatches: Massachusetts – Ware, Feb. 12 – This forenoon Mr Henry Collett dropped dead in the street near the residence of Mr Addison Sanford; cause, heart decease. Mr Collett formerly resided Iver Station, Conn., and was about fifty years old.”

	The Will of Henry Collett was made on 18^th November 1871, less than three months before he died, and was proved at New Haven Probate Court on 28^th March 1872. “Know all men by these present, that I Henry Collett of New Haven County, Connecticut, and now residing in Ware, Mass., being in good health and sound mind and memory, do make this my Last Will and Testament. First, I hereby constitute and appoint my wife Maria Collett to be my sole executrix to this my Will, to pay off all just debts and the legacies hereinafter mentioned out of my estate. To my son, Henry W Collett I give the house and lot in Iverville whereon he now resides, also a note I hold against him for Fourteen Hundred and Fifty Dollars, also Five Hundred Dollars in money. To my son William M Collett I give Twenty-Five Hundred Dollars to be paid him with interest within five years of my decease the interest to be paid annually until the principal is paid. To my son Charles C Collett I give Twenty-Five Hundred Dollars to be paid him with interest within five years of my decease the interest to be paid annually until the principal is paid.

	Second, after the above legacies are paid, I give all the remainder to my estate in houses, lands, monies, notes, bonds, stocks and all my valuables, whatsoever to my wife Maria Collett as long as she shall remain unmarried and my widow, with the remainder thereof on her decease or marriage, to my children or their heirs respectively share and share alike. Executed and signed by me at Ware, Massachusetts in the presence of the undersigned witnesses this eighteenth day of November eighteen hundred and seventy one. Signed by Henry Collett The three witnesses were Lorenzo Demond, Laura E Maslen, and Mary Craft

	Eleven months prior to his death, Henry Collett had placed an advertisement in The Cultivator & Country Gentleman magazine on 2^nd March 1871, relating to the property in which he had been living in 1870, as follows *“Central Virginia* – We have here as fine a climate as in the world, midway between mountain and sea; land beautifully undulating; water pure, with clear streams; the finest fruit region on the continent. Lands are cheap and been badly tilled, but can easily be brought back to great fertility. Deep plowing and clover will do it. I have lived in many States east and west, but find none so healthy as here. Winters are mild, and farming operations on the land go on the whole winter when not too wet. We are on one of the great thoroughfares from New York to Memphis, Tenn., and this country must soon fill up. H Collett – Prince Edward County, Va.”

	35O63	Henry Walsingham Collett					Born in 1840 at New York
	35O64	William Mortimer Collett					Born in 1841 at Jackson County, Illinois
	35O65	Charles C Collett					Born in 1848 at Hamden, New Haven
	35O66	Alfred Collett					Born on 09.03.1850 at Hamden Twnshp


35N34	James Collett was born in 1820 at Broughton Gifford and was baptised at Melksham on 21^st May 1820 in a joint ceremony with his two-year-old brother Henry (above), the last child of Thomas and Collett and Maria Spencer.


35N35	John Collett was baptised at Melksham on 21^st November 1824, having been born earlier in that year, the eldest of the three sons of butcher Thomas Collett by his second wife Jane Marks. John was around five or six years of age when his father took the young family to live in America. On the occasion of the US Census in 1850, John Collett from England was 25 years of age and had been married to Ann for around two years, with whom he already had two young children. On that day the family of four was living in Hamden, New Haven in Connecticut, where John was a butcher. His wife Ann A Collett was also 25 and had been born in Maine. The couple’s first child Charles H Collett, who was one year old and had also been born in Maine, before settling in Connecticut where their second child, baby Jason S Collett, had only just been born. Staying with the family was mechanic James Simpson 23 and Mercy H Simpson 29, both from Maine, possibly related to John’s wife. Living in the adjacent dwelling was the family of butcher Thomas Collett from England, who was 37, and his wife Ann who was 34 and from England, and their daughter Harriet A Collett aged two years and born in Connecticut. Thomas was John’s half-brother from his father’s first marriage.

	In April 1854 their daughter Emma Jane Collett was born at Hamden, when her parents were confirmed as John Collett and Ann A Collett. That event was confirmed in the next census of 1860, by which time the family was living at Princeton in Bureau County, Illinois. The family that year was listed as: John Collett, a drover of 35; Ann A Collett 36; Charles H Collett 12; Jason S Collett 10; Mary E Collett who was eight; Emma J Collett who was six; John H Collett who was four; and George E Collett who was one year old. At least two more children were added to the family, while the death of George E Collett was recorded at St Louis City in Missouri where he was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery. That move to Missouri was confirmed again in the census of 1870 when John was a farmer aged 48. His wife Ann was 46, daughter Mary was 18, Emma was 16, John H Collett was 14, and George was curiously stated as being only four years of age, when he was nearer seven years old.

	According to the next census in 1880 John Collett and his family were living at Blue Mound in Vernon County, Missouri, where John from England was a farmer at the age of 56 and Ann was 58 and from Maine. The only children living with them that day were their daughter Emma A Collett (sic) who was 26 and born in Connecticut, John Collett junior who was 20 and born in Illinois, and George D Collett who was 17 and born in Missouri. Twenty years later John Collett was still living at Blue Mound where he was described in the 1900 Census as being widower who was 76, who had been born in England during October 1824, and who entered America in 1829. Looking after John in his old age was married couple and servants John and Laura Rupard, who also had living there with them, their one-year old son George Rupard, all of them born in Missouri.

	35O67	Charles H Collett					Born in 1849 at Maine
	35O68	Jason S Collett					Born in 1850 at Hamden, Connecticut
	35O69	Mary E Collett					Born in 1852 at Hamden, Connecticut
	35O70	Emma Jane Collett					Born in 1854 at Hamden, Connecticut
	35O71	John H Collett					Born in 1856 in Illinois
	35O72	George E Collett					Born in 1859 in Illinois; died 1864
	35O73	John Collett					Born in 1860 in Illinois
	35O74	George Dexter Collett					Born in 1863 in Missouri


35N36	Job Collett was born at Melksham on 26^th May 1825, the second son of Thomas and Jane Collett. Job was four years old when his father took the family to live in America during 1829. In America the family lived initially at Hamden in Connecticut, then at Lowell in Massachusetts, and finally at Bangor in Maine, where Job eventually lived and worked as a file cutter. For many years the first column on the front page of the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier promoted the successful file cutting business of Job Collett of Exchange Street in Bangor with the following words. “Now is the time to sharpen up and get ready for business. I have on hand 1000 files and am finishing off 150 dozen per week which I am selling at the lowest prices and will warrant them equal to any imported. Call and see them. Old files re-cut as usual”. In 1851 Job was first listed in the Bangor City Directory as being employed at Woodbury & Collett File Factory and Hardware Store at 35 Exchange Street in Bangor, but it was during the following year that his established his very own lucrative file cutting company.

	Job was twice married, the first time to (1) Julia born in England on 1^st April 1828 who sadly died when she was only 25 years of age on 16^th September 1853, following which she was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor where a tombstone marks her grave. That first marriage produced one child for Job and Julia who was Jennie M Collett (1850-1872). Job then married (2) Elizabeth A Sawyer from Old Town, Maine, and their marriage produced a son who was born during January 1856 but who died in March that same year. Three more children were added to their family and tragically the second of those also died when she was only two months old in 1866. A joint memorial for Willie and Lille at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor has a sheep resting on the top and is situated in an area of the cemetery set aside for the Collett family. Job Collett died on 26^th July 1894 and was also buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, where his wife was later laid to rest following the death of Elizabeth A Collett nee Sawyer on 4^th November 1906, her birth recorded as 17^th May 1834.

	Other elaborate memorial stones within the Collett area of Mount Hope Cemetery at Bangor include those of Jane Collett nee Marks, the wife of Thomas Collett and mother of Job, Julia M Collett the first wife of Job Collett, Jennie M. Collett the only child Job and Julia M Collett. Beside the grand memorial for Job Collett is one for Charles T Collett who was born on 26^th December 1857 who died on 16^th November 1913, his third child. The photograph on the right shows in the background, the large memorial to Job Collett which is built fine-grained grey granite and stands at the head of a family plot containing six graves, while in the foreground is the smaller memorial stone for his first wife Julia M Collett. To the left of the latter are the other four gravestones.

	Following the death of Job Collett the Bangor Daily Whig published an article which read: “The late Mr Job Collett was a pioneer in this city in advertising by a cut of himself. Many of The Whig readers will remember the ad and the position it occupied for years at the head of the first column on the first page with the injunction - “Files! Files! Now is the time to sharpen up,” while below was a cut of M Collett sitting at a file block in the act of cutting a file. He used this ad for years and became well known all over the State thereby”. Sadly, seventeen years after the death of Job Collett, nearly everything he had created over fifty years of hard work and dedication was destroyed during the Great Fire of Bangor in 1911. In addition to all of this, the name of Job Collett of Bangor was listed in the Will of his older half-brother Henry Collett (above), proved in 1872, which described Job as having an outstanding unpaid debt, and also mentioned in Henry’s obituary published in a Bangor newspaper.

	35O75	Jennie M Collett		Born on 26.07.1850 at Bangor; died 22.02.1872
	The following are the five children of Job Collett by his second wife Elizabeth A Sawyer:
	35O76	Willie Thomas Collett		Born in 1856 at Bangor, Maine; died 30.03.1856
	35O77	Charles T Collett		Born in 1857 at Bangor, Maine
	35O78	Carrie Collett		Born in 1864 at Bangor, Maine
	35O79	Lillie Collett		Born in 1866 at Bangor, Maine; died 19.07.1866
	35O80	Henry Eugene Collett		Born in 1872 at Bangor, Maine


35N37	Jacob F Collett was baptised at Melksham on 23^rd July 1826, the youngest of the three sons of Thomas Collett, an inn keeper, and his second wife Jane Marks. Jacob was three years old when Thomas and Jane sailed to America with their young family in 1929. His first appearance in America was on the occasion of the census in 1870, by which time he was married and residing in the state of Maine. Jacob from England was 44 and a merchant tailor, his wife Augusta Collett from New Hampshire was 36, and their children were Frances M Collett who was 17 and born in Massachusetts, as was son Harry A Collett who was 14, with Frank Collett aged 11 from New Hampshire, while Albert L Collet aged four years had been born after the family had settled in Maine.

	Ten years later it was at Corinna in Penobscot County, Maine, that Jacob F Collett was 54 and still working as a merchant tailor. Augusta was 47, and the children still living with the couple was their married daughter Fannie M Green, aged 26, with her younger husband Edgar M Green who was 23 and from Maine, plus their Jacob’s youngest son Albert L Collett who was 15 and youngest daughter Valentine E Collett who was six years old. Curiously the census return recorded that both Albert and Valentine had been born in Nebraska, which is contrary to the previous census, and the fact that in 1870 and 1880 the family had been recorded in Maine, a long way from Nebraska.

	During his twilight years Jacob returned to Massachusetts and, in the census conducted in 1900, he was 75 and described as a cutter of men’s clothing, living at Somerville City Ward 4 in Middlesex County. The census form that year described his wife as Hannah A Collett who was 67 who had been born at New Hampshire during October 1833. Four years earlier, on the tragic occasion of the premature death of their youngest child, shortly after she was married, her death certificate revealed that the wife of Jacob F Collett from England was Hannah Augusta Brown who had been born at Concord in New Hampshire.

	35O81	Frances M Collett		Born in 1853 in Massachusetts
	35O82	Harry A Collett		Born in 1856 in Massachusetts
	35O83	Frank Collett		Born in 1859 in New Hampshire
	35O84	Albert L Collett		Born in 1866 in Maine
	35O85	Valentine E Collett		Born in 1874 at Newport, Maine


35N38	Sarah Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 25^th December 1809, the first child of Stephen Collett and Hannah Mortimer.


35N39	Anne Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, the second child of Stephen and Hannah Collett, her baptism conducted at Broughton Gifford on 24^th May 1812.


35N40	John Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, perhaps when his sister Mary (above) was two years old and two years before the birth of his brother Harry (below), placing his year of birth around 1814. It would also appear that his baptism was delayed and, in the end, he was baptised at Broughton Gifford in a joint ceremony with his brother Harry on 23^rd February 1817. The parish register recorded the pair of them as the sons of shoemaker Stephen Collett and Hannah Mortimer, leading to the original speculation that they may have been twin brothers. However, new information discovered in 2020 reveals that the continuation of the life of John Collett, depicted from here onwards, MUST relate to a different John Collett, another shoemaker of Broughton Gifford, that of the son of William Collett and Jane Webb of Broughton Gifford.

	The outcome of this discovery, resulted in a search for the real John Collett, the son of Stephen Collett and Hannah Mortimer, whose details now follow, with the details of John Collett, the son of William Collett and Jane Webb following after that with the out-of-place Ref. 35O1.

	Although no record for John Collett of Broughton Gifford, son of Stephen and Hannah, has been found anywhere within the census of 1841, the subsequent census returns, up until his passing, confirm that he was born at Broughton Gifford in 1814. The marriage of John Collett and Jane Bailey, from South Wales, was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 128) during the second quarter of 1843, but may have taken place at Broughton Gifford. Janes was seven years older than John, consequently they had no children and, in 1851 when John from Broughton Gifford was 36 and a shoemaker and an inn keeper, when his wife Jane was 43. With the couple that day was servant Elvira Williams from Wales who was 20 and a general servant working at the inn, and lodger John Wilshire from nearby Holt, who was 73 and an agricultural pauper.

	By 1861, John had given up being an inn keeper and was simply a shoemaker, residing at Holt Common with the parish of Bradford-on-Avon at the age of 46. Jane Collett from Glamorganshire was 53 and had three gentleman boarders. They were Edwin Chandler 36, Samuel Mann 38, and Richard Gillingham who was 54. During the following decade, John and Jane travelled two miles to the village of Holt, where they were recorded in the census of 1871, when John from Broughton Gifford was 56 and again working as a shoemaker, while Jane was 63 and said to be from Laudmead in Wales (?). John Collett was 66 when his death was recorded at Devizes (Ref. 5a 77) during the first three months of 1881. The census just after the day of his passing identified his widow Jane Collett as having returned to Bradford-on-Avon, when she was living at Station Road in the town, where she was a lodging-house keeper at the age of 73. Staying at the lodging-house that day were two people, Alice Bristow who was 12 and male Jesse Reeves who was 28. It was fifteen years after that, when the death of Jane Collett, aged 89, was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 5a 365) during the last three months of 1896, following which she was buried on 27^th November 1896.


35O1 (35N40)	John Collett was the son of shoemaker William Collett of Broughton Gifford and his wife Jane Webb, previously confused with John Collett (above), the son of shoemaker Stephen Collett and Hannah Mortimer. Although no birth of baptism has been found within the parish records at Broughton, John could have been born there in 1818, where the is a four gap between the two known daughters of William and Jane. His mother died around 1820, perhaps during the birth of his younger sister Elizabeth, after which William had three more children with his second wife Elizabeth. It may be worth mentioning that no record of William’s marriages to Jane or Elizabeth have been located, nor has any record of the death of Jane around 1820. By the time of the census in 1841, John Collett had a rounded age of 20, when he was living at the Atworth home of his father William Collett

	Towards the end of the following year, the marriage of John Collett and Sarah Halstead Wiggell was recorded in the Marylebone district of London (Ref. i 108), during the fourth quarter of the year. The marriage certificate, signed by both of them and kindly provided by Roger Collett in 2020, confirmed that they were married after the reading of banns at St Mary’s Church in the parish of St Marylebone on 2^nd November 1842, both of them of full age. John was a shoemaker of 21 Inebee Street (?), while Sarah was residing at Tame House, her father being John Wiggell. Furthermore, just as with the census in the previous year, the father of John Collett was recorded as William Collett, a shoemaker. Although not written on the certificate, it is established that Sarah was a school mistress. By the time of the census in 1851, the pair of them had settled in Wiltshire and were living at Rose Cottage in Atworth Chapelry, near Melksham, where their two known children were born during the next decade.

	The Atworth census return for 1851 included John Collett aged 31 who was born at Broughton Gifford, who was described as a master shoemaker employing two men and two boys. His wife Sarah Collett was 27 and visiting the couple was Sarah Whitby, a married lady aged 60. Both of them were recorded as having been born at Harwich in Essex, raising the question, were they mother and daughter. If so, then maybe Sarah’s mother had remarried. In addition to those three adults there were also two young females staying at the Collett household, and they were sisters Emily Lewis who was 14 and Laura Lewis who was 12 who were both born at Atworth and who were very likely the pupils of school mistress Sarah Collett.

	Sarah presented John with two children over the following six years, as confirmed by the census in 1861 when the family of four was still living at Rose Cottage in Atworth. John Collett from Broughton Gifford was 42 and a cordwainer, his wife Sarah from Harwich in Essex was 37, their daughter Sarah M Collett was eight years old and their son John S Collett was three years old, both of them born at Atworth. Still living with the family was widow Sarah Whitby from Harwich who was 71 by then. It was just less than nine years later that the death of John Collett of Atworth and Broughton Gifford was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 273) during the first three months of 1870 when his age was said to be 55.

	The following year, the census return for 1871, included widow and head of the household at Rose Cottage on ‘The Street’ in Atworth, Sarah Halstead Collett, was 48 years of age and from Harwich, whose occupation was that of a school mistress. Her two children were confirmed as daughter Sarah Mary Collett who was 18 and a dressmaker and her son John Stanier Collett who was 13 and an errand boy. Living in the dwelling next to Rose Cottage was Henry Collett (below), a widower from Broughton Gifford, with his two children Sarah Ann and Thomas who were both born in Birmingham. And, in the next but one dwelling, was 71-year-old widower and cottager John Collett (Ref. 44L11) from South Wraxall with his son Thomas (Ref. 44M13) from Atworth, who was 46 and a servant out of employment.

	By the time of the census in 1881 Sarah H Collett, aged 59 and from Harwich in Essex, was a widow living at Main Street in Bradford-on-Avon with her unmarried son John S Collett, aged 23, who was a carpenter who had been born at Atworth. Her absent, unmarried daughter, Sarah Mary Collett was 27 and had already left the family home and was living and working at Shaw Hill House on the Bath Road in Melksham. Curiously, the move to Bradford also happened for the aforementioned near neighbour John Collett who was also living on Main Street that same year when he was 81 years old and still had his eldest son Thomas Collett from Atworth still living with him. The death of Sarah Halstead Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 289) during the last three months of 1884, when she was 64 years old.

	35O86	Sarah Mary Collett					Born in 1853 at Atworth
	35O87	John Stanier Collett					Born in 1857 at Atworth


35N41	Henry Collett was born at Broughton Gifford around 1816 and may have been the twin brother of John Collett (above) with whom he was baptised on 23^rd February 1817 as Harry Collett, their father confirmed as shoemaker Stephen Collett. It was at Limpley Stoke, three miles west of Bradford-on-Avon, where Henry Collett married (1) Jane Lovelock on 10^th October 1841. Both of them were of full-age, a bachelor and a spinster, Henry a shoemaker and Jane a dressmaker, both residing in Bradford. Henry’s father was confirmed as Stephen Collett, a shoemaker, while Jane’s father was Jacob Lovelock who was a labourer. Both Henry and Jane signed the register in their own hand, with the two witnesses not any member of either family. After giving birth to three children in Wiltshire, Henry’s work took the family to the Aston district of Birmingham, where they were living at Cheapside in 1851. Henry Collett from Broughton Gifford was 35 and a master boot and shoemaker, his wife Jane Collett was also 35, but born in Bradford-on-Avon, and their children were, Edwin Collett who was eight and Albert Collett who was seven – both born at Holt in Wiltshire, and Francis Collett who was three and born at Biddestone.

	Two further children were added to the family while they were still living in Aston although, by 1861, the family was residing at Birchall Street in Aston. On that census day the family comprised Henry Collett who was 44 and a boot and shoe maker, Jane Collett who was 44 and working with her husband as a boot binder, Edwin Collett who was 18, Albert Collett who was 17, Francis Collett who was 15, Amy H Collett who was eight and Sarah A Collett who was two years old. Another son, Thomas, was added to the family later that same year.

	Jane Collett, nee Lovelock, died on 21^st April 1864 at 50 Lombard Street in Aston, Birmingham. Her death certificate confirmed that she was 40, the wife of Henry Collett, a cordwainer. The cause of death was cerebral disease over the previous six days, while informant on 2^nd May was her son Edwin Collett, who make the mark of a cross. Following his loss, Henry returned to Wiltshire, when he initially settled in the village of Atworth, where he occupied the dwelling next door to his brother John and his wife Sarah from Harwich in Essex. Tragically, John died in the first quarter of 1870, so by 1871 the census that year confirmed that his widow Sarah Halstead Collett, aged 48 and a school mistress was the next-door neighbour of widowed Henry Collett from Broughton Gifford who was 50 and a boot and shoe maker. On that occasion Henry had living there with him his daughter Sarah Ann Collett who was 12 and his son Thomas Collett who was nine, both born in Birmingham and both of them attending the village school, where Sarah Halstead Collett was very likely their teacher.

	It was at Melksham on 23^rd October 1876 that widower Henry Collett married (2) widow Elizabeth Eliza Scott who was born at Holt in Wiltshire in 1829 as Elizabeth Eliza Hutton. The marriage certificate confirmed that Henry, the son of shoemaker Stephen Collett, was 59 and a shoemaker who signed the certificate in his own hand, and that his bride was 49, the daughter of carpenter John Hutton, who made the mark of a cross. One of the witnesses was Simeon Collett, Henry’s youngest sibling. By the time of the census in 1881 Henry, aged 64, was a bootmaker from Broughton Gifford, who was living with his wife Elizabeth, aged 52, at Broughton Road in Melksham. Living just three doors away in Broughton Road was his cousin Stephen Collett, and also living further along in the same street was his bootmaker brother Simeon Collett (below). According to the next census in 1891, Henry Collett from Broughton Gifford was 74 and a boot and shoe maker, and his wife Eliza E Collett from Holt was 62, when they were living on Bath Road in Melksham. Nine years later, Henry Collett died at Melksham on 8^th January 1900, his death certificate confirmed he was 83 and a former master shoemaker, who suffered with cerebral softening for nine years, the informant being Martha Doddimead who was present when he passed and who lived at Bath Road in Melksham, Henry’s next-door neighbour.

	35O88	Edwin Collett					Born in 1842 at Holt, nr Broughton Giff.
	35O89	Albert Collett					Born in 1844 at Holt, nr Broughton Giff.
	35O90	Francis Collett					Born in 1845 at Biddestone
	35O91	Aimee Hannah Collett					Born in 1851 at Aston, Birmingham
	35O92	Sarah Ann Collett					Born in 1858 at Aston, Birmingham
	35O93	Thomas Collett					Born in 1861 at Aston, Birmingham


35N42	Mary Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1819. At the age of twenty years, Mary married Jacob Gay at Broughton Gifford on 25^th December 1839. Jacob was born at Brought Gifford in 1819 and was the son of weaver James Gay and Hannah Borns. It may be of interest that there had been earlier marriages at Broughton Gifford between the Collett and Gay families. They were Ann Collett to Timothy Gay on 12^th April 1701 and Edith Collett to William Gay on 12^th May 1714.

	By the time of the first national census in June 1841 Mary and Jacob, whose rounded ages were both 20 years, were living at Broughton Gifford with their first child James Gay, who had been born there, but who was not yet one-year old. Ten years later Mary was confirmed as being 30, while her husband Jacob was 31, when they and their five children were still living at Broughton Gifford, where all of their children at that time had been born. The children were James who was 10, Ann who was eight, John who was six, John who was four, and Mary who was one-year old.

	A further three children were added to the family over the next decade, so by 1861, the family comprised Mary, aged 41, Jacob who was 42, and their children James 21, Ann 18, John 16, John 14, Mary 11, Isaac who was eight, Frank who was six and George who was three. At that time, the family was listed as living in Trowbridge, where the most recent children had been born.

	Three years after that census day in 1861, Mary Gay nee Collett aged 44 died at Silver Street in Studley, Trowbridge and was buried at Trowbridge on 22^nd October 1864. It is possible Mary died during the birth of the couple’s tenth child. It was during the following year that Jacob married Emma Randall, with whom he had a further five children. The marriage certificate confirmed he was a widower and the son of weaver James Gay, and a witness to the marriage was Jacob’s brother Isaac Gay, who was born in 1826.

	Sixteen years later, according to the 1881 Census, Jacob, aged 61, was working as a woollen weaver. He was living at 2 Silver Street Lane in Trowbridge with his wife Emma who was 45 and was a woollen weaver from Bradley in Wiltshire. Living with the couple were their five children Jane 14, William 12, Enos who was eight, Obadiah who was five, and Dinah who was two, all of the children having been born at Trowbridge. Also, still living with his father, was Charles Gay, aged 19, the only remaining child from Jacob’s first marriage.

	The full name of Mary’s and Jacob’s son Frank, who was six years old in 1861, was Frank Stephen Collett Gay. When in his mid-twenties he married Ada Searl from Portsmouth and both of them were woollen weavers in 1881, when they were living at 78 Dursley Road in Trowbridge, with no children.

	Also living at Trowbridge in 1881 was Ephraim Gay and his wife Ruth Ricketts, who was possibly related to Jacob Gay. However, this was not Ephraim Gay of Broughton Gifford who was living there in 1881 when he was incorrectly listed as Ephraim Jay. It was the son of Ephraim Gay of Broughton Gifford, George Edward Gay, who married Lilly May Bunker in 1909. Lilly May was the great great grand-daughter of Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 1L2) of Kempsford.

	See Part One – The Main Line 1700 to 1800 for further details of this family link


35N43	Simeon Collett was born at Broughton Gifford around 1823, the youngest child of blacksmith Stephen Collett. It was at the parish church in the village of Keevil that Simeon Collett was married by banns to Sophia Stinchcombe on 13^th May 1846, when both of them were recorded as being of full age (sic), he a bachelor and a cordwainer from Broughton, she a spinster of Keevil. The couple signed the parish register in their own hand, when one of the witnesses was Alijah Stinchcombe. Sophia was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 25^th November 1827, the daughter of blacksmith Nathaniel Stinchcomb and his wife Ruth, her surname being given to Simeon’s second son. Sophia would therefore appear to have been around nineteen years of age when she married twenty-three-year-old Simeon. All of their children were born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there, apart that is from their second son, for whom no baptism record has been found. Tragically, the couple’s first three did not survived beyond infancy.

	According to the census of 1851 the family was living in the main street in Broughton Gifford, two dwellings away from Simeon’s ‘one-step removed’ cousin Samuel Collett (Ref. 35N15) and his family. Simeon, aged 27, was a cordwainer, his wife Sophia was 23, and the only child listed with them on that occasion was their son Francis who was four years old. All three of them were confirmed as having been born at Broughton Gifford. By that time, the couple’s second and third-born sons, James and Albert, had already died, with further tragedy to follow for Simeon and Sophia, later that same year, with the death of son Frank. Simeon’s wife Sophia would have been with-child on the day of the census since, shortly after, she gave birth to their fourth child who was baptised four months later. Sadly, that child also died before reaching her fourth birthday.

	By 1861 Simeon was 37 and was still a cordwainer living with his family in the main street in Broughton Gifford. Sophia was 33 and the only child listed as living with the couple at that time was their daughter Matilda who was five years old. It seems highly likely that all of their first six children had died as a result of some common illness. Once again Sophia was with-child on the day of the census and, three months, later she gave birth to another daughter.

	Ten years later, according to the 1871 Census for Broughton Gifford, Simeon was 46 and his wife Sophia was 45. Living with them were their two sole surviving children, and they being their daughters Matilda who was 15 and Abijah who was nine years old. Simeon was a shoemaker (a cordwainer) like his brother Henry Collett (above) and, again like his brother and his cousin Stephen (above), he was living at Broughton Road in Melksham by the time of the census in 1881. Living with him was his wife Sophia who was 53, together with their youngest daughter Abijah Collett who was 19, and also born at Broughton Gifford.

	What was interesting about Simeon was that, according to the IGI, he was the subject of an adult baptism at Broughton Gifford on 21^st August 1870. The record also confirmed that he was the son of Stephen Collett and his wife Hannah Collett (nee Mortimer). It is possible that he had been persuaded to take this action in order to safeguard the lives of his two surviving daughters. By 1891 Simeon Collett was 69, when he was living within the Trowbridge & Melksham registration district with his wife Sophia Collett who was 63. Still living with the couple was their unmarried daughter Abijah A Collett who was 29. Over three years later, when the death of Simeon Collett was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 64) during the last three months of 1894, he was estimated to be 70 years of age.

	35O94	Frank Stinchcomb Collett			Born in 1847 at Broughton Gifford
	35O95	James Collett			Born in 1848 at Broughton Gifford
	35O96	Albert Collett			Born in 1849 at Broughton Gifford
	35O97	Ruth Hannah Collett			Born in 1851 at Broughton Gifford
	35O98	Alicia Collett			Born in 1853 at Broughton Gifford
	35O99	Maria Collett			Born in 1853 at Broughton Gifford
	35O100	Matilda Collett			Born in 1856 at Broughton Gifford
	35O101	Abijah Alice Collett			Born in 1861 at Broughton Gifford


35N44	Anne Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, within four months of the marriage of her parents, and was baptised there on 13^th October 1811, the first children of John Collett and Sarah Elmes. Tragically, it was exactly one week later, when her death was recorded at Broughton Gifford on 20^th October 1811.


35N45	Thomas Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 25^th September 1814, the eldest son of labourer John and Sarah Collett. He was twenty-five years of age when married his cousin Ann Collett (Ref. 35N54) at Broughton Gifford on 4^th April 1840. Ann was twenty-one and the daughter of Daniel and Sarah Collett of Broughton Gifford, who was baptised there on 18^th October 1818. Next year, according to the census of 1841, the recently married couple was still living in Broughton Gifford, where Thomas Collett was 26 and his wife was recorded as being only 20 years of age instead of 22, perhaps an enumerator’s error. During the following years Thomas and Ann moved to London when, in 1851, the childless couple was living at 18 West Street in the St George Hanover Square area, where Thomas was incorrectly recorded as 31 – a mistake perhaps for 37 – when he was a police constable, Ann was 32, and visiting them was Thomas’ sister Mary Collett (below) who was 25. All three of them had been born at Broughton Gifford. So far, no record of Thomas and Ann has been unearthed after 1851.

	It is possible, although not confirmed, that Thomas may have later returned to Broughton Gifford, where a Thomas Collett aged 53 was buried on 2^nd July 1868. The death of that Thomas Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 198) during the third quarter of 1868, where his age was stated as being 54.


35N46	Samuel Collett was born at Broughton Gifford on 5^th September 1816 and was baptised there on 22^nd September 1816. The baptism record confirmed he was the son of labourer John and Sarah Collett and was still a bachelor in June 1841, when he was still living with his family at Church Brook in Broughton Gifford, with a rounded age of 25. He was still in Broughton Gifford when he married Hannah Tailor on 4^th July 1842, the marriage register confirming that Samuel’s father was John Collett, while Hannah’s father was named as John Tailor. Perhaps because of his work, John eventually left Wiltshire when he took his family to live in Monmouthshire, South Wales. No records have so far been found to suggest that they might have had any children. According to the census in 1851, Samuel Collett from Wiltshire was 35 and a farm labourer who was living at Baneswell Road in Newport, with his wife and his younger cousin. His wife was recorded as Anna Collett who was 36, while the cousins was farm labourer George Collett (Ref. 35N55) who was 24 (sic), and with him his wife Charlotte Collett who was 21, all four of them having been born in Wiltshire.

	In the census of 1861 Hannah Collett was 46 and by 1871 the couple was living at Christchurch within the Newport area of South Wales, where Samuel Collett from Broughton Gifford was 55 and a labourer, and his wife Hannah Collett from Melksham was 57. Ten years later in April 1881, Samuel and Hannah were living at 17 Liswerry Common in Christchurch, near Newport. Samuel was still working as a general labourer at the age of 65, when he gave his place of birth as Norrington, which is the hamlet adjacent to Broughton Gifford, when his wife Hannah was 67 and from Melksham. Completing the family group on the day was three-year-old Alice Wilson from Newport, who was simply described as boarding with the couple.

	Two years later, the death of Samuel Collett was recorded at Bedwelty in Monmouthshire (Ref. 11a 73) during the first three months of 1883, at the age of 67. The body of Samuel Collett was then laid to rest, when he was buried at Aberystruth in Monmouth on 22^nd March 1883. Four years after his passing, the death of his widow Hannah Collett nee Tailor was recorded at Newport (Ref. 11a 104) during the second quarter of 1887, when she was 74 years old. Although there is no direct link, this is yet another connection between the Collett families of Wiltshire and the Collett families of Christchurch near Newport, whose details are provided in Part 53 – The South Wales Branch Line.


35N47	Elizabeth Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1818 where she was baptised on 18^th October 1818, the eldest surviving daughter of labourer John Collett and Sarah Elmes. By the time of the census in 1841 Elizabeth had left the family home at Church Brook in Broughton Gifford and was possibly living in London where, eighteen months later she married James Ashman on 19^th September 1842 at St James’ Church in Paddington. James Ashman was a bachelor and a gardener residing at Conduit Street in Paddington, the son of George Ashman, a weaver. His bride was described as Elizabeth Collett a spinster of Maida Vale whose father was John Collett, a farmer, while the witnesses were William Hogg and Elizabeth Mills. The marriage of Elizabeth and James produced just one child before James died during the 1840s. Being a widow with a young son, Elizabeth returned to Broughton Gifford, where she was living with her parents on the day of the census in 1851. Elizabeth Ashman from Broughton Gifford was 32 and her son James Ashman was seven years and had been born at Marylebone in London.


35N48	William Collett was another son of labourer John Collett and was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 1^st April 1821. He was listed as being 20 years old in the census of 1841, when he was still living there with his family at Church Brook.


35N49	Anne Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where she was baptised on 1^st June 1823 and confirmed as the daughter of labourer John Collett and his wife Sarah. Sadly, just like the couple’s first child, also named Anne, she did not survive, and was twenty-one months old, when she was buried at Broughton Gifford on 26^th February 1825.


35N50	Anne Collett was born at Broughton Gifford shortly after her sister and namesake passed away in early 1825. Like her deceased sister, she was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 21^st August 1825, when she was confirmed as the daughter of labourer John Collett by his wife Sarah. She too, may not have survived, since she was not living with her family at Broughton Gifford in 1841.


35N51	Mary Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 5^th March 1826, the daughter of labourer John and Sarah Collett. When her brother Thomas (above) was married in 1840 he and his wife moved to London sometime after 1841. Upon leaving school around that same time Mary travelled to London, where she stayed at her brother’s home while she was working elsewhere as a servant. It was in the census of 1851 that Mary Collett, aged 25 and from Broughton Gifford, was described as a visitor at 18 West Street in the St Georges Hanover Square who was employed as a servant. The other occupants of the house were her brother Thomas Collett and his wife Ann, both from Broughton Gifford.


35N52	Sarah Collett was born at Broughton Gifford during 1829, where she was baptised on 14^th November 1830, the daughter of labourer John and Sarah Collett. She was 11 years old in the 1841 Census when she was still living with her parents at Church Brook in Broughton Gifford with just three of her siblings.


35N53	Eliza Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 18^th November 1832 and was nine years old at the time of the 1841 Census when she was recorded as living there with her family at Church Brook. She was the last child born to John Collett and his wife Sarah Elmes.


35N54	Maria Collett was born at Broughton Gifford on 30^th June 1816 and it was there that she was baptised on 22^nd September 1816, the first-born child of Daniel Collett and Sarah Gowin. Tragically, she died when she was only fourteen months old at Broughton Gifford, where she was buried on 17^th September 1817.


35N55	Ann Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where she was baptised on 18^th October 1818, the second child of Daniel Collett and Sarah Gowin and she married Thomas Collett at Broughton Gifford on 4^th April 1840. The register stated that Ann was 21 and the daughter of Daniel Collett, while Thomas was 25 and the son of John Collett. Ann and Thomas were first cousins, their respective fathers being brothers. For more details of the family of Ann and Thomas Collett go to Ref. 35N44 (above).


35N56	George Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 18^th February 1821 and was 20, according to the census of June 1841, when he was still living with his family. It was also at Broughton Gifford that George Collett, the son of Daniel Collett and Sarah Gowin, married Ruth Mayell on 8^th September 1845. The wedding was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon during the third quarter of the year (Ref. viii 108), where George was a labourer and confirmed as the son of Daniel Collett, with both the bridge and groom being single. It is not known whether they had any children during the next four years but, just one year prior to the census in 1851, Ruth Collett died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 14^th March 1850. Helping him get through the loss of his wife was his younger sister-in-law Charlotte Mayell, to whom he was married before the end of that year. Their marriage, most likely at Broughton Gifford, was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 31) during the final three months of 1850.

	By the time of the census in the following year, George and Charlotte was lodging with George’s older cousin Samuel Collett (Ref. 35N45) and his wife Hannah at their home on Baneswell Road in Newport, Monmouthshire. George was around ten years older than his new wife but, out of embarrassment, did not admit that to the census enumerator. As a result, the 1851 recorded the childless couple as George Collett, a farm labourer from Wiltshire who gave his age as 24, while his wife Charlotte Collett, also from Wiltshire, was 21. No further record of George or Charlotte has been found after that day.

	It may be of interest, that the Mayell name had earlier links with the Collett of Broughton Gifford. Upon the marriage Elizabeth Collett and William Tyler at Broughton Gifford on 13^th October 1763, the first bondsman was John Mayell, a shoemaker of Broughton Gifford. Elizabeth Collett was a spinster aged 22 years, while William Tyler from Melksham was 27 and another shoemaker. A second relates to Patience Collett (Ref. 35K1) who married widower Samuel Mayell at Broughton Gifford on 27^th December 1778. Another, more recent mention concerns the marriage at Bradford-on-Avon on 26^th December 1837 between Henry Collett, aged 21 and a sawyer, and Ann Mayell who was also 21. Who they were, and where they belong, has still to be determined.


35N57	Mary Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 9^th May 1824 and was 15 years of age in 1841 when she living there with her family.


35N58	James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford during February 1826, where he was baptised on 30^th April 1826, a son of Daniel and Sarah Collett. Tragically, he was only eight months old when he died at Broughton Gifford, where he was buried on 28^th October 1826.


35N59	Sarah Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 25^th December 1827 and was recorded as being aged eight years when she died and was buried at Broughton Gifford on 18^th September 1836, a daughter of Daniel Collett and Sarah Gowin.


35N60	Daniel Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 6^th March 1831 and was listed as living with his parents in 1841 at the age of 10 years.


35N61	James Collett was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 30^th March 1834 and his age was given as being seven years in the census of 1841. He was the last child of Daniel Collett and his wife Sarah Gowin with whom he was recorded at Broughton Gifford that year.


35N62	Mary Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1823 and was baptised there on 6^th July 1823, the first child of labourer James Collett and his wife Martha Tarrant. She had a rounded age of 15 in the census of 1841, when she and her family were residing on Broughton Street. Four years later, Mary was more accurately recorded as being twenty-two years old when she married Gains Smith at Broughton Gifford on 25^th December 1845, the marriage register confirming that her father was James Collett and that the father of bachelor Gains Smith was John Smith.


35N63	Anne Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1825 and was baptised there on 21^st August 1825, another daughter of labourer James and Martha Collett, who was said to be 15 years old in 1841.


35N64	George Tarrant Collett was born at Broughton Gifford on 25^th October 1827, where he was baptised on 11th November 1827, the only son and the third of eight children of labourer James Collett and Martha Tarrant. As simply George Collett, he was 12 years of age in 1841, when living at Broughton Street with his family. At the age of twenty-two he married Mary Ann Hill at Broughton Gifford on 28th February 1850, and just a few months later the couple emigrated to America. Their crossing of the Atlantic Ocean took place during May 1850 when they were passengers on board the sailing ship Sibernia which sailed out of Liverpool bound for Philadelphia.

	Once in America the couple settled in Chester Town, Delaware County in Pennsylvania. It was at Chester that their three children were born, before George’s untimely death on 27th October 1856 when he was only 29. His death was the result of an accident at the lumber yard where he worked. By 1870 the census conducted that year in Chester included the widow Mary Collett from England, who was 46. Still living with her were her three children, Martha, who was 19, Mary, who was 17, and James who was 15.

	35O102	Martha Tarrant Collett						Born on 26.02.1851 at Chester, Penn.
	35O103	Mary Collett						Born on 11.05.1853 at Chester, Penn.
	35O104	James Tarrant Collett						Born on 27.03.1855 at Chester, Penn.


35N65	Elizabeth Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1829 and was baptised there on 6^th June 1830, another daughter of James and Martha Collett. She was ten years of age in the Broughton Gifford census of 1841, living at Broughton Street with her large family. Elizabeth was 20 in 1851, when she was the older of two daughters still living with her parents at Broughton Gifford, but with no stated occupation.


35N66	Margaret Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, either at the end of 1831 or early in 1832, where she was baptised there on 30^th September 1832, the fifth child of labourer James Collett and his wife Martha. On the day of the census in June 1841, Margaret was confirmed as being nine years old and living at Broughton Street with her family.


35N67	Jane Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1833, where she was also baptised on 20^th January 1833, the only child of James and Martha Collett to suffer an infant death. The next child born to the couple was also named Jane.


35N68	Jane Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there on 18^th October 1835, the daughter of labourer James and Martha Collett. It was at Broughton Street that six-year-old Jane Collett was living with her family in 1841, but was absent from the family home in 1851. Instead, she was working as a domestic servant at the home of the Davis family at Bath Buildings in Melksham. However, she did return to Broughton Gifford, to be with her family in 1857 when, at the age of 22, Jane Collett the daughter of James Collett, married George Beverley Jones, who was also 22 and the son of David Jones. Their wedding was conducted at Broughton Gifford on 12^th November 1857. After they were married, George and Jane Jones moved to Brecon in Powys, South Wales. Although that is all that is currently known, Jane is confirmed as the great grandmother of the wife of Val Llewellyn of Brecon and Australia.


35N69	Martha Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in early 1839, where she was baptised on 25^th July 1839, the youngest of the seven children of labourer James Collett and his wife Martha Tarrant. She was two years old in 1841, when living at Broughton Street with her family, and was 11 years of age and still attending school in 1851, one of only two children still living in Broughton Gifford with her parents in 1851. It was also at Broughton Gifford, just over nine years later, that she married Michael Rudman on 9^th August 1860, the event recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 187). The bride and groom were both 21 and single, Martha confirmed as the daughter of James Collett, and Michael recorded as the son of Thomas Rudman.

	Although the couple has not been located within the census seven months later, their first child was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 8^th June 1861. Their second child, George Rudman, was also baptised there on 8^th March 1863, with no record of the family found after that day.


35N70	Stephen Collett was very likely a honeymoon baby who was born in the hamlet of Whitley within the parish of Melksham during the early weeks of 1824, and was baptised in Melksham on 29^th February 1824, the eldest child of Thomas Collett and Ann Taylor. In the Whitley census of 1841, Stephen had a rounded age of 15, when he was living there with his family. Five years later, Stephen married Catherine Collett (Ref. 31N37) from South Wraxall, at Holy Trinity Church at the neighbouring village of Shaw, within the parish of Melksham, the wedding taking place on 21^st September 1846. The marriage certificate confirmed that Stephen Collett from Whitley, near Melksham, was a yeoman and the son of Thomas Collett. Stephen and Catherine were both listed as being of full age, and both signed the certificate with the mark of a cross. One of the witnesses to the ceremony was named as Sarah H Collett, of whom nothing is known so far.

	By the time of the Melksham census of 1851, the marriage had produced three sons for the couple, the first two born at Corsham and the third at Whitley near Melksham where the family was living in 1851. Stephen Collett was 27 and a farmer of 8 acres, his wife Catherine Collett was 26 and from Wraxall, and their three sons were Henry John Collett who was three, Tom Collett who was two, and William Collett who was under one-year old. Also living with the family at that time was Catherine’s widowed mother Ann Collett of Wraxall who was 60, the whole household being supported by Mary Ann Davis aged 15, who was employed as a servant.

	Ten years earlier, in June 1841, Catherine and her widowed mother were living together at Lower Wraxall, where Ann Collett had a rounded age of 50 and was an agricultural labourer, and her daughter Catherine Collett had a rounded age of 20 and also working as an agricultural labourer. That situation followed the death of Catherine’s father William Collett, a butcher of South Wraxall, prior to 1841.

	*For details of butcher William Collett (Ref. 31M19) and his wife Ann Boyer see Part 31*

	During the following decade a further four children were born into the family, the first three of them while the family was still living in Whitley, with the couple’s last child being born after the family had moved to Norrington Common, immediately to the north of Broughton Gifford. Curiously, the recorded names of the children and their ages vary in the subsequent census returns, as did the recorded ages of both Stephen and Catherine. Having said that, no record of the birth or baptism of his wife has been found to confirm in which year she was actually born.

	According to the Norrington Common census in 1861 the family comprised Stephen Collett aged 36 and from Melksham, who was a butcher like his father before him, Catherine Collett aged 35 and from South Wraxall, Henry Collett aged 13 and from Corsham, who was an agricultural labourer, Tom Collett who was 12 and a shoemaker also from Corsham, William Collett who was 10 and also an agricultural labourer, James Collett who was nine and Sarah Ann Collett who was five, both of them attending school, Benjamin Collett who was three, and Mary J Collett who was seven months old. Supporting the family was the same servant as ten years earlier, Mary A Davis from Box who was 24. The birth place for William, James, Sarah, and Benjamin was simply stated as Melksham.

	By 1871 the family at Norrington Common was made up of Stephen Collett who was 48, Catherine Collett who was 44, and their children John Collett aged 21, Thomas Collett aged 18, James Collett aged 16, Sarah A Collett aged 14 and Benjamin Collett who was 12. Tragically the couple’s last child, Mary Jane Collett, did not survive and had died just three years after the day of the census in 1861. Their missing son William had already left the family home by then and, in fact, had emigrated to New Zealand in 1874.

	It was nine years after that when Stephen Collett died at Norrington Common on 10^th February 1880 and his death was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 96) at the age of 56. Following the death of her husband, Catherine Collett was listed as a widow in the census of 1881 when she was still living at Norrington Common. Rather curiously, her age was recorded as 45, when she was more likely nearer 50. She did however, confirm that her place of birth was South Wraxall, at a time in her life when she was working as a greengrocer. Living with her were her three sons Henry J Collett aged 28, James Collett aged 24 and Benjamin Collett who was 21. The first of them was confirmed again as having been born at Corsham in Wiltshire, with the other two having been born a few miles away at Whitley, near Melksham. Visiting the family on that occasion was 15 years old Annie Box from Broughton Gifford.

	By 1891, widow Catherine Collett was still working as a greengrocer at Norrington Common, when she gave her age as being 57 years, as opposed to probably being just over sixty. Only two people were living there with her that day, and they were her unmarried eldest son John and domestic servant Annie Page who, despite their twenty-years difference in age, were married during the next few months. After a further ten years, the Norrington Common census in 1901, included greengrocer and poultry dealer Catherine Collett from South Wraxall who, at the age of 71, was living with her married eldest son John Collett and his young wife Annie and their children. From that information, it is believed that Catherine was some years younger than her late husband Stephen and that, perhaps in their early days together, she inflated her age out of embarrassment. It is therefore possible, that her stated age of 71 tears in 1901 would indicate that she was born around 1830, but why then, would she have had a rounded age of 20 years in the census of 1841. Furthermore, no record of her death or burial has so far been located.

	35O105	Henry John Collett				Born in 1847 at Corsham
	35O106	Tom Collett				Born in 1849 at Corsham
	35O107	William Collett				Born in 1851 at Whitley, Melksham
	35O108	James Collett				Born in 1854 at Whitley, Melksham
	35O109	Sarah Ann Collett				Born in 1856 at Whitley, Melksham
	35O110	Benjamin Collett				Born in 1857 at Whitley, Melksham
	35O111	Mary Jane Collett				Born in 1860 at Broughton Gifford


35N71	Jane Collett was born at Whitley near Melksham in 1826 and was not baptised at Melksham until 1^st March 1829, when there was a double christening with her sister Maria (below). Jane was the second child of weaver Thomas and Ann Collett, and was 15 years old in the Whitley census of 1841 when she was still living there with her family. She appears to have been approaching forty years of age when she was married to David Chapman, the event recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 241) during the last three months of 1865.


35N72	Maria Collett was born at Whitley in 1829 and baptised at the parish church in Melksham on 1^st March 1829, the third child of Thomas Collett, a weaver of Whitley, and his first wife Ann. Maria Collett was 12 years old in the first national census in 1841 when she was still living at Whitley with her family. She was no longer living with them ten years later since, by then at the age of 22, she was working as a servant at Shaw Hill House in Melksham, the home of the Heathcote family. Curiously it was Maria who was the first member of the Collett family to travel to Brighton to be married, and she was followed by her brother William and sister Sarah (below).

	Four years later, at Brighton, on 7^th March 1855, Maria Collett married George Funnell who was born on 4^th December 1817 at Rodmell, east of Brighton in Sussex, the son of Henry Funnell and Deborah Deddemeir Burtenshaw. The marriage of Maria and George produced five children who were all born at Brighton, and they were George Collett Funnell born in 1857, twins Henry John Funnell and William Thomas Funnell born in 1859, Frederick William Funnell born in 1861, Florence Funnell born in 1865. In 1861 the family was residing at 11 Windsor Street in Brighton from where George was working as a poulterer’s assistant.

	By 1871 the completed family was living at Buckingham Street in Brighton, although curiously no record of them has been found in 1881. Not long after that George Funnell died at Hailsham in Sussex, while his widow Maria Funnell nee Collett died during March 1895. Their daughter Florence married Alfred Peckham during the summer of 1886 and in 1891 she and her two children and her mother-in-law Mary A Peckham, were living at 28 Artillery Street in Brighton. The enlarged family was living at that same address in 1911, by which time Alfred and Florence still had five of their children still living there with them.

	It was their daughter Lily Eliza Peckham (1889- ) who married Victor George Boxall at Brighton on 20^th May 1909. In turn, they had a daughter Nancy Lillian Boxall (1912-1998) who was the grandmother of Moana Shortland nee Boxall of Whangarei in New Zealand who kindly provided the details for this February 2013 update of this family line.


35N73	James Collett was born at Whitley in 1831, another son of Thomas and Ann Collett who was baptised at Melksham on 24^th July 1831. At the time in his life, her father was working as a weaver. James was 10 years old in the Whitley census of 1841 and was 20 in 1851 when he was still living at Whitley with his family when on the latter occasion he was employed as a gentleman’s servant.


35N74	William Collett was born at Whitley in 1834, the son of weaver Thomas Collett of Whitley and his wife Ann. It was at nearby Melksham where he was baptised on 18^th May 1834. He was seven years old in the census of 1841 and was 17 and a cordwainer in 1851 when, on both occasions, he was living with his family in Whitley. During the next five years he became a married man, as confirmed by the next Melksham census in 1861. William Collett married Elizabeth Fox in Brighton on 12^th October 1856, where his older sister Maria (above) had been married during the previous year. Elizabeth Fox was baptised at Melksham on 28^th August 1836, the daughter of Charles and Hannah Fox. Their choice of Brighton for their wedding raises the question that Elizabeth was already with-child when they fled from Melksham in shame. And this was borne out by the fact that their son William was born at Brighton, either before or just after their wedding day. This would then suggest that they ‘ran away’ to be with William’s sister Maria, thus avoiding shaming themselves and their families.

	Therefore, with William and his wife and their first-born child living in Brighton during 1856 and 1857, it made sense for William’s younger sister Sarah (below) to join him there during the summer of 1857 to be married when she was under adult age and very likely married without her parent’s consent. When William’s and Elizabeth’s son was around one-year old, the couple left Brighton when they moved to Devizes where their second child was born, and shortly after that, the family returned to live in Melksham. On the occasion of the Melksham census in 1861, William Collett was 26, and his wife Elizabeth was 24, and their address was simply ‘city’ of Melksham. At that time in his life William was a shoemaker, his wife a (shoe) binder and, for both of them, their place of birth was confirmed as Melksham. The census return that year also confirmed the details for their three children and they were William T Collett who was four and born at Brighton, Maria Collett who was two and born at Devizes and Sarah J Collett who was four months old.

	Two more children were added to the family during the next three years, but then tragically, around the time of the birth of the last child, William Collett died at Melksham on 6^th August 1864 when he was only 30 years old. As a tribute to her late husband, Elizabeth added the name William to that of her latest son. Sometime during the following years Elizabeth married George Truman and moved in with him at his home in Semington Road in Melksham. The house on Semington Road was adjacent to the New Inn. And it was there that Elizabeth was living in 1871, but only with her three youngest children. What had happened to her eldest daughter Maria Collett has not been discovered at this time, whereas more is known about her missing eldest son William.

	The Melksham census return for 1871 listed the household as George Truman who was 30 and a labour at the local ironworks, Elizabeth Truman who was 34 and a boot builder, and George’s three stepchild, Sarah Jane Collett 10, James Collett who was eight, and Fredk W Collett who was six years old, and all of them were born at Melksham. Ten years later at the time of 1881 Census, George and Elizabeth Truman had a child of their own, although Elizabeth two sons from her previous marriage were still living with the family. Their address on that occasion was given as Semington Lane in Melksham from where George, who was 40, was a sawyer. His wife Elizabeth was 44, and their daughter Eliza Truman was eight. The two Collett brothers were James who was 18 and a mat maker, while Frederick was 16 and a blacksmith’s labourer.

	35O112	William Thomas Collett							Born in 1856 at Melksham
	35O113	Maria Collett							Born in 1858 at Melksham
	35O114	Sarah Jane Collett							Born in 1860 at Melksham
	35O115	James Collett							Born in 1862 at Melksham
	35O116	Frederick William Collett							Born in 1864 at Melksham


35N75	Henry Collett was born at Whitley in 1836. The parish record confirms that it was at Melksham that he was baptised on 26^th June 1836, the son of weaver Thomas and Ann Collett, while an alternative source states the date was 18^th October 1835, which may have been the date he was born. He was five years old in the Whitley census of 1841, but was absent from the family which was still living there in 1851. Furthermore, no record of a Henry Collett born anywhere in Wiltshire in 1835 has been located in the census of 1851, so it is possible that he had suffered a childhood death before then.


35N76	Sarah Collett was born at Whitley during 1838 and was baptised at Melksham on 26^th August 1838, the daughter of Thomas and Ann Collett. She was two years old in June 1841 and had left school prior to March 1851 to start work as a shoe binder while living with her family at Whitley. Six years later, when Sarah was 19, she was the third member of her family to ‘run away to Brighton’. That move might indicate that she did not have her parents’ consent when she married Frederick White in Brighton on 6^th July 1857. Frederick was the son of John White and Deborah Dicks, and was born in 1831 and was baptised at Melksham on 1^st December 1832. With the bride and the groom both being of the parish of Melksham perhaps underlines the fact that the wedding took place in Brighton against the wishes of Sarah’s parents, with her not having reach full adult age.

	The selection of Brighton was the obvious choice for the couple to run away to, since it was there that her older sister Maria was married in 1855 and where her older brother William was married in 1856, and both of them were still living with his family in July 1857. It was however over a year after they were married that Sarah presented her husband with their first child, and that event also took place in Brighton, thus dispelling any idea that she may have been with-child when they ran away from Melksham.

	In total, the marriage produced six known children for the couple and they were (a) Frederick White who was born at Brighton on 24^th October 1858, who died there two weeks later on 9^th November 1858, (b) Louise Jane White who was born at Brighton on 19^th July 1860, who died in May 1883, (c) Sarah Amelia White who was born on 2^nd February 1863, (d) Francis William White who was born at Brighton on 5^th September 1865, and (e) Clara Mabel White who was born at Brighton on 14^th June 1868. The couple’s sixth child was reputed to have been born at Powick in Worcestershire on 31^st May 1871. That was Herbert Henry White who emigrated to America, where he died on 11^th December 1940 at Boston in Massachusetts, following which he was buried at Wayland in Middlesex, Massachusetts. Sarah White nee Collett died on 24^th December 1892, and that may have taken place at Brighton.

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