PART THIRTY-FIVE

The Melksham to Wisconsin & Ontario Line – 1850 to 2000

This is the second of two sections of this family line

Updated July 2023

35O0

Tabitha Collett was born at Broughton Gifford on 28^th March 1816. It was also there that she was baptised on 7^th July 1816 as Tabitha Webb, when her parents were confirmed as William Collett, a cordwainer, and Jane Collett nee Webb, a weaver. Tabitha Collett later married the much younger James Maggs at Midsomer Norton in Somerset, with the event recorded at Clutton (Ref. xi 48) during the third quarter of 1845. Over the following five years, Tabitha presented James with three children when they were living at Midsomer Norton, to the south of Clutton, where James had been born and where the family of five was living in 1851. James Maggs was 28 and a coal miner, Tabitha was 35 and from Broughton Gifford, and their three children were George, Frederick and Mary S Maggs, who were five years, two years and only a few months old, respectively. After a further thirty years, widow Tabitha Maggs from Broughton Gifford was 66 and a housekeeper, who had her son and brother-in-law living with her Midsomer Norton. Her son Matthew Maggs was 21 and boarder George Maggs was 67. Just less than five years later, the death of Tabitha Maggs, nee Collett, at Midsomer Norton was recorded at Clutton (Ref. 5c 263) during the first three months of 1866, at the age of 69.

35O1

John Collett was born at Broughton Gifford around 1818, the son of shoemaker William Collett, although no birth or baptism recorded for him has been found. It was in the census of 1841, that father and son were living together in Atworth, just north of Broughton Gifford, when unmarried John Collett had a rounded age of 20. Because of his misplacement in the previous version of this family line, the continuation of the life of John Collett can be found under Ref. 35N38, in the first of the two sections of Part 35.

35O2

Elizabeth Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1820, where she was baptised on 22^nd April 1821, the daughter of shoemaker William Collett and Jane Webb. It is likely her mother died during the birth of just after, since the mother of the next child of William Collett the shoemaker was Elizabeth.

35O3

Hannah Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where she was baptised on 3^rd November 1822, another daughter of shoemaker William Collett, but her mother named as Elizabeth Collett. The death of Hannah Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. xiii) during the second quarter of 1842.

35O4

Eliza Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where she was baptised on 2^nd July 1826, the fourth daughter of shoemaker William Collett and the second by Elizabeth Collett.

35O5

William Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1828 and was baptised on 21^st July 1828, the only known son of shoemaker William Collett by his second wife Elizabeth. He married Harriet Austin who was born at Chippenham in 1829, and it was there that the marriage took place on 30^th October 1855 and where it was recorded (Ref. 5a 29). By 1861 he and Harriet had three children. William was 31 at the time of the Melksham census that year and had with him the two older children Paulina who was four, and Albert who was three years old. His wife Harriet, who was also 31, was away at Chippenham in April 1861 and was accompanied by her son William who was just one-year old. It may have been that Harriet was visiting her parents at that time. Ten years later their family was complete and they were all living together in Melksham. William was 42, and Harriet was 41, while their children at that time in 1871 were Paulina 14, Albert 13, William 11, Ada who was eight, Charles who was six, and Florence who was one-year old.

William Collett died in 1880, so by the time of the census of 1881 Harriet was listed as a widow at 51, when she was living at Holbrook Farm in Melksham with her children. The farm comprised 58 acres, and Harriet was employing one labourer to work there. Living with her were sons Albert 23 and Charles 16, and her daughter Florence who was 11. All of the children of William and Harriet were born at Melksham, and the aforementioned two sons were described as farmer’s sons. Also listed as living with the family on the day of the census, was unmarried Sarah Sheat aged 33, a servant and a dairymaid.

Rather curiously, two of the couple’s missing children were recorded as living at Linden Hall in Melksham. That was the home of John Hayter, a wealthy master tailor from London, who was employing sixteen people in his tailoring business. The two children of William and Harriet who were there on that occasion were their son William who was 21, and their daughter Ada who was 18. William’s and Harriet’s oldest daughter Paulina had already left the family to be married by 1881. Over the next decade other children left the family home, so by 1891 Harriet, aged 61, only had son Charles and daughter Florence still living with her. It looks very much as though Charles had taken over running the family farm, following the death of his father.

Just after the turn of the century Harriet was still living Melksham where she was described as a retired farmer, although she gave her age as 66 rather than 71. Still living with her was her unmarried children Charles who was 37 and Florence who was 31. It was virtually the same arrangement ten years later in April 1911. The census return on that occasion listed the group as Harriet Collett aged 81, her son Charles Collett aged 46 and her daughter Florence Collett of 40 years. Also living with them at that time was Harriet’s twenty-eight years old granddaughter Lilian Collett, the daughter of her son Albert Henry Collett.

35P1

Paulina V S Collett

Born in 1856 at Melksham

35P2

Albert Henry Collett

Born in 1857 at Melksham

35P3

William James Collett

Born in 1859 at Melksham

35P4

Ada J Collett

Born in 1862 at Melksham

35P5

Charles S Collett

Born in 1865 at Melksham

35P6

Florence E Collett

Born in 1869 at Melksham

35O6

Ann Collett was born at Melksham where she was baptised on 26^th June 1825, the first-born child of Henry Collett, a shoemaker, and Mary Morris. Sadly, she was only seven years of age when she died and was buried at Melksham on 8^th February 1833.

35O7

Henry Collett was a twin who was born at Melksham in 1827, the second child and eldest son of Henry Collett and Mary Morris. It was at Melksham where he was baptised with his twin sister (Sarah) below on 17^th June 1827. He and his twin sister were 14 in June 1841 when they were living with their family in Melksham on the day of the census. Henry was still living with his family ten years later at Church Street in Melksham, when he was described in the 1851 as unmarried at the age of 24, whose occupation was that of a shoemaker. There would have been great excitement in the Collett house that census day, since it was on the following day that Henry was to be married. The marriage of Henry Collett, aged 24 and the son of Henry Collett, and Ann Pepler, aged 23 and the daughter of William Pepler, took place at Melksham on 1^st April 1851, with whom he had four children after they settled in Melksham. The youngest of the couple’s known children was Everest Morris Collett, whose name derives from Henry’s youngest sister Everest, coupled with that of his mother’s maiden-name. Tragically though, Henry Collett died, possibly before the birth of his last child, his death recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 73) during the first three months of 1861. The birth of his last child also recorded at Melksham during the same quarter of 1861.

According to the census that year, Ann Collett from Bradford (on-Avon) was a widow of 32 and was named as head of the household at Lowbourne (Road) in Melksham, where the income for her and her family came from her work as a seamstress. The members of her young family recorded with her at that time were her three daughters, Eliza A Collett who was nine, Mary J Collett who was three, and Everest Collett who was only two months old, and her only son Harry Collett, who was five years of age, all of them confirmed as having been born in Melksham. One other point of interest in the census of 1861 is that residing just two doors along Lowbourne Road from Ann Collett was James Wilshire from Semington, a tailor of 48, with his wife Elizabeth and two of their children Emma and Fanny – see below.

It was a similar situation ten years later when widow Ann Collett was 43 was still living at Lowbourne in Melksham in 1871, but with just her three youngest children. They were Henry Collett who was 15, Mary Collett who was 13, and Everest Collett who was 10 years old. Ann’s eldest daughter Eliza Ann Collett was living and working nearby in Melksham at the age of 19. Also, on that same day in 1871, James Wilshire, the tailor, was a widower living close by with just his daughter Emma. Just less than four years later the two widowed neighbours were married at Melksham on 18^th January 1875, when James was recorded as the son of Robert Wilshire and Ann Collett was confirmed as the daughter of William Pepler. They only enjoyed a short time together since, by 1881, Ann Wilshire aged 57 and an annuitant from Melksham was a widow once again, residing at Bath Street in the town. Living there with her, were two members of her second husband’s family, Matilda Wilshire who was 22 and Frederick Wilshire who was 11.

By the time of the census in 1891, Ann Wilshire was 63 and a laundress, who was once again living on Lowbourne Road in Melksham. On that day she gave her place of birth as Atworth, a village between Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon, while living there with her was her grandson Sidney Collett who was eight years old and born in Melksham. It now seems likely that Sidney was the base-born son of Ann’s unmarried daughter Mary Jane Collett, although it is worth highlighting that all three of her daughters were not married at the time of the birth of her grandson. However, within the census of 1901 Ann Wilshire, aged 73, whose place of birth was ‘not known’, was suffering with paralysis and was being looked after by her unmarried daughter Mary Collett, aged 42 and from Melksham, who was the housekeeper. The third member of the household was Ann’s grandson Sidney Collett, aged 18, who was an ironmonger from Melksham.

The death of Ann Wilshire was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 76) during the first quarter of 1905 was she was 77 years of age. She was then buried at the Melksham Church Cemetery where a headstone marks the grave, confirming that she was born on 31^st January 1828 and that she died on 20^th March 1905.

35P7

Eliza Ann Collett

Born in 1851 at Melksham

35P8

Henry John Collett

Born in 1855 at Melksham

35P9

Mary Jane Collett

Born in 1857 at Melksham

35P10

Everest Morris Collett

Born in 1861 at Melksham

35O8

Sarah Collett was born at Melksham, one half of a set of twins with her brother Henry (above). The twins were baptised at Melksham on 17^th June 1827, the second and third children of Henry Collett, a cordwainer, and his wife Mary Morris. It was at Town Tything in Melksham that Sarah, aged 14 years, was living with her family in 1841. After the death of her mother, during childbirth, in the summer of the following year, Sarah was acting as the housekeeper for her widowed shoemaker father and some of her younger siblings on the day of the census in 1851. Almost ten years later her father died just prior to the next census in 1861, which resulted in a change of address. Short after losing her father unmarried Sarah Collett was acting as the housekeeper for her youngest brother John at Canhold Lane in Melksham, later renamed as The Walk during the 1870s. When her brother became a married man in the following year, Sarah continued to live with him and his wife and their children, as confirmed by the Melksham census conducted in 1871. Also, as previously, her age was again recorded in error as 40 years, when in fact she would have been 43 or 44. That year she was not credited with an occupation, so was very likely helping her brother’s wife looking after the family home, which was The Bell Inn on Bath Road in Melksham, where brother John Collett was the inn keeper

Ten years later, in 1881, unmarried Sarah Collett from Melksham was 52 and an annuitant, who was still living with her inn keeper brother John (below) and his wife and three children at The Bell Inn on Bath Road in Melksham. Early in 1885 her brother passed away, leaving his widow to take over as the inn keeper at The Bell Inn, where Sarah was continuing to live in 1891 with her sister-in-law, the widow Elizabeth Collett. Sarah was 64 and living on her own means, and the only other member of the family living with Elizabeth and Sarah, Sarah’s nephew, engineer Frederick Collett who was 24. It appears from the next census return that Sarah probably assisted her sister-in-law in the running of The Bell Inn, which they left during the last decade of the century, when the three of them moved to Twerton in Somerset.

The Twerton census in 1901 revealed Sarah Collett from Melksham living at Stanley Road where she was 75 and a retired inn keeper, who was again sharing accommodation with Elizabeth Collett, her sister-in-law and another retired inn keeper, and two of her children Frederick and Emily. Three years later the death of Sarah Collett aged 77 was recorded at Bath register office (Ref. 5c 332) during the second quarter of 1904

35O9

Eliza Collett was born at Melksham, where he was baptised on 5^th April 1829, another daughter of cordwainer Henry and Mary Collett. She was 12 years of age in 1841 when she was living with her family at Melksham. Just over one year later her mother died, giving birth to twins, who also did not survive long after they were baptised. It was at Church Street in Melksham that Eliza was living with her widowed father and younger siblings in 1851 when, at the age of 22, she was working as a shoemaker, alongside her father and younger sister Ann (below). It was three years after that when the marriage of Eliza Collett and William Salter took place at Melksham on 20^th July 1854. Eliza was 26 and the daughter of Henry Collett and William was 27 and the son of George Salter. Their son Frederick Salter was born in 1857 and was baptised at Melksham on 31^st May 1857, the only known child of William and Eliza Salter. No further record of any member of the family has been found after that date.

35O10

Betsy (Elizabeth) Collett was born at Melksham where she was baptised on 11^th December 1831, another daughter of shoemaker Henry and Mary Collett. Although baptised as Betsy, it was as Elizabeth that she was nine years old in the census of 1841, when she and her family were residing at Town Tything in Melksham.

35O11

Ann Collett was born at Melksham and was named after the first-born child of Henry, a shoemaker, and Mary Collett who had died at the age of seven years. Ann was baptised at Melksham on 31^st May 1835 and was six years old in the Melksham census of 1841. Following the death of her mother in the summer of 1842 and, upon leaving school, Ann worked alongside her widowed father and older sister Eliza (above) as a shoemaker, as confirmed in the next census in 1851. On that day the family was residing at Church Street in Melksham, when Ann was 16 years old.

35O12

Everest Collett was born at Melksham where she was baptised on 30^th April 1837, the youngest daughter of shoemaker Henry Collett and Mary Morris. She was four years old in the census of 1841, by which time her mother had died, possibly during the birth of her youngest sibling John (below). Everest Collett was 14 in the Melksham census of 1851, while ten year later she was working as a servant at the Paddington, London, home of the widow Emma Duff and her family, when she was recorded as Everest Collett aged 23 from Melksham. Seven years after the census in 1861 Everest Collett was married by banns to George Durnford, the wedding being recorded at Kensington in London (Ref. 1a 215) during the second quarter of 1868 when the bride’s father was confirmed as bootmaker Henry Collett deceased. The father of the groom was named as widower George Durnford whose occupation was that of a butler.

In the census of 1911 Everest Durnford from Melksham was 72 when she and her husband George, aged 76, were residing at 40 Oakington Road off Elgin Avenue West in Paddington. The census return confirmed they had been married for forty-two years, during which time they had given birth to five children who were all still alive. It was exactly sixteen years later that the death of the widow Everest Durnford nee Collett was recorded in Middlesex on 23^rd April 1927. Administration of her personal estate of £111 5 Shillings was granted to her son Edward Collett Durnford, who was a builder

35O13

John Collett was born at Melksham around 1839, the last known child born to Henry Collett and Mary Morris. John was two years old in the Melksham census of 1841 when he and his family were residing at Town Tything. His mother passed away when he was three years of age, leaving John in 1851 living with his widowed father, a shoemaker, when he was 11 years old, with his eldest sister Sarah performing the role of housekeeper. His father passed away just before the census in 1861 and on the day of the census it was just John, aged 21 and a pattern maker, who was living with his unmarried sister Sarah at Canhold Lane in Melksham.

Just eleven weeks after that census day, when John and his sister Sarah were still residing at Canhold Lane in Melksham, John walked down the aisle of Holy Trinity Church, in Bradford-on-Avon, accompanied by his older sister Sarah, who gave him away, when he was married by licence to his cousin-one-step-removed Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 35O17) on 12^th July 1862. John Collett was 23 and a carpenter, the son of Henry Collett, a shoemaker – deceased. Even though his bride was around ten years older than John, she was recorded as being 29 and living within the parish of Bradford-on-Avon, the daughter of clothier William Collett. Both the bride and the groom signed the parish register in their own hand, while the two witnesses made the mark of a cross. They were Stephen Collett (Ref. 35O22), who was Elizabeth’s cousin, and Sarah Collett (Ref. 35O8), was John’s older unmarried sister. Their wedding day was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 189).

By the time of the Melksham census of 1871, Elizabeth had presented John with six children, all of whom had been born at Melksham, although only four of them survived beyond infancy. The census return for that year recorded the family living at The Bell Inn on the Bath Road where John Collett aged 31 was the inn keeper. His wife Elizabeth was 35 and their surviving four children were Henry Charles Collett who was seven, William J Collett who was six, Frederick W Collett who was four, and Emily M Collett who was two years old. Living with the family since the death of their father, was John’s unmarried sister Sarah (above), while John and Elizabeth’s two daughters Mary and Eliza had both died within a few weeks of being born.

In 1881, John Collett, at the age of 41 was still the landlord of The Bell Inn at Bath Road in Melksham. Still living with him and his wife Elizabeth, who was 45, was his unmarried sister Sarah Collett aged 52. Completing the family at that time were just three of John and Elizabeth’s four surviving children. The couple’s eldest son Henry was 17 and working as a plumber’s apprentice, the younger son William was 16 and was a grocer’s apprentice, while their daughter Emily was 12 years old. The absence of the couple’s third son Frederick was due to him attending Weston School in Somerset as a boarder.

John Collett passed away during 1885, his death recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 88) during the first three months of that year at the age of 45. Six years later, on the day of the census in 1891, his widow Elizabeth, aged 63, was still residing at The Bell Inn on Bath Road, Melksham and with her was her unmarried son Frederick and her sister-in-law Sarah Collett. Elizabeth from Wiltshire was described as an inn keeper, having taken on the role following the loss of her husband.

It seems likely that the three of them had to leave The Bell Inn shortly thereafter because, ten years later, all three of them were living together at Stanley Road in Twerton, Somerset, where they had been joined by Elizabeth’s daughter Emily. All four of them were confirmed as having been born at Melksham, with Elizabeth being 73 and a retired inn keeper, her son Frederick Collett was 34 and an engineer and her daughter Emily Collett was 32 and a schoolteacher. Completing the family was Elizabeth’s unmarried sister-in-law Sarah Collett who was 75 and also described as a retired inn keeper.

35P11

Henry Charles Collett

Born in 1863 at Melksham

35P12

William John Collett

Born in 1864 at Melksham

35P13

Frederick W Collett

Born in 1867 at Melksham

35P14

Mary Jane Collett

Born in 1868 at Melksham

35P15

Emily Matilda Collett

Born in 1869 at Melksham

35P16

Eliza Collett

Born in 1870 at Melksham

35O16

Charles Collett was born at Melksham on 27^th December 1826, the eldest child of William Collett and Jane Gardner, who was baptised there on 24^th January 1827, the son of William, a weaver of Melksham Forest. According to the parish register, he was thirty-one days old when he died and was buried at Melksham on 27^th January 1827.

35O17

Elizabeth Collett was born at Melksham in 1828, where she was baptised on 24^th February 1828, the only daughter of weaver William Collett and his wife Jane. By 1841, her family was living at Cannonfield Tything in Melksham where Elizabeth was 13 years of age. On 12^th July 1862, while living within the parish of Bradford-on-Avon at the age of 29, and being the daughter of clothier William Collett, Elizabeth Collett was married by licence to John Collett of Melksham, aged 23 and a carpenter, son of shoemaker Henry Collett. Elizabeth was actually 34 years old, but had reduced age when marrying the much younger John. Both the bride and the groom signed the parish register in their own hand, while the two witnesses made the mark of a cross. They were Stephen Collett who was Elizabeth’s cousin, and Sarah Collett who was John’s older unmarried sister, their mother having died when John was only three years of age, and their father just twelve months prior to their wedding day.

For the continuation of this family line go to John Collett (Ref. 35O13) above

35O18

Thomas Walters Collett was born in 1830 at Melksham and was baptised there on 22^nd February 1831, another son of weaver William Collett and Jane. Although no record has been found of him suffering an infant death, the next child born to William and Jane was given the same name (below).

35O19

Thomas Walters Collett was born in 1832 at Melksham and was the second son of that name who was baptised at Melksham on 10^th June 1832. Curious the Thomas Collett who was living with his parents at Cannonfield Tything in Melksham in 1841 was said to be 10 years old, which could apply to either one of the two Thomas Walters Colletts, the son of William Collett, a weaver of Melksham Forest, and Jane Gardner.

35O20

William Collett was born in 1834 at Melksham, where he was baptised on 29^th March 1834, the last child of weaver William Collett of Melksham Forest and his wife Jane Gardner. William Collett, junior, was seven years of age in the census of 1841, when he and his two older siblings and their parents were residing at Cannonfield Tything in Melksham. What happened to the young family after 1844 is not known, as it was in September that year, when their father passed away, their widowed mother surviving until 1858.

35O24

George Collett was born in 1840 at Melksham and was under one-year old in the Melksham census in June 1841 when he was living there with his parents Stephen and Grace Collett. That would place the time of his birth to be either in the second half of 1840 or the first half of 1841. In the following two census returns for Melksham in 1851 and 1861, George was 10 and 20 years respectively. During the next few years George’s mother Grace died, and it may have been that sad event that prompted George to seek a new life, since shortly after that he left England and sailed to America, where he was married in the mid-1860s

By the time of the US Census of 1880 George and his wife and their family were living in Hartford, Van Buren in the state of Michigan. George, aged 39, was described as being an R R Agent (railroad agent). His American wife was Sarah Ada Collett who was 34 and of Indiana who was ‘keeping house’ for the family, supported by 45 years old servant Susan Byres from New York. Their two children at that time were Edith who was 13 and at school, and George who was eight, and both of the children had been born in Michigan.

35P17

Edith Collett

Born in 1867 in Michigan

35P18

George Collett

Born in 1872 in Michigan

35O26

Jemima Collett was born at Melksham in 1843 where she was baptised on 31^st December 1843, the third child of Stephen Collett and Grace Brinsdon. She was seven years old in the Melksham census of 1851, but was not living there with her family in 1861, by which time she may have settled in America. She later married Joseph Pavis (1852-1920), the son of Mary Tillie and Thomas Pavis. Their daughter Tillie Brinstone Pavis was born in 1881 but died in 1882 and was buried at Whitneyville Cemetery in Hamden, Connecticut. Others of that name who were buried in the same grave were Mary Pavis and Thomas Pavis and in a nearby plot their daughter Charlotte Pavis Gadd. Jemima Pavis nee Collett died in 1914 and was also buried in Whitneyville Cemetery.

35O28

John Collett was born at Melksham in 1848 and was three years old and thirteen in the census records for Melksham in 1851 and 1861. Over the next few years, and following the death of his mother, John sailed to America, either with his older brother George (above) or shortly after. Either way, John was living in Hamden in New Haven in the state of Connecticut by 1880. The US Census that year recorded him as being 32 and married to Sarah who was 36. John’s occupation at that time was a worker in an auger factory. It has not been established whether the couple every had any children, but what is known is that also living in Hamden at that same time were three other members of John’s family from Melksham. They were siblings Ellen, Thomas, and Frederick (below).

35O29

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Melksham around 1849, the son of Stephen and Grace Collett. He later became a blacksmith and, it was around 1870, that he married Sarah A Hayward of Melksham, where they initially settled, before moving to Wantage. It may be of interest to note a possible family connection with the second wife of William’s father Stephen Collett, who was Susan H Hayward, who was born at Plymouth in 1832. According to the census of 1871, William was 22 and his wife Sarah A Collett was 21. On that occasion the couple was living near to where William’s father, widower Stephen Collett, was living in Melksham with William’s three youngest siblings. Over the following ten years Sarah presented her husband with four children.

By April 1881 Sarah A Collett, aged 31 and of Melksham, was described as the wife of a shoeing smith. At that time, she was living at Partridges Yard in Wantage with her four children, William who was eight and born at Melksham, Fanny who was six, Ellen who was four, and Frederick who was one-year old, the three of them were all born at Wantage. The children’s father, William Collett, aged 32 and of Melksham, was not with them on the census day in 1881 but was in lodgings at 38 Newport Street in Swindon, where he was working at that time as a blacksmith.

Sometime in the late 1880s the family moved to Gloucester, where William worked at the Gloucester Wagon Works. By 1891 the family, excluding eldest son William who had already left the family home, was living in the South Hamlet registration district of Gloucester at Tredworth Road in the parish of Barton St Mary. The census record for 1891 confirmed the family as William Collett, aged 41, his wife Sarah who was 40, and their three children as Fanny who was 16, Ellen who was 14, and Fred who was 11 years old, and all three of them born at Wantage. William later set up his own coach building company under the name Wm Collett & Sons, and that was confirmed in the 1901 Census.

The census return that year recorded the family living at Melbourne Street in the City of Gloucester. William’s age was given as 51, as was Sarah’s, and both of them were confirmed as having been born at Melksham. Also still living with their parents at that time was their daughter Fanny E Collett, aged 26 from Wantage, and their youngest son Frederick who was 21 and also of Wantage. The occupation of their father William Collett was recorded as coach builder, while the youngest son Frederick was a coach painter, working in his father’s business. Also working with William at Wm Collett & Sons at that time, was his eldest son William who was married with children of his own by March 1901. However, living with the family at Melbourne Street was a mystery child. She was Lily Collett who was six years of age and born at Gloucester, who was described as the grandchild of William and Sarah. Although not yet confirmed, it would initially appear than Lily could have been the base-born child of the couple’s eldest daughter Fanny who would have been around eighteen or nineteen at the time of conception. Alternatively, the early marriage of the couple’s youngest daughter might indicate that she was married off, within three years of the child’s birth, to avoid embarrassment to the family and the family business.

Those three, William, Sarah and Lily, were still living together in 1911 at 13 Melbourne Street in Gloucester, when the census return contained a number of errors. Firstly, coach-smith William Collett from Melksham said he was 41, rather than 61, unless it was an error made by the census enumerator. Likewise, his wife Sarah Collett, also from Melksham, was said to be 42 years of age. And curiously, sixteen-year-old Lily Collett from Gloucester, was described as the niece of head of the household William Collett. Still living in Gloucester at that time were both of their daughters Fanny (married in 1901) and Ellen (married in 1898) and their two married sons William and Frederick. The death of William Collett, aged 66, was recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 6a 110) during the first three months of 1917, where the passing of his widow Sarah A Collett, nee Hayward, was recorded (Ref. 6a 348) during the second quarter of 1928, when she was 78. There was a six-year delay in resolving the Will of William Collett, the probate process confirming that he died on 22^nd February 1917, with his proved at Gloucester on 13^th July 1923. The two main beneficiaries were named as his two sons William T Collett and Frederick Collett, so maybe the Will had been contested by his wife and his two daughters.

35P19

William Thomas Collett

Born in 1872 at Melksham

35P20

Fanny Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1875 at Wantage

35P21

Ellen Maria Collett

Born in 1877 at Wantage

35P22

FREDERICK GEORGE COLLETT

Born in 1880 at Wantage

35O30

Ellen Collett was born at Melksham where she was baptised on 25^th January 1852. In 1861 she was listed as living with her parents in Melksham at the age of nine. Following the death of her mother in the 1860s and her father taking a second and much younger wife in the early 1870s, it seems likely that it was around that time when she left England to join her two older brothers in America. No trace of Ellen has been found in the UK Census of 1871, although her two younger brothers Thomas and Frederick were still living with their father at Melksham at that time. By 1880 she was recorded as living at Hamden, New Haven in Connecticut with her youngest brother Frederick (below) and the home of William Conn and his wife Maria, both of them from England. Ellen Collett was still single and was described as being 27 and someone who ‘does housework’. It is not known at this time if she was married at some later date.

35O31

Thomas Collett was born at Melksham in 1854 and was six years old in the census of 1861 when he was living with his parents at Melksham. During the next decade his mother died and by April 1871 he was 17 and was still living at Melksham with his widowed father Stephen, and his younger siblings Maria and Frederick (below). With his father then marrying for a second time during the following year, Thomas sailed to America with his sister Ellen (above) and his younger brother Frederick (below). The exact date of the voyage has not yet been determined. Once in America, the three young people travelled to Connecticut where their older brother John Collett (above) was already established. The US Census of 1800 confirmed that Thomas Collett was already married to Julia Collett of Connecticut, Julia’s father being from Canada and her mother from Ireland. Thomas was 25 and Julia was 20 and, on that occasion, Thomas was working at the same place as his two brothers, that being an auger factory. Julia was described as ‘keeping house’. It was at Hamden in New Haven, Connecticut, that Thomas Collett aged 26 and from England was naturalised on 17^th September 1880.

35O32

Maria Collett was baptised at Melksham on 25^th November 1855. Her mother Grace died in the 1860s and, by 1871 when Maria was 16, she was still living at Melksham with her widowed father Stephen. By the time of the next census in 1881 she was referred to as Mary J Collett, aged 25, when she was an unmarried parlour maid at the home of Thomas H Tooke, the Rector of Monkton Farleigh.

35O33

Frederick Collett was born at Melksham in 1858 and was three years old when living with his parents at Melksham in 1861. Ten years later, and following the death of his mother, he was 13 and was living at Melksham with his widowed father and just two of his siblings, Thomas and Maria (above). Sometime during the 1870s Frederick, together with his sister Ellen and brother Thomas, sailed to America to be reunited with their older brother John Collett, who was living in Connecticut at that time. According to the US Census of 1880, all four of them were living at Hamden, New Haven in Connecticut. Frederick, aged 22, and his sister Ellen, were both staying with William Conn and his wife Maria, who were also from England. William Conn was employed in an auger shop, where Frederick was also working.

35O34

Emily Collett was born at Melksham in 1872 and was the daughter of Stephen Collett of Melksham and his second wife Susan H Hayward of Plymouth. By 1881 she was living with her father at Broughton Road in Melksham, while her mother and her younger brother Frank (below) were visiting family and friends in Plymouth. For whatever reason, Emily was not baptised until she was thirteen years old. That happened at Melksham on 15^th November 1885 at which time her parents were confirmed as Stephen and Susan Collett. No trace of Emily has been found after that time, probably because she was later married.

35O36

Frank S Collett was born at Melksham in 1877, the youngest child of Stephen Collett of Melksham and his second wife Susan H Hayward of Plymouth. When he was three years old Frank S Collett of Melksham was with his mother Susan, when both of them were listed as visitors at the Plymouth home of James Taylor and his family. At that same time his father and his two older siblings were still living at Broughton Road in Melksham, where their needs were temporarily being cared for by Stephen’s sister Maria Daniels nee Collett (above), who was described as their housekeeper. Also, by that time in 1881, Frank’s older half-children from his father’s first marriage had left England and had sailed to North America, to settle in Michigan and Connecticut.

Ten years later the census of 1891 placed 13 years old Frank Collett living with his parents at Melksham. No record of Frank has been found in Great Britain in 1901 or 1911 and, it is believed that the reason for that was, that he was a solder in the army and was serving abroad. According to the British Army records, there was a Private Frank S Collett No. 3-6813 who served with the Somerset Light Infantry from 11^th October 1915 onwards, who fought on the front line in France during the Great War. Further verification is required to confirm whether this was Frank S Collett from Melksham, but is seems highly likely that it was.

35O37

Caroline Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1830 and was baptised on 6^th March 1831, the eldest child of labourer Thomas Collett and Joan Elizabeth Button. Tragically, she died at Broughton Gifford on 29^th January 1837, where she was buried that same day, the burial record stating she was six years of age.

35O38

Samuel Collett was born at Broughton Gifford on 31^st December 1832. He was baptised there on 20^th January 1833, the eldest son of labourer Thomas and Elizabeth Collett, the same day that eight-year-old Jane Collett (Ref. 35N21), the daughter of James Collett and Sarah Clack, was also baptised at Broughton Gifford. Samuel was eight years old in the Broughton Gifford census of 1841 when he was living there at Chally Mead with his family. Upon leaving school, he took up work as an agricultural labourer and in 1851, at the age of 18, he was a servant at the Broughton Gifford home of elderly couple John and Mary Rose from Somerset. On that census day, he was living not far from his parents’ home on Slipper Lane off Church Street where, just three dwellings away from his parents was the Gerrish family, into which Samuel was married less than four years later.

It was at Broughton Gifford on 18^th January 1855, that Samuel Collett married (1) Sarah Etta Gerrish who was born in Wiltshire on 5^th March 1833, the daughter of Samuel Gerrish and his wife Hannah Bull. The marriage register confirmed that Samuel was the son of Thomas Collett, and that the bride and the groom were both single and twenty-two years of age. The wedding was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 165). The couple’s first child was a honeymoon baby born at Broughton Gifford nine months after their wedding day, where she was also baptised, prior to the family of three sailing to America in 1857. It was in Wisconsin that they settled, where their next six children were born. Twenty years later, her youngest child was only three years old when Sarah Collett nee Gerrish died at Union in Pierce, Wisconsin, on 15^th April 1877.

Shortly after the death of his wife, Samuel married (2) Melissa Patrick at Salem in Pierce, Wisconsin on 22^nd November 1877, the daughter of J and Lucinda Patrick. Tragically Samuel was made a widower for the second time when Melissa died within the first two years of their married life. By the time of the US Census of 1880, Samuel Collett, aged 48 and from England, was a farmer residing at Union in Pierce, Wisconsin with just his three youngest surviving children. James Collett, aged 18, was working with his father on their farm, Henry Collett was 11, and A B Collett was six years old, all three sons having been born in Wisconsin.

It is of some interest that in 1880 James Collett (below), who was also born at Broughton Gifford but in 1837, travelled to America in 1858 and was also living in Pierce, Wisconsin, at the same time as Samuel, they being first cousins.

Just over twenty years later, when Samuel was 71, he married (3) Rebecca Coulson at Spring Valley in Pierce, Wisconsin on 24^th April 1902. She was twenty years younger than Samuel and was the daughter of Mark Coulson and his wife Mary Knott who had been born in Wisconsin during June 1850. Samuel and Rebecca have not been located within the 1920 US Census, and it is believed that Rebecca died in St Louis County, Minnesota on 1^st December 1933, although it is unknown where she was buried. Samuel Collett had died nearly eight years earlier on 16^th February 1926 at the age of 95. There is no headstone for Samuel in the Ono Cemetery at Salem Township, Pierce County, Wisconsin, where he was buried, while his obituary in the local newspaper read as follows:

“Samuel Collett, one of the oldest settlers in the county, died at the home of his son Henry Collett, near Maiden Rock Tuesday of last week. He was 95 years of age. Three sons and two daughters survive. They are Bert Collett at Ellsworth, James Collett at Elmwood, Henry Collett at Maiden Rock, Mrs Anna Campbell at Exeland, Mrs Mary Martin at Ponoka, Alberta in Canada. The funeral took place on Thursday afternoon from Ono Church, Salem Township, Pierce County in Wisconsin.”

35P23

Anna Maria Collett

Born in 1855 at Broughton Gifford

35P24

Mary Jane Collett

Born in 1857 at Wisconsin

35P25

an unnamed Collett

Born in 1860 at Wisconsin

35P26

James Collett

Born in 1862 at Wisconsin

35P27

Henry S Collett

Born in 1869 at Wisconsin

35P28

Ida May Collett

Born in 1872 at Wisconsin

35P29

Albert B Collett

Born in 1874 at Wisconsin

35O39

Anna Maria Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and it was there that she was baptised on 31^st August 1834 under that name, to parents Thomas and Elizabeth Collett. Her father’s occupation was that of a labourer. By the time of the census in 1841 she was listed with her family at Chally Mead in Broughton Gifford as Ann Collett, when she was six years old. After a further ten years Ann Collett, aged 16, was still living in Broughton Gifford but not with her family, which was residing at a dwelling on Slipper Lane off Church Street.

35O40

Elizabeth Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and baptised there on 25^th September 1836, the daughter of labourer Thomas and Joan Elizabeth Collett. She was four years old in 1841, when Elizabeth and her family were living at Chally Mead in Broughton Gifford, where she was living and working in 1851, by which time her family was residing at Slipper Lane, off Church Street, in Broughton Gifford, as they were again in 1861. Eight months prior to that census day, Elizabeth Collett married Edward Thomas Pinchin at Broughton Gifford on 17^th June 1860. He was 25 and the son of Edward Pinchin, and Elizabeth was 22 and the daughter of Thomas Collett. Curiously, they were both single but already had a four-year-old daughter, who was living with them at Combe Hill in Castle Combe in 1861, when the family was preparing for the birth of the second of their seven children. They were Edward Pinchin who was 26 and a carter and an agricultural labourer from Woodborough in Wiltshire, Elizabeth Pinchin was 23 from Broughton Gifford, where their daughter Sophia Pinchin aged five had been born. Elizabeth was taking in lodgers to supplement her husband’s income.

By 1871 the family was living at Bathford in Somerset where Edward was working as a railway labourer. The couple had two more daughters over the next few years, however Elizabeth then passed away at only 38 years of age on 21^st April 1875. She was buried at St Swithun’s Churchyard in Bathford, Somerset, along with her daughter Rose, who had been buried there just after she was born in 1872. Their other six children were Joanna Elizabeth Pinchin born in 1862, Katie Sophia Pinchin born in 1865, Annie Maria Pinchin born in 1868, Ada Mary Pinchin born in 1870, Rose Jane Pinchin born 1872, Cecily Louisa Pinchin born in 1874. The death of Elizabeth Pinchin was recorded at Bath (Ref. 5c 497) during the third quarter of 1875.

35O41

James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where he was baptised on 8^th July 1838, but he died shortly after, the son of labourer Thomas and Elizabeth Collett, for their next child to be given the same name.

35O42

James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, possibly at Chally Mead where he and his family were living in 1841, when James was one year old. Ten months earlier, he was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 23^rd August 1840, the son of labourer Thomas and Elizabeth Collett. He was 11 years of age in 1851 when he was still living with his family, but at Slipper Lane off Church Street in Broughton Gifford. James was still living with his parents at the time of the census in 1871, when he said he was 32, but tragically just a few months later he died. The death of James Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon register office (Ref. 5a 75) during the third quarter of 1871.

35O43

Henry Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where he was baptised on 29^th August 1841, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett. He was nine years old in 1851 when he was living on Slipper Lane off Church Street in Broughton Gifford with his family. Although no record of him has been found in 1861, it was five years later that Henry Collett married Anne R Derrick at Bath in Somerset (Ref. 5c 1089) during the second quarter of 1866. Anne Rebecca Derrick, the daughter of Ann White and James Derrick had been born at Bradford-on-Avon in 1846, where she was baptised on 5^th July 1846. It would appear the heavily pregnant Anne and the father of her child Henry, had run away to Bath to be married, their son born not long after their wedding day. Once the child had been born the married couple returned to Bradford-on-Avon, where the birth was recorded. By the time of the birth of their next two children the family was residing in the village of Downton, just south of Salisbury. It was probably Henry’s employment as a police constable that prompted the move.

However, on the day of the census in 1871, the family of five was recorded in Charlton-All-Saints within the parish of Downton. Henry Collett from Broughton was 28 and a police constable, Anne Collett from Bradford was 24, Harry Collett also from Bradford was five, Sarah J Collett was three and Arthur Collett was two, both of them born at Downton. On that day Anne was expecting the arrival of her fourth child, which was born within the next few months, the place of birth later stated to be Downton, rather than Charlton. Just over two years after that birth Anne presented Henry with another daughter although, by that time, the family had moved again, and was living at Biddestone, near Chippenham, where a total of three children were added to the family. However, seven years later in 1880 the family moved the relatively short distance to Langley Burrell, where they were recorded as living in April 1881.

The full family was living in a police house in Langley Burrell, to the immediate north-east of Chippenham, which was referred to as the Police Station. By that time Henry had been promoted to the rank of sergeant at the age of 38, and his place of birth was confirmed as Broughton Gifford. Living with him was his wife who was listed as Anne R Collett who was 34, together with their seven children Harry D Collett who was 15, Sarah J Collett who was 13, Arthur Collett who was 12, James Collett who was nine, Annie L Collett who was seven, Frederick G Collett who was three, and Mary B Collett who was one-year old.

Following the census day in 1881, Henry and Anne added four more children to their family, as confirmed by the next census in 1891 when they had eight of their twelve children living with them at Malmesbury, the four eldest children have left the family home by then. In between living at Langley Burrell and Malmesbury, the family spent a few years residing in Pewsey, six miles south of Marlborough, where two children were born, before the birth of their last two children after the family had arrived in the Malmesbury area of Wiltshire.

According to the census in 1891 the family of Henry Collett was recorded in the village of Brokenborough, one mile from Malmesbury, living on Gostins Lane. On that day the family comprised Henry Collett aged 49 who was by then a superintendent of police, Annie R Collett who was 44, Annie L Collett who was 17, Fredk G Collett who was 13, Mary B Collett who was 11, William Collett who was nine, Francis Collett who was six, Edith J Collett who was five, Clara Collett who was three and Reginald Collett who was one-year old. Sometime after that Henry retired from the Wiltshire Constabulary and returned to working on the land, when he and the younger members of his family were recorded farming at Melksham Without in the census of 1901.

It was at Snarlton Lane, on the eastern side of Melksham Forest, where farmer Henry Collett from Broughton Gifford was 59, his wife Annie R Collett was 54 and from Bradford-on-Avon, who still have living with them their four youngest children. Francis Collett was aged 16 and a farmer’s son, Edith J Collett was aged 15 and a dressmaker, Clara Collett was 13, and Reginald Collett was 11, with the two youngest children still attending school.

According to the next census in April 1911 sons William and Francis had both left the family home to be married, while Henry and his reduced family had moved yet again, on that occasion to Byde Mill Farm at Hannington near Highworth to the north of Swindon. Henry Collett was 69, a farmer and a police pensioner, and his wife Ann Rebecca Collett was 64, the couple’s birth places once again confirmed as Broughton Gifford and Bradford-on-Avon. The only children still living with them by that time was their daughter Edith Jessie Collett from Pewsey who was 24, and the son Reginald Collett from Malmesbury who was 21. The census return also confirmed that during their life together Ann had presented Henry with thirteen children, of which twelve were still alive. That vital piece of information has led to the deceased child being identified as William George Collett (1876-1877). Recorded as staying with the family in 1911 was Dora Cresser from Grove near Wantage, who was 19 with no occupation, who was described as a visitor, boarding with the family. It is now established that Dora was the future wife of Henry and Annie youngest son Reginald.

Thanks to Angela Chilcott in The Netherlands, we now know that her ancestor Henry Collett from Broughton Gifford died seven years later during 1918 at the age of 75, while his widow survived him by sixteen years, when Anne Rebecca Collett nee Derrick passed away during 1934 aged 88 years. They were buried together in the same grave at St Michael’s Church in Melksham, where a single headstone confirms that Henry passed away on 17^th April 1918 and that Annie Rebecca Collett died on 18^th June 1934. It was at Devizes register office where the death of Henry Collett was recorded (Ref. 5a 87) during the second quarter of 1918.

35P30

Harry Derrick Collett

Born in 1866 at Bradford-on-Avon

35P31

Sarah Jane Collett

Born in 1867 at Downton

35P32

Arthur Collett

Born in 1869 at Downton

35P33

James Collett

Born in 1871 at Downton

35P34

Annie Louisa Collett

Born in 1873 at Biddestone

35P35

William George Collett

Born in 1876 at Biddestone

35P36

Frederick George Collett

Born in 1878 at Biddestone

35P37

Mary Blanche Collett

Born in 1880 at Biddestone

35P38

William Collett

Born in 1882 at Langley Burrell

35P39

Francis Collett

Born in 1884 at Pewsey

35P40

Edith Jessie Collett

Born in 1885 at Pewsey

35P41

Clara Collett

Born in 1887 at Malmesbury

35P42

Reginald Collett

Born in 1889 at Malmesbury

35O44

Simeon Collett was born at Broughton Gifford where he was baptised on 9^th October 1843, the last child of labourer Thomas Collett and Joan Elizabeth Button. Apart from his baptism record, the only other reference to him in England is the census in 1851, when he was living with his family at Slipper Lane, off Church Street, in Broughton Gifford, when he was seven years old

35O45

James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford on 11^th December 1837 and was baptised there on 14^th January 1838, the eldest child of Samuel Collett and Hannah E Mortimer. He was two years old in the Broughton census of 1841 and was still living with his family in the main street there ten years later when he was 13 and working as an errand boy. At the aged of 21 James left Wiltshire and followed his cousin Samuel Collett (above) to North America and initially settled in Waukesha County where he farmed for three years. Following that, he then moved to Dodge County where he and later married Mary A Holcomb on 2^nd March 1862 at Rubicon, Dodge County in Wisconsin. She was born at Jasper in New York State in America on 6^th August 1843, daughter of Levi Holcomb and Angeline Rathborn. James was 25, while Mary was only 19.

One married the couple settled remained living Rubicon, where their first child was born, before the family moved to Rock Elm in Pierce County during the autumn of 1863. And it was at Rock Elm that all nine of their other children were born, and where James and Mary spent the rest of their life together. On 9^th March 1865 James joined the 50^th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and was posted to St Louis, and from there to Fort Rice and the Indian territory, where they fought the Indians. He was discharged from his duties on 4^th June 1866, following which he returned to his life as a farmer.

The United States census for Rock Elm in 1880 confirmed that James Collett from England was 43 and that he was a farmer. His wife Mary was 37 and was confirmed as having been born at Jasper NY. She was described as ‘keeping house’. Eight of their ten children were recorded as living with the family on that occasion, although it is known that both missing children at that time lived beyond 1905. The two missing children were Vida Collett, and Belle Collett who was later known to have been married. Of the remainder Sarah Jane was 17, Libbie 15, Edwin 13, Minnie 10, Fred was nine, Martha was six, Albert was four, and William was one-year old. However, it was son Bertie (Albert) who died at the age of 20, ten years prior to the death of his father.

James Collett died at Rock Elm in Pierce County, Wisconsin on 23^rd June 1905 at the age of 68, and was followed by his wife Mary eleven years later who died at Spring Valley in Pierce County on 14^th January 1916 at the age of 73. In between times James’ widow Mary Collett went to live at Spring Valley with her youngest son and his second wife Alma, where she was recorded in 1910 at the age of 67. Following the death of Mary Collett, nee Holcomb, a lengthy article was published in the local newspaper and that has been reproduced in full below.

The shorter obituary for James Collett read as follows: “James Collett was born at Broughton, England on December 11^th 1837. He came to America at the age of twenty-one years and settled at Mapleton, where he lived for three years. He then went to Rubicon, Dodge County, where he married Miss Mary Holcombe on March 2^nd 1862. In the fall of 1863, he moved to the town of Rock Elm, where he has since resided. March 9^th 1865 he enlisted in Company G 5^th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and was discharged June 4^th 1866. To James and Mary Collett were born ten children: Sarah [Mrs John Raab] living at Red Wing Minnesota; Libbie [Mrs Jake Jackson] of Olivet; Ed of Hayward; Minnie [Mrs Joe Taylor] of Glen Wood; Fred of Somo; Mattie [Mrs Henry Hess] of Elmwood; Bertie now deceased; Will of Spring Valley; Bell and Vida living at home. Forty years ago, Mr Collett joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been an earnest, faithful work to the last. He was a kind, loving husband and father, and will be missed by a host of friends.”

Twenty-five years prior to his death, James Collett and his cousin Samuel Collett (above) were both living within Pierce County in Wisconsin. However, while James was at Rock Elm, his cousin Samuel was at Union near Madison, around two hundred miles away so, sadly, it seems unlikely that they were ever reunited.

35P43

Sarah Jane Collett

Born in 1862 at Rubicon, Dodge

35P44

Hannah Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1865 at Rock Elm, Pierce

35P45

Edwin James Collett

Born in 1868 at Rock Elm, Pierce

35P46

Minnie A Collett

Born in 1870 at Rock Elm, Pierce

35P47

Frederick Levi Collett

Born in 1871 at Rock Elm, Pierce

35P48

Martha Ellen Collett

Born in 1874 at Rock Elm, Pierce

35P49

Albert H Collett

Born in 1875 at Rock Elm, Pierce

35P50

William Arthur Collett

Born in 1878 at Rock Elm, Pierce

35P51

Belle H Collett

Born in 1883 at Rock Elm, Pierce

35P52

Vida Leona Collett

Born in 1888 at Rock Elm, Pierce

Newspaper article published following the death of Mary Collett nee Holcomb

“Mary Holcomb was born in the town of Jasper, New York, august 6, 1843, but when a small child she came to Wisconsin with her parents, settling in Dodge County. She married James Collett March 2^nd 1862 at Rubicon. Two years later they moved to Rock Elm where they lived for over forty years, until her husband died June 23^rd 1905. Soon after this she can to Spring Valley to live, and here she died January 14^th 1916 of acute asthma. The funeral was held Sunday, Rev D L Holbrook officiating. Services were held at the home at 11am and at 2pm at the M E Church at Rock Elm, burial was made at the family lot at Poplar Hill Cemetery.

She was a member of a family of nineteen children, of whom three sisters, - Mrs Fannie Howard of Hillsboro, Ill, Mrs Lucy Phelps of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Mrs Betty Gerrish of Ono, and two brothers – Alfred Holcomb of South Hill, and Albert Holcomb of Rock Elm survive her. She was the mother of ten children, nine of whom are left to mourn the loss of a good mother – Mrs Sarah Raab of Bradley, Ed and Will Collett of Hayward, Mrs Libbie Jackson and Fred Collett of Olivet, Mrs Mattie Hess of Elmwood, Mrs Minnie Taylor and Mrs Belle Weldon of Spring Valley, and Mrs Vida Hamilton of South Hill. One son, Bert, died January 7^th 1895. She also leaves twenty grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Mrs Collett joined the Methodist Church about fifty years ago at Rock Elm; sometime after moving to Spring Valley she transferred her membership to the Congregational Church her. At both Rock Elm and Spring Valley she was a devoted and beloved member. Mrs Collett’s death removes the older living settler from the town of rock Elm. Not a person is left who lived in that town when she and her husband came there during the hard times of the Civil War

Soon after the move to Rock Elm, Mr Collett enlisted in the army and, the young wife, with a baby only a few months old, was left to take care of the farm. The story is the old one, familiar to the settlers of those days, but incredible to this ease-loving generation, of hardships and privations which they bore with cheerfulness, but which we would think intolerable. At that time the only post office was at Waverley, where mail was brought from ‘The Rock’ once a week. Letters from the soldier boys was eagerly looked for. Once, in going to Waverley after the expected letter from her husband, Mrs Collet found Plum Creek so swollen by rains that water was running six inches over the log which formed the only bridge; but she didn’t turn around and go home – she walked that log, even though she knew a slip probably meant drowning in the deep swift waters

The little clearing grew to a farm; the log cabin changed to a fine brick house; the children were all given an education and a start in life – and a careful training on the right road. To such women this country and this section owes a great and unpayable debt; their unselfish and constant care has made a prosperous and cultured community out of the pioneer country of a few years ago”

35O46

Sarah Ann Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 29^th March 1840, the daughter of Samuel Collett and Hannah Mortimer. Her birth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 261) during the second quarter of that year. In the Broughton Gifford census of 1851 Sarah was 11 years old and was still attending school, while living with her family in the main street. It is understood that she later married, to become Sarah Bashaw, but searches through various census records have not revealed the whereabouts of Sarah or her husband. However, new information received from Rob Campbell in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, reveals that she was living near Arkansaw in Wisconsin.

35O47

Edwin Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, with his birth recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 271) during the first quarter of 1844. It was at Broughton Gifford that he was baptised on 11^th February 1844, the son of Samuel and Hannah Collett. In the following year he died at Broughton Gifford, the death of Edwin Collett also recorded at Bradford (Ref. viii 163) during the third quarter of 1845.

35O48

George Collett was born at Broughton Gifford in 1848 and his birth recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 269) during the third quarter of that year. He was two years old in the census of 1851 when he was living with his family at the main street in Broughton Gifford. George was barely five years old when his mother Hannah died in 1853. Around twenty years later George married Emily with whom he had two children prior to 1881. The census that year confirmed that George was married to Emily and that they were living at 126 Broke Street in Shoreditch with their two children.

George was 32 and his place of birth was confirmed as Broughton Gifford, while Emily was 29 and had been born at Islington in London around 1851. George’s occupation was that of a cheesemonger’s traveller. Their two young children were Ernest who was five, and Minnie who was two years old, the first born at Bethnal Green and the second at Shoreditch.

By the end of the 1880s George had died at Islington, where his wife and two children were still living in April 1891. Emily was 39, while her two children were Ernest, who was 15, and Minnie, who was 12 years old. Ten years later Emily was listed as being 49, when she was living within the St Leonards Shoreditch registration district of London. Her place of birth was given as Bethnal Green where her son had been born who had left the family home by then. Only her daughter Minnie was still living with Emily. It would appear that by 1911 Emily, who was 58, was living alone in Bethnal Green.

35P53

Ernest Collett

Born in 1875 at Bethnal Green

35P54

Minnie Collett

Born in 1878 at Shoreditch

35O49

Annie Collett was born at Budbury in Bradford-on-Avon in 1860, her birth recorded at Bradford (Ref. 5a 1077) as Annie Collett during the fourth quarter of the year. She was six months old by the time of the census in 1861 while, around the time she was seven years of age, her father moved the family to Bedminster, near Bristol, where they were living in 1871.

35O50

Eliza Collett was born at Budbury in Bradford-on-Avon in 1862 and her birth was also recorded at Bradford (Ref. 5a 140) during the first quarter of 1863. Before the end of the decade Eliza and her family had left Bradford, by which time they were living in Bedminster near Bristol where, in April 1871, Eliza was eight years old. Within the next decade she left school and by April 1881 she was working with her mother in the family’s grocer shop. Eliza Collett of Bradford-on-Avon was 18 and her occupation was that of a grocer’s shop assistant, while she was still living with her parents at 154 East Street in Bedminster.

35O51

Samuel Collett was possibly born at the end of 1867 or early in the following year, when his birth was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 114) during the first three months of 1868.

35O54

Thomas Collett was born at Combe Down south-east of Bath during 1850, the eldest son of Henry Clack Collett and Maria Gore, who was one-year old on the day of the Combe Down census in 1851. During the following five years the family moved the short distance to nearby Monkton Combe where they were living in 1861 when Thomas was 10 years old. Presumably, upon leaving school, it would appear that Thomas left the family home in Monkton Combe since, both him and his older sister, were absent in 1871. However, the whereabouts of twenty-year old Thomas has not yet been discovered at that time.

The next census in 1881 revealed that Thomas Collett from Combe Down was working as a gardener at the age of 30. By then he was married to Mary Ann Collett from Combe Down who was 28, when the pair of them was residing at the curiously named Old Brass Knocker in Combe Down within the parish of Monkton Down. The marriage of Thomas and Mary produced no children for the pair, who were still living with the parish of Monkton Combe in 1891 when they were 40 and 38 respectively. After a further ten years the working pair was recorded at nearby Claverton, still within the parish of Monkton Combe. Thomas was still working as a gardener, while his age on that occasion was curiously 53. His wife Mary A Collett was 49 and was a matron.

It was during the first decade of the new century that Thomas Collett died, leaving his widow Mary Ann Collett living alone in the Bath area in April 1911 when she was 61.

35O55

Jane Collett was born at Monkton Combe near Bath in 1857 and was 14 in 1871. By 1881 she had left the family home in Combe and was working as a general domestic servant at the age of 24. Her employer was homeopathic chemist Edmund Capper, at his home at 33 Gay Street in Walcot, Bath. It would appear that she never married and in 1911, as Jane Collett from Monkton Combe, she was 53 and was sharing a house at Bathwick with her brother James (below).

35O56

James Collett was born at Monkton Combe in 1863 and was seven in 1871. On leaving school, he became an apprentice cabinet maker and by April 1881 he was 17 when he was still living in the family home at Combe village with his parents. By April 1891 bachelor James Collett of Monkton Combe was 27 when he was recorded in the census that year as still living within the Bathwick & Bath registration district with his parents. Twenty years later in 1911 he was 46 and of Monkton Combe, when he was living in Bathwick with his sister Jane (above).

35O59

Sarah Collett was born at Melksham in 1841, where she was baptised on 17^th September 1841, the daughter of William Collett and Elizabeth Gunstone. Sarah was around thirty years old when she married George Young at Melksham on 8^th May 1871.

35O61

Daniel T Collett was born at Hamden, a suburb of New Haven, Connecticut during 1850, the second child and eldest son of Thomas and Ann Collett from England. In the census of 1860 Daniel Collet was nine years of age and was 19 years old in the next census of 1870, when he was the only child still living with his parents, when he was working in an auger shop. Around four year later Daniel married Adela Jane Bryan, the daughter of Henry Bryan and Celestia Smith, with whom he had two children prior to the census of 1880. The census return that year identified the family residing at New Haven City in New Haven County, where Dan Collett was 29 and whose occupation was that of a retail grocer. His wife Adella Collett was 23, and their youngest son was Edwin who was two years old. The couple’s eldest son that day was staying at the home of his uncle Charles H Bryan and his sister Susan M Bryan, where their widowed mother Celestia Bryan was also living, having only recently lost her husband. George H Collett was five years of age.

Sadly, the marriage did not endure and over the following decades the couple was divorced. Although no record of Daniel or Dan has been identified in the census of 1890, by 1900 he was working as a vegetable pedlar, while lodging at the New Haven home of Charles and Margaret Cooper. That same year, his wife Adela J Collett aged 41 was still living in New Haven, and had living there with her, her two sons George and Edwin. It was twenty-two years after that when the death and burial of Daniel T Collett was recorded at Hamden in New Haven in 1922, when his age was estimated to be around 72 years.

By 1930 Adela’s son Edwin had moved from Massachusetts, where he was living in 1920, to Florida and to St Petersburg in Pinellas County. It therefore seems highly likely that shortly after 1930 Adela went to like at her youngest son’s Florida home, because it was there in St Petersburg that the death of Adela Jane Collett, nee Bryan, was recorded on 9^th December 1938. The death certificate confirmed that she had been born at Woodmont in Connecticut on 23^rd September 1856, the daughter of Henry Bryan and Celestia Smith, aged 82 years 2 months 16 days. The document also stated she was a widow, that her last address had been 100 20^th Avenue South in St Petersburg, and that she was buried at Royal Palm Cemetery on 12^th December 1938.

35P55

George H Collett

Born in 1875 at New Haven City

35P56

Edwin Stephen Collett

Born in 1878 at New Haven City

35O62

Stephen Collett was born at Hamden in Connecticut on 3^rd October 1852, the youngest son of Thomas and Ann Collett. He was seven years old in the Hamden census of 1860 but, on leaving school, he left the family home and in 1870 was a lodger at the Connecticut home of Edward and Angeline Sherman. Stephen Collett was 17 and was working at an auger shop. During the few years Stephen became a butcher and a married man, when he married Mary Torpey, the daughter of Michael and Anna Torpey from Ireland. It was also at the home of his parents-in-law that Stephen and Mary, both aged 27, were living in 1880, when Stephen was confirmed as a butcher and the son of an English father.

35O63

Henry Walsingham Collett was born in September 1840 at Jackson County, Illinois, in a property that his father purchased just after his wedding day. He was the first of the four sons born to Henry Collett from England and his wife Maria Maslen, also born in England. In the census of 1850, Walsingham H Collett aged ten years, was living with his family in Hamden, New Haven County, Connecticut. Although his father is known to have purchased and sold numerous properties across America, on that day he was working as a mechanic. Twenty years later, his family was living at Buffalo Township, Prince Edward County in Virginia, by which time his father was a farmer, with Henry having already left the family home.

It was at Hamden on 4^th June 1863 that Henry W Collett aged 23 and from Jackson, Illinois, married Cynthia Goodyear Dickerman aged 21 and from Hamden, where both of them were living prior to that day. Three years later Cynthia gave birth to a daughter, the couple’s only known child who was born at Hamden, where the three of them were still living in 1870. The census that year recorded them as Henry W Collett who was 29 and a butcher, Cynthia G Collett who was 26 and keeping house, and Josephine Collett who was three years old. Living with them was Cynthia’s widowed mother Chloe Dickerman aged 64. It was exactly the same situation in 1880, by which time it was at Meriden, New Haven County, that they were recorded as Henry W Collett from Illinois who was 40 and a cutter in a packing house, Cynthia from Connecticut who was 37, Josephine Collett who was 13, and Chloe Dickerman was 74.

Around the end of that decade daughter Josephine married Fred E Webb, with whom she had given birth to two children by the end of the century. At the moment, no record of Henry and Cynthia, or Fred and Josephine, has been location in 1890, but they were all living together in 1900 when Fred Webb was head of the household at Springfield, Hamden County in Massachusetts. It was at 33 Churchill Street that they were recorded, where Fred was 38 and a dealer in milk, Josephine was 33 and had been born in August 1866, their daughter Maud Webb was nine, and their son Everett Webb was four years of age. In addition to two boarders staying with the family, Josephine’s parents were listed as Henry W Collett aged 59 and born in September 1840, a butcher in the meat business, and father-in-law, and Cynthia G Collett aged 58, and mother-in-law. The census return stated that Henry and Cynthia had been married for thirty-seven years, during which time they had given birth to just the one child.

Four years after that census day, Henry Walsingham Collett died at Hartford in Connecticut on 3^rd May 1904 and was buried at the Oak Grove Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts on 4^th May. The record of his death confirmed that he was a son of Henry and Maria Collett, and that his occupation was that of a salesman, while the informant of his passing was his daughter Josephine Collett Webb of 33 Churchill Street in Springfield. The cause of death was cerebrospinal meningitis and diabetes. Josephine was still living at 33 Churchill Street when she died on 11^th December 1947, aged 81, when her obituary in the Springfield newspaper recorded her as Mrs Mary Josephine Webb, daughter of Cynthia Goodyear Collett, and the widow of Fred E Webb.

35P57

Josephine Collett

Born in August 1866 at Hamden

35O64

William Mortimer Collett was born in Jackson County during September in 1841, another son of Henry and Maria. It was as William M Collett aged eight years, that he was living with his family in Hamden, New Haven County, on the day of the census in 1850. No record of any member of his family of six has been found within the census of 1860, but by 1870, two years before his father died, they were residing at Buffalo Township in Virginia, when William M Collett was a recently married man, having a wife and child, who were living there on the farm of his father and mother. William M Collett from Illinois was 27 and a farmer, his wife Mary was 25 and born in England, with their one-year-old son William H Collett having been born in New York. The record of his birth confirmed his parents as William Mortimer Collett and Mary Ann Hughes. Sadly, the couple’s first child, and only daughter, had already died at the age of one year.

Curiously, no record of the marriage of William M Collett and Mary A Hughes (or Hughey) has been found. By 1880, the family residing at 29 Daggett Street in New Haven comprised William M Collett aged 38 and a car painter from Illinois, Mary Collett from England aged 37, William H Collett from New York who was eleven, and nine-year-old Albert E Collett who had been born in Virginia.

According to the New Haven census in 1900, William and Mary and two surviving sons were still living there in New Haven Township at 23 Ward Street. William Collett from Illinois was 58 and a policeman, who had been married to Mary, age 54, for 30 years. During that time, she had given birth to seven children, with just two still alive, and only four of them identified below. Their unmarried sons were Albert Collett who was 28 and Frank Collett who was 18, both born in Connecticut.

By the time the next census was conducted in 1910, son Albert was a married man with a wife and two children living at 22 Asylum Street in New Haven, while son Frank was unmarried and a lodger in Bristol, Hartford County. At that time no record of William or Mary has been found, but it seems likey that they were not together after 1900, although no death record for Mary A Collett has been located. What is known is that William M Collett died alone in the town of New Haven on 5^th March 1915 at the age of 73, and was buried there two days later. The coroner’s report read as follows:

“He died from a bullet wound to the head (suicidal), the deceased, a retired policemen, was boarding at 11 Baldwin Street, New Haven. Since late January, the deceased has failed rapidly in health and became very despondent. At 3.50 p.m. he arose from the couch in his sitting room and went into the adjoining bedroom. A few minutes later, Belinda Delabar, the proprietress, heard a noise like someone falling. She went to the room of the deceased and found him dead on the floor. Examination show a bullet wound to the right temple. On the floor, at the foot of the deceased, was a 32-calibre revolver containing an empty shell. On the person was found a ten-dollar bill and a cheque for $41.67 (a policeman’ Relief Fund).”

35P58

Maria Maslen Collett

Born in 1867 at Brooklyn, New York

35P59

William Henry Collett

Born in 1868 at Brooklyn, New York

35P60

Albert Edward Collett

Born in 1872 in Virginia

35P61

Frank Collett

Born in 1882 at New Haven, Conn.

35O65

Charles C Collett was born in 1848 shortly after his family moved from Illinois to Hamden in New Haven, Connecticut, where they were recorded in the census of 1850, when Charles C Collett was two years old. No trace of the family has been found in the next census, while by 1870 Charles was 22 and a blacksmith, his wife was 17-year-old Fannie from Connecticut, and their son Charles H Collett was two months old and born in Virginia where, interestingly, his cousin Albert Edward Collett (above) was also born around the same time. Their son was born at Oakland, Prince Edward, Virginia, to farmer Charles C Collett and his wife Fanny.

Two more children were added to their family during the 1870s at Hamden in New Haven County, Connecticut, where the family was still living in 1880. Charles Collett was 32 and a blacksmith, Fannie Collett was 28, Charles Collett junior was ten, Edward Collett was three, and Clara L Collett was one year old. The census form also stated, error, that every member of the household had been born in Connecticut. The later death of Charles C Collett was recorded at Hamden in 1899, where he was buried in the Central Burying Grounds.

35P62

Charles William Collett

Born on 02.04.1870 at Prince Edward, Va

35P63

Edwards William Collett

Born in 1877 at Hamden, New Haven

35P64

Clara L Collett

Born in 1879 at Hamden, New Haven

35O67

Charles H Collett was born in Maine during the month of June in 1848, the eldest child of John Collett from England and his wife Ann from Maine. Not long after he was born his parents took the family to Hamden in New Haven County, Connecticut, where Charles’ brother Jason (below) was born and where the family of four was living in 1850. That year’s census confirmed that Charles H Collett was one year old and from Maine. At the end of that decade, it was at Princeton in Bureau County, Illinois, that Charles H Collett was 12 and still living with his family.

No record of John has been discovered between 1860 and the end of the century. However, by 1900 he was married and living and working at Denver City in Arapahoe County, Colorado. The childless couple was listed as John H Collett, who was 52 and a rail road clerk who had been born at Maine in June 1848, and Della Collett from New York who was 36. Rather strangely, the census form indicated that they had been married for twenty-nine years, which would be impossible if Della was 36. Therefore, it may have been her age that was quoted in error. Either way, no further record of the couple has been.

35O68

Jason S Collett was born at Hamden in New Haven County on 28^th January 1850, when his parents were named as John M Collett and Ann A Collett. He was just a few months old on the day of the census that year. By 1860 the family home was at Princeton in Bureau County, where Jason S Collett was 10 years old. Jason was not living with his family in 1870, by which time they had settled in Missouri, while in 1880 Jason S Collett from Connecticut was 29 and a married man with a child of his own. At that time, he and his family were living in Belleville, St Clair County in Illinois, where they were boarding at the home of attorney-at-law Thomas Quick and his family. Jason was a rail road conductor, his wife Mary Collett from Illinois was 21, and their daughter Irene Collett was two years old and also born in Illinois.

No record of any member has been found in 1890, but around the middle of the next decade their daughter Irene was married, when she became Irene J Goetz. Tragically, it was possibly during the birth of her second child, that she died on 6^th December 1899 at Belleville in St Clair County and was buried at the Rider Cemetery. Three years prior to that she had given birth to a son Howard Goetz in 1896. Within a shortly while of losing her daughter, Mary A Collett was living at the home of her father Peter Hill in Smithton Township in St Clair County, where she was working as the house keeper for her elderly father, while also caring for her late daughter’s son Howard. The details in the 1900 Smithton census confirmed that Peter Hill from Illinois was 82 and a land lord (previously he was a farmer), his daughter Mary A Collett was 41 – having been born during 1859 in St Clair County, and that Howard Goetz was four years of age – having been born there in July 1896. These details provide the evidence that Mary A Hill was the last child born to Peter and Emily Hill. Where Mary’s husband Jason was on that day has not yet been determined.

Just over ten years after losing their only known child, Jason and Mary had their grandson Howard living with them at Smithton in St Clair County in 1910. Jason S Collett was 60 and a farmer, Mary was 51 and Howard was 12. Jason died within the next ten years, leaving Mary Collett, aged 61 and a widow, still living in Smithton in 1920, when the only other person at that address was her widowed sister Emily, nee Hill, who was 66. In the Smithton census of 1930 Mary, A Collett was 71 and living with her that year was her granddaughter-in-law Ona A Goetz, who was 32 and the wife of absent Howard Goetz, and their only known child and Mary’s great grandson, Glendon C Goetz, who was nine years of age.

In 1940, the widow Mary Collett, aged 81, was still living in the same house that year that she had occupied ten years earlier. Living with her, and most likely looking after her, was her grandson Howard Goetz aged 42, as was his wife Ona Goetz, and their son Glendon Goetz who was 18. Upon the death of her grandson, thirteen years later, his death certificate revealed that Howard McFarland Goetz died on 6^th December 1953 at Alameda in California, that his mother’s maiden-name was Collett, and that he was born on 21^st July 1897.

35P65

Irene J Collett

Born on 19.10.1877 in Illinois

35O70

Emma Jane Collett was born at Hamden in New Haven County on 3^rd April 1854, the fourth child and second daughter of John and Ann Collett.

35O71

John H Collett was born in Illinois during 1856, possibly at Princeton in Bureau County where the family was living in 1860. He was another son of John and Ann Collett and was four years old in the census that year. During the following years his family moved to Missouri where John H Collett was confirmed as 14 years old and from Illinois in the census of 1870. The next census in 1880 placed the family residing at Blue Mound in Vernon County, Missouri, where John Collett from Illinois was still living with his parents, although he was incorrectly recorded as being 20 years of age instead of 24.

Thirty years later John Collett, aged 54, was married to Ada Collett from Arkansas, with whom he had a daughter, Emma Collett, also born at Arkansas, who was 14 years old. The census for Blue Mound in 1910 confirmed that John had been born in Illinois, that his father had been born in England, and that his mother had been born in Maine.

35P66

Emma Collett

Born in 1896 in Arkansas

35O74

George Dexter Collett was born in Missouri during 1863 and was the last child born to John and Ann Collett. Rather strangely he was recorded as George Collett aged four years in 1870 and ten years on, the census of 1880 for Blue Mound in Vernon County in Missouri recorded George D Collett as being 17. Just over ten years later George Dexter Collett married Martha (Mattie) Elizabeth Falkenstein and, as far as can be determined, their marriage produced at least three children, although only two appear to have survived. The first two children were born at Kansas City in Missouri, and shortly after the family was at Blue Mound, where their son was born. However, by the time the census was conducted in 1900, the young Collett family had settled in Fresno City, California. Engineer George Collett was 39, his wife Mattie was 43, and their three children were Lonnie Collett who was nine, Lorraine Collett was eight, and Harry Collett was four, all of them born in Missouri, before the move to California.

It was nine years later that his registration to vote, completed at Fresno on 7^th February 1909, provided his full name as George Dexter Collett from Missouri who was 46 years of age. The next census, in the following year, also revealed that George D Collett was residing in Fresno, when he was 48 and a machinist married to Mattie Collett from Virginia. Their daughter Lorraine Collett was 17 and their son Harry Collett was 15, both born in Missouri. No record has been found anywhere, for the couple’s eldest daughter.

In 1920 George was listed in the census simply as G D Collett who was 59 and employed as a millwright with the Wire Association. He was still residing with his family in Fresno, where Mattie was also 59 and by then it was only their youngest son who was still living with the couple, although they were letting a room to Robert McKenzie from Michigan. During the next ten years, George retired from his work as an engineer and, at the age of 67 in 1930, George D Collett was a farmer still living in Fresno. Mattie Collett was 69, son Harry was 32 and still a bachelor, and by then the couple’s unmarried daughter Lorraine, aged 36, had returned to live with her family.

35P67

Lonnie Collett

Born in 1891 at Kansas City

35P68

Lorraine Collett

Born in 1892 at Kansas City

35P69

Harry Collett

Born in 1895 at Blue Mound

35O77

Charles T Collett was born at Bangor in Maine on 26^th December 1857, who was most likely the third child of Job Collett and his second wife Elizabeth A Sawyer. He died at Bangor on 16^th November 1919 and was buried in the Collett area of the Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor where a memorial stone marks the grave.

35O80

Henry Eugene Collett was born at Bangor in Maine on 4^th April 1872, the last child of Job Collett from Melksham in England and his second wife Elizabeth A Sawyer. He married Charlotte Ethel Ray who was born in 1881, who died in 1954. Prior to the First World War Charlotte presented Henry with five children, although only the details of the three eldest are currently known. Henry Eugene Collett died on 1^st October 1961. He was also the great grandfather of Holly Hendricks from Wakefield in Massachusetts, just north of Boston, who supplied the brief details of her family line back to Thomas Collett of Broughton Gifford who emigrated to America in 1829.

35P70

Roy Eugene Collett

Born in 1904; died 1991

35P71

Floyd L Collett twin

Born in 1907; died 1982

35P72

Louis E Collett twin

Born in 1907;

35P73

a Collett child

Born circa 1910

35P74

a Collett child

Born circa 1913

35O81

Frances M Collett was born in Massachusetts during 1853, the eldest child of Jacob F Collett and Hannah Augusta Brown. She was 17 in the Maine census of 1870 when she was still there with her family, and just before the next census in 1880 she married Edgar M Green. On the day of that census Fannie M Green was 26 and Edgar M Green was 23 when they were living with Frances’ parents at Corinna, Penobscot in Maine.

35O85

Valentine E Collett was born at Newport in Maine during 1874, the youngest child of Jacob F Collett and Hannah Augusta Brown. In 1880 the family home was at Corinna in Penobscot County, where Valentine E Collett was six years of age. She later married Gideon W Sevain but, sadly the married was very short-lived, when the death of Valentine E Collett Sevain was recorded in the couple’s home at 22 Bradley Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, on 16^th April 1896, aged just 22 years. She was then buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass.

35O86

Sarah Mary Collett was born at Atworth in 1853, her birth recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 113) during the second quarter of that year. It was as Sarah M Collett aged eight years she was recorded in the Atworth census of 1861 with her brother John S Collett (below) when the family was living at Rose Cottage. Sadly, her father John died just one year prior to the next census in 1871 in which Sarah Mary Collett, aged 18, was still living at Atworth with her widowed mother and her brother. Sarah eventually left the family home in Atworth and, according to the 1881 Census, Sarah Mary Collett was 27 and a spinster who was working as a parlour maid for Thomas Jenkins Heathcote, a 63-year-old magistrate, at Shaw Hill House in the Bath Road in Melksham. It was on 2^nd June 1884 when Sarah Mary Collett married Enos Axford at Atworth. Enos was two or three years younger than Sarah and had been born at Market Drayton in Shropshire.

By the time of the census in 1891 Sarah had given birth to her first three children when, on that day, the family was residing in Chippenham. Enos Axford said he was 34, while his wife Sarah M Axford from Atworth did not admit she was 37 or 38, instead she said she was only 35. Their three children were listed as Ernest T W Axford who was five and born at Atworth, Arthur M Axford who was four, and Frederick R Axford who was two years of age, the two younger sons both born at Marshfield in South Gloucestershire. Sarah’s next two children were born at Chippenham before the family eventually moved to Bath in Somerset. The census in March 1901 confirmed that Enos was a grocer and shopkeeper, while once again Sarah did not offer her correct age, probably through embarrassment of being older than her husband. Enos and Sarah were both entered on the census return as 45, Ernest was 15, Frederick was 12, Francis Axford was 10, and Mabel Axford was eight years old. Missing son Arthur was back with his family at Bath in 1911 when Enos was 53, Sarah was 55, Ernest was 25, Arthur was 24, Frederick was 22, Francis was 21 and Mabel was 18.

35O87

John Stanier Collett was born at Rose Cottage in Atworth, near Melksham, on 27^th December 1857, the son of master shoemaker John Collett and his wife Sarah Collett formerly Wiggell. His birth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 16) during the first quarter of 1858 and it was on 24^th January 1858 that he was baptised at Atworth. As John S Collett he was listed in the census of 1861 as being three years old, while it was ten years late, in the census of 1871, that his full name was recorded as John Stanier Collett when he was 13 and an errand boy. At that time in his life, he was still living at Rose Cottage in Atworth, but with his widowed mother and his sister, following the death of his father early in the previous year.

At the time of the 1881 Census, bachelor John S Collett was 23 and by then had taken up the occupation of his earlier ancestors by becoming a carpenter. His place of birth was once again confirmed as being Atworth and, at that time in his life, he was still living with his widowed mother Sarah H Collett who had left Atworth and was residing in a dwelling on the Main Street, in Bradford-on-Avon. It was on his birthday in 1884 when John Stanier Collett, aged 27, married Mary Ann Simpson, aged 26, at Portsmouth in Hampshire where Mary had been born on 18^th December 1858. The marriage produced seven children for the couple who initially made their home in Atworth where their first two children were born, before moving to live in Reading where the remainder were born. On the occasion of the baptism of his second son at Atworth in June 1889 the child’s father was named in error as John Stanyard Collett.

That was confirmed by the census conducted in April 1891 when the family was living in Reading where carpenter John was then working. However, missing from the family group in the census that year was John’s wife Mary who would have been 32. Instead, the census return simply listed the family as comprising John S Collett who was 33 and his two sons John E Collett who was four and Harry T Collett who was three, both of them, like their father, having been born at Atworth.

Four further children were added to the family during the following decade and all of them born while the family was living in Reading. By March 1901 the family was almost complete, with pregnant Mary awaiting the arrival of the couple’s last children sometime after the day of the census. The full listing for the Reading family was carpenter John Collett, aged 43, Mary Collett, aged 42, John Collett who was 14, Henry Collett who was 13, Rose Collett who was nine, Elsie Collett who was seven, Frederick Collett who was five, and Edward Collett who was two years old, the last four children all confirmed as having been born in Reading.

Later that year Mary presented John with a daughter while they were living at Reading, and it was at 12 Hart Street in Reading that the family was still living in April 1911. John gave his place of birth as Melksham, the nearest large town to the village of Atworth, and his occupation as carpenter and builder. He was 53 and his wife of 26 years was confirmed as Mary who was 52. That year’s census recorded the children of John and Mary as John Collett aged 24, Henry Collett aged 23, Rose Collett aged 19, Elsie Collett aged 17, Frederick Collett aged 15, Edward Collett aged 12 and Kate Collett who was nine years old.

During 1921 John was living at 43 Williams Street in Reading, as confirmed on the passenger list for his youngest son Edward when he emigrated to Canada to join his brother Henry. It was also at that same address that John and Mary were living when their daughter Elsie sailed to a new life in Canada in 1924, where she was married in 1926. It was two years later when John S Collett was 70 years of age that he died in Reading on 26^th June 1928, and it was also there that his passing was recorded (Ref. 2c 401) during the second quarter of the year. His widow survived him by just over nine years, when Mary Ann Collett nee Simpson passed away on 13^th October 1937.

35P75

John Edward Collett

Born in 1886 at Atworth

35P76

Henry Thomas Collett

Born in 1887 at Atworth

35P77

Rose E Collett

Born in 1891 at Reading

35P78

Elsie Sarah Collett

Born in 1893 at Reading

35P79

Frederick George Collett

Born in 1896 at Reading

35P80

Edward William Collett

Born in 1898 at Reading

35P81

Kate Alice Collett

Born in 1901 at Reading

35O88

Edwin Collett was born at Holt near Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 2^nd October 1842 at Holt Chapelry, the eldest known child of Henry Collett, a cordwainer, and his wife Jane Lovelock, who were living in Holt. When he was around three years old, his parents moved a few miles north to Biddestone when Edwin’s brother Francis was born in 1845. Over the years after that, the family moved north again, on that occasion to settle in the Aston area of Birmingham, where his younger siblings were born. In the census of 1851 Edwin Collett from Holt in Wiltshire was eight years old, when he and his family were residing in the Cheapside area of Aston. Ten years later, Edwin and his family were living at Birchall Street in Aston, from where Edwin, aged 18, was a confectioner’s assistant in 1861

Following the death of his mother at Aston in Birmingham near the end of 1864, Edwin’s father returned to Wiltshire and the village of Atworth, where her was living in 1871 with his three youngest Birmingham born children. Where his older children were on that census day has not yet been discovered. However, after a further ten years, Edwin and his youngest brother Thomas (below) were living with their marriage sister Annie Arnold (below) at 43 Ryland Street in Aston in 1881. Edwin Collett, aged 38 and from Biddestone, was described as the brother-in-law of the head of the household John Arnold, while his occupation was that of a brass window fitter. Edwin never married and it was eight years later, when the death of Edwin Collett was recorded at Solihull register office (Ref. 6d 321) during the last quarter of 1889 at the age of 47.

35O89

Albert Collett was born at Holt near Broughton Gifford on 10^th January 1844, the second son of Henry and Jane Collett. After a short time living at Biddestone, near Chippenham, the family settled in the Aston area of Birmingham, where they were recorded at Cheapside in 1851. That census day, Albert Collett from Holt in Wiltshire was seven years of age. By 1861, Albert was 17 and a brass tube drawer who was still living with his family, but at Birchall Street in Aston. Four years later, the death of Albert Collett was recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 129) during the third quarter of 1865. It was earlier in that same year, when Albert and his brother Francis (below) were baptised at St John’s Church in Deritend and Bordesley on 26^th February 1865, when their parents were confirmed at Henry and Jane Collett.

35O90

Francis Collett was born at Biddestone on 22^nd June 1845, the son of Henry Collett, a publican, and his wife Jane Collett, formerly Jane Lovelock. The informant of the birth, was Henry Collett, father, from Biddestone. The birth of Francis Collett was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. viii 281) during the third quarter of 1845. Not long after he was born, the family left Wiltshire and travelled to Birmingham, where they were living in 1851 at Cheapside in Aston, where Francis Collett from Biddestone in Wiltshire was five years of age. On leaving school, he took up the job of a butcher’s assistant, as confirmed in the census of 1861 when Francis was 15 and living with his family at Birchall Street in Aston. For whatever reason, Francis and his older brother, Albert (above), received an adult baptism at St John’s Church on 26^th February 1865, just a few months before his brother died.

No record of him has been found in 1871, so twenty years after the last record of him, Francis Collett from Wiltshire was unmarried at the age of 35, when he was working as a barman at Rotherhithe Street in Rotherhithe within the Southwark area of South London. After some years in London, Francis made his way to Lancashire and to Blackpool where, on 28^th October 1891, Francis Collett, the son of Henry Collett, married the widow Ellen Pilkington, the daughter of James Taylor. It seems Francis and Ellen returned to Birmingham where, less than four years after their wedding day, the death of Francis Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 135) during the second quarter of 1896, when he was 50.

35O91

Aimee Hannah Collett was born at Aston in Birmingham in 1851, her birth recorded there (Ref. 16 178) during the last quarter of that year. In the census of 1861, she was recorded as Amy H Collett, who was eight years old. While no record of her has been identified in 1871, it was as Annie Arnold that she was recorded in the Aston census of 1881. The marriage of Aimee Hannah Collett and John Arnold, from West Bromwich, took place at Holy Trinity Church in Bordesley on 20^th December 1874 and was recorded at Aston (Ref. 6d 527) during the fourth quarter of 1874. John was 25 and a coachsmith, the son of coachsmith Samuel Arnold of Albert Place, Sherborne Road in Balsall Heath. One of the witnesses was John’s brother, Samuel Paul Arnold – who later married Aimee’s sister Sarah (below), the other being Theresa Arnold. Aimee was 23 and the daughter of Henry Collett of Emily Street, a shoemaker. Thereafter, the couple settled in the Birmingham area, where all of their children were born. By 1881 the Arnold family was living at 43 Ryland Street in Aston, where John Arnold, aged 30, was a perambulator maker, his wife Annie was 28 and a dressmaker, and their children were Ada Arnold who was five, and Arthur Arnold who was four. Living there with them was Annie’s two unmarried brothers Edwin Collett (above) and Thomas Collett (below).

35O92

Sarah Ann Collett was born at 38 Birchall Street in Aston on 20^th December 1858 although, when her birth was registered at Aston on 14^th January 1859, her parents had still to choose a name for her. However, the fact that the father of the unnamed girl was confirmed as cordwainer Henry Collett and her mother as Jane Collett, formerly Lovelock, proves this relates to Sarah A Collett. In the census of 1861 Sarah was the youngest child of the five children living with her parents at Birchall Street. Three years later the family was living at 50 Lombard Street in Aston, where Sarah’s mother passed away. Upon the death of her mother, her father moved back to Wiltshire and the village of Atworth, where he had been born. it was at Melksham that he married the widow Elizabeth Eliza Scott. By 1871 Sarah Ann Collett, aged 12 and from Birmingham, was still attending school when she was living with her father and younger brother Thomas (below), at Atworth, near Bradford-on-Avon. Her father remarried in 1876 and five years later, when Sarah was 22, she was employed as a domestic nursemaid looking after Charles Victor Perry, aged four years, the daughter of Emily Victoria Perry, at their home on Coburg Place in Melksham in 1881. It was during the second quarter of 1889 that the marriage of Sarah Ann Collett and her brother-in-law Samuel Paul Arnold, a widower, was recorded at the Birmingham Aston register office (Ref. 6a 537).

Samuel Paul Arnold was born at Aberystwyth on 19^th December 1851 and had previously been married to Anne Mayfield on 19^th December 1880, with whom he had four children before Anne suffered a premature death at Aston on 4^th June 1888. Their four children were Isabelle Lilly Arnold (born 26^th December 1881), Albert Henry Arnold (born 24^th December 1882), Charles Alfred Arnold (born circa 1884) and William George Arnold (born 26^th July 1886). Sarah was identified in the 1891 census with Samuel Paul Arnold, along with two children from Samuel’s previous marriage, Albert Henry and Charles Alfred. Also identified in that same census was Sarah's brother Albert Collett. The more detailed census, conducted in 1911, described Sarah and Paul as having been married for twenty-three years, Sarah having given birth to four children. They were Ellen Rosa Arnold (born 23^rd June 1891), Alice Maud Arnold (born 2^nd September 1892), Arthur Thomas Arnold (born 24^th May 1896) and Ernest Samuel Arnold (born around 1901). Just over ten years later Sarah A Arnold nee Collett, aged 63, died at 2 Brisbane Road in Smethwick on 17^th June 1922, when her husband was a night watchman. It was ten years after that when her husband Paul died at 2 Brisbane Road in Smethwick on 9^th December 1932.

35O93

Thomas Collett was born at Aston in 1861, the youngest known child of Henry Collett by his first wife Jane Lovelock, his birth recorded at Aston (Ref. 6d 234) during the third quarter of 1861. He was only three years old when his mother died, following which his father took Thomas and his older sister Sarah (above) to Atworth in Wiltshire, the home of his birth. And it was there, that the three of them were residing in 1871, when Thomas from Birmingham was nine years old. Ten years later, after his father had married for a second time, Thomas was living with his brother Edwin (above) at the Aston home of their married sister Annie Arnold (above). Thomas Collett from Birmingham was 18, and was working as a blacksmith’s apprentice, while residing at 43 Ryland Street

It was four years later, during the third quarter of 1885 when Thomas Collet married Rosa Sanders, the daughter of John Sanders and Emma Lane of Birmingham, their wedding recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 626). Rosa was born at Northwood Street in Birmingham on 21^st November 1863 and was baptised at the Church of St Paul on 18^th May 1864. Once married the couple moved to Kingston-upon-Hull where they were living at Park Road in Sculcoates on the day of the census in 1891. Thomas Collett was 29 and a blacksmith, his wife Rosa Collett was 27, and by then their marriage had produced the couple’s firth two children. Minnie Collett was three, and Clarence H Collett was one-year old; both of them born at Hull.

During the search for the marriage of Thomas and Rosa, another Thomas Collett was found who married Rose Frances Hill at St Georges Church in Birmingham on 5^th August 1888. The details for they and their family can now be found in Part 79 – The Second Oddington (Glos) Line to Birmingham, having previously been mentioned briefly in an appendix at the end of this family line.

Two more children were added to the family of Thomas and Rosa at Hull, the first before 1901 and the second just after the census that year. According to the March census of 1901 the extended family was living at 10 Brompton Terrace on Park Road in Sculcoates and was made up of Thomas Collett, aged 38 from Birmingham, who was a whitesmith, Rosa Collett, also from Birmingham who was 36, Minnie Collett, aged 13, Clarence Collett aged 11, and Albert E Collett who was seven years old.

By April 1911 the family still residing with the Sculcoates district of Hull was made up of Thomas who was 49 and a carriage smith, Rosa who was 47, Minnie who was 23, Clarence Henry who was 21, Albert Edward who was 17, and Beatrice who was nine years old. During the summer of 1916 Thomas and Rosa received the sad news that their eldest son Clarence had been killed on the front line at Thievpal. Their address at that time was “Melksham”, East Ella Drive, Anlaby in Hull.

35P82

Minnie Collett

Born in 1887 at Sculcoates, Hull

35P83

Clarence Henry Collett

Born in 1889 at Sculcoates, Hull

35P84

Albert Edward Collett

Born in 1893 at Sculcoates, Hull

35P85

Beatrice Collett

Born in 1901 at Sculcoates, Hull

35O94

Frank Stinchcomb Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, his birth recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 8 274) during the first three months of 1847 and nine months after his parents were married. It was also under his full name that he was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 28^th March 1847, the second child of Simeon Collett and Sophia Stinchcomb. Simply as Francis Collett, he was recorded in the Broughton Gifford census of 1851, at the age of four years, when living at main street in the village with his parents. Just of six months later, he died at Broughton Gifford during the first three weeks of October, where he was buried on 21^st October 1851 and still four years of age. His death was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 204) during the last three months of 1851. Within the church’s burial records, two entries above that of Francis Collett, was that of Mary Collett aged 36, who was buried at Broughton Gifford on 11^th September 1851.

35O95

James Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and his birth was also recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 271) during the third quarter of 1848. With no baptism recorded found, it must be assumed that he had died before that could be arranged, following which he was buried at Broughton Gifford on 19^th September 1849. His death was also recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 221) during the third quarter of that year

35O96

Albert Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where he was baptised on 23^rd September 1849. His birth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 265) during the third quarter of 1849. Six months later, Albert died at Broughton Gifford, where he was buried on 5^th April 1850. The death of Albert Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 8 189) during the second quarter of the year.

35O97

Ruth Hannah Collett was born at Broughton Gifford just three months before the death of her only surviving older sibling Frank. Her birth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. viii 7) during the third quarter of 1851, following which she was baptised at Broughton Gifford on 13^th July 1851, the fourth child and eldest daughter of Simeon Collett and Sophia Stinchcombe. It was less than four years later that the death of Ruth Hannah Collett was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 17) during the first quarter of 1855. She was then buried at Broughton Gifford on 27^th February 1855, the same day that she died.

35O98

Alicia Collett was a twin sister of Maria Collett (below) and was born at Broughton Gifford and her birth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon during the third quarter of 1853. She was baptised at Broughton Gifford, in a joint ceremony with her twin sister, on 10^th July 1853, the fifth child of Simeon Collett and Sophia Stinchcomb. Sadly, like all of her four older siblings, she too suffered an infant death, which was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 85) during the second quarter of 1855. Prior to her death being reported, she was buried with her four siblings at Broughton Gifford on 15^th March 1855, and just two weeks after the death of her sister Ruth (above).

35O99

Maria Collett and her twin sister Alicia Collett (above) were born at Broughton Gifford, where they were baptised together on 10^th July 1853. Although no record of her death has been found, she was not living with her family in 1861.

35O100

Matilda Collett was born at Broughton Gifford, where she was baptised on 10^th February 1856, while her birth was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 115) during the first three months of that year. In 1861 she was five years old and was 15 in 1871. On both occasions she was living with her parents on the main street through the village of Broughton Gifford. In 1881, at the age of 25 she was unmarried and was working as a domestic servant and a nurse for Mauritius born Alan Brodrick, the 54 years old Rector of Broughton Gifford at his home in Broughton Street in the village.

Also living on Broughton Street that same day, with his parents John and Hannah Marks, was William John Marks who was 26 and born at Broughton Gifford, whose occupation was that of a coach wheeler. Just over one year later, the marriage of Matilda Collett and William John Marks was recorded at Bath (Ref. 5a 213) during the third quarter of 1882. It must be assumed that Matilda was already expecting the birth of their first child on their wedding day, hence why the couple ran away to Somerset to be married. Certainly, the birth of their son William Frank Marks, at Trowbridge, was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 124) during the last three months of 1882 and well within six months of their wedding day. Four years after that, Matilda presented William with a second son Howard John Marks at Trowbridge, whose birth was also recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 118) during the fourth quarter of 1886.

By the time of the census in 1891, the family of four was living at 42 The Furlong in Trowbridge from where William John Marks was 36 and still employed as a coach wheeler. His wife Matilda was 35 and their two sons were eight years of age and four years of age. Nine years later, the death of William John Marks was recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 87), during the first quarter of 1900, when he was only 45 years old. His widow Matilda, together with her two sons, was living with her younger unmarried sister Abijah Alice Collett (below) after her loss and, in the census the following year, they were recorded at The Snedburgh Inn at 20 Court Street in Trowbridge. Abijah was the inn keeper, while living on her own means was Matilda Marks who was 44, William Franks Marks who was 18 and a sawyer’s labourer and Howard John Marks who was 14 and an apprentice blacksmith, both of them born at Trowbridge.

Following her sister being married not long after that census day, Matilda and her sons were residing at 35 Mortimer Street in Trowbridge in 1911, where she was 55 years of age with no occupation. Frank Marks was 28 and a cellar man at a wine merchants and Howard Marks was 24 and a blacksmith. The census return suggested that Matilda had given birth to three children, one having died. The death of Matilda Marks, nee Collett, was recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 106) during the third quarter of 1932, when she was 76, after which she was buried on 13^th July 1932.

35O101

Abijah Alice Collett was born at Broughton Gifford and was baptised there on 8^th June 1861. According to the 1871 Census she was ‘Amelia aged nine years’ while in 1881 she was 19 with no occupation, when she was still living with her parents at Broughton Road in Melksham. Ten years later, Abijah A Collett was still a spinster aged 29, when she was still living with her parents who, by then, were living in Trowbridge. It would appear that both of her elderly parents passed away during the last decade of the century, with the result that Abijah A Collett from Broughton Gifford was living at 20 Court Street in Trowbridge for the census in 1901 when, at the age of 39, she was the inn keeper at the Snedburgh Inn. Staying at the inn was her very recently widowed sister Matilda Marks (above) who had her two sons with her.

Just over four years later Abijah married William Feltham, the wedding registered at Bath (Ref. 5c 1020) during the second quarter of 1905. That may have been too late for her to give birth, but tragically it may have been during childbirth that she died just two years after being married. The death of Abijah Alice Feltham nee Collett was recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 60) during the third quarter of 1907, when she was 46 years old

35O102

Martha Tarrant Collett was born at Chester, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania on 26^th February 1851, the eldest of the three children of George Tarrant Collett and his wife Mary Ann Hill. Martha was nine years old in the 1860 census when she was living at Middle Ward in Chester with her widowed mother, following the death of her father in 1856, and two younger siblings. It was the same situation in 1870, except that by then Martha was working at a cotton mill at the age of 19, where her younger brother James was also working. During the next couple of years she married William H Martin, with whom she had at least two children. William served with the military, and his military record stated that he had been born on 1^st March 1842, had enlisted on 16^th August 1861 and was discharged on 24^th August 1864 at St Louis. It was many years later that the injury he sustained during those three years was acknowledge by the army, when his veteran’s payment card indicated his was disabled on 4^th October 1905 and certified on 23^rd November that year.

Following his death on 24^th January 1907 at 2002 Euclid Avenue, Chicago Heights in Cook County, Illinois, his widow Martha T Martin was to receive his army pension, as notified to the Post Master General. Martha survived for a further thirty-seven years, when she died also died at 2002 Euclid Avenue, Chicago Heights, twenty-five miles south of the Windy City, on 18^th March 1944 at the age of 93. It was four days later that she was buried at Chester Rural Cemetery in Pennsylvania. Her death recorded confirmed that Martha had been born there on 26^th February 1851, and that her parents were George T Collett and Mary Hill, both of them from England. The informant of her passing was her son Henry G Martin.

By 1880, William and Martha had two children living with them at 187 McHoavin Street in Chester, when William H Martin from New Jersey was 38 and a Post Master. Martha T Martin of Chester was 29 and the two children were Mary A Martin who was eight and Henry G Martin who was seven years old. On that occasion the family of four was living right next door to the home of her widowed mother Mary A Collett from England, at 188 McHoavin Street, who has Martha’s unmarried sister Mary (below) living with her. Twenty years later the Chester City census of 1900 again placed William aged 57 and a US Special Agent, and Martha aged 49, living on the same street, with their teacher daughter Mary who was 28. Completing the household was elderly servant Susan Coyle. Interesting, both Martha’s parents and William’s parents were recorded as having been born in England.

During the next couple of years, the family left Chester, when they moved to Malone Village at Franklin in New York, where they were recorded in 1905. William H Martin was 63, Martha T Martin was 54 and Mary A Martin was 33. Three years after being widowed, and at the age of 59, Martha T Martin was living with her married son Henry and his wife and family at Chicago Heights. Henry G Martin was a chemist at a steel works. And it was at the home of her that she remained until she passed away, as confirmed by the census returns completed for 1920 and 1940, each time at Chicago Heights.

35O103

Mary Collett was born at Chester in Pennsylvania on 11^th May 1853 the second of the three children of George and Mary Collett. She was only three years old when her father was killed in an accident, and in 1870 she was living with her mother and two siblings in the Chester census of 1870. After a further ten years, it was just Mary Collett aged 27 who was the only child still living with her widowed mother from England at 188 McHoavin Street in Chester, where Mary Collett of Pennsylvania was working as a weaver at a cotton mill. Mary Collett never married and died at Chester on 14^th February 1897.

35O104

James Tarrant Collett was born at Chester in Pennsylvania on 27^th March 1855, the only son of George Tarrant Collett and his wife Mary Ann Hill. James was only nineteen months old when his father was involved in an accident at the lumber yard where he worked, which resulted in his premature death. The Chester census in 1870 recorded James, aged 15, as the youngest of the three children still living with his widowed mother Mary. It was about seven years later when James married Mary Emma Start who was born on 14^th June 1857. By the time of the census in 1880 James and Mary were still living in Chester. Tragically the couple’s first-born child had died shortly after he was born two years earlier, so only their second child was living with them on that occasion. James T Collett, aged 25, was an iron foundry worker, his wife Mary E Collett was 22 and from Maryland, and their daughter Mary Ann Collett was only ten months old.

During the following year the couple’s third child was born, but just like his older brother, he too did not survive beyond a few months. Over the next fifteen years a further four children were added to their family, and by 1900 the larger complete family was residing within Ward 5 of Chester City. James T Collett, aged 45, and Mary E Collett, aged 43, had been married for twenty-three years, while still living with them were all five of their children. They were Mary A Collett who was 21, Harry S Collett who was 18, Martha T Collett who was 16, James H Collett who was 10, and Ethel L Collett who was five years old.

The family, albeit reduced in size, was still living in Ward 5 ten years later, when the census in 1910 listed them as James Collett, aged 55, Mary Collett, aged 53, their unmarried daughter Mary Collett, aged 30, their son Howard Collett, who was 20, and their daughter Ethel Collett who was 14. Also living with the family was their married, but already widowed daughter Martha Howery who was 25, and with her, her two children Anita Howery, who was three, and Helen Howery who was one year and ten months old.

It was seven years after that when Mary Emma Collett nee Start died on 26^th August 1917, at the age of 60. James continued to live in Chester, as confirmed by the census in 1920 and 1930, and on both of those occasions he had his married daughter Martha living with him. In 1920, James T Collett was 62, and Martha T Howery was 35. Still residing at the same address was Martha’s two daughters, together with James’ unmarried daughter Ethel L Collett who was 24. Ten years later, when James was 75, his only living companion was Martha Howery who, by then was 41 (sic). It was during the spring of the following year when James Tarrant Collett died at Chester on 22^nd March 1931.

35P86

George M Collett

Born in 1878 at Chester, Penn.

35P87

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1879 at Chester, Penn.

35P88

George S Collett

Born in 1881 at Chester, Penn.

35P89

Henry Sheppard Collett

Born in 1882 at Chester, Penn.

35P90

Martha Tarrant Collett

Born in 1884 at Chester, Penn.

35P91

James Howard Collett

Born in 1890 at Chester, Penn.

35P92

Ethel Lee Collett

Born in 1896 at Chester, Penn.

35O105

Henry John Collett was born at Corsham in 1847 and was baptised there on 28^th May 1848, the eldest child and first of five sons of Stephen and Catherine Collett. By 1850 Henry and his family were living in Whitley near Melksham and where Henry Collett was three years old in the census of 1851. Around 1860 his family moved again, on that occasion to Norrington Common, just north of Broughton Gifford, where he was 13 and an agricultural labourer in 1861. Henry was missing from his Norrington Common family in 1871 but, curiously upon his return ten years later, and following the death of his father, Henry J Collett from Corsham was 28 (sic) when he should have been 33. At that time, he was living with his widowed mother, when his occupation was that of a bootmaker.

Ten years later he was listed as John Collett, a shoemaker, in the Norrington Common census of 1891, when he was still living with his widowed mother at the age of 37 (sic), again an error, since he would have been 43. That day, his mother and he were employing Annie Page aged 23 and a general domestic servant. Whether or not John was already in love with Annie is not known, but it was within the next six months when they were married, shortly after which Annie gave birth to a daughter. The marriage of Henry John Collett and Annie Page was recorded at Bradford-on-Avon (Ref. 5a 239) during the third quarter of 1891. Annie was the fourth child of Thomas and Ann Page, her birth recorded at Highworth (Ref. 5a 9) during the second quarter of 1867. She later said that she had been born at Dauntsey, not far from Wroughton where she was living with her family at Pryors Hill in 1871 and 1881.

Probably due to the embarrassment of being twenty years older than his wife, John reduced his age in the following census returns. In the first of them, John Collett said he was 45 in 1901, when his place of birth was also confirmed as Corsham and his occupation was that of a boot maker. On that occasion he was still living at Norrington Common near Broughton Gifford, with his wife Annie and their first three children, all born at Norrington Common. Annie Collett from Dauntsey was 35, Sarah Ann Collett was nine, Florence Maria Collett was four years old and John Collett junior was under one year old. The couple’s next child was also born at Norrington Common, before the family moved the very short distance to the village of Whitley in the parish of Melksham-Without. And it was there, that their last three children were born.

The census return for 1911, recorded the Collett family residing at Whitley as, John Collett of Corsham, a boot repairer aged 54, when he was 63, together with his wife Annie Collett from Malmesbury who was 40 and a charwoman. On that day, just the six youngest children of John and Annie were still living with them and they were confirmed as Florence who was 14, John Collett who was 10, Stephen Collett who was eight and named after John’s father, Alice Collett who was six, Tom Collett who was three and named after John’s brother, and Ethel Catherine Collett who was ten months old and named after John’s mother. The couple’s absent eldest daughter Sarah, was living and working nearby in Whitley, on the farm of the Pickford family.

For only the fourth time in his life, following his birth, baptism and wedding day, the record of the death of John Collett credited him with his full name of Henry John Collett. It was during the fourth quarter of 1918, when he was 71, that his death was recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 210).

35P93

Sarah Ann Collett

Born in 1891 at Norrington Common

35P94

Florence Maria Collett

Born in 1896 at Norrington Common

35P95

John Collett

Born in 1900 at Norrington Common

35P96

Stephen Collett

Born in 1902 at Norrington Common

35P97

Alice Louisa Collett

Born in 1904 at Whitley, Melksham

35P98

Tom Collett

Born in 1908 at Whitley, Melksham

35P99

Ethel Catherine Collett

Born in 1910 at Whitley, Melksham

35O106

Tom Collett was born at Corsham in 1849, and was baptised there as Tom Collett on 22^nd April 1849, the second child of Stephen and Catherine Collett. Interestingly, his birth was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. viii 324) during the second quarter of 1849, when once again his name was Tom, rather than Thomas. By the time of the census in 1851, Tom and his family were living at Whitley near Melksham, when he was recorded as Tom Collett aged two years and from Corsham. Around 1860 the family left Whitley, when they moved to Norrington Common near Broughton Gifford. And it was there that they were living in 1861, where Tom (recorded in error as John) was one of the seven children with Stephen and Catherine. By that time in his life, he had already left school and, at the age of only 12 years, he was working as a shoemaker.

In 1871 it was the same situation, when Tom was 21 and still living at Norrington Common with his family, albeit still named in error as John Collett. Nearly nine years later, Tom Collett married Elizabeth Sarah Martin, who was born at Trowbridge in 1853. Their wedding day was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 259) during the fourth quarter of 1879. The couple then settled in the village of Shaw, near Melksham and just north of Norrington Common, where his widowed mother was still living around that time. By the time of the census of 1881, the marriage had produced the couple’s first child. The family of three was living in a house on the Corsham Road in Shaw, where ‘Tom Collett of Corsham’ was 28 (sic) and a stone cutter, his wife Elizabeth was 27, and their son Herbert was just three months old. Tom Collett would have been 32 at that time, so was continuing the family trait of not giving accurate information.

Two years later, Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter and, although no record of her premature death has been found, the child never appeared with the family in any subsequent census return. Over the following eight years, a further four children were added to the family. According to the next census in 1891, the family was recorded at Shaw Hill in the village of Shaw. Head of household was Tom Collett, a quarryman working at a local stone quarry who said he was 39 (sic), whose wife was Sarah E Collett aged 37. Their five children were listed as Herbert J Collett who was 10, Amelia C Collett who was six, Agnes M Collett who was four, Frederick T Collett who was three and Francis Collett who was under one. It was around that time when the family moved to Broughton Gifford, where their last child was born and where they were still living in 1901. By that time, Tom had given up working at the quarry and had taken over the running of a public house.

The census that year, revealed Tom Collett from Corsham was an inn keeper who said he was 49, instead of 52, at the age of 49 (sic), while his wife was then referred to Elizabeth Sarah Collett from Trowbridge who was 46. The children living with them at Broughton Gifford on that day, were Amelia Catherine Collett who was 16, Agnes Mary Collett who was 14, Frederick Thomas who was 13 and Francis Collett who was 11, all of them born at Shaw, plus Broughton Gifford born Arthur Martin Collett who was only three years of age. Only the couple’s eldest son Herbert was missing from the family and, by that time, he was living and working in South Wales.

According to the next census in 1911, Tom’s wife was a patient at the Cottage Hospital in Melksham, where Elizabeth Sarah Collett from Trowbridge was 57 and a married woman. On that same day, inn keeper Tom Collett from Corsham was 62, when he was residing at Broughton Gifford with his unmarried sons Frederick 23 and Arthur 13. Acting as housekeeper for them was Tom’s daughter Agnes Collett who was 22, who was actually nearer 24. Visiting the family, and most likely his mother in hospital, was the couple’s eldest son Herbert, who was 29 and a married man. Whatever the reason for his wife’s stay in hospital, it was just under five years later that Elizabeth Sarah Collett, nee Martin, died and was buried on 29^th January 1916, at the age of 62. After eighteen years as a widower, the death of Tom Collett was recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 140) during the first quarter of 1934, when he was 84 years of age.

35P100

Herbert John Collett

Born in 1880 at Shaw, nr Melksham

35P101

Florence Annie Collett

Born in 1882 at Shaw, nr Melksham

35P102

Amelia Catherine Collett

Born in 1884 at Shaw, nr Melksham

35P103

Agnes Mary Collett

Born in 1886 at Shaw, nr Melksham

35P104

Frederick Thomas Collett

Born in 1887 at Shaw, nr Melksham

35P105

Francis Collett

Born in 1890 at Shaw, nr Melksham

35P106

Arthur Martin Collett

Born in 1897 at Broughton Gifford

35O107

William Collett was born at Whitley near Melksham in 1850 or 1851, but before the census day in 1851 which was on 30^th March, since he was listed as being under the age of one year, when with his parents and his two older brothers at Whitley. By 1860 the family was living at Norrington Common, and by the time of the census in the following year William had already left school. At the age of 10 he had started work on the land, when he was recorded as an agricultural labourer.

By the time of the next census in 1871 William Collett was no longer living with his parents, who by then had seven children. Where he was on that occasion has not yet been determined, but it is known that three years after that he sailed on the ship James Wishart to New Zealand, where he landed on 5^th July 1874. It was there that hhe married Esther Ellen Sweeney on 6^th February 1881 at Hamilton. Esther was the daughter of Peter Sweeney and Esther Ellen Leach and was born at Hunau on 30^th September 1864, so was many years younger than William. On their wedding day Esther was already six months into the pregnancy for their first child, who was born three months and two weeks after they were married.

Once married William and Esther settled on a farm at Karangahake, just south of the town of Paeroa, in the Thames Valley, where all of their fourteen children were born. The name of William Collett was listed in the New Zealand Electoral Roll of 1893 when he was described as a miner of Karangahake.

William Collett died on 24^th April 1929, and a headstone at Pukerimu Cemetery in Paeroa marks his grave, which he shares with his wife and daughter Annie who both died during May 1906. The details on the headstone read as follows:

In Loving Memory of

William Collett

died 24^th April 1929 aged 70 years

Also his beloved wife Esther Ellen died 12^th May 1906 aged 42 years

And their beloved daughter Annie died 30^th May 1906 aged 14 years

At Rest

The double death of his wife and daughter within three weeks of each other might suggest that they both suffered from the same cause of death, although it is now known that Esther Ellen Collett nee Sweeney died suffering with gastro enteritis and syncope, while her daughter Annie Maria died from acute pneumonia. William’s death certificate poses a few questions, perhaps because his family did not know a lot about him and his origins back in England. The certificate first confirmed that he died in Thames Hospital in Paeroa, and that his occupation was that of a labourer. The cause of death was heart failure, with which he had been suffering for over six months. His parents were named as Stephen and Catherine Collett, his father being a butcher. He was buried two days after he passed away, on 26^th April 1929

Rather strangely his place of birth was given in error as Epping Forest in Wiltshire, the latter word having been crossed out and replaced with Essex. It did however correctly confirm that he had been living in New Zealand for the past 55 years. However, his age given for the time he married Esther Ellen Sweeney, deceased, was very much in error at 22 years, when in fact he would have been 30 or possibly 31, and that may have been a result of his wife being only seventeen when they married. The informant of the death was undertaken G F Twentyman, rather than a member of his family.

Of his family, the certificate listed his children in error as four males rather than five, aged 39, 35, 29, and 27, (and they would have been John, William, James, and Thomas), and eight daughters even though he only had seven who had survived. The eight ages for the girls actually included the missing son Albert, who was 44. The remainder were 47, 45, 30, 29, 26, 25 and 23 (who would have been Sarah, Catherine, Rose, Mary, Lucy, Ivy, and Violet).

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Sarah Ann Collett

Born in 1881 at Karangahake, NZ

35P108

Catherine Collett

Born in 1883 at Karangahake, NZ

35P109

Albert George William Collett

Born in 1885 at Karangahake, NZ

35P110

Rose Jubilee Collett

Born in 1887 at Karangahake, NZ

35P111

John Henry Collett

Born in 1888 at Karangahake, NZ

35P112

Annie Maria Collett

Born in 1891 at Karangahake, NZ

35P113

William Ivan Collett

Born in 1893 at Karangahake, NZ

35P114

Mary Jane Collett

Born in 1895 at Karangahake, NZ

35P115

Esther Ellen Collett

Born in 1897 at Karangahake, NZ

35P116

James Leach Collett

Born in 1899 at Karangahake, NZ

35P117

Thomas Henry Collett

Born in 1900 at Karangahake, NZ

35P118

Lucy Collett

Born in 1902 at Karangahake, NZ

35P119

Ivy Myrtle Collett

Born in 1904 at Karangahake, NZ

35P120

Violet May Collett

Born in 1905 at Karangahake, NZ

35O108

James Collett was born at Whitley near Melksham around 1854. However, over the following years his parents recorded his age as nine in 1861, as 16 in 1871, and 24 in 1881 when, on each occasion, he was living with his family at Norrington Common near Broughton Gifford. At the time of the latter census in 1881 he was still living with his widowed mother in the family home, and at that time in his life his occupation was that of a stonemason. Just after the census day in 1881 James married Louisa who was born at Bristol in 1857. The couple initially lived in the nearby village of Shaw where their first child was born, before moving two miles north to Corsham where all of their remaining children were born.

According to the Corsham census of 1891 James was 34, Louisa was 32, and their three children at that time were Louisa Frances who was seven, Reginald William who was five, and three-year old Harold Edward Collett. And it was again at Corsham that the family was living in March 1901. James Collett of Whitley was now a house builder at the age of 46 and was employing his two oldest sons in the family business. He wife Louisa was 43. The couple’s children were Louisa, aged 17, Reginald, aged 15, Harold, aged 13, Hilda who was nine, Elsie who was six, and Emily who was three. Ten years later in April 1911 James was listed as still living at Corsham in the Chippenham registration district where he was 56 and Louisa was 53. The only children still living with them were Reginald William Collett 25, Elsie Kathleen Collett 16, and Emily Estella Collett who was 13, although the couple’s eldest daughter Louisa was also still living nearby in Corsham.

35P121

Louisa Frances Collett

Born in 1883 at Shaw, Melksham

35P122

Reginald William Collett

Born in 1885 at Corsham

35P1233

Harold Edward Collett

Born in 1887 at Corsham

35P124

Hilda Collett

Born in 1891 at Corsham

35P125

Elsie Kathleen Collett

Born in 1894 at Corsham

35P126

Emily Estella Collett

Born in 1898 at Corsham

35O109

Sarah Ann Collett was born at Whitley in 1856, the daughter of Stephen and Catherine Collett. By the time of the census in 1861 Sarah Ann Collett was five years old, when she was living with her family at Norrington Common. Ten years later she was still living there with her parents at the age of 14. With no record of her found in the next census of 1871, it must be assumed that she was married by that time in her like.

35O110

Benjamin Collett was born at Whitley in 1857, his birth recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 299) during the last quarter of that year. He was three years old in the Norrington Common census in April 1861 and was still living there with his family in 1871 when he was 12. In 1881 at the age of 21 Benjamin was still living at the family home in Norrington Common, just south of Whitley, with his widowed mother Catherine, when his occupation was that of a carpenter. Nearly twenty months after that census day in 1881 he married Ruth Mortimer at Bradford-on-Avon on 28^th November 1882. Ruth was born at Broughton Gifford during the third quarter of 1858 and was the daughter of Joshua Mortimer and Ruth Wakeley who were both born in Broughton Gifford and who both died at nearby Norrington Common.

During the first seven years of their life together, Ruth presented Benjamin with six of their nine children, the first being born while the couple were still living at Broughton Gifford, the next two after the family had moved to Frome and the next three at Trowbridge. At the time of the 1891 Census for the Trowbridge, when the family was residing at Mortimer Street, Benjamin was 31, Ruth was 32, and their six children were William Collett who was seven, Sarah A Collett who was five, Ewart Collett who was three, Lena M Collett who was two, and Kirwin Collett who was around six months old.

Over the following decade four further children were added to the family. The first three of them was born while the family was still living in Trowbridge, and the last child was born after the family had moved to Twerton in Bath. Less than six months into the new century tragedy struck the family when Benjamin Collett died during the second quarter of 1900 while the family was living at Twerton, leaving Ruth a widow to look after her young family alone.

According to the census recorded in the March of the following year, Ruth Collett from Bradford-on-Avon was 42 and was living on her own means with eight of her children at Claude Avenue, South Down in Bath. They were William Collett who was 17, Ewart Collett who was 13, Lena Collett who was 12, Kerwin Collett who was 10, Amy Collett who was eight, Ashleigh Collett who was six, Nelson Collett who was five and Alice Collett who was three years old. Ten years later in April 1911 Ruth still had seven of her children living with her at Maybrick Road, midway between Twerton and Bath. Ruth was 52, and with her were her sons Ewart aged 23, Kerwin aged 20, Ashleigh aged 16 and Nelson aged 14, and her daughters Lena aged 22, Amy aged 18 and Alice who was 13.

At the time of the earlier census in 1901, Arthur Mortimer (1894-1960) was living at 47 Maybrick Road and he was the great grandfather of Roger F Mortimer (born 1947), who kindly supplied the information about his Mortimer/Collett family. Roger’s father was Francis Arthur Mortimer who was born eight years later on 27^th January 1919. However, by 1911, the Mortimer family of James and Maria, son Arthur and daughter Edith had left the Bath area and had moved to Norton Road in Southborough in Tunbridge Wells in Kent. James Mortimer had become the pastor of the Strict and Particular Baptist Chapel in Western Road, Southborough around that time where he continued until his death on 6^th September 1943 when he was buried in the churchyard at Broughton Gifford with Maria who had died earlier.

Benjamin’s widow Ruth Collett remained living at Twerton for the rest of her life and survived her husband by almost 25 years when she died at Bath during the first quarter of 1925.

35P127

William Collett

Born in 1883 at Broughton Gifford

35P128

Sarah Ann Collett

Born in 1885 at Frome, Somerset

35P129

Joshua Ewart Collett

Born in 1887 at Frome, Somerset

35P130

Lena Mary Collett

Born in 1888 at Trowbridge

35P131

Kirwin John Collett

Born in 1890 at Trowbridge

35P132

Amy Ruth Collett

Born in 1892 at Trowbridge

35P133

Benjamin Ashleigh Collett

Born in 1894 at Trowbridge

35P134

Nelson Victor Collett

Born in 1896 at Trowbridge

35P135

Alice Catherine Collett

Born in 1898 at Twerton, Bath

35O110

Mary Jane Collett was born at Broughton Gifford around September 1860 and was baptised there on 26^th December 1861, the youngest of the seven known children of Stephen and Catherine. Although included with her family in the census of 1861 at seven months of age, Mary Jane Collett died at Broughton Gifford three years later and was buried there on 3^rd March 1864.

35O112

William Thomas Collett was born out of wedlock at Melksham, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 39) during the first three months of 1856. However, perhaps out of embarrassment, his parents left Melksham straight after he was born and moved south to settle at Brighton in Sussex where William Collett and Elizabeth Fox, both of Melksham, were only married in October 1856. It was therefore that move to the south coast when he was a baby, and the fact that he grew up in Brighton, that resulted in him and his parents recording his place of birth as Brighton in the subsequent census returns. Two years after he was born, William and his parents were living in Devizes, where his sister Maria (below) was born. After she was born, the family returned to their home town of Melksham, where William’s sister Sarah (below) was born four months prior to the census in 1861.

At the time of the census William T Collett from Brighton was four years old, when he was living in Melksham with his father William, who was a shoemaker, his mother Elizabeth, who was a binder, and his two sisters. Sadly, just three years later in 1864, and following the addition of two more children into the family, William’s father died at Melksham at the age of 30. A little while after that, William’s mother married George Truman and in 1871 she and her new husband were still living in Melksham with William’s three youngest siblings. Where William, aged 14, and his sister Maria, aged 12, were on that occasion has not been determined, since a thorough search of the census in 1871 has revealed nothing of the pair.

The marriage of William Thomas Collett and Sarah Ann Barnett was recorded at Kettering in Northamptonshire (Ref. 3b 377) during the fourth quarter of 1879. Sarah was the same age as William and had been born in the Wiltshire village of Seend, midway between Melksham and Devizes. Once married, the couple settled in Kettering and, by 1881, they were living at Lower Havelock Street. According to the census that year the childless couple was recorded as William Collett, who was 24 and from Brighton, who was employed as a labourer at an iron works, while his wife Sarah Collett was also 24, who was recorded as having been born at Leenal in Wiltshire. That was purely an error in transcription and should have been written as Seend in Wiltshire, where Sarah said she was born in all three of the subsequent census returns for 1891, 1901 and 1911.

It was during the next decade that Sarah presented William with three children, all of them born at Kettering, where the family was still living at the time of the census in 1891. Tragically the couple’s first child Albert William did not survive beyond a few weeks. The family of four was residing at 123 Havelock Street in Kettering that year, where William Collett from Brighton in Sussex was 34 and was working as a labourer at a nearby foundry in the town. His wife Sarah A Collett from Seend in Wiltshire was also 34, while their two surviving children were named as Willie Collett, who was three, and Fred Collett who was one year old. Two more sons were born into the family over the next four years although, in the same year that their next child Albert was born, their son Willie died, and two years after suffering the loss of their second child, two-year Albert was the couple’s third tragic death in just eight years. The following year Sarah presented William with their last child, who was again born at Kettering.

According to the next census in March 1901 William T Collett and Sarah A Collett were both 44 when they were still living at 123 Havelock Street in Kettering, but with just their two surviving sons. William from Broughton (sic) was still working at the iron foundry, but as an iron moulder by then, and once again Sarah’s place of birth was recorded as Seend in Wiltshire. Their two boys were named as Frederick Collett who was 11 and Archie Collett who was five years of age.

However, ten years later in April 1911, William and Sarah were once again recorded as living in the town of Kettering, but on that occasion the only one of their sons still living with them, was their youngest son Edward Archie Collett who was 15. William Collett from Brighton was 54 and still employed as an iron moulder, and his wife from Seend was confirmed Sarah Ann Collett who was 53. The couple’s other surviving son, Frederick, was married with a family of his own by then and was also living in Kettering. At Kettering in 1931 there was recorded the death of a William Collett, which may have been William Thomas Collett.

35P136

Albert William Collett

Born in 1886 at Kettering

35P137

Willie Collett

Born in 1887 at Kettering

35P138

Frederick Collett

Born in 1890 at Kettering

35P139

Albert Collett

Born in 1892 at Kettering

35P140

George Edward Archibald Collett

Born in 1895 at Kettering

35O113

Maria Collett was born in 1858 at Melksham where she was baptised on 26^th December 1858, the eldest daughter of William and Elizabeth Collett. The only other record of her so far found was in the census of 1861 when she was two years old and living at Melksham with her family. Three years later her father died and it is not sure what happened to Maria, or her older brother William, after her mother remarried George Truman.

35O114

Sarah Jane Collett was born at Melksham in December 1860 and was baptised there on 27^th January 1861. The baptism record confirmed that she was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Collett, and the census later that year listed Sarah J Collett as being just four months old. With her father dying at the age of thirty when Sarah was just four years old, her mother remarried and in 1871 Sarah Jane Collett was 10 years old and, together with her two younger brothers James and Frederick, she was living at Semington Road in Melksham (right next door to the New Inn). That was the home of George Truman and his wife Elizabeth, the children’s mother. Ten years later in 1881, Sarah Jane Collet, aged 20 of Melksham, was a housemaid and a domestic servant at the Uppingham Boarding School in Rutland. The school was situated on the London Road and it would appear that Sarah was living at Redgate House.

35O115

James Collett was born at Melksham in 1862, the son of William and Elizabeth Collett. James was just two years old when his father died in 1864, following which his widowed mother married George Truman of Melksham. According to the Melksham census of 1871 James Collett of Melksham was eight years old and was described as the stepson of George Truman of Semington Road. Also living with their mother and her new husband was James’ sister Sarah (above), and brother Frederick (below).

With the passing of another ten years, James was 18 and by the time of the census of 1881 he was working as a mat maker. At that time in his life, he was still living in Melksham with his brother at the home of his mother Elizabeth Truman and her second husband George Truman, at Semington Lane. It was around four years later that James married Sarah who was seven years older than James. The marriage produced two daughters for the couple, both born at Melksham, where the family was living at Woodview Road in 1891, and again in 1901.

It is possible that James worked at a quarry or similar establishment, since in 1891 he was described as being 28 and an engine driver of a stationary engine, which perhaps indicates it was not a railway engine, and therefore not with the Great Western Railway. His wife Sarah was 35 in 1891 and was employed as a yard sorter in a local matting factory, despite having two young children. The couple’s two daughters were listed as Beatrice M Collett, who was four, Lily E Collett, who was two years old.

Ten years later James was 38 and was continuing to work as a stationary engine driver, while living Woodview Road with Sarah who was 44, Beatrice who was 14, and Lily who was 12 years old. By 1911 the couple’s eldest daughter was married and had left the family home, although she was still living in Melksham with her husband. So, at that time James Collett was 48, his wife Sarah was 56, and the youngest daughter was listed in the census return as Lily Elizabeth Collett aged 22.

35P141

Beatrice Maud Collett

Born in 1886 at Melksham

35P142

Lily Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1888 at Melksham

35O116

Frederick William Collett was born at Melksham in 1864, around the time that his father William died. It seems very likely that, in view of the fact that he already had an older brother called William, his mother Elizabeth decided to give him the additional name of William as a tribute to her late husband. Following the death of his father, Frederick’s mother married George Truman of Semington Road in Melksham. And it was there that Fredk W Collett, aged six years, was living with his mother and stepfather in 1871. Also living with him, was his older siblings Sarah and James (above).

On leaving school Frederick became a blacksmith’s labourer, as recorded in the Melksham Census of 1881 when he was 16 and living in Semington Lane with his brother James Collett (above) and their mother Elizabeth Truman. Although no record of Frederick has been found in either of the census returns for 1891 and 1901, he was living in Melksham with his wife Emma in April 1911. Frederick William Collett of Melksham was 47, while his wife Emma was 52. There was no child living with them at that time, but that does not necessarily mean it was a childless marriage.

35P1

Paulina V S Collett was born at Melksham in 1856. She was listed with her father in 1861, as being aged four years, and was 14 in 1871 when she was living with her family at Melksham. When she was twenty-one years old, she married painter, plumber and glazier William Blake of Melksham who had his own business. By April 1881 Paulina had presented her husband with their first child. William Henry Blake was two years old and was living with his parents at Union Street in Melksham. Neither Paulina, nor her husband, have been located in later census records, although in 1911 their son William Blake of Melksham was 32 when he was married to Susan who was 31. The childless couple living at Eastbourne in Sussex on that occasion.

35P2

Albert Henry Collett was born at Melksham in 1857 and was 23 in 1881 when he was living with his recently widowed mother Harriet Collett at Holbrook Farm in Melksham, where his brother Charles and sister Florence (below) were also living at that time. Plans for his wedding may have already been underway at that time, since it was shortly after the April census day that he married Emily Ann of Trowbridge. The marriage produced two confirmed children for the couple, and in 1891 the family of four was living at Melksham where Albert was 32, Emily was 33, and their children were aged eight years and three years respectively.

Ten years later the same family was living in the Melksham Without registration district where Albert Collett was listed as a farmer at 42, living there with his wife Emily who was also 42. Living with them was their daughter Lillian, who was 18, and their son Albert, who was 13. According to the next census in 1911 Albert Henry Collett from Melksham was 52 and was living in the Romsey district of Hampshire with his wife Emily Anne Collett from Trowbridge. By that time both of their children had left the family home to make their own way in the world.

Albert Henry Collett passed away before his wife, although when that happened is not known at this time. However, it was on 10^th November 1938 that his widow Emily Ann Collett of 4 Westbourne Road in Trowbridge died while she was a patient at the Trowbridge & District Hospital in Adcroft Street, Trowbridge. Probate was processed at Winchester on 29^th January 1939 when her son and daughter were both named, when her estate was valued at £152 0 Shillings and 9 Pence.

35Q1

Lillian Edith Collett

Born in 1882 at Melksham

35Q2

Albert Edwin Collett

Born in 1887 at Melksham

35P3

William James Collett was born at Melksham in 1859 and by the time of the 1881 Census he was 21 and was working as a butcher, while living in Melksham at Linden Hall, the home of London tailor John Hayter. Also living there was William’s younger sister Ada who was 18. Around five years later William married Annie of Bulkington, midway between Devizes and Trowbridge. The couple settled in Melksham and it was there that their two known children were born, and where the family was living in 1891 and again 1901. In the first of the census returns, the family comprised William and Annie who were both 31, and their son Gilbert W Collett who was three years old. The later census recorded William, aged 41, who was a butcher of Melksham, his wife Annie who was also 41, and their two children Gilbert W Collett who was 13, and Olive E Collett who was seven years old.

It would appear that Annie died during the first decade of the twentieth century, since no record of her has been found in the census of 1911. William James Collett was 51 and he was living in Calne with his daughter Olive Ethel Collett who was 17, when both of them were confirmed as having been born at Melksham. William’s son Gilbert William Collett of Melksham had swapped Wiltshire for Surrey by then and was living in Croydon at the age of 23.

35Q3

Gilbert William Collett

Born in 1887 at Melksham

35Q4

Olive Ethel Collett

Born in 1893 at Melksham

35P5

Charles S Collett was born at Melksham in 1864 and in 1881 he was 16 when he living with his widowed mother Harriet Collett at Holbrook farm in Melksham, where his older brother Albert Henry (above) and younger sister Florence (below) were also still living. Ten years later he was still a bachelor farmer at 27, when he was still living at Melksham with his mother and sister Florence. By the start of the next century, he was a retired farmer at the age of 37, when he was still unmarried and was still living with his mother and sister. By 1911 he was simply listed as Charles Collett, who was 46 and from Melksham, who was still living there with his eighty-one years old mother Harriet and his unmarried sister Florence. Also living with them was Lillian Collett, aged 28, who was Charles’ niece and the daughter of his brother Albert Henry Collett (above).

35P6

Florence E Collett was born at Melksham in 1869, the daughter of William Collett and Harriet Austin and in 1871 she was one year old. Sadly, when Florence was ten years old, her father died during 1880, so by the time of the census in 1881 Florence was 11 and was living with her widowed mother and her family at Holbrook Farm in Melksham, where her two brothers Albert and Charles were also living at that time. Florence never married and in the subsequent census returns, right up to April 1911, she and her brother Charles (above) continued to live with their mother at Melksham. In the 1911 Census she gave her age as 40.

35P7

Eliza Ann Collett was born in 1851 at Melksham and was baptised there on 28^th December 1851, the daughter of Henry Collett and Ann Pepler. In 1861 at the age of nine, Eliza A Collett was living with her widowed mother Ann at Lowbourne in Melksham. Upon leaving school, Eliza also left the family home to seek work, and in 1871 she was 19 and was still living close to where her mother was living in Melksham. Ten years later in 1881, Eliza was an unmarried domestic servant living and working at Melksham Hall, the home of clergyman Edward L Barnwell. Her age was recorded as 29.

35P8

Henry John Collett was born at Melksham in 1855, the only son of Henry Collett and Ann Pepler. Sadly, when Henry was around four or five years old his father died, hence the reason he was not listed with the family in the census of 1861. On that occasion Henry and his three sisters were living with their widowed mother at Lowbourne in Melksham, when he was described as Harry Collett from Melksham who was five years old. According to the next census in 1871, Henry was 15 when he was still living at Lowbourne with his widowed mother Ann and just his two younger sisters. In the mid-1870s Henry married Martha Feltham who was born at Keevil in Wiltshire in 1853. In 1881 the couple and their first two children were living at Church Street in Steeple Ashton near Trowbridge, where Henry John, aged 27, was a wheelwright, a carpenter and a blacksmith, while his wife Martha F Collett from Keevil was 28.

Living with them was their daughter Everest M Collett aged three years, who had been born at Keevil, together with their son Henry John Collett. He was two years old and had been born after the family had moved to Steeple Ashton. The villages of Keevil and Steeple Ashton lie adjacent to each other. The next three children were all born at Steeple Ashton, but by 1891 the family was once again living in Keevil, where the couple’s last five children were born. However, it would appear that, by 1891, their oldest child Everest had died, since she was missing from the census.

The census return only included the names of Henry John Collett 36, Martha Feltham Collett 38, their sons Henry John 12, Joseph Herbert who was nine, Edward Clement who was six, and William Frederick who was two, and their daughters Lillian Mary who was eight, and Amy Florence who was three years old. Henry’s and Martha’s marriage was blessed with three more children before the end of the century. By the time of the next census in 1901 Martha and her children were still living in Keevil following the death of her husband during the years between 1898 and 1901. Martha F Collett was 47 and was being supported by her eldest son Henry J Collett who was 22. The other children living with Martha on that occasion were sons William F Collett aged 11, Reginald F Collett who was eight, and Walter G Collett who six, and her daughters Amy aged 13, and Elsie M Collett who was just two years old.

Ten years later, in April 1911, Martha Feltham Collett of Keevil was 58 and was still living at Keevil with some of her children. They were Edward Clement Collett, aged 26 of Steeple Ashton, and Reginald Frank Collett 18, Walter George Collett 16, and Elsie May Collett who was 12, all of whom were confirmed as having been born at Keevil.

35Q5

Everest Collett

Born in 1877 at Keevil

35Q6

Henry John Collett

Born in 1878 at Steeple Ashton

35Q7

Joseph Herbert Collett

Born in 1881 at Steeple Ashton

35Q8

Lilian Mary Collett

Born in 1882 at Steeple Ashton

35Q9

Edward Clement Collett

Born in 1884 at Steeple Ashton

35Q10

Amy Florence Collett

Born in 1887 at Keevil

35Q11

William Frederick Collett

Born in 1888 at Keevil

35Q12

Reginald Frank Collett

Born in 1892 at Keevil

35Q13

Walter George Collett

Born in 1895 at Keevil

35Q14

Elsie May Collett

Born in 1898 at Keevil

35P9

Mary Jane Collett was born at Melksham in 1857 where she was baptised on 30^th May 1858, the daughter of Henry Collett and Ann Pepler. It would appear that her father died just prior to the 1861 Census since, at that time, Mary J Collett was three years old when she was living with her widowed mother in the Lowbourne area of Melksham. Ten years after that the census in 1871 placed Mary Collett as 13 years of age when she was still living at Lowbourne with her widowed mother Ann and her brother Henry (above) and sister Everest (below). Her eldest sister Eliza (above) had already left the family home by then and was living and working nearby in Melksham.

Where Mary was when the census was conducted in 1881 has still not been discovered, but it seems highly likely that she gave birth to a base-born son during the following year, who was born in Melksham. It is even possible that he was born at the Lowbourne home of Mary’s mother who, by then, was remarried and known as Ann Wiltshire. It was certainly with Ann Wiltshire, his grandmother, that Sidney Collett from Melksham, age eight years, was recorded in the Lowbourne census of Melksham in 1891 although, once again, the whereabouts of Mary Jane Collett aged 33 has not been revealed.

With her mother’s advancing years, and that fact that she was suffering with paralysis and unable to properly look after her grandson, Mary returned to live with her mother during the last decade of the old century. That was confirmed in the March census of 1901 when the widow Ann Wiltshire had living with her at Lowbourne her daughter Mary Collett, aged 42 and a spinster, who was her housekeeper, together with her grandson Sidney Collett who was 18. No record of mother or daughter has been located after that day.

35Q15

Sidney Collett

Born in 1882 at Melksham

35P10

Everest Morris Collett was born at Melksham in 1860 and was baptised there on 31^st March 1861, the daughter of Henry Collett and Ann Pepler. One week later in the Melksham census of 1861, Everest was recorded as being under one year old. By that time in her young life, her father Henry had already passed away. Ten years later, at the age of ten, she was still living in Melksham with her widowed mother and the rest of her family, but by 1881, at the age of 21, Everest was an unmarried parlour maid at Semington House, in Semington near Melksham, the home of land-owner Thomas Bruges. At the start of the next decade Everest Collet was still a spinster when, according to the census in 1891, she was 30 and was living and working in the Kensington district of London. No record after that time has been found, which may indicate that she was married during the 1890s.

35P11

Henry Charles Collett was born at Melksham in 1864, where he was still living with his family in 1881. They were living at Bath Street in Melksham at that time, from where Henry was working as an apprentice plumber at the age of 17. It was around four years later that he married Eliza who was born in 1861. It was then that they left Melksham to make their home at Radstock in Somerset, where the couple’s first two children were born. They were only there for a few short years before they briefly lived at Holcombe three miles south of Radstock, where their next child was born.

For some reason, it was around that time in his life that Henry reversed his christian names. So, by 1891 the family of five was living in the Nunnery district of Frome, when it comprised Charles Henry Collett 28, Eliza M Collett 30, Amy R Collett who was five, Mabel L Collett who was four, and Reginald Collett who was two years old. Three further children were added to the family over the following six years, and all of them born in Frome. The first two were born in the area of the town known as Marston Bigot, while the last was born in the Selwood district of the town.

According to the census of 1901, Charles and his family were still living at Selwood, where he was 38 and his occupation was that of a plumber and a painter. His wife Eliza M Collett was 40, and the children were Amy 15, Mabel 14, Reginald 12, Percy who was eight, Leonard was six, and William who one year old. The two oldest daughters had left school and were gainfully employed as a dressmaker, and a printing stitcher, respectively. Two years later Eliza presented Charles with their seventh and last child. Seven years after that, in April 1911, most of the family was still living at Frome; only Amy, Reginald, and Leonard were absence at that time. For the remainder, Charles was 46, Eliza was 48, Mabel was 21, Percy was 18, William was 12, and latest arrival Jack was seven years old.

35Q16

Amy R Collett

Born in 1885 at Radstock, Somerset

35Q17

Mabel L Collett

Born in 1886 at Radstock, Somerset

35Q18

Reginald Collett

Born in 1888 at Holcombe, Somerset

35Q19

Percy Collett

Born in 1892 at Marston Bigot, Frome

35Q20

Leonard Collett

Born in 1894 at Marston Bigot, Frome

35Q21

William Collett

Born in 1899 at Selwood, Frome

35Q22

Jack Collett

Born in 1903 at Selwood, Frome

35P12

William John Collett was born at Melksham, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 94) during the last three months of 1864. On leaving school he became an apprentice grocer, as confirmed by the census of 1881 when he was still living with his parents at Bath Street in Melksham. Towards the end of the next decade, around 1887 or 1888, William married Ellen who was born at Shaw near Melksham and, by the time of the census of 1891, they had two children. The first of them was born at nearby Biddestone and before the family settled in Castle Combe just three to the north. The Castle Combe census of 1891 recorded the young family living at West Street, as William and Ellen, both 26, and their children William J Collett who was two, and Francis E Collett who was under one-year old. At that time in his life William was working as a carrier and a haulier. His wife Ellen may well have been with-child on the census day in 1891, since later that year the couple received their third child. A fourth child followed two years later, when the family was still living at Castle Combe.

Sometime during the second half of the 1890s the family moved west towards Weston-super-Mare and it was at Banwell, just outside the town, where their last child was born and where the family was living in March 1901. The census on that occasion listed the family as William J Collett, aged 36, whose occupation was that of a non-domestic coachman, his wife Ellen, also 36, and their children William, aged 12, who was a grocer’s errand boy, Francis who was 10, Eleanor who was nine, Alaric who was seven, and Harold who was three years old. Whether relating to this family or not, on 7^th June 1904 a Frank Collett and the son of William John Collett and his wife Ellen (could he be Francis E Collett) was baptised in Wiltshire.

Over the next few years William and his family left the village of Banwell and moved into Weston-super-Mare, and by April 1911 they were living at 21 Stanley Grove Road. By that time the couple’s eldest son William had left the family home and, at the age of 23, he was living and working in Swindon. William John Collett of Melksham was 46 and by that time he had reverted to his earlier occupation of being a grocer and a shopkeeper. Ellen Collett of Shaw was 46 and was assisting her husband of twenty-three years in the family business.

The four children still living with them were Francis, aged 20 and of Castle Combe, a grocer’s assistant, Eleanor, aged 19 of Castle Combe, an assistant in a music shop, ‘Alasie’ who was 17 and also of Castle Combe, a goods agent’s clerk with the Great Western Railway, and Harold who was 13 and of Banwell who was still attending school. Visiting the family on that occasion was lady’s companion Annie Frost 25 of Weston-super-Mare, and Florence Membery, 29 from Bath, who was a trained nurse.

35Q23

William John Collett

Born in 1888 at Biddestone

35Q24

Francis Edward Collett

Born in 1890 at Castle Combe

35Q25

Eleanor Edith Collett

Born in 1892 at Castle Combe

35Q26

Alaric Robert Collett

Born in 1893 at Castle Combe

35Q27

Harold Collett

Born in 1897 at Banwell, Weston-s-Mare

35P13

Frederick W Collett was born at Melksham in 1867 and it was there that he was living with his family in 1871 at the age of four years. Ten years later in 1881, at the age of 14, he was attending Weston School in Somerset, the establishment of school-master Albert Browning and his wife Ann. On leaving school Frederick took up the occupation of an engineer, as confirmed by the Melksham census of 1891, at which time he was 24 and living with his widowed mother Elizabeth at Bath Road in Melksham. Following the death of his mother, before the end of the century, unmarried engineer Frederick Collett from Melksham was 34 in March 1901 when he was living within the Twerton area, to the west of Bath city centre, with his sister Emily (below).

35P14

Mary Jane Collett was the fourth of the six children of John and Elizabeth Collett. She was born at the Bell Inn on Bath Road in Melksham on 18^th February 1868, her birth recorded (Ref. 5a 105) during the first three months of that year. She was then baptised at Melksham on 31^st March 1868 and died the following day, on 1^st April 1868. Her passing was also recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 63) during the second quarter of that year.

35P15

Emily Matilda Collett was born at Melksham in 1869 and was two years old at the time of the Melksham census of 1871. She was baptised at Melksham on 2^nd May 1869, when her parents were confirmed as John and Elizabeth Collett. In 1871 Emily M Collett was two years of age and ten years later Emily was again living with her parents at The Bell Inn on Bath Road in Melksham, when she was recorded as being aged 12 years. Where she was in 1891 has not been determined but, by 1901, Emily was 32, when she was working as a schoolteacher of English and music, when she was living with her brother Frederick (above) at the Twerton, Somerset, home of their mother Elizabeth Collett, within the Bath registration district. Just over two years later the marriage of Emily Matilda Collett and Henry Clement Durnford was recorded at St George Hanover Square in London (Ref. 1a 1002) during the third quarter of 1903.

Henry was four years younger than Emily and their marriage is known to have produced at least one child for the couple since, by April 1911, the family of three was living in the hamlet of Froxfield just north of Petersfield in Hampshire. Emily Matilda Durnford from Melksham was 42, her husband Henry was 38 and a head domestic gardener from North Runcton in Norfolk and their son Clement George Durnford was five years old and born at Froxfield. The death of Emily M Durnford was recorded at nearby Droxford (Ref. 2c 358) to the west of Petersfield during the second quarter of 1940 when she was 71 years of age.

35P16

Eliza Collett was the sixth and last child of inn keeper John Collett and his wife Elizabeth Collett (John’s cousin). She was born at The Bell Inn on Bath Road in Melksham, and her birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 114) during the third quarter of 1870, following her birth on 11^th August. It was just of two weeks later that she died (Ref. 5a 74) and was buried at Melksham on 28^th August 1870.

35P19

William Thomas Collett was born at Melksham in 1872, the eldest child of William Collett and Sarah Hayward, his birth recorded there (Ref. 5a 114) during the last three months of that year. By April 1881 William, who was eight years old and born at Melksham, was living at Partridges Yard in Wantage with his mother Sarah and his three younger siblings, while his shoeing smith father was away working in Swindon and was in lodgings at 38 Newport Street in the town. When his family moved to Gloucester, where William’s father established the family coach building business of Wm Collett & Sons, William Thomas Collett, aged 18 and from Melksham, was working for the Great Western Railway in Swindon as a factory labourer. It was at Marlborough Road in Wroughton, just south of Swindon, that William was lodging at the home of the Cook family.

William eventually returned to Gloucester, where he joined forces with his father William Collett in the family coach building business. It was also during the last three months of 1896 when William Thomas Collett married Rosa Minnie Mould, the wedding recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 598). Rosa was born in Gloucester in 1870 and was the daughter of John and Harriet Mould. Nine months after they were married, Rosa presented William with their first child. By the time of the census in 1901 William Collett, aged 28 and from Melksham, was a coach-smith working with his father and younger brother Fred in the family business in Gloucester. Living at Hanman Road with him was his wife Rosa M Collett aged 30, their daughter Ivy M Collett who was three, and their two sons William F Collett who was two years old, and Granville L Collett who was five months old. All three children, and their mother, were confirmed as having been born at Gloucester.

The enlarged family was recorded at Gloucester ten year later in the April census of 1911. William Thomas Collett of Melksham was 39 and a coach builder, his wife Rosa Minnie Collett of Gloucester was 41, Ivy Minnie Collett was 13, William Frederick Collett was 11, Granville Livingstone Collett was 10, Ruby Victoria Collett was six, and twins Grace F N Collett and Edwin H Collett were seven months old. At a later time in their lives William and Rosa settled in the village of Hucclecote to the east of Gloucester, and it was there that they both died and were buried in the same grave in the grounds of the Hucclecote Methodist Church. Upon the death of William’s father, at Gloucester on 22^nd February 1917, his Will may have been contested, because it was not until 13^th July 1923 that it was proved in favour of his two sons William T Collett and Frederick Collett (below), prior to the death of their mother Sarah in 1928.

Rosa Minnie Collett died on 25^th September 1947 at the age of 78, her death recorded at the Gloucester Rural register office (Ref. 7b 373). It was nine years after that when the death of William Thomas Collett was recorded at Gloucester Rural register office (Ref. 7b 449), following his passing on 19^th June 1956, when he was 83 years old.

35Q28

Ivy Minnie Collett

Born in 1897 at Gloucester

35Q29

William Frederick Collett

Born in 1898 at Gloucester

35Q30

Granville Livingstone Collett

Born in 1900 at Gloucester

35Q31

Ruby Victoria Collett

Born in 1904 at Gloucester

35Q32

Grace F N Collett

Born in 1910 at Gloucester

35Q33

Edwin Hayward Collett

Born in 1910 at Gloucester

35P20

Fanny Elizabeth Collett was born at Wantage, Berkshire, in 1875, her birth recorded there (Ref. 2c 303) during the second quarter of the year. She was listed as living there with her mother and her siblings at Partridges Yard in 1881 when she was six years old. Over the following years her family settled at Tredworth Road in Gloucester, where Fanny Collet was 16 in 1891, and she was still living with her parents ten years later, when Fanny E Collett from Wantage was 26 with no stated occupation, at which time the family home was at Melbourne Street in Gloucester.

Within the following six months Fanny Elizabeth Collett married Walter John French at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 724) during the third quarter of 1901. Walter was the son of James and Sarah Ann French of Derby Road in Gloucester, who was 24 and a bridge-man employed on the Great Western Railway. Two years into their married life, Fanny presented Walter with the couple’s only known child. The birth of their daughter Doris Fanny French was recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 6a 362) during the second quarter of 1904. By the time of the census in 1911, the family of three was still living in Gloucester where Walter John French was 34 and still working as a rail bridge man, his wife Fanny Elizabeth French from Wantage was 36, and their daughter Doris Fanny French was six years old.

During the first three months of 1933, Doris Fanny French married Herbert H Moseley, the event recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 425). The death of Walter J French was recorded at Gloucester Rural register office (Ref. 7b 523) during the final quarter of 1965 when he was 89.

35P21

Ellen Maria Collett was born at Wantage in 1877, her birth recorded there (Ref. 2c 306) during the second quarter of that year, the third of the four known children of William and Sarah Collett. As simply Ellen Collett, she was four years old in 1881 when living with her family at Partridges Yard in Wantage, and was 14 in 1891, by which time she and her family had settled in Gloucester at Tredworth Road. In the summer of 1894, when Ellen would have been seventeen years of age, she fell pregnant out of wedlock. The alternative option, which seems less likely, is that the base-born child might have been the offspring of Ellen’s older sister Fanny (above), the child being raised by Ellen’s parents at 13 Melbourne Street in Gloucester.

During the last three months of 1898 Ellen Maria Collett married Sydney John Albert Bishop at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 608). Seven years earlier Sydney J A Bishop was 15 years old and working as an errand boy, while living at Clegram Street in the South Hamlet district of Gloucester, the home of his parents John and Mary Bishop. Once married, the couple took up residence at Knowles Road in Gloucester, where they were recorded in the 1901 census. Sydney Bishop from Gloucester was 24 and described as a machinist driller of a road vehicle at the iron works. His wife Ellen Bishop was 23 and her place of birth was confirmed as Wantage. On that same day, Ellen’s assumed base-born daughter Lily Collett was six years when she was living with Ellen’s parents, as she was again in 1911.

It would appear that Ellen and Sydney did not have any children. Certainly, on the day of the census in 1911, the childless couple was still living in Gloucester, although by them Sydney’s occupation was that of a school caretaker at the age of 33. Ellen Maria Bishop from Wantage was 32, with no stated occupation. Fifty-one years later the death of Sydney J A Bishop was recorded at Gloucester register office (Ref. 7b 412) during the second quarter of 1962 when he was 85.

35Q34

Lily Collett

Born in 1895 at Gloucester

35P22

FREDERICK GEORGE COLLETT was born at Wantage in 1880, where the birth was recorded (Ref. 2c 319) during the first three months of that year. In 1974 local government changes to county boundaries meant Wantage became part of Oxfordshire. In 1881, aged just one year old, Frederick Collett was living with his family at Partridges Yard in Wantage, where he was most likely born. Only his mother Sarah A Collett and his two sisters and older brother were at home with him on 4^th April that year, since his father William Collett was working in Swindon, where he was in lodgings.

In 1901 Frederick was working with his father William Collett and older brother William Collett at the family business of Wm Collett & Sons coach builder on Melbourne Street in Gloucester. Frederick’s job title at that time was coach painter and he later went on to take over and manage the business, which was eventually handed down to his grandson. It was during the second quarter of 1905 that Frederick Collett married Julia Ricketts, the daughter of Francis Emily Ricketts, as recorded at Gloucester (Ref. 6a 868). Living with the couple on the day of the census in 1911 was Julia’s widowed mother Emily Ricketts, who was 72 years old. Frederick Collett from Wantage was 31 and a coachbuilder who was residing at 2 Robinson Road in Gloucester with his wife and the first of their two known daughters. Julia Collett of Gloucester was 30 and their daughter Vera was three years old

Following the death of his father at Gloucester on 22^nd February 1917, there may well have been a dispute within the family, with his father’s Will taking over six years to pass through the probate process, to eventually be proved at Gloucester on 13^th July 1923, when the two main beneficiaries were Frederick Collett and his older brother William T Collett (above).

35Q35

Vera Julia Dorothea Collett

Born in 1908 at Gloucester

35Q36

OLIVE E H COLLETT

Born in 1912 at Gloucester

35P23

Anna Maria Collett was born at Broughton Gifford on 12^th October 1855 and it was there where she was baptised on 11^th January 1857, the eldest child of Samuel Collett and his wife Sarah Gerrish. In was later that same year when her parents left England for Wisconsin in America, where she later married William Harkness Berlin Campbell at Union Township in Pierce, Wisconsin on 26^th November 1873. He was the son of William H Campbell and Phebe Jane Huller and had been born in Pennsylvania on 28^th January 1851. Anna Maria Campbell nee Collett died at Exeland in Sawyer, Wisconsin on 4^th June 1942, her husband having died there seventeen years earlier on 10^th November 1924. Both of them were buried in the Windfall Cemetery in Exeland.

The marriage of Hannah and William produced six children for the couple, and the first two were Edward Campbell who was born on 12^th February 1875 and who died on 2^nd March 1875, and Ella May Campbell who was born at Rock Elm in Pierce, Wisconsin on 18^th April 1876. She married Archie Alonzo Veness at Maiden Rock in Pierce on 19^th November 1896, the son of Leroy Alonzo Veness and Violetta Place, who was born on 1^st February 1874 at Arkansaw in Pepin, Wisconsin. Archie died on 21^st February 1946, while Hannah M Veness nee Collett died in Wisconsin on 13^th October 1967. The four other children were Emma Campbell, who became Emma Veness, Jennie Sarah Campbell (1882–1928) who married Archie L Crownhart (1882-1918) and who later became Jennie Sewal, Walther Campbell, and Esther Ethel Campbell, who became Ethel Hewitt. Jennie Sarah Campbell was the great grandmother of Michael Nelson who provided new family information during 2020.

35P24

Mary Jane Collett was born at Wisconsin, most likely at Dodge County, during September 1857 shortly after her parents arrived there from England. She married William Alexander Martin on 2^nd March 1876 at Maiden Rock, he having been born in Canada on 28^th April 1853, the son of Abijah Martin and his wife Emily Harris. It was during the previous year that her mother Sarah Collett nee Gerrish had died, living her father Samuel Collett and her three brothers (below) living at Union at the time of the census in 1880. William Alexander Martin died on 5^th June 1933, probably in Orange County, California, where his widow Mary Jane Martin nee Collett may have died sometime before 1941.

Mary Jane presented William with eleven children as follows. Nellie M Martin was born in Wisconsin during March 1877 who married Reno Norman Holt in 1898, the son of Henry Stewart Holt and Olive Araminta (Minnie) Clark, who was born on 28^th July 1875 in Wisconsin and who died on 10^th May 1941 at Snohomish in Washington. Mattie A Martin was born in Wisconsin in 1879. Eddy Arlo Martin was born in Toronto on 3^rd September 1881 and he later married Ella Posey. Leon Everette Martin was born at Brookings in South Dakota on 23^rd October 1883. Merrel Uriah Martin was born at Brookings on 13^th October 1885 and he died in Los Angeles on 20^th September 1955, having married Edna Mae Mealey on 12^th October 1910 at Maiden Rock in Pierce, Wisconsin, the daughter of William B Mealey and Mary Jane Herbison, who was born at Pierce on 14^th December 1883 in Pierce, and who died at Red Wing, Goodhue in Minnesota on 20^th July 1966. Lorenza Edward Martin was born in Jun 1887 in South Dakota. Ina Vida Martin was born at Brookings on 29^th September 1889. Ethel Eunice Martin was born at Brookings on 23^rd April 1892. Myrtle Adell Martin was born at Brookings on 2^nd June 1893. William Alexander Martin was also born at Brookings on 8^th May 1897, as was Amos Martin who was born in 1899, who sadly died that same year.

35P26

James Collett was born at Stonebank in Waukesha, Wisconsin on 13^th August 1862. James was fifteen when his mother Sarah died in 1877 and three year later when he was 18, he was working with his father Samuel on their farm at Union in Pierce, Wisconsin and was living there with his two younger brothers Henry and Albert (below). He later married (1) Alice Cary Kingsbury, the daughter of Asa Kingsbury and his wife Margaret Thalheimer. Alice was born in Illinois on 4^th September 1867.

It would appear that by the end of the century James and Alice were separated since, James Collett married (2) Nora Cushing at Pipestone in Minnesota on 22^nd December 1900. She was the daughter of James Cushing and his wife Mary Ellen Lillis, and was born on 1^st November 1872 in Mason City, Cerro Gordo in Iowa. James Collett died at Elmwood in Pierce, Wisconsin on 8^th December 1941, and was buried at Ono Cemetery in Salem Township, Pierce. Alice Cary Collett nee Kingsbury died in Sacramento, California on 29^th January 1945, and Nora Collett nee Cushing died on 17^th May 1948 at Ellsworth in Pierce, Wisconsin, and was also buried at Ono Cemetery.

The three children of James and his first wife Alice were born after the couple moved to South Dakota:

35Q37

Edythe M Collette

Born in 1890 in South Dakota

35Q38

Walter Burton Collette

Born in 1892 at Brookings in South Dakota

35Q39

Alfred Collette

Born circa 1895, died before 1941

The following is the only child of James Collett by his second wife Nora Cushing:

35Q40

Etta May Collett

Born in 1902 at Union, Pierce, Wisconsin

35P27

Henry S Collett was born at Union in Pierce, Wisconsin on 6^th April 1869 in Union and was only eight years old when his mother Sarah died. He was simply named as Henry Collett, aged 11, when he and his two brothers James (above) and Albert (below) were living with their widowed father Samuel on the family farm at Union. Twelve years after that he married Eva Etta Clark at Union on 22^nd November 1893. She was the daughter of John Calvin Clark and his wife Maranda Crandall, and was born at Shannon in Carroll, Illinois on 20^th August 1872. Henry S Collett was living at Plum City in Pierce when died there on 15^th February 1946, following which he was buried at Ono Cemetery in Salem. And it was also at Plum City where his wife Eva Etta Collett nee Clark later died on 4^th February 1950, after which she was also buried at Ono Cemetery. It would appear that the couple spent the whole of their early life together at Union, where their seven children were born.

35Q41

Gladys Collett

Born in 1895 at Union, Pierce, Wisconsin

35Q42

Myrtle Collett

Born in 1897 at Union, Pierce, Wisconsin

35Q43

Willard Faye Collett

Born in 1901 at Union, Pierce, Wisconsin

35Q44

Leafy Gaynel Collett

Born in 1903 at Union, Pierce, Wisconsin

35Q45

Ralph Dinsmore Collett

Born in 1905 at Union, Pierce, Wisconsin

35Q46

Donald Milton Collett

Born in 1911 at Union, Pierce, Wisconsin

35Q47

Gail Winslow Collett

Born in 1915 at Union, Pierce, Wisconsin

35P28

Ida May Collett was born at Wisconsin on 18^th April 1872, where she died on 19^th November 1872, the youngest of the three daughters of Samuel and Sarah Collett. She was buried in the family lot at Ono Cemetery.

35P29

Albert B Collett, who was known as Bert, was born at Union in Pierce, Wisconsin on 23^rd February 1874, the last child born to Samuel Collett and his wife Sarah Gerrish who died when Albert was only three years of age. It was as A B Collett aged six years that he was recorded living on the family farm at Union with his father and his two older brothers in the census of 1880. He married Lula May Harrison at Maiden Rock in Pierce, Wisconsin on 28^th November 1894. She was the daughter of John Strange Harrison and his wife Minerva Jane Keeler, and was during August 1879 in Wisconsin. Albert B Collett died at Ellsworth in Pierce, Wisconsin on 16^th December 1936, and was buried at Ono Cemetery.

Following the death of her husband Lulu married August Wilkens, the son of John Wilkens Louise Brown, and it was some years later that Lula May Wilkens formerly Collett nee Harrison passed away on 20^th May 1949. During their married life together, Lula presented Albert with six children who were all born within the state of Wisconsin. Sadly, for the family, two of the couple’s three sons did not survive, with both of them dying within a year of them being born.

35Q48

Grace Minerva Collett

Born in 1895 in Wisconsin

35Q49

Russell H Collett

Born in 1897 in Wisconsin

35Q50

Lyle Clayton Collett

Born in 1899 in Wisconsin

35Q51

Bernice Winifred Collett

Born in 1904 in Wisconsin

35Q52

Ada Isabel Collett

Born in 1907 in Wisconsin

35Q53

Herbert Collett

Born in 1908 in Wisconsin; died 1908

35P30

Harry Derrick Collett was born at Bradford-on-Avon in 1866, the eldest child of Henry Collett and his wife Anne Rebecca Derrick. His birth was recorded at Bradford (Ref. 5a 119) as simply Harry D Collett during the second quarter of that year, the same quarter in which his parents had been married that same year, but in Bath. It was also at Bradford-on-Avon where Harry Collett was baptised on 6^th May 1866, when his parents were confirmed as Henry and Anne Rebecca Collett. When he was very young, his father’s work as a policeman took the family of three to Downton near Salisbury and, in the census of 1871, it was at Charlton-All-Saints (in the parish of Downton) where the enlarged family was recorded, when Harry Collett from Bradford-on-Avon was five years of age. By April 1881 he was living with his family at Langley Burrell, just outside Chippenham, where he was working as an apprentice painter and plumber at the age of 15.

Harry eventually joined the army and served overseas, and that was the reason was he was not located in Great Britain in the next census in 1891. However, it was around that time that he was serving in Ireland, and it was there that he met and married Mary. The marriage produced five children for the couple, the first two of which were born at Limerick, the next one during a posting to Valetta on the island of Malta, the next one at Plumstead near Woolwich in London, while their last child was born at South Tidworth in Wiltshire, following Harry’s tour of duty.

It was in March 1901 that family was recorded as living in the South Tidworth area of Wiltshire, midway between Amesbury and Andover. The family comprised Harry Collett from Bradford-on-Avon, aged 35, who was described as an ex-soldier and clerk with the Royal Engineers Office, his wife Mary Collett, aged 34 and from Ireland, and four of their ultimate five children, they being John, aged nine from Ireland, Annie seven also from Ireland, Frederick who was four from Malta and Clara who was one year old from Plumstead.

Whether his retirement was due to an injury sustained during his time in the army is not known, but it is known that by April 1911 Mary Collett was a widow living in the Windsor area with four of her five children. Mary Josephine Collett was 45, and her children were Annie Evelyn 17, Frederick Victor 14, Clara Kathleen Collett 11, and Eileen Norah Collett who was nine years old. By that time Harry’s and Mary’s eldest son John Henry Collett was 19 and was employed as a plumber, while lodging at the home of his uncle Frederick George Collett (below) at Burleston Cottages in Shipton Bellinger, to the east of Amesbury just over the county boundary in Hampshire.

35Q54

John Henry Collett

Born in 1891 at Limerick

35Q55

Annie Evelyn Collett

Born in 1893 at Limerick

35Q56

Frederick Victor Collett

Born in 1896 at Valetta, Malta

35Q57

Clara Kathleen Collett

Born in 1899 at Plumstead, London

35Q58

Eileen Norah Collett

Born in 1901 at South Tidworth, Wilts

35P31

Sarah Jane Collett was born at Charlton-All-Saints (Downton) south of Salisbury in 1867, the second of the thirteen children of Henry and Anne Collett, although her birth was recorded at nearby Alderbury (Ref. 5a 175) during the third quarter of 1867. Sarah J Collett from Downton was three years old in the census of 1871, when she and her family were living in Charlton-All-Saints within the parish of Downton. Her father’s job as a policeman meant the family moved around a lot and, around five years after she was born, Sarah’s parents moved first to Biddestone, and then to Langley Burrell. On leaving school, as the eldest daughter, Sarah worked in the family home (a police station) as a general servant, supporting her mother in caring for the family, where she was 13 in 1881. It was eight years after that when Sarah Jane Collett married David James Payne the son of David and Phoebe Payne. Their wedding was recorded at Malmesbury (Ref. 5a 73) during the first three months of 1889, and it may have been through her father’s occupation that she first met police constable David Payne.

It was therefore David’s work with the Wiltshire Constabulary that initially saw the couple settle in Chilmark, 11 miles from Salisbury, and it was there too that nearly all of their children were born. In 1891 Sarah had already presented David with their first child Phyllis Lydia who was one year old, when David from Hackney in London was 29 and a constable, and Sarah was 23 and from Charlton-All-Saints. On the census day their address was simply recorded as Ridge, while was on Wood’s Lane in Chilmark.

Not long after the birth of their fifth child at Ridge, Chilmark, David was posted to Easton Royal, just east of Pewsey in Wiltshire, where the family was still living in 1901. The census return that year listed the enlarged family as David J Payne who was 39 and a police constable with the Wilts Force, Sarah J Payne who was 34, Phyllis L Payne who was 11, Blanche E Payne who was 10, Harold J Payne who was eight, Francis E Payne who was seven and Lionel D Payne who was four years of age. It was at Easton Royal, shortly after that census day, when Sarah gave birth to the couple’s last child, as recorded in the next census of 1911.

David’s next posting was to Melksham Forest, where Sarah’s parents and some of her siblings were living and farming during the first half of the first decade of twentieth century. On that occasion in April 1911, the remnants of the family were recorded as police constable David James Payne aged 49 and from Hackney, Sarah Jane Payne from Charlton-All-Saints aged 43, Francis Edgar Payne who was 17, Lionel David Payne who was 14 and Margaret Ida Payne who was nine years old, who had been born at Easton Royal, Pewsey. And it must have been at Melksham that David and Sarah remained living after David retired from the police force, since it was there (Ref.5a 99) that the death of David J Payne, aged 73, was recorded during third the quarter of 1935.

Their daughter Phyllis Lydia Payne, was the maternal grandmother of Angela Chilcott who provided some of the details for the updated version of this family line released in April 2016. Phyllis and her parents, together with her husband Harry Douglas Carter, are all buried within the grounds of the Parish Church of St Michael in Melksham, where Sarah Jane’s parents are also laid to rest. Angela Chilcott spent the first fifty-three years of her life living in the Warminster area of Wiltshire, before settling in the Netherlands in 2013.

35P32

Arthur Collett was born at Charlton-All-Saints (Downton) in 1869, the son of Henry Collett from Broughton Gifford and Anne Rebecca Derrick from Bradford-on-Avon. His birth was recorded at Alderbury (Ref. 5a 198), midway between Downton and Salisbury, during the first three months of 1869. It was later that year when he was baptised as Arthur Collett, the son of Henry and Anne Rebecca Collett, at Bradford-on-Avon on 5^th September 1869. He was two years old in the Downton census of 1871 when he and his family were residing in the nearby village of Charlton-All-Saints. Ten years later, on the day of the census in 1881, Arthur was 12 years old and still attending school at Langley Burrell, where he and his parents were living, where his father was a police constable. By 1891 Arthur Collett from Wiltshire was 22 and had followed the same occupation as his father, when he was a police constable lodging with the Anen family at Church Road in the parish of St George in the Barton Regis district of Bristol. It was three years after that when he married Alice Maud Mary Bull at Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset on 18^th September 1894. The record of the marriage confirmed he was the son of Henry Collett and that he was 26 years of age, while his bride Alice was from Weston near Bath in Wiltshire.

Over the following years Alice presented Arthur with at least the three children listed below, the first two of which were born at Bristol, the third after the family had made the move to Essex. That was revealed in the next two census returns for 1901 and 1911. In the first of them, the family of four was residing at Plummers Hill Road in Bristol St George where Arthur Collett was described as a relieving officer at the age of 32. His wife Alice Collett from Bath was 30, and their two children were Rayonette Collett who was five and Norman Collett who was three.

In the next census conducted in early April 1911, Arthur and his family were living at 17 Linton Road in Barking, Essex. Arthur Collett from Downton Parish near Salisbury was 42 and described as working at the Receiving Office, a vaccination officer and a collector for guardians and custodians. His wife Alice Maud Mary Collett from Weston Parish near Bath was also 42, and their three children were named as Ida Rayonette Collett who was 15 and a part-time student, Norman Temple Collett who was 13 and attending school, and Clarence Arthur Collett who was only three years old who had been born at Barking Town.

35Q59

Ida Rayonette Collett

Born in 1895 at Bristol

35Q60

Norman Temple Collett

Born in 1897 at Bristol

35Q61

Clarence Arthur Collett

Born in 1908 at Barking

35P33

James Collett was born at Charlton-All-Saints (Downton) in 1871, his birth recorded at Alderbury (Ref. 5a 182) during the third quarter of the year, another son of Henry and Annie Collett. Soon after he was born, his father’s work as a police constable resulted in a family move to Biddestone near Chippenham, and it was there that he was baptised on 8^th February 1874. By 1881 the family was recorded at Langley Burrell near Chippenham, when James Collett from Downton was nine years of age. After completing his education and, on leaving the family home, James was lodging with the Kempton family at Stafford Road in Swindon on the day of the census in 1891. Nineteen years old James Collett from Charlton had the occupation of a harness maker, just like that of his brother-in-law Bernard Woodbridge, the husband of James’ younger sister Clara (below).

The marriage of James Collett and Mary Jane Eyles took place at Henbury in Bristol on 8^th October 1895. The event was recorded at Barton Regis (Ref. 6a 285) when James was 25 and the son of Henry Collett and Mary was 29 and the daughter of William Eyles. Barton Regis does not exist today and was renamed Clifton in 1904. Once they were married, they settled in Dursley where their two children were born, and it was at Silver Street in Dursley that the family was recorded in the census of 1901. James Collett from Charlton-All-Saints, near Downton, was 30 and working as an assistant overseer. His wife Mary Jane Collett from Wootton-under-Edge was 32, and their two children were Amy Louise Collett who was four and Francis James Collett who was two years of age.

It was the same situation ten years later, when the Dursley census of 1911 again recorded the family living there and made up of James, who was 39 and still an assistant overseer, but also as the clerk to the parish council, Mary Jane who was 43, Amy Louise who was 14 and Francis James who was 12. At that time in their lives the family employed a servant, Ada Louise Cox from Gloucester who was 30. Sometime after 1911, the family moved to Bristol, where their daughter was married in 1921, and later to Painswick, where their son raised his family.

35Q62

Amy Louise Collett

Born in 1896 at Dursley

35Q63

Francis James Collett

Born in 1898 at Dursley

35P34

Annie Louisa Collett was born at Biddestone in 1873, another daughter of Henry and Annie Collett, whose birth was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 57) during the last quarter of 1873. It was also at Biddestone where she was baptised on 8^th February 1874, in a joint ceremony with her older brother James (above). She was seven years old in the census of 1881, when Annie L Collett from Biddestone was living with her family in a police house at Langley Burrell. Over the following years her family moved first to Pewsey and then to Malmesbury, and it was at the latter that Annie L Collett was 17 in 1891. Just over five years after that, Annie Louisa Collett married Philip Charles Winchcombe, their wedding day recorded at Highworth near Swindon (Ref. 5a 47) during the third quarter of 1896. Philip was a policeman with the Wiltshire Constabulary and may have been introduced to Annie through her father, who was another member of the Wiltshire police force. Philip Charles Winchcombe was baptised at Shrivenham on 4^th January 1874, the son of Wallace and Jane Winchcombe.

Almost immediately after they were married Philip was posted to Calne, and it was at Sandy Lane in Calne where the couple’s first three children were born. It was also at Sandy Lane that the family was living in 1901, when Philip Winchcombe from Shrivenham was 27 and a police constable, Annie from Biddestone was also 27, and their two children that day were Wallace Henry Winchcombe who was three and Edith Blanche Winchcombe who was just one year old. Philip’s next posting was to the village of Tilshead, which is said to be the geographical centre of Salisbury Plain, where to more children were added to the family.

However, according to the next census in 1911, Philip had been promoted to the rank of Police Sergeant, still within the Wiltshire Constabulary, but by then he and his family were based in the village of Ramsbury, midway between Marlborough and Hungerford. Philip and Annie were both 37, when their four children were confirmed as Wallace Henry who was 13, Edith Blanche who was 11, Christina Doreen who was seven and Leonard Alexander who was four. It was thirteen years later when the death of Annie L Winchcombe was recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 25) during the fourth quarter of 1924 when she was 40 years old. Three years later widower Philip C Winchcombe married Ellen L Witt, the marriage recorded at Stroud (Ref. 6a 787) during the last three months of 1927. It was nearly forty years later that the death of Philip C Winchcombe was recorded at Swindon (Ref. 7a 509) during the third quarter of 1966 when he was 92.

35P35

William George Collett was born at Biddestone in 1876, his birth recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 57) during the third quarter of that year, another son of Henry and Annie Collett, who was baptised at Biddestone on 6^th August 1876. It was early in the following year that he died, his death recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 39) during the first quarter of 1877. He was the only one of the couple’s thirteen children who did not survive to adulthood.

35P36

Frederick George Collett was born at Biddestone in 1878, the son of Henry and Anne Collett, whose birth was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 66) during the first three months of that year. Under his full name, he was baptised at Biddestone on 17^th February 1878. Fredrick G Collett was three years old in the Langley Burrell census of 1881 and was 13 in 1891 when he was recorded as Fredk G Collett, living with his family at Gostins Lane in Brokenborough, one mile outside Malmesbury. No record of him has been found in 1901 when he may have been abroad with the army, perhaps even in South Africa, taking part in the Boer War. What is known is that in 1896 Frederick married Harriet Hannah Bannister who was born at Grays in Essex in 1877 but, just like her husband, Harriet was also absent at the time of the 1901 Census. Harriet was the eldest daughter of John and Harriet Bannister, with whom she was living in 1881 and again in 1891 at Prospect Row in Grays, by which time she was already working as a domestic servant at the age of 12.

As far as can be determined Frederick and Harriet had three children, the births of all three recorded at Andover, although the first of them suffered a premature death. The birth of Irene Norah Collett was recorded there (Ref. 2c 238) during the fourth quarter of 1901. By April 1911 Frederick George Collett from Biddestone was employed by the War Department as a range warden, while living with his wife and only child at Burleston Cottages in Shipton Bellinger in Hampshire. Frederick was 34, Harriet was 33, and their son Frederick John Henry was four and had been born at Shipton Bellinger. Lodging with the family were William Smith aged 50, a bricklayer from Stroud; Charles Woodley aged 47, a bricklayer from Goring; and John Henry Collett aged 19, a plumber’s labourer from Limerick in Ireland. The latter was Frederick’s nephew, the son of his older brother, the late Harry D Collett (above).

35Q64

Irene Norah Collett

Born in 1901 at Shipton Bellinger, nr Andover

35Q65

Frederick John Henry Collett

Born in 1906 at Shipton Bellinger, nr Andover

35Q66

Olive D Collett

Born in 1912 at Shipton Bellinger, nr Andover

35P37

Mary Blanche Collett was born at Biddestone in 1880, her birth recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 68) during the second quarter of the year. It was on 24^th March 1880, at Biddestone, where she was baptised, another child of Henry Collett and Annie Rebecca Derrick. Very shortly after her birth her policeman father was posted to Langley Burrell to the east of Chippenham, where one-year-old Mary B Collett from Biddestone was recorded with her family in March 1881. Ten years later Mary B Collett was 11 years of age when living with her family, which was then recorded in the census of 1891 at Gostins Lane in Brokenborough near Malmesbury. When her father retired from the police, he took up farming and in 1901 the family was living at Snarlton Lane in Melksham Forest on the outskirts of Melksham, when Mary B Collett from Biddestone was 21 and the eldest of the five children still living with their parents.

Just over two years later Mary Blanche Collett married Edward Thomas A R Fell, their wedding recorded at Melksham register office (Ref. 5a 234) during the third quarter of 1903. Edward Thomas Abraham Richard Fell was the son of Thomas James Edward Fell, and wife Caroline, and was born at Melksham in the summer of 1882. It is possible that Edward worked with Mary’s father on the farm at Melksham Forest, and it was there also that the couple’s first child was born. The birth of William Raymond Fell, the first of their two known children, was recorded at Melksham (Ref. 5a 109) during the final quarter of 1904.

It was the census return in 1911 that confirmed the birth of their son had taken place at Melksham Forest, although of the intervening years the family of three has settled at Castle Eaton, Hannington near Highworth. Edward Fell was 29 and a farmer, his wife Mary Blanche Fell from Biddestone was 31 and their son William was six years old. On that census day Mary was already pregnant with the couple’s second child, which was born a few months later. The birth of Margery Fell was recorded at Swindon (Ref. 5a 9) during the third quarter of 1911, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

35P38

William Collett was born at Langley Burrell in 1882 and was another son of policeman Henry Collett and his wife Anne. He was named in memory of his deceased older brother and his birth was recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 70) during the first quarter of 1882. On leaving Langley Burrell the family moved first to Pewsey and then to Malmesbury and Brokenborough, where they were living at Gostins Lane in 1891 when William was nine years old. It may have been military service that was the reason for his absence from the census in 1901, but shortly after that he married Christine with whom he had at least two children. By 1911 he and his young family were recorded in the village of Lydiard Tregoze near Swindon as William Collett, aged 29 and a dairy farmer from Chippenham, Christine Collett, aged 30 and from nearby Wroughton, Henry Edward Collett who was seven and born at Hannington near Highworth, and Frances Margaret Collett who was four, who had been born at Cricklade.

35Q67

Henry Edward Collett

Born in 1903 at Hannington, near Highworth

35Q68

Frances Margaret Collett

Born in 1906 at Cricklade, near Swindon

35P39

Francis Collett was born at Pewsey in Wiltshire during in 1884, the son of Henry and Anne Collett, his birth recorded at Pewsey (Ref. 5a 169) during the last three months of that year. By the time he was six, in 1891, he and his family were living at Gostins Lane in Brokenborough near Malmesbury, and ten years later he was 16 and a farmer’s son living and working on the family farm at Snarlton Lane in Melksham Forest. It was just after the start of the second decade of the new century when the marriage of Francis Collett an Elizabeth Anne Hamar was recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 16) during the first three months of 1910. Elizabeth Anne Hamar was born during the first few months of 1882, the daughter of Edward and Mary Hamar. One year later the childless couple was living at Blunsdon St Andrew to the north of Swindon, Francis Collett from Pewsey was 27 and a dairy and arable farmer, and his wife Elizabeth Anne Collett from Malvern in Worcestershire was 30.

35P40

Edith Jessie Collett was born at Pewsey in 1885, the eleventh of the thirteen children of Henry and Ann Collett. It was also at Pewsey that her birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 163) during the third quarter of the year. She was five years of age and living with her family at Gostins Lane, Malmesbury in 1891 and by 1901 the family was living in Melksham Without where Edith J Collett, aged 15 and from Pewsey, was a dressmaker. In 1911, at the age of 24, she was still living with her parents who, by that time, were living at Byde Mill Farm in Hannington near Highworth, Swindon, when Edith Jessie Collett from Pewsey was working for her father as a dairy maid.

It was two years later that Edith Jessie Collett married Edward Thould, the event recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 1) during the second quarter of 1913. The marriage produced two daughters and a son for the couple, the first being born one year later, when the birth of Iris A Thould was recorded at Dursley register office in Gloucestershire (Ref. 6a 489) during the second quarter of 1914. Three years later Edith gave birth to their son, the birth of Edward J Thould recorded at Dursley (Ref. 6a 388) during the second quarter of 1917. After a further three years the birth of the couple’s third and last child was again recorded at Dursley. Dorothy O Thould’s birth was recorded there (Ref. 6a 502) during the last three months of 1920. For all three children the other’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

35P41

Clara Collett was born in 1887 at Brokenborough, one mile from Malmesbury where her birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 58) during the third quarter of the year, the youngest daughter Henry Collett and Ann Rebecca Derrick. She was three years old in the Brokenborough census of 1891when Clara and her family were living on Gostins Lane. By 1901 her father was a police pensioner who was a farmer at Snarlton Lane in Melksham Forest when she was 13 and still at school. Six years after that day the marriage of Clara Collett and Bernard Charles Woodbridge was recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 5) during the second quarter of 1907. Bernard Charles Woodbridge was born at Highworth in 1886, the son of William and Rosetta Woodbridge. The marriage of Bernard and Clara produced three daughters born prior to the census in 1911, with two sons born just after.

In 1911 Clare Woodbridge from Malmesbury was 23, her husband Bernard was 24 and a harness maker from Highworth, when they were living at Grittleton near Chippenham with their three children. They were Jessie Woodbridge who was three, Edna Woodbridge who was one, and Irene Woodbridge who was just three months old. The family was affluent enough to employ a domestic servant, Edith Archer who was 13. The first two daughters had been born at Swindon, where the births of Margaret Jessie and Edna Evelyn were recorded (Ref. 5a 1) during the second quarter of 1908 and (Ref. 5a 2) during the fourth quarter of 1909. It was after the second birth that the family settled in Grittleton, with the birth of Irene C Woodbridge recorded at Chippenham (Ref. 5a 55) during the first three months of 1911.

Their time at Grittleton appears to have been a short one, because it was back at Swindon where the births of the couple’s two sons was recorded. Bernard Woodbridge was born towards the end of 1912 (Ref. 5a 52) and Reginald Woodbridge was born one year later (Ref. 5a 68) during the last quarter of 1913. On both occasions the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. The death of Clara Woodbridge nee Collett was also recorded at Swindon register office (Ref. 7c 500) during the second quarter of 1952 when she was 64. It was after fifteen years as a widower that the death of Bernard C Woodbridge was recorded at Swindon (Ref. 7c 712) during the third quarter of 1967, when he was 80 years of age.

35P42

Reginald Collett was born at Brokenborough in 1889, perhaps even at Gostins Lane, where he and his family were living in 1891 when Reginald was one year old. His birth was recorded at nearby Malmesbury (Ref. 5a 64) during the third quarter of 1889 and he was the last of the thirteen children of Henry and Anne Collett. In 1901, and following his father’s retirement for the Wiltshire Constabulary, the family was farming at Snarlton Lane in Melksham Forrest where 11-year-old Reginald was attending school. On leaving school, Reginald worked with his father on the farm, possibly at Snarlton Lane, before the family moved again during the first decade of the new century, to Byde Mill Farm at Hannington near Highworth, to the east of Swindon.

The census of 1911 recorded Reginald Collett aged 21 from Malmesbury still working on the family farm at Hannington, where he was described as a farmer’s son, assisting on the farm. Of his family, apart from his parents, the only sibling also living on the farm was his older sister Edith Collett (above). However, one other person was listed with the family that day, and that was Dora Cresser aged 19 and from Grove near Wantage in Berkshire. She was the daughter of former hotel keeper Robert Cresser and his much younger wife Agnes Ellen Tame of Grove, with whom she was living at Aldbourne in 1901, midway between Hungerford and Swindon. Whilst she was only described as a visitor, with no occupation, Dora Cresser was the future wife of Reginald Collett.

Later that same year, during the last three months of 1911, the marriage of Reginald Collett and Dora Cresser was recorded at the Swindon register office (Ref. 5a 9). The first of their three known children was born while the couple was still living in or around Swindon, but thereafter the family moved to the Devizes area of the county, and then onto Melksham where the third child was born. Upon the registration of the birth of the three children, in each case, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Cresser. Dorothy’s birth was recorded during the second quarter of 1912 (Ref. 5a 8), Robert’s birth was recorded during the second quarter of 1913 (Ref. 5a 190) and Margaret’s was recorded during the second quarter of 1920 (Ref. 5a 203).

35Q69

Dorothy C Collett

Born in 1912 at Swindon

35Q70

Robert Collett

Born in 1913 at Devizes

35Q71

Margaret Collett

Born in 1920 at Melksham

35P43

Sarah Jane Collett was born at Rock Elm in Pierce County, Wisconsin on 26^th November 1862. By the time of the US census of 1880, she was 17 and was still living with her parents on their farm at Rock Elm. In 1884 she married John George Raab who was the son of Adam Raab and Anna Caroline Eberwein. John Rabb was born in Germany on 2^nd May 1855. The couple was living at Stevens in Minnesota when John died on 8^th September 1916. Less than seventeen years later, at the time of her death, Sarah was living at Brooks, Marion in Oregon when she died on 19^th January 1933. Upon the death of her father James at Rock Elm in 1905 Sarah was confirmed in the obituary as Mrs John Raab, who was living at Red Wing, Goodhue in Minnesota.

The marriage of Sarah and John produced four children. Edwin John Raab was born at Red Wing on 15^th September 1889, and he died there on 24^th July 1979. He married (1) Elsie Alvina Sens who was born during 1895 in North Dakota. He later married (2) Rachel Ophelia and she was born on 21^st September 1883. When she died at Goodhue on 27^th January 1964 Edwin married (3) Florence A Moberg at Goodhue on 4^th February 1978, Florence having been born in 1897. The couple’s second child was Clarence George Raab who was born at Red Wing on 6^th August 1891. He died while at Ramsey in Minnesota on 20^th March 1982. He married Ione Wolf at Deuel in South Dakota on 1^st December 1930. She was born on 4^th December 1897 and died in Ramsey on 11^th December 1986.

Minnie Angeline Raab was their third child and she was born at Red Wing on 17^th November 1894. in Red Wing, Goodhue, Minnesota, USA. She married Fred Henry Crandall who was born at Waterville, Pepin in Wisconsin on 7^th October 1891. He died at Rhineland in Wisconsin, while Minnie died on 13^th November 1959. The last child born to Sarah Jane Collett and John George Raab was Florence M Raab who was born at Red Wing on 1^st February 1901. She married Mercer Charles Smith who was born in Wisconsin on 18^th August 1898 and who died at Riverside in California on 8^th September 1996, two years short of him reaching the age of one-hundred-years. His wife Florence had passed away nearly thirty years earlier, when she died on 24^th August 1967.

35P44

Hannah Elizabeth Collett was born at Rock Elm in Pierce County on 2^nd March 1865 and was named as Libbie Collett, aged 15, in the 1880 census for Rock Elm. On 21^st July 1883 she married Jacob Jackson who was born on 12^th November 1857 at Bradford, Pennsylvania, the son of Jacob Jackson and Sarah Morris. In the 1905 obituary for her father, Hannah was again named as Libbie, when she was listed under her married name of Mrs Jake Jackson of Olivet. And it was while the couple was still living at Olivet, Gilman in Pierce County that her husband died on 7^th April 1925. Hannah Elizabeth (Libbie) Jackson died thirty years later on 5^th June 1955. During their life Hannah presented Jacob with just two children, Fred Jackson, and Hazel G Jackson who was born in Wisconsin during September 1890. She married William McCardle, the son of Mike McCardle and Mary Cunningham, and was born in Wisconsin during 1884. William died in 1958 and on 12^th May 1976 Hazel McCardle nee Jackson passed away at Menomonie in Dunn, Wisconsin.

35P45

Edwin James Collett was born at Rock Elm in Pierce County during February 1868, the eldest son of James Collett and his wife Mary A Holcomb. At the age of 13 he was referred to as Edwin Collett in the US census of 1880. Thirteen years later he married Lulu Nelson at Ashland in Wisconsin on 4^th July 1893, who had been born in Norway during July 1866. By the time of the census in 1900 Lulu had presented her husband with their first two children and the family of four was living at Precinct One in Hayward Town, Sawyer County, Wisconsin. Edwin was named as Edward Collett was 32, Lulu Collett was 34, Florence Collett was three, and Raymond Collett was one year old. However, in the next census of 1905 the family was recorded as Edwin J Collett, aged 38, as was his wife Lulu from Norway, and by then they had four children. Florence was eight, Raymond was five Marie was three, and Vernice was just eight months old. Also, in 1905, at the time of the death of his father James, Edwin was one of the ten children listed in the obituary, when he was described as Ed Collett of Hayward.

Two more children were added to their family over the next six years, the first born before the census in 1910, and the second just after. The Hayward census of 1910 recorded the family under the name of Collette, when once again the head of the household was listed as Edward, who was 48. His wife Lulu was 44, and their five children were Florence, aged 13, Raymond, aged 10, Mentia (Marie), who was nine, Verna (Vernice), who was six, and Prudence who was two years of age. It would appear that the name of their youngest daughter was changed over the following years, since every record of her after 1910 gave her name as Isadore Collett.

The couple’s eldest daughter left home to be married around 1916, so by the time of the Hayward census in 1920 there were still five children living at the family home, following the birth of their last child. On that occasion the family was listed as Ed Collett, aged 53, Lulu Collett, aged 55, Raymond Collett, aged 20, Marie Collett, aged 18, Vernice Collett, aged 15, Isadore Collett who was 12, and Howard Collett who was eight years old.

By 1930 only unmarried Raymond and the two youngest children were still living at the family home in Hayward. Ed J Collett was 63 by that time, and his wife Lulu was 64. Raymond was 30, while Isadore was 23 and Howard was 18. Lulu Collett nee Nelson died at Hayward in Sawyer County, Wisconsin during 1942, and eleven years after that Edwin James Collett also died at Hayward during 1953. During their life together, they had six children.

35Q72

Florence Collett

Born in 1897 at Hayward, Wisconsin

35Q73

Raymond Collett

Born in 1899 at Hayward, Wisconsin

35Q74

Marie Collett

Born in 1901 at Hayward, Wisconsin

35Q75

Vernice Collett

Born in 1904 at Hayward, Wisconsin

35Q76

Isadore Collett

Born in 1907 at Hayward, Wisconsin

35Q77

Howard Collett

Born in 1911 at Hayward, Wisconsin