PART FORTY-SIX

The Charlton-on-Otmoor (Oxon) Area Line 1650 to 1870

Updated July 2023

This is the first of two sections of this family line

Fencott, Murcott and Oddington all lie within one mile of Charlton-on-Otmoor

New information provided by Stephen Collett (Ref. 46Q92) in 2019 indicates that William Collett,

who previously started the family line, was born at North Aston, midway between Banbury and Oxford.

Certainly, the names of his sibling bear a close resemblance to the names given to his own children.

In the earlier versions of this file, there was possible confusion regarding the children

of Richard Collett and Ann Faulkner (Ref. 46M14) and those of Richard Collett and

Ann Grove Sturch (Ref. 46N2), with the births and baptisms of their children

recorded at Bicester and Charlton-on-Otmoor during the same decades.

Hopefully this has now been resolved in the 2019 issue of the file

The October 2015 re-issue of this family line incorporated the family of George Thomas Collett,

whose details were previously included in Section 3 of the Appendix at the end of the second file.

It is thanks to Hannah Rachel Collett (Ref. 46T2) that this switch has been achieved,

with Hannah’s family line now highlighted by the names in italics

This is the family line of Stephen Collett (Ref. 46Q92) who kindly provided

much of the early information and whose family line is depicted by the names in capitals

It is also the line of Stephen John Busby (Ref. 46P78) who kindly provided the initial information,

whose family line is depicted by the names that are underlined

It is hoped that, in time, this line will be connected to the other Oxfordshire lines

The major update of the file in December 2010 was thanks to

Janet Wood (Ref. 46Q41) and her aunt Edith Ballard nee Collett (Ref. 46Q44),

and with the file becoming much larger during 2011 it was split into two sections

46I1	John Collett would have been born during the second half of the seventeenth century and was a farmer referred to as the tenant of a messuage in North Aston in the Will of Robert Fox of Middle Aston when he died in 1694 (source: transcripts of Oxfordshire wills). It is now known that he was NOT the father of William Collett of North Aston, as previously reported here. Following some independent research by Nicholas Collett (Ref. 46R31), it is possible that John’s wife was Elizabeth Meyhew who was born on 30^th June 1652 at Bythorn in Huntingdonshire, near the county boundary with Northamptonshire. The death of an Elizabeth Collett, recorded at Banbury on 17^th September 1721, may well be the wife of John Collett, while a later death at North Aston on 23^rd May 1755 of another Elizabeth Collett could be the sister of the aforementioned William.
46I2	WILLIAM COLLETT was possibly a brother of John Collett of North Aston, and may have also been born there. The marriage of William Collett and Elizabeth Taft took place at Aynho, a few miles north-east of North Aston in 1679, when they were both described as being from or of North Aston. William was later buried at St Mary’s Church in North Aston during 1741, and Elizabeth was also buried there in 1755. She was the daughter of William Taft and Joane Stowe who were married at Great Tew.
	The first three children listed here are the confirmed off-spring of William Collett and Elizabeth Taft who were baptised at St Mary’s Church in North Aston, while the last two have been added by reason that they were married at Bloxham around the same time that their son William was married there. The latter birth years are only estimated.
	46J1	Joseph Collett	Born in 1685 at North Aston, Oxon
	46J2	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1687 at North Aston, Oxon
	46J3	WILLIAM COLLETT	Born in 1689 at North Aston, Oxon
	46J4	Matthew Collett	Born in 1691 at North Aston, Oxon
	46J52	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1693 at North Aston, Oxon
46J3	WILLIAM COLLETT was born and baptised at North Aston in 1689, the third known child of William Collett and Elizabeth Taft. This new information was received from Karen Musilová in March 2023, who also has established that the marriage of William Collett and Mary Bellow was conducted at Bloxham near Banbury in 1719. Unless Mary Bellow was around ten years younger than William, it would not be very likely that she was the mother of William’s youngest children born in the 1730s. Therefore, had she been the same age as William, the birth of his younger children may come from a second marriage to another Mary.
	It is believed that Mary Bellow was born at Kempsford, near Whelford, an established location for the Collett family. It may also be significant that the only record of Collett children given the name Beata, were born in Gloucestershire, the youngest child of William and Mary having that name, while all of their children were baptised at St Mary’s Church in North Aston in Oxfordshire. One unverified source suggests that William Collett of North Aston, born there in 1689, died on 28^th December 1741, while that year is also the year that his father died at North Aston.
	There is a story, handed down through the generations of this family, that William Collett took on a farm of his own before reaching full-age. The story continues that had been working the land for a few weeks when his father turned up, to see how he was getting on. Arriving unexpectedly, he was told by one of the farm hands that his son was in the field, ploughing with a horse. His father then remonstrated with him for undertaking the ploughing himself when he could employ a man to do it for a few pence. It was said, that from that day, William did no more work himself, but employed others to do it for him.
	46K1	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1720 at North Aston, Oxon
	46K2	Joseph Collett	Born in 1722 at North Aston, Oxon
	46K3	Kathryn Collett	Born in 1723 at North Aston, Oxon
	46K4	WILLIAM Collett	Born in 1725 at North Aston, Oxon
	46K5	Richard Collett	Born in 1727 at North Aston, Oxon
	46K6	Mary Collett	Born in 1729 at North Aston, Oxon
	46K7	Anna Maria Collett	Born in 1732 at North Aston, Oxon
	46K8	Ralph Collett	Born in 1734 at North Aston, Oxon
	46K9	Beata Collett	Born in 1738 at North Aston, Oxon
46K1	Elizabeth Collett was born at North Aston in Oxfordshire, either at the end of 1719 or early in 1720. It was also at North Aston, where she was baptised on 10^th April 1720, the eldest of the nine known children of William Collett and Mary Bellow. It is possible, although not proved, that she may have later married Samuel Wheeler on 17^th November 1749, just north of North Aston, at Bloxham, near Banbury.
46K2	Joseph Collett was born at North Aston and was baptised there on 11^th June 1722, the eldest son of William and Mary Collett.
46K3	Kathryn Collett was born at North Aston and it was there that she was baptised on 10^th November 1723, another child of William and Mary Collett.
46K4	WILLIAM COLLETT was born at North Aston in 1725, where he was baptised on 24^th October 1725, another son of William and Mary Collett. He was around twenty-one when he married Mary Freeman at Charlton-on-Otmoor during 1746. Mary may have been baptised at Bicester on 14^th September 1724, the daughter of Thomas Freeman. It is established from the parish records that the marriage produced at least four of the five children named below for William and Mary and all of them born at Fencott. The settlements of Fencott and neighbouring Murcott had no church of their own so all baptisms, marriages and burials for the area were conducted at the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin in Charlton-on-Otmoor. William’s wife Mary died at Fencott in 1795 and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 12^th December 1795 and the parish register recorded that she was the wife of William Collett. William lived the life of a widower for almost another ten years after Mary’s passing, before he too died at Fencott in 1805 and was likewise buried at Charlton on 17^th February 1805.
	46L1	William Collett	Born in 1748 at Fencott
	46L2	Richard Collett	Born in 1752 at Fencott
	46L3	Mary Collett	Born in 1755 at Fencott
	46L4	Joseph Collett	Born in 1758 at Fencott
	46L5	John Collett	Born in 1761 at Fencott
46K5	Richard Collett was born at North Aston in 1727 and was baptised there on 20^th November 1727, another son of William and Mary Collett.
46K6	Mary Collett may have been born at the end of 1728 at North Aston, where she was baptised on 25^th January 1729, another daughter of William and Mary Collett. It is understood that Mary never married and that she died at Chedworth in Gloucestershire in 1813 at the age of 85.
46K7	Anna Maria Collett was born at North Aston during the first half of 1732 and was baptised at St Mary’s Church in North Aston in August that same year, another son of William and Mary Collett.
46K8	Ralph Collett was born at North Aston in 1733 and was baptised there on 5^th January 1734, the eighth child and youngest son of William and Mary Collett. He later married Kathrin Nichols at nearby Duns Tew, to the west of North Aston, on 16^th December 1759, and their daughter was born and baptised four days after their wedding day.
	46L6	Mary Collett	Born in 1759 at Duns Tew
46K9	Beata Collett was born in 1738 at North Aston, the last child born to William Collett and Mary Bellow. She was also baptised at St Mary’s Church in North Aston on 24^th November 1738. It is possible that Beata was later known as Beatty and, it was also at North Aston on 26^th December 1778, that Beatty Collett married John Butler. Curiously, on that same day at North Aston, Sarah Collett married William Trender. Could she have been the sister of Beata Collett?
46L1	William Collett was born at Fencott in 1748 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 20^th February 1748. It would appear that he died at Bletchington in 1779, following which he was buried at Charlton on 29^th December 1779. Bletchington, often referred to as Bletchingdon, later became Bletchingdon, which it still is today. There is a record that a William Collett married Avis Smallbroke at Bletchingdon on 24^th May 1779 and it seems likely, although not proved, that he was William Collett of Fencott. If so, then his marriage to Avis only lasted for seven months and it is not known whether, during that time, Avis became with-child. However, it was just over three years later that widow Avis Collett married John Gardiner at Bletchingdon on 20^th July 1783.
46L2	RICHARD COLLETT was born at Fencott in 1752 and, although not yet proved, it seems very likely that he was the son of William Collett and Mary Freeman. Recently discovered records indicate that Richard was married twice, and on both occasions to a Mary. Richard married (2) Mary Ivins in St Mary’s Church at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 25^th October 1790. It would appear that the couple settled within the parish of Charlton, since it was at St Mary’s Church that all of their children were baptised.
	However, it is very likely that the family lived all their life at Fencott where all of the children were born and where Richard and Mary were living when Richard passed away. He died at Fencott during September 1826 at the age of 74 and was buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church on 13^th September 1826. Fifteen years later, on the 20^th August 1841, a Mary Collett aged 74 was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor and she may well have been Richard’s widow. The place of residence for Mary at the time of her death was given as Oakley, just across the county boundary into Buckinghamshire.
	46M1	William Collett	Born in 1792 at Fencott
	46M2	Mary Collett	Born in 1795 at Fencott
	46M3	Richard Collett	Born in 1797 at Fencott
	46M4	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1800 at Fencott
	46M5	John Collett	Born in 1803 at Fencott
	46M6	Hannah Collett	Born in 1805 at Fencott
46L3	Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1755 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 26^th October 1755. Her life was cut short at the age of 24 when she died at Fencott in 1779 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 4^th April 1779. The church’s burial record stated that Mary Collett was the daughter of William and Mary Collett, indicating that she had never married.
46L4	Joseph Collett was born in 1758 at Fencott and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 6^th August 1858. He married Maria with whom he had nine children. All of their children were born at Fencott and baptised at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor. Joseph’s wife Maria died at Fencott in 1837 at the age of 75 and was buried at Charlton on 30^th March 1837. Just a few months after losing his wife, the death of Joseph Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 27) during the third quarter of 1837.
	46M7	Mary Collett	Born in 1784 at Fencott
	46M8	William Collett	Born in 1786 at Fencott
	46M9	Mary Collett	Born in 1788 at Fencott
	46M10	John Collett	Born in 1790 at Fencott
	46M11	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1792 at Fencott
	46M12	Thomas Collett	Born in 1794 at Fencott
	46M13	Thomas Collett	Born in 1795 at Fencott
	46M14	Richard Collett	Born in 1798 at Fencott
	46M15	George Collett	Born in 1801 at Fencott
	46M16	James Collett	Born in 1803 at Fencott
46L5	John Collett was born at Fencott in 1761 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 8^th March 1761. Sadly, he only survived for just over two years before he died at Fencott in 1763 and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 31^st May 1763.
46L6	Mary Collett was born in 1759, just days after her parents Ralph Collett and Kathrine Nicholls were married at Duns Tew on 16^th December. Four days later Mary Collett was baptised at Duns Tew on 20^th December 1759. Sheila Mitchell from Swindon wrote in 2020 that she believes her ancestor Mary Collett, the daughter of Ralph and Kathrine, and Joshua Hedges, who was born at Woodstock in 1765, were married at Duns Tew on 17^th April 1786. The couple’s subsequent children were born over a period of fifteen years in either Woodstock or Duns Tew until, around about 1806, when the family moved to Oxford.
46M1	William Collett was born at Fencott in the latter half of 1792 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 24^th February 1793. He married Prudence Pittam on 30^th March 1812 at Twyford, a village just over the county boundary into Buckinghamshire, to the north-east of Bicester. The couple’s first three children were born while they were living at Fencott and before the family moved the short distance to Murcott, where the remaining children were born. All of their children were baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	Sadly, William Collett died at Murcott in early 1837 and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 8^th February 1837. His age at the time of his death was incorrectly given as 42, instead of 45. His widow Prudence was listed at Murcott in the first national census on June 1841, as having a rounded age of 50 years. Living with her were her sons George Collett who was 20 and John Collett who was 15, and her daughter Elizabeth Collett aged 12 years.
	Ten years later, in the Murcott census of 1851, Prudence Collett from Twyford, in Buckinghamshire, was more accurately described as 59 years of age, when she still had living with her, her Murcott born son George Collett who was 28. After a further ten years, Prudence Collett from Twyford was 69 and a pauper living in the next dwelling to her married son George. Living with Prudence at that time was her married but widowed daughter Elizabeth Walker from Murcott, who was curiously referred to as Charlotte Walker. With her, were her two Swanbourne born daughters, Harriet Walker and Eliza Walker, their late father having died at Swanbourne in 1857.
	Upon the departure of her daughter and two granddaughters, Prudence ended her life living at the home of her married son George Collett and his family which, by 1871, was in Charlton-on-Otmoor. The census return that year, recorded widow Prudence Collett, from Twyford, as being 84 and a pauper. Just under three years after that day, the death of Prudence Collet nee Pittam, was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 411) during the first three months of 1874, when she was 87 years old.
	46N1	Martha Collett	Born in 1813 at Fencott
	46N2	Richard Collett	Born in 1815 at Fencott
	46N3	Thomas Collett	Born in 1817 at Fencott
	46N4	William Collett	Born in 1819 at Murcott
	46N5	George Collett	Born in 1821 at Murcott
	46N6	John Collett	Born in 1823 at Murcott
	46N7	Benjamin Collett	Born in 1825 at Murcott
	46N8	Mary Collett	Born in 1826 at Murcott
	46N9	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1829 at Murcott
	46N10	Benjamin Collett	Born in 1831 at Murcott
46M2	Mary Collett was born at Fencott, either towards the end of 1794 or during January 1795, and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 8^th February 1795 when she was curiously named as the daughter of Richard and Ann Collett, rather than Richard and Mary. No other record for Mary has so far been found.
46M3	Richard Collett was born at Fencott during the first half of 1797 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18^th June 1797. He married Martha Bottrell at Wendlebury, just two miles north of Fencott, on 20^th November 1823. Martha was with child at the time of her wedding and the child was born at Wendlebury six months later. Richard’s stated occupation at the child’s baptism was labourer. Martha was the daughter of John Bottrell and Ann Buckle and had been born in 1798. Sometime after the birth of the couple’s first child the family moved five miles east just over the county boundary to Boarstall in Buckinghamshire where it is known that the remainder of their children were born.
	At the time of the census in June 1841 the family was still living in Boarstall at Panshill Farm within the Aylesbury & Thame registration district. The family comprised Richard and Martha, both with a rounded age of 40, and their children John aged 15, Richard aged 14, Ann aged 12, Felicia who was nine, Elizabeth who was five and baby Martha who was six months old. Completing the household were John Preston and Eliza Simmons.
	By the time of the next census in 1851 the family had moved back to Murcott in Oxfordshire and was living within the Bicester & Bletchingdon registration area. The children missing from the family that day were son Richard, who was married by then and also living in Murcott, and daughters Helena – who was referred to as Felicia, and Martha – who was recorded with her married brother John and his wife. The full census listing was made up of Richard aged 54, Martha aged 52, son John who was 26 and daughters Ann who was 20 and Elizabeth who was 15, and Martha who was 10.
	Within the next decade all bar one of Richard’s and Martha’s children left the family home, so by April 1861 the couple was living in the Bicester census district where Richard was 63, Martha was 62 and their daughter Martha Collett from Boarstall was 20. Staying with the family that day was Richard’s grandson Arthur Collett who was only eight years of age, the son of Richard and Mary Collet. Completing the household were James Hopcraft aged 20, Mary Leach aged 17 and Joseph Jackman who was 15. Just thirty months later Richard Collett died during the third quarter of 1863 and was buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church at Charlton-on-Otmoor. Martha survived for another seven years before she passed away in 1870.
	46N11	John Collett	Born in 1824 at Wendlebury
	46N12	Richard Collett	Born in 1827 at Boarstall
	46N13	Ann Collett	Born in 1829 at Boarstall
	46N14	Helena (Felicia) Collett	Born in 1832 at Boarstall
	46N15	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1836 at Boarstall
	46N16	Martha Collett	Born in 1841 at Boarstall
	Wendlebury Footnote: It may be significant that a certain James Bottrell was born at Wendlebury in 1814, the son of John and Ann Bottrell. If Ann was formerly Ann Buckle, then that would make James the younger brother of Martha Bottrell who married Richard Collett (above) at Wendlebury in 1823. In 1841, James Bottrell was 25 when he was still living with his parents in Wendlebury. Four years later the marriage of James Bottrell and Sarah Newman, from Gloucestershire, was recorded at Oxford (Ref. 16 123) during the first three months of 1845. The census in 1851 revealed that James was a baker, with a shop in Charlton-on-Otmoor. He was 37 and had been born at Wendlebury. It was the same situation in 1861 when James was 47 and Sarah was 48 and born at Southrop in Gloucestershire. By 1871, when James was 57, his occupation was said to be a baker and a farmer, when he and Sarah were again recorded in Charlton-on-Otmoor. That description was further extended in 1881 when James Bottrell aged 67 was a baker and a farmer with 80 acres, employing three men and one boy.
	After a further ten years, James Bottrell had his niece Esther Collett (Ref. 46O40) living and working with him and Sarah at Charlton, when he was still a baker and a farmer, at the age of 77, and Esther Collett from Boarstall in Buckinghamshire was 23 and a baker’s assistant. Seven years later, the death of James Bottrell at Charlton, was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 462) during the second quarter of 1898, when he was 84. He was then buried at St Mary’s Church Cemetery in Charlton on 18^th June 1898.
46M4	Elizabeth Collett was born at Fencott around late 1799 or early 1800 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 15^th June 1800. It is possible that her two daughters were base-born before she was married, since both girls were baptised at nearby Blackthorn with the Collett surname. Shortly after the birth of the second child she married Thomas Priest but tragedy struck the family when, as Elizabeth Priest, she died at Ambrosden near Bicester in April 1824, possibly during childbirth.
	46N17	Susanna Collett	Born in 1820 at Blackthorn
	46N18	Sarah Collett	Born in 1823 at Blackthorn
46M5	John Collett was born at Fencott in 1803 according to his stated age in later census records. He was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27^th October 1805 in a joint ceremony with his sister Hannah (below). At the age of around 26 or 27 the names of John Collett, a farmer at Fencott, and his friend or associate Robert Sturch, a farmer at Murcott, were amongst the 22 men accused of being involved in the Otmoor Riots. The full list of the names was published in the Oxford Journal on Saturday 17^th July 1830. However, one week later the pair of them had been acquitted, as was reported in the journal of 24^th July. It was less than nine years later that the daughter of Robert Grove Sturch married Richard Collett, the son of John’s eldest brother William (above).
	It was also at St Mary’s Church in Charlton that John married Sarah Hopcraft on 16^th December 1833. Sarah was the daughter of William and Charlotte Hopcraft of Charlton-on-Otmoor. It was originally understood, from parish records, that John and Sarah’s first three children were born at Fencott, with the remaining children being born after the family had moved to live at the neighbouring hamlet of Murcott. However, this conflicts with the details in the census of 1851 and 1861, when all of their children were stated as having been born at Murcott, although it was later stated to be Fencott.
	By June 1841 Sarah had presented John with their first four children, although the youngest one had still to be given a name, having been born immediately prior to the census day. The completed census return, recorded the family as living at Murcott, within the parish of Charlton-on-Otmoor, when both John and Sarah had rounded ages of 35. Their three named children were Elizabeth Collett who was six, William Collett who was four, and Charlotte Collett who was two years old. Within the next seven years, a further four children were added to the family while they were living at Murcott. The census of 1851 for Murcott listed the family as John Collett of Fencott and his wife Sarah from Charlton, both aged 46, and with them were six of their seven children. They were Elizabeth 16, William 13, Thomas 10, George who was eight, John who was six, and Richard who was three years old. At that time, John Collett was a farmer of 80 acres.
	Missing from the family, was daughter Charlotte Collett, for whom no record has been discovered after 1841. In the past it was thought that, upon the death of her younger sister, that eldest daughter Elizabeth adopted the name Charlotte. This is now known not to be true, as the Charlotte Collett born in 1834 was not born at Murcott, but at Fencott, the daughter of James Collett and Sarah Hine nee Gregory. For the details of that Charlotte, go to Ref. 46N39.
	Ten years later in 1861 John and Sarah were both 55, when they were living in the hamlet of Fencott with five of their seven children. John Collett from Fencott was a farmer of 60 acres and had working with him his two eldest sons, William who was 22 and from Fencott, and Thomas who was 18 and from Murcott, both of them described as a farmer’s sons. The other children at that time were attending school and they were George who was 16, John who was 14, and Richard who was 13, and all of them again confirmed as born at Murcott. Living in the property right next door to John and his family was the family of farmer Richard Collett of Murcott (Ref. 46N2), the eldest son of John’s older brother William Collett (above).
	By 1871 all of John’s and Sarah’s children, with the exception of their eldest son William and their youngest son Richard, had left the family home. John and Sarah were both then 66, while William Collett was 35 and Richard Collett was 22. Both sons were still unmarried at that time. Ten years later, according to the Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1881, John was 77 and was a farmer of 88 acres, employing one man. The census return confirmed he had been born at Fencott and that his wife Sarah, who was also 77, had been born at Charlton-on-Otmoor. Still living with them were their two unmarried sons William who was then 44 and Richard who was 32, both of whom were listed as having been born at Fencott, and both were described as farmer’s son.
	The couple’s absence from the 1891 Census very likely indicates that both John and Sarah died during the 1880s, and it was also very likely after their death that their eldest son William became a married man.
	46N19	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1834 at Murcott
	46N20	William Collett	Born in 1837 at Murcott
	46N21	Charlotte Collett	Born in 1839 at Murcott
	46N22	Thomas Collett	Born in 1841 at Murcott
	46N23	George Collett	Born in 1843 at Murcott
	46N24	John Collett	Born in 1846 at Murcott
	46N25	Richard Collett	Born in 1848 at Murcott
46M6	Hannah Collett was born at Fencott in 1805 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27^th October 1805 in a joint ceremony with her brother John (above). No other record for Hannah has so far been found.
46M7	Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1784 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 12^th December 1784, the daughter of Joseph and Mariah Collett. And it was there that she buried just over five months later on 25^th May 1785.
46M8	William Collett was born at Fencott in 1786 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 31^st May 1786. No other record for William has so far been found.
46M9	Mary Collett was born at Fencott in 1788 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18^th May 1788. It seems very likely that she gave birth to a base-born daughter in 1809, the child incorrectly being registered as ‘Dennis the natural daughter of Mary Collett’. Less than two years later on 19^th January 1811, Mary married Richard Westbury by licence at St Mary’s Church in Charlton. Richard was of Grendon Underwood to the east of Bicester and one of the witnesses to the marriage ceremony was Mary’s father Joseph Collett.
	46N26	Denise Collett	Born in 1809 at Fencott
46M10	John Collett was born at Fencott in 1790 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 2^nd May 1790. No other record for John has so far been found.
46M11	Elizabeth Collett was born at Fencott in 1792 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29^th April 1792. No other record for Elizabeth has so far been found.
46M12	Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1794 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 20^th April 1974. Tragically he lived for just less than nine months and was buried at Charlton on 3^rd January 1795. The parish burial register confirmed he was the son of Joseph and Maria Collett.
46M13	Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1795 and was named in honour of his brother who had died in January that year. He was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27^th December 1795 but he died around the time of his twenty-seventh birthday and was buried at Charlton on 30^th December 1822. It is possible, although not yet proved, that he married Hannah Eyres at Charlton on 14^th June 1819, with his older brother John Collett (above) acting as one of the witnesses, which means that he died before his son was born at Fencott.
	46N27	William Collett	Born in 1823 at Fencott
46M14	Richard Collett was born at Fencott in 1798 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 19^th August 1798, a son of Joseph and Maria Collett. He was married by licence to (1) Phyllis Goome on 9^th June 1825 at Charlton, who was already with-child on that day. Phyllis was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Goome and was baptised at Charlton on 11^th September 1803. The couple’s first child was born at Fencott, less than four months after they were married, and was followed by a second child, also born at Fencott, eighteen months later. Tragically Phyllis Collett, nee Goome, died exactly one year later, possibly during the birth of a third child, who also did not survive the ordeal.
	Phyllis was just 24 years of age when she died in 1828 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22^nd June 1828. Six years later Richard had a son James, although that was at a time between his two known wives, which raises the question, was he married three times. In addition to losing his wife, only two of his three children survived to adulthood, and the younger one died prior to his twentieth birthday. Two years after the birth of his third child, Richard Collett was married by banns to (2) Ann Faulkner at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18^th July 1836. The parish register confirmed that Richard was a widower of Charlton, while Ann was a spinster of the parish. Ann was also many years younger than Richard, having been born at Fencott and baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 28^th June 1812, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Faulkner.
	That marriage produced a further six children for Richard, who were all baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor, when their father was described as a labourer. It was also confirmed in the parish records, that four of the couple’s six children were privately baptised at home, presumably because they were too ill to attend St Mary’s Church. As a result, all four of those children did not survive beyond a few months, and they were George Collett, Eliza Ann Collett, William Collett, and George Collett the younger. Tragically, their half-brother Thomas Collett had died many years earlier, while another half-brother died shortly after the census in 1851. In the past, there had been some confusion with their children since, living in the same area, at the same time, was another married couple, Richard Collett (Ref. 46N2) and his wife Ann Grove Sturch, who had been born at Hungerford in Berkshire. That earlier confusion has now been eradicated with the re-issue of this family line in 2019, in which the children are now correctly assigned to the rightful parents.
	Following the nonappearance of the family in 1841, by 1851 Richard and his reduced family was living in Murcott. Richard Collett from Fencott was 52 and was described as a pauper and an agricultural labourer. His wife Ann Collett, also from Fencott, was 39 and a pauper, while the three children living with them were James Collett, Richard’s third child from an earlier relationship, who was 16 and an agricultural labourer from Fencott, John Collett from Murcott who was six years old and George Collett who was eleven months old and also born at Murcott. A year later, their son George died and, a year after that, the eldest surviving son James also died, at the age of 18.
	No more children were added to the family when Richard and Ann continued to live at Murcott and therefore, the only surviving child still living with them in 1861 was their son John Collett who was 16 and born at Murcott, who was employed on a local farm. On that day, Richard Collett from Fencott, said he was working as a labourer at the age of 60, rather than 62, while his wife Ann Collett was 49 who, on that occasion said she had been born at Murcott. Richard Collett died at Murcott just two years after the census day, his death recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 410) during the third quarter of 1863, after which he was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 3^rd September 1863, when he was 66 years old.
	After a further eight years, living as a widow, Ann Collett aged 59 and a pauper from Murcott, was residing at Beckley, to the south of Murcott, with just her son John living there with her. Beckley lies within the Headington registration area of the city of Oxford, and it was during the first three months of 1877, that the death of Ann Collett was recorded at Headington (Ref. 3a 409).
	46N28	Joseph Collett	Born in 1825 at Fencott
	46N29	Thomas Collett	Born in 1827 at Fencott; infant death
	46N30	James Collett	Born in 1834 at Fencott; died 1853
	The following are the children of Richard Collett by his second wife Ann Faulkner:
	46N31	George Collett	Born in 1837 at Murcott; infant death
	46N32	Thomas Collett	Born in 1839 at Murcott; infant death
	46N33	John Richard Collett	Born in 1844 at Murcott
	46N34	Eliza Ann Collett	Born in 1846 at Murcott; infant death
	46N35	William Collett	Born in 1847 at Murcott; infant death
	46N36	George Collett	Born in 1850 at Murcott; infant death
46M15	George Collett was born at Fencott in 1801 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 1^st November 1801. No other record for George has so far been found.
46M16	James Collett was born at Fencott either late in 1802 or early in 1803, the last child of Joseph Collett and Maria Collett. He was a labourer and he married widow Sarah Hine of Ludgershall, in Buckinghamshire, on 17^th April 1926 at the parish church in Ludgershall. Previously at Ludgershall, Sarah Gregory and William Hine were married during 1820, with whom she had a daughter Mary Hine who was also born at Ludgershall, where she was baptised on 15^th May 1923. James and Sarah were both listed as having a rounded age of 40 in the 1841 Census, although Sarah was much older than James. The census return named the children listed with the couple at Fencott in 1841, as Caroline Collett who was 12, Ann Collett who was nine and Charlotte Collett who was six. On that day, Sarah’s daughter Mary Hine, aged 16, was living with a Hine family at Radclive in Buckinghamshire. Completing the Collett that day, was Dominic Gregory who was 60 years old, he being Sarah’s father. The three daughters of James and Sarah were all baptised at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Charlton-on-Otmoor, when their parents were named as labourer James Collett of Fencott and his wife Sarah.
	The Fencott census of 1851 listed James Collett, aged 51 and an agricultural labourer of Fencott, living with just his wife Sarah, aged 57 and from Ludgershall, and their daughter Charlotte who was 16 and born at Fencott. Also lodging with the family was unmarried 26-year-old agricultural labourer Mary Hine from Ludgershall, Sarah’s daughter by William Hine. Just over two years later, the death of James Collett of Fencott was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 346) during the last quarter of 1853. He was then buried at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 18^th December 1853. Sarah died almost exactly three years later and was also buried at Charlton with her husband on 16^th December 1856, at the age of 64. Her death was also recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 326) during the last month of 1856.
	46N37	Caroline Collett	Born in 1828 at Fencott
	46N38	Ann Collett	Born in 1831 at Fencott
	46N39	Charlotte Collett	Born in 1834 at Fencott
46N1	Martha Collett was born at Fencott in 1813 and was baptised on 17^th July 1813 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the eldest daughter of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. Eighteen years later on 11^th July 1831 Martha married Jonathan Orchard at Swanbourne near Winslow, north of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Jonathan was born at Swanbourne on 16^th April 1809, the son of Thomas Orchard and Rebecca Matthews. The early years of their married life together was spent at Swanbourne where their daughter Rebecca Orchard was born on 1^st September 1834. At the time of the census in 1851 Martha and her family were still living at Swanbourne when she gave her place of birth as Murcott.
	Jonathan Orchard had relations living in Hampshire and it was there at South Stoneham on 25^th July 1853 that his daughter Rebecca married (1) Henry Currell who was born at Swanbourne on 19^th October 1827. The marriage produced a son, Edward Currell, whose second wife was Maud Turner who came from a long line of the Collett family based at Over near St Ives in Cambridgeshire. Maud was born on 21^st March 1886 and, previously, the details of her Collett family line could be found in Appendix One at the end of this family line. However, in October 2014 the Collett Family History website was pleased to launch Part 69 – Other Cambridgeshire Families which includes three separate branches of the family living in villages between St Ives and the City of Cambridge. The first of those three branches provide details of the Colletts from Ireland in 1432 through to Maud Turner in 1886, resulting in the removal of the old Appendix One from this file, and replaced by a new Appendix One in July 2022.
	The Orchard family eventually emigrated to Australia and settled at Black Springs in Barraba, New South Wales. Shortly after they arrived, Martha Orchard nee Collett died at Black Springs on 10^th December 1875 and was followed almost six years later by her husband Jonathan who died there on 16^th November 1881.
	Back in England Rebecca’s husband Henry Currell died on 3^rd February 1870, following which she married (2) Thomas Johnson at Little Horwood in Buckinghamshire. Once they were married Rebecca and Thomas sailed out to Australia to be reunited with her parents, just prior to her mother’s death. Rebecca Johnson formerly Currell nee Orchard died at Black Springs on 15^th June 1902, and just over four years later on 5^th October 1906 her second husband Thomas died while living at Barraba in NSW.
	The aforementioned Edward Currell, who was born at Swanbourne in 1857, was first married to Mary Esther McNeill but, following her death, he married Maud Turner in New South Wales on 31^st May 1927. That second marriage produced a son Clifford Currell who was born at Barraba on 15^th July 1931 and who was nearly five years old when his father died at Barraba on 2^nd May 1936. His mother Maud Currell nee Turner died at Stockton in NSW on 27^th January 1962.
	On 23^rd July 1952 at Petersham in NSW, Clifford Currell married Josephine Elys Everitt who was born at Murwillumbah in NSW on 22^nd December 1931. The daughter from that marriage was Joanne (Jo) Patricia Currell who was born at Parramatta in NSW on 14^th April 1969 who married Matthew James Power at Bankstown on 30^th August 1991, Matthew having been born at Sutherland in NSW on 9^th January 1968. Jo’s father Clifford Currell passed away nearly fourteen years later when he died on 20^th January 2004 at Blacktown in New South Wales. Jo and Matthew Power currently live in the Campsie area of Sydney with their three children Brett, Ben, and Katelyn. And it is thanks to Jo that the continuation of the life of Martha Collett and her descendants has been included here.
46N2	Richard Collett was born at Fencott, and that may have taken place a few years before he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 4^th June 1815, the son of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. On leaving school Richard worked as a labourer at Murcott and, at the age of 23, he was married by licence to Ann Grove Sturch who was also 23 and the daughter of Robert Grove Sturch, a farmer at Murcott. Their wedding took place at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 14^th February 1839 and was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 43) during the first quarter of 1839. Just to complicate the research, there were two married couples in that area of Oxfordshire, both being Richard and Ann, which makes identification of their respective children a little problematic. The other, older Richard Collett (Ref. 46M14) was born at Fencott and it was his second wife who was Ann Faulkner, also of Fencott.
	However, further research into the children of both couples has now been carried out, with the outcome that some of the children, previously credited to Richard and Ann Grove Sturch, have now been transferred to the family of Richard and Ann Faulkner. This work has determined that the formers first child was their daughter Elizabeth Sturch Collett, who was born at Murcott and baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor, only nineteen weeks after their wedding day. Within the early months of 1841, Ann presented Richard with their first son Robert Sturch Collett, who was also born at Murcott before the census was conducted that year.
	According to that first census in June 1841, Richard Collett had a rounded age of 30, when he had living with him at Murcott, his one-year-old daughter Elizabeth Collett, both of them staying at the home of his mother-in-law Ann Sturch. On the same day, his wife Ann was with their son Robert Collett who was under six months old, when they were staying with Ann’s grandfather Robert Sturch at a property in the village of Beckley, a few miles south of Murcott. During that decade, Ann presented Richard with a further five children, when the family was living at nearby Fencott.
	Therefore, by the time of the census in 1851, when the family was once again living at Murcott, it was made up of Richard Collett of Murcott who was 39 and a farmer of 60 acres, his wife Ann from Hungerford who was 36, together with just six of their seven children. They were listed as Elizabeth Collett aged 12 and of Murcott, Robert Collett who was 10 and also from Murcott, Albert Collett who was eight, David Collett who was six, Edwin Collett who was three, and Philip who was one year old, and all of them born at Fencott. The missing child was their youngest son John James Collett who was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor seven months earlier, which raises the question, had he suffered an infant death. Completing the household was a servant William Horwood, who was 18 years old and from Piddington of Oxfordshire. Two more sons were added to the family during the following six years, the couple’s last child born after the family had returned to live and work in Fencott.
	The Fencott census of 1861 listed farmer Richard Collett from Murcott and Ann Collett from Hungerford as both being aged 45. The only children listed with them on that occasion were Edwin Collett aged 13 from Fencott, Philip Collett aged 11 from Murcott, both described as farmer’s sons, Spencer Collett who was eight and from Murcott and Auten Collett who was three years old and from Fencott. The missing child on that occasion was their eldest son, George. By that time in his life, Richard’s landholding had reduced from 60 acres to just 11 acres. Living next door to the Collett family in Fencott in 1861 was another Collett family, that of Richard’s uncle John Collett (Ref. 46M5) of Fencott and his wife Sarah Collett from Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	There is a mystery surrounding the passing of Richard Collett since, when he died at the age of 52, there was an inquest held into his death. That may indicate he died under suspicious circumstances or that he was killed in some way, rather than dying of natural causes. Either way, the death of Richard Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 382) during the last three months of 1867, following which Richard was laid to rest in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29^th October 1867. Having lost her husband, it appears that Ann left Oxfordshire when she travelled south into Buckinghamshire and, on the day of the next census in 1871, she was working as the housekeeper for farmer John Belgrove at his home in Swanbourne, midway between Winslow and Stewkley. Widowed Ann Collett from Hungerford was 55.
	It was exactly the same situation ten years later when, once again, Ann Collett was 65 and described as the general the housekeeper at Above Mead Farm in Swanbourne, the home of bachelor farmer John Belgrove of Stewkley who was farming 200 acres, employing 5 men and 2 boys. During the next decade Ann Collett moved further south, to Maidstone in Kent, to live near her married son David Collett. That was confirmed in the census of 1891 when Ann Collett from Hungerford was a lodger at Boxley Road in Maidstone, where she was described as a widow of 75, who was living on her own means. Ten years later Ann Collett from Hungerford was still living in Maidstone in 1901, but as a boarder at a lodging house run by Edward and Jane Thatcher in Brewer Street, very near to Earl Street where her son David had been living in 1891. On that occasion Ann was still living on her own means at the age of 84. Four years after that, the death of Ann Collett was recorded at Maidstone register office (Ref. 2a 535) during the first three months of 1905, when her age was said to be 90.
	46O1	Elizabeth Sturch Collett	Born in 1838 at Murcott
	46O2	Robert Sturch Collett	Born in 1841 at Murcott
	46O3	Albert Collett	Born in 1843 at Fencott
	46O4	David Collett	Born in 1844 at Fencott
	46O5	Edwin Collett	Born in 1846 at Fencott
	46O6	Philip Collett	Born in 1848 at Fencott
	46O7	John James Collett	Born in 1850 at Murcott
	46O8	Spencer Collett	Born in 1852 at Murcott
	46O9	Auten Collett	Born in 1857 at Fencott
46N3	Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1817 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 6^th April 1817. Not long after he was born the family left Fencott and moved to nearby Murcott. Although no listing has been found for Thomas in the census of 1841, by 1851 he was 35 and was married to Mary, aged 28, who was also of Fencott. Their marriage at that time had so far produced two sons for the couple and they were Thomas who was three years of age, and baby Henry who was not yet one year old. The family was living at Murcott at that time. Sadly, their son Charles, who was born three years later in 1854, died just one month after he was born.
	It would appear that one further child was added to the family over the following years, so by 1861 Thomas Collett, who was 44 and an agricultural labourer from Murcott, and his wife Mary, who was 38 and from Fencott, had listed as living with them their three sons Thomas who was 13 and a plough-boy, Henry who was 10 and still at school, and Caleb who was four years old and who had also been born at Murcott like his two brothers.
	By 1871 the couple’s two oldest surviving sons had left the family home, leaving just Caleb, aged 14, still living with his parents, Thomas who was 54, and Mary who was 48. According to the Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1881, Thomas Collett from Fencott was 64 years old and was then a farmer of eight acres. Mary, his wife and also of Fencott, was 58. Still living with them was their unmarried son Caleb who was 24 and born at Murcott, who was employed as an agricultural labourer.
	Thomas must have died during the 1880s since Mary was a widow at the age of 68 by 1891. Still living with her was her son Caleb who was then 34. As Mary was not listed in the census of 1901 it must be assumed that she died during the 1890s. Following his death, the farmland owned and worked by Thomas Collett at Murcott was shared between three of his sons, they being Thomas, Henry and Caleb.
	46O10	Thomas Collett	Born in 1847 at Murcott
	46O11	Henry Collett	Born in 1851 at Murcott
	46O12	Charles Collett	Born in 1854 at Murcott
	46O13	Caleb Collett	Born in 1856 at Murcott
46N4	William Collett was born at Murcott in 1819 and was baptised on 16^th July 1819 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the son of William Collett and his wife Prudence Pittam. Thanks to Shirley Martin in 2012 it is now established that the information previously written here about William Collett was incorrect, although it was correct insofar as he did marry Mary Ann. However, she did not die after the birth of their son John, nor did William re-marry Sarah, so there are some unresolved details regarding that William and Sarah who, it is now known, were from Fencott and Eynsham respectively.
	It was on 9^th January 1840 that William Collett from Murcott married Mary Ann Clark at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor. Mary Anne was the daughter of farmer John Clark and was baptised on 10^th September 1820 at the Church of St James in Boarstall, Buckinghamshire. At the time of their wedding Mary Ann was a spinster of Murcott at the age of 19, while William was a bachelor and a labourer of Murcott, whose father was confirmed as labourer William Collett. The witnesses at the ceremony were William’s older brother Thomas Collett (above) and Sarah Cox. Once they were married the couple settled in Horton-cum-Studley, just a short distance from Murcott and Charlton.
	It now appears that Mary Ann may have already given birth to a son prior to their wedding day or was in an advanced state of pregnancy on that day. The evidence in the later census of 1861 suggests that the child may have even been born as early as 1838 or 1839. However, it was just three months after they were married that Mary Ann’s son was baptised as William Collett at Charlton-on-Otmoor, as were the couple’s following sons, there being no church at Murcott or Horton-cum-Studley. What is very interesting is that within the census of 1841 William’s and Mary Ann’s eldest son was named John, while it was their third son who was eventually baptised with the name John four years later. William and Mary Ann were both 20 years of age in 1841, while their son ‘John’ was one year old, when the family was living at Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley, where William was an agricultural labourer.
	The next census in 1851 again raises questions about the couple’s eldest son, since the family was still living at Horton-cum-Studley, but seemingly without their son William Collett. Instead, the child of around the same age who was living there with them was William Clark who was 11 years of age and born at Headington who was described as son-in-law, possibly indicating that he was the child of Mary Ann Clark. The rest of the family comprised William and Mary Ann Collett, both 31, with their two youngest sons George Collett, who was seven, and John Collett who was five. The family was recorded under the surname Collet, when William from Murcott was still working as an agricultural labourer. Mary Ann was confirmed as having been born at Boarstall, and the two sons at Horton-cum-Studley. Staying with the family on that occasion was Mary Ann’s brother William Clark, aged 27, an agricultural labourer from Studley, who was described as brother-in-law.
	It is highly likely that Mary Ann was with-child on the day of the census, because later that same year she gave birth to fourth son. Less than four years after that William Collett died and was buried at Beckley Church on 5^th February 1855, when he was described as being aged 34 and from Whitecross Green. It was thirty-two months later that Mary Ann Collett married James Payne at Beckley on 15^th October 1857. James was a bachelor and a labourer of 29 from Whitecross Green, the son of labourer William Payne, while Mary Ann Collett, aged 37, was a widow from Whitecross Green, the daughter of farmer John Clark. The witnesses were James Blake and Emma Payne.
	The marriage of Mary Ann Collett nee Clark and James Payne produced a daughter who was born around the time that the couple was married, as confirmed by the Beckley census of 1861 when James Payne was 31, his wife Mary A Payne was 40, and their daughter Thirza Payne was just three years of age. Also living in Beckley with the family at that time were Mary Ann three sons William Collett, aged 20, George Collett, aged 18, and Ellis Collett who was nine years old. All three sons had been born at Horton (in Headington) and were described as son-in-law to head of the household James Payne. It is interesting that Mary Ann’s missing son, John Collett, had left school by that time and was working as a shepherd on the Boarstall farm of William Blake. He was very likely related to the aforementioned witness James Blake and is believed to be the half-brother James Payne’s mother.
	Further tragedy must have struck Mary Ann sometime during the 1860s when her husband was killed or died as the result of an accident, he being so much younger than her. Her loss may have resulted in her losing the house at Beckley, since in 1871 she was lodging at the home of farmer William Cox within the Whitecross Green area of Horton-cum-Studley. With her on that occasion was her unmarried son George. During the next decade Mary Ann settled in Charlton-on-Otmoor, where she was living in 1881, again with her son George and her daughter Theresa Payne, who was 23 and a domestic servant. Widow Mary A Payne from Boarstall in Buckinghamshire was a laundress at the age of 60.
	46O14	William Clark Collett	Born in 1839 at Horton-cum-Studley
	46O15	George Collett	Born in 1843 at Horton-cum-Studley
	46O16	John Collett	Born in 1845 at Horton-cum-Studley
	46O17	Ellis Collett	Born in 1851 at Horton-cum-Studley
46N5	George Collett was born at Murcott in 1821 and was baptised on 25^th June 1821 at Charlton-on-Otmoor. He had a rounded age of 20 in June 1841 and, in 1851, at the age of 28 and an unmarried agricultural labourer, he was the only child still living at Murcott was his mother Prudence Collett, widow of the late William Collett. The married of George Collett and Eliza Haskins of Islip was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 721) during the second quarter of 1852. Eliza Haskins was baptised at Islip on 19^th October 1828, the daughter of George and Elizabeth Haskins. During the remainder of that decade, the marriage produced the couple’s first four children, all of them born at Murcott, where the family was residing in 1861. On that census day, the family was made up of George Collett, a labourer from Murcott who was 38, his wife Eliza Collett from nearby Islip who was 32, their three sons Lewis Collett who was seven, William Collett who was three, and George Collett who was two, together with their daughter Elizabeth Ann Collett who was four years old.
	Living in the dwellings on either side of the property occupied by George and his family, was his brother Thomas Collett (above) with his family and, on the other side, George’s widowed mother Prudence Collett, who had living with her George’s youngest sister Charlotte (Elizabeth) Walker nee Collett (below) with her two daughters. Eighteen months after the census day in 1861, Eliza presented George with their last child, as evidenced in the next census conducted in 1871. On that occasion the family was recorded as George Collett who was 47, Eliza Collett who was 42, Lewis Collett who was 17, William Collett who was 14, George Collett who was 11, and latest edition Alfred Collett who was nine. Every member of the family was said to have been born at Murcott, even though Eliza had been born at Islip. Missing from the family home was daughter Elizabeth aged 15 who, by then, was living and working fifteen miles away at Winslow in Buckinghamshire. Taking her bed was George’s elderly widowed mother Prudence Collett, who passed away three years later.
	During the next decade the family moved a couple of miles south to Beckley, where they were recorded as living in 1881. George was 60 and from Murcott, while his occupation was then that of a farmer of thirty acres. His wife was 55 on that occasion. The only member of the family still living with them at that time was their unmarried son George who was 21, from Murcott, who was working as an agricultural labourer. The couple’s youngest son Alfred was living with Eliza’s sister Esther Haskins and her husband Thomas Honour in Hampshire.
	According to the next census in 1891, George and Eliza had returned to Fencott with Murcott, their son Alfred also having returned to live there with them. That year’s census returned recorded the family was George Collett who was 71, Eliza Collett who was 60, unmarried son George Collett who was 30 and unmarried son Alfred Collett from Murcott who was 27, both sons being agricultural labourers, as was their father. Just over two years later, the death of Eliza Collett, nee Haskins, was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 496) during the third quarter of 1893 at the age of 65. Perhaps at the end of 1899, widower George Collett may have been taken into hospital in Oxford, since his death was recorded at Headington register office (Ref. 3a 685) during the first three months of 1900, when he was 80 years of age.
	46O18	Lewis Collett	Born in 1853 at Murcott
	46O19	Elizabeth Ann Collett	Born in 1856 at Murcott
	46O20	William Collett	Born in 1857 at Murcott
	46O21	George Collett	Born in 1859 at Murcott
	46O22	Alfred Collett	Born in 1862 at Murcott
46N6	John Collett was born at Murcott in 1823 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 25^th February 1823, the son of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. He was later recorded as being 15 years old in 1841. The marriage of John Collett and Matilda Attwood was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 67) during the last quarter of 1848. Matilda, who came from nearby Horton-cum-Studley, presented John with their first child in the following year and another, a year later. In 1851 the family living at Murcott comprised agricultural labourer John Collett, aged 28, who was born at Murcott, his wife Matilda, aged 23 and from Horton, and their two daughters Louisa Collett who was two years old and Selina Collett who was only six months old, both girls born at Murcott.
	By the time of the 1861 Census the family had grown with the birth of four more children. The census record for Murcott, within the Bicester & Bletchington registration district, revealed that John was 37 and still employed as an agricultural labourer, Matilda was 35 and their children were Selina Collett who was ten, Clara Collett who was seven, Emily Collett who was five, Rosanna Collett who was three, and baby Eli Collett who had only just been born. On that occasion the couple’s eldest daughter Louisa, at the age of 12, had already started work as a house servant at the Murcott home of William, a farmer and publican, whose surname in the census is unreadable.
	During the next ten years three more children were added to the family although, by the time of the next census in 1871, two of the children, Benjamin and Eli, had suffered premature deaths, while daughter Emily, aged 15, was already working in domestic service with a Collett family at Beckley, the home of her father’s cousin. The family therefore comprised John 48, Matilda 46, daughters Clara 18 and Rowena 12, together with new arrivals Herbert who was eight, Walter who was five, and baby Jane who was only one year old.
	According to the 1881 Census, only sons Herbert and Walter were still living with their parents at that time. It is therefore possible that John’s and Matilda’s youngest daughter Jane, who would have been ten, had also not survived beyond childhood. The census return in 1881 recorded that the family was living at Fencott and Murcott in the area of Charlton-on-Otmoor where John was 58 and his birth place was confirmed as being Murcott, as it was for his sons Herbert aged 17 and Walter aged 15. All three men were working as agricultural labourers. John’s wife Matilda was 56 and her place of birth was confirmed as Horton.
	Seven years later, the death of Matilda Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 450) during the second quarter of 1888, when she was 62. By the time of the next census in 1891 for Fencott with Murcott, widower John Collett was 68 and again working as an agricultural labourer, who still had living with him, his two unmarried sons Herbert and Walter whose ages were given as 26 and 24 respectively. It was a few weeks later that same year, and three years after losing his wife, when the death of John Collett was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 532) during the second quarter of 1891, at the age of 68.
	46O23	Louisa Collett	Born in 1849 at Murcott
	46O24	Selina Collett	Born in 1850 at Murcott
	46O25	Benjamin Collett	Born in 1852 at Murcott
	46O26	Clara Hannah Collett	Born in 1853 at Murcott
	46O27	Emily Collett	Born in 1855 at Murcott
	46O28	Rowena Collett	Born in 1857 at Murcott
	46O29	Eli Collett	Born in 1861 at Murcott
	46O30	Herbert Collett	Born in 1862 at Murcott
	46O31	Walter Collett	Born in 1865 at Murcott
	46O32	Jane Collett	Born in 1870 at Murcott
46N7	Benjamin Collett was born at Murcott in 1825 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22^nd January 1825. It would appear that he was subject to an infant death as the family’s next male child was also named Benjamin (below).
46N8	Mary Collett was born at Murcott in 1826 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 1^st May 1826, the daughter of William and Prudence Collett. No other record for Mary has so far been found.
46N9	Elizabeth Collett was born at Murcott in 1829 and was baptised as Elizabeth Collett on 4^th October 1829 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the youngest daughter of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. In 1841 Elizabeth was 12 years old when she was still living with her family and widowed mother at Murcott. It was as Elizabeth Collett that she married William Walker on 11^th December 1849 in Swanbourne, north of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, where her older married sister Martha (above) was living with her family at that time. The marriage of Elizabeth and William was recorded at Winslow (Ref. 6 811). In the Swanbourne census of 1851, Elizabeth Walker from Murcott was 23 when she was living there with her husband William Walker, who was also 23 and an agricultural labourer, and their daughter Harriet Walker was under six months old. The birth of Harriet Walker was recorded at Winslow (Ref. 6 425) during the fourth quarter of 1850 and was baptised at Swanbourne on 21^st September 1851, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Walker.
	Elizabeth presented William with a second daughter two years later and again, the birth of Eliza Walker was recorded at Winslow (Ref. 3a 383) during the third quarter of 1853. However, four years later Elizabeth suffered the loss of her husband, following which she returned to Murcott, with her two daughters, to live there with her widowed mother Prudence Collett. The census in 1861 curiously recorded her as Charlotte Walker from Murcott who was 29 and a married woman, rather than Elizabeth Walker aged 33 who was a widow. ‘Charlotte’ was working as a field woman at that time, while her two daughters were listed with her as Harriet Walker who was 10, and Eliza Walker who was seven, both of them born at Swanbourne in Buckinghamshire. The death of William Walker, at Swanbourne, was recorded at Winslow (Ref. 3a 304) during the third quarter of 1857.
46N10	Benjamin Collett was born at Murcott in 1831 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27^th November 1831, the last child of William Collett and Prudence Pittam. Sadly, he only survived for less than two years and was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 30^th August 1833.
46N11	John Collett was born at Wendlebury near Bicester on 30^th May 1824 where his parents had been married during November in the previous year. It would also appear from the records that he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 30^th May 1824. During the years after he was born John and his parents left Oxfordshire and moved the short distance across the county boundary to settle in the village of Boarstall in Buckinghamshire. And it was at Panshill Farm in Boarstall where the family was living in June 1841 when John was 15, but by 1851 he was 26 and a farmer and a visitor at the home of widow Martha Foster and her unmarried brother William Foster at Caversfield near Bicester. It was Martha’s daughter that John may have been seeing at that time because, just over three years later, at 30 years of age, he married Lucy Foster at Caversfield on 9^th November 1854. Lucy was born at Bucknell just north of Bicester on 4^th June 1830 where she was baptised on 13^th June 1830. She was the daughter of the late Richard Foster and Martha King, although other records gave the mother’s name as Martha Coleman.
	Within the next seven years the marriage produced the first four children for John and Lucy, so by the time of the census of 1861 the family comprised John Collett from Wendlebury who was 36 and a farmer of 116 acres, employing 22 men. His wife Lucy from Bucknell was 30 and their four children were Richard who was five, Martha who was four, John who was two and William who was five months old. All four children had been born at Arncott, with the family living at Clew Hill (Farm) in Arncott on that occasion. Completing the household were servants James Sampley, Sarah Massey and James Hubbucks. The couple’s next two children were born after John and Lucy had move to Charlton-on-Otmoor and sometime over the following years John returned to Boarstall with his family. And it was at Boarstall that his last five children are known to have been born. The family move to Boarstall may have been prompted by the death of John’s father Richard in 1863 and the need to be back in the village of his childhood to be near his widowed mother Martha.
	At the time of the 1871 Census for Boarstall, farmer John Collett from Wendlebury was 46, Lucy Collett from Bucknell was 40, and their children that day were Richard Collett 15, John Edwin Collett 12, William Foster Collett 10, James Bottrell Collett who was seven, Walter George Collett who was five, Esther Collett who was three, and Edith Bessie Collett who was not yet one year old. The birthplace of all of the child was Arncott. The couple’s eldest daughter Martha was missing from the family list following her death in 1863, but staying with the family that day was John’s nephew Arthur Collett aged 18 and from Murcott who was a farm servant and the son of John’s younger brother Richard (below). One other person was recorded with the family and she was Jane Jennings from nearby Oakley who was 15.
	By April 1881 John was farming 190 acres of land at Pansole Farm in Boarstall where he also employed three men, two of whom may have been his sons John and James who were still living with John and Lucy at that time. The full census record confirmed that John was 56 and born at Wendlebury, and that his wife was Lucy who was 50 and born at Bucknell. Listed with them were sons John Edwin Collett, aged 20 of Arncott, James Bottrell Collett, aged 17 of Charlton-on-Otmoor, and Herbert Spencer Collett who was six, and their daughters Esther, aged 13, Edith Bessie, aged 11, and Beatrice Mary who was nine. The census confirmed that the four youngest children had all been born at Boarstall.
	John Collett died at Boarstall on 29^th December 1881 where he was also buried. Sometime after the death of her husband Lucy left Boarstall with some of her children and moved back to the Bicester area where they were recorded as living in 1891. Widow Lucy was 60 and still living with her were just four of her children James 26, Edith 20, Beatrice 19 and Herbert 16. Over the following years Lucy returned to Boarstall where she presumably lived until her death in 1914 at the age of 83.
	The 1901 Census confirmed that she was back living at Boarstall with her son John Edwin Collett and his wife and family. She was 70 and her place of birth was again confirmed as Bucknell near Bicester. According to the next census in April 1911 Lucy Collett had left Boarstall and at the age of eighty was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor with two of her youngest unmarried daughters. They were Esther who was 43, and Beatrice who was 39. Also living with the three ladies was Martha Alice Collett who was 24 and the granddaughter of Lucy Collett, being the daughter of her eldest son Richard. It was three years after that when Lucy Collett nee Foster died during 1914.
	46O33	Richard Collett	Born in 1855 at Arncott
	46O34	Martha Ann Collett	Born in 1857 at Arncott
	46O35	John Edwin Collett	Born in 1859 at Arncott
	46O36	William Foster Collett	Born in 1861 at Arncott
	46O37	Lucy Louisa Collett	Born in 1862 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46O38	James Bottrell Collett	Born in 1864 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46O39	Walter George Collett	Born in 1866 at Boarstall
	46O40	Esther Collett	Born in 1867 at Boarstall
	46O41	Edith Bessie Collett	Born in 1870 at Boarstall
	46O42	Beatrice Mary Collett	Born in 1871 at Boarstall
	46O43	Herbert Spencer Collett	Born in 1874 at Boarstall
46N12	Richard Collett was born Boarstall in Buckinghamshire in 1827 and was the second child of Richard Collett and Martha Bottrell. By the time of the census in 1841 Richard was 14 years old and still living at Panshill Farm in Boarstall with his family. Shortly before the next census day Richard married Mary who was born at Oakley to the south of Boarstall. That was confirmed by the census in 1851 when Richard Collett from Boarstall was 23 and a farmer of nine acres and Mary Collett from Oakley was 21. At that time the couple was residing in the village of Murcott, not far from Richard’s family, and staying with the childless couple was Richard’s youngest sister Martha Collett who was 10 years old and also born at Boarstall.
	It is possible that Richard’s wife may not have lived through the ordeal of giving birth to the couple’s only known child, who was born at Murcott, since Richard was a lodger at the Birmingham home of Thomas and Mary Allan at Brewery Street in 1861. Richard Collett from Boarstall was 33 and working as a labourer. His marital status on the census return was blank. At that time in his young life his son Arthur was being looked after by Richard’s elderly parents at Bicester.
	46O44	Arthur Collett	Born in 1852 at Murcott
46N13	Ann Collett was born at Boarstall in 1829 and by 1841 she was 12 years of age when living in Boarstall with her family on Panshill Farm. Over the following decade the family crossed the county boundary into Oxfordshire and in 1851 she was 20 years old when she was still living with her family at Murcott within the Bicester & Bletchingdon area. It seems likely that Ann was married not long after that since no record of Ann Collett from Boarstall has so far been found.
46N14	Felicia Collett was born at Boarstall in 1832 and according to the 1841 Census Felicia Collett was nine years old when she was living with her family at Panshill Farm in Boarstall. No further record of her as either Felicia or Helena has been found in any later census records, perhaps because she was married prior to the census day in 1851.
46N15	Elizabeth Collett was born at Boarstall in 1836 and was aged five years in the Boarstall census conducted in June 1841 when she and her family were living at Panshill Farm. Ten years later she was 15 years of age in the Murcott, Oxfordshire, census of 1851. Between April and June in 1856 Elizabeth married Mark Honour, the marriage being registered in Bicester. Mark was born at Murcott in 1832 and was the younger brother of Thomas Honour who employed his nephew Alfred Collett (Ref. 46O22) in 1881 on his farm in Hampshire. Shortly after Elizabeth and Mark were married, she presented her husband with their first child which was born at Murcott, as were all of their five children.
	However, sometime after the birth of the last child the family left Murcott and moved south to Swyncombe near Watlington in Oxfordshire. And it was there that the family was living in 1881. Mark Honour was 48 and was farming 500 acres of land known as Lower Farm in Swyncombe where he employed four men and a boy. His place of birth was confirmed as Murcott, while Elizabeth Honour his wife, who was 41, was confirmed has having been born at Fencott and not Boarstall which seems rather curious. Their children were Sarah Honour aged 24, Albert Honour aged 22, Walter Honour aged 18, Bessie Honour aged 16, and William Honour who was nine years of age. Also employed the family were two domestic farm servants William Morton and Benjamin Groves both aged 18. Tragically it was later that same year when Elizabeth died at Swyncombe.
46N16	Martha Collett was born at Panshill Farm in Boarstall during the first month of 1841 and was five months old in the June census of 1841. She may have been only a few years old when her father took the family to live at Murcott in Oxfordshire. However, the census return for Murcott in 1851 placed Martha Collett, aged 10 years, living with her recently married brother Richard Collett and his wife Mary, with Martha’s parents living close by. Over the following years Martha returned to live with her parents, as confirmed in the next census of 1861 when Martha Collett from Boarstall was 20 years old.
46N17	Susanna Collett was born in 1820 and may have been base-born since she was baptised at Blackthorn on 14^th May 1820 using her mother’s maiden-name. No other record for Susanna or Susannah has so far been found.
46N18	Sarah Collett was born in 1823 and may have been base-born since, like her sister Susanna (above) she was baptised at Blackthorn on 4^th July 1823 using her mother’s maiden-name. No other record for Sarah has so far been found.
46N19	Elizabeth Collett was born at Murcott in 1834 but was baptised at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 25^th December 1834, the eldest child of farmer John and Sarah Collett. She was six years old in the June census of 1841 and was 16 in 1851 when, on both occasions, she was living with her parents at Murcott. By the time she was 26 she was very likely married, as there is no record of Elizabeth Collett of Murcott, around that age, listed within the census of 1861.
46N20	William Collett was born at Murcott in 1837 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 14^th May 1837, the eldest son of farmer John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft. His age quoted in each of the subsequent census returns varied a great deal, starting with him being four years in Murcott/Fencott census of 1841. Ten years later he was 13 in the Murcott/Fencott census of 1851 when he was described as a farmer’s son. By 1861 he was 22 but was more correctly recorded in the census of 1871 when he was 35 years old. According to the next census in 1881 he was still living with his parents on their farm at Fencott, within the Charlton-on-Otmoor registration district, when he was 44.
	Following the death of his parents over the next few years, it would appear that William took over the farm at Fencott and eventually became a married man when he was approaching his fiftieth birthday. Although the details of his marriage to Susannah Turner have so far not been found, Susannah was clearly the daughter of Job Clack, a railway porter, and Ann Clack, both from Wiltshire, who settled at Shillingford in Oxfordshire, where all of their children were born, she having two older brothers William and Oliver Turner.
	By the time of the census in 1891 William Collett, aged 52, was a farmer living in a farmhouse in Fencott, where he also stated that he had been born. His wife Susannah Collett from Shillingford was only 39 and, by then, she had presented William with a son. Charles W J Collett had been born at Fencott and was just one year old. The census return stated that William was an employer and placed the farmhouse in which his family was living as being immediately adjacent to the public house known as The Bull Inn.
	It was at that same dwelling next door to the re-named Black Bull Inn that the family of three was still living ten years later. The Fencott census of 1901 recorded the family as William Collett, who was 63 and a farmer who had been born at Fencott, his wife Susannah Collett, aged 49 and from Shillingford, while their son Charles W T Collett from Fencott was 11. With his advancing years, the death of William Collett was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 625) during the early weeks of 1911, when he was 73. Shortly thereafter, the census conducted in April 1911, confirmed that Susannah Collett was a widowed at the age of 59, who was working as a domestic housekeeper for her unmarried son Charles W T Collett, aged 21, who was still managing the family’s farm in Fencott. Fourteen years later, the death of Susannah Collett was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1341) during the first quarter of 1925, at the age of 73.
	46O45	Charles William Thomas Collett	Born in 1889 at Fencott
46N21	Charlotte Collett was born at Murcott in 1839 and was baptised at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 21^st April 1839, the daughter of John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft. By June 1841, Charlotte was two years old when she and her family were residing in Murcott. Sadly, that was the last record so far found of her, even though record of her young death has been unearthed.
46N22	Thomas Collett was born at Murcott in 1841, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 44) during the month of June that year, but after the census day conducted in the first week. Thomas was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27^th June 1841, the son of farmer John Collett and Sarah Hopcraft. At the time of the Murcott census of 1851 Thomas was 10 years old and was living with his family, when his place of birth was given as Murcott. He later married Anne Cox of Horton-cum-Studley during the last three months of 1867, their wedding day recorded at Headington (Ref. 3a 1078), although the church service very likely took place at Horton-cum-Studley. And it was there also, at Whitecross Green, that the couple’s first child was born during the third quarter of the following year, just prior to moving to Arncott near Bicester.
	It may be of interest to note that an Ellen Martha Cox was born in 1866 at Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley. She was the daughter of Thomas and Margaret Cox and she later marry James Bottrell Collett in 1895. It is likely that Thomas Cox was the brother of Anne Cox. Thomas and Margaret Cox were also the parents of Maud Cox of Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley who married Albert John Collett (Ref. 46O54) around 1893, Albert being the nephew of Thomas Collett, with Maud being the niece of Anne Cox.
	The Collett connection between Thomas of Murcott and James Bottrell of Charlton was through Thomas’ father John Collett, who was the brother of Richard Collett who was James’ grandfather. In total Thomas Collett and Anne Cox are known to have had six children, the second and third child having been born while the family was living at Arncott and their last three children after the family had moved to Fencott.
	It was at Arncott that the young family was living in 1871, when Thomas Collett was 28 and a farmer who said he had been born at Fencott. His wife Anne from Horton was 24 and their first two children were Aubrey Thomas Collett who was three years old and also born at Horton, and Herbert James Collett who was under three months old who had been born after the family arrived in Arncott. One more child was added to the family at Arncott, before the family move again to a large farm in Fencott, where the last three children were born.
	All of that was confirmed in the next census in 1881 when the family was still living in Fencott, by which time Thomas Collett from Murcott was 40 years old and a farmer of 230 acres employing three men and two boys. His wife Anne Collett 34 and had been born at Horton-cum-Studley. The six children living with the couple on that day were Aubrey Collett aged 13, described as a farmer’s son, Herbert Collett who was 10, Mildred Collett who was nine, Beatrice Collett who was five, Percival Collett who was four, and Arthur Collett who was two years old.
	Ten years later, the same family was again living at Fencott and comprised farmer Thomas Collett aged 49, Annie Collett aged 47, and their children Aubrey who was 23, Herbert who was 20, Mildred who was 19, Beatrice who was 15, Percival who was 13, and Arthur who was 11. Just after the turn of the century Thomas and Anne were still residing within the Fencott and Murcott area of Charlton-on-Otmoor, but with just two of their children. Farmer Thomas Collett of Murcott was 59, Annie Collett of Horton was 53, unmarried daughter Beatrice Collett was 25 and unmarried son Percy Collett was 23, both of them born at Fencott. The only other person living with the family, was servant Horace Terry from Ludgershall who was 14.
	The later census of 1911 placed the couple once more living at Fencott with Murcott, where farmer Thomas Collett was 69 and his wife Annie was 64. Annie stated that Horton was where she had been born, whereas Thomas said he was from Fencott. The census confirmed that Thomas and Annie had been married for forty-four years. The couple’s son Herbert, whose wife had died during the previous decade years, had returned to live with them, together with his youngest daughters. Annie’s health may have already been failing by then since, it was during the third quarter of that same year, when the death of Anne Collett, nee Cox, was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1254). Her widowed husband outlived her by just over ten years when, at the age of 80 years, the death of Thomas Collett was also recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1547) during the first three months of 1922. The parish records are likely to show that they were buried together at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	46O46	Aubrey Thomas Brownlow Collett	Born in 1868 at Horton-cum-Studley
	46O47	Herbert James Collett	Born in 1871 at Arncott
	46O48	Mildred Bessie Collett	Born in 1873 at Arncott
	46O49	Beatrice Martha Collett	Born in 1875 at Fencott
	46O50	Percival Cox Collett	Born in 1877 at Fencott
	46O51	Ernest Arthur Collett	Born in 1879 at Fencott
46N23	George Collett was born at Murcott in 1843, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 39) during April or May that year. It was at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 4^th June 1843, that he was baptised, the son of farmer John and Sarah Collett. George was eight years old in the Murcott census of 1851, when it was noted that he had been born at Murcott, as it was ten years later in 1861, when he was 16. It was when he was around twenty-two years of age, that he became a married man, the wedding of George Collett and Emma Hawes was recorded at Headington (Ref. 3a 1077) during the last three months of 1867. Emma who was eight years his senior, having been born at Worminghall in Buckinghamshire around 1835, the second child of John and Mary Hawes.
	The marriage produced two daughters who were born while George and Emma were still living at Fencott. However, soon after the twins were born, George, took his family to live in the village of Beckley, near Stanton St John, to the east of Headington, Oxford. The census in 1871 described the family as George Collett from Fencott who was 26 and a baker, his wife Emma Collett from nearby Worminghall who was 35, and sisters Mary E H Collett and Sarah A Collett, both said to be one year old. Helping Emma look after the twins, was Emily Collett (Ref. 46O27) from Murcott who was 14 and working there as a gentleman’s servant. Emily was the daughter of George’s cousin John Collett by his wife Matilda Attwood. During the 1870s the family of four left Oxford and moved south to Swyncombe near Watlington in Oxfordshire where George’s cousin Elizabeth Honour nee Collett (above) and her family had also moved around the same time.
	The census of 1881 for Swyncombe recorded the family as George Collett, aged 37 and from Fencott, was the farmer of 70 acres at Darkwood Farm, while his wife Emma Collett from Worminghall was 45. Their two daughters Mary E Collett and Sarah A Collett were both 11 years of age and, supporting the family was a domestic farm servant by the name of Frederick Chalduran, aged 18, also from Worminghall.
	Ten years later the family was once again living within the Bicester & Bletchington registration district, where George Collett was 46, Emma Collett was 52, Elizabeth Mary Collett was 21, as was Sarah Ann Collett, both daughters confirmed as having been born at Fencott. In March 1901 George Collett, aged 56, a farmer from Murcott was living at Writchwick Farm in the Market End district of Bicester with his daughter Elizabeth Collett, aged 30 and from Fencott, and his wife who was recorded in error as Eva Collett, aged 57 and from Worminghall, instead of Emma Collett aged 63 from Worminghall. Also living in that same registration district was Ellen [Rebecca] Collett (Ref. 46P46), the granddaughter of George’s cousin William Collett (Ref. 46N4).
	However, by April 1911, daughter Mary had been married for eight years and had a family of her own and was living at Boarstall in Buckinghamshire, when George Collett from Fencott was 66 and farmer, was still living at Market End in Bicester with just his wife Emma Collett, aged 74 and from Worminghall, for company. The death of Emma Collett aged 80, was recorded at Woodstock register office (Ref. 3a 1836) during the last three months of 1916, after which George appears to have moved in with one of his married daughters. It was less than two years later hen he passed away, his death recorded at Thame register office (Ref. 3a 1041) during the second quarter of 1918, when he was 74.
	46O52	Mary Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1870 at Fencott
	46O53	Sarah Anne Collett	Born in 1870 at Fencott
46N24	John Collett was born at Murcott in 1845, the son of John and Sarah Collett. He was recorded as being six years old in the Murcott census of 1851, but by 1861 he and his family were living at Fencott when John Collett aged 15 was a scholar who was confirmed again, as having been born at Murcott. On 20^th September 1870 John married Edith Elizabeth Powell who was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1848, where she was baptised on 19^th March 1848, the daughter of John and Celia Powell. Their wedding day was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 905). Once married the couple settled initially in Charlton-on-Otmoor, where they were living six months later in 1871, when John Collett from Murcott was 26 and a grocer, and Edith Collett from Charlton was 23.
	On that census day, they were awaiting the arrival of their first child, who was born at Fencott, as was their second child, before the family moved back to Charlton-on-Otmoor, where their third child was born. Before the end of the 1870s, the family left Charlton, when they moved to nearby Oddington. That move was confirmed by the next census in 1881, when the family was living there in a cottage, from where John Collett was a farmer of 140 acres employing four men and two boys. The census also stated that he was 35 and born at Fencott, and that his wife Edith E Collett was 32 and from Charlton. Their three children at that time were Albert J Collett who was nine, Thomas H Collett who was eight, and Sarah C Collett who was seven. However, it is established that the couple did have another son John who was born at Oddington around four years later and he was living with the family at Oddington in 1891.
	The Oddington census that year recorded the family as John Collett from Murcott who was a farmer and an employer at the age of 45, his wife Edith E Collett was 43, and their three sons were Albert J Collett who was 19, Thomas Collett who was 18, and latest arrival John Collett who was five years old. By that time their daughter Sarah C Collett was 17 and was recorded nearby. According to the next census in 1901 Edith E Collett of Charlton-on-Otmoor was 54, while he husband farmer John Collett was 55 and his place of birth on that occasion was correctly listed as Murcott. Living with them was their youngest son John Collett who was 15 and born at Oddington, who was working for his father.
	By April 1911, farmer John Collett of Murcott was 65, his wife Edith E Collett of Charlton was 63 and, by that time in their lives, the couple was living in the hamlet of Noke-next-Oddington with their youngest son John Collett who was 25 and still working with his father. Staying with the family that day were two young children, the eldest being Hilda Taylor from Charlton-on-Otmoor who was 12 years of age and described as the granddaughter of John and Edith. The younger child was her sister Amy Holt Taylor who was nine years old and born at Chalgrove. They were two of the seven children of John and Edith’s daughter Sarah Cecilia Taylor, nee Collett, who was living at Chalgrove with the rest of her family.
	On 20^th September 1920 John and Edith celebrated fifty years of married life together and the occasion was marked by the presentation to the couple of an illuminated scroll. Today the scroll hangs on the wall inside the house of John’s great grandson Stephen Collett. John Collett was 84 when he died on 22^nd May 1930, his death recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1165), following which he was buried in the grounds of St Andrews Church in Oddington. Four years later, Edith Elizabeth Collett, nee Powell, died on 17^th October 1934, her passing recorded at the Bicester Ploughley register office (Ref. 3a 1267). It was also at St Andrews Church in Oddington, where she was laid to rest, with her husband, at the age of 86.
	46O54	Albert John Collett	Born in 1871 at Fencott
	46O55	Thomas Hopcraft Collett	Born in 1872 at Fencott
	46O56	Sarah Cecilia Collett	Born in 1873 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46O57	John Collett	Born in 1885 at Oddington
46N25	Richard Collett was born at Murcott in 1848 and was the youngest child of farmer John Collett and his wife Sarah Hopcraft. At the time of the Murcott/Fencott census of 1851 Richard was three years old and his place of birth was confirmed as Murcott. Thirty years later, according to the 1881 Census, Richard Collett was 32 and a bachelor who was listed as a farmer’s son. At that time, he was still living with his elderly parents on their 88-acre farm in Fencott, within the parish of Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	Richard’s parents died during the 1880s and by 1891 he was living alone in Fencott, within the Bicester & Bletchington registration when he was 44. The next census in March 1901 listed Richard Collett as being 54 years old and born at Fencott, where he was living at that time and where he was working as a thatcher. He was still unmarried and living alone ten years later when, rather curiously, he was recorded as being 59 years old.
46N26	Denise Collett was born at Fencott in 1809 and was the daughter of Mary Collett of Fencott who was not married until 1811. She was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 12^th March 1809 and the entry in the parish records referred to her as ‘Dennis the natural daughter of Mary Collett’. Therefore, the assumption has been made that the name today would be Denise. It is not known whether she retained the Collett name or adopted the Westbury name, following the marriage of her mother to Richard Westbury on 19^th January 1811. No other record for Denise or any similar named female has so far been found.
46N27	William Collett was born at Fencott in early 1823, the son of Thomas Collett and Hannah Eyres. Sadly, his father had died in December 1822 and by the time of the first national census in 1841 William, who would have been 17, had left the family home at Fencott, although no record of him at that time has so far been found.
	Within the Bicester registration area in 1841, which included Fencott, there was a William Collett who had a rounded age of 15 who was living at Cottisford to the north-east of Bicester. However, he had been born at Cottisford and was the son of Joseph and Jane Collett. After a further ten years William Collett from Cottisford was 25 and an agricultural labourer living at a dwelling named Juniper in Cottisford. Living there with him was his wife Hannah, aged 26 and from Shutford in Oxfordshire, and their son Arthur Collett of Cottisford who was one year old. Who they were and where they link into the Collett family, has still to be determined.
	It was during the fourth quarter of 1846 at Witney parish church (Ref. 16 305) that William Collett of Fencott married Harriet Hunt from Brize Norton near Witney, the daughter of Thomas Hunt, their wedding taking place on 6^th December 1846. Once they were married the couple settled in the hamlet of Hailey near Witney where, over the next three years, Harriet presented William with two children, both of them born at Hailey. According to the census in 1851 William Collett from Fencott was curiously recorded as being 32 when he was working as a carter, while living at Crawley Road in the hamlet of Hailey near Witney. His wife Harriet from Witney was 28 and their two children were Elizabeth Collett who was three and George T Collett who was only ten months old. Ten years earlier, Harriet Hunt was 19 and living at Brize Norton with her widowed father Thomas.
	Missing from the family home in the parish of Witney in 1861 was the couple’s daughter Elizabeth Collett who would have been 13. Instead, the census return simply recorded the family as just William Collett who was 39 years of age and from Fencott, his wife Harriet who was 38 and their son George who was 10. Six years later that Harriet Collett nee Hunt died at Witney during 1867.
	Following the death of his wife William married (2) Sarah Kench at Witney (Ref. 3a 761) during the first three months of 1868. Sarah was the widow of John Kench who died in 1867 and had been born as Sarah Martin, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Martin. Three years later, in April 1871, William and Sarah were living at Cape Terrace, off Gloucester Place in Witney, just along from the High Street. William Collett from Fencott was 48 and a brewer’s drayman, his wife Sarah was 49 and from Eynsham, and staying with them was their granddaughter Louisa Annie Dore who was one year old and born at nearby Hailey, but entered on the census form as Louisa Ann Collett. She was their married daughter’s first child. Two other people were recorded at the same address and they were Annie Collett Lucas who was seven years old and attending school, who was described as a boarder from Woodstock, while lodging with the family was Joseph Seeley aged 21 and from Hailey who was a domestic servant.
	The census of 1881 confirmed that William Collett of Fencott was 56 and that he was still married to Sarah who was 58 and from Eynsham. At that time the couple were living at Witney where William was a labourer employed at the local brewery. Four other people were lodging at their house and they were former brewery worker Shayler Clarke and his adopted son Frederick Drinkwater, a tin plate worker by the name of Edwin Jones, and ostler Frederick Timms.
	Sarah Collett, formerly Kench nee Martin passed away during the 1880s since, by the time of the next census in 1891, William Collett from Fencott was a widower at the age of 65. On the day of the census, he had lodging with him at Witney, four other individuals. They were Lea Long and her son George Long, and Thomas Rickett and John Desmond. Just less than three years later the death of William Collett was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 581) during the first three months of 1894, when it was also recorded that he was 71 years of age.
	It is now known from Les Brown that the marriage certificate of William Collett confirmed his father as Thomas Collett and that William was twice married (as detailed above), and that it was his first wife Harriet Hunt of Brize Norton who was Les’ great grandmother.
	46O58	Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1848 at Hailey, nr Witney
	46O59	George Thomas Collett	Born in 1850 at Hailey, nr Witney
46N28	Joseph Collett was born at Fencott during 1825 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor later that same year on 13^th October 1825, the first of two sons born to Richard Collett and Phyllis Goome. It is not clear what happened to Joseph after his mother died in 1828 and his father re-married in 1836, as no obvious record for him has been found in the census details from 1841 through to 1851. However, it is evident that he was certainly married twice during his life. The marriage of Joseph Collett and (1) Ann Robinson was recorded at Newark (Ref. 15 1104) during the last three months of 1851. Ann was the daughter of John and Mary Robinson, who was born at Claypole in Lincolnshire, where she was baptised on 5^th May 1822. It would appear that their first child, a daughter, was born perhaps prior to their wedding day, as she was recorded as being 11 years of age in the census of 1861.
	On that census day, Joseph Collett from Fencott in Oxfordshire was 35 and a railway labourer, who was living at Ashton-under-Lyne, to the east of Manchester. His wife Ann Collett from Claypole in Lincolnshire said she was 36, and living with them were three children, albeit, the first two not named, but stated to have been born at Claypole and Walsall. The named child was William Collett born after the family had arrived in Ashton-under-Lyne, who was only a few weeks old. Two more children were added to the family during the next six years, when Joseph and Ann were living in Swinton, between Manchester and Bolton.
	According to the next census in 1871, Joseph Collett from Fencott in Oxfordshire was a married man of 48 (sic), whose occupation was that of a railway labourer, when he was living at Harwood, near Bolton, in Lancashire. His wife was Ann Collett who was also 48, but born at Claypole in Lincolnshire. Missing from the family group, were the couple’s two eldest children, so the three children living with them that day were William Collett who was 10 years old and born at Ashton-under-Lyne, Joseph Collett who was six and born at Swinton, and Mary E Collett who was four years of age and also born at Swinton.
	Just over two years later, Ann Collett, the wife of Joseph Collett died and was buried at Great Harwood, near Bolton, on 29^th May 1873, although her age was incorrectly recorded as being only 45, rather than nearer fifty. It was two years after her death, when the marriage of Joseph Collett and (2) Mary Dodd took place at Great Harwood on 5^th June 1875, when the groom’s father was confirmed as Richard Collet and the bride’s father was named as James Hutton, suggesting that his daughter had been widow by the death of her previous husband. The details of the wedding day were recorded at Blackburn (Ref. 8e 516) during the second quarter of 1875.
	After another six years, Joseph Collett from Fencott was living at 47 Cavendish Road in Walton-on-the-Hill in Lancashire (within the West Derby district of Liverpool), from where he was employed as a general labourer at the age of 58. On that occasion his wife was the younger (2) Mary Collett who was 48 and from Preston in Shropshire, who was a farm servant. On that census day, only one of Joseph’s children from his first marriage was still living with his father and stepmother, and that was William Collett from Ashton-under-Lyne who was 20 and a general labourer, most likely working alongside his father. Three other people were boarding with the Collett family, and they were George and Jane Radford, with their one-year-old daughter Alice Radford. On that same day, Joseph Collett junior, born at Swinton and a general labourer, was a lodger with the Collier family at Flixton Road in Flixton, near Urmston, Manchester.
	What happened after 1881, is not known, as no mention of any member of the family has been found after that census day. As regards the children of Joseph and Ann Collett, Tom Collett was baptised at St Matthews Church in Walsall on 24^th January 1858, and the birth of William Collett took place in the days prior to the census on 7^th April 1861 and was recorded at Ashton-under-Lyne (Ref. 8d 393) during the second quarter of that year. The two youngest children, born at Swinton, had their birth’s recorded at Barton-upon-Irwell, Joseph during the second quarter of 1864 (Ref. 8c 483) and Mary during the last three months of 1866 (Ref. 8c 437).
	46O60	a Collett daughter	Born in 1850 at Claypole
	46O61	Tom Collett	Born in 1858 at Walsall
	46O62	William Collett	Born in 1861 at Ashton-under-Lyne
	46O63	Joseph Collett	Born in 1864 at Swinton
	46O64	Mary E Collett	Born in 1866 at Swinton
46N29	Thomas Collett was born at Fencott in 1827 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 24^th June 1827, the second of two sons born to Richard and Phyllis Collett. Tragically, he only survived for around eighteen months, before he died and was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 22^nd January 1829.
46N30	James Collett was born at Fencott in 1834, the son of Richard Collett of Fencott. He was born at a time in Richard’s life which was six years after the death of his first wife, and two years before he married for a second time. It is therefore possible that James was the son of Richard Collett and a second, so far unknown second of three wives. It was in 1851 that James Collett of Fencott was 16 when he was working as an agricultural labourer, while living at Murcott with his father and his stepmother Ann, and two younger half-brothers John and George Collett. His half-brother George died a year later and the death of James Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 346) during the last quarter of 1853.
46N31	George Collett was born at Murcott in 1837, his birth recorded at nearby Bicester (Ref. 16 37) during the first month of that year. He was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 3^rd February 1838, the first child born to Richard Collett by his second wife Ann Faulkner. It seems that he was a poorly child from birth since, shortly after he was baptised, the death of George Collett was also recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 33) during the first quarter of 1838, and was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 17^th February 1838.
46N32	Thomas Collett was born at Murcott in 1839, his birth also recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 36) during the third quarter of the year. Not long after he was born, Thomas was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22^nd August 1839, the second son of Richard and Ann Collett. Like his older deceased brother George (above), Thomas may also have been a sickly child, because he died on 9^th February 1842, his death recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 32), after which he was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton. Curiously, eight months earlier, no record of Thomas or his parents has been found within the census conducted in June 1841.
46N33	John Richard Collett was born at Murcott in 1844 and his birth, as simply John Collett, recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 39) during the third quarter of that year. He was baptised on 18^th August 1844 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the only children of Richard Collett and Ann Faulkner to survive beyond infancy. By 1851 he was living at Murcott with his family at the age of six years when his place of birth was confirmed as Murcott, as it was again in 1861, when he was the only child still living with her parents at Murcott. On that day, John Collett, from Murcott, was 16 and working as a plough boy on a nearby farm. Whilst his father was still working as an agricultural labourer, both his mother and his father were described as paupers.
	Following the death of his father in 1863, John and his mother left Murcott and, by 1871, John Collett from Murcott was 26 and employed as an agricultural labourer, when living with his widowed mother Ann at Beckley, to the south of Murcott, where she was again described as a pauper. Six years later John was on his own after his mother passed away.
46N34	Eliza Anne Collett was born at Murcott in 1846, her birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 42) during the second quarter of that year. She was not in the best of health, as indicated by the fact that she was the subject of a private baptism at the family home on 11^th April 1846, the event recorded at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor. She was the daughter of Richard Collett and Ann Faulkner, and sadly, Eliza never recovered from her illness and died just of twelve months later at Murcott and was buried at Charlton on 20^th April 1847.
46N35	William Collett was born at Murcott in 1847 and probably suffered with the same ailments as his older sister Eliza Anne (above) who died seven months before he was born. His birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 39) during the last quarter of 1847. William Collett was also baptised at home in a private baptism on 14^th November 1847, but he died six months later and was buried at Charlton on 18^th May 1848.
46N36	George Collett was born at Murcott during April 1850 and was initially named in honour after his eldest brother who had died in 1838. His birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 46) during the second quarter of 1850. Sadly, he was the fifth child of the family to die when he was still an infant. Like his three siblings immediately before him, he was privately baptised at home, on 9^th May 1850, and survived for almost two years thereafter. At the time of the census in 1851, he was eleven months old and was living at Murcott with his parents Richard Collett and Ann Faulkner. Following his passing one year later, he was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 1^st April 1852.
46N37	Caroline Collett was born at Fencott in 1828 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 19^th October 1828, the eldest daughter of James Collett and Sarah Hine, formerly Gregory. She was 12 years old in the Fencott census of 1841 when she was living there with her family, but by 1851 she was living and working in Woodstock, at the home of Mary Ann Rouse from Marsh Bladon, Oxon, where she was recorded as Caroline Collett from Fencott who was 22 and a house servant. It was nine years later, at the age of 31, that the marriage of Caroline Collett and William Grace was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 1005) during the last three months of 1860.
	However, on the day of their wedding, they already had two children who were living with the couple in the Fencott census of 1861. All four members of the family were confirmed as having been born at Fencott, where William Grace was 33 and an agricultural labourer and his wife Caroline Grace was 32 and also working as agricultural labourer. Their two daughters were Ann Grace who was five and Sarah Grace who was three, neither of whom was with the family in 1871, by which time they had been replaced with four new children. On that occasion, labourer William Grace was 44, who said he had been born at Boarstall, when all of the other members of the household were confirmed as having been born at Fencott. Caroline Grace was 41, Emily Grace was eight, Charlotte Grace was five, Kate Grace was two and Laura Grace was under one year old.
46N38	Ann Collett was born at Fencott in 1831 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 1^st January 1832, the daughter of James Collett and Sarah Hine nee Gregory. In the census of 1841 Ann was nine years old when she was living with her family at Fencott. After a further ten years, Ann Collett from Fencott was 19, when she was living and working in the Cowley district of Oxford, at the home of elderly William Greening. Four years later, the marriage of Ann Collett and William Tyrrell or Robert Welch was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 967) during the fourth quarter of 1855. However, no record of Ann Tyrrell or Ann Welch of Fencott has been identified after that day.
46N39	Charlotte Collett was born at Fencott, possibly late in 1834 or early in 1835, following which she was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 8^th March 1835, the youngest of the three children of James Collett and Sarah Hine nee Gregory. It was with her parents at Fencott that Charlotte was living in 1841, when she was six, and again in 1851 when she was listed as Charlotte Collett from Fencott who was 16, but with no occupation. Completing the family group that day, was Charlotte’s half-sister Mary Hine.
	During the latter half of the next decade Charlotte gave birth to two base-born sons while she was still unmarried. Both boys were born at Fencott, where the three of them were living in the ‘last dwelling in the hamlet of Fencott’ as confirmed by the census in 1861. Charlotte Collett from Fencott was 26, Walter Collett was three, and Thomas Collett who was two years old. It is interesting to note that only three dwellings away from the young Collett’s home, was the home of the Cooper family, where unmarried labourer Thomas Cooper was living with his parents Richard and Elizabeth Cooper, Thomas being credited as the father of all of Charlotte’s children.
	Ten years later, after the birth of a further four children, Charlotte Collett was 35 and a dressmaker living in Fencott at the home of Thomas Cooper of Fencott who was 40, together with five of their six children. Absent in 1871, was their eldest son Walter Wentworth Collett, who had died during the previous year, at the age of 13. The other children were Tom Collett who was 11, Georgina Collett who was eight, Barry Collett who was six, Abigail Collett who was three, and Jonah Collett who was one year old. All of the children were confirmed as having been born at Fencott, where two more children were added to the family over the following five years.
	Despite all her years living with Thomas Cooper, the census in 1881, continued to described Charlotte Collett as a ‘single woman’ even though, by then, they had given birth to eight children. At that time, the couple was still living at Fencott, where unmarried Thomas Cooper from Murcott was 50 and an agricultural labourer. Charlotte Collett of Fencott was 47 and her occupation was stated to be that of a needlewoman. Unlike previous years, all of her children were listed as Cooper Collett, with all of them having been born at Fencott, and they were Tom Cooper Collett who was 22, Georgina Cooper Collett who was 19, Barry Cooper Collett who was 15, Abigail Cooper Collett who was 13, Jonah Cooper Collett who was 11, Richard Cooper Collett who was nine, and Anne Cooper Collett who was four years old.
	It was the same situation at Fencott in 1891 except, that by then, Charlotte’s surname was still Collett, while the children all had the Cooper surname. The family was therefore recorded as Thomas Cooper, aged 59, Charlotte Collett, aged 55, who was the housekeeper and a dressmaker, Tom Cooper was 30, Barry Cooper was 25, Jonah Cooper was 21, Richard Cooper was 18, and Annie Cooper who was 14. Completing the family was Ellen Cooper, Charlotte’s granddaughter who was eight years of age and the child of daughter Georgina Collett. Ten years after that day, the next census in 1901 identified the reduced family residing in Murcott. Thomas Cooper was 70, Charlotte Collett was 66 and ‘not married’, their unmarried son Tom Collett was 40 and a hay binder, and their granddaughter Ellen, aged 18, was named as Ellen Probets and had been born at Fencott.
	Seven years later, the death of Thomas Cooper was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 660) during the first quarter of 1908, when he was 77. Rather curiously, following the passing of her life partner, Charlotte became Charlotte Cooper for the first time in her life. And it was as the widow Charlotte Cooper that she was recorded in the Fencott census of 1911. On that occasion she was described as being 76 years of age and an old age pensioner from Fencott, when the only person living there with her was her unmarried son Tom Cooper, who was 51 and from Fencott. Charlotte survived for a further five years, when the death of Charlotte Cooper was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1121) during the second quarter of 1916, at the age of 81.
	46O65	Walter Wentworth Collett	Born in 1857 at Fencott
	46O66	Thomas Cooper Collett	Born in 1859 at Fencott
	46O67	Charlotte Georgina Cooper Collett	Born in 1862 at Fencott
	46O68	Barry Cooper Collett	Born in 1865 at Fencott
	46O69	Abigail Cooper Collett	Born in 1867 at Fencott
	46O70	Jonah Cooper Collett	Born in 1869 at Fencott
	46O71	Richard Cooper Collett	Born in 1871 at Fencott
	46O72	Anne Cooper Collett	Born in 1876 at Fencott
46O1	Elizabeth Sturch Collett was born at Murcott, either during the last months of 1838 or the first half of 1839. Despite that assumption, her birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 33) during the third quarter of 1839, following the marriage of her parents on 14^th February 1839. Prior to her birth being registered, she had been already baptised at St Mary’s Church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 31^st June 1839, the eldest surviving child of Richard Collett and Ann Grove Sturch. Elizabeth was one year old in the 1841 Census for Murcott when she was living there with her father, who had a rounded age of 20, and her mother who was curiously named as Ann Sturch who had a rounded age of 45. Within two or three years, Elizabeth’s family moved to Fencott, where they lived for seven years before returning to Murcott. It was at Murcott that she was living with her family at the time of the census in 1851, when she was 12 years old. By the time of the next census, she was very likely married.
46O2	Robert Sturch Collett was born at Murcott in 1841 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 29^th March 1841, the second child and eldest son of Richard Collett and Ann Grove Sturch, whose birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 39) during the second quarter of 1841. Curiously, in the census that year, during the first week on June, when he was barely a few weeks days old, he was with his mother Ann at the Berkley home of her grandfather Robert Sturch. while his father Richard and old sister Elizabeth (above) were living in Murcott at the home of Robert’s maternal grandmother Ann Sturch. Ten years later Robert was 10 years old when he was living with his family on their 60-acre farm at Murcott, where he was confirmed as having been born. By the time he was 20 he had left Murcott and was living and working at Swalcliffe, near Banbury.
	It was while in the Banbury area that he met Mary Ann whom he married a few years later. Mary Ann was born at Hanwell near Banbury and was the same age as Robert. There is a chance that she was Mary Ann Baker – see 1881 Census note below. Where they were married has not been discovered, but either at that time or a little while after the couple moved to London and the birth of their only known child was registered while Robert and Mary Ann were living at Waterloo Road in Lambeth. It is however likely that the couple were living at Brill in Buckinghamshire at the time of their son’s birth, according to later census records.
	And it was there that the family of three was still living in 1871. Robert was aged 30, as was Mary Ann, while their son William was four years old. Sometime during the next decade, the family moved west and north of the River Thames and settled in Norwood Green in Middlesex.
	According to the census of 1881 the family was living at Featherstone Larches in Norwood where the occupation of Robert S Collett was a beer retailer. Both he and his wife Mary were 40 years of age and Robert gave his place of birth as Fencott, while Mary confirmed she was of Hanwell in Oxfordshire. It was at Fencott that Robert had lived with his family from 1842 to 1850 although, before and after those dates, he and his family had been living at Murcott where he was born.
	Robert’s son William was then 14 and was still attending school. Staying with the family at that time was Kate Baker aged 41 of Wootton in Oxfordshire, the wife of an agricultural labourer who was described as ‘sister-in-law’, together with her daughter Margaret who was three and from Hounslow. It would appear that Robert continued to live at Norwood for the rest of his life, although no record of him at all has been found in 1901. However, in both 1891 and 1911 he was listed as living there.
	By 1891 Robert Sturch Collett and Mary Ann Collett were both 50 and were living alone at Norwood. When Mary Ann died has not been determined and that may be linked with their absence in 1901. The census of 1911 confirmed that Robert Sturch Collett was still living at Norwood at the age of 70, by which time he was a widower.
	46P1	William Collett	Born in 1866 at Brill
46O3	Albert Collett was born at Fencott in 1843 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 21^st May 1843, the son of Richard and Ann Collett. Apart from the Murcott census of 1851, when he was eight years old and living with her family, and again ten years later when he was 17. However, not long after the census in 1861 it would appear that he moved to Daventry in Northamptonshire where he met and married Elizabeth Tooby who was born there in 1841. The marriage took place at Daventry where it was recorded during the last three months of 1863 (Ref. 3b 231) when the witnesses were Thomas Appelbee, Jane Wall and Elizabeth Tooby who was most likely the bride’s mother.
	By the time of the Daventry census of 1871 Albert, aged 27, and Elizabeth, aged 29, had four children and they were Emily who was seven, Mary A Collett who was five, Elizabeth who was two, and Edith who was not yet one year old. During the next decade Elizabeth presented Albert with four more children, although the absence from the census in 1881 of one of their earlier children, Elizabeth Ann, may suggest that they had not survived much further into the 1870s. Their daughters Mary and Edith were also missing in 1881 but had returned to Daventry by 1891.
	The census return for 1881, placed the family living at 24 Sheaf Street in Daventry, from where Albert Collett, aged 38 from Fencott, was working as a domestic groom. His wife Elizabeth was 39, and their five children on that occasion were Emily who was 17, Spencer who was eight, Clara who was six, Edwin who was four, and Arthur who was two years old. All of the children had been born at Daventry. Ten years later in 1891 the family was still residing in Daventry when Albert was 48, Elizabeth was 49, with their children Edith Collett was 29, Spencer Collett 18, Clara Collett 16, Ed Collett 14, Arch A G Collett 11, and William Collett who was eight years old. Living in the Wandsworth & Putney area of London at that time was Albert’s daughter Mary A Collett who was 25 and from Daventry.
	Sometime after that Albert became a publican, as confirmed by the Daventry census of 1901. The census listed him as being 57 and from Fencott, having his own account while being the landlord of the Plume of Feathers Inn on Chapel Lane. Living there with him was his wife Elizabeth, 58 and from Daventry, who was supported by their daughter Clara who was 26 with no occupation. Also, still unmarried and living at the family home were sons Arthur and William. In addition to the immediate family, Albert and Elizabeth also had living with them their two grandchildren Harvey and Dorothy Sharpe and Arthur Sharp, the children of their daughter Elizabeth Ann Sharp, who died around that same time, as did Dorothy during the following year.
	Married by that time in March 1901, but still living nearby in Daventry, was their daughter Edith with her family, and their son Edwin with his wife. By the time of the next census in April 1911 Albert and Elizabeth were living alone in Daventry, although the town was still home to many members of their family. Albert was 67 and Elizabeth was 68, and by that time their two grandsons Harvey and Arthur Sharp were either in a home for orphaned children or had already been sent to North America by then.
	It was during the next few months that same year when Albert Collett passed away at the age of 68, his death recorded at Daventry register office (Ref. 3b 53) during the second quarter of 1911. His wife Elizabeth Collett nee Tooby had survived him by just over nine years when she passed away in 1920 aged 78, the event being recorded at Daventry register office (Ref. 3b 97) during the third quarter of that year.
	46P2	Emily Collett	Born in 1864 at Daventry
	46P3	Mary Ann Collett	Born in 1865 at Daventry
	46P4	Elizabeth Ann Collett	Born in 1868 at Daventry
	46P5	Edith Collett	Born in 1870 at Daventry
	46P6	Spencer Collett	Born in 1872 at Daventry
	46P7	Clara Collett	Born in 1874 at Daventry
	46P8	Edwin Collett	Born in 1876 at Daventry
	46P9	Arthur Albert George Collett	Born in 1878 at Daventry
	46P10	William Collett	Born in 1882 at Daventry
46O4	David Collett was born at Fencott in 1844 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 27^th April 1845, the son of Richard and Ann Collett. By 1851 David was six years old when he was living at Murcott with his parents, who stated that he had been born at Fencott. Upon leaving school, David also moved out of the family home which was then in Fencott, and by 1861 he was employed as a baker’s servant in Fencott. He was 16 years old, but curiously gave his place of birth as Murcott. It was just over six years later when David Collett married the much older Eliza Stennett who was born at Sleaford in Lincolnshire, where she was baptised on 31^st January 1831, the daughter of Nicholas and Mary Stennett. The wedding was recorded at Camberwell in London (Ref. 1a 924) during the third quarter of 1867.
	Once married the couple initially settled in Peckham in Surrey where their two daughters were born and where the family of four was still living in 1871. By then David Collett from Fencott Hill in Oxfordshire was 25 and working as a railway porter. His wife Eliza Collett from Sleaford was said to be 32, rather than 40, and their two children were Mary E Collett who was two and Margaret G Collett who was one year old. However, by the time of the census in 1881 the family of four was living at 55 Peel Street in Maidstone, Kent. At that time in his life David Collett, aged 38, was again working as a railway porter, when his place of birth was simply stated as Oxford. His wife Eliza from Lincolnshire was 48 and their two daughters were Mary Collett who was 12 and Margaret Collett who was 11.
	Some years after the death of his father, David’s mother Ann Collett also moved to Maidstone to be close to David and his family, as confirmed by the next census in 1891. On that occasion the family of four was residing at Earl Street, close to the town centre, where David was 46 and a club steward, Eliza was 58, and their unmarried daughter Mary Elizabeth Collett was 23. Living nearby in Boxley Road was David’s mother from Hungerford who was 75. One year prior to the next census in 1901, the death of David Collett was recorded at Maidstone register office (Ref. 2a 492) during the second quarter of 1900. On the day of the census Eliza Collett from Sleaford was living at Newton Road in Tunbridge Well, Kent, where she was living on her own means at the age of 69. That was the home of her married daughter Mary Elizabeth Lane.
	Upon her death, just over six years later, Eliza was very likely buried with her late husband at Maidstone, since it was a Maidstone register office (Ref. 2a 411) that her death was recorded during the third quarter of 1907, when she was 75 years of age.
	46P11	Mary Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1868 at Peckham, Surrey
	46P12	Margaret Grace Collett	Born in 1870 at Peckham, Surrey
46O5	Edwin Collett was born at Fencott in 1846 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 30^th May 1847, the son of farmer Richard Collett of Murcott and his wife Ann Grove from Hungerford. He was living with his parents at Murcott in 1851, when he was three years old, but by the time of the next census in 1861, the family had returned to Fencott where Edwin Collett, aged 13 and of Fencott, was described as a farmer’s son.
	No record for Edwin has so far been found in 1871, at some time during the 1870s he had left Oxfordshire and settled in the city of Warwick. At the time of the census in 1881 Edwin Collett from Fencott was an unmarried man from Fencott, and at the age of 35 he was a publican living at 18A Cape (Street) in Warwick St Mary. His housekeeper on that occasion was 30 years old widow Mary Ann Carter from Great Ashstead in Suffolk.
	It was just after 1881 that Edwin married Sarah Ann who was born at Milton in Oxfordshire, and during the following year the couple’s only child was born while they were still living in Warwick. The family of three was still living in Warwick in 1891 and ten years later in 1901. In 1891 Edwin Collett was 43, his wife Sarah A Collett was 41 and their son Ernest E Collett was eight years old.
	By 1901 Edwin Collett, aged 52 and from Fencott, was a general dealer, while his wife was Sarah was 50 and from Milton in Oxfordshire, and his son was Ernest Edwin Collett of Warwick who was 18 and a basket maker’s apprentice. Edwin Collett died during the first decade of the new century, so by April 1911, the Warwick census that year simply recorded Sarah Ann Collett, aged 61, living there with her son Ernest Edwin Collett who was 28.
	One year later, the 1912 edition of Kelly’s Directory for Warwick included an entry for Ernest Edwin Collett of Linen Street who was a basketware maker. That was also his trade when he died on 22^nd April 1940, having been admitted to the Warwick Institution five days earlier, his death recorded at Warwick register office (Ref. 6d 1375).
	46P13	Ernest Edwin Collett	Born in 1882 at Warwick
46O6	Philip Collett was born at Murcott in 1849 but was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 17^th March 1850. And it was at Murcott that he was still living with his parents at the age of 11 in 1861. He married Louisa Little at Clapham in London on 26^th October 1872. Louisa had been born at Clapham in 1848, the daughter of Slater Little, the forename she gave to her first son. The marriage register also confirmed that Philip was the son of Richard Collett. Once they were married the couple headed for Dorset, where they settled at Leigh Road in Wimborne Minster, just north of Poole, where their children were born and where the family was living in 1881.
	The census that year confirmed Philip had been born at Murcott, that he was 30, and that he was working as a railway agent and bus proprietor carrier. His wife was Louisa, aged 32 and from Clapham in Surrey, and their four children on that occasion were Sidney who was six, Reginald who was four, Edgar who was three, and Edith who was only nine months old. Fifteen months after the census day that year the couple’s fifth and last child was born in July 1882, but with tragic consequences. Whilst the child survived the ordeal, Louisa did not and, with the passing of his wife, Philip named the child in honour of his late wife.
	By 1891 the family was listed at Wimborne as Philip aged 41, Reginald who was 14, Edgar who was 13, Edith who was 10 and Louisa who was eight years of age. Philip’s eldest son Sidney, at the age of 16, was living and working at Christchurch near Bournemouth on that occasion. Ten years later according to the census of 1901 the family was still living at Wimborne and comprised widower Philip aged 51 of Murcott, who was a delivery agent, and three of his remaining four children. On that occasion it was Philip’s second son Reginald who was not living at the family home. Instead, he had left Dorset and was living in Derbyshire.
	The members of the family still living with Philip were his sons Sidney who was 26 and Edgar who was 23, who were both working as motorcar drivers for their father in the family business, and his daughter Louisa who was 18. It is unclear at this time where Philip’s eldest daughter Edith was in 1901, since it is established that she was still not married when her father died eight years later.
	Philip Collett died at Clyde Villa on Avenue Road in Wimborne on 5^th March 1909. His Will was proved at Blandford on 13^th May 1909 when he was described as a gentleman of Wimborne Minster. The executors of his estate of £3,742 16 Shillings and 7 Pence were named as his widow Emma Collett, his daughter Edith Louisa Collett, spinster, and his brother Spencer Collett, a hotel keeper. Also included in the list of names was baker Henry William Mitchell Cowdrey, who has yet to be identified. Philip was buried at Wimborne where a headstone in the cemetery there marks his grave. The headstone inscription (see below) also includes epitaphs for his wife and his son Reginald. It therefore seems very likely that surviving sons Sidney and Edgar arranged for the installation of the headstone to mark the grave of their parents and their brother.
	In Loving Memory of Philip Collett who fell asleep in Jesus March 5 1909 aged 59 years Labour ended, Jordon passed Also Louisa Collett wife of the above died July 30 1882 And Reginald Philip Collett second son of the above died Sept 9 1901 aged 25 years
	Also following the death of their father, Philip’s two sons Sidney and Edgar took over the running of the family business and by April 1911 they had left Wimborne and had moved to Salisbury in Wiltshire where they continued to managed the business.
	46P14	Sidney Slater Collett	Born in 1874 at Wimborne Minister
	46P15	Reginald Philip Collett	Born in 1876 at Wimborne Minister
	46P16	Edgar William Collett	Born in 1877 at Wimborne Minister
	46P17	Edith Louisa Collett	Born in 1880 at Wimborne Minister
	46P18	Louisa Collett	Born in 1882 at Wimborne Minister
46O7	John James Collett was born at Murcott in 1850, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 43) during the third quarter of the year. He was baptised on 4^th August 1850 at Charlton-on-Otmoor, the son of Richard Collett of Fencott and Ann Grove Sturch of Hungerford. By the time of the census at the end of March in 1851, John James Collett was not recorded with his family at Murcott. The only death of a John James Collett was recorded at Thame (Ref. 16 73) during the third quarter of 1850 and his nonappearance in any census from 1851 may indicate that he was the child of Richard and Ann Collett. However, fifty years later a John Collett from Charlton-on-Otmoor was 50 and an agricultural labourer living at Market End in Bicester, where he was described as an inmate, although nothing so far has been found to indicate that this was John James Collett. That John Collett died five years later, when his death was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 603) during the first three months of 1906.
46O8	Spencer Collett was born at Fencott, perhaps at the end of 1852 or early in 1853, since his birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 549) during the first quarter of 1853. Furthermore, he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 6^th February 1853, another son of Richard and Ann Collett. He was eight years old at the time of the Fencott census of 1861, when his place of birth was said to be Murcott. Where he was in 1871 has not been discovered, while it was on 15^th August 1875 at St Peter’s Church in Southampton that he married (1) Alice Gubbins, who was 19 and the daughter of Thomas Gubbins, while the father of Spencer Collett was confirmed as Richard Collett. Alice was born at Moulsford, to the south of Wallingford, a village on the Great Western railway mainline between Oxford and London and, since Spencer was a railway porter, it seems likely that they may have met as a result of his work.
	Once married, the couple initially settled in South Stonham, where the birth of their first child was recorded, before moving into Southampton, where their remaining seven children were born. By 1881 the family living at 5 Osborn Road Hill in Millbrook within the parish of Southampton through which the south-coast mainline railway ran, where Spencer was continuing to work as a railway porter. His place of birth was confirmed as Fencott and his age was 28. His wife Alice was 24 and from Moulsford and their three sons were Albert S Collett who was four, Auten William who was three and Ernest W Collett who was one year old. The place of birth for all three boys was said to be Southampton Hill, while the births of the two younger sons had been recorded at Freemantle in Southampton.
	Shortly after the census day, the family moved from Millbrook to Blechynden Terrace in central Southampton, the births of their subsequent recorded at nearby Shirley. By the time of the census in 1891 the family living at Blechynden Terrace had increased in size and was made up of Spencer Collett who was 38 and a railway porter, Alice Collett who was 34, Albert S Collett who was 14, Auten W Collett who was 13, Ernest W Collett who was 11, George R Collett who was nine, Arthur S G Collett who was seven, Alice E Collett who was five and Harold P Collett who was just one year old. Less than six years later, Alice presented Spencer with their last child, but after a further eighteen months the death of Alice Collett was recorded at South Stoneham (Ref. 2c 58) during the third quarter of 1898, when she was only 41 years old.
	Having lost his wife, widower Spencer, from Murcott, took his family to live in Shirley, where he was 48 years of age and a licenced victualler in the census of 1901. Still living there with him were five of his children and they were Auten W Collett, aged 23, George R Collett, aged 19, Arthur S Collett, aged 17, Elsie A Collett who was 15, Harold P Collett who was 11 and Hilda W Collett who was four years old. It may be interesting to note that the brothers Spencer and Auten (below) both gave up their previous occupations as a railway porter and a greengrocer respectively, around the end of the century, to become licenced victuallers.
	Just weeks after the census day in 1901, the marriage of Spencer Collett and (2) Amy Thomas was recorded at Southampton register office (Ref. 2c 9) during the second quarter of 1901. Widower Spencer was 48, while spinster Amy was only 26 and managed to give her husband two more children over the next six years. The family was still living in the Southampton parish of All Saints in 1911, where Spencer was 58 and a licenced victualler who gave his place of birth as Murcott, while his wife Amy Collett was 36 and from the Southampton parish of St Denys. Still living with them was Spencer’s youngest child from his first marriage, Hilda Winifred Collett who was 14, and his two children by Amy, Reginald Frank Collett aged seven years and Amy Isabel Collett who was four.
	Two years earlier, in 1909, Spencer Collett was named as one of the executors of the Will of his brother Philip Collett (above), when he was described as a hotel keeper. Nineteen years later, the death of Spencer Collett was recorded at Southampton register office (Ref. 2c 79) during the fourth quarter of 1928, when he was 75 years of age. Probate of his Will was proved at Southampton on 28^th November 1928 in favour of his joint beneficiaries, his wife Amy Collett and his son George Robert Collett.
	46P19	Albert Spencer Collett	Born in 1876 at South Stoneham
	46P20	Auten William Collett	Born in 1877 at Southampton, Millbrook
	46P21	Ernest Wilfred Collett	Born in 1879 at Shirley
	46P22	George Robert Collett	Born in 1881 at Shirley
	46P23	Arthur Sydney Gubbins Collett	Born in 1883 at Shirley
	46P24	Alice Elsie Collett	Born in 1885 at Shirley
	46P25	Harold Philip Collett	Born in 1889 at Shirley
	46P26	Hilda Winifred Collett	Born in 1897 at Southampton, Milford
	The following are the two children from the second marriage of Spencer Collett and Amy Thomas:
	46P27	Reginald Frank Collett	Born in 1903 at Southampton, Mill Brook
	46P28	Amy Isabel Collett	Born in 1906 at Southampton
46O9	Auten Collett was born at Fencott in 1857, the youngest child of Richard Collett of Fencott and Ann Grove Sturch of Hungerford. He was listed as Auten Collett aged three years and of Fencott, in the census of 1861 when he was still living there with his family. No record of him has been identified in 1871 but, six years later, the marriage of Auten Collett and Elizabeth Maria Allsop was recorded at Lambeth in London (Ref. 1d 529) during the second quarter of 1877. Elizabeth was born at Berrow Green, near Worcester, and by 1881 the pairs of them, and their first child, were living at 14 Hinton Road (Herne Hill), Brixton within the London Borough of Lambeth, where Auten Collett was 23 and a greengrocer. His wife Elizabeth M Collett was 25, and their son Albert Edward Collett was three years of age and had been born at Lambeth (Brixton). Supporting Auten was Charlie Cotton who was 20 and a greengrocer’s assistant, while helping Elizabeth was domestic servant Rose Cross who was 15.
	Over the next decade a further three children were added to the family which, was still living at 14 Hinton Road in Brixton in 1891. Head of the household was recorded as Austin Collett who was 33 and working as a fruiterer and a greengrocer. Elizabeth M Collett was 36 and their four children on that day were Albert E Collett who was 13, Arthur E Collett who was seven, Mary M Collett who was five and Winifred Collett who was one year old. Once again Auten was employing two servants, George H Baker who was 23 and Ellen Burr who was 16.
	By the end of the century Elizabeth had presented her husband with two more children, the first born while the family was still living at Brixton, with the couple’s last child was born at Reading, where they lived for a short while. From there the family later moved to Tunbridge Wells in Kent, which was where the family was residing by the turn of the century.
	In the census of 1901 Austin Collett from Fencott was 43 and by then was working as a licenced victualler having passed his greengrocery business over to his eldest son. In March that year the family was living at Upper Grosvenor Road in Tunbridge Wells where Elizabeth M Collett from Berrow was 45 and her four Brixton born children were Arthur E Collet who was 17, Maud M Collett who was 16, Winifred Collett who was 11 and Harry A Collett who was six years of age. Completing the family was their daughter Florence B Collett who was four years old and born at Reading. On that day, the family only had one servant and that was Edith A Smith from Tunbridge Wells who was 17.
	By 1911 the family had moved again, that time to Wood Green in Middlesex, midway between Muswell Hill and Tottenham, where Austin Collett from Fencott was 53 and an off-licence holder, his wife Elizabeth Maria Collett being 55. Still living with the couple was their youngest child, Florence Beatrice Collett from Reading who was 15. Seven years later Auten and Elizabeth Collett were living at 41 High Road in Wood Green, where they received the news that their son Arthur Ernest had been killed in action during the First World War, when he was thirty-five.
	The shock of losing her son, may have taken its toll on Elizabeth, because the marriage of Austin Collett and Emily Smith was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 768) during the first quarter of 1917. What is interesting is that, upon his death on 18^th September 1925, the two named beneficiaries were named as George Frederick Smith and Wallace William Harding.
	46P29	Albert Edward Collett	Born in 1878 at Lambeth
	46P30	Arthur Ernest Collett	Born in 1883 at Brixton
	46P31	Maude Mary Collett	Born in 1885 at Brixton
	46P32	Winifred Mary Collett	Born in 1889 at Brixton
	46P33	Harry Austin Collett	Born in 1894 at Brixton
	46P34	Florence Beatrice Collett	Born in 1896 at Reading
46O10	Thomas Collett was born at Murcott in 1847, the eldest son of farmer Thomas Collett and his wife Mary. It would appear that he later left the family home in Oxfordshire and moved south to London where, in 1871 as a bachelor, he was 24 and was living in Kingston-upon-Thames where he was working as a policeman. It would also appear that he married Frances Isabella Muckle shortly after the 1871 census day, as the first of their children was born at Hampton during the following year. Frances was four years younger than Thomas, having been born at Albury near Bishop’s Stortford in 1851. Her father was a Queen’s Messenger and, on passing, his widow had a position as cook and housekeeper at Hampton Court, living there in a ‘grace and favour’ apartment.
	Frances Isabella Collett, who was known as Granny Collett in her later years, told the tale to her grandchildren that, as a little girl, she remembered being driven in an open carriage in one of Queen Victoria’s processions. Over the next decade after they were married, Frances presented Thomas with a further five children all of whom were born at Hampton or Hampton Hill. By the time of the 1881 Census the family was living at 9 Wolsey Road in Teddington in the Hampton census district. Wolsey Road is still there today and lies between the High Street (A311) and Uxbridge Road (A312). Thomas’ occupation was confirmed as being a police constable and he gave his place of birth as simply Charlton. He was 33, while his wife Frances Isabella was 29.
	Their children were Eleanor Mary, who was eight, Elizabeth Frances, who was six, William Thos, who was five, Frances Jane, who was four, Isabella Muckle Collett, who was three, and Andrew Ralph who was seven months old. It is possible that 9 Wolsey Road was a police house, and that all of the children had been born there. Also living at the house with the family was Frances’ older brother Augustus Frederick Muckle, aged 32 of Albury, who was an unemployed blacksmith. During the next decade the family left Hampton and moved to Hanworth where their last child was born.
	By the time of the Hanworth census in 1891 the family living was living in a dwelling on Hounslow Road, right next door to the Jolly Sailor Inn. The details for the family were as follows, Thos Collett, aged 43 and from Charlton-on-Otmoor, was a constable with the metropolitan police, his wife was Frances I Collett, aged 39 and from Albury, and the five children living there with them were Wm T Collett 15, Frances J Collett 14, Isabella M Collett 13, Andrew R Collett 10, all born at Hampton, and Arthur M Collett who was just five months old and born at Hanworth.
	At that same time in 1891 Thomas’ and Frances’ eldest daughter Eleanor, was living with Granny Muckle in her ‘grace and favour’ apartment in Hampton Court, where they were both working. Thomas Collett died sometime during the 1890s, and it seems highly likely that his youngest son Arthur did not live very long after the census of 1891, since no further record of him has been found.
	It is also known that, following the death of her husband, Frances lived at Fuchsia Cottage in Hanworth where she had living with her for a while, the widow of her brother Alexander Muckle. From Fuchsia Cottage, she moved to the East Dulwich area of London to look after her grandchildren, the children of her son Andrew Ralph Collett, following the death of his wife in 1919. When her son Andrew married for a second time in 1921, Frances spent alternate six-month periods living with her daughter Nell in East Dulwich, and her daughter Bess at Farncombe, near Godalming in Surrey. That arrangement continued until the time of her passing, although it did include a break from that routine in 1923, which is described below.
	In 1923, Frances worked for a while at The Rectory in Hanworth, helping out when they had two visiting missionaries. During that year she had staying with her, for four months, her granddaughter Edith Collett who was four years old and the daughter of her son Andrew Ralph Collett. It seems likely that Edith was with her, while her stepmother mother was giving birth to another child for her father.
	Edith Collett has many recollections of her younger days and, in particular, the four months spent with her Granny Collett at The Rectory in 1923. Edith recalls that her grandmother had a fascination with the aeroplanes at the nearby Hanworth Aerodrome and would spend her free afternoons watching the planes coming and going. At that time, it cost five shillings for a flight, which she would have loved to have done, had she had the money. On some occasions Granny Collett lost track of the time, resulting in the need for someone from The Rectory to go there and bring her back.
	After her period working at Hanworth Rectory, Frances reverted back to her previous living arrangements, alternatively living with her two daughters in East Dulwich and Francombe. And it was during one of those periods, while she was living with daughter Bess at Farncombe, that Frances Isabella Collett nee Muckle eventually died in April 1937 at the age of 86. Following her passing, Frances’ body was taken to Hanworth, where she was buried with her husband.
	It is understood within the family that Thomas Collett inherited one third of the farmland previously owned and worked by his father in the Murcott area of Oxfordshire. Upon his death, the property was passed to his widow Frances but, sadly when she died, the land was sold when it was under flood conditions, and therefore its full value was not realised. The money that was raised from the sale was shared amongst her children.
	46P35	Eleanor Mary Collett	Born in 1872 at Hampton
	46P36	Elizabeth Frances Collett	Born in 1874 at Hampton
	46P37	William Thomas Collett	Born in 1875 at Hampton
	46P38	Frances Jane Collett	Born in 1876 at Hampton
	46P39	Isabella Muckle Collett	Born in 1877 at Hampton
	46P40	Andrew Ralph Collett	Born in 1880 at Hampton
	46P41	Arthur M Collett	Born in 1890 at Hanworth
46O11	Henry Collett was born at Murcott in 1851. Just like his older brother Thomas (above) Henry also became a police constable and may have even initially moved to London with him. On the day of the census in 1871 Henry Collett from Murcott was recorded as being 23 (sic) when he was working as a police constable while living at Garsington in Oxfordshire. Eighteen months later Henry Collett married (1) Charlotte Osborne at Bilton near Rugby in Warwickshire on 7^th or 11^th September 1872, the daughter of Hezekiah Drain, most likely suggesting that Henry was her second husband. Charlotte was born at Southminster near Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex in 1841 and was nine years older than Henry. Her place of birth in the marriage register was incorrectly recorded at Southampton. Once they were married the couple initially settled in Newbold-on-Avon, just north of Rugby, where their first child was born, before moving to Hillmorton to the east of Rugby, where their second child was born. Not long after that there was another move for the family, that time to Harbury to the south-west of Southam, all in Warwickshire.
	According to the 1881 Census the family was living at Church Terrace in the Warwickshire village of Harbury where thirty years old Henry was a police constable. His place of birth was given as Charlton Murcott. His wife Charlotte was 39 and their two children were Henry Herbert Collett who was seven, and Anne Marie M Collett who was four years old. Within a few years of the 1881 Census, Charlotte died at Harbury, perhaps during the birth of a third child for the couple who also did not survive. However, following the death of his wife Henry married (2) Eliza Howkins from Harbury, where they were married on 23^rd October 1884. That marriage resulted in the birth of another daughter for Henry, who was also born at Harbury, and whose baptism record confirmed that her father was Henry Collett a police constable.
	Many years earlier, in the census of 1861, Eliza was seven years old when she was living with her widowed mother Mary Howkins at Chapel Street in Harbury and four of her siblings. By the time of the census in 1891 the Collett family living at Harbury comprised policeman Henry who was 40, his wife Eliza who was 36, Henry’s daughter Maud 14, the younger of the two children from Henry’s first marriage, and the couple’s own daughter Eliza who was two years old. Just after the start of the new century Henry was described as a police pensioner at the age of 46 (real age 50) and was still living at Harbury with Eliza 46. Still living with them was Ann Maud Mary Collett who was 24 and a domestic servant, and twelve years old Eliza Anne Collett, both daughters confirmed as having been born at Harbury.
	No record of Henry has been found in the census of 1911 so it must be assumed that he had died during the first decade of the new century. According to the April census on 1911 his widow Eliza Collett was 55 and was living alone in the village of Knightcote within parish of Burton Dassett and within the Southam registration district of Warwickshire, where her place of birth was confirmed as Harbury. Also, by that time, her unmarried daughter Eliza was living at Atherstone.
	46P42	Henry Herbert Collett	Born in 1873 at Newbold-on-Avon
	46P43	Anne Maud Mary Collett	Born in 1876 at Hillmorton
	46P44	Eliza Anne Collett	Born in 1888 at Harbury
46O12	Charles Collett was born at Murcott in September 1854 but died one month later and was buried at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 11^th October 1854.
46O13	Caleb Collett was born at Murcott in 1856 and was four years old in 1861 and was 14 by the time of the census in 1871. According to the next census in 1881, Caleb Collett, at the age of 24, was still living with his parents at Charlton-on-Otmoor, from where he was working as an agricultural labourer. Following the death of his father during the 1880s, Caleb inherited one-third of his father’s farm holding, the other two-thirds going to his brothers Thomas and Henry. Also, after his father died, Caleb remained living with his elderly widowed mother Mary in the parish of Charlton-on-Otmoor, as confirmed by the census of 1891.
	Sometime during the next few years, it would appear that his mother died, following which he became a married man. By 1901 he was living within the Fencott & Murcott area and, at the age of 44, he was living with his wife Emma, who was 42, and who had been born at Thame in Oxfordshire, when his occupation was confirmed as being that of a farmer.
	Ten years later in April 1911, the couple was still living in the Murcott area, where Caleb Collett of Murcott was 54, and his wife Emma Collett was 52. The only other facts known about Caleb Collett are that he eventually purchased, or inherited, land within the Thame area, which may have been something to do with his wife, since she was born there. It is also known that he died in 1952 when he was 96 and still living at Thame. This information was kindly provided by Janet Wood – see Ref. 46Q41.
	During the Second World War Caleb and Emma were living at 93 High Street in Thame, although Emma was a patient at the nearby Cottage Hospital in Thame when she died on 12^th April 1942. Her Will was proved at Oxford on 22^nd May that same year for which her husband Caleb Collett, of no occupation, was one of the three executors. The other two executors of her estate valued at £1,247 7 Shillings and 2 Pence were Fred West, a cycle agent, and James Benjamin West, a garage proprietor.
46O14	William Clark Collett was a man of mystery, since it would appear that he was born at Horton-cum-Studley in 1838 or 1839 as William Clark, the son of unmarried Mary Ann Clark. He was however baptised as William Collett at Charlton-on-Otmoor (there being no church at Horton) on 12^th April 1840 when his parents were named as William Collett and his wife Mary Ann, who were only married three months earlier in January that same year. He was also curiously listed as John Collett in the census of 1841 when he was one year old and living with his parents at Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley.
	Even more strange was his possible placement in the Horton-cum-Studley census of 1851, when William and Mary Ann Collett had living with them their sons George and John (below), plus William Clark who was 11 and described as son-in-law. It therefore seems more than likely that he was in fact the former William Collett, although his place of birth was given as Headington, which was the registration district for Horton-cum-Studley. Previously within Section Three of the Appendix at the end of this family line, there were details of William Collett of Headington, who we now know to be this William, thanks to the information provided by Shirley Martin in 2012, together with the details contained within the census of 1861.
	Shortly after the census day in 1851 the last of William’s three known brothers was born at Horton, and four years after that his father died in 1855, following which his mother Mary Ann Collett nee Clark married James Payne. By the time of the census in 1861 William Collett of Headington was 20 and was working as an agricultural labourer when he was living at Beckley with his mother, her husband, their daughter and William’s half-sister Thirza Payne, and two of his three brothers, George Collett and Ellis Collett (below). It was just over six years later that he married Emma Parker at Piddington parish church on 21^st October 1867.
	Their marriage details were recorded as follows. William Collett, of full age, bachelor, and labourer of Horton (in the parish of Beckley) married to Emma Parker, 19, spinster and daughter of William Parker, labourer. The witnesses were Rebecca Parker and William Parker, who were most likely Emma’s parents. It was also at Piddington that Emma had been in 1848.
	By the time of the birth of the couple’s first child William and Emma were living in Horton-cum-Studley, although the child was baptised at Piddington. His name probably is enough proof that William Collett was formerly William Clark, since the child was named Frederick William Clark Collett. However, within the census of 1871 the child’s place of birth was stated as being Fencott. The census that year recorded the family as William Collett, aged 29, Emma Collett, aged 22, and their son Fredrick Collett who was two years old.
	Over the next decade another four children were added to the family while they were still living in Fencott. By 1881 the family residing at Fencott was made up of William, aged 41, who was a carpenter from Headington, his wife Emma, aged 32 from Piddington, and their five children, all of whom had been born at Fencott. They were Fredrick Collett, aged 12, Ellen R Collett who was eight, Anne E Collett who was five, Edwin C Collett who was three, and Willie Collett who was only seven months old.
	During the next ten years three further children were born into the family, the first of them at Fencott, with the latter two born at the family had moved to Charlton-on-Otmoor, where they were living in 1891. By that time William was 52, Emma was 42, and the children still living there with them were Frederick who was 22, Edward who was 13, William who was 10, Louisa who was eight, Arthur who was five, and Beatrice who was two years old. Of the couple’s two missing daughters, Ellen Rebecca Collett was 19 and was living and working not far away in Bicester, while Annie F Collett was 15 and was recorded in the Headington area of Oxford. Sometime during the last decade of the century, the family left Fencott and moved into Charlton-on-Otmoor, as confirmed by the census in 1901.
	On that occasion William Collett from Headington was still working at home as a carpenter with his own account at the age of 63. The property in which the family was living was one dwelling away from School House. Living there him was his wife Emma, aged 52 and from Piddington, and three of their sons and just one of their daughters. They were Edwin Collett who was 24 and a yardman working with cattle on a farm, William Collett who was 21 and an under carter with a horse at a farm, and Arthur Collett who was 13 (sic) and another yardman working with cattle on a farm, most likely with his two older brothers. All three of them were confirmed as having been born at Fencott. Their daughter Beatrice was 12 and had been born at Charlton-on-Otmoor. At that same time in 1901 William’s and Emma’s daughter Ellen was living and working within the Headington registration district of Oxford. Their other daughter Annie was married by then with a family of her own, and one of her children was staying with William and Emma, that being Ellen Marriott who was three years old and born at Market End in Bicester.
	By the time of the next census in April 1911, William from Headington was 73 and Emma was 63 and, living with the couple at Charlton, was their younger son Arthur who was 26, and their grandson Jack Collett who was nine and born at Charlton. He was the base-born son of William’s and Emma’s unmarried daughter Ellen Rebecca Collett. During the First World War the couple had to endure a double death in the family, when their sons Arthur and William were both killed in action during the summer of 1916.
	It was almost exactly two years after receiving that sad news when William Clark Collett died during September 1918, following which he was buried at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 21^st September. His death was recorded at Bicester [Ref. 3a 1021] as follows: Death in Sep 1918 of William C Collett of Charlton, aged 80. It has been assumed that the middle initial C was for Clark. Also laid to rest with her husband in the grounds of the parish church at Charlton was his widow Emma Collett of Charlton, who was buried there on 20^th March 1937 at the age of 88, following her death at Woodstock earlier that month. At the time of her passing she may have been living with her eldest son Frederick.
	46P45	Frederick William Clark Collett	Born in 1868 at Fencott
	46P46	Ellen Rebecca Collett	Born in 1872 at Fencott
	46P47	Anne Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1875 at Fencott
	46P48	Edwin Charles Collett	Born in 1877 at Fencott
	46P49	William Collett	Born in 1880 at Fencott
	46P50	Louisa Collett	Born in 1883 at Fencott
	46P51	Arthur John Collett	Born in 1885 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
	46P52	Beatrice Collett	Born in 1888 at Charlton-on-Otmoor
46O15	George Collett was born at Horton-cum-Studley but with no church at Horton he was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 5^th March 1843, the son of William Collett and Mary Ann Clark from Boarstall. Two years before he was born, his parents were living at Whitecross Green in Horton in 1841, so it seems likely that it was there where he was born. It was also in Horton that he and his family were still living in 1851 when George Collett was seven years old. Not long after the census day the family moved to nearby Beckley where his father died in 1855 and where his mother remarried in the autumn of 1857.
	In 1861, and at the age of 18, George and his older brother William (above) and his younger brother Ellis (below), were living at the Beckley home of their mother Mary Ann Payne, formerly Collett, and her second husband James Payne, when the brothers were described as the sons-in-law to head of the household James Payne. It is possible that his stepfather died during the 1860s, since by 1871 George was still living with his mother, who at that time had left Beckley and was staying at the Whitecross Green home of farmer William Cox. George Collett from Whitecross Green was unmarried at 28, and was working as an agricultural labourer, perhaps even employed by farmer Cox. Ten years later George, aged 38, was still living with his widowed mother, but at Charlton-on-Otmoor, where he was once again employed as an agricultural labourer. What happened to him upon the death of his mother is not known, as no record of him has been found in any census after 1881.
	It is possible, although not proved that George Collett later went to live at Boarstall where his mother had been born and where his brother John was living at one time. That assumption arising from a record that states George Collett, a farmer of Panshill in Boarstall, died on 11^th April 1918 and that his personal effects of £384 16 Shillings and 2 Pence was handled by farmer Ernest William Cox.
46O16	John Collett was born at Horton-cum-Studley in 1845, with his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. xvi 40) during the second quarter of that year. He was then baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 22^nd June 1845, the third son of William Collett and Mary Ann Clark. In 1851 he was living with his family at Horton-cum-Studley, when he was five years old and his place of birth was confirmed as Studley. Tragically four years later his father died, following which his mother married James Payne in 1857 and the family moved to the next hamlet of Beckley. However, by the time of the next census in 1861 John Collett, aged 15 and born at Whitecross Green, was living at the home of farmer William Blake and his wife Rebecca at Boarstall. At that time in his life John was working as a shepherd, while William Blake was the half-brother of John’s grandmother. Ten years later in 1871, John Collett from Charlton-on-Otmoor was 26 when he was living and working within the St Clements Headington area of Oxford.
	What happened to him after that time is currently not known although, in 1901, there was living in the Kensington area of London, a John Collett aged 56 who was born ‘near Stow Wood in Oxfordshire’, Stow Wood being within the parish of Beckley and adjacent to Horton-cum-Studley. He was married to Marian Collett, aged 53, who was born at Marylebone in London, and their daughter Frances Collett was 29 and had been born at Lambeth. Curiously no record of the family has been located in 1881 and 1891, nor again in 1911.
	46P53	Frances Collett	Born in 1871 at Lambeth
46O17	Ellis Collett was born at Horton-cum-Studley after the census day in 1851 and was the youngest of the four sons of William Collett and Mary Ann Clark. When he was baptised at Beckley parish church on 28^th September 1851 he was recorded as Eliseus Collett the son of labourer William Collett and his wife Mary Ann. Over the following years his parents took the family to live in the village of Beckley, two miles south-west of Horton, and it was there that his father died in early 1855. Two years after that loss, Ellis’ mother married James Paynes, and the new family was recorded living in Beckley in 1861. Son-in-law Ellis Collett was nine years old and a farmer’s boy, when living there with his mother, his stepfather, his half-sister, plus two of Ellis’ older brothers.
	Where Ellis Collett was over the next few decades has not been discovered, although by 1871, when he would have been 19, he may have joined the army and not been living in England. The situation was the same in 1881 when he would have been 29, with no trace of him having been found anywhere in Great Britain at that time.
	However, he returned from his travels during the 1880s and was recorded as unmarried Ellis Collett, aged 37, and an agricultural labourer from Horton who was boarding with Richard Maycock and his mother Anne Maycock at Wendlebury to the south of Bicester. He was still living with the Maycocks ten years later, when the census in 1901 confirmed that he was Ellis Collett from Horton who was 48, who was employed as an ordinary agricultural labourer. It was at Wendlebury that he was once again residing with Richard Maycock and his mother in 1911 when bachelor Ellis Collett from Horton was 59 and a labourer on a farm. Ellis Collett never married and it was in January 1926 that he passed away at the age of 74, following which he was buried in the churchyard of the parish church at Wendlebury on 23^rd January 1926.
46O18	Lewis Collett was born at Murcott in 1853, the eldest child of George Collett and Eliza Haskin, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. a 496) during the second quarter of the year. He was seven years old in the Murcott census of 1861 and in the Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1871 he was 17 and an agricultural labour who was still living with his family. Three years after that census day, the marriage of Lewis Collett and Selina Harris (aka Mary A S Harris) was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 971) during the third quarter of 1874. She had been born at Horsepath, near Wheatley, in 1853 and their first child was born at Murcott. Not long after the birth, the family moved to Farthinghoe in Northamptonshire where their next four children were born. For a short while the family next lived at Croughton, south-west of Brackley, where another child was born, before finally settling at Edgcote where all of Lewis’ and Mary’s remaining four children were born.
	Today there is no settlement at Edgcote but the site is well known for its famous battle of 1469, as one of the major battles in the Wars of the Roses.
	The family’s time at Farthinghoe was confirmed by the census of 1881 in which Lewis Collett, aged 28 of Murcott, was a carter and agricultural labourer married to Mary A S Collett aged 27 from Horsepath. Living with them at their home on South Street, were Albert Collett who was six and of Murcott, and Edith E Collett who was four, and Lewis S Collett who was two years old, both of them born after the family settled in Farthinghoe.
	The next census in 1891 revealed that the family was living at Edgcote in Northamptonshire, just north of Banbury, and was made up of Lewis Collett who was 38 and an agricultural labourer from Murcott, his wife Mary A S Collett who was 37, and their seven children. They were Albert Collett 16, Edith E Collett 14, Lewis S Collett 12, Austin Collett who was nine, Mary K Collett who was six, George H Collett who was three, and Frances E Collett who was under twelve months. Just after the turn of the century, Lewis Collett, who was then 49, was employed as a stockman on a farm in Edgcote, but on that occasion he gave his place of birth as Fencott. Interestingly, for the first time after they were married, his wife was listed as Selina Collett, aged 48 of Horsepath.
	By 1901, three children were absent from the family home, and they were Albert, Edith and Mary Kate, leaving five of the children listed in 1891, plus three new arrivals. They were Spencer Collett who was 21 and a carter on a farm (previously Lewis S Collett), Antin Collett who was 19 and a groom, George Collett aged 13, Fanny aged 10, Arthur Collett who was eight, William Collett who was five, and Minnie Collett who was two years old. It was not long after that day in 1901 that the Collett family left Edgcote and moved east into Buckinghamshire, where they settled in the village of Lillingstone Lovell, just north of Buckingham. According to the census of 1911, Lewis was 57 and his wife Selina was 56.
	The children still living with them on that day, were the five youngest, they being George Collett who was 23, Frances Eliza Collett who was 20, Arthur Collett who was 18, William Collett who was 15, and Minnie Collett who was 12. Sadly, for the family, the youngest son William died as a result of injuries sustained in serving his King and Country in 1918, at which time Lewis and Selina were still living at Lillingstone Lovell, where their son was buried.
	46P54	Albert Collett	Born in 1874 at Murcott
	46P55	Edith Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1876 at Farthinghoe
	46P56	Lewis Spencer Collett	Born in 1879 at Farthinghoe
	46P57	Auten Collett	Born in 1881 at Farthinghoe
	46P58	Mary Kate Collett	Born in 1885 at Farthinghoe
	46P59	George H Collett	Born in 1887 at Croughton
	46P60	Frances Eliza Collett	Born in 1890 at Edgcote
	46P61	Arthur Collett	Born in 1892 at Edgcote
	46P62	William H Collett	Born in 1895 at Edgcote
	46P63	Minnie Collett	Born in 1898 at Edgcote
46O19	Elizabeth Ann Collett was born at Murcott in 1856, the second child of George Collett and Eliza Haskins, her birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 503) during the third quarter of the year. By 1861 she was four years old and was still with her family at Murcott but ten years later, when Elizabeth Collett from Murcott was 15, she was working as a general domestic servant at Swanbourne near Winslow in Buckinghamshire, the home of farmer George Belgrove and his large family. Ten years later Elizabeth Ann Collett from Murcott was still carrying out general domestic duties, but at the Walton Street home, in Oxford, of the Isaac Alder, a butcher employing four men and one boy. By that time in her life, unmarried Elizabeth Ann was 25, the only servant working for the nine members of the Alder family.
	It was nine years later, on 13^th December 1890, at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor, that Elizabeth Ann Collett, aged 35, a spinster from Murcott and the daughter of George Collett, a labourer, married widower Thomas Buse who was 36 and a coachman from Michaelstow in Cornwall, the son of John Buse, a gardener. The bride’s brother William Collett (below) was one of the witnesses, and the event was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1389) during the last month of 1890. It is very interesting to note, that within the parish register for Michaelstow the banns of marriage for widower Thomas Buse, of that parish, and Elizabeth Ann Collett, spinster of the parish of Murcott, were published on 16^th, 23^rd and 30^th November 1890.
	Thomas already had a son living with him; William Buse born in 1878, who was 22 and a carpenter living with Thomas and Elizabeth at Port Isaac in Endellion, Cornwall in 1901. By that time Elizabeth had given birth to Beatrice Buse who was nine, Lewis Buse who was seven, and Spencer Buse who was four, all of them born at Michaelstow. Elizabeth Buse from Oxford was 46. Ten years later Thomas and Elizabeth were managing a boarding house in St Miniver, when Elizabeth Buse was 55 and born in Oxford. Still living with the couple was their daughter Beatrice Buse, together with Edith Buse, a daughter from Thomas’ first marriage.
	Thomas Buse was 59 years of age when he died in Cornwall on 31^st December 1923, with probate settled at Bodmin on 5^th April 1925, in favour of his widow Elizabeth Ann Buse. Following the death of Elizabeth Ann Buse in Cornwall on 4^th July 1935, and after probate at Bodmin on 16^th September 1935, the sole beneficiary was named as Beatrice Buse, daughter of the deceased.
46O20	William Collett was born at Murcott, most likely towards the end of 1857, with his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 575) during the first quarter of 1858. It was also at Murcott that he was living with his parents in 1861 at the age of three years, and at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1871 when he was 14 and an agricultural labourer. Nine years later, during the last three months of 1880, the marriage of William Collett and (1) Emily Louisa Cummings was recorded at Woodstock (Ref. 3a 1160). Emily had been born in the Berkshire hamlet of Wytham, near Wolvercote in Oxford, her birth recorded at Abingdon-on-Thames (Ref. 2c 247) during the third quarter of 1854. She was the daughter of Frederick Cummings and Fanny Simpson. Shortly after they were married, the childless couple was living at Middle Green Road in Horton-cum-Studley, where they were recorded in 1881. William Collett from Murcott was 24 and was working as a carpenter, while his wife Emily L Collett from Wytham was 26 years old
	Just over three years later, the death of Emily Louisa Collett was recorded at Headington (Ref. 3a 439) during the third quarter of 1884, when she was 29 years of age. After spending three years as a widower, William Collett married (2) Charlotte Steggall, the event recorded at Headington (Ref. 3a 1261) during the fourth quarter of 1887. Charlotte had been born at Marylebone in London towards the end of 1857 and was the daughter of William and Caroline Steggall. In 1881 Charlotte was still living with her family at the Grosvenor Building in Hanover Square, when she was 23 and a dressmaker.
	According to the next census in 1891, William Collett from Murcott was 34 and a wheelwright and carpenter, who was still living at Horton-cum-Studley. By that time in his life, his second wife had presented him with a son, when Charlotte Collett from London was 33 and their son William Collett was two years of age. It was a similar situation in 1901, when Murcott born William Collett was 44 and was still was working as a wheelwright and a carpenter. His wife Charlotte was 43 and their son William Collett was 12 years old and was listed as still attending the local school. Completing the household was William G Steggall from London, who was 35 and a brass finisher, Charlotte’s younger unmarried brother.
	In April 1911, the family was still living in Horton-cum-Studley when wheelwright William Collett, aged 54, was recorded as having been born at Charlton-on-Otmoor, while his London born wife Charlotte Collett was 53. Still living with them was their married son William, aged 23, and his Elizabeth who was 20, together with Charlotte’s brother William Steggall, who was 45 and a retired brass finisher.
	46P64	William Collett	Born in 1888 at Horton-cum-Studley
46O21	George Collett was born at Murcott in 1859 and the census for Murcott in 1861 recorded him as being two years old, while he was 11 ten years later in 1871. During the next decade, with his siblings leaving the family home, George and his parents moved from Murcott to Beckley just north of Oxford where they were recorded as living in 1881. At that time George was a bachelor of 21 whose occupation was that of an agricultural worker. The census record confirmed his place of birth as Murcott.
	By the time of the census in 1901 George was married and was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor, where he was working as a general labourer at the age of 42, and when his birthplace was confirmed as Murcott. His much older wife Caroline Collett was 54 and a dressmaker who had been born at Stanton St John. According to the census in 1911 George Collett had returned to the village of his birth. The census return for Murcott confirmed that he had been born there and that he was 51 years old. Living with him was his wife Caroline Collett who was 65 and born at Stanton-St-John.
	Appendix Two at the end of the file, lists apparently unrelated members of the Collett family, including those with a connection to the village of Beckley.
46O22	Alfred Collett was born at Murcott in 1862, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 529) during the third quarter of the year. He was aged nine years in the Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1871 and, upon leaving school, it would appear that he left Oxfordshire and moved to Hampshire where he was working in 1881. According to the census that year, Alfred Collett from Murcott, was working as an agricultural labourer at the age of 18. He was one of three men employed by farmer Thomas Honour on his 247-acre farm. Thomas was 51 and was formerly of Murcott and was Alfred’s uncle, his wife Esther Honour, nee Haskins, being the sister of Alfred’s mother Eliza Haskins, both of them born at Islip.
	In addition to working for Thomas Honour, Alfred was also living with his uncle and aunt at Church Farm in Eversley, within the Hartley Wintney area of Hampshire. Other connections between the Collett and Honour families include the marriage of Thomas’ younger brother Mark Honour and Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 46N15), the marriage of Jack Collett (Ref. 46Q55) and Freda Honour in 1926, Sarah Honour who was visiting the family of Albert John Collett (Ref. 46O54) in 1911, and Louisa Collett (below) working for farmer and publican William Honour at Murcott in 1861.
	It is unclear where Alfred was in 1891, although it is established that two years later, he married widow Alice Amelia Veary, nee Hayward of Charlton-on-Otmoor, whose birth as Alice A Hayward was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 561) during the last three months of 1863, the youngest child of John and Emma Hayward. In 1881, at the age of 18, Alice was in service as a kitchen maid at Kirtlington Mansion, the home of Henry W Dashwood, Baronet, Justice of the Peace, and farmer of an extensive estate employing 76 men, 14 boys, and 6 women. The marriage of Alfred Collett and Alice Amelia Veary was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1313) during the second quarter of 1893. The birth of the couple’s first child was recorded at Bicester during the last three months of that same year.
	As far as can be determined, Alice presented Alfred with just two children, both having been born at Murcott although, after the birth of the second child, the family moved to Charlton-on-Otmoor. By the end of March 1901, Alfred and Alice were both 38 and their children were Alfred Collett junior who was six and daughter Kate Collett who was five. Alfred’s occupation at Charlton that year was a non-domestic gardener. Living with the family in 1901, was nine-year-old Fred Veary from Murcott, who was described as the son of Alfred’s wife. Ten years later Alfred and Alice were both listed as being 47 in the Murcott census of 1911, when Alfred was a farm labourer from Murcott. Neither of Alfred’s two children were recorded with them, but Alice Collett from Charlton-on-Otmoor did have son Frederick Veary aged 19 and from Oxford living with them, working with Alfred as another farm labourer. Join him were two of his brothers, Thomas Veary aged 24 from Oxford, and Alfred Veary from Murcott aged 17, both of them also farm labourers. No trace has been found of their son Alfred who would have been 16, while their daughter Kate was 15 and was living and working in the Cowley St Clements area of Oxford.
	The earlier Oxford census in 1891 included Alice’s Veary family residing at East Avenue in the Cowley area of Oxford, where her first husband was 30-year-old police constable Frederick Veary from Buckinghamshire. Alice from Charlton-on-Otmoor was 27, and their two children were Thomas J Veary who was four, and Ethel A Veary who was three years of age. By 1901, after Alice had married Alfred, her youngest child, seven-year-old-son Alfred Veary, was staying with his grandparents.
	46P65	Alfred Collett	Born in 1893 at Murcott
	46P66	Kate Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1895 at Murcott
46O23	Louisa Collett was born at Fencott in 1849, the eldest child of John Collett of Murcott and his wife Matilda Attwood from Horton-cum-Studley. Her birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 42) during the first three months of that year, making Louisa two years old in 1851, when she was living with her parents and younger sister Selina (below) at Murcott. Ten years later she had left school and was already working as a house servant at the age of 12 in the hamlet of Murcott, close to her parents. Her employer was William Honour, a farmer and a publican of Murcott who was 30. His wife Phyllis Honour from Boarstall was 29 and their three Murcott born children were William, Ann and Lucy. That relationship was yet another connection between the Collett and Honour families, with William Honour being a son of Elizabeth Collett (Ref. 46N15) and Mark Honour, when Elizabeth was a first cousin of Louisa’s father John Collett.
	On approaching full age, the marriage of Louisa Collett and Thomas Higgs was recorded at Oxford (Ref. 3a 840) during the second quarter of 1869. Thomas was the son of John and Ann Higgs of Oakley in Buckinghamshire. Two years later, the childless couple was still residing in Oxfordshire, when agricultural labourer Thomas Higgs from Oakley was 24 and his wife Louisa Higgs from Murcott was 23. Over the following years, Thomas’ work as a labourer took him and Louisa to many different parts of the country, as indicated by the birth places of their children.
	By 1881, when the family was residing at Hilmer Street in Fulham, London, Thomas Higgs from Oakley was 35, Louisa Higgs from Murcott was 33, and their four children were listed as Florence E Higgs aged nine and born in Oxford, Thomas E Higgs who was six and born at Oakley, John A Higgs who was five and from Hunsbury in Yorkshire, and Clara Higgs who was two years old and born after the family had arrived in Fulham.
	It was also at Fulham that Thomas Higgs died during 1885, but not before he and Louisa had two more children. In the Fulham census of 1891, widow Louisa was 41 and earning a living as a laundress. With her that day was her married daughter Nellie Chalk, aged 19, (previously Florence E Higgs) and her very recently born son William Chalk of no age. Louisa’s two new children were Caroline Higgs aged nine, and Louisa Higgs who was three.
	After a further decade, Louisa Higgs from Oxford was 53 and a laundry woman who, with her daughter Louisa, aged 13, was staying at the Fulham home of Louisa’s married son John Higgs who was 25 and from Wakefield. His wife was Isabella Higgs from Fulham who was 24, by whom he already had two Fulham born children John Higgs aged three years and Albert Higgs who was one year old.
46O24	Selina Collett was born at Murcott on 15^th October 1850, the second child of John and Matilda Collett, who was six months old in the Murcott census of 1851, when living there with her family as Selina Collett. On the recording of her birth, at Bicester (Ref. 16 39) during the fourth quarter of 1850, she was named as Sylenia Collett, although that was the only known occasion in her life when that name was used. It was again as Selina Collett that she was still living with her family in Murcott in 1861. The marriage of Selina Collett and Joseph Shepherd was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 1035) during the last three months of 1870, with their wedding actually taking place at Oddington Church on 3^rd November. The witnesses at the wedding were William Busby and Eliza Walker, the latter being the daughter of Elizabeth Collett by her husband William Walker (Ref. 46N9).
	The childless couple was residing at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1871, within six months of their wedding, where Joseph Shepherd from Oddington was 19 and an agricultural labourer and Selina Shepherd from Murcott was 21. Around three years later and, after the birth of their first child at Charlton, the family moved to Joseph’s home village of Oddington, one-mile south-west of Charlton, where their subsequent children were born. Joseph was still working as an agricultural labourer at the age of 30, Selina was 31, and their four children were Emily B Shepherd who was eight, Walter J Shepherd who was six, Oliver Shepherd who was two, and Clara Shepherd who was under three months old.
	No record of her husband has been found after 1881, with Selina also missing from the census returns in both 1891 and 1901. By 1911, widow Selina Shepherd from Murcott was 61 and in domestic employment at the Woodstock home of the Schoolmaster and Head Teacher, James Haddon Overton, where she was the cook and housekeeper. Visiting her mother that census day, was Selina’s daughter Elsie Louisa Shepherd who was 20 and from Hinksey in south Oxford, whose birth was recorded at Abingdon (Ref. 2c 283) during the second quarter of 1892. The death of Selina Shepherd nee Collett was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 1416) during the second quarter of 1938, when she was 87. Although only five children for Selina and Joseph are named above, they actually had eight, one of which was Ethel Shepherd, the grandmother of Brenda Purves’ husband, it being Brenda who kindly provided the family details for Selina Collett.
46O25	Benjamin Collett was born at Murcott in 1852 and was baptised at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 15^th May 1852, the son of John and Matilda Collett. His birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 527) during the second quarter of 1852 but, tragically, around eighteen months later he died at Murcott on 15^th November 1853. The death of Benjamin Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 346) at the end of the year.
46O26	Clara Hannah Collett was born at Murcott either at the end of 1853 or early in 1854, with her birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 531) during the first three months of 1854. She was seven years old in the Murcott census of 1861 when she was living there with her parents. However, after leaving school, she was employed by farmer Robert Watts at Godington, north-east of Bicester when, as Clara Collett from Murcott, she was 18 years of age and a servant. A few years after 1871 something happened to Clara that took her from rural Oxfordshire to the industrial north, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Around the middle of the 1870s she married William Widdop who was born at Crigglestone, just south of Wakefield in 1854, and it was at Crigglestone where the couple’s four known children were born.
	It was also at Calder Grove in Crigglestone that the family was living in 1881. Clara’s husband William was 26 and was employed at a local paper-mill as a labourer, while Clara stated she was 24 (sic) and from Oxfordshire. Their children were Robert Widdop aged four, Rowena Widdop aged three, John William Widdop who was one, and baby George H Widdop who was one month old. Two other men were living with the family on that occasion, and they were paper-mill labourer George Widdop, aged 29 – William’s older brother, and Aaron George, who was 61 and a millwright.
	More children were added to their family which, by 1891, was still residing at Crigglestone. William Widdop was 37 and a paper maker and rag engineer, and Clara Widdop from Oxfordshire was also 37. Their seven Crigglestone born children were recorded as Robert Widdop aged 14, Rowena Widdop aged 13, John W Widdop who was 11, George H Widdop who was 10, Arthur Widdop who was six, Mary Matilda Widdop who was five, and Percy Widdop who was two.
	By the turn of the century the couple was still at Crigglestone when six of their seven their children were still living with William aged 46 and Clara 47. In the census of 1901 William was no longer working at the paper-mill, but was employed as a brewer’s labourer and gave his place of birth as Calder Grove. Clara gave her place of birth as Murcott. Of their children, Robert was 24 and John was 21 and they were both coalminers, George was 20 and an engine tester, Arthur was 16 and an apprentice joiner, Matilda 15 was a stinner at a worsted mill, and Percy aged 12 was an above ground colliery worker. The death of Clara Widdop, aged 61, was recorded at Wakefield register office (Ref. 9c 13) during the last quarter of 1915.
46O27	Emily Collett was born at Murcott near the end of 1855, with her birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 548) during the first quarter of 1856. She was five years in the Murcott census of 1861, when living there with her family, the third child of John and Matilda Collett. Rather curiously, she was not living with her family in 1871. Instead, she was described in the census that year as Emily Collett from Murcott who was 14 and a gentleman’s servant. That gentleman was George Collett, a baker from Murcott, who was 26 and living at Beckley with his wife Emma Collett from Worminghall, in Buckinghamshire, who was 35. Completing their family were twin one-year-old daughters Sarah and Mary Collett. George Collett (Ref. 46N23) was the cousin of Emily’s father John Collett.
	Nine years later, the marriage of Emily Collett and James George Bateman was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 1011) during the third quarter of 1880. Once married, the couple settled in the village of Fringford, four miles north-east of Bicester, where they were living in 1881 and by which time Emily had given birth to a daughter. James Bateman from Upper Heyford was 23 and a labourer, Emily Bateman from Murcott was 25, and their daughter Clara Ellen Bateman had been born at Fringford and was under three months old. In 1901 Clara Ellen Bateman married William Alfred Block, as recorded at Bicester register office.
	For some reason, no record of the family has been identified for the census in 1891 while, in 1901, the enlarged family was still living in Fringford. By then James was a labourer working on a farm at the age of 43, Emily was 45, with her place of birth said to be Murcott-on-Otmoor, and the three children living with them were Henry Bateman 13, Fred Bateman 11, and Rose Bateman aged nine. All three children had been born at Fringford. By the end of that decade, all of their children had left the family home in Fringford, where James George Bateman was still a farm labourer at 53 and his wife Emily was 55. With them, was their two-year-old granddaughter Dorothy Freda Bateman of Fringford.
	Twenty-eight years later, the death of James G Bateman was recorded at the Bicester Ploughley register office (Ref. 3a 1392) during the second quarter of 1939, when he was 81. After three years as a widow, the death of Emily Bateman, nee Collett, was also recorded at Ploughley (Ref. 3a 1900) during the second quarter of 1942, at the age of 86.
46O28	Rowena Collett was born at Murcott in 1857 who, in 1861, was referred to as Rosanna Collett aged three. Ten years later that was corrected in the census of 1871 when, as Rowena Collett, she was 12 years of age and still attending school. On both occasions she was living at Murcott with her parents, but there is a mystery surrounding her, since no further record of her has been found, either in any later census return, at a marriage, or upon her death.
46O29	Eli Collett was born at Murcott just prior to 7^th April 1861, the day that year’s census was conducted, in which he was only a few days old. His birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 571) during the second quarter of 1861, and should not be confused with Eli Collett (Ref. 49O8), whose birth was also recorded at Bicester, but during the previous year, as he was the son of Richard and Diana Collett. However, Eli Collett, the son of John Collett and Matilda Attwood, died at Murcott in 1865. When he was four years old, following which he was buried at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 28^th February 1865. His death was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 444) during March that year.
46O30	Herbert Collett was born at Murcott in 1863, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 574) during the second quarter of that year, another son of John and Matilda Collett. He was eight years old in the Charlton-on-Otmoor census of 1871 and was 17 in 1881 when he was still living with his parents at Fencott with Murcott. At that time, Herbert and his brother Walter (below) were both working with their father as agricultural labourers. Herbert’s mother died sometime during the 1880s so, by 1891, bachelor Herbert, aged 26 and an agricultural labourer, was living with his father John and brother Walter at Murcott. By the turn of the century, he was still living and working in the Fencott with Murcott area of Oxfordshire. The Murcott census of 1901 described Herbert Collett as being the head of the household, aged 36 and born at Murcott, whose occupation was that of a general labourer. Herbert was still a bachelor at that time, while no record of him has been found after that year.
46O31	Walter Collett was born at Murcott in 1865, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 568) during the third quarter of the year. He was five years old in 1871 and, ten years later, Walter Collett was 15 and was already working with his older brother Herbert (above) and his father as an agricultural labourer at Murcott, where they were all living at that time. Walter’s mother Matilda died during the 1880s so, by 1891, unmarried Walter Collett was 24 and a labourer still living at Murcott with his father John and his brother Herbert (above). However, before the end of that same year, Walter Collett married Ellen Busby from Charlton-on-Otmoor, the event recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 1475) during the last quarter of 1891.
	After their wedding day, the couple initially settled in Murcott, where their first two children were born. However, not long after the birth of the second child, the family headed for London and set up home in Hendon. According to the Hendon census of 1901, Walter Collett of Murcott was 36 and a cowman working on a farm, his wife Ellen Collett from Charlton was 37, and their Murcott born children were John Collett who was eight and Florence M Collett who was six, while the two children born at Hendon were William Collett who was three and Harry Collett who was just six months old. At that time the family was residing in Shoelands Cottage, where their three next-door neighbours were William Mannering, who was the steward at Hendon Asylum, Joseph Hill a medical practitioner, and John Hopkins a medical superintendent, all of which might indicate that Walter was working on the land attached to the asylum.
	And it was within the Hendon registration district that the family was still living in April 1911. Walter Collett was 42 and a farm labourer, Ellen Collett was 46, and their children were listed as John Collett aged 18, Florrie Collett aged 16, William Collett aged 13, and Harry Collett who was 10. On that occasion, Murcott was recorded as the place of birth for both Walter and Ellen and the two older children, while the birth place for their two youngest children was confirmed as Shoelands Cottage.
	46P67	Walter John Collett	Born in 1892 at Murcott
	46P68	Florence May Collett	Born in 1895 at Murcott
	46P69	William Collett	Born in 1898 at Hendon
	46P70	Harry Collett	Born in 1900 at Hendon
46O32	Jane Collett was born at Murcott in 1870 and was just one year old in the census of 1871 when she was living with her family at Murcott. Her absence from the family home in 1881 probably indicated that she died as a child during the 1870s. She was the last child of John Collett and Matilda Attwood.
46O33	Richard Collett was born at Arncott in 1855 the eldest child of John Collett and Lucy Foster. Rich Collett was five years of age in the Arncott census of 1861, but by 1871 when he was 15 Richard and his family were residing in the Buckinghamshire village of Boarstall. In the late 1870s he married local girl Florence Alice Arnatt of Fencott and the first of the couple’s two daughters was born at Elsfield just north of Oxford. Almost immediately after the birth of the child the family left Oxfordshire and moved to the Dorking area of Surrey where they were recorded as living at the time of the census of 1881. It was also in the area that the family was living in 1891, 1901 and 1911. However, the census in 1881 raises a big question over the ages of all members of the household. The census listed Richard Collett from Arncott as working as a farm bailiff who was employed by J Bonner Esquire on his 250-acre Shootlands Farm at Wotton near Dorking. Why then was his age stated as being 46 when he was 26, following which he was 35, 45 and 55 in the next three Dorking census returns.
	Richard’s wife Florence was listed as Alice Collett of Fencott who was 35 instead of 25, while their daughter Lucy Helen Collett from Elsfield who was recorded as being 14 and not just one year old. Living with the family and working with Richard as a bailiff’s help was his brother Walter. Whilst his place of birth was correctly recorded as Boarstall it was curious that he had the name Walter John Collett and not Walter George Collett and that he was 45 years old and not 15. During the next five years, the family moved the five miles south to Ockley where Richard and Florence’s second daughter was born. By 1891, the family comprised Richard aged 35, Florence aged 34, and daughters Lucy E Collett who was 11 and Martha A B Collett who was four years old.
	It was presumably Richard’s work as a farm bailiff that was the reason why the family made so many house moves and, just after the turn of the century, another move had taken place which took them to nearby Capel, where they were living in 1901. That year’s census confirmed that Richard was continuing to work as a farm bailiff, that he was 45 and from Arncott and, that his wife was Florence A Collett of Fencott. The couple’s two daughters were still living with them and were Lucy E Collett, a 21-year-old laundress, and 14-year-old school girl Martha A Collett of Ockley in Surrey.
	During the next ten years the couple’s youngest daughter Martha returned to Oxfordshire, to live with her grandmother Lucy Collett at Charlton-on-Otmoor. The rest of family remained living in the village of Capel, and in April 1911 were recorded as Richard Collett who was 55, his wife Florence Alice who was 54, and their unmarried daughter Lucy Ellen who was 24. Richard’s birth place was confirmed as Arncott, his wife’s as Fencott, and his daughter’s as Elsfield, and all within the county of Oxfordshire.
	46P71	Lucy Ellen Collett	Born in 1879 at Elsfield, Oxon
	46P72	Martha Alice C Collett	Born in 1886 at Ockley, Surrey
46O34	Martha Ann Collett was born at Arncott in 1857 and was four in the Arncott census of 1861. In 1862 her family left Arncott and moved to Charlton-on-Otmoor where Martha died in 1863. She was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 4^th March 1863 aged six, when her place of residence was confirmed as Charlton. Six days after her burial Martha’s baby sister Lucy Louisa Collett (below) was also buried there.
46O35	John Edwin Collett was born at Clew Hill (Farm) in Arncott in the fourth quarter of 1859 and was two years old in the 1861 Arncott census. Ten years later in 1871 he was listed as being aged 12, but for the next census in 1881 his age was given as 20. That year he was still living with his parents who, by that time, had left Arncott and were living at Pansole Farm in Boarstall, where John Edwin was simply listed as being a farmer’s son. It seems likely that, following the death of his father in December 1881, John took over running the farm, which it would appear he did until the early 1890s when he became a married man.
	It is also likely that he continued to live at Pansole Farm after he was married, where he was joined by his younger brother William (below) and his family around the mid-1890s. John married late in his life, being around thirty-three years of age when he wed Mary Jennings. The marriage took place in early 1893 and was recorded in the Thame registration district. Mary Jennings was born at Oakley in 1863 and was the daughter of farm labourer George Jennings of Turn Again Lane in Oakley in Buckinghamshire and his wife Ruth Lake of Boarstall.
	In 1881 Mary was in domestic service at 29 Montpelier Square in Westminster, the home of retired licenced victualler Joseph Edmons who came from Edgcott in Buckinghamshire, not far from Mary’s own home. By 1891 Mary had returned to Oakley and was living with her parents once again.
	John and Mary were both listed in the 1901 Census and were living at Boarstall where John’s occupation was that of a farmer 40. Mary of Oakley was aged 36. However, instead of giving his place of birth as Arncott, John gave it as Boarstall Honeyburge. The marriage is understood to have produced nine children for the couple, of which only five are detailed below. In the 1901 Census only two of the couple’s possible four children were listed with John and Mary, and they were Ruth who was four and Annie who was one year old, and both of them born at Boarstall.
	The census of 1911 confirmed that farmer John Edwin of ‘Cluehills’ (Clew Hill) was 52, and that his wife of eighteen years was Mary, aged 48 and from Oakley. At that time the couple were living at Arngrove Farm midway between Boarstall and Brill. The children living with them in April 1911 were Lucy Ruth, aged 14, Annie Elizabeth, aged 11, Mary Margaret, who was nine, Hilda Maud, who eight, and Lillian Edith who was two. It therefore must be assumed that the four unnamed children listed below had died by that time, and the first two before 1901.
	Also living with the family was 53-year-old servant Walter George Allam from Oddington in Oxfordshire, whose occupation was listed as being a cowman and farm labourer. In addition to him, John’s cousin one-step-removed Aubrey Collett (below) was also living at Arngrove Farm at that time. John Edwin Collett lived a long life and died at Charlton-on-Otmoor on 13^th December 1943 at the age of 84 and was buried shortly after at Boarstall.
	46P73	a Collett child	Born in 1893 at Boarstall; infant death
	46P74	a Collett child	Born in 1895 at Boarstall; infant death
	46P75	Lucy Ruth Collett	Born in 1897 at Boarstall
	46P76	Annie Elizabeth Collett	Born in 1899 at Boarstall
	46P77	Mary Margaret Collett	Born in 1901 at Boarstall
	46P78	Hilda Maud Collett	Born in 1902 at Boarstall
	46P79	a Collett child	Born in 1904 at Boarstall; infant death
	46P80	a Collett child	Born in 1906 at Boarstall; infant death
	46P81	Lillian Edith Collett	Born in 1908 at Boarstall
46O36	William Foster Collett, who was known as Bill, was born at Clew Hill (Farm) in Arncott in either late 1860 or early 1861 as he was under one year old at the time of the 1861 Census. By 1871 he was aged ten and was living with his parents, whereas by April 1881 he was 20 and had left the family home by then. That year’s census recorded him living alone at nearby Horton-cum-Studley in what appears to be accommodation attached to Warren Farm where he was employed as a domestic industrial general servant. The census also confirmed his place of birth as having been Arncott.
	Around eight and a half years later, when he was approaching his twenty-ninth birthday, William married (1) Mary Leach at Oxford during the fourth quarter of 1889, Mary having been born at Blackthorn in 1867. Mary was the daughter of farmer James Leach and his wife Emma of Arncott. According to the 1881 Mary was 13 and was living with her family at Ambrosden just west of Blackthorn. Shortly after the couple were married Mary presented William with the first of their three known children.
	By the time of the census in 1891 the family of three was living at Arncott where William was 30, Mary was 23, and their son William was just one year old. Two years later the couple’s second and third child were born at Arncott where the first was also born, before the family moved across the county boundary to settle in Boarstall. The move to Boarstall may have been a return to the family home at Pansole Farm where it is known William and his family lived during his life. William’s older brother John Edwin had managed the farm following the death of their father died at the end of 1881 and had probably continued to run the farm until around 1893 when he married, after which it may have been jointly managed by the brothers.
	According to the census of 1901 the family still living at Boarstall comprised farmer William, aged 40 of Clew Hill, and his two sons William, who was 11, and Richard, who was eight, both of them listed as having been born at ‘Cluehills’ (Clew Hill) in Arncott. His youngest son Hubert was absent from the family home on that day when, as Hubert W Collett aged six years and from Cluehill, he was a visitor at the home of widower James Griffin, the employer of his aunt Edith Bessie Collett (below) – his father’s sister – at The Limes in Tetsworth, three miles south of Thame. Tragically the family had suffered a double loss during the 1890s with, first the death of William’s and Mary’s daughter Lilian, and later Mary herself, who died in 1895 while giving birth to baby Hubert.
	About eleven years after Mary had died William married (2) Eva Annie Jane Malin during the spring of 1906. That took place in Warwickshire and was registered in the Rugby area. Eva was the daughter of boot maker and postmaster George Malin and his wife Elizabeth who was an assistant shopkeeper. Eva was born at Willoughby near Rugby in 1882 and was over twenty years younger than her husband William Collett. At the time that she married William she was working with her parents in their shop and post office in Willoughby.
	Once married the couple continued to live in Boarstall where their son was born a few years later. However, shortly after the birth, the family left Boarstall and moved the short distance to nearby Brill where they were living in April 1911. The census that month revealed that William Foster Collett was 50 and his new wife Eva was much younger at 28 years of age. At that time, they were living at Panshill Farm in Brill, where William was a farmer from Arncott. It seems highly likely that it was at Pansole Farm in Boarstall where they were living at that time.
	The census confirmed that the couple had only been married for four years, but that the marriage had produced one son for William and Eva. It seems very likely that further children may have been born into the family over the following years. In addition to their new baby son, two of William’s surviving children from his previous marriage were also still living with the family. The new arrival was Leslie P Collett who was just one year old, and the two older boys were Richard J Collett, aged 17, and Hubert W Collett, who was 15, who were both working on the farm with their father. William Foster Collett lived a long life and died at Boarstall on 20^th July 1945 at the age of 84 and was followed shortly after by his wife Eva, who died on 9^th June 1947.
	46P82	William Collett	Born in 1889 at Arncott
	46P83	Lillian Esther Collett	Born in 1891 at Arncott
	46P84	Richard J Collett	Born in 1893 at Arncott
	46P85	Hubert Walter Collett	Born in 1895 at Arncott
	The following is the only known child of William Collett by his second wife Eva:
	46P86	Leslie P Collett	Born in 1909 at Arncott
46O37	Lucy Louisa Collett was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in June 1862 and died nine months later and was buried at St Mary’s Church in Charlton on 10^th March 1863 six days after her older sister Martha Ann Collett (above) was buried there.
46O38	James Bottrell Collett was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1864 and was baptised there on 5^th June 1864, the son of John Collett and Lucy Foster. After he was born, the family left Charlton and moved to Boarstall. In the two census records following his birth he was seven years old and 17, and for the latter he was listed as a farmer’s son and was still living with his parents at Pansole Farm in Boarstall.
	Ten years later James was 26 when he was living with his widowed mother Lucy and three of his siblings in the Bicester area. At the age of thirty-one in the summer of 1895 James Bottrell Collett married Ellen Martha Cox at Bicester, where the marriage was recorded at the register office (Ref. 3a 1470) during the third quarter of the year. The witnesses at the wedding were Herbert Alfred Cooper and Susan Watson. Ellen was born at Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley in 1866 and was the daughter of farmer Thomas Cox and his wife Margaret. It is very likely that Ellen Martha was a niece to Anne Cox of Horton-cum-Studley who married Thomas Collett in 1867.
	Almost immediately after they were married Ellen presented James with a son while they were living at Murcott. The family then left Murcott and moved to nearby Arncott where they were living at the time of the 1901 Census. James B Collett was a farmer of 36 from Charlton, Ellen M Collett his wife was 34 and of White Cross Green, and their son Murray J Collett was four years old and of Murcott. It was later that same year when the couple’s next child was born, although sometime after the birth the family left Oxfordshire and moved across the county boundary in to neighbouring Warwickshire.
	By the time of the next census in 1911 the family had been extended by the birth of a further two sons, both of whom had been born after the family had settled in the Warwickshire village of Willoughby. According to the census that year for Willoughby & Grandborough James Bottrell Collett, aged 46 and from Charlton in Oxfordshire, was a farmer and a grocer, while his wife Ellen Martha Collett was 44. The children listed with them on that occasion were Murray James Collett, aged 14 and from Murcott, Cyril John Collett, who was nine and whose birthplace was confirmed as Arncott, Rowland Thomas Collett, who was seven, and Basil Dean Collett who was four, both of Willoughby. At that time in their life the family was supported by a domestic servant Nellie Ridley who was 16, while their daughter Marjorie must have been born after the second of April 1911.
	46P87	Murray James Collett	Born in 1896 at Murcott
	46P88	Cyril John Collett	Born in 1901 at Arncott
	46P89	Rowland Thomas Collett	Born in 1903 at Willoughby, Warw.
	46P90	Basil Dean Collett	Born in 1906 at Willoughby, Warw.
	46P91	Margery L C Collett	Born in 1914 at Rugby, Warw.
46O39	Walter George Collett was born in 1866 just after his parent left Charlton-on-Otmoor for Boarstall, where they were living in 1871. The birth of Walter George Collett was registered at Bicester (Ref. 3a 611) during the second quarter of 1866, the seventh child of John Collett and Lucy Foster. He was five years of age on the occasion of the Boarstall census of 1871, but was not living with his family at Boarstall in 1881. Instead, he was living and working in Surrey with his farm bailiff brother Richard and his family at Wotton near Dorking. However, the accuracy of the detail within the census has been brought into question. Why every member of the household was credited with an enhance age is the big issue. According to the census return, Walter John Collett, rather than Walter George was 15, although his place of birth was correctly given as Boarstall in Buckinghamshire. At that time, he was working for his brother as a bailiff’s help at Shootlands Farm which was owned by J Bonner Esq.
	It was at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1235) during the third quarter of 1890 that Walter George Collett married (1) Ellen Parker who was born at Ambrosden in Oxfordshire near the end of 1864, not far from where his older siblings were born. She was the daughter of William and Emma Parker, and her birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 610) during the first three months of 1865. Almost immediately after being married, Walter and Ellen set out for London, where they were residing in the Camberwell & Peckham district a few months later in 1891, with Ellen shortly to give birth to the first of their four children. The Camberwell census that year, recorded them as Walter George Collett from Boarstall who was 25 and a milkman, and his wife as Ellen Collett from Oxfordshire who was 26.
	Walter and pregnant Ellen left London not long after that census day and made their way back to Oxfordshire and the village of Blackthorn, near Arncott and Ambrosden, where their first child was born in the autumn that same year. The couple’s second child was also born there, the birth of both children recorded at Bicester register office. Around the middle of the 1890s the family temporarily lived at Southmoor in Berkshire, for a short while where the third child was born, before settling in the village of Waterstock, midway between Oxford and Thame, towards the end of that decade. And it was there that the couple’s fourth and last child was born. However, Ellen did not survive the ordeal and died during the birth or shortly after. The death of Ellen Collett, nee Parker, was recorded at Thames register office (Ref. 3a 545) during the first three months of 1901 when she was 36, after which she was buried in the graveyard at St Leonard’s Church, Church Hill in Waterstock on 4^th February 1901.
	By the time of the census at the end of March that year, Walter was a widower when he and his young family were living in a cottage at Tiddington, near Waterstock. The census return that month confirmed that Walter G Collett was 35 when his sister unmarried Esther Collett, aged 33 and the housekeeper, was looking the needs of the family. Walter was employed as a farm bailiff, while the place of birth for both him and his sister was recorded as Panshill in Buckinghamshire, a likely reference to Pansole Farm in Boarstall – see below. Their children in 1901 were named as Winifred Eva Collett who was nine, and Walter C F Collett who was eight, both of them born at Blackthorn, Percival J Collett who was six and born at Southmoor, and William J Collett who was only two months old who had been born at Waterstock.
	Three years later, Walter George Collett married (2) Elizabeth A M Way who was from Ickford near Aylesbury. Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of farmer Thomas Richard Way from Worminghall and his wife Sarah from Ickford. The marriage of Walter George Collett and Elizabeth Ann M Way was recorded at Headington register office in Oxford (Ref. 3a 1862) during the second quarter of 1904. By the time of the next census in 1911 the family had been dramatically reduced, with only Walter’s youngest son still living with him and his new wife. The three of them were still residing in Waterstock, where Walter Collett from Boarstall was 45 and a farm bailiff who had been married to Elizabeth, aged 40, for six years with no issue. Walter’s son was named as William Collett from Waterstock who was 10 years of age and still attending the local school, while their accommodation was described as having five rooms.
	Of Walter’s three absent children in 1911, Percy was living and working in the Summertown area of north Oxford, while his only daughter was living and working nearby within the Marston Headington district of Oxford in 1911 when she was described as Winifred Eva Beatrice Collett aged 19 and from Blackthorn. As regards Walter’s missing eldest son Walter, no record of him has been found in Great Britain in 1911, despite him certainly still being alive long after that time. It is also worth noting that it was at Panshill Farm [Pansole Farm] where Walter’s older brother William was living with his family in 1911.
	Walter G Collett was 83 years old when his death was recorded at the Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 6b 1083) in 1950. After four years as a widow, the death of Elizabeth A M Collett was also recorded at the Oxfordshire register office (Ref. 6b 1140) during 1854, at the age of 83.
	46P92	Winifred Eva Beatrice Collett	Born in 1891 at Blackthorn
	46P93	Walter Cecil F Collett	Born in 1893 at Blackthorn
	46P94	Percival James Collett	Born in 1894 at Southmoor
	46P95	William John Collett	Born in 1901 at Waterstock
46O40	Esther Collett was born at Boarstall in 1867 and was three years old in the Boarstall census of 1871. Ten years later Esther was 13 when she was living at Pansole Farm in Boarstall with her family. Sometime after completing her schooling, Esther Collett went to live with her aunt and uncle Sarah and James Bottrell at their home and baker’s shop in Charlton-on-Otmoor. And it was there that she was still living and working, as a baker’s assistant in 1891 when she was 23 years old. James Bottrell was 77 and died at Charlton when he was 84. According to the next census in 1901, Esther Collett from Panshill was 33 and the housekeeper, living at the home of her widowed brother Walter G Collett, helping him look after his four young children. By April 1911 Esther Collett, from Panshill, was still a spinster at the age of 43, when she was living with her elderly mother Lucy Collett at Charlton-on-Otmoor. Also living with them was Esther’s younger sister Beatrice M Collett who was 39 and also born at Panshill, and the sisters’ niece Martha Alice C Collett, the daughter of their oldest brother Richard Collett (above).
46O41	Edith Bessie Collett was born at Boarstall, Buckinghamshire, in 1870 and was one year old in the census of 1871. Ten years later, according to the census in 1881, she was 11 years of age when she and her family were living at Pansole Farm in Boarstall. With the death of her father later that same year, Edith was still living with her widowed mother Lucy in 1891 and was 20 years old. Upon the death of her mother, spinster Edith sought work as a domestic servant and, in 1901 and at the age of 30, Edith B Collett was living at The Limes in Tetsworth, a village on the main road between Oxford and London. On that occasion, her place of birth was written as Panshill, Bucks – which is in Boarstall. At that time in her life, she was working for 76-year-old widower James Griffin, while visiting The Limes that day was Hubert W Collett from Cluehill in Oxfordshire, who was six years of age. Hubert Walter Collett was Edith’s nephew, the son of her brother William Foster Collett and his wife Mary Leach who died during the birth.
	Sometime after 1901 Edith married William (Will) Harding and it is thought that they lived at Hampton Poyle, just north of Kidlington. However, in 1911 Edith Bessie Harding from Boarstall was 40 when she was living with her husband and her brother-in-law at Onley Fields in Rugby, Warwickshire. William Harding from Northumberland was a farmer and was also 40, while his brother John Harding, also from Northumberland, was 44.
	Edith B Harding was still living in Warwickshire when she died in 1939. Probate of her Will confirmed that Edith Bessie Harding of White House in Willoughby, wife of William Harding, died on 2^nd December 1939, when the executors of her state valued at £210 19 Shillings and 11 Pence and proved in London 1^st March 1940 were named as Hubert Walter Collett and John Robert Pickering, farmers. The death of Edith Bessie Harding at the age of 69 was recorded at Rugby register office (Ref. 6d 1292) during the fourth quarter of 1939. It seems highly likely that Hubert Walter Collett was raised by Edith from the time of his birth and the death of his mother in 1895, until his father William Foster Collet remarried in 1906, after which they were reunited, as confirmed in the 1911 census.
46O42	Beatrice Mary Collett, who was known as Beattie, was born at Boarstall in 1871. At the age of nine years, she was living with her family at Pansole Farm in Boarstall. Beatrice was still living with her widowed mother at Boarstall in 1891 at the age of 19 and was listed as being 28 in the 1901 Census. By April 1911, when Beatrice M Collett was 39, she was living at Charlton-on-Otmoor with her mother Lucy, her sister Esther, and her niece Martha A Collett. Beatrice never married and, possibly following the death of her mother, she returned to live at Boarstall where she died just short of her sixtieth birthday on 16^th May 1930, and it was there also that she was buried.
46O43	Herbert Spencer Collett was born at Boarstall in 1874. His early years were spent at Pansole Farm in Boarstall where he was six years old at the time of the census in 1881. His father John died at the end of that same year when he was still six, following which he continued to live with his mother until towards the end of the century, at which time he left the family home to make his way in the world. In the Murcott census of 1901, Herbert Collett was 26 and was a farmer, when he said he had been born at Panshill, rather than Pansole. Lodging with him at Murcott was Richard Collett from Fencott who was 53 and a thatcher. It may be significant that Herbert’s older brother William Foster Collett (above) and his family were living at Panshill in Brill in 1911.
	It was two years later, when the marriage of Herbert Spencer Collett and (1) Mary Elizabeth Collett was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1821) during the second quarter of 1903. Mary was the twin daughter of George Collett and Emma Hawes (Ref. 46N23) who was born at Fencott in 1870. Mary was Herbert’s cousin, one-step-removed, they sharing the same great grandfather Richard Collett (Ref. 46L2). One the day the next census was conducted in 1911, the couple was living at Beckley where Herbert Collett from Panshill was 35 and a grazier and his wife of seven years was Mary Collett who was 40 and from Fencott. Although the census return confirmed that no children had been born to the couple, Mary may well have been with-child on the day of the census, since it is established that the marriage produced at least one child who was more than likely born at Murcott and he is known to have lived at nearby Fencott at some time during his life.
	After just fourteen years together, the death of Mary E Collett was recorded at Headington register office (Ref. 3a 1870) during the second quarter of 1917, when she was only 47 years of age. Herbert lived the next four years as a widower and, during the fourth quarter of 1921, his married to (2) Eva Belson was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 2524). Eva was many years younger than Herbert and was a spinster who was born at Chalgrove, her birth registered at Thame in 1891, the daughter of Thomas and Kate Belson. While no death record has been identified for Herbert, his second wife died on 17^th October 1946, her passing recorded at the Bicester Ploughley register office (6b 856), following which probate of her estate was resolved at Oxford on 5^th March 1947 and found in favour of Annie Belson.
	46P96	Herbert Collett	Born circa 1911 at Murcott
46O44	Arthur Collett was born at Murcott in 1852, the only known child of Richard Collett from Boarstall and his wife Mary from Oakley, whose birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 504) during the third quarter of the year. Not long after he was born, he was baptised at the parish church in Charlton-on-Otmoor on 17^th July 1852 when his parents were confirmed as Richard and Mary Collett. With no later record of his mother, it seems likely that she may have not survived his birth. By the time of the census in 1861 Arthur Collett aged eight years and from Murcott was living with his grandparents Richard and Martha Collett at Bicester when his father Richard was living and working in Birmingham. His elderly grandparents passed away during the 1860s, so in 1871 Arthur Collett was 18 and was working as a farm servant at Boarstall on the farm of his uncle John Collett from Wendlebury, his father’s older brother.
46O45	Charles William Thomas Collett was born at Fencott on 9^th June 1889, his birth, as the only child of elderly farmer William Collett and his younger wife Susannah Turner, being recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 822) during the third quarter of the year. As Charles W T Collett, he was one year old in the Fencott & Murcott census of 1891 and was 11 years of age in the Murcott census of 1901. Following the death of his father, Charles W T Collett took over the running of the farm at Fencott with Murcott, as confirmed by the census conducted in 1911. On that same day, his widowed mother was performing the role of domestic housekeeper. It was fourteen years later, when Charles was preparing to become a married man, when his mother passed away, just a few weeks before that happy day.
	The marriage of Charles W T Collett and Lucy C Bradford was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 2533) during the second quarter of 1925. Both then, Charles would have been around 36 years old and, so far, no record of the birth of any children has been found. Charles and Lucy may have continued to live together, farming in the area of north Oxfordshire, since it was at Banbury register office (Ref. 6b 2424) that the death of Charles William T Collett was recorded during the summer of 1970. However, the only recorded death of a Lucy C Collett, was reported to the Oxford register office (Ref. 6b 1346) during the first three months of 1951, when she was 59 years of age.
	It is now believed that Lucy C Bradford was indeed Lucy Clara Bradford, the third child of carpenter Charles Bradford from Wiltshire and his wife Annie from Oxford (Osney village). Her birth, at Brislington in Somerset, was recorded at Keynsham (Ref. 5c 612) during the last quarter of 1891. It was at the Church of St Luke in Brislington that Lucy Clara Bradford was baptised on 1^st November 1891, the daughter of Charles Henry Bradford and Annie Eva Bradford. In 1911, Lucy Clara Bradford was 19 years old and living and working in Bristol, where she was described as a domestic cook employed at the home of Wilfred James Hussey Pinniger, a doctor of medicine.
46O46	Aubrey Thomas Brownlow Collett was born at Whitecross Green in Horton-cum-Studley during the third quarter of 1868, where his parents were married before the end of the previous year. Curiously, his birth was recorded at Headington (Ref. 3a 596), under the name of Aubrey Brownlow Collett. His mother, Anne Cox, was also born at Horton but, by 1871, the family was residing at Arncott, where Aubrey Thomas Collett from Horton was three years old. Ten years later, it was within the Fencott and Murcott census registration district where the family was living in 1881. On that occasion, Aubrey Collett was 13 and a farmer’s son, whose place of birth was said to be Arncott, where the family had settled shortly after his birth.
	Aubrey was again working with his father Thomas, on their farm at Fencott in 1891, when he was 23 and still described as a farmer’s son. Just less than nine years later, the marriage of Aubrey Thomas Brownlow Amy Elizabeth Mary Haynes was recorded at Headington register office (Ref. 3a 1007) during the first quarter of 1900. Amy was born at Oddington and was the daughter of Oddington farmer William Haynes and his wife Maria. By the end of March in 1901, the recently married couple was living at Boarstall, across the county boundary in Buckinghamshire, where farmer Aubrey Collett from Whitecross Green was 32 and his wife Amy Collett from Oddington was 29.
	After a further ten years the marriage appears not to have produced any children for Aubrey and Amy, even after eleven years together. According to the census in 1911, they were living at, and working Arngrove Farm, midway between Boarstall and Brill. Aubrey Collett was 43 and from Arncott, while Amy was 40 and from Oddington. Arngrove Farm was also where Aubrey’s cousin one-step removed, the farmer John Edwin Collett, lived with his family. Supporting Aubrey on the farm was Frank Tott, aged 17 and a pupil farmer from Kensington in London, and Ernest Clifford, aged 15 who was a farm labourer from Maidenhead. Helping Amy in the farmhouse was domestic servant Bessie Faulkner who was 23 and from Ludgershall.
	The death of Amy E M Collett nee Haynes was recorded at Aylesbury register office (Ref. 3a 1373) during the third quarter of 1944, when she was 75 years old. After just over two years as a widower, the death of Aubrey T Collett was also recorded at Aylesbury register office (Ref. 6a 427) during the first three months of 1947. He was 78 years of age.
46O47	Herbert James Collett was born at Arncott in 1871 during the first three months of that year, with his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 657) during the second quarter of 1871. His earlier birth was confirmed in the Arncott census of 1871, when Herbert James Collett was the younger of the two children living there with their parents Thomas Collett and Anne Cox. Ten years later, and at the age of 10, he was described as Herbert Collett from Arncott who was living with his large farming family at Fencott. On leaving school he worked with his father and older brother on the family’s farm at Fencott when, as Herbert Collett he was 20 years of age and a farmer’s son in 1891.
	Eight years later, the marriage of Herbert James Collett and Emma Kilby was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1689) during the second quarter of 1899. Emma was born at Launton, near Bicester where her birth was recorded (Ref. 3a 677) during the first three months of 1875, the eldest surviving daughter of farmer Charles R Kilby and Kate Phillips. By 1881, Emma’s father had died, leaving her mother a widow, who had taken over the running of the family’s farm of 750 acres, employing 12 men and four boys. That same census return confirmed that Emma Kilby, aged six years, was the older sister of Florence Kilby of Launton, who married Herbert’s cousin Thomas Hopcraft Collett (below). According to the census of 1901 Herbert Collett of Arncott was 30 and a farmer at Ludgershall, which is about five miles from Launton and three miles from Arncott. His wife Emma was 26 of Launton, and listed with them were their two daughters Doris, who was one year old, and Elise who was under three months old. The family also employed a domestic servant, Louisa Moores from Ludgershall, from was 16.
	Both of Herbert’s daughters had been born at Ludgershall in Buckinghamshire, with their births recorded at Aylesbury register office, the first of them (Ref. 3a 804) during the fourth quarter of 1899, and the second of them (Ref. 3a 843) during the second quarter of 1901, even though she had been born before the day of the census that year. Thereafter, it is unclear what happened to the young family, with it being likely that Emma Collett, nee Kilby, suffered a premature death after the birth of the couple’s second child or during the birth of a further child, who also did not survive the ordeal. However, the only recording of the death of an Emma Collett, of the right age, was reported at Shipston-on-Stour register office in Warwickshire (Ref. 6d 331) during the third quarter of 1907.
	Certainly, Herbert Collett was a widower living with his parents on their farm at Fencott in April 1911. According to the census return that year, Herbert Collett of Arncott was 40 and a widowed farmer’s son who was working on the farm, presumably with his elderly father Thomas Collett of Fencott who was 69. Herbert’s mother Annie Collett from Horton was 64 and completing the household was her granddaughter Eton Collett from Ludgershall who was 10 years of age and the only surviving child of Herbert James Collett. Her entry on the census return was very likely a mis-interpretation or mis-transcription of the name Elsie Collett, who would also have been ten years old.
	On that same census day in 1911, Herbert’s first-born child, Doris Collett from Ludgershall, was 11 years of age and a visitor at Tower Farm in Boarstall, not far from Ludgershall. That was the home of siblings Sidney P Blake, a farmer from Boarstall who was 32, and Sarah A Blake who was 40 and also from Boarstall. Brother and sister were both unmarried while Sarah, who was acting as housekeeper for her brother, was supported by housemaid Beatrice L Tortrum aged 23 from Heyford in Oxfordshire.
	Following the death of his mother during the summer of 1911 and the death of his father only ten years later, Herbert appears to have remained living and farming in the Fencott area of Oxfordshire, with the death of Herbert J Collett recorded at the Bicester Ploughley register office (Ref. 3a 3395) during the first quarter of 1940, by which time he was 68 years old. The record of his death should not be confused with the passing of Herbert J Collett (John) also at Ploughley, but in 1939, who was the husband of Lillian M Collett (Ref. 46Q86) and born at Bicester in 1898
	46P97	Doris Collett	Born in 1899 at Ludgershall
	46P98	Elsie Victoria Collett	Born in 1901 at Ludgershall
	46P99	Eton Collett – may be an error for Elsie	Born in 1901 at Ludgershall
46O48	Mildred Bessie Collett was born at Arncott, towards the end of 1873, with her birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 677) during the first three months of 1874. Shortly after she was born at Arncott, her father’s work as a farmer resulted in the family moving to nearby Fencott where, she was seven years old in 1881 and was 18 years of age in 1891, but without any form of occupation. She was therefore, most likely helping her family manage the farm and farmhouse at Fencott. Nine years later, and within six months of the census of 1901, the marriage of Mildred Bessie Collett, a farmer’s daughter, and William Clements Blake, a farmer, was recorded the City of Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 1701) during the last three months of 1900. William was born at Boarstall, in Buckinghamshire, the youngest child of farmer Henry Blake from White Crow Green and his wife Emma Blake from Charlton-on-Otmoor.
	Once they were married, William and Mildred made the 40 odd mile journey north to the town of Daventry in Northamptonshire, where they farmed at Drayton Fields, just north-west of the town. It was also at Drayton Fields where their only known children were born. Prior to becoming a family, it was just William Blake, aged 31 and a farmer from Boarstall, and his wife Mildred Blake, aged 27 and from Charlton-on-Otmoor, who were working the land at Drayton Fields, assisted by Charles Jackman who was 19 and also from Boarstall, and Mary Golder from Bicester who was 14. Charles was employed as an agricultural labourer and carter on the farm, while Mary was a general domestic servant at the farmhouse. Described as visiting the couple, was 19-year-old Emma Mary Sutherland from Charlton-on-Otmoor, who was living on her own means. She was the eldest child of schoolmaster Arthur W Sutherland, from Kensington in London, and his much-younger second wife Sarah Sutherland, from Buckinghamshire.
	By the end of the first decade of the new century, according to the Daventry census conducted during the first week of April in 1911, the family comprised William Clements Blake, a farmer from Boarstall who was 41, Mildred Bessie Blake from Fencott who was 37, Henry Arthur Blake who was seven and born at Drayton Fields, and Nelson Thomas Blake who was six and also born at Drayton Fields. A local 14-year-old girl from nearby Braunston, Rosemond Beatrice Ward, was employed by the family as a domestic servant.
46O49	Beatrice Martha Collett was born at Fencott during the last weeks in 1875, her birth also recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 726) during the first few weeks of 1876. She was another daughter of Thomas Collett and Anne Cox and was five years old and was 15 years of age in the next two census returns for Fencott in both 1881 and again in 1891. By 1901, Beatrice Collett was 25 and with no stated occupation, when she was still unmarried and continuing to living with her parents and younger brother Percy (below) at Fencott with Murcott. It was three years later, during the last three months of 1904, that the marriage of Beatrice Martha Collett and Matthew James Cox was recorded at Oxford City register office (Ref. 3a 1633). Matthew was a member of the Cox family from Horton-cum-Studley, and therefore very likely related to Beatrice’s mother Annie Cox who was also born there.
	The marriage produced at least one known child for the couple, who was born at Northmoor, not far from the River Thames to the south-west of Bablock Hythe, where a ferry used to take vehicles across the river, now long since gone. The family farming at Northmoor included Matthew James Cox who was 38, Beatrice Martha Cox who was 33, and Thomas Norman Cox who was five years of age. Working on the land with Matthew, was farm servant Arthur William Rear, from Northmoor, who was 26.
46O50	Percival Cox Collett was born at Fencott in 1877, his birth being recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 675) during the third quarter of that year, when he was named as the son of Thomas Collett and his wife Anne Cox. He was four years old and was 13 in the next two Fencott censuses in 1881 and 1891. By March 1901 he was referred to as Percy Collett when he was 23 and was still living with his parents at Murcott, where he was described as a farmer’s son. Shortly after the census day it would appear that Percival moved to nearby Ludgershall where, it is possible, he worked with his brother Herbert James Collett (above) who was living there with his young family.
	It was during the next couple of years that Percival was married (1) for the first time, that marriage producing a daughter for him who was born at Ludgershall. However, it would appear that the mother of his children did not survive since in 1909 Percival Cox Collett married (2) Ada Martha Davenport at Chorlton in Lancashire, where the event was recorded (Ref. 8c 1205) during the last three months of that year. The witnesses were named as Gladys Edith Armitage, William Dalley and Mary Ellen Miller.
	Once married Percival returned to Charlton-on-Otmoor where the couple was living in April 1911 together with his daughter Amy. The census return on that occasion confirmed that Percival Cox Collett from Fencott was 33, that his wife Ada Martha Collett was also 33, and that Amy Collett of Ludgershall was six years old. Percival Cox Collett lived a long life and died in 1964 at the age of 87, his death being recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 6b 872) during the third quarter of the year.
	46P100	Amy Collett	Born in 1904 at Ludgershall
46O51	Ernest Arthur Collett was born at Fencott in 1879, with his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 710) during the third quarter of the year. Despite this, it was simply as Arthur Collett that the was two years of age in 1881 and was 11 years old, ten years later in1891. Tragically, after finishing his schooling, it seems that whatever occupation he took up, it may have been an accident at work that ended his life. Ernest Arthur Collett was 15 years of age, when his death was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 451) during the last three months of 1894.
46O52	Mary Elizabeth Collett was born at Fencott in 1870, and was the slightly older twin sister of Sarah Anne Collett (below). The registration of their births at Bicester recorded the same birth number (Ref. 3a 671) during the first quarter of that year, but with Mary having the earlier suffix of 181. Shortly after she was born, her family moved to Beckley where they were living in 1871, when Mary and her twin sister were one year old. Another move took place in the next decade when, in 1881, the family was living at Darkwood Farm in Swyncombe, where Mary E Collett was 11, as was twin sister Sarah.
	In the census of 1891, she was living with her family in the Bicester area once again, when she was recorded as Elizabeth Mary Collett, aged 21. Unlike her sister Sarah, Mary was still unmarried at the start of the new century when she was 30 and was still living with her parents at Writchwick Farm in the Market End area of Bicester at the time of the census in 1901. Two year later Mary married her cousin, one-step-removed, Herbert Spencer Collett (Ref. 46O43), where the remainder of her life story can be found.
46O53	Sarah Anne Collett was born at Fencott in 1870 and was a twin with her sister Mary (above). Her birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 671) during the first three months of the year, the same registration number being used for both girls, but with a later suffix of 185. Before the girls were one year old the family of four have left Fencott and in early April 1871 were recorded as living in the hamlet of Beckley within the Headington St Clements area of Oxford, when both girls were one year old. A further move during the 1970s took the family to Swyncombe near Watlington where they were living at Darkwood Farm in 1881. Sarah A Collett was listed in the census as being aged 11, the same age as her sister Mary (below).
	Sarah Ann Collett was 21 in 1891, by which time her family was again living within the Bicester & Bletchington registration district. With no record of her as Sarah Anne Collett after that time, it must be assumed that she was married during the 1890s. However, it is highly likely that Sarah married Ernest Cox who was born at Charlton-on-Otmoor in 1869, especially since there were two previous links between the Collett and Cox families. Sarah and Ernest initially settled in Murcott where their son Wilfred Cox was born in 1898, before they moved to Boarstall where they were living in 1901 and again in 1911.
	Ernest Cox was 31 and a farmer at Boarstall, his wife from Fencott was 30 and their son Wilfred was two years old and had been born at Murcott. One more child was added to the family, so ten years later, the Boarstall census of 1911, listed the family as Ernest Cox from Charlton who was 42 and a farmer, Sarah Cox who was 41 and from Fencott, with sons Wilfred Cox who was 12 and born at Murcott, and Kenneth Cox who was two years old and born at the family had settled in the Panshill area of Boarstall.
46O54