PART FORTY-SEVEN

The Fyfield & Eastleach Martin Line

Updated May 2023

This is the family line of Timothy Mark Collett (Ref. 47R2) of Cirencester, which is denoted by the names in capital letters, and Frances Francis (see Ref. 47P13)

The settlement that this line centres on is ‘Fifield’ near Eastleach Martin in Gloucestershire, very close to the county boundary with Oxfordshire. Today it is spelt Fyfield, and is NOT the Fifield in Oxfordshire which is situated midway between Burford and Upper Slaughter in Gloucestershire. Being a hamlet, Fyfield did not have a church of its own in those early days and this was why baptisms, marriages and burials were conducted at the parish church of St Michael & St Martin in nearby Eastleach Martin

The research so far has not revealed any links to any of the other Gloucestershire lines and the only common ground is the village of Cowley. In 1881 members of this branch of the family were living there with Colletts from Part 3 - The Chedworth Line

GEORGE COLLETT [47L1] was born around 1760 and possibly at Fyfield, the older brother of Richard Collett (below), whose parents are not known. George later married Mary and their two known sons were baptised in a joint ceremony at Eastleach Martin. It has not been determined if the boys were twins, but it is more likely that they were not because George would have been thirty-six years of age on the day they were baptised. Previously listed as a child of this family was Richard Collett, but it has since been discovered that he was not the child of George and Mary, nor was he born at Fyfield in Gloucestershire, but at Fifield in Oxfordshire. His details have therefore been removed and placed in the Appendix the end of this file for future reference

47M1 – George Collett was born circa 1792 at Fyfield

47M2 – CHARLES COLLETT was born in 1795 at Fyfield

Richard Collett [47L2] was born at Fyfield in 1763, the younger brother of George (above) who, with his brother, may have been the first Collett name recorded for that area of Gloucestershire. Around 1790 he married Mary who was ten years younger than Richard, having been born in 1773, with all of their children probably born at Fyfield, although they were all baptised at Eastleach Martin. Mary died at Fyfield and was buried at Eastleach Martin on 24^th July 1822 at the age of 49. Eleven years later Richard died and was buried with his wife on 17^th April 1833. The entry in the parish register described Mary as being ‘of Fifield’, while her husband was recorded as ‘Richard Collett of Eastleach Martin alias Burthorpe’.

47M3 – Thomas Collett was born in 1794 at Fyfield

47M4 – Henry Collett was born in 1798 at Fyfield

47M5 – Jane Collett was born in 1800 at Fyfield

47M6 – Eleanor Collett was born in 1803 at Fyfield

47M7 – Mary Collett was born in 1807 at Fyfield

47M8 – Richard Collett was born in 1811 at Fyfield

47M9 – Elizabeth Collett was born in 1814 at Fyfield

George Collett[47M1] was born around 1792 at Fyfield, the son of George and Mary Collett. He was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 12^th October 1796, the same day that his brother Charles (below) was baptised there. It is his brother Charles’ connection with Alvescot, three miles east of Eastleach Martin, which may be confirmation enough that George also moved east into Oxfordshire, where he met and married Elizabeth Shayler. Elizabeth may have been a few years old when she was baptised at Bampton, midway between Faringdon and Witney, on 9^th June 1805, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Shayler. It was also at Bampton that George Collett married Elizabeth Shayler on 12^th April 1819, and that was also where all of their children were born

Just over six months after they were married Elizabeth presented George with their first child, who was baptised at Bampton, as were the couple’s subsequent children. Tragedy seems to have struck the family between the birth of the last child and the census in June 1841 because, by then, there would appear to be no record of George or his wife Elizabeth. Likewise, no record has been found of their eldest three children, while their two youngest sons, William and George, were living apart but within the Witney & Bampton registration district. The couple’s two youngest daughters were inmates at Witney Union Workhouse, where they were presumably orphans

471N1 – Mary Anne Collett was born in 1819 at Bampton

471N2 – Job Collett was born in 1821 at Bampton

471N3 – Joseph Collett was born in 1823 at Bampton

471N4 – William Collett was born in 1825 at Bampton

471N5 – George Collett was born in 1827 at Bampton

471N6 – Esther Elizabeth Collett was born in 1830 at Bampton

471N7 – Martha Collett was born in 1835 at Bampton

CHARLES COLLETT [47M2] was born at Fyfield in 1796 and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 12^th October 1796. He later married Sophia during 1830 when she was 20 years of age, having been born at Alvescot around 1810. The marriage produced eleven children for Charles and Sophia and all of them were born at Fyfield. It is also confirmed that the baptism of the couple’s first two children was conducted at the parish church in Eastleach Martin. According to the first national census held on 6th June 1841, Charles was given the rounded age of 40, while his wife Sophia had a rounded age of 30. Charles was employed as an agricultural labourer and living with the couple at Fyfield were their first six children. They were Mary aged 11, Charles junior who was 10, Robert who was eight, Eleanor who was six, Luanna who was four, and Enos who was two years old. The family was extended by a further three children during the next decade, although the family suffered the loss of one of those children with the death of seven-year-old Josiah in 1850

On the day of the next census for Fyfield in 1851 Charles and Sophia were listed more accurately as being aged 53 and 40 respectively. Their children on that occasion were named as Mary Collett who was 21, Charles Collett who was 20, Robert Collett who was 18, Eleanor Collett who was 16, Susanna Collett who was 14, Enos Collett who was 12, John Collett who was 10, Obadiah Collett who was five, and Emmanuel Collett who was three years of age. Five and a half years after the census day in 1851, Sophia Collett made the mark of a cross as one of the witnesses at the Bibury wedding of her daughter Eleanor (Ellen) Collett, the other witness being Sophia’s son Enos

During the remaining half of that decade the format of the family changed and, by the time of the census in 1861, they were residing at Bowthorpe village (in Eastleach Martin) where 63-year-old Charles Collett from Eastleach Martin was still working as an agricultural labourer. Sophia Collett from Alvescot was 51, and living with the couple that day were their three sons Obadiah Collett who was 16, Emanuel Collett who was 12, and Nehemiah Collett who was nine years old. All three sons were confirmed as having been born at Eastleach Martin, and all were employed as agricultural labourers, most likely working alongside their father. Also staying with the family at that time was the couple’s grandson William Collett, who was four years old and born at Northleach, who was the base-born son of Charles and Sophia’s daughter Luanna Collett

According to the next census for the Northleach & Bibury registration district in 1871, the family of Charles and Sophia Collett was still living in Fyfield. Charles from Fyfield was 75 and described as ‘out of employ’, while his wife Sophia from Alvescot was 63. Living with the couple was their son Nehemiah Collett, aged 19 and from Fyfield, who was an agricultural labourer, and their grandson William Collett who was 14 and from Northleach, who was also an agricultural labourer

Twelve months before the next census in 1881, the death of Charles Collett was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 283) during the first three months of 1880, when he was 83. His passing was confirmed in the census the following year, when Sophia Collett was a widow at the age of 69 (sic) who was still living in Eastleach as the head of the household and formerly the wife of a labourer. Living with her that day, was her granddaughter Ellen Silman of Black Bourton in Oxfordshire, the daughter of Charles and Sophia’s now married daughter Luanna, who was attending the nearby school. Ten years later in April 1891, Sophia gave her age as being 80 at a time when she was a visitor at the Black Bourton home of her daughter Luanna Silman. Sophia died at Eastleach near the start of the following year and was described as being 'of Fifield' in the burial register for 1892. Her death was subsequently recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 332) during the first three months of 1892 at the age of 84 (sic), the informant not knowing the year in which she was born

47N8 – Mary Ann Collett was born in 1829 at Fyfield

47N9 – Charles Collett was born in 1831 at Fyfield

47N10 – Robert Collett was born in 1832 at Fyfield

47N11 – Eleanor Collett was born in 1835 at Fyfield

47N12 – Luanna Collett was born in 1837 at Fyfield

47N13 – Enos Collett was born in 1839 at Fyfield

47N14 – John Collett was born in 1841 at Fyfield

47N15 – Josiah Collett was born in 1843 at Fyfield

47N16 – Obadiah Collett was born in 1845 at Fyfield

47N17 – Emanuel Collett was born in 1849 at Fyfield

47N18 – Nehemiah Collett was born in 1851 at Fyfield

Thomas Collett [47M3] was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 11^th day of a month in 1794, the name of which is illegible in the parish record. He was the eldest child of Richard and Mary Collett of Fyfield and is believed to have married Ann

Henry Collett [47M4] was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 18^th March 1798. He only survived for a short while and died during the following year

Jane Collett [47M5] was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 3^rd August 1800. When she was twenty-seven years old, she gave birth to a base-born baby daughter and two years later she married John Stanton at Eastleach Martin on 19^th September 1829. Jane Stanton born in Gloucestershire was 47 (sic) and a married woman, one of five domestic servants employed at Suffolk Lawn in Cheltenham in 1851. Suffolk Lawn and Lypiatt Terrace lie within the affluent area of the town. It was also in Cheltenham, three years later, that the marriage of Mary Jane Collett and William Houlder was recorded (Ref. 6a 857) during the last three months of 1854, when she was 26

47N19 - Mary Jane Collett was born in 1827 at Fyfield

Eleanor Collett [47M6] was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 16^th October 1803, a daughter of Richard and Mary Collett. Sadly, Eleanor died in 1820 when she was only seventeen years of age

Mary Collett [47M7] was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 19^th April 1807, another daughter of Richard and Mary Collett

Richard Collett [47M8] was, according to the Family Bible compiled by his son George Collett, born on 17^th June 1811 at Fyfield and was initially recorded as Richard Collat. In addition to which the IGI listing includes Richard Collett who was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 15^th July 1810, the son of Richard and Mary Collett. However, as the Bible date has been confirmed by the Gloucestershire Records Office, it must therefore be assumed the IGI entry is in error and should read as 15^th July 1811 for the date of his baptism. Richard later married (1) Priscilla Brown on 15^th March 1840 at Cowley, just south of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, but not before she had given birth to their first child one year earlier. Curiously, Richard was recorded as having been born at Eastington near Northleach, rather than Eastleach. Priscilla was the daughter of Joseph and Mary Brown and at the time of their wedding Priscilla was expecting the birth of the couple’s second child

Less than three months after they were married, Priscilla presented Richard with his first son and, by the time of the June census of 1841, Richard, Priscilla and George were living right next door to Priscilla’s parents in Cowley. The absence of their daughter Emily was confirmation that she had suffered an infant death, having died during the previous year. Exactly three years after the birth of the couple’s first son Priscilla presented Richard with a second son, from which it would appear she never recovered. Tragically, just over two months after that happy event of the birth of their second son, Priscilla died on 16^th September 1843, the cause of death stated as being ‘decline’, this presumably being the decline in her health since giving birth. The death of Priscilla Collett was recorded at Cheltenham (Ref. xi 124) during the third quarter of 1843

Richard spent the rest of his life at Cowley where his two surviving sons from his first marriage were born. And it was also at Cowley nearly seven years later, on 9^th March 1850, that Richard Collett married (2) Esther Broad who was born in 1816 and the daughter of Thomas Broad. Their wedding day was recorded at Cheltenham (Ref. xi 241) during the spring of 1850. His second married produced no children for Richard and, a year after they were married, Richard and Esther were living together in Cowley, as recorded by the 1851 Census. Richard from Fyfield was aged 37 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Esther from Cowley was 35, and his two sons George and James were aged ten, and seven years respectively, and both of them were already working on the land as plough boys. Within the next ten years Richard and Esther seem to have parted company due to Esther’s mental state, since in the Cowley census of 1861, Richard was 49 and only had living with him his two sons George who was 20 and James who was 17. At that same time in 1861, Esther Collett was a patient at the County Lunatic Asylum in the North Hamlet area of Gloucester, where she was listed as being aged 45 and born at Cowley, the wife of a labourer

During the next ten years the couple were reunited and were living together again at Cowley by 1871, when agricultural labourer Richard Collett from Fyfield was 61 and Esther from Cowley was 55. Living with them, and listed as a visitor, was Richard’s widowed younger sister Elizabeth Lafford, who was 59 and a nurse, who had also been born at Fyfield. Another separation of Richard and his wife appears to have taken place over the next decade since the 1881 Census only listed Richard Collett ‘of Fifield in Gloucestershire’ aged 70, an agricultural labourer living at Hill Cottages in Cowley. Still living with him was his sister Elizabeth Lafford, while Richard was still recorded as being married, while his estranged wife Esther Collett, aged 66 and born at Cowley, was living at the union workhouse in nearby Cheltenham, where she was recorded as a widow and a pauper. In exchange for her accommodation, Esther was employed at the workhouse as a general servant. Just seven years after the census day Richard Collett died at Cowley in 1888, his death recorded at Cheltenham (Ref. 6a 257) during the second quarter of 1888, when he was 78 years old. The later death of Esther Collett aged 79 was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 312) during the first three months of 1895

47N20 – Emily Collett was born in 1839 at Cowley

47N21 - George Richard was born in 1840 at Cowley

47N22 - James Collett was born in 1843 at Cowley

Elizabeth Collett [47M9] was born at Fyfield in 1814 and was the youngest child of Richard and Mary Collett. She later married George Lafford at Eastleach Martin on 27^th October 1832 when she was already carrying his child. George was born at Broughton Poggs in Oxfordshire around 1808, the base-born son of Sarah Lafford who was baptised as Sarah Lawford on 30^th August 1778 at Eastleach Turville. Sarah appears to have married Joseph Titchener when George was around five years of age. Their son Thomas Titchener was baptised at Broughton Poggs on 3^rd March 1816. The marriage of Elizabeth and George produced only one known child for the couple, Mary Ann Lafford who was born at Fyfield not long after they were married. Sometime after her birth, the family of three settled in Broughton Poggs, where they were living on the day of the census in 1841. On that occasion George Lafford had a rounded age of 30, his wife Elizabeth was 27, and their daughter Mary Ann was eight years old. Living with the family was George’s widowed mother Sarah Titchener who was 60, together with George’s half-brother Thomas Titchener who was 25 – whose death was recorded at Witney at the end of 1875 when he was 60. Completing the household was Thomas’ son Thomas junior who was four

Ten years later, agricultural labourer George Lafford from Broughton Poggs was still living there at the age of 42. Recorded there with him was his wife Elizabeth Lafford aged 38 from Fyfield, as was their daughter Mary Ann Lafford who was 18. Still living with the family was George’s widowed mother Sarah Titchener, another agricultural labourer and a pauper of 71 years. The couple was still residing there in 1861 when George was 52 and Eliz Lafford 48. Just over two years later, the death of George Lafford was recorded at Cheltenham (Ref. 6a 372) during the third quarter of 1863. As result of her loss, widow Elizabeth Lafford was working as a nurse in 1871 when she was 59 and living with her brother Richard Collett (above) and his wife Esther at Cowley near Cheltenham

By the time of the Cowley census of 1881 the widow Elizabeth Lafford, who was 68, was continuing to live with her brother Richard Collett at Hill Cottages in Cowley, when her place of birth was confirmed as being ‘Fifield in Gloucestershire’. Also living at Hill Cottages in Cowley at that same time was baker Henry Collett (Ref. 3O33), aged 33 and of Painswick, together with his wife Sarah Ann Collett from Huntley who were living at the home of Henry’s mother-in-law Sarah Long of Cowley. Henry was the son of John Collett of Chedworth, all as detailed in Part 3 – The Chedworth Line

Elizabeth Lafford nee Collett may have moved into Cheltenham following the death of her brother in 1888, since her death was recorded there (Ref. 6a 301) during the first three months of 1896 when she was 82. Where she was in 1891 has not yet been discovered. Her daughter Mary Ann Lafford would have been 18 or 19 when she married James Farmer at Witney, where the event was recorded during the third quarter of 1851. James came from the village of Langford near Broughton Poggs and in the subsequent census returns for 1861, 1881, and 1891 James and Mary Ann were residing in Langford, Faringdon, when her birthplace was recorded as Broughton Poggs. However, in the census of 1871, Mary Ann's birthplace was recorded in error as Fyfield. By April 1911, and following the death of her husband in 1906, Mary Ann Farmer was a widow living alone in Langford, when once again her birthplace was recorded as Fyfield. The couple’s first-born child was Sarah Ann Farmer, while their second child was named George. Their fourth child was born in 1859 and he was Joseph Farmer, the grandfather of Shirley Kinniburgh’s stepfather. And it was Shirley who kindly provided the information for the file update in December 2015

Mary Anne Collett [47N1] was born at Bampton in 1819, where she was baptised on 24^th October 1819, just six months after her parents George Collett and Elizabeth Shayler were married there. The baptism record gave her name as Mariann Collett. If Mary Anne survived it is very likely that she was married by the time of the census in 1841

Job Collett [47N2] was born at Bampton during1821, the second child and eldest son of George and Elizabeth Collett who was baptised at Bampton on 5^th May 1822. No further record of Job has been found in any of the census returns for Great Britain, whereas his brothers William and George (below) were still living in the Bampton area in 1841 following the probable deaths of both of their parents between 1836 and 1840

Joseph Collett [47N3] was born at Bampton in 1823, the third child of George and Elizabeth Collett. Curiously no record of him or his parents have been found in 1841, when his two youngest siblings were inmates at Witney Union Workhouse. This may indicate that his parents had died by then, when Joseph would have only been around seventeen years old. In addition, no record of him has been found in either of the census returns for 1851 and 1861 although, it was around two or three years later that he married Susan who had also been born in Bampton, but around 1835, she being twelve years younger than Joseph

It seems likely that they were married at Bampton, or possibly at Cirencester where all their children were born and where they were living in 1871. From his occupation it is clear that Joseph had been a professional soldier, and that was most likely the reason for his absence in the earlier census records. The census in 1871 listed Joseph Collett from Bampton as being 47, his wife Susan A Collett was 35 and from Bampton, and their four Cirencester born children were Victor George Collett, who was five, whose second name was from his grandfather, Eliza Ann Collett, who was three, her name being that of her grandmother, Sidney Joseph Collett, who was one-year-old, and Wilfred Harry Collett who was still an infant

One more child appears to have been added to the family five years later, although there may have been others born to the couple during the intervening years who did not survive. According to the census in 1881 the family was living at 15 Church Street in Cirencester, where Joseph as 57 and a Chelsea pensioner, Susan Ann was 45, Victor G Collett was 15, Eliza Ann Collett was 13, Sydney J Collett was 11, Wilfred H Collett was 10, and Harold W Collett was four

Ten years later Joseph and Susan only had two of their children still living with them at Cirencester. By that time Joseph was 67, Susan was 55, Eliza was 23, and Harold was 14. After a further ten years the Cirencester census in March 1901 recorded Joseph Collett from Bampton as an army pensioner at the age of 77, his wife Susan A Collett from Bampton as 65, and still living with them was their eldest daughter, unmarried Eliza Ann Collett aged 33. It was just over two years later that Joseph Collett died at Cirencester, when his death at the age of 80 was recorded at the register office there during the third quarter of 1903 (Ref. 6a 201). It would also appear that his widow Susan passed away not long after that, because she was not listed in the census of 1911

47O1 - Victor George Collett was born in 1865 at Cirencester

47O2 - Eliza Ann Collett was born in 1867 at Cirencester

47O3 - Sydney Joseph Collett was born in 1869 at Cirencester

47O4 - Wilfred Harry Collett was born in 1871 at Cirencester

47O5 - Harold William Collett was born in 1876 at Cirencester

William Collett [47N4] was born at Bampton in either late 1824 or early in 1825 and was baptised there on 30^th January 1825, the son of George and Elizabeth Collett. William may have been only ten years old when his mother died, possibly during the birth of his sister Martha (below). Apart from him being listed in the Witney & Bampton census of 1841, as William Collitt at the age of 16, no later record of him has been found in England after that time

George Collett [47N5] was born at Bampton during 1827 and it was there also that he was baptised on 20^th May 1827, the youngest of the four sons of George and Elizabeth Collett. Following the death of his mother when he was only eight, and the subsequent death of his father shortly thereafter, George Collett, aged 15, was still living in Bampton in 1841, but not with any member of his family, although his brother William (above) was also living there at that same time

Esther Elizabeth Collett [47N6] was born at Bampton in 1830 where she was baptised under her full name on 7^th March 1830, the daughter of George and Elizabeth Collett. Esther would have only been five years old when her mother died, and not long after which her father also passed away, since by the time of the census in 1841 Esther Collett, aged 10 years, and her younger sister Martha were inmates at the Witney Union Workhouse in the village of Curbridge to the south-west of the town. This, and the absence of any record of their parents at that time, more or less confirms that the two girls were orphans

It was possibly around nine years later that the two sisters became separated, when Esther returned to live in Bampton where she gave birth to a base-born daughter towards the end of 1850. From the child’s baptism record it is likely that the surname of unnamed father was Steptoe. So, by the end of March in 1851, the Bampton Census that year included Esther Collett, aged 20 and from Bampton, with her baby daughter Elizabeth, who was only six months old. Esther was still a spinster when she gave birth to three more children during the 1850s, although there is speculation that the father may have been Alfred Corke with whom she was living at Bampton in 1861 and to whom she was later married in 1868

The census that year recorded Esther as unmarried Ester Collett, aged 30 and from Bampton, who was the housekeeper of bachelor and agricultural labourer Alfred Corke, aged 38 and also of Bampton, at his home at 4 Bridy Anns Cottage in Bampton. Esther, who was also described as an agricultural labourer, had with her three Bampton born children, and they were Elizabeth Collett, aged 10 and another agricultural labourer, Alfred Collett who was six, Ann Collett who was four, and Walter Collett who was one-year old. Her two daughters had both been baptised at Bampton, although no similar record has been found for her sons Alfred and Walter, and on both occasions the parish record only gave the name of the mother, that being Esther Collett

After a further seven years together the marriage of Esther Collett and Alfred Corke was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 951) during the second quarter of 1868. By that time the three children born since 1861 had been given the surname of Corke. In addition to this, Esther’s earlier Collett children had also taken the Corke name by the time of the next census in 1871. Alfred Corke had been baptised at Bampton on 5^th October 1825 and was the son of Edmund and Mary Corke. Therefore, he would have been nearer 36 years of age in 1861, rather than the 38 recorded in the census return. Certainly, in the later census returns, his age was given more realistically as 66 and 76

According to the Bampton census of 1871, agricultural labourer Alfred Corke was 42 (instead of 46), his wife Hester was 40 and was also an agricultural labourer, as was her son Alfred Corke, formerly Collett, who was 16, and her daughter Ann Corke, formerly Collett, who was 14. On that occasion the family was living in a dwelling on Mill Lane in the hamlet of Weald midway between Bampton and Clanfield. The other children completing the family were Ada Corke who was nine, Alma Corke, who was four, and Florence Corke who was two years old. Missing was Walter Corke, formerly Collett, who would have been eleven years of age had he been alive. However, living with the family was another Walter Collett who was one-year old and born at Bampton who was described as Esther’s grandson. He was most likely the base-born son of Esther’s eldest daughter Elizabeth Steptoe Collett

During the following year, another child was added to the Corke family with the birth at Bampton of Edith M Corke in 1872, who was most likely the last child of Esther Collett and Alfred Corke. For whatever reasons, most of the family had left home by 1881, when the Bampton census that year only recorded Alfred as an agricultural labourer at 59 (sic), his wife Esther who was 55 instead of 50, and their daughter Alma who was 14. What is of immense interest is that the only other person living with them was Esther’s grandson John Collett, who was 11 and also born at Bampton

By the time of the next census in 1891 Alfred Corke was 66 and his wife Esther was 60 and all of their children had left the family home by then, and it was the same situation in 1901 when the census that year only recorded at Bampton, Alfred Corke, aged 76, who was still working as a general labourer, and Esther Corke who was 70. It was just less than two years later that the death of Alfred Corke was recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 3a 595) during the first quarter of 1903 when he was 77, and he was survived by his wife for a further seven years. Esther Elizabeth Corke nee Collett was 79 years old when she died, her death recorded at Witney register office (Ref. 3a 559) during the last three months of 1910

As regards the children of Alfred Corke and Esther Collett, their details are as follows:

Ada Corke was born at Bampton during 1861 and was the first child legally born to Esther Elizabeth Collett and her husband Alfred Corke. By 1871 the family was residing in Mill Lane in the hamlet of Weald to the south of Bampton where Ada Corke was nine years old. Upon leaving school Ada entered into domestic service and at the time of the next census in 1881 she was working as a live-in servant at the home of the Gray family at Folly Bridge in North Hinksey, to the west of the City of Oxford. Ada Corke from Bampton was 19 and was described as a dairy maid and agricultural labourer who was employed by dairyman Job Gray. It was towards the end of the following year that Ada Corke married Charles Lay, their wedding recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 1267) during the fourth quarter of 1882. The marriage produced a total of eight children who were all born at Bampton. Ada Lay died in 1947, while her husband Charles, who had been born in 1860, had passed away three years earlier in 1944

Alma Louisa Corke was born at Bampton during 1866, the second child of Alfred and Esther Corke. By 1871, when Alma was four, she was living with her family in Mill Lane within the hamlet of Weald close by Bampton, and it was simply at Bampton that she was living in 1881 when she was 14 and the only child still living with her parents. After a further ten years, the census in 1891 revealed that Alma L Corke, aged 25 and from Bampton, was living on her own means while a boarder at the Meadow View, Wolvercote home of her older half-sister Ann Marie Collett (above) and her husband and their three children. Six years later the marriage of Alma Louisa Corke and Thomas Tanner was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 1555) during the fourth quarter of 1896. By 1901 the pair of them was residing at Church View in Bampton where Thomas Tanner from Walford in Herefordshire was 29 and Alma Tanner from Bampton was 33

Florence Ellen Corke was born during 1868 at Bampton, the third child of Alfred and Esther Corke, whose birth was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 669). Florence may have been born in the hamlet of Weald near Bampton, since it was there that she and her family were living at Mill Lane in 1871 when Florence Corke was two years old. When Florence E Corke from Bampton was 12 and still attending school in 1881, she was staying with her older half-sister Elizabeth Steptoe Collett (above) at her cottage in South Hinksey who, by then, was Elizabeth Smith with a husband and five children

Edith Mary Corke was very likely born in the hamlet of Weald near Bampton where her family was living at Mill Lane in the census of 1871. It was during 1872 that she was born, her birth recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 665), the last child born to Alfred Corke and his wife Esther Elizabeth Collett. On the occasion of the next census in 1881, Edith M Corke was nine years old and was a visitor at the Wolvercote home of her older married half-sister Ann Marie Collett who was expecting her first child. After a further ten years Edith M Corke, aged 20 and from Bampton, was a servant at a house in the St John the Baptist district of Oxford, after which, it is assumed, she was married

These are the four children of unmarried Esther Collett:

47O6 – Elizabeth Stokes Collett was born in 1850 at Bampton

47O7 – Alfred Thomas Collett was born in 1854 at Bampton

47O8 – Ann Maria Collett was born in 1857 at Bampton

47O9 – Walter Collett was born in 1859 at Bampton

Martha Collett [47N7] was born at Bampton in 1835, the last of the seven children of George Collett and Elizabeth Shayler, as confirmed by her baptism at Bampton on 3^rd January 1836. It seems highly likely that Martha’s mother died during the birth or shortly after, and that tragedy may also have been a contributing factor to the later death of her father, since by 1841 at the age of six years she was an inmate at the Witney Union Workhouse in Curbridge with her older sister Esther (above). Ten years later, the only Martha from Bampton was recorded in the census of 1851 as Martha Collett who was 17 and a house servant at the Long Hanborough home of the Bullock family near Witney

Mary Ann Collett [47N8] was born at Fyfield and was baptised at Eastleach Martin on 25^th December 1829, the eldest of the eleven known children of Charles and Sophia Collett. At the time of the first national census in 1841 Mary was 11 years old and was living with her family in the Eastleach Martin registration district. In 1851 Mary was still living with her parents at Fyfield when she was 21. By that time in her life, she was an unmarried mother, having given birth to a base-born daughter during the previous year. It was during the following year that her daughter was baptised at Eastleach Martin, in a joint ceremony with Mary Ann’s youngest brother Nehemiah Collett (below)

Sometime thereafter Mary Ann married Luke Carter who was born in 1828, just two miles away in the village of Filkins in Oxfordshire. By 1881 Luke was 52 and Mary was 51 and they were living at Gardiners Row in Filkins, where both Luke and Mary were listed as being general labourers. Living with them on that occasion were the couple’s three youngest children, Robert Carter, aged 14 and another general labourer, Elizabeth Carter who was 11, and James Carter who was eight years old, and all of them born at Filkins. What happened to Mary’s daughter Ann Collett has not been determined at this time, while widow Mary Ann Carter from Fyfield in Gloucestershire was 80 years old and a pensioner in the census of 1911 when she was residing at Rouses Lane in Filkins and Broughton Poggs near Lechlade

47O10 – Ann Collett was born in 1850 at Fyfield

Charles Collett [47N9] was born at Fyfield and baptised at Eastleach Martin on 6^th February 1831, the eldest son of Charles and Sophia Collett. By June 1841 he was recorded as being 10 years old, when he was living with his family in Fyfield. By the time of the census in 1851, Charles was 20 and was still living at the family home in Fyfield, from where he was working as an agricultural labourer. His place of birth was confirmed as being Fyfield. Four and a half years after the census day, and at the age of 24, Charles married Elizabeth Newman on 29^th October 1855 at the parish church in Kempsford, where their children were subsequently baptised. Elizabeth was the daughter of Whelford agricultural labourer William Newman and his wife Elizabeth

Just over five years later the marriage had produced three children for Charles and Elizabeth, all of which had been born at Kempsford. The 1861 Census for Kempsford confirmed that agricultural labourer Charles Collett, aged 28 and of Southrop (next to Fyfield), was married to Eliza, aged 23 and of Whelford, and that their three children were Sophia Collett who was four, Sarah Collett who was three, and William Collett who was only nine months old

One further child seems to have been added to the family four years later, so by 1871 the family was still living within the Kempsford area and comprised Charles Collett, aged 41 and from Fyfield, who was working as an agricultural labourer, his wife Elizabeth, aged 32 and from Whelford, and three of their four known children. They were their daughters Sophia Collett, aged 12, and Kate Collett, who was five years old, and their son William who was 10. All of them on that occasion were recorded as having been born at Whelford. With the passing of another decade the family was reduced in size by the departure of the two eldest daughters, who left home to be married

So, by April 1881 the family was made up of Charles, aged 49, who was an agricultural labourer, his wife Elizabeth, aged 39, and their son William who was 20 and who was also working as an agricultural labourer. No trace has so far been found of the couple’s youngest daughter Kate. On that occasion the census return recorded Charles’ place of birth was as ‘Fifield in Gloucestershire’, while his wife and son had both been born at Kempsford, where they were living at that time

t would appear that Charles and Elizabeth spent the rest of their lives living at Kempsford, where they were recorded as still living in March 1901. Charles Collett of Fyfield in Gloucestershire was still employed as an agricultural labourer at the age of 69, while his wife Elizabeth Collett of Kempsford was then 59. Also still living with the couple in Kempsford at that time was their son William who was also still working as an agricultural labourer with his father. By April 1911 Charles had died leaving Elizabeth as a widow aged 73. The census return confirmed that she had been born at Whelford and that she was living at Horcott near Fairford with her son William who was also a widower. Also living with them was William’s daughter Kate Collett who was 15

47O11 – Sophia Collett was born in 1856 at Whelford

47O12 – Sarah Ann Collett was born in 1858 at Whelford

47O13 – William Collett was born in 1860 at Whelford

47O14 – Kate Collett was born in 1865 at Whelford

Robert Collett [47N10] was born at Fyfield in 1832 and was listed as being eight years old in the June census of 1841, when he was living there with his family. He was still living with his parents at Fyfield in 1851 when he was 18, by which time he was employed as an agricultural labourer like his father and his older brother Charles (above). His place of birth was confirmed as Fyfield, while it was six years after that when he married Mary Ann Woodward at Charlton Kings on 10^th October 1857. Robert Collett was a labourer and the son of Charles Collett, also a labourer, with Mary Ann Woodward described as a laundress

Eleanor Collett [47N11] was born at Fyfield in 1835 and was six years old by the time of the census of 1841, and was 16 years old in the census of 1851, when she was still living with her parents Charles and Sophia Collett at Fyfield. However, when she married John Smith at St Mary’s Church in Bibury on 11^th October 1856, she was recorded as Ellen Collett, aged 20, a spinster residing at Arlington in Bibury, and the daughter of labourer Charles Collett. John Smith was described as a bachelor of full age, also a resident of Arlington, whose occupation was that of a shepherd, the son of labourer William Smith. John signed the register in his own hand, with Ellen making the mark of a cross. The two witnesses were Ellen’s mother Sophia Collett, and her younger brother Enos Collett, both of whom made the mark of a cross. No record of the couple has so far been found in any census after the day of their wedding

Luanna Collett [47N12] was born at Fyfield in 1837 and appeared in the 1841 Census as Luanna Collett aged four years, while ten years later she was referred to as Susanna Collett who was 14 in 1851. She was also addressed as Luanna in the later census of 1881, although it is thought that her name may have actually been Louisiana or Louisa. Before Luanna reached her twentieth birthday she gave birth to a base-born son at Northleach, although previously thought to have been at Fyfield, following which the child was brought up by his grandparents. In the Fyfield census return for 1861, the family of Luanna’s parents, Charles and Sophia Collett, included their grandson William Collett who was four years old and from Northleach. However, no such record has so far been found for his mother on that census day

Shortly after April 1861 it would appear that Luanna Collett married Alfred Silman when she became Luanna Silman of Black Bourton in Oxfordshire. Over the next decade the marriage produced three known children for Luanna and Alfred and they were Charles Silman who was born in 1865, Sarah Silman who was born in 1867, and Ellen Silman who was born in 1875, and all of them born at Black Bourton. However, sometime after 1875 and before 1881 Alfred Silman died

According to the next census in 1881 Luanna Silman was a widow, when she was listed as the only occupant of a house in Black Bourton, from where she was employed as an agricultural labourer. Luanna Silman was 45 and her place of birth was confirmed as Fyfield in Gloucestershire. Her son Charles Silman, who was 16, was a lodger at the Black Bourton home of shepherd George Giles. Luanna’s youngest child Ellen Silman was living with Luanna’s widowed mother Sophia Collett within the Eastleach Martin census district which included Fyfield, where she was confirmed as being six years old and born at Black Bourton. No trace has been found of daughter Sarah Silman in 1881, although she was back living with her mother by 1891

Luanna Silman remained living at Black Bourton for the rest of her life. In 1891 she was 54 and was listed in that year’s census as Hannah Silman. Recorded as living with her were her two daughters Sarah Silman, aged 24, and Ellen Silman, who was 15. Also living with them was Luanna’s grandson, five years old James Silman who may have been Sarah’s child, and her elderly mother Sophia Collett, who died during the following year. Just after the turn of the century Luanna was referred to as Louisa Silman of Fyfield in Gloucestershire in the census of 1901. At that time, she was 63 and was living at Black Bourton with just her young grandson for company. James Silman was 15 and was working as a horseman working on a local farm

It is particularly interesting that Luanna’s son Charles Silman married Minnie Wise (Ref. 28P60), the eldest daughter of William Wise by his wife Mary Ann Collett (Ref. 28O51), Minnie being the great aunt of Jennie Cordner. Charles and Minnie’s daughter Louisa Silman married John William Cox whose mother was Edith Jane Wise (Ref. 28P62), so making Louisa and John first cousins. More details on this branch of the family can be found in Part 28 – The Faringdon Line

47O15 – William Edward Collett was born in 1856 at Northleach

Enos Collett [47N13] was born at Fyfield in 1839 and was recorded as being just two years of age in the 1841 Census for the registration district of Eastleach Martin. It was two months later, on 22^nd August 1841 that he was baptised at Southrop near Fyfield in a joint ceremony with his brother John (below). The parish record confirmed that they were the sons of Charles and Sophia Collett. By 1851 he was 12 years old, when he was still living with his family at Fyfield. Together with his mother Sophia, Enos was a witness at the married of his older sister Eleanor (Ellen) at Bibury in October 1856, when both of them made the mark of a cross. However, no record of Enos Collett has been found in 1861, by which time he may have died or left England

John Collett [47N14] was born at Fyfield in 1841 and was baptised at nearby Southrop not long after he was born. The baptism took place on 22^nd August 1841 and was a joint naming ceremony with his older brother Enos (above). He was 10 years old in 1851 when he was still living with his family at Fyfield. By the time of the census in 1881, John was recorded as being married at the age of 38, and from Fyfield. He was working as a shepherd, while he was living at Kempsford. Living there with him was unmarried domestic housekeeper Jane Bates of Lechlade and her son John Collett Bates, who was two years old and also born at Lechlade. John Collett Bates was listed as the son of John Collett. Also living with the family, as a boarder, was William Bridgeman, aged 18 and from Little Somerford, who was an agricultural labourer. The later census of 1891 gave the surname of Jane and her son John, as Bates, so the previous census return in 1881, when the surnames was Batts, may have been an error in translation

And so it was, that the three of them were still living in Kempsford in 1891. Their dwelling was within that part of the village known as Dudgrove, where married John Collett, aged 48 and from Fyfield, was continuing his work as a shepherd. Still living with him was single Jane Bates who was 46, and her son John Bates who was 12. It would appear that sometime after 1891 John officially married Jane and around that same time the family of three left Kempsford and returned to Lechlade, where they were living in 1901

At the age of 58, John Collett of Fyfield was recorded in the census return for the Lechlade area as still working as a shepherd. With him was his wife Jane Collett who was also 58, and their son John Collett who was 22 and employed as a machine man at a local dairy. The birthplace of both mother and son was once again confirmed as Lechlade. John and Jane continued to live their lives together at Lechlade, since it was there at Mount Pleasant that they were still living in April 1911. John Collett from Fyfield in Gloucestershire was 69 and was still working as a cowman on a farm, while his wife Jane from Lechlade was 68. By that time their son was married and was living in the Faringdon area

Not long after that John and Jane also moved to Faringdon, and it was there that their deaths were recorded before the end of the next decade. Jane Collett nee Bates passed away during 1915 when her passing at the age of 73 was recorded at Faringdon register office (Ref. 2c 377) during the last quarter of that year. John Collett was 78 when he died and again his death was recorded at Faringdon (Ref. 2c 410) during the first three months of 1918

47O16 – John Collett, formerly John Bates, was born in 1878 at Lechlade

Josiah Collett [47N15] was born at Fyfield in 1843, the son of Charles and Sophia Collett, but tragically died in 1850 aged just seven years

Obadiah Collett [47N16] was born at Fyfield in 1845, the son of Charles and Sophia Collett, his birth recorded at Northleach (Ref. xi 353) during the last three months of 1845. In the census of 1851, he was living with his family at Fyfield at the age of five years. Curious, ten years later he was listed as Henry Collett aged 16 in the census of 1861 when he still living at the family home in Fyfield. However, thereafter there is a mystery with the age that he gave in subsequent census returns. In 1871 he was recorded as Obed Collett of Fyfield who was 20 years old and was working as a farm servant at the Elkstone home of John Cripps, a farmer of 250 acres. After a further ten years, he was still unmarried at the age of 30, when he was a lodger at the home of farm labourer John Coss and his family at Old Whitlenge, near Hartlebury in Worcester. On that occasion he was described as Abadiah Collett from Fyfield in Gloucestershire, who was working as an agricultural labourer

He was still lodging with John Coss at Old Whitlenge in 1891, when once again he was recorded in the census as Abadiah Collett who was 45, nearer his correct age than ten and twenty years earlier. Where he was at the time the census was conducted in 1901 has still to be discovered. However, it was within nine months of that particular census day that he died, when the death of Obadiah Collett was recorded at Bromyard register office in Hereford (Ref. 6a 351) during the last quarter of 1901 when he was 57

Emanuel Collett [47N17] was born at Fyfield in 1849 and was three years old and 12 years old in the census returns in 1851 and 1861, while living with his parents at Fyfield. Twenty years later Emmanuel was still a bachelor at the age of 32 and was living with his widowed mother Sophia at Fyfield where, he was working as a farm labourer

NEHEMIAH COLLETT [47N18] was born at Fyfield in 1851 and was baptised at Eastleach Martin in 1852, the eleventh child of Charles and Sophia Collett. He was baptised at Eastleach Martin on the same day as his niece Ann Collett, the base-born daughter of Nehemiah’s oldest sister Mary Ann Collett (above). By the time of the 1861 census Nehemiah was aged nine years and was still living with his parents in Fyfield, although no record for him has so far been found ten years later in the census of 1871. Previously it was assumed that he was married during the first few years of the 1870s since his son Charles was born at Fyfield around the middle of that decade. However, new information discovered in 2013 may suggest that he was married on two occasions, even though only one record has so far been found

It is now known that Nehemiah Collett married Elizabeth A Hackling, the daughter of Robert and Mary Ann Hackling, at Eastleach Martin with their marriage recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 799) during the last three months of 1877. The birth of Elizabeth Ann Hackling was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 289) during the last three months of 1856. The witnesses at the wedding were James Baxter and Ann Jeffries, and Elizabeth entered the marriage having already given birth of a daughter. The couple’s first child was born at Fyfield around nine months after their wedding date, although no baptism record has been found for any of their children, whose ages were not accurately recorded in subsequent census returns

The census of 1881 revealed that the family was living at Fyfield within the Eastleach Martin registration district and that Nehemiah of Fyfield was 29 and was working as an agricultural labourer. His wife Elizabeth A Collett of Southrop was 25, and their son Charles E Collett of Fyfield was two years old. The census also raises the question as to the whereabouts of the couple’s daughter Mary Collett, who would have been two years of age. The only other child living with the Collett family on that day, was five-year-old Edith Hackling of Fyfield, who was described as the stepdaughter of Nehemiah Collett, being Elizabeth’s base-born daughter

It would appear that Elizabeth presented her husband with a further two children while they were stilling living at Fyfield, after which the family moved to the Cirencester area of the county where a further four children were born. According to the census return for 1891 the family was residing at Town End in Meysey Hampton, within the Fairford & Cirencester registration area, and comprised Nehemiah Collett who was 40 and an agricultural labourer who had been born at Fyfield, as was his wife Elizabeth who was 37, together with their seven surviving children. Their son William had already suffered an infant death shortly after he was born in 1880

The seven children were recorded as follows: Charles who was born at Fyfield was actually 12 years old, but was recorded in error as being 16, when he was still attending school; where Mary had been born who was said to be 12 and a scholar, although she was actually 10 years old; Sarah who was eight and also born at Fyfield, Henry who was five and born at Slade Down, William who was four and born at Langford Down, the three of them also attending school; John who was two; and George who was under one-year old. It is possible, although not yet proved, that Nehemiah was employed on Langford Downs Farm, near Cirencester, and that it was at ‘Langford Downs’ that the couple’s three Cirencester children were born, with their youngest son George known to have been born at Meysey Hampton. Two further children were added to the Collett family at Duntisbourne Abbotts near Cirencester before the untimely death of their father who, because of the discrepancy in the dates between his death and the birth of the family’s final Collett child, could not have been the father of Frank Collett, the youngest child. So, who the father was is open to speculation!

The death of Nehemiah Collett was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 203) during the second quarter of 1894 when his age was recorded in error as being 41. Just over two years after losing her husband, Elizabeth gave birth to son Frank Collett while, shortly thereafter, she was married for a third time when she wed the slightly younger John Hulbert of Cirencester with whom she had a daughter who was also born at Cirencester in 1898. The census in 1901 placed Elizabeth Hulbert, aged 43, and her large family living at 73 Watermoor Road, the Cirencester home of John Hulbert, aged 38, whose occupation was that of a railway labourer

Living with the couple, in addition to their daughter Martha Hulbert, who was two years of age, were four of Elizabeth’s children by Nehemiah Collett. They were Harry Collett who was 16 and a domestic groom, John Collett who was 12, George Collett who was 11, and Annie Collett who was seven. Completing the family was Frank Collett who was five, with all of the children recorded as having been born at Cirencester

Living in the adjacent property, at 72 Watermoor Road, was Edwin Collett of Cirencester who was a widower of 60 and a domestic gardener, the only occupant of the 3-room dwelling. In 2023 it was established that he was the youngest son of Richard Collett from Kemble and Ann Collett, and the husband of Emily Robbins of Cirencester, the parents of Annie, Herbert, Emily, Lizzie, Louisa and Alice. For further details of his Collett family go to Part 78 – The Oaksey & Somerford Keynes Wiltshire Line, which features in the Appendix all the known information about the Collett families of Kemble

Elizabeth Hulbert, formerly Collett nee Hackling, may well have been expecting her second child by John Hulbert on the day of the census in 1901. However, further tragedy appears to have struck the family during that first decade of the new century since Elizabeth had yet another change of name when she married David Dance from Oaksey in Wiltshire. That fourth wedding for Elizabeth Ann Hulbert was recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 836) during the last quarter of 1908, when the sole witness was Obadiah Loveridge. In addition to the loss of her third husband, Elizabeth she also appears to have suffered the loss of her first child by John Hulbert, since she was absent from the census in 1911

The census return that year confirmed that Elizabeth Dance, aged 53, was still residing at 73 Watermoor Road in Cirencester when the only Hulbert child living there with her was her daughter Daisy Hulbert who was nine years old. Elizabeth had been married to David Dance, aged 50, for just two years, while still living with her were the three youngest children from her marriage to Nehemiah Collett. They were George who was 20 and born at ‘Maisey Hampton’, Annie who was 15 and Frank who was 14, the latter two both stated to have been born north of Cirencester at Duntisborne Abbots, rather than at Cirencester as in the previous census

Twenty-two years later, Elizabeth Dance aged 76, passed away while still residing in Cirencester, where her death was recorded (Ref. 6a 622) during the first three months of 1933

47O17 – Charles Edward Collett was born in 1878 at Fyfield

47O18 – William Collett was born in 1880 at Fyfield

47O19 – Mary Ann S Collett was born in 1881 at Fyfield

47O20 – Sarah A Collett was born in 1883 at Fyfield

47O21 – Henry Collett was born in 1884 at Slade Down

47O22 – William Collett was born in 1886 at Langford Down

47O23 – JOHN RICHARD COLLETT was born in 1888 at Langford Down

47O24 – George Collett was born in 1890 at Meysey Hampton

47O25 – Annie Collett was born in 1894 at Duntisbourne Abbotts

47O26 – Frank Ernest Collett was born in 1896 at Duntisbourne Abbotts

Emily Collett [47N20] was born on 24^th March 1839 and this may have taken place at Cowley where her parents were married in March 1840, and where her two brothers were also born. Sadly, Emily Collett died during 1840

George Richard Collett [47N21] was born at Cowley on 3^rd July 1840 where he was living with his father and his brother James (below) in 1851 and 1861, when he was aged 10 and 20 respectively. With them in 1851 only was the boys’ stepmother Esther Collett, their father’s second wife. On 7^th February 1866 at the Elkstone parish church George Collett married Emily Newcombe. Emily, from the neighbouring hamlet of Winstone, was the daughter of William and Mary Ann Newcombe. And it was at Winstone where George and Emily settled and where their first five children were born

By the time of the census of 1871 the marriage had produced two children for the couple, in addition to which Emily was expecting their third child. The Winstone census of 1871 confirmed that George, an agricultural labourer of Cowley, was 30 and his wife Emily listed as ‘Emma of Winstone’ was 28. Living with them was their son James who was three and their daughter Jane who was one-year old. Also living with the family was lodger James Mitchell who was 19 and an agricultural labourer from Cowley. Their son Richard was born exactly three months after the census day, but he did not survive

Over the next ten years Emily presented George with a further four children. The first two of them were born while the family was still living at Winstone, but shortly after the birth of the second child, around 1874, the family moved back to George’s home parish of Cowley, where his last three children were born. According to the 1881 Census the family were living between The School and The Lodge in Cowley and it may have been around that time when George began to compile the Family Bible which later provided valuable clues to his family’s background

The census on that occasion recorded that George Collett, aged 40 and of Cowley, was an agricultural labourer who was probably employed at Cowley Manor. His wife Emily of Winstone was also 40, and their children at that time were Jim Collett 13, Jane Collett 11, Janet Collett who was nine, and Charles Collett who was seven, who were all born at Winstone. The two youngest children at that time, Richard Collett who was five, and Emily Collett who was three years old, were both born after the family had moved to Cowley. In the same way that Emily was pregnant on the day of the 1871 Census, she was also with-child again on 3^rd April 1881 and gave birth to the couple’s last child five months later

Over the following ten years two of the couple’s four daughters left the family home, so by 1891 George and Emily, both aged 51, were living at Cowley with James 22, Charles 17, Richard 15, Emily 13, and Annie who was nine years of age. Before the end of the century two of George’s sons, plus one of their cousins, left Gloucestershire and followed their two sisters south to Cobham in Surrey where they had both settled

By the census of 1901, only daughter Annie Collett, aged 19, was still living with her parents at the family home in Cowley. George was then working as a cattleman on a farm at the age of 60, while his wife Emily was 61. George’s and Emily’s eldest son James was also living in Cowley in 1901, as were two other people with the Collett name. They were baker Henry Collett (Ref. 3O32), aged 53 and from Stonehouse (Painswick), and his wife Mary, aged 52 and from Elkstone

According to the next census in 1911, George Collett was 70, and his wife Emily was 72. Still living with them at Cowley was their unmarried son Jim Collett who was 42. And it was at Cowley that George Collett died just over seven months later on 25^th November 1911. At the time of his death, as in the census that year, his occupation was that of a cowman working at Cowley Manor, where his eldest son James was also employed as a gardener

Emily Collett survived as his widow for a further seven years after George’s passing and was eventually reunited with her husband on 27^th January 1919. The headstone at Cowley that marks their grave has the following inscription “In Memory of George Collett died 25^th November 1911 aged 71 years, Also Emily Collett beloved wife of the above, died 27^th January 1919 aged 81 years – Rest in Peace”

The aforementioned Family Bible produced by George Collett was passed onto his eldest son James at the time of his death. The Bible remained in his possession until his death, when it was passed onto his youngest sister Ann. Today the Bible, together with a book in which the words ‘James Collett’ and ‘Cobberley School’ appear inside, are held by one of Ann’s granddaughters. It is known that Ann attended Cobberley School, so perhaps James did as well, which would probably indicate that all of the children in between may have also been educated there

47O27 – James Collett was born in 1868 at Winstone

47O28 – Jane Collett was born in 1869 at Winstone

47O29 – Richard Collett was born in 1871 at Winstone

47O30 – Janet Collett was born in 1872 at Winstone

47O31 – Charles Collett was born in 1873 at Winstone

47O32 – Richard Collett was born in 1875 at Cowley

47O33 – Emily Collett was born in 1877 at Cowley

47O34 – Ann Collett was born in 1881 at Cowley

James Collett [47N22] was born at Cowley on 10^th July 1843 and was seven years old, and 17, respectively in the censuses of 1851 and 1861. On both occasions he was living with his father Richard and his brother George (above). The boys’ stepmother Esther was only present in 1851. At the age of 27 James was living in the Kingsholm area of Gloucester, but within the next few years he married Martha Stallard who was born at Coberley in 1846. Cowley and Coberley lie adjacent to each other being only about half a mile apart

Once married the couple initially set up home in the village of Elkstone just south of Cowley and it was there that their first two children were born. Around 1877 the family of four moved the two and a half miles to Colesbourne where their next two children were born and where the family was still living in April 1881. The census that year confirmed that James of Cowley was aged 36 and was employed as a slatter and plasterer while living with his family in a cottage in Colesbourne. His wife Martha was 34 and their four children at that time were Percy, who was seven, Joseph, who was five, John, who was three, and Tom who was one-year old

The cottage accommodation occupied by the family of six must have been of a reasonable size since they also had three lodgers living there with them. These were farm labourers and bachelors John Smith aged 40 of Colesbourne, John Hill aged 21 of Withington, and George Smith aged 17 of Woodmancote. Martha may have been with-child on the day of the census in 1881 since later that year she presented James with the fifth of his seven children. Two more children were added to the family before the end of the decade and both of them born while the family was still living at Colesbourne.

According to the Colesbourne census conducted in 1891 the family was recorded in error under the surname Collet. James Collet was a plasterer of 47 from Cowley, his wife Martha Collet from Coberley was 43, and their six children were Joseph J Collet a farm labourer from Elkstone who was 15, John Collet who was another farm labourer at 13, Thomas Collet a servant boy at 11, Edith M Collet who was nine and at school, as was Annie L Collet who was six, and William A Collet who was only one year old, the youngest five children all born at Colesbourne

Just after the turn of the century the family was still residing in Colesbourne where James aged 56 and from Cowley was continuing his occupation as a slatter and plasterer. In addition to his wife Martha aged 53 and of Coberley, the only members of their family still living with them were sons John 23 and William 11, and daughter Edith aged 19. James’ wife Martha died sometime during the following ten years since, according to the census of 1911, he was a widower and a plasterer still living in Colesbourne with just two of his children. They were Edith who was 29 and William who was 21

47O35 – Percy E Collett was born in 1873 at Elkstone

47O35 – Joseph James Collett was born in 1875 at Elkstone

47O35 – John Collett was born in 1877 at Colesbourne

47O35 – Thomas Henry Collett was born in 1879 at Colesbourne

47O35 – Edith Mary Collett was born in 1881 at Colesbourne

47O35 – Anne Louise Collett was born in 1884 at Colesbourne

47O35 – William Archibald Collett was born in 1889 at Colesbourne

Victor George Collett [47O1] was born at Cirencester during 1865 and was the eldest known child of Joseph and Susan Ann Collett of Bampton in Oxfordshire. He was five years old in the Cirencester census of 1871 and on leaving school in Cirencester as a scholar, he took a position possibly at the same school as a pupil teacher, which was how he was described in the census of 1881 when he was living at 15 Church Street with his family. With the experience he gained at Cirencester he was later offered a post at a school in Manthorpe-cum-Little Gonerby just north of Grantham in Lincolnshire, where he was recorded in the census of 1891. The census return that year included unmarried Victor G Collett from Cirencester, who was 25, as a lodger living at a property in Albion Street. By that time in his life he was described as a certified schoolmaster

Sometime during the next decade Victor George Collett married Mary Elizabeth Palmer who was born at Grantham, the daughter of Robert and Betsy Palmer. That was confirmed by the census in 1901 when once again he was a schoolmaster, but then at a private school in the town of Bottesford, five miles west of Grantham. The census that year recorded Victor G Collett, aged 35 and from Cirencester, as living at Grantham Road in Bottesford with his wife Mary E Collett from Grantham, who was 33. The only other person living with them was Mary’s nephew Wilfred Joseph Barrand, the eldest son of her married sister Maria, who was very likely attending the school where Victor was teaching. Ten years later the childless couple were still residing in Bottesford, where Victor George Collett from Cirencester was 45 and the Head Teacher at Bottesford Elementary School near Grantham, and his wife Mary Elizabeth Collett was 43

Living with the couple in April 1911 was Mary’s elderly father Robert Percival Palmer, together with her widowed sister Maria Percival Barrand and her two children Wilfred Joseph and Victor Percival Barrand. Fourteen years later Victor and Mary were still living in Lincolnshire, and it was at Grantham register office (Ref. 7a 509) that the death of Victor George Collett was recorded during the second quarter of 1925 when he was 59. His Will was proved in London on 21^st August 1925 following his passing on 25^th April that year, with his widow Mary Elizabeth Collett named as the executor of his estate valued at £1,499 7 Shillings 5 Pence. Mary continued to live in Grantham after her loss and survived her husband by twenty-seven years, with her death at the age of 84 also recorded at Grantham register office (Ref. 3b 71) during the second quarter of 1952

Eliza Ann Collett [47O2] was born at Cirencester in 1867, the second child and only daughter of Joseph and Susan Collett. In the following census returns for Cirencester she was three years old, 13, 23 and 33 when she was living with her parents for each year from 1871 through to 1901, the family home being at 15 Church Street in Cirencester in 1891. Following the death of her father in 1903, Eliza remained living with her mother until she passed away. It was on 27^th October 1910 when Eliza Ann Collett married the much younger Frederick Charch at Rodborough in Gloucestershire. Eliza was a dressmaker, who said she was 39 instead of 42, the daughter of Joseph Collett – army officer, deceased, while Frederick was 30 years old and working as a bailiff. A few months later the couple was residing in Cirencester when the census of 1911 listed them as Frederick Church aged 28 and from Berkshire, and Eliza Ann Church from Cirencester who was 42. This confirms that both the bride and the groom gave incorrect ages on their wedding day, presumably out of embarrassment for the great difference in their years

Sydney Joseph Collett [47O3] was born at Cirencester in 1869, the third of the five known children of Joseph and Susan Collett, whose birth was recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 399) during the third quarter of 1869. However, he was baptised at Cirencester on 11^th July 1869 as Sidney Joseph Collett. It was also as Sidney Joseph that he was one-year old in the census of 1871, while ten years later in 1881 it was as Sydney J Collett that he was living with his family at 15 Church Street in Cirencester. On that occasion he was a pupil at the local school, where his older brother Victor (above) was employed as a pupil teacher. After another ten years Sidney was absent from the family home on the day of the census in 1891 when he would have been twenty-one

Unlike his two brothers Victor and Wilfred (below), who both settled in the East Midlands, Sydney remained in Gloucestershire and was residing at Butter Row in Rodborough near Stroud in 1901. Seven months prior to the day of the census Sydney Joseph Collett had married Elizabeth Chapman by banns at St Lawrence’s Church in Stroud on 15^th August 1900. The census return in March 1901 listed Sidney J Collett from Cirencester as being 31 and a draper’s assistant, while his wife Elizabeth Collett from London was 30. Rather strangely their ages ten years later were slightly at variants when Sydney Joseph Collett of Cirencester was 40 and was still living in Rodborough, where his wife Elizabeth Collett from London said she was 38. Up until that time in his life Sidney’s name had been variously recorded as Sidney and Sydney, while it was certainly as Sydney that his birth was recorded although shortly after it was as Sidney that he was baptised, the baptism record confirming his parents as Joseph and Susan Ann Collett

Wilfred Harry Collett [47O4] was born at Cirencester in 1871 and was the fourth of the five children of Joseph Collett and his wife Susan Ann. He had only just been born prior to the census that year and was 10 years of age in 1881 when he and his family were living at 15 Church Street in Cirencester. On leaving school, just a few years after, he took up work in the city of Gloucester where, in 1891, he was recorded in that year’s census as Wilfred Harry Collett from Cirencester who was 20 and living and working within the parish of St Nicholas

Wilfred may have been influenced by his eldest brother Victor (above) because, during the 1890s, he too left Gloucestershire when he travelled north and settle in Warsop near Mansfield, which today is known as Market Warsop. It was at Warsop that he was living in 1901, when Wilfred Collett, aged 30 and from Cirencester, was a wheelwright and the only Collett living in Warsop on that occasion. It was very likely in Warsop that he married Kate Osborne during the first three months of 1905, the event being recorded at Mansfield register office (Ref. 7b 115). The witnesses were George Herbert Hough and Esther Bourn. It was also at the end of that same year that the couple’s first child was born at Warsop

By the time of the census in 1911 Kate had presented Wilfred with their second child, when the family of four was still living at Warsop. Wilfred Harry Collett from Cirencester was 40, his wife Kate Collett was 33, and their two children were Wilfred Leslie Chandler Collett who was five, and Florence Elizabeth Collett who was two years of age. The death of Wilfred Harry Collett was recorded at Mansfield in Nottinghamshire (Ref. 7b 102) during the second quarter of 1942 when he was 71. At the proving of his Will it was revealed that he died on 19^th June 1942 while residing at 65 King Road in Warsop, Nottinghamshire, when administration of his personal effects of £807 15 Shillings was granted to his widow Kate Collett

47P1 - Wilfred Leslie Chandler Collett was born in 1905 at Warsop, Mansfield

47P2 -Florence Elizabeth Collett was born in 1908 at Warsop, Mansfield

Harold William Collett [47O5] was born at Cirencester in 1876 the youngest child of Joseph and Susan Collett. He was recorded in the census of 1881 as Harold W Collett aged four years when he was living with his family at 15 Church Street in Cirencester. Ten years later is was just Harold, then 14, and his older sister Eliza, who were he only children still living with their parents at the family home in Cirencester. Whether it was as the result of an accident at work, or possibly during military service, the death of Harold William Collett was recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 264) during the first three months of 1898 when he was only 21 years of age

Elizabeth Steptoe Collett [47O6] was born at Bampton during September 1850, where she was baptised on 5^th January 1851, the base-born daughter of Esther Elizabeth Collett. Her second forename was very likely the surname of her unnamed father. It was simply as Elizabeth Collett aged six months that she was recorded with her mother in the Bampton census of 1851. By 1861 her mother had taken up the role of housekeeper for unmarried Alfred Corke at his Bampton home where Elizabeth Collett was 10 years old. Around six or seven years later Elizabeth gave birth to her own base-born child which was taken into the care of her mother who had since married Alfred Corke. The boy was named after Elizabeth’s youngest brother Walter who had died shortly after the census in 1861, and it was Elizabeth’s mother Esther, under her maiden of Collett, who was entered in the parish baptism register as the child’s only parent

By the time of the census in 1871 Elizabeth was married to James Smith and was living in the Bampton area where Elizabeth was expecting the birth of the couple’s first child. Although no actual census return for the expectant couple has been found, it was the next census in 1881 that confirmed their first child was born at Bampton. Also, by 1881 Elizabeth had presented James with a further four children. According to the census that year the family was living in a cottage in South Hinksey near Oxford where James Smith was 30 and an agricultural labourer from Appleton in Berkshire

His wife Elizabeth Smith from Bampton was 31, and their five children were Herbert W Smith, aged nine and also from Bampton, Ellen Smith from Wootton in Berkshire who was six, Alfred G Smith who was five, Thomas H Smith who was three, and Ada Mary Smith who was one-year old, all three of whom had been born after the family arrived in South Hinksey. Living with the family on that day in 1881 was Florence E Corke who was 12 and from Bampton, who was described as wife’s sister, she being Elizabeth’s half-sister and the daughter of Esther Elizabeth Collett and her husband Alfred Corke

47P3 – Walter John Collett was born in 1867 at Bampton

Alfred Thomas Collett [47O7] was born at Bampton towards the end of 1854, the base-born son of Esther Elizabeth Collett, whose birth (without Thomas) was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 548) during the first three months of 1855. It was as Alfred Thomas Collett that he was baptised at Bampton in a joint service with his younger sister Ann Maria Collett (below) on 18^th March 1857. Only his mother’s name, as Esther Collett of Bampton, was written in the parish register. It was as Alfred Collett, aged six years and from Bampton, that he was a scholar living with his mother and his three siblings at the Bampton home of Alfred Corke in 1861. His mother later married Alfred Corke, so by 1871 the former Alfred Collett was named as Alfred Corke, aged 16, whose occupation was that of an agricultural labourer in the Bampton census that year when he and his family were living in the nearby hamlet of Weald

Ann Maria Collett [47O8] was born at Bampton in early 1857, her birth recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 581) during the first three months of that year. It was also at Bampton that she was baptised on 18^th March 1857 with her brother Alfred (above), the third base-born child of Esther Elizabeth Collett. In 1861, at the age of four years, Ann Collett was living at the Bampton home of Alfred Corke, where her unmarried mother was his housekeeper. Following the marriage of her mother to Alfred Corke in 1868 the four base-born children of Esther Elizabeth Collett took the name Corke, and it was as Ann Corke, aged 14, that she was living in the hamlet of Weald near Bampton with her family in 1871, by which time she was employed as an agricultural labourer

By a strange twist of fate, having had to give up her surname of Collett, it was ironic that when Ann Marie Corke, the daughter of Alfred Corke, was married on 19^th October 1878, she once again became Ann Marie Collett. Her marriage to William James Collett (Ref. 38P1) of Wolvercote took place at Wolvercote near Oxford and, by the time of the census in 1881, she was expecting the birth of their first child. William who was 24, was a stonemason, living at village street in Wolvercote with his wife Annie M Collett, aged 24 and from Bampton, who was described as a former domestic servant. Visiting the couple on the day of the census was Ann’s youngest half-sister Edith M Corke (below), who was nine years old and also from Bampton

For the continuation of this family go to Part 38 – The Oxford Stonemasons Line (Wolvercote)

Walter Collett [47O9] was the fourth base-born child of Esther Elizabeth Collett, and was born at Bampton during 1859. He was one-year old in the Bampton census of 1861 when he was with his fatherless family at the home of agricultural labourer Alfred Corke, by whom his mother was employed as his housekeeper. Tragically if the seven years later when Walter was only eight years old that he died, his death being recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 410) during the first three months of 1868. It seems highly likely that the base-born son of his older sister Elizabeth Steptoe Collett (above) was named Walter in his memory

Ann Collett [47O10] was born in 1850 at Fyfield and was the base-born child of unmarried Mary Ann Collett by an unknown father. Perhaps to cover the embarrassment, Ann was baptised at Eastleach Martin, in a joint ceremony with Nehemiah Collett [47N18] during 1852, her mother’s youngest brother.

Sophia Collett [47O11] was born in the hamlet of Whelford in 1856, but was baptised at the parish church in Kempsford on 29^th June 1856. She was aged four years in 1861 but was recorded as being aged 12 in 1871 when her place of birth was confirmed as Whelford. It is now understood that Sophia Collett later married Thomas Hayward and not Thomas Fincher, as he married Sophia Bullock, so further work needs to be done to confirm this

Sarah Ann Collett [47O12] was born at Whelford in 1858 and was baptised at Kempsford on 23^rd May 1858. Sarah was three years old in the Kempsford census of 1861 which confirmed that she was born at Whelford. She was not living with her family ten years later. However, by 1881 Sarah was 23 and was married to 31 years old James Gosling, an agricultural labourer of Kempsford. It would appear that they had not long been married as living with them was their first-born child Harry Gosling who was just one-month old. From 1891 onwards the census returns reveal that Sarah was a widow. That year’s census recorded just Sarah aged 32 and her son Harry aged 11, as living within the Cirencester registration district. Ten years later Sarah A Gosling of Kempsford was 42 and was working as a sick ward attendant at the Cirencester Union Workhouse. Her son Harry Gosling from Whelford was 21 and his occupation was that of an assistant civil engineer in Cirencester

William Collett [47O13] was born at Whelford around 1860 and was baptised at nearby Kempsford on 5^th August 1860. The earliest census records for Kempsford of 1861, 1871 and 1881 confirmed that it was there that he had been born and that his age of those occasions was respectively nine months, ten years and twenty years. At the time of the latter, he was an agricultural labourer working with his father Charles Collett. He was still living with his parents Charles and Elizabeth Collett at Kempsford just after the end of the century, by which time he had been married and was already a widower with two daughters

According to the census return for 1901, William Collett was 39 and an agricultural labourer, living in the hamlet of Horcott within the parish of Kempsford, where his two daughters had been born. They were Annie who was six, and Kate Elizabeth who was four years old. During the next few years William’s father died and by April 1911 William’s widowed mother Elizabeth was living with him at Horcott. By that time William, who was 52, was employed as a shepherd on a farm, and the only daughter still living with him was Kate Collett who was 15

47P4 – Annie Collett was born in 1894 at Horcott

47P5 – Kate Elizabeth Collett was born in 1896 at Horcott

Kate Collett [47O14] was very likely born at Whelford near Kempsford in 1865 and was living in that area with her parents in 1871 when she was five years old. However, no record of Kate or Katherine has been found in any subsequent census which might indicate that she had died sometime during the 1870s with her absence from the 1881 Census

William Edward Collett [47O15] was born at Northleach in 1856, the base-born child of Luanna Collett of Fyfield. His birth was registered at Northleach (Ref. 6a 287) during the last three months of that year. He was simply listed as William Collett aged four years in the census of 1861, when he was living with his grandparents Charles and Sophia Collett in the hamlet of Fyfield, within the parish of Eastleach Martin. Over the next decade he continued to be brought up by his grandparents at Fyfield, so by the time of the next census in 1871, William Collett from Northleach was 14 and working as an agricultural labourer

Ten years after that he was unmarried at the age of 24, when he was recorded as being the head of the household, a servant and an agricultural labourer to his landlord, while living in part of the house at Downs Farmhouse in Little Barrington. Once again, his place of birth was given as Northleach. There were two other people listed with William in April 1881 and they were Amos Radburn, aged 18, a servant and agricultural labourer, and Caroline Tovey who was seven years old and of Little Barrington who was recorded as the daughter of the head of house and described as a farmer’s daughter. New information discovered in 2013 has however revealed that Caroline Tovey was the daughter of unmarried Joseph Brown who was 29 and an agricultural labourer from Little Barrington who was also living in another part of Downs Farmhouse in 1881

It seems rather curious that no record of William Edward Collett has been found in any census return after that time, so what actually happened to him from 1881 onwards is currently not known. However, the later death of William Edward Collett was recorded at Dursley register office (Ref. 6a 354), midway between Bristol and Gloucester, during the fourth quarter of 1915, when he was 58 years of age

John Collett [47O16] was born at Lechlade in 1878. He was originally the base-born child of John Collett of Fyfield and Jane Bates of Lechlade, and at the time of the census of 1881 he was listed as John Collett Bates aged two years. On that occasion he was living at the Kempsford home of his father John Collett, whose housekeeper was Jane Bates, both adults being listed as unmarried. In the Kempsford census of 1891, John was recorded as John Bates, aged 12, who was living with his ‘married’ father John Collett and his ‘single’ mother Jane Bates at Dudgrove in Kempsford. During the next decade John’s parents appear to have married, at which time the family moved away from Kempsford and settled in Lechlade. By March 1901, John Collett Bates was referred to as simply John Collett. At that time, he was 22 and was a machine man working at a local dairy in Lechlade, while still living there with his parents John and Jane Collett

It was three years later that John gave up his status as a single man when he married Ada. By April in 1911 the census return that month confirmed that the couple had been married for six years, during which time their union had not been blessed with any children. John Collett from Lechlade was 32 and a dairyman living at Gravel Walk in Faringdon with his wife Ada Collett who was 28 and from Poole Keynes to the south of Cirencester. Living with them on that occasion was Thomas Joseph Godwin who was 25. Sadly, their marriage only endured for a relatively short time, since it was just ten years later that Ada Collett died at Faringdon in 1921 when she was 38. Her death was recorded at Faringdon register office (Ref. 2c 298) during the second quarter of that year

Charles Edward Collett [47O17] was born at Fyfield in 1878, the eldest son of Nehemiah Collett and Elizabeth Ann Hackling, his birth recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 387) during the third quarter of 1878. It is quite likely he was a ‘honeymoon baby’ following his parents’ marriage nine months earlier. In the census of 1881, he was described as Charles E Collett aged two years from Fyfield, where he was living with his parents. Completing the family was his half-sister, his mother’s daughter, Edith Hackling also of Fyfield, who was five years old. By 1891 he and his family had left Fyfield and had moved to Town End in Meysey Hampton, near Cirencester, where his age was incorrectly given as being sixteen, instead of his actual age of 13. Sometime during the next ten years Charles left Cirencester and moved ten miles north and was living at Elkstone by 1901, where he was working as a labourer on a farm. On that occasion, he was a boarder at the home of carter on a farm William Trinder and his large family, when his age was stated as being 24 and he was still a bachelor

After a further ten years, the census conducted in 1911 described Charles Collett as an unmarried farm labourer from Fyfield aged 34, who was still a boarder with farm labourer William Trinder who, with his even larger family, was then residing in Somerford Keynes near Cirencester. During the last there months of 1967, the death of a Charles Collett aged 90 was recorded at Stroud register office (Ref. 7a 623). It has not yet been determined whether, or not, this was Charles Edward Collett from Fyfield

William Collett [47O18] was born at Fyfield during the first few days of 1880, the second child of Nehemiah and Elizabeth Collett. His birth was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 36) during the first month of that year, but tragically he suffered an infant death and was buried at Eastleach Martin on 17^th January 1880. The parish burial record confirmed that he was ‘of Fyfield’

Mary Ann S Collett [47O19] was born at Fyfield in 1881, but after the census day that year. That is confirmed by the fact that her birth was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 390) during the second quarter of that year. By 1891 the census that year recorded Mary’s age in error as 12 years when she was living with her parents at Town End in Meysey Hampton near Cirencester. Three years later Mary’s father suffered a premature death, following which her mother was remarried and continued to live in Cirencester. However, by the time of the next census in 1901 Mary and her younger sister Sarah (below) had left Gloucestershire and were working together in a lodging house on Worcester Road in Great Malvern, Worcestershire, managed by spinster Sophia Bradley. Mary A Collett from Fyfield was 21 and employed as a domestic housemaid. No record of Mary or her sister have been identified within the census of 1911, by which time both of them may have been married

Sarah Ann Collett [47O20] was born at Fyfield in 1883, another daughter of Nehemiah and Elizabeth Collett. As with her older siblings, her birth was recorded at Northleach (Ref. 6a 372) during the third quarter of the year. Shortly after she was born her parents moved from Fyfield to live near to Cirencester, and it was at Town End in Meysey Hampton where they were living in 1891 when Sarah Collett from Fyfield was eight years old. Three years later her father died when he was around 40 years of age and, after completing her schooling, Sarah joined her older sister Mary (above) who was working in domestic service at a lodging house on Worcester Road in Great Malvern. According to the census in 1901 she was described as Sarah A Collett, aged 17 and of Fyfield, who was employed as a domestic servant and kitchen maid at the lodging house of Sophia Bradley. With no further record of her as a single lady, it may be assumed she was married before 1911

Henry Collett [47O21] was born at Langford Down near Cirencester in 1884 and was living at Town End in Meysey Hampton with his family in 1891 at the age of five years. The census return that year stated that his place of birth was Slade Down, immediately before moving to Langford Down. Because his father Nehemiah was a farm labourer, there is every chance that Slade Down and Langford Down were farms where he worked and lived. Just over three years later his father died, following which his mother remarried. In the Cirencester census of 1901 Henry was recorded as Harry Collett aged 16 whose place of birth was confirmed as Cirencester. On that occasion, he was living at 73 Watermoor Road in Cirencester, the home of his stepfather John Hulbert and his mother Elizabeth Hulbert, when his occupation was that of a domestic groom. He was the eldest of the six children still living with their mother who had also given birth to a daughter by John Hulbert by then. No confirmed record of Henry or Harry Collett after 1901 has so far been discovered

William Collett [47O22] was born at Langford Down near Cirencester in 1886 and was four years old in the 1891 Census for Town End in Meysey Hampton and was only seven years old when his father suffered a premature death in 1894. So far though, no further record of him has been found after that time, which might indicate that he too had not survived. Where William was in 1901 has not been revealed from the details in that year’s census return, but ten years later he and his younger brother John (below) were staying at a boarding house in Cirencester run by Alice Mabel Russell at 16 Prospect Place in the Watermoor area of the town. William Collett from Langford Down was unmarried at the age of 24 and was working as a general labourer. Just over eight years later, when William Collett was 32, that he married Annie Maria Davis at South Cerney on 13^th December 1919, the marriage register confirmed his late father was Nehemiah Collett. It was also at South Cerney that William Collett died and was buried on 9^th December 1977 when he was 90 years old. The last twenty years of his life was spent as a widower, following the death of Annie Maria Collett nee Davis and her burial at South Cerney on 14^th April 1956. Her burial record made provision for her husband to be buried with her at a later date

JOHN ROBERT COLLETT [47O23] was born at Langford Down, near Cirencester, in 1888. He was two years old on the day of the April census in 1891, when he and his family were recorded at Town End in Meysey Hampton, when his place of birth was recorded at Langford Down. He was then 12 years of age by the end of March 1901, by which time his father had died and his mother had married John Hulbert. On that occasion, John and four siblings were living at 73 Watermoor Road, the home of John Hulbert, their stepfather, and the second of the three husbands of his mother Elizabeth Hulbert. Ten years later, in April 1911, John was 22 and was still a bachelor living in Cirencester, when he and his brother William (above) were staying at a boarding house at 16 Prospect Place in the Watermoor area of the town, from where John was working as a general carter

However, that was about to change since, within a year or so of the census day, John Collett married Millicent Hemns, and within a further year, the couple was blessed with the birth of a son, their only child. It is possible that the couple were married at Holy Trinity Church in the Watermoor district of Cirencester, where it is known they were living during the Second World War when John and Millicent received the news that their son Robert had been killed in action in France in 1944. It was five years later that the death of John R Collett was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 7b 427) during the first quarter of 1950, when he was 62 years of age. Probate for the Will of Robert John Collett was completed at Gloucester on 20^th July 1950, when the two beneficiaries were Betty M Goscombe and Elizabeth Anne Curtis. The first of them was the former wife of his son and namesake, who had been killed in action in 1944. It is not known who and how Elizabeth Anne Curtis was related to the family, if at all

47P6 – ROBERT JOHN COLLETT was born in 1912 at Cirencester

George Collett [47O24] was born at Meysey Hampton near Cirencester in 1890, his birth recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 363) during the third quarter of that year. He was therefore under one-year old at the time of the census of 1891 when he and his family were recorded residing at Town End in Meysey Hampton. He was around four years old when his father died and within a further couple of years his mother Elizabeth married John Hulbert. According to the census in 1901 George Collett, aged 11 and from Cirencester, was living at 73 Watermoor Road in Cirencester the home of his mother and his stepfather. Having first suffered the death of his father, George then had to deal with the death of his stepfather John Hulbert and his mother’s subsequent marriage to David Dance, his mother’s third husband

The census conducted in April 1911 placed George still living at 73 Watermoor Road in Cirencester with his mother, his new stepfather, and his two younger Collett siblings Annie and Frank. He was described as being 20 years of age, as having the occupation of a domestic gardener, with his place of birth confirmed as being ‘Maisey Hampton’

Annie Collett [47O25] was born at Duntisbourne Abbotts, near Cirencester, in 1894, the youngest daughter of Nehemiah and Elizabeth Ann Collett, whose birth was recorded at nearby Cirencester (Ref. 6a 342) during the second quarter of that year. Annie was just a few months old when her father died and her mother remarried, so on the day of the census in 1901 stepdaughter Annie Collett from Cirencester was living at 73 Watermoor Road in Cirencester, the home of her mother’s second husband John Hulbert. After John Hulbert died, Annie’s mother married David Dance and it was with him and her mother that Annie Collett from Duntisbourne Abbotts was 15 and still residing at 73 Watermoor Road, having no stated occupation

Frank Ernest Collett [47O26] was born at Duntisbourne Abbotts in 1896, the son of Elizabeth Ann Collett nee Hackling, the widow of Nehemiah Collett who tragically died two years before Frank was born, father unknown. The birth of Frank Ernest Collett was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 346) during the third quarter of 1896. Shortly afterwards, his mother was re-married to John Hulbert, and it was with his mother and stepfather that five-year old Frank Collett was living at 73 Watermoor Road in Cirencester, and where he was still living ten years later at the age of 14, when his place of birth was recorded as Duntisbourne Abbotts. It was after a further thirteen years when Frank Collett married Ethel Cissie Bird at the parish church of Down Ampney near Cirencester on 27^th September 1924, which was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 957) during the third quarter of that year

Although the church register indicated that each of them was of full age, those words had been crossed out, with their respective ages of 25 and 23 added alongside. The entry also confirmed that Frank was a bachelor and a labourer from Cirencester, whose father was confirmed as Nehemiah Collett, a deceased labourer. Spinster Ethel from Down Ampney was named as the daughter of labourer Edward Frederick Bird. Both the bride and groom signed the register in their own hand, with the witness named as William Smith and Dorothy Ellen Bird. The death of Ethel Cissie Collett, aged 75, was recorded at Cirencester register office during June 1976 when her date of birth was stated as 20^th June 1901

James Collett [47O27], who was referred to as Jim, was born at Winstone on 22^nd June 1868 and was three years old in the 1871 Census of Winstone. In 1874 his parents left Winstone and moved the three miles north to Cowley. By 1881 he and his family were living at Cowley where Jim was working as an agricultural labourer with his father at the age of 13. This was probably at Cowley Manor where it is known he was working later in his life. Ten years later James was aged 22 still living there with his family. He was not married by the time of the census of 1901 but was still a bachelor then aged 32 and living at Cowley from where he was employed as a domestic gardener at Cowley Manor. Cowley Manor was built by the architect George Somers Clarke in 1860 and today is a grand 30 bedroom luxury hotel with restaurant, bar and spa. James was 54 years old when he married Mary Jane Winter on 23^rd February 1922. Sixteen years later Mary died on 23^rd July 1938 and was followed by James ten years later on 21^st August 1948, just two months after his eightieth birthday

Jane Collett [47O28] was born at Winstone on 11^th June 1869 and was one-year old in 1871 while still living at Winstone. In 1874 her parents moved to Cowley where in 1881 she was aged 11. Towards the end of the 1880s Jane had left the family home and moved to Dorking in Surrey where she was working as a domestic servant in early April 1891. Just six weeks after the census day Jane married William Sims on 18^th May 1891 at Effingham parish church in Surrey. William was born at Effingham around 1868 and once they were married the couple settled in Cobham in Surrey where they lived for the first twenty-five years of their life together. Before the end of the century, they adopted their daughter, who had been born at Cobham in 1893

According to the 1901 Census for Cobham, Jane was 31 and from Winstone in Gloucestershire, her daughter Dorothy W Sims was seven, and her husband William, aged 32, was a general labourer. Lodging with the family were Jane’s’ two brothers Charles Collett and Richard Collett and their cousin Joseph Collett (all below). It must have been Jane’s move to Surrey that encouraged other members of her family to join her there, which also included her sister Janet, who lived nearby in Cobham. Around the time of the outbreak of war Jane, William and Dorothy left Surrey and moved to Barnet in Hertfordshire. Later in their life they moved again, this time to Wivenhoe in Essex. Their daughter Dorothy married Wilfred Stevens, but the marriage produced no children for the couple

Richard Collett [47O29] was born at Winstone in 1870, but must have died shortly after since he did not appear in the census of 1871 with his family

Janet Collett [47O30] was born at Winstone on 3^rd July 1872 and by the time of the 1881 Census she was aged 9 and was living with her family at Cowley. Like her sister Jane (above), Janet also left Gloucestershire during the late 1880s and had moved to Surrey where she was living in Dorking and working as a domestic servant in 1891. Just over five years later Janet married Walter John Stanbridge at Dorking on 2^nd August 1896. Walter was born in 1866 at East Grinstead in Sussex and was the eldest son of Walter and Emma Stanbridge. At the time of the birth of Janet’s and Walter’s first child the couple were living at Emsworth near Portsmouth which might indicate that Walter was a sailor in the navy

Certainly, Walter was absent from the family home in Cobham in Surrey two years later and Janet aged 29 and from Winstone in Gloucestershire was listed as ‘receiving war pay’ in the 1901 Census. Living with her at that time was her son Ernest who was two years old and of Emsworth in Hampshire. Walter returned to the family home shortly after 1901 resulting in a further six children being born into the family over the next ten years. Tragically though, three of the children, including a set of twins, died as babies in 1905, which followed the earlier death of another baby in 1902

It may have been just after that sad event when Janet and Walter left Cobham and moved the four miles to Claygate where the family was living at Vale Road in 1911. The marriage between Janet and Walter suffered a breakdown after this time when Walter left Janet who continued to live in Vale Road until her death in 1945 when the house was taken over by her son Norman. Janet’s estranged husband Walter died twenty-three years earlier in 1922. Around the time that Janet’s husband left the family home in Claygate, her brother Richard (below) moved into the house in Vale Road, as that was the address given in his wartime service record

The known details of the seven children of Walter John Stanbridge and Janet Collett are as follows:

Ernest Charles Stanbridge was born at Emsworth near Portsmouth on 9^th January 1899. By the end of March 1901, he was two years old and was living at Cobham in Surrey with his mother Janet. His father Walter was absent from the family home at that time for which his mother was in receipt of war pay. Ernest was married later in his life and the marriage produced five children for the couple. Walter Stanbridge was born at Cobham in 1902 and died within three months of being born. The twins John Stanbridge and Janet Stanbridge were born at Cobham in early 1905, but tragically died during the same first three months of 1905. Walter Charles Stanbridge was born at Cobham in late 1905 and tragically did not survive beyond the end of that year. Walter’s death was the fourth infant death that the family had suffered in just three years. Ruby Florence Stanbridge was born in 1907 and this may have been at Cobham, or after her parents moved to nearby Claygate. Sadly, she died from rheumatic fever when she was just 15 years of age, when she passed away on 21^st August 1922. Norman Walter Stanbridge was born at Vale Road in Claygate on 6^th October 1910. He later married Alice Preece in 1936 and the marriage produced two daughters for Norman and Alice. Following the death of his mother Janet Stanbridge nee Collett in 1945, Norman and his family took over the house in Vale Road

Charles Collett [47O31] was born at Winstone on 22^nd August 1873 and was seven years old in the 1881 Census while living with his family at Cowley. He was still there ten years later but shortly after he and his brother Richard (below) and their cousin Joseph (below) followed his two sisters to Surrey. Both brothers were employed as non-domestic gardeners by the time of the 1901 Census for Cobham where they were living with their sister Jane Sims nee Collett (above). Charles was confirmed as being aged 27 and born at Winstone in Gloucestershire. Charles never married and joined the army during the last year of the First World War when he would have been forty-five years old. From his wartime service record, he is known to have worn spectacles

Thanks to new information received from Frances Francis at the end of 2016 we know that Charles Collett died on 29^th September 1940 at Cobham in Surrey following an accident. At that time in his life, he was employed as a gardener at the grand house known as Pyports on Downside Bridge Road in Cobham – designated a Grade II listed building in 1969. Having been home for breakfast on 27^th September, he was cycling back to work at Pyports when he was in collision with a car. He suffered serious head injuries from which he died two days later. According to statements in the Coroner's Report, Charles had been a keen cyclist since his youth and also took part in races. In addition to this, he was also a keen cricketer and became an umpire for local matches later in life

Richard Collett [47O32] was born at Cowley on 23^rd December 1875 following his family’s recent move from Winstone. The census of 1881 placed the family as living at Cowley where Richard was aged five. Ten years later he was still living there with his family at the age of 15, but sometime after he and his brother Charles (above) and their cousin Joseph Collett (below) left Gloucestershire to start a new life in Surrey. By 1901 Richard aged 25 and from Cowley in Gloucestershire was living at the Cobham home of his married sister Jane Sims nee Collett. Also living with them was his brother Charles and cousin Joseph Collett. Both of the brothers were employed as non-domestic gardeners. And also, just like his brother Charles, Richard never married. Sometime later, probably after 1914, Richard went to live at Vale Road in Claygate with his married sister Janet Stanbridge nee Collett (above) who was separated from her husband. Richard played an active part with the army in the Great War and was still living at Claygate with his sister Janet when he died from heart failure on 29^th December 1925

Emily Collett [47O33] was born at Cowley on 1^st February 1877 and she was three years of age and 13 years old respectively in the Cowley censuses of 1881 and 1891. By the end of March 1901 Emily had left Gloucestershire and was working in service as a domestic servant at a house in Kidlington near Oxford. She was 23 and her place of birth was confirmed as Cowley, Cheltenham. Emily was still living in Kidlington ten years later when she married Joseph Thomas Tuffrey there on 17^th October 1911. Not long after they were married the couple moved to Rushden in Northamptonshire where their two daughters were born. Northamptonshire was the main centre for the manufacture of footwear at that time and it was at Rushden that Joseph Tuffrey was a bespoke boot and shoemaker. The six-year gap between his two children possibly indicates that Joseph took an active role in the First World War and was absent from the family home for some years. Twenty years after the birth of her first child Emily died at nearby Wellingborough on 19^th August 1933 at the age of 56

The known details of the two children of Joseph Thomas Tuffrey and Emily Collett are as follows:

Lily Tuffrey was born at Rushden in Northamptonshire on 20^th December 1913. She never married and died in Oxfordshire on 12^th January 1982. The youngest Tuffrey daughter of Emily Collett and Joseph Tuffrey was born in Rushden during 1920. She was still alive and living in Oxfordshire in 2008, by which time she was married with three daughters

Ann Collett [47O34], who was known as Annie, was born at Cowley on 13^th September 1881 and by 1891 she was listed as Annie Collett aged nine years, while living with her family at Cowley. It is understood that she was educated at nearby Cobberley School. She was still living at Cowley with her parents in 1901 aged 19. The census did not give her as having an occupation but as the only child still living with her parents she was very likely looking after them in their advancing years

Just as two of her sisters and two of her brothers had done so ten years earlier, Annie also moved to Surrey in the early years of the new century. And it was there at Cobham that she married Thomas Clements on 5^th June 1911, just five months before her father died. Thomas Clements was a gardener as were Annie’s two brother Charles and Richard (above). So, it seems likely that she was introduced to her husband through her brothers knowing him by working with him in Cobham, where they also living and worked

Annie lived the rest of her life at Cobham where her two children were born and where in 1936 her gardener husband Thomas died. After his death Annie worked in the kitchens of the White Lion Hotel in Cobham and survived for thirty years after her husband, before she died on 5^th June 1966. Upon the death of her oldest brother James Collett (above), Annie inherited the Family Bible produced by her father George Richard Collett, which in turn was passed to one of her granddaughters. Also, with the Bible was a Cobberley School book belonging to James Collett

The known details of the two children of Joseph Thomas Tuffrey and Emily Collett are as follows:

Marjorie Nellie Clements was born at Cobham on 13^th September 1911. She later married Robert Craven Wakeman who was born in 1913 with whom she had two daughters. The eldest daughter emigrated to Australia and has four children and seven grandchildren. Marjorie and Robert were divorced in 1947, with Robert remarrying in 1948. Marjorie had a long-term partner with whom she had another daughter. Marjorie and her new daughter eventually emigrated to Australia in 1960 to be reunited with their eldest daughter and it was at Adelaide in 1978 that Marjorie died. Robert died in England two years later in 1980. Their youngest daughter Frances was a scientific and technical information officer before retraining as a secondary school teacher. Frances is now retired and still lives in the United Kingdom and has two children and six grandchildren. And it is Frances Francis who kindly provided the basic details that has enabled this family line to be developed

James Hector Clements was born at Cobham on 30^th July 1913. He later married Joan Margaret Francis Taylor who was born in 1922 and with whom he had a daughter. Joan died in 1977 and was followed by James who died at Effingham in Surrey in 1989. During his life James was a commercial artist with the Milk Marketing Board

Percy E Collett [47O35] was born at Elkstone in 1873. Apart from being recorded as being aged seven years and living with his family at Colesbourne in 1881, no further details have so far been discovered as to what happened to Percy later in his life

Joseph James Collett [47O36] was born at Elkstone in 1875, his birth recorded at Cirencester (Ref.6a 399) during the first three months of the year. Shortly after he was born his parents James and Martha moved to Colesbourne, seven miles south of Cirencester. In the 1881 Census for Colesbourne he was aged five years when he was living there with his parents, as he was again in 1891 when Joseph J Collett was 15 and a farm labourer. It would appear that during the 1890s he joined his four cousins (above) in a move that took them from Gloucestershire to Surrey. By 1901, Joseph from Elkstone was 25 and a bricklayer, when he was staying with his married cousin Jane Sims nee Collett and her family at their Cobham home in Surrey, who also had her two younger brothers, Charles and Richard, living there that census day

However, it was at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 831) that the marriage of Joseph James Collett and Kate Selina Winstone was recorded during the fourth quarter of 1904, when the witnesses were named as Emily Louisa Gilder and Albert Edward Hale. Kate had been born at Cirencester in 1878 and by 1911 she had presented Joseph with their first three children. According to the census year that year Joseph James Collett of Elkstone was 35 and was living at Addlestone in Surrey with his wife Kate Selina Collett who was 32. Their three children at that time were Myrtle Collett who was five, Edith Emmeline Collett who was three and William Joseph Collett who was one-year old, and all of them born at Addlestone, although their births were recorded at Chartsey register office

Whether the couple had further children during the next few years who did not survive is not known, while their last child was born much later in 1921. Joseph James Collett died on 4^th November 1956 when he was residing at 1 Osbourne Road in Severn Beach, near Bristol. His Will was proved at Bristol on 27^th March 1957 when his son William Joseph Collett was named as the sole executor of his personal effects amounting to £1,010

47P7 – Myrtle Collett was born in 1905 at Addlestone, Chertsey

47P8 – Edith Emmeline Collett was born in 1907 at Addlestone, Chertsey

47P9 – William Joseph Collett was born in 1909 at Addlestone, Chertsey

47P10 – Betty Winstone Collett was born in 1921 at Addlestone, Chertsey

John Collett [47O37] was born in 1877 at Colesbourne just after his parents had moved there from Elkstone. John was aged three years at the time of the census in 1881 and was living at Colesbourne with his family. By 1891 he had left school and at the age of 13 he was working with his brother Joseph (above) as a farm labourer. John was still living with his parents at Colesbourne twenty years later when he was 23 and was still employed as a farm labourer. Two major events in John’s short life happened in the next few years, although it is not yet known which occurred first

One was the death of his mother Martha, and the other was his marriage to Sarah Frances Ranford who was also born at Colesbourne. Their marriage took place at Elkstone, midway between Cirencester and Cheltenham on 23^rd April 1905 when, according to the banns notices, bachelor John was a resident of Colesbourne and Sarah was residing in Elkstone. By April 1911 the marriage had not produced any children for the couple who, by that time, had left Colesbourne and were living in the Cirencester area, where John Collett was 33 and a builders’ labourer and his wife Sarah Frances Collett was 30, both of them born at Colesbourne. John Collett of 16 Elkstone Road in Cheltenham was a patient in the Watermoor Hospital in Cirencester when he died there on 17^th March 1956, his widow Sarah Frances Collett being the beneficiary of his personal estate of £640 4 Shilling 7 Pence, as proved at Gloucester on 12^th June 1956

Thomas Collett [47O38] was born at Colesbourne in 1879, the son of James and Martha Collett, and was listed as Tom Collett aged one year in the Colesbourne census of 1881. It was also at Colesbourne that he was still living with his large family in 1911, although the surname was recorded as Collet, when Thomas Collet was 11. Tragically he only survived for a further five years, with his death at 16 being recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 241) during the first three months of 1896

Edith Mary Collett [47O39] was born at Colesbourne in 1881, but after 3^rd April that year. Edith Collett, aged nine years, was recorded in the Colesbourne census of 1891 and was still living there with her parents at the time of the 1901 Census. She was listed as being 19 years of age when she was working as a domestic servant. Edith’s mother died at Colesbourne during the first decade of the new century, so by the time of the census of 1911 she had taken over housekeeping duties for her elderly father James. Unmarried Edith Mary Collett was 29 and was also working as a supplementary teacher, while living with her and her father was her youngest brother William (below)

Anne Louise Collett [47O40], who was referred to as Annie, was born at Colesbourne in 1884, and it was as Annie L Collet that she was still living with her family at Colesbourne in 1891 when she was six years old and attending the local school with her sister Edith (above). Upon leaving school she took up employment with the family of Church of England clergyman Francis Edward Brown Witts and in 1901 she was recorded as Anne Louisa Collett from Colesbourne who was 16 and a kitchen-maid at The Rectory in Upper Slaughter

William Archibald Collett [47O41] was born at Colesbourne in 1889, the youngest child of James and Martha Collett. He was one-year old in the census of 1891 when he was recorded in error as William A Collet. Just after the turn of the century, when he was 11, he was still living with his family at Colesbourne according to the census in March 1901. Ten years later William Archibald Collett was 21 and was still living in the family home in Colesbourne, although the family had been reduced to just his father and sister Edith Mary Collett (above) by then, following the earlier death of his mother

Wilfred Leslie Chandler Collett [47P1] was born at Warsop near Mansfield on 14^th December 1905 around nine months after his parents Wilfred and Kate were married there. However, his birth was not recorded at Mansfield register office (Ref. 7b 69) under the first few weeks of 1906. Apart from the Warsop census of 1911, when he was five years old and recorded under his full name, very little else is known about him, the exceptions being the details of his marriage and his death. Wilfred L C Collett was twenty-nine years old when he married Lucy Smith at Southwell in Nottinghamshire (Ref. 7b 1233) during the second quarter of 1935. The death of Wilfred Leslie C Collett at the age of 73 was recorded at Mansfield register office (Ref. 8 0308) during the second quarter of 1979, while it was three years after his passing that the death of widow Lucy Collett was recorded at Mansfield (Ref. 8 0189) during the last quarter of 1982. The record of her death also gave her date of birth as 4^th May 1912

Florence Elizabeth Collett [47P2] was born at Warsop in 1909, her birth recorded at Mansfield register office (Ref. 7b 67) during the first three months of that year. Within the Warsop census of 1911 Florence Elizabeth Collett was two years old, but tragically it was eight year later that the death of ten-year old Florence E Collett was recorded at Mansfield register office (Ref. 7b 57) during the second quarter of 1919

Walter John Collett [47P3] may have been born in the hamlet of Weald near Bampton at the end of 1867 and was very likely the base-born son of Elizabeth Steptoe Collett. Presumably to overcome any embarrassment to the family, Walter was raised by his grandmother Esther Elizabeth Corke nee Collett, who also arranged his baptism at Bampton on 27^th February 1868. It is also of interest that the baptism record did not include the name of his father and, more curiously, his mother was named as Esther Collett. It was as Walter Collett, aged one year (sic) and from Brampton, that he was living at Mill Lane in Weald with his grandmother’s Corke family. However, after a further ten years he was using his second name when he was still living with the Corke family at Bampton, where he was described as John Collett from Bampton who was 11 (sic). By that time in his life, when he would have been 12 or even 13, his birth mother Elizabeth had been married for almost ten years and as Elizabeth Smith she was living at South Hinksey near Oxford with her husband and their five children. No trace of Walter Collett or John Collett of Bampton has been found after 1881

Annie Collett [47P4] was born in 1894 at Horcott near Kempsford, with her birth recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 342) during the second quarter of the year. She was the older of the two daughters of William Collett and his wife, who tragically died between 1896 and 1901, by which time Annie aged six and from Horcott was living with her widowed father and sister Kate (below) at the Kempsford home of Annie’s grandparents Charles and Elizabeth Collett. Ten years later, 16-year-old Annie Collett from Kempsford was the only domestic servant employed at Colston House in Fairford, the home of Alfred William Iles (Eles) who was 60 and living on private means, with his wife Annie, and their daughter Marie. It seem likely that Annie never married, with the death of Annie Collett aged 74 recorded at Gloucestershire register office (Ref.7b 290) during 1968

Kate Elizabeth Collett [47P5] was born on 26^th February 1896 at the hamlet of Horcott, the younger of the two daughters of William Collett by his unknown wife. They were married between 1891 and 1893, with William’s wife not surviving the ordeal that was the birth of daughter Kate. Curiously, it was as Elizabeth Kate that her birth was recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 359) during the second quarter of that year. Following the premature death of her mother, Kate Elizabeth Collett from Horcott was four years of age when she and her older sister Annie, together with their widowed father, were living at the Kempsford home of the sister paternal grandparents, Charles and Elizabeth Collett.

Her grandfather died during the following years and sister Annie left home during that same period, leaving Kate Collett from Horcott aged 15 and with no stated occupation, still living at the Kempsford home of her elderly widowed grandmother Elizabeth Collett, where her father was employed as a shepherd on a farm. Three years after that census day, the marriage of Kate E Collett and Charles Goodman was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 869) during the last three months of 1914. No record of any children has been found and it was in 1985 that the death of Kate Elizabeth Goodman, aged 89, was recorded at Gloucestershire register office (Vol. 22 606)

ROBERT JOHN COLLETT [47P6] was born at Cirencester in 1912, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6a 646) during the final quarter of the year, the only known child of John Robert Collett and Millicent Hemns. It is known that Robert, who was known as Jack, married Betty May Butler at Cirencester (Ref. 6a 725) early in 1939, Betty having been born on 27^th February 1918 the daughter of William John Butler and his wife Alice May Butler. It was also at Watermoor in Cirencester that the couple was residing when their three children were born. Having lived through the First World War as a child, Jack was actively involved thirty years later in the Second World War

He joined 2^nd Battalion South Wales Borders, in which he was Private Collett 14590673. Tragically, on 8^th July 1944 at the age of 31, he was killed during the heavy fighting in the Bayeux and Caen area of France and was buried at the Hottot-les-Bagues War Cemetery fourteen kilometres from Bayeux. His next-of-kin were named as his parents John and Millicent Collett, and his wife Betty May Collett of Watermoor

The War Memorial in Cirencester bears the name of Robert John Collett. Sadly, he never saw his youngest child who was born after he had died. Four years after the war, on 21^st September 1949, probate of the personal effects of Robert John Collett of 78 Melmore Gardens in Cirencester, amounting to £625 2 Shillings 8 Pence, was granted to Alice May Butler and William John Butler, Jack’s mother and father-in-law. Following the death of her husband, and with her two surviving children to support, Betty May Collett married Arthur Frank H Goscombe who was born on 22^nd November 1913. That marriage produced another child for Betty, when Jenny Goscombe was born sometime around 1948 or 1949. Arthur Goscombe died at the age of 82 during the third quarter of 1996, his death recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 33d 191). Betty May Goscombe was 84 when she died in 2002, her death also being recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 42d 54) during the second quarter of that year. Their daughter Jenny was still alive in 2014

The photograph of Robert John Collett (above) was generously provided by his granddaughter Michelle Downes-Hall nee Collett, the youngest child of his son Rodney James Collett, who also kindly provided the photograph of her great grandfather John Collett (Ref. 47O27)

47Q1 – David John Collett was born in 1940 at Cirencester

47Q2 – RODNEY JAMES COLLETT was born in 1942 at Cirencester

47Q3 – Anthony W Collett was born in 1946 at Cirencester

Myrtle Collett [47P7] was born at Addlestone on 25^th July 1905, the first child of Joseph James Collett and Kate Selina Winstone who were married nine months earlier, her birth recorded at Chertsey register office (Ref. 2a 65) during the third quarter of that year. It was at Addlestone that she was living with her family in 1911, when she was five years old. She was 23 when the marriage of Myrtle Collett and David Sleet was recorded at Chertsey register office (Ref. 2a 118) during the second quarter of 1929. A year later, the birth of the couple’s first child Eileen M Sleet was recorded at Chertsey in 1930, when the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett. A second daughter, Audrey R Sleet was born there towards the end of 1931 and, four years after that, Myrtle presented David with a son David C Sleet in the spring of 1936, his birth recorded at the Surrey North-Western register office. Myrtle Sleet, nee Collett was 71 years old, when her death was recorded at the Surrey North-Western register office (Ref. 17 0614) near the end of 1976

Edith Emmeline Collett [47P8] was born at Addlestone in 1907, her birth recorded at Chertsey register office (Ref. 2a 61) during the third quarter of that year, the second child of Joseph and Kate Collett. Under her full name Edith was three years old in the Addlestone census of 1911. Although it has been reported that Edith was also married and died at Bristol in 1988, no recorded of a marriage or a record of her death has been found

William Joseph Collett [47P9] was born at Addlestone on 2^nd September 1909, his birth recorded at Chertsey register office (Ref. 2a 54) during the last three months of that year. He was the only son of amongst the four children of Joseph and Kate Collett. He was only one-year old in 1911, when he and his family were living at Addlestone within the Chertsey area of Surrey. He is known to have married, but unfortunately no record of the event has been found. In 1956, following the death of his father, William Joseph Collett was named as the executor of his father’s Will, when his occupation was that of a local government officer. Thirty-four years later, the death of William Joseph Collett, the son of Joseph James Collett, at Taunton Deane was recorded in Somerset (Ref. 23 1633) during early 1990

Another William Joseph Collett was twenty-nine at the outbreak of the Second World War, and it was around then that he joined the Royal Army Medical Corp with which he was Private Collett 7535348. He was posted to the Far East where he was involved in the campaign against the Japanese. Tragically, he was killed on Saint Valentine’s Day in 1942, at the age of 31, and his name appears on the Singapore War Memorial (Column 105) amongst the 24,000 casualties who have no known grave

Betty Winstone Collett [47P10] was born in 1921 and her birth was recorded at Chertsey register office (Ref. 2a 106) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Winston. She was the fourth and last child of Joseph James Collett and Kate Selina Winstone. Selina Winstone. It is understood that she was married and that she died during 1982

David John Collett [47Q1] was the eldest son of Robert John (Jack) Collett and his wife Betty May Butler and was born at Watermoor, in Cirencester, on 5^th January 1940. His birth was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 6a 1226) during the first three months of 1940, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Butler. He never married and his death was recorded at Gloucester records office (Ref. 22 1951) during the spring of 1989, who he was 49 was born in 1921 and her birth was recorded at Chertsey register office (Ref. 2a 106) during the second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Winston. She was the fourth and last child of Joseph James Collett and Kate Selina Winstone. Selina Winstone. It is understood that she was married and that she died during 1982

RODNEY JAMES COLLETT [47Q2] was born at Watermoor in Cirencester on 15^th June 1942, another son of Jack and Betty Collett. It was also at Cirencester, that his marriage to Doris Lillian George, from St Helena in the South Atlantic, was recorded (Ref. 7b 669) during the last quarter of 1962. and they had three children who were all born at Watermoor, where the family still live in 2012

47R1 – Deborah Jane Collett was born in 1963 at Watermoor, Cirencester

47R2 – THOMAS MARK COLLETT was born in 1963 at Watermoor, Cirencester

47R3 – Michelle Collett was born in 1972 at Watermoor, Cirencester

Anthony W Collett [47Q3], who was known as Tony, was originally thought to have been born at Cirencester in 1946, when in fact his birth was recorded at Cheltenham register office (Ref. 6a 727) during the first quarter of 1946, his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Butler. He was the last son of Jack Collett and Betty Butler and was 23 years old when the marriage of Anthony W Collett and Rosemary P Jeffery was recorded at Cirencester (Ref. 7b 1168) during the summer of 1969. No record of any children has been found

Deborah Jane Collett [47R1] was born at Watermoor in Cirencester, the eldest of the three children of Rodney James Collett and his wife Doris Lillian George. Her birth was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 7b 601) during the last three months of 1963, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as George. It was during the spring of 1983 that her marriage to Alexander A Bryson was recorded at register office (Ref. 22 1588). In 2012, Deborah and Alexander were living in Cirencester, their three sons being James Bryson (born in 1987 at Swindon), Scott Bryson (born in 1989 at Cheltenham), and Danny Bryson (born in 1991 at Cheltenham)

TIMOTHY MARK COLLETT [47R2], who is known as Tim, was born at Watermoor in Cirencester, the only son of Rodney and Doris Collett. During the middle of 1990, the marriage of Timothy M Collett and Tessa J Rowe was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 22 1918). Their marriage produced three children and, in 2012, Timothy and Tessa were residing in Cirencester with their family

47S1 - Karl John Collett was born in 1990 at Cheltenham

47S2 – Fabienne Collett was born in 1992

47S3 – Rosie Collett was born in at Cirencester

Michelle Collett [47R3], who is known as Shelley, was born at Watermoor in Cirencester, the youngest of the three children of Rodney and Doris Collett. The birth was recorded at Cirencester register office (Ref. 7b 1372) during the spring of 1972, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed George. It was there also, that her subsequent marriage to Timothy M F Downes-Hall was recorded (Ref. 480 0165) during the latter part of 1995. Shelley and Timothy have two sons and there is a tradition within the Downes-Hall family that any sons born into the family carry an addition name. Hence Shelley’s two sons are William Connor ffoxe Downes-Hall, and Brendan Jack ffoxe Downes-Hall. It is thanks to the information received from Shelley during 2012 that this family line has been extended by a further three generations, and a fourth in 2020

Karl John Collett [47S1] was born at Cheltenham towards the end of 1990, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 22 2179), the first-born child of Timothy Mark Collett, whose mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Rowe

Fabienne Collett [47S2] was born in 1992, her birth recorded at Cheltenham register office (Ref. 22 2224) during the summer of that year. She was the second of the three children of Timothy Mark Collett, her mother’s maiden name confirmed as being Rowe. On 6^th March 2020, she gave birth to a son, Conor James Porter

Appendix for Fifield in Oxfordshire

The following information had previously been incorrectly placed in this family, but has now been removed to this appendix because it relates to the alternative village of Fifield near Burford in Oxfordshire

William Collett [47l1] was a sawyer and was married to Elizabeth, whose son Richard was born at Fifield near Burford in 1803

47m1 – Richard Collett was born in 1803 at Burford

Richard Collett [47m1] was born in 1803 and was baptised at Fifield by Burford in Oxfordshire on 10^th July 1803, when his parents were confirmed as being William and Elizabeth Collett. He was a sawyer, like his father, and was married and widowed shortly after, although no records of his first marriage have yet been found. It was on 29^th August 1847 that sawyer Richard Collett, a widower, was married by banns to the widow Mary Cawcott at Bledington. The church register confirmed the groom’s father was William Collett, a sawyer, while the bride’s father was named as labourer W Hathaway. The witnesses at the ceremony were Amos and Lois Cook, while the register was signed by the bride in the name of Callcutt, rather than Cawcott

Richard and Mary were still living in Bledington at the time of the census in 1851, when Richard Collett was 48 and a sawyer from Fifield in Oxfordshire, and his wife Mary was 52 and from Salford near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. On that occasion the couple had taken in two lodgers. It was a similar same situation ten years later when once again Richard’s place of birth was recorded as Fifield in Oxfordshire when he and Mary were still residing in the village of Bledington which was midway between Fifield and Chipping Norton

However, by the time of the next census in 1871 the couple was residing within the Shipston-on-Stour area of Warwickshire, albeit under the incorrect name of Collett. Richard was 68 and had been born at Fifield in Oxfordshire, while his wife Mary was 73. It was just two years later that Richard Collett passed away, with his death recorded at Shipston-on-Stour (Ref. 6d 386) during the third quarter of 1873

Prior to her marriage to Richard Collett, Mary had presented her first husband Thomas Callcott with ten children who were all baptised at Bledington. The eldest was baptised as William Calcut on 20^th April 1817, while the youngest was baptised as Edward Caucutt on 8^th October 1835. Further work is therefore needed to determine where William and Richard Collett fit into the wider Collett family