PART FORTY-NINE

The Kirtlington (Oxon) to California Line – 1550 to 2010

Updated October 2021

This is the family line of Brian Richard Collett (Ref. 49R8) of San Francisco,

and Raymond (Ray) Collett (Ref. 49R4) of Worcester, the great grandson of Eli Collett (Ref. 49O8)

A previous version of this family line commenced with Charles Collett the father of Henry George Collett of Oxfordshire. New information received from Brian Richard Collett in the USA in early 2010 has enabled the line to be extended back one generation to the Oxfordshire village of Kirtlington and to Charles’ father George Collett. Additional information has also been gratefully received from Dave Cotty in Australia relating to the Shoubridge family, and the aforementioned Ray Collett.

All of the burial details included in the June 2011 update of this family line have been kindly provided by Ray Collett. Where a fit to a specific family could not be found, the details have been included in an Appendix at the end of this file.

49F1	Thomas Collett (Collat), whose father is not known, married Eleanor Hedges most likely sometime between 1570 and 1580 at Longborough in Gloucestershire, where Eleanor's family resided. The parish registers are unfortunately missing for this period. It is therefore assumed that Eleanor was the mother of Thomas' children, although she may have been his second wife. Thomas was described in the Will of John Hedges of Longborough, written in 1599, as being his son-in-law and owed Three Pounds Ten Shillings to his father-in-law. It is of course possible that Thomas was actually John Hedges’ stepson, as the term son-in-law was often used in both contexts. If so, then Margaret Hedges was his mother rather than his wife's mother. The Will of Thomas Collett was made on 7^th March 1608 at Evenlode in Gloucestershire, describing himself as a husbandman. In the Will, he left a number of bequests to his wife and their children. His daughter Margaret was to receive Four Pounds, four sheep and a christening sheet. His daughter Alice was left Three Pounds, three sheep and a christening sheet. His eldest son William was to receive three sheep and Thirty Shillings, the latter to be paid to him at the time of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1609. To his son John, he left three sheep and Thirty Shillings to be paid at the time of the Feast of St Michael Archangel in 1609. He left his son Thomas three sheep and Thirty Shillings to be paid at the time of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1610 and, to his youngest son Anthony, he left three sheep and Thirty Shillings to be paid at the time of the Feast of St Michael Archangel in 1610.
	The remainder of his estate, he left to his wife Eleanor who he made his sole executor. Overseers of his Will were named as John Hedges of Longborough, and Richard Haines of Evenlode. Thomas Collett was buried on 10^th March 1608 at Evenlode St Edward King & Martyr, and probate of his estate was granted to his wife Eleanor at the Consistory Court of Worcester on 22^nd April 1608. Eleanor Hedges was the daughter of John and Margaret Hedges. Following the death of Thomas Collett, Eleanor Collett, a widow, married Thomas Carter at Evenlode on 10^th July 1608, but tragically, she died later that same year.
	49G1		William Collett			Date of birth unknown
	49G2		Margaret Collett			Date of birth unknown
	49G3		Alice Collett			Date of birth unknown
	49G4		John Collett			Date of birth unknown
	49G5		Thomas Collett			Date of birth unknown
	49G6		Anthony Collett			Date of birth unknown
491	WILLIAM COLLETT was the son of Thomas Collett (Collat) and Eleanor Hedges, who married (1) Elizabeth sometime between 1595 and 1600. Not long after they were married, Elizabeth died and was buried at Adlestrop on 27^th May 1605 in the churchyard of the Church of St Mary Magdalene. Eighteen months after being widowed, William Collett married (2) Anis Castill at Adlestrop on 6^th October 1606. Three years later William was a beneficiary under the terms of the Will of his father Thomas Collett, the Will made on 7^th March 1608 and proved on 22^nd April 1608 in Gloucester. The Will bequeath to William three sheep and Thirty Shillings, the latter be paid to him at the time of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1609. William’s own Will was made on 3^rd March 1635 at Moreton-in-Marsh, which described him as a husbandman. The Will also left bequests to his second wife Ann and his children. Ann received a share of his household belongings, to be shared with his son Richard. To his son Ralph he left Ten Pounds, to his sons William and Thomas he left Twenty Shillings, and to his son John he left Five Shillings. To his grandsons William and Ralph (his son Richard's children) he bequeathed each of them Five Pounds to be paid when they attained the age of 21 or at the time of his son Richard's death, if he died before they reached that age. The remainder of his estate, after the payment of any debts, he left to his son Richard whom he made his sole executor. Overseers of the Will were said to be William Castell and Thomas Knot, to whom he left Twelve Shillings to each of them. Probate of his estate was granted in Gloucester on 20^th June 1635.
	Anis Castill was the daughter of Richard and Margaret Castill and was baptised at Adlestrop on 3^rd October 1571. She died fifteen years after losing her husband, when she was buried at Moreton-in-Marsh on 15^th December 1650. The burial record at St David’s Church does not specifically describe her as a widow.
	49H1		William Collett			Born circa 1598 at Adlestrop
	49H2		Thomas Collett			Born in 1600 at Adlestrop
	49H3		John Collett			Baptised on 12.09.1602 at Adlestrop
	49H4		RICHARD COLLETT			Born in 1603 at Adlestrop
	49H5		John Collett			Born in 1605 at Adlestrop
	The following are the children of William Collett by his second wife Anis (Ann) Castill:
	49H6		Edward Collett			Born in 1607 at Adlestrop
	49H7		Ralph Collett			Born circa 1610 at Adlestrop
49H1	William Collett was possibly born at Adlestrop around 1598 and was the first-born child of William Collett and his first wife Elizabeth. William junior was married to Mary Greening on 20^th August 1621 at St David’s Church in Moreton-in-Marsh. Thirteen years later, William was a beneficiary of the Will of his father William, which was proved in Gloucester on 20^th June 1635, when he received Twenty Shillings. His wife Mary Collett died two years later and was buried at Moreton-in-Marsh on 30^th December 1637. No record of the death of her husband has been found.
49H2	Thomas Collett was born at Adlestrop towards the end of 1600, another son of William and Elizabeth Collett, who was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Adlestrop on 6^th January 1601. He was a beneficiary of the Will of his father William, made on 3^rd March 1635 and proved on 20^th June 1635 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester, resulting in him inheriting Twenty Shillings. He married Alice Macocke (Maycock) sometime after 1635 before 1639, when their twin sons were born. Alice's maiden name was confirmed in the parish register entries on the occasion of the baptism of her two youngest children Alice and Mary Collett. The younger of the two daughters was only eleven years old when her father died at the start of 1659, following which Thomas Collett, a labourer, was buried at St David’s Church in Moreton-in-Marsh on 25^th January 1659. Just over eight years after losing her husband, Alice Collett – widow, died at Moreton-in-Marsh and was buried with Thomas on 30^th October 1667 in the grounds of St David’s church.
	49I1		Thomas Collett twin			Baptised on 23.03.1639 at Moreton
	49I2		Edward Collett twin			Baptised on 23.03.1639 at Moreton
	49I3		Alice Collett			Baptised on 23.02.1645 at Moreton
	49I4		Mary Collett			Born in 1647 at Moreton-in-Marsh
49H4	RICHARD COLLETT was born at Adlestrop in 1603, the fourth son of William Collett and his wife Elizabeth, and was baptised at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Adlestrop on 18^th December 1603. Richard married Joane, most likely sometime early in the 1630s, with their first two sons, William and Ralph, having been born by the time Richard's father, William Collett, made his Will on 3^rd March 1635, there being no reference to the couple’s youngest and last known child. Richard Collett, husband of Joan, was a beneficiary under the terms of his Father’s Will, which was proved at the Consistory Court of Gloucester on 20^th June 1635, when he inherited the residue of the estate, including a share of the household belongings. Richard was later widowed, when Joan died at Moreton-in-Marsh, where she was buried on 18^th January 1650.
	49I5		William Collett			Born circa 1632 at Moreton (?)
	49I6		Ralph Collett			Born circa 1634 at Moreton (?)
	49I7		RICHARD COLLETT			Born in 1637 at Moreton-Marsh
49H5	John Collett was born at Adlestrop where he was baptised on 26^th May 1605, the fifth and last child of William Collett and his first wife Elizabeth. Following the death of his father, John was a beneficiary in his Will proved on 20^th June 1635 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester, when he inherited Five Shillings.
49H6	Edward Collett was born at Adlestrop and was baptised there on 4^th February 1608 at the Church of St Mary Magdalene. He was the first of the two children of William Collett by his second wife Anis (Ann) Castill. Tragically, he died four months later and was buried at Adlestrop on 5^th May 1608.
49H7	Ralph Collett was born at Adlestrop, perhaps after 1610, the second and last child of William Collett and his second wife Anis (Ann) Castill, who were married towards the end of 1806. It was also at Adlestrop, ten years later, where he was baptised on 30^th March 1616, when he may have been up to six years of age. Like his older surviving brothers, Ralph was also a beneficiary of the Will of his father William, proved on 20^th June 1635, with a bequeath of Ten Pounds. He became a married man on 4^th July 1639, when his marriage to Olive Watts was conducted at St Lawrence’s Church in Bourton-on-the-Hill. On their wedding day, Olive was recorded as Olive Ollwind, while her given maiden name on the baptism records for her daughters, was recorded as Watts, suggesting that she was a widow on marrying Ralph, although no marital status was recorded on the entry for their marriage. Ralph and Olive inherited the tenement and appurtenances at Moreton-in-Marsh, in which they lived as beneficiaries of the Will of Ralph's employer William Batson of Bourton-on-the-Hill, dated 26^th July 1666, proven on 25^th August 1666 at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Under the terms of the Will, Ralph and Olive, and their son William, were to hold the property for 99 years paying the ancient yearly rent of Five Shillings and Two geese.
	In the end, Ralph Collett died during 1700 and was buried at Moreton-in-Marsh on 20^th September 1700 at St David Church, in the ninety-seventh year of his age (that is, according to the entry in the parish register, although he was most certainly some years younger than that). His wife, who may have been better informed of such matters, passed way seven years earlier, when Olive Collett was also buried at St David’s Church on 23^rd March 1693.
	49I8		Maria Collett			Baptised on 28.06.1640 at Moreton
	49I9		William Collett			Born circa 1643 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49I10		Elizabeth Collett			Baptised on 25.01.1646 at Moreton
	49I11		Ruth Collett			Born in 1652 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49I12		Katharine Collett			Baptised on 23.07.1654 at Moreton
	49I13		Lydia Collett			Born in 1657 at Moreton-in-Marsh
49I4	Mary Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1647 and was the fourth and last child of Thomas Collett and Alice Maycock. She was baptised at St David’s Church in Moreton on 9^th May 1647 and she later married Thomas Cook at St David’s Church on 6^th November 1673. The parish record stated that Mary resided within the parish, while Thomas was from Snowshill in Gloucestershire.
49I5	William Collett was the first-born child of Richard and Joan Collett and may have been born at Moreton-in-Marsh around 1632 or slightly earlier. That is based on the fact that he was a named beneficiary in the Will of his grandfather, made in 1635. The Will was proved which was proved in Gloucester on 20^th June 1635, when William Collett, son of Richard Collett, was to inherit Five Pounds.
49I6	Ralph Collett was the second of the three sons of Richard and Joan Collett. He may have been born at Moreton-in-Marsh around 1634, was mentioned in the 1635 Will of his grandfather William Collett which was proved on 20^th June 1635. Under the terms of the Will, Ralph Collett, son of Richard Collett, was to receive the bequest of Five Pounds when he attained the age of 21 years, or earlier, if his father Richard died before then.
49I7	RICHARD COLLETT was baptised at Moreton-in-Marsh on 30^th April 1637, the son of Richard Collett and his wife Joan. He later married Mary during the middle of the 1660s, who presented him with a son of the same name who was baptised at Moreton-in-Marsh, who was known to have an older brother John who was an executor of his estate. All of their ten children were born and born at Moreton-in-Marsh, where some of them were also buried. The Will of Richard Collett was made on 9^th March 1713 at Moreton-in-Marsh, describing himself as a saddler, when he left bequests to his surviving children and two grandsons. He left Ten Pound to his son Walter and daughter-in-law Christian. To his daughter Hester he left Fifteen Pounds, plus a bed and all its belongings. His daughter Mary was to have the use of Twenty Pounds but, if she died, it was to go to his son Richard. His son John was to have Thirty Pounds and was to be executor of the Will. Upon his death, Richard Collett, a saddler, was buried at St David’s Church in Moreton-in-Marsh on 13^th March 1713. Administration (with Will annexed) of his estate was granted on 15^th October 1713 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester when his son John Collett stood as bondsman for the administration, with Richard's son Richard Collett and John's brother-in-law, William Spencer, being sureties. His wife Mary Collett died on 20^th February 1700 and was buried two days later at Moreton-in-Marsh St David, when she was confirmed as the wife of Richard Collett.
	49J1		Walter Collett	Born in 1667 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49J2		Ann Collett	Baptised on 05.11.1669 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49J3		John Collett	Born in 1673 at Moreton-in-Marsh; died 1674
	49J4		Marie Collett	Born in 1676 at Moreton-in-Marsh; died 1677
	49J5		Mary Collett	Born in 1679 at Moreton-in-Marsh; died 1713
	49J6		Hester Collett	Born in 1679 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49J7		Thomas Collett	Born in 1682 at Moreton-in-Marsh; died 1683
	49J8		Thomas Collett	Baptised on 07.02.1697 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49J9		RICHARD COLLETT	Born in 1687 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49J10		James Collett	Baptised on 16.11.1689 at Moreton-in-Marsh
49I9	William Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh around 1643, the second child of Ralph Collett and Olive Ollwind nee Watts. William was a beneficiary of the Will of his father's employer William Batson of Bourton-on-the-Hill made on 26^th July 1666 and proved on 25^th August 1666 at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. He inherited the 99-year lease on the property where his parents lived, paying the ancient yearly rent of Five Shillings and Two geese. Nothing more is known about him at this time.
49I11	Ruth Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1652, the daughter of Ralph Collett and Olive Watts, who was baptised there at St David’s Church on 21^st August 1652, when her father was described as a labourer. Ruth married Thomas Gardner at Moreton-in-Marsh on 19^th November 1683, when Ruth was residing within the parish, and Thomas was a resident at Enstone in Oxfordshire. Their children were Mary Gardner, Joan Gardner (bapt. 1686), Elizabeth Gardner (bapt. 1689), Sarah Gardner, and Gyles Gardner (born 1694, bur.1736). Nothing further is known about the couple, apart from the fact that Ruth Gardner was a widow when she died and was buried on 27^th April 1724 in the churchyard of St Kenelm in Enstone.
49I13	Lydia Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh on 8^th February 1657 and was the last child born to Ralph Collett and Olive Watts. She was also baptised there, at St David’s Church, on 2^nd March 1657. She was twenty-years of age when she married John Davis at Daylesford St Peter in Worcestershire on 20^th June 1686. Later on, Lydia Davis was a beneficiary of the Will of her husband John, which was made at Adlestrop on 21^st April 1715 and proved on 22^nd September 1715 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester. Through it, she inherited all his household goods, for her sole use, and an annuity of Ten Pounds per year to be paid by her eldest son John Davis.
	To his son William Davis, he left the sum of Two Hundred Pounds to be paid once he completed his apprenticeship. His son John Davis was to inherit the house, appurtenances and land totalling five yards in Little Compton in the occupation of William Field. John Davis, the elder, bequeathed jointly to his sons Thomas and Richard four yard of lands in Little Compton, including the houses and appurtenances in the occupation of Robert Hancock, but that they should not possess the profits or rents from the said lands for a year and, for that year, his son John is to use this to pay his mother's annuity – referred to above.
	To his (married) daughter Mary Fletcher of Evenlode, he left Twenty Pounds to be paid if she has any child to be born and who lives to be twelve months old. He appointed his eldest son John to be his executor. John Davis, the elder, died on 3^rd May 1715 and was buried two days after at Adlestrop St Mary Magdalene. Probate of his estate was granted to his son John on 22^nd September 1715 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester. Just less than ten years after losing her husband, Lydia Davis, nee Collett, a widow, died and was buried at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Adlestrop on 14^th June 1725.
	Their children were John Davis (bapt. 1687, bur.1760), Thomas Davis (bapt. 1688, died after 1715). Thomas (bapt. 1688, died after 1715), Maria Davis (bapt. 1691, died after 1715), William Davis (bapt. 1696, died after 1715), and Richard Davis (bapt.1698, bur.1778).
49J1	Walter Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1667, the first of the ten children of Richard and Mary Collett. He was baptised on 19^th October 1667 at St Eadburgha’s Church in Ebrington (Glos). He married Christian sometime before March 1713, as both of them were mentioned in his father’s Will made and proved that year. Walter and his wife Christian were both named as beneficiaries in the Will, received a bequeath of Ten Pounds. That record confirms both Walter and Christian died after 1713.
49J3	John Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1673 and was baptised on 13^th April 1673, another son of Richard and Mary Collett. John was twenty-nine when he married Elizabeth Spencer at Moreton-in-Marsh on 28^th August 1702 at the Church of St David. During his life John was credited with being a saddler on the birth and death of some of his children, and as a yeoman for the administrations of his father’s estate in 1713, and again for his brother Richard in 1718. The 1713 administration paperwork stated that John Collett was the natural and lawful son of Richard Collett. However, there was no stated occupation in his own Will, while an abstract of lease and release held at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, made by his wife Elizabeth to their son Walter in 1747, provides evidence that John Collett and his son Walter were saddlers. In addition, John was granted administration of the estate of his father Richard Collett on 15^th October 1713 and stood as bondsman for the administration, while his brother Richard (below) and brother-in-law William Spencer were the sureties. John inherited Thirty Pounds as a beneficiary of the Will of his father Richard and stood surety, along with Joseph Pitman, his brother's stepson, for the bond of administration in respect of the estate of his brother Richard Collett which was granted to his sister-in-law Alice Collett nee Pitman on 26^th August 1718 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester.
	Within the parish registers of St David’s Church in Moreton-in-Marsh in 1731, John Collett was named as a church warden. He later made his Will on 7^th January 1744 at Moreton-in-Marsh, in which he left all of his property, goods, and money, to his wife Elizabeth, to dispose of as she saw fit, appointing her as his sole executor. Following his death, John Collett was buried at St David’s Church on 5^th May 1747. Probate of his estate was granted to his wife Elizabeth on 23^rd July 1747 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester. Just over ten years later, Elizabeth Collett nee Spencer was buried there with her late husband on 14^th October 1757.
	49K1		Richard Collett			Born in 1703 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49K2		Mary Collett			Born in 1704 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49K3		John Collett			Born in 1706 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49K4		Walter Collett			Born in 1708 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49K5		Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1711 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49K6		Anne Collett			Baptised on 20.09.1713 at Moreton
	49K7		Hester Collett			Born in 1716 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49K8		Lucy Collett			Baptised on 28.08.1719 at Moreton
49J4	Marie Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1676, the eldest daughter of Richard and Mary Collett. She was baptised on 16^th April 1676, and it was one year later that she died and was buried at St David’s Church in Moreton-in-Marsh on 4^th April 1677.
49J5	Mary Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1679, and was baptised there at St David’s Church on 10^th August 1679 in a joint ceremony with her twin sister Hester (below). She was a beneficiary of the Will of her father Richard, dated 9^th March 1713, which was proven on 15^th October 1713 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester, with Mary inheriting Twenty Pounds. Sometime after that latter date Mary Collett passed away.
49J6	Hester Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1679, the twin sister of Mary (above), who were baptised together at St David’s Church on 10^th August 1679. Just like her twin sister, Hester was also a beneficiary of her father’s Will made on 9^th March 1713 and proved on 15^th October 1713, when she inherited Fifteen Pounds, a bed and all its belongings. Hester was still living at Moreton-in-Marsh when she died and was buried there on 24^th May 1745.
49J7	Thomas Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1682 and was baptised there on 24^th December 1682, but had tragically had died before reaching his first birthday, when he was buried in St David’s Churchyard on 11^th August 1683, the son of Richard and Mary Collett.
49J9	RICHARD COLLETT was the ninth of the ten children of Richard and Mary Collett and was baptised at St David’s Church in Moreton-in-Marsh on 7^th October 1687. He was twenty-two years of age and working as a saddler when he married Alice Pitman, a widow of Stow, at St Leonard’s Church in Toddington (Glos) on 17^th April 1710, with whom he had a son, followed by two daughters. Alice was married a total of three times, the first time to Joseph Pitman around 1693, and was married for the third time after the death of Richard Collett in 1717. Three years after their wedding day, Richard acted as surety for the bond his brother John Collett provided on 15^th October 1713 for the administration of their father Richard's estate. Upon his passing, and his burial at St Edward’s Church in Stow on 11^th August 1717, administration of his estate was granted jointly to his widow Alice and her son Joseph Pitman (Richard’s stepson), a saddler, and to Richard’s brother John Collett (above), a yeoman of Moreton-in-Marsh, standing surety for the bond on 26^th August 1718. Having been widowed for a second time, Alice Collett married Edward Guttridge on 15^th June 1719 at St Edward’s Church in Stow-on-the-Wold, both living there, and where, thirty years later, Alice died and was buried on 2^nd October 1749.
	New information received from historian Nicola Pledge in 2020, whose descendant was Mary, the daughter of Richard Collett and Alice Pitman. Nicola states that their father came from Moreton-in-Marsh and it looks likely that they go back to William Collett of Adlestrop (Glos), who died at Moreton-in-Marsh during 1635. Nicola continues by saying:
	“Apart from his eldest son by his first wife Elizabeth, all of William's other children were baptised at Adlestrop and later moved to Moreton-in-Marsh. Some of his in-laws, from his second marriage, were also residing there in the 1630s. My suspicion is that William Collett of Adlestrop is probably the son of Thomas and Eleanor Collett of Evenlode, as he definitely would be the right age and it is the adjoining parish. William's second eldest son was Thomas, the eldest most likely being William who was not baptised Adlestrop, and most likely came from wherever his first wife Elizabeth was born. The missing registers for Adlestrop, Evenlode, and Longborough, are causing issues with research, along with the fact many do not appear to have left Wills.”
	Nicola also says, “I note that ‘Men & Armour for Gloucestershire in 1608’ lists William Collett as being 40 years old and a labourer who described himself as a husbandman in his Will, as was Thomas of Evenlode. William could have been well into his 30s by 1608 and possibly even 40, while Margaret Collett, the sister Thomas Collett of Evenlode was married in 1574, so it is not unreasonable to assumed that Thomas was also married around the same time which would mean his eldest son William could be well into his 30s by the early 1600s. It is interesting that Thomas Collett of Evenlode had a son Anthony Collett.”
	Also information received in 2020 from Steve Timms in Coventry, indicates that there was another Richard Collett #3 born in 1687, and that he married Mary Hunt in 1720 and died in 1741 at Upper Slaughter. That Richard was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, the son of Joshua Collett #2 (1661-1729) and Elizabeth Hawks, and certainly Joshua’s Will of 1723 confirmed he had a son Richard. Joshua Collett was baptised at Bourton-on-the-Water on 12^th October 1661, the son of Richard Collett #1 and Elizabeth Collett. Those named in the Will of Joshua Collett were, in order, Richard Collett (son), Elizabeth Collett #4 (dau), Thomas Robert (son-in-law) & Jane Roberts Collett #5 (dau), and John Collett (son-in-law) & Mary Collett #6 (dau).
	49K9		THOMAS COLLETT			Born in 1711 at Stow-on-the-Wold
	49K10		Alice Collett			Baptised on 27.03.1713 at Stow
	49K11		Mary Collett			Born in 1717 at Stow-on-the-Wold
49K1	Richard Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1703, where he was baptised on 18^th February 1703 and where he was buried five days later on 23^rd February 1703. He was the first-born child of John Collett and Elizabeth Spencer.
49K2	Mary Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1704, and was the eldest surviving child of John and Elizabeth Collett. Mary was baptised on 3^rd April 1704 at St David’s Church in Moreton and was 56 when she died, not having married, and seemingly having lived all her life there. It was also at St David’s churchyard where Mary Collett was buried on 10^th April 1760.
49K3	John Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1706, where he was baptised on 19^th May 1706, the eldest surviving son of John Collett, a saddler, and his wife Elizabeth. However, he was only eighteen years old when he died and was buried at St David’s churchyard in Moreton-in-Marsh on 4^th October 1724. Eleven years earlier, John was bequeathed Ten Pounds to be paid when he reached the age of 21 years, as a beneficiary of the Will of his grandfather Richard Collett made in March 1713 and proved at Gloucester in October 1713.
49K4	Walter Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1708, the fourth child and youngest son of John and Elizabeth Collett. Walter was baptised there on 8^th September 1708 and it was on the same day, thirty-one years later, but at St George’s Church in Hampnett (Glos), when Walter Collett married Anne Acock on 8^th September 1739, with them both described as residing in Moreton. They were married away from home most likely because Anne was advanced in the pregnancy of their first child, who was born at Moreton-in-Marsh five months after the couple’s wedding day. It was also at Moreton that the couple’s four following children were born and baptised, although the fifth child must have died before 1784, as Samuel Collett was the only son not name in Walter’s Will.
	Walter made his Will on 9^th August 1784 at Moreton-in-Marsh, in which he described himself as a saddler. The bulk of his estate, including six messuages (one of which he lived in), he bequeathed to his son Richard; his sons John and Walter each being bequeathed the sum of Twenty Pounds when, rather curiously, his son William was left only Twenty Shillings. Also to benefit from the Will, were two of the three granddaughters Lucy Collett and Mary Collett, the daughters of son Richard, who were both bequeathed Twenty Pounds, to be given to them by their father when they were 21 years old or on the day of their marriage. Walter’s son Richard was also to have all the items relating to his business as a saddler and all his personal estate, who was also appointed as his executor. In the end, Walter died less than two years after making his Will, and was buried at St David’s Church in Moreton-in-Marsh on 1^st April 1786, a saddler aged 77 years. Probate of his estate was granted to his son Richard on 17^th April 1786 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester. His wife Anne ACOCK had been born in 1713, and she was 74 years old when she died in 1787, after which she was buried with her husband on 10^th August 1787.
	49L1		John Collett			Baptised on 27.02.1740 at Moreton
	49L2		Walter Collett			Baptised on 31.01.1742 at Moreton
	49L3		Richard Collett			Born in 1742 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49L4		William Collett			Baptised on 13.08.1749 at Moreton
	49L5		Samuel Collett			Baptised on 16.07.1758 at Moreton
49K5	Elizabeth Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh, possibly at the end of 1709 or the beginning of 1711, who was baptised there on 21^st January 1711 at St David’s Church. She was twenty-six years old and a spinster when she died at Moreton on 24^th October 1737 and was buried in the grounds of St David’s Church on 27^th October 1737.
49K7	Hester Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1716, the seventh of the eight children of John Collett and Elizabeth Spencer. She was baptised at St David’s Church on 11^th November 1716 and was twenty-two years old when she married Thomas Higgins there on 19^th May 1739, with whom she had six children. They were Mary Higgins (bapt. 1745), Lucy Higgins (bapt. 1747), Thomas Higgins (bapt. 1749, bur. 1821), Anne Higgins (bapt. 1752, bur. 1836), Hetty Higgins (bapt. 1754), and Betty Higgins (bapt. 1758, died 1843).
49K9	THOMAS COLLETT was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1711, the only son and the eldest of the three children of Richard Collett and Alice Pitman, and was baptised there at St Edward’s Church on 5^th February 1711. He inherited Five Pounds (to be paid when he reached the age of 21 years) as a beneficiary of the Will of his grandfather Richard Collett made on 9^th March 1713 (when he was only two years old) and which was proved at the Consistory Court of Gloucester on 15^th October that same year. His father died during the summer of 1717, when he was six years of age, and it was sixteen years later that Thomas Collett married Elizabeth Hill at St Edward Stow-on-the-Wold on 27^th January 1734, their son being born around nine months later, the first of their seven children. Nine years prior to that, fourteen-year-old Thomas Collett was apprenticed to his half-cousin saddler Joseph Pitman at Stow on 4^th March 1725. Thomas Collett was buried at Stow-on-the-Wold on 20^th March 1761.
	49L6		RICHARD COLLETT			Born in 1734 at Northleach
	49L7		Anne Collett			Baptised on 02.12.1737 at Stow
	49L8		William Collett			Born in 1739 at Stow-on-the-Wold
	49L9		Thomas Collett			Baptised on 25.01.1741 at Stow
	49L10		Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1744 at Stow-on-the-Wold
	49L11		Sarah Collett			Baptised on 26.12.1745; died 1809
	49L12		Mary Collett			Baptised on 06.11.1751 at Stow
49K11	Mary Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1717, the year her father died there, being the third and last child of Richard Collett and Alice Pitman. She was baptised at St Edwards Church in Stow on 26^th July 1717 just prior to the death of her father. And it was there also that Mary Collett married John Worvill on 27^th January 1736, with whom she had ten children. Mary Worvill died at Upper Slaughter, where she was buried in the grounds of St Peter’s Church on 21^st October 1801. Their children were born and baptised at Upper Slaughter, where their surnames varyed from Worvill, Worvield, and Worfield. They were John Worfield (bapt. 1737, bur.1826), Thomas Worfield (bapt.1739, bur.1818), William Worfield (bapt.1742), Mary Worfield (bapt.1744, bur.1810), Richard Worfield (bapt.1746, bur.1749), Sarah Worfield (bapt.1748), Betty Worfield (bapt.1751, bur.1781), Hannah Worfield (bapt.1753), Richard Worfield (bapt.1755, bur.1838), and Ann Worfield (bapt.1760, bur.1830).
49L3	Richard Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1745 and was the middle child of the five sons of Walter Collett and Anne Acock. He was baptised at the Church of St David in Moreton on 10^th February 1745. When this Richard was nineteen years old, a certain Sophia Tristram gave birth to a base-born son, Richard Collett Tristram who was baptised at St David’s Church on 5^th June 1764. The question is, was he the illegitimate son of this Richard Collett? Nothing further has been found regarding the child, although it is known his mother left Moreton and was later married in Surrey. Richard Collett married Ann Whitford at Moreton-in-Marsh on 22^nd April 1781 and, five years later, was granted probate of the estate of his father Walter on 17^th April 1786 at the Consistory Court of Gloucester. Under the terms of the Will, made on 9^th August 1784, Richard inherited six messuages, including his father's dwelling house, plus all items from his business as a saddler and all his father's personal estate. Richard himself died in 1819 and was buried at St David’s Church in Moreton on 22^nd October 1819, when the parish register described him as the church warden. After presenting Richard with two daughters shortly after their wedding day, tragically Ann Collett, nee Whitford, died around five months after giving birth to their third child who also did not survive beyond ten months. Following her passing, she was buried at St David’s in Moreton-in-Marsh on 23^rd May 1784.
	49M1		Lucy Collett			Born in 1781 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49M2		Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1782 at Moreton-in-Marsh
	49M3		Mary Collett			Born in 1783 at Moreton-in-Marsh
49L6	RICHARD COLLETT was born at Northleach in 1734 and was baptised there at the Church of St Peter & St Paul on 17^th October 1734, the son of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Hill. Richard Collett was nearly twenty-four when he was married by banns to Martha Maids at St Edward’s in Stow-on-the-Wold on 7^th August 1758. One of the witnesses at the wedding was Martha's brother-in-law Stephen Steel, the other being Christian Clifford, when Richard signed the register and Martha made her mark with a cross. Martha was baptised at Taynton St John the Evangelist in Oxfordshire on 2^nd October 1735, the daughter of William and Rebecca Maids (Meads). Richard and Martha’s first three children were all born and baptised at Stow-on-the-Wold, before the family settled in Eynsham, midway between Witney and Oxford, where the remainder of couple’s children were born and baptised. Curiously, when Martha died in 1783 and was buried at Eynsham on 29^th April 1783, she was referred to as Martha Meads. During his working life, it is believed that Richard was a saddler. Richard Collett was buried at St Leonard’s Church in Eynsham on 10^th June 1822, when he was said to be 89 years old.
	His eldest child John Collett was baptised at Stow-on-the-Wold on 10^th July 1761 and was 22 years old when he died and was buried on 4^th January 1784 at Eynsham St Leonard. Elizabeth Collett, the daughter and seventh child of Richard and Martha, was baptised on 3^rd July 1774 at Eynsham St Leonard, where she was buried on 29^th January 1775. The couple’s last child Betty Collett was named in honour of her recently deceased sister Elizabeth and was baptised at Eynsham on 28^th March 1780. Sadly, she too suffered a premature death before reaching ten years of age, when she was buried there on 21^st November 1790.
	49M4		John Collett			Baptised on 10.07.1761; died in 1784
	49M5		Thomas Collett			Baptised on 15.04.1763 at Stow
	49M6		Richard Collett			Born in 1764 at Stow-on-the-Wold
	49M7		Abraham Collett			Baptised on 15.11.1767 at Eynsham
	49M8		Phoebe Collett			Baptised on 18.12.1769 at Eynsham
	49M9		Samuel Collett			Baptised on 21.04.1772 at Eynsham
	49M10		Elizabeth Collett			Baptised on 03.07.1774; died in 1775
	49M11		George Collett			Born in 1776 at Eynsham, Oxon
	49M12		Betty Collett			Born in 1780 at Eynsham, Oxon
49L8	William Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1739, the second of three sons of Thomas and Elizabeth Collett. He was baptised at St Edward’s Church in Stow on 7^th October 1739 and, at the age of 23, he married Hannah Pegler at St Edward’s on 7^th November 1761. They were both single and residents of Stow, who both signed the parish register in their own hand. The witnesses were Leonard Hayward and Thomas Clifford. After nearly thirty-two years together, having produced five children, William was buried at St Edward’s Church on 2^nd June 1793. Administration of his estate was granted to his only son Richard on 25^th July 1793. The bond of administration at Gloucester was in the sum of £2,000 and provided Richard with sureties by his half-cousin Joseph Pitman and Alexander Pain. For the last eighteen years of his life, William was a widower, following the death of his wife, with Hannah Collett being buried at St Edward’s on 25^th July 1775
	49M13		Hannah Collett			Born in 1763; died in 1791 at Stow
	49M14		Emma Pegler Collett			Born in 1765 at Stow-on-the-Wold
	49M15		Richard Pegler Collett			Born in 1768 at Stow-on-the-Wold
	49M16		Lydia Collett			Born in 1771; died in 1775 at Stow
	49M17		Carolina Collett			Born in 1774; died in 1775 at Stow
49L10	Elizabeth Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1744, another child of Thomas Collett and Elizabeth Hill. She was baptised at St Edward’s Church in Stow on 6^th April 1744, and was later married there to John Ragg on 14^th December 1773. Both of them were living in Stow, with the register signed by John, but with Elizabeth marking the mark of a cross. Their marriage was witnessed by John Gardiner and Hannah Gardiner and produced three children. Elizabeth Ragg died in 1789 and was buried at Stow on 15^th February 1789.
49M1	Lucy Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1781, the first-born child of Richard Collett and Ann Whitford. Her parents were only married four months before she was baptised at St David’s Moreton on 26^th April 1871. She was a beneficiary of the Will of her grandfather Walter Collett which was made 9^th August 1784 and proved on 17^th April 1786 at Gloucester. Lucy was the only daughter of Richard and Ann who survived to benefit from the Twenty Pounds inheritance, after which she was married by licence to Ezekiel Wright on 13^th April 1805, the wedding ceremony conducted at St David’s Church in Moreton. Both the bride and the groom were single and residing within the parish, and both of them signed the register in their own hand. The marriage was witnessed by E Taylor and Edward Willis. By the time of the census in 1841, the couple was residing at the hamlet of Minworth within the Warwickshire parish of Curdworth. Lucy Wright, together with her daughters Elizabeth Wright and Mary Wright, were beneficiaries of the Will of her husband Ezekiel Wright made on 13^th November 1845 and proved on 1^st October 1847 at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. Lucy inherited all of his household items, jointly with her eldest daughter Elizabeth. Just over a year after being widowed, Lucy Wright, nee Collett, died and was buried at the Church of St Peter & St Paul in the Aston area of Birmingham on 26^th October 1848, when she was described as the widow of Ezekiel Wright, and from Small Heath in Bordesley (Birmingham).
49M2	Elizabeth Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh towards the end of 1782 and was baptised there on 5^th January 1783, the second of the three daughters of Richard and Ann Collett. It was just over a year later, and just after the birth of the couple’s third child, that Elizabeth died and was buried at Moreton-in-Marsh St David 22^nd January 1784.
49M3	Mary Collett was born at Moreton-in-Marsh in 1783 where she was baptised on 3^rd January 1784, the third and last daughter of Richard Collett and Ann Whitford. She was only a few months old when she was name as a beneficiary in her grandfather’s Will made on 9^th August 1784, with her left a bequest of Twenty Pounds. She did not survive to receive her inheritance, when she died seven week later, and was buried in the churchyard of St David’s in Moreton-in-Marsh on 28^th September 1784, her mother having suffered a premature death four months earlier.
49M6	Richard Collett was born in 1764 at Stow-on-the-Wold, the third child of Richard Collett and Martha Maids. He was baptised at Stow on 30^th December 1764, with the entry in the parish register having a noted added to it six months later, stating that the boy had been visited at home on 5^th June 1765, most likely for health reasons. However, he did survive what ailed him that day, and he later Jane, sometime before 1^st January 1792 when their eldest daughter Mary Collett was baptised at Eynsham. The family resided in Eynsham but, when Richard passed away and was buried at Eynsham on 25^th January 1837, he was described as being from Camberwell in London.
	49N1		Mary Collett			Born in 1791 at Eynsham, Oxon
49M11		GEORGE COLLETT was born at Eynsham in 1776, the last son of Richard Collett and Martha Maids, who was baptised there on 27^th May 1776 in a joint ceremony with his brother Richard (above). At some time later, George moved north and it is established that he married Sarah Ann Wakefield (1786-1865) at St Mary-the-Virgin Church in Kirtlington on 17^th November 1811, with their eldest son, born shortly after their wedding, named after George’s father. The bride and groom were both single and residents within the parish, where the register was signed with the mark of a cross, the witnesses being John Wakefield and John Phillips. Theirs was the first of two marriages in this family line, between the Collett and Wakefield families, the second being George and Sarah’s son Charles Collett who married Emma Wakefield at Kirtlington around 1837. Over the following years, they had an indeterminate number of children, with seven of them still living with George and Sarah in 1841. The census that year for Kirtlington, recorded George Collett an agricultural labourer, with a rounded age of 60, and his wife Sarah more accurately described as 55.
	Living with them on that day were James Collett who was 25, Caroline Collett who was 21, Maria Collett who was 20, Emmanuel Collett who was 16, Isabella Collett who was 14, Eliza Collett who was 13, and Emma Collett who was 12 years old. George’s two missing older sons had left the family home by then and were both married, while the family had suffered the loss of daughter Charlotte who had died when she was only nine months old. Living nearby was his son Charles Collett who was 24, together with his wife Emma and their daughter Eunice, the couple’s first child.
	George Collett suffered a sudden death at Kirtlington in 1843 and was buried there on 2^nd March 1843, his death recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 29) during the second quarter of that year. By the time of the census in 1851 Sarah Collett was a widow aged 67. The census return described her as head of the house and a pauper, who had been born at Kirtlington. Still living with her at Kirtlington on that occasion was her unmarried son Emmanuel, who was 28 years of age. Also living in the same cottage with Sarah and Emmanuel, was Sarah’s unmarried daughter Eliza Collett and her base-born daughter Dora Collett who was a year old.
	Living nearby, and still within the village of Kirtlington, were Sarah’s three married sons Richard, James and Charles. It is very likely that her four other daughters, Caroline, Maria, Isabella, and Emma were all married by then, since none were recorded with the Collett surname. What is of interest is that George’s son Charles married Emma Wakefield who was the daughter of Joseph Wakefield, Sarah Wakefield’s brother, making Emma the niece of George’s wife Sarah Wakefield. According to the Kirtlington Parish Graveyard Survey, the date that George Collett was buried was 2^nd March 1844, when it was also recorded that his was ‘a sudden death’ at the age of 65 years. It was twenty years after the death of her husband that his widow Sarah Collett died at the age of 78, when she was buried with George on 8^th November 1864, implying that she was born during 1786.
	49N1		Richard Collett			Born in 1811 at Kirtlington
	49N2		James Collett			Born in 1815 at Kirtlington
	49N3		CHARLES COLLETT			Born in 1817 at Kirtlington
	49N4		Caroline Collett			Born in 1819 at Kirtlington
	49N5		Maria Collett			Born in 1821 at Kirtlington
	49N6		Emmanuel Collett			Born in 1823 at Kirtlington
	49N7		Charlotte Collett			Born in 1824 at Kirtlington
	49N8		Isabella Collett			Born in 1825 at Kirtlington
	49N9		Eliza Collett			Born in 1827 at Kirtlington
	49N10		Emma Collett			Born in 1829 at Kirtlington
49M12		Betty Collett was the last child of Richard Collett and Martha Maids. She was born at Eynsham in 1780 and was baptised there as Betty Collett on 28^th March 1780, just five years after her sister Elizabeth Collett died there. So, it is possible, she may also have been known as Elizabeth, in honour of her late sister. In the parish records at St Leonard’s Church in Eynsham is the burial of an Elizabeth Collett on 21^st November 1790, but she was described as a pauper, not the description usually given to a ten-year-old child.
49M14		Emma Pegler Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1765, where she was baptised on 2^nd August 1765, the second child of William Collett and Hannah Pegler. Her family lived at Maugersbury, but it was at St Edward’s Church in Stow-on-the-Wold that the marriage by licence of Emma Pegler Collett and James Collins was conducted on 4^th December 1793, when the witnesses were G Gibbs and Martha Collett. In 1804, Emma was grant administration of her younger brother Richard’s estate (below). By the time of the first national census in June 1841, Emma Collins was living on independent means with her married son Richard Collins and his wife Martha. After a further ten years, Emma was still living in Maugersbury with Richard and Martha, by which time she was described as a proprietor of land and houses. Six years later she died on 3^rd April 1857 and was buried at St Edward’s Church in Stow on the following day. She was nearly 92 when she died, with administration of her £800 estate granted on 14^th May 1857 to her son Richard Collins, with surety for the bond provided by Henry Roff and William Walton, a tailor, both of Stow on the Wold.
49M15		Richard Pegler Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1768. Perhaps because he was a poorly child, it was a private baptism, conducted at home, on 14^th June 1768. During his short life, he lived at Maugersbury, but was buried at St Edward’s Church on 1^st May 1804. Administration of his estate, amounting to £300, was granted to his sister Emma Pegler Collins of Stow(above), with the bondsman being Richard Charles, a chandler of Stow, and John Merchant, an inn holder of Stow, on 7^th June 1804.
49N1		Richard Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1811, the eldest child of George Collett and his wife Sarah Wakefield. He was an agricultural labourer and, on 4^th November 1844, Richard Collett married Diana Bourton at Burton Dassett. Diana had been born at Knightcote, near Burton Dassett in Warwickshire, the daughter of William and Rosannah Bourton, and was baptised at Burton Dassett on 6^th April 1818. Richard's father was named as George Collett, a labourer, while Richard was described as a labourer residing at Lighthorne, a village six miles south of Leamington Spa. Rather curiously Diana was referred to as Ann Bourton. It would appear from the later parish records at Kirtlington, that their first child, Emily, who had been born in February 1846, was buried there on 22^nd November 1846 when she was just eight months old.
		By the time of the census in 1851, the family was living at Kirtlington with three of the couple’s first four children. Richard Collett was 40 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Diana Collett was 33 and from Knightcote, and their three surviving children were Andrew Collett who was four, Emily Collett who was three, and Edwin Collett who was under one. Four more children were added to the family during the next decade, so by 1861 the census for Kirtlington that year recorded the family as Richard Collett, an agricultural labourer at 50, his wife Diana Collett from Burton Dassett who was 43, Andrew Collett aged 14, Emily Collett aged 13, Edwin Collett aged 11, Curtis Collett who was nine, Dan Collett who was six, Prudence Collett who was four, and Eli Collett who was a year old.
		Sadly, it was during May 1867 that Diana died at the age of 56, following which she was buried at Kirtlington on 19^th May 1867, leaving Richard a widower with a young family. That would indicate that she was the same age as Richard, despite the information recorded in the census of 1861. What happened to the whole family has not been determined, but in 1871 Richard was 58 and was living at Kirtlington with his son Daniel who was 16, his daughter Prudence who was 14, and his youngest son Eli who was 11. Living in the cottage next door was Richard’s eldest son Andrew with his wife and their first child. So far, no record has been found for his daughter Emily, who was very likely married by then, and his son Edwin, while absent son Curtis Collett was a lodger at a nearby dwelling in Kirtlington.
		By the time of the census of 1881 Richard was living on his own in Kirtlington where he was still working as an agricultural labourer at the age of 70. And it was there also that he was still living ten years later in 1891 at the age of 78 (sic), but with no further record in the census of 1901, it must be assumed that he died during the 1890s. It was eight and a half years later that Richard Collett died and was buried at Kirtlington on 27^th October 1899, his death being recorded at the Bicester register office (Ref. 3a571) during the December quarter of that year when he was 87. That confirms his year of birth as being around 1811 or 1812 which correspondence closely with his stated age in the census returns for the intervening years.
		49O1	Emily Collett			Born in 1845 at Kirtlington
		49O2	Andrew Collett			Born in 1846 at Kirtlington
		49O3	Emily Collett			Born in 1847 at Kirtlington
		49O4	Edwin Collett			Born in 1850 at Kirtlington
		49O5	Curtis Collett			Born in 1852 at Kirtlington
		49O6	Daniel Collett			Born in 1854 at Kirtlington
		49O7	Prudence Collett			Born in 1856 at Kirtlington
		49O8	Eli Collett			Born in 1860 at Kirtlington
49N2		James Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1815. He was an agricultural labourer and he married Sarah Lambourne who was born in 1823. Sarah was also born at Kirtlington, the daughter of agricultural labourer Richard Lambourne from Cumnor to the west of Oxford. James’ father George Collett died during March 1844 and it was less than a year later that the marriage of James Collett and Sarah Lambourne was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 54) during the first quarter of 1845. So, by 1851, the family living at Kirtlington was made up of agricultural labourer James Collett of Kirtlington who was 35, his wife Sarah Collett who was 29, and also of Kirtlington, and their three children. They were Arthur Collett who was seven, Fanny Collett who was three, and John Collett who was nine months old.
		Living in the cottage next door to James and his family was his younger brother Charles Collett (below), with his much larger family. The other next-door neighbour to James was his father-in-law Richard Lambourne, a 56-year-old agricultural labourer from Cumnor. Living with him was his grandson James Lambourne, a 12-year-old errand boy who was born at Kirtlington.
		It is possible that James eldest child died during the next few years, as no later record of him has been found. Ten years later in 1861 James and his family, less Arthur, were still living at Kirtlington where James was a 46-year-old agricultural labourer, Sarah was 37, and their five children at that time were Fanny who was 13, John who was 10, Thomas who was eight, Elizabeth who was five, and Harry who was eight months old. There were three other people lodging with the Collett family and they were Richard Lambourne who was 67 and an agricultural labourer, who was Sarah’s father, who had with him Sarah’s two younger brothers James Lambourne who was 20 and Arthur Lambourne who was 17. The 1861 Census also revealed that still living right next door to James and Sarah on the main road in Kirtlington, was the family of James’ brother Charles Collett (below) as they had been ten years earlier.
		The James Collett family may have suffered the further loss of another two children since, by the time of the census in 1871 Elizabeth, who would have been 15, and Harry, who would have been 10, were missing. The remainder of the family was recorded as James who was 56 and whose occupation was that of a shepherd, his wife Sarah who was 46, and youngest daughter Anne who was six. For the third consecutive census in a row, James’ brother Charles was still living in the cottage next door, and for the second census in a row Sarah’s father Richard Lambourne who was 76 was the only other occupant in the cottage.
		It is also established that James’ and Sarah’s three surviving eldest children were still living in Kirtlington. The first of them was Fanny Collett, aged 23 and a grocer like her cousin George Collett (Ref. 49O22) who was living with dressmaker Elizabeth Davies in the cottage adjacent to her father’s cottage. The other two were her brothers John who was 20 and Thomas 18, who were boarders at the home of their uncle Arthur Lambourne two doors from where Fanny was living on the main road in Kirtlington. The 1881 Census for Kirtlington described James as 65 and an agricultural labourer, and son-in-law to head of the house Richard Lambourne. On that occasion James and his wife Sarah, who was 57, were living with Sarah’s father who was a retired agricultural labourer of 86. Also still living with them was their unmarried son John Collett who was 29 and unemployed. Once again, living right next door to the family was James’ brother Charles with his family.
		James’ wife Sarah died eight years later and was buried at Kirtlington on 3^rd July 1889, when her age was recorded as being 67. So, by the time of the census in 1891, James Collett, aged 80, was a widower, still living in the dwelling adjacent to that of his brother Charles in the village of Kirtlington. It was just six months later that James died at the age of 80, following which he was buried with his wife on 7^th September 1891. Both his age at the time of his death and that recorded in the census that year, would indicate that he may have been born around 1811, the scenario being the same for his older brother Richard, whose age at his death differed from his age calculated from the ages given in the various census returns.
		49O9	Arthur Collett			Born in 1843 at Kirtlington
		49O10	Fanny Collett			Born in 1847 at Kirtlington
		49O11	John Collett			Born in 1850 at Kirtlington
		49O12	Thomas Collett			Born in 1852 at Kirtlington
		49O13	Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1855 at Kirtlington
		49O14	Harry Collett			Born in 1860 at Kirtlington
		49O15	Anne Collett			Born in 1864 at Kirtlington
49N3		CHARLES COLLETT was born at Kirtlington in 1817 and, just like his older brothers Charles was also an agricultural labourer. It would appear that he lived the whole of his life at Kirtlington, where he was twice married. Around the time he was 20, Charles married (1) Emma Wakefield, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Wakefield, his own parents being George Collett and Sarah Wakefield. Emma was baptised at nearby Bletchington (today Bletchingdon) on 21^st December 1817 and, by the time of the census in June 1841, the marriage of Charles and Emma had produced the couple’s first two children while, living with the young family, that census day were four old Emma’s Wakefield siblings.
		The census return for Kirtlington listed the family as Charles Collett, who was 24 years old, his wife Emma Collett who was 23, and their two daughters Ann Collett who was three, and Eunice Collett who was one year old. The Wakefield siblings were confirmed as Jane Wakefield 25, William Wakefield 24, James Wakefield 22 and Amelia Wakefield who was 18. Over the next ten years a further four children were added to the family while they were still living in Kirtlington. The youngest of them was named after Charles’ father George Collett.
		At the time of the next census in 1851 Charles and his large family were living in the cottage right next door to his brother James Collett (above). The census return confirmed that Charles was an agricultural labourer of 34, his wife Emma was 32, and their six children were Ann who was 14, Eunice who was 11 and previously listed as Emma, Julia who was eight, Clara who was six, William who was four, and George who was two years old. Living with the family as a lodger was Emma’s younger brother James Wakefield who was 31 and described as a pauper and a cripple. Like his sister, James was baptised at Bletchington on 21^st March 1819, the son of Joseph and Mary Wakefield.
		Every member of the family was recorded as born at Kirtlington, and two years later a final child was born into the family, but tragically, that happy event may have been the reason for Emma’s death, since the death of Emma Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 397) during the first quarter of 1853. It seems rather odd, that one source claims that she was buried at Kirtlington on 21^st May 1853, at the age of 35, when it was more likely 21^st March that year. Widower Charles was left with a young family to look after and, around six months prior to the census day in 1861, the marriage of Charles Collett and (2) Emily Ashton was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 793) during the third quarter of 1860. Emily was born at Kirtlington in 1839, the daughter of Thomas and Ann Ashton, who was 22 years younger than Charles Collett.
		The Kirtlington census of 1861 recorded Charles Collett from Kirtlington as being 44 and an agricultural labourer. His wife Emily Collett was just 21 years of age and also from Kirtlington, as were two of the children from Charles’ first married, son William Collett who was 14, and daughter Ruth Collett who was eight years old. It is not clear as to where his two eldest daughters were by that time, although it is possible that both girls were married by then. Charles’ two other daughters Julia and Clara had already left Kirtlington by then. Clara Collett from Kirtlington was 16 and a niece when she was living with her late mother’s older brother William Wakefield and his wife Harriet in the City of Oxford, where she had no stated occupation. Her older sister Julia Collett, from Kirtlington, who was 19 and a domestic servant, had made her way to Middlesex, where she was living and working in the City of London.
		As regards his missing son George, he was still living in Kirtlington in 1861 and was a live-in servant at the home of farmer William Goodenough. The census also indicated that he was 13 years old and living next door to his uncle Emmanuel Collett (below) who was also very likely employed on the Goodenough’s farm. Over the next twenty years, while they continued to live in Kirtlington, Emily presented Charles with five further children, with the first three of them being listed with the couple at the time of the census in 1871. Charles was 54, Emily was 32, and their three children were Thirza who was eight, Edith who was four, and baby Charles who was only two months old. In addition to the aforementioned census of 1851, the following two census returns for 1861 and 1871 also confirmed that living in the cottage right next to Charles’ dwelling on the main road in Kirtlington, was his brother James Collett (above) and his family.
		However, by the time of the census of 1881 for Kirtlington, the family comprised Charles who was 64, his wife Emily who was 41, and their four children, Edith 13, Charles 10, Albert who was six, and Evelyn who was just three months old. At that time in his life Charles was still working as an agricultural labourer. The census also confirmed that every member of his household had been born at Kirtlington. It also confirmed that his immediate next-door neighbour was his brother James Collett with his family.
		Ten years later the family was still living at Kirtlington, when the census return for 1891 recorded them as Charles Collett aged 74, a farm labourer, Emily aged 51, Edith aged 24, Charles aged 20, Albert aged 16, and Evelyn who was 10 years old. And once again his brother James (above) was living next door. It was only just over three years after that, when the death of Charles Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 409) during the third quarter of 1894. He was 77 years old and was buried at Kirtlington on 12^th August 1894, confirming his year of birth as being around 1817.
		By March 1901 Charles’ widow Emily Collett was still living in Kirtlington at the age of 61. Living with her was her daughter Edith who was 34 and her son Charles who was 30. Living nearby was her other son Albert who was married with a daughter of his own by then. Also living just four doors away was Emily’s stepson William W Collett and his family, the eldest son from her husband’s first marriage. Emily was also still living at Kirtlington ten years later in April 1911 when she was 71. Living with her at that time was her son Charles who, by then, was married to Ethel, although they had no children of their own. Emily Collett remained a widow for the rest of her life and it was fifteen years later that the death of Emily Collett was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1107) during the second quarter of 1926, when she was 86. She died at Kirtlington, where she was buried on 10^th April 1926.
		49O16	Ann Collett			Born in 1837 at Kirtlington
		49O17	Emma Eunice Collett			Born in 1839 at Kirtlington
		49O18	Urbane James Collett			Born in 1841 at Kirtlington
		49O19	Julia Collett			Born in 1842 at Kirtlington
		49O20	Clara Collett			Born in 1844 at Kirtlington
		49O21	William Wakefield Collett			Born in 1846 at Kirtlington
		49O22	GEORGE COLLETT			Born in 1848 at Kirtlington
		49O23	Eli Collett			Born in 1851 at Kirtlington
		49O24	Ruth Collett			Born in 1853 at Kirtlington
		The following are the children of Charles Collett by his second wife Emily Ashton:
		49O25	Thirza Collett			Born in 1862 at Kirtlington
		49O26	Edith Collett			Born in 1866 at Kirtlington
		49O27	Charles Collett			Born in 1871 at Kirtlington
		49O28	Albert Edwin Collett			Born in 1875 at Kirtlington
		49O29	Evelyn E Collett			Born in 1880 at Kirtlington
49N5		Maria Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1821 and had a rounded age of 20 years at the time of the Kirtlington census of 1841 when she was still living with her parents George and Sarah Collett and the rest of her family. Five years later, the marriage of Maria Collett and John Bowers was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 36) during the second quarter of 1846. According to the census in 1851, John and Maria were residing within the Holy Trinity district of Headington to the east of Oxford city centre. John Bowers was 38 and a sawyer, Maria Bowers was 41, and by then they had three children, Caroline Bowers who was nine, Julia Bowers who was seven, and George Bowers who was five. All four older members of the household had been born at Kirtlington, while the youngest of them was born during the time the family was temporarily living within the central Oxford area of St Peter le Bailey.
49N6		Emmanuel Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1823 and was 16 years old at the time of the Kirtlington census in 1841. He was yet another agricultural labour like his brothers before him and, at the time of the next census in 1851, he gave his age as being 28 and was still a bachelor living with his widowed mother Sarah Collett at Kirtlington. Also living with Emmanuel and his mother was his unmarried sister Eliza Collett (below) with her base-born daughter Dora. Eight years after that census day, the marriage of Emmanuel Collett and Emily Allen was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 1175) during the last quarter of 1859. Emily was born in 1829 and was the daughter of William and Mary Allen of Kirtlington. Their marriage produced three known children who were all born at Kirtlington. At the time of the census in 1861 Emmanuel was 37 and was an agricultural labourer living at Park Lodge in Kirtlington. Park Lodge was very likely a cottage on the farm of the Goodenough family, where Emmanuel Collett was employed.
		His wife Emily Collett was 30 and living with them on that day was their son Thomas Collett who was five months old. In addition to their own son, Emmanuel and Emily also had living with them Dora Collett, a niece who was 12 years old and the base-born daughter of Emmanuel’s sister Eliza, who had been living with Emmanuel and his mother ten years earlier. Living next door to Emmanuel and his family in 1861, and in service with the Goodenough family, was his nephew George Collett, aged 13, the son of Emmanuel’s older brother Charles Collett (above).
		Tragically, their son Thomas Collett only survived for a further three and a half years, when he died and was buried at Kirtlington as Thomas Emmanuel Collett on 8^th November 1864. Although the entry in the parish records gave his age as three years, he was actually born in December 1860, so was nearly four years old when he died. During the next five years Emily presented her husband with two further children. By 1871 Emmanuel was 46 and Emily was 37, and with them were their two surviving children. They were William who was seven and Mary who was four, all four members of the family confirmed as having been born at Kirtlington. At that time in their lives, Emmanuel and Emily were living in a cottage on Northbrook Farm, from where Emmanuel was employed as a gardener.
		Ten years later the family of four was still living at Kirtlington in the spring of 1881. Emmanuel Collett was 57, his wife Emily was 47, and their two children were once again confirmed as William J Collett who was 17 and working as an agricultural labourer like his father, and Mary A Collett who was 14. The family was still living at Kirtlington in 1891 when Emmanuel Collett was 67 and still working as an agricultural labourer. However, on that occasion his wife was listed as Eliza Collett who was 59, and still living with them was Emmanuel’s son William Collett who was 25.
		William Collett left the family home at Kirtlington during the next few years and by 1901 Emmanuel and Emily were living there alone. On that occasion their ages were incorrectly quoted, when Emmanuel said he was 70, and Emily said she was 60, at a time in their lives when they were in fact more like 77 and 67. Sixteen months after the census day, Emmanuel Collett, aged 79, died at Kirtlington and was buried there on 17^th July 1902. It therefore seems highly likely that his age in March 1901 was in fact 78, but misinterpreted as 70. No record of his widow Emily Collett has been found in the census return for 1911, so it may be safe to assume that she died around the time of her husband, or shortly thereafter.
		49O30	Thomas Emmanuel Collett			Born in 1860 at Kirtlington
		49O31	William Isaac Collett			Born in 1863 at Kirtlington
		49O32	Mary Ann Collett			Born in 1866 at Kirtlington
49N7		Charlotte Collett was born at Kirtlington during the summer of 1824, but tragically only survived for nine months when she died there and was buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St Mary the Virgin on 27^th March 1825.
49N9		Eliza Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1827 and according to the census in June 1841 she was 13 years old when she was living with her family at Kirtlington. Around nine years later she was unmarried and gave birth to a base-born daughter. At the time of the census in 1851, Eliza Collett was 25 when she and her one-year-old daughter Dora Collett were living at the Kirtlington home of her widowed mother Sarah Collett nee Wakefield. Also living there was Eliza’s older unmarried brother Emmanuel Collett (above). According to the Kirtlington Parish Graveyard Survey, Eliza Collett died when she was 26, following which she was buried there on 10^th April 1854. Her premature death would have been the reason why her daughter Dora Collett, aged just five years at the time of her mother’s passing, was taken into the family of Eliza’s brother Emmanuel Collett (above).
		49O33	Dora Collett			Born in 1849 at Kirtlington
49O1		Emily Collett was born at Kirtlington, the first child of Richard and Diane Collett. She was very likely born during the last three months of 1845, although the recording of her birth at Bicester (Ref. xvi 34) may have been delayed until the first few weeks of 1846, as she was a sickly child. She would therefore have died when she was around one year old, her death recorded at Bicester (Ref. xvi 32) during the fourth quarter of 1846.
49O2		Andrew Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1846, and was the eldest son of Richard and Diana Collett, whose birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. xvi 44) during the second quarter of that year. In 1851 he was four years old, and in 1861 he was 14. On both occasions he was living with his family in the village of Kirtlington. Six years after the census in 1861 Andrew’s mother died when he was around 21 years of age. It may have been two years after that sad event when Andrew married Sarah who was born at nearby Tackley in Oxfordshire. By the time of the next census in April 1871 the couple were living at Kirtlington in a cottage immediately adjacent to Andrew’s widowed father Richard, who still had three of Andrew’s younger siblings living there with him.
		The census return for 1871 confirmed that Sarah had already presented Andrew with their first child. Andrew Collett, aged 23 and from Kirtlington, was a miller’s labourer, while his wife Sarah was 24 and from Tackley, and their son was Richard William Collett who was eleven months old and had been born at Kirtlington. Shortly after that the family of three moved to the village of Knightcote in the parish of Burton Dassett in Warwickshire, midway between Banbury and Southam, where Andrew’s mother had been born, and where the remainder of Andrew’s eight children were born.
		Initially the family was extended by a further four children during the 1870s, as confirmed by the next census in 1881. That placed the family at Burton Dassett and stated that the four new children had been born there, which conflicts with later records. Andrew Collett from Kirtlington was an agricultural labourer of 36 years, and living with him was his wife Sarah aged 37 and from Tackley, and their five children. They were Richard who was 10 and born at Kirtlington, Emily who was six, Andrew who was three, Eli who was two and baby Thomas Collett who was just one month old. It is interesting that their sons Eli and William both gave Burton Dassett as their place of birth in the census of 1911.
		Andrew and Sarah would appear to have spent the remainder of their lives together living at Knightcote, since it was there that the couple’s last three children were born, and where they were still living in 1901 and 1911. During the 1880s another son and two daughters were born into the family, but by the time of the census in 1891 the couple’s eldest daughter Emily, who would have been 16, was no longer living with her family, nor has any trace of her been found after that time. It is therefore possible that she may have died before 1891.
		The census return for the village of Knightcote listed the family as Andrew 45 and an agricultural labourer of Kirtlington, Sarah 46 of Tackley, Richard 20 of Kirtlington, and Andrew 13, Eli 12, Thomas ten, Henry six, and Elizabeth P V Collett who was three years old, all of whom were born at Knightcote. The following year Sarah presented Andrew with their final child and over the next few years up until the end of the century some of the older children left the family home to make their own way in life.
		According to the census for Knightcote in March 1901, Andrew at 55 was a roadsman labourer, and once again his place of birth was confirmed as Kirtlington. His wife Sarah from Tackley was 56, and only four of their eight children were still living with them. Their son Eli who was 22, was very likely working with his father since his occupation was that of a stone-breaker, son Thomas was 20 and an agricultural labourer, daughter Victoria at 13 was described as a school teacher, while the couple’s youngest son William was eight and was probably attending the school where his older sister was employed. Missing from the family home was Andrew’s and Sarah’s eldest son Richard, who would have been 30, for whom no record has been found anywhere in Britain at that time, so he may have been abroad, and possible fighting with the army in South Africa. Their two other sons, Andrew 23 and Henry 16, were both living in the Aston area of Birmingham from where they were employed by the London North Western Railway.
		By April 1911 only the couple’s youngest son was still living with them at Knightcote, near Burton Dassett. Andrew was then 66 and still working as a roadman for the district council. His wife Sarah was 67 and had been born at Tackley, while son William Collett was 18 and a farm labourer whose place of birth was stated as being Burton Dassett instead of Knightcote. Boarding with the family that day, was Francis Gurden, a farm labourer aged 32 and also born at Burton Dassett. Just over five years later, in May 1916, Andrew and Sarah received the sad news of the death of their son John Henry Collett who was killed in action while serving with the Royal Navy. Just over four years after that, the death of Andrew Collett was recorded at Warwick register office (Ref. 6d 790) during the last three months of 1920 when he was 75.
		49P1	Richard William Collett			Born in 1870 at Kirtlington
		49P2	Emily Collett			Born in 1874 at Knightcote, Warws.
		49P3	Andrew Collett			Born in 1877 at Knightcote, Warws.
		49P4	Eli Collett			Born in 1878 at Knightcote, Warws.
		49P5	Thomas Collett			Born in 1881 at Knightcote, Warws.
		49P6	John Henry Collett			Born in 1884 at Knightcote, Warws.
		49P7	Elizabeth Prudence Victoria Collett			Born in 1887 at Knightcote, Warws.
		49P8	William Collett			Born in 1892 at Knightcote, Warws.
49O3		Emily Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1847, when her birth was recorded during the third quarter of the year at Bicester (Ref. xvi 51). She was the eldest surviving daughter of Richard and Diana Collett. Her parents’ first child had also been Emily, who was born and died in 1846, after whom Emily was named. Emily was three years old and 13 years old in the two censuses of 1851 and 1861 when she was living with her family at Kirtlington. During the month of May in 1867 Emily’s mother died at Kirtlington, following which it seems very likely that Emily, aged 19, initially took over the role of housekeeper for her father, her older brother Andrew (above), and her five younger siblings. However, it was later that same year, when Emily Collett married William Berry, the event recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 1159) during the last three months of 1867. William was a son of Edward and Ann Berry of Hanborough.
		That was also confirmed in the Kirtlington census of 1871, when agricultural labourer William Berry from Hanborough was 30, Emily Berry from Kirtlington was 24 and their first child George Berry was one year old and also born at Kirtlington. By 1881, Emily Berry was 34 and a gloveress working in leather, when she was living at Hanborough with her two children, George Berry and Mary Ann Berry, all of whom were said to have been born at Hanborough. Not long after that, the death of Emily Berry was recorded at Witney (Ref. 3a 538) during the first three months of 1883. Where William Berry was during the next three decades has not been confirmed, except that it was at Banbury register office (Ref. 3a 762) that the death of William Berry was recorded during the first quarter of 1909, who he was 70 years of age.
49O4		Edwin Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1850 with his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. xvi 39) during the first quarter of the year. He was therefore just under one year old at the time of the census in 1851. Ten years later he and his family were still living in Kirtlington where Edwin was eleven years of age. It was just over three years later that first Edwin died, to be followed by his mother Diana, who passed away three years after. According to the Kirtlington Parish Graveyard Survey, Edwin Collett was buried there on 9^th July 1864, aged 14 years. With the complete absence of any Edwina Collett of Kirtlington in any other records, it would seem very likely that the entry contained a basic error, in that it should have been written as Edwin Collett, although it may simply have been an error in transcription.
49O5		Curtis Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1852, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 543) during the first three months of that year. He was nine years old in the Kirtlington census of 1861. Six years later Curtis’ mother died and by 1871 Curtis Collett was 19 when he was lodging the Isaac and Eliza Flaxon in Kirtlington, close by his father and most of his siblings. No record of him has so far been found after that time, or in the census of 1881, that is until he re-appeared in the next census of 1891. At that time in his life Curtis Collett from Kirtlington in Oxfordshire was a lodger at the Hunslet, Yorkshire, home of Thomas and Harriet Clasby. It was as Curtis Collett aged 39 years, that he was recorded in that year’s census return, while ten years later he was named as Kurtis Collett from Kirtlington who a bachelor of 48 in 1901. He was still living in Hunslet, where he was working as a bricklayer, and once again was a boarder, but with the widow Dinah Brooksbank and her family.
		The trend of reducing his age in the previous census continued into the census of 1911 when Curtis Collett from Oxfordshire was 56. That year he was employed as a labourer in an iron forge when he was a lodger at 34 Pepper Place in Hunslet near Leeds, the home of George and Edith Wilson and their young family. It was ten years later that the death of Curtis Collett, aged 68, was recorded at Hunslet register office (Ref. 9b 555) during the second quarter of 1921.
49O6		Daniel Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1854, but it was as Dan Collett that his birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 549) during the second quarter of that year. By 1861 Daniel was six years old was living at Kirtlington with his family and was described as Dan Collett. Following the death of his mother Diana, during the 1860s, Daniel was living with his widowed father Richard at Kirtlington in 1871, by which time he was 16 and working as an agricultural labourer.
49O7		Prudence Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1856 and, as with her brother Dan (above), it was under an abbreviated name of Prue Collett, that her birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 511) during the fourth quarter of the year. As Prudence Collett, she was four years old and living at Kirtlington with her family in 1861. She was still living there with her father and two brothers Daniel (above) and Eli (below) in 1871 at the age of 14, following the death of her mother Diana. It is very likely that she had become a married lady by the time of the census in 1881, since no record of a Prudence Collett has been discovered after 1871.
49O8		Eli Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1860, with his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 552) during the second quarter of the year. In the Kirtlington census of 1861 he was one year old and was living with his parents Richard and Diana Collett and the other members of his family. Sadly, his mother died while he was still very young, although Eli remained living with his father until at least 1881. The census that year place Eli, at 11 years of age, living at Kirtlington with his widowed father Richard, and his two older siblings Daniel and Prudence (above).
		Although absent from the census returns in 1881, when he would have been 21, Eli Collett was living and working in London by 1891. The census that year confirmed that he had been born at Kirtlington and that he was still a bachelor at the age of 31, when he was recorded as living with the Lambeth & Brixton area of the city. Shortly after that he married Emily Elizabeth and before the end of the century the marriage had produced two sons for the couple. By the time of the census in 1901 the family of four was living in the Fulham district of London.
		Once again, the census confirmed that Eli had been born at Kirtlington and that, at the age of 41 his occupation was that of a police constable. His wife Emily from Surrey was many years younger at the age of 28, and their two sons were listed as having been born in Fulham and were six years and five years respectively. Ten years later in April 1911, the family was still together and living in Fulham. Eli Collett from Kirtlington was 51 and a police constable, his wife Emily Elizabeth Collett was 38, and their two sons were William who was 16, and Harry who was 15. It was just three years later that he retired.
		From the information kindly provided by his great grandson Ray Collett in 2011, it is evident that Eli Collett served with the Metropolitan Police Constabulary, and the information received from the Metropolitan Police Museum makes interesting, and provides an insight into the man. Eli first became a police constable on 22^nd April 1889, just prior to his twenty-ninth birthday, his age at entry being stated at 28. Prior to that date, the record shows that he was previously employed as a musician, and that he had served with the King’s Liverpool Regiment. He was five feet, nine-and-a-quarter-inches tall, and was assigned the divisional number W586, with a warrant number 74427. His place of birth was transcribed in error as Hillington in Oxfordshire, when it should have been Kirtlington.
		His interest in music must have prevailed, since it is established that he was a member of the Metropolitan Police Band, with whom he played the drums. Eli Collett left the police service on 27^th April 1914 at the age of 53, and with an annual pension of £60 13s 3d. Upon his retired he was presented with a medallion bearing the following inscription in relation to his police service: "Ex-PC E Collett, B Division. As a memento from his comrades of the North Fulham Sub-Division, after 25 years’ service, pensioned 26 April 1914"
		49P9	William Collett			Born in 1894 at Fulham
		49P10	Harry Albert Collett			Born in 1895 at Fulham
49O9		Arthur Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1843 and was the first child of James Collett and Sarah Lambourne. In 1851 Arthur was seven years old but with no trace of him found after that time, it may be safe to assume that he did not survive to adulthood.
49O10		Fanny Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1847, the eldest daughter of James Collett and Sarah Lambourne. Fanny was three years old in 1851, and 13 years in 1861, and on both occasions was living with his parents at Kirtlington. During the next ten years she moved out of the family home and by 1871 Fanny was a grocer in the village of Kirtlington and was living there on the main road with dressmaker Elizabeth Davies and her daughter, six years old April Davies. At that time in her life Fanny was unmarried at the age of 23.
		Just a year or so after the 1871 census day Fanny Collett married Thomas Francis Norridge. Thomas was a stonemason and came from the village of Combe where many members of the Collett family were also stonemasons – see Part 38 – The Oxford Stonemasons Line. Over the next five years Fanny presented her husband with three children, the first being born at Kirtlington before the family moved to a private house in the village of Yarnton, to the south-west of Kidlington. The census in 1881 still recorded the couple living there with their three children.
		Thomas Norridge was 29 and four years younger than his wife Fanny from Kirtlington who was 33. The three children were Francis T Norridge of Kirtlington, who was six, Frederick H Norridge, who was four, and Florence F Norridge, who was one year old. Frederick and Florence were both born at Yarnton. Also visiting the family at that time was Fanny’s younger sister Anne Collett (below). She was described as Annie Collett of no occupation, aged 16 and from Kirtlington, and sister-in-law to head of the house Thomas Norridge.
49O11		John Collett was born at Kirtlington in June 1850 and was nine months old by the time of the census in 1851. Most of his life was spent living and working in Kirtlington where he was ten years old in 1861, and 21 years old in 1871. However, by 1871 he had left the family home and was living at the home of his uncle Arthur Lambourne, his mother’s younger brother. John Collett was described as a boarder and his occupation was that of an agricultural labourer. Sharing a room with him in the Lambourne household was John’s younger brother Thomas (below) with whom he was also presumably working. Arthur Lambourne was 28 and he and his 31-year-old wife, Anna E Lambourne, already had a son, George A Lambourne, who was three months old.
		During the next few years John secured work as steam plough driver and agricultural machine attendant, but for some reason that appears to have only lasted for a limited period. On losing his job and becoming unemployed, John returned to live with his parents who, by 1881 were living with his grandfather, Richard Lambourne, on the main road in Kirtlington. John Collett of Kirtlington, who was 29, was described as an out-of-work steam plough driver and agricultural machine attendant.
		Around three and a half years later, the marriage of John Collett and Emily Cattell (Cattle) was recorded at Dorchester in Dorset (Ref. 5a 737) during the fourth quarter of 1884. Emily had been born at Owermoigne, which lies six miles south-east of Dorchester in 1862 and was baptised at Owermoigne on 6^th April 1862, the daughter of John and Sarah Cattle. Once married the couple settled in Dorchester where all of their children were born and from where John was employed as a railway engine driver. By the time of the census in 1891 Emily had presented John with four of their six children. John Collett from Kirtlington stated he was 38 and therefore younger than his actual age, perhaps because of the age difference between himself and his younger wife. Emily Collett from Owermoigne was 30, while their four Dorchester born children were Daisy D Collett who was six, Elsie V Collett who was four, Reginald A Collett who was two years of age and Augustus Collett who was only one month old. It should be noted that their fourth child, who was Augustus in 1891, was Lionel A Collett in 1901 and was Leonard Collett in 1911, was actually baptised as Leonard August Collett.
		John and Emily added one more child to their family when Linda was born at Dorchester in 1894. What happened next to the family remains a mystery although, it would appear that, John and Emily were separated before the end of the century. By March 1901 John Collett of Kirtlington was living in the North Devon village of North Molton, midway between Barnstaple and Tiverton. His occupation was that of a steam engine driver on the road, and yet again he gave a reduced age when he said he was 46, when in fact he was near fifty. John was the only Collett residing in that census registration district at that time, while his wife and their five surviving children were still living in Dorchester. Emily Collett was managing a general shop in the town and curiously gave her age as 35, only five years old than ten years earlier. Daisy Collett was 15, Elsie Collett was 13, Reginald Collett was 12, Lionel A Collett was 10, and Linda P Collett was eight years old.
		Having been separated from John for a few years Emily may have had a final daughter with another man, or was she covering the fact that one of her older daughters gave birth to a base-born child. That child was born after the family had left Dorchester and when they were living within the Bournemouth area. On the occasion of the census in 1911 Emily Collett and four children were residing at ‘Burton’ 42 Stourvale Road in Pokesdown midway between Bournemouth and Christchurch. The census return completed by Emily included the following details, that she was born at Owermoigne, that she was married and aged 34 (sic) – younger than in 1901, that had been married for twenty-seven years, and that had given birth to six children, with only five surviving.
		The four children listed with her were Elsie Collett, aged 23, who was working in the laundry, Leonard Collett, aged 20, who was a baker, Linda Collett, aged 17, who was also employed by the laundry, and Doris Collett who was seven years old and still attending the local school. At that same time in April 1911 the census return that year placed the children’s father John Collett, aged 60 and from Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, as living and working in the Uppingham area of Rutland when, yet again he was the only person with the Collett name who was recorded within that census area.
		In addition to that John’s son Reginald Collett gave his age as being twenty, when he was twenty-two, when he was living and working at Poole in Dorset. It may be of interest that two other addresses in Pokesdown in 1911 were occupied by people by the name of Collett. First was Francis Collett, aged 53, and his wife Jessie Latham Collett who was 51, and then there was Rosalind Mary Collett who was 44. Further work needs to be carried out to try to ascertain to which branch of the family Rosalind belongs, while Francis and Jessie can be found in Part 9 – The Aldsworth Line (Ref. 9N29). John Collett eventually returned to the south coast, so may have been reunited with his wife Emily, since the death of John Collett was recorded at Dorchester register office (Ref. 5a 308) during the second quarter of 1921 when he was 70 years old.
		49P11	Daisy Dora Collett			Born in 1885 at Dorchester
		49P12	Elsie Victoria Collett			Born in 1887 at Dorchester
		49P13	Reginald Arthur Collett			Born in 1889 at Dorchester
		49P14	Leonard Augustus Collett			Born in 1891 at Dorchester
		49P15	Linda Phoebe Collett			Born in 1894 at Dorchester
		The following child may not have been the daughter of John Collett:
		49P16	Doris R Collett			Born in 1903 at Bournemouth
49O12		Thomas Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1852 and was eight years old in 1861 when he was still living there with his family. Towards the end of the next decade Thomas left school and began work on the land. By 1871 he was living with his brother John (above) at the Kirtlington home of the boys’ uncle Arthur Lambourne, from where they were both working as agricultural labourers.
		The brothers parted company when John was taken on as a steam plough driver in Kirtlington, and Thomas left the village to take up employment as a groom in Middleton Stoney three miles north of Kirtlington. In the census of 1881 Thomas Collett was one of four stablemen, domestic servants, boarding in The Grooms’ Cottage at The Stables on the Middleton Park estate in Middleton Stoney. The head coachman was Frederick Chappell from High Cross in Hertfordshire aged 23. He was supported by Thomas Collett who was 28, Alexander Veitch 27 from Edinburgh, Harry Rumbold 27 from Britford in Wiltshire, and Frederick Edgington 29 from Kirtlington.
		It was during the spring of 1885 when Thomas Collett married Mary Jane Claydon from the neighbouring village of Caulcott near Lower Heyford, the event recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 1093) during the second quarter of that year. By 1891 their marriage had produced the couple’s first three of their seven children. Mary Collett, who was listed under her second name of Jane, was 32, her daughters were Helen A Collett who was five and Violet Collett who was four and her son Harry Collett was two years old, all three of them born at Middleton Stoney. On the day of the census that year, it is possible that Mary Jane was with-child, since later that year the couple’s second son was born at Middleton Stoney.
		At that same time in 1891 Thomas Collett was working away from the family home in Middleton Stoney, when he was listed within the Kenilworth registration district of Warwick, where he was recorded as being 37 years of age and his place of birth confirmed as Kirtlington. Not long after the birth of his fourth child at Middleton Stoney, Thomas and his family moved to Kirtlington for a short while, and it was there that their third son and fifth child was born.
		Another family moved took place over the following couple of years when they moved to the village of Bucknell, just north of Bicester. And it was there that they were living in March 1901. The whole family was together at that time, except for eldest daughter Violet who was absent. It would appear that she was already in domestic service, since a solitary Violet E Collett aged 15 was living and working at Evenley Hall in Northamptonshire at that time. The remainder of her family comprised Thomas Collett, 48-year-old domestic groom from Kirtlington, his wife Mary J Collett aged 42 from Caulcott, Helen who was 15, Harry who was 12, John age nine, George age six, Cecil three, and Reginald who was two years old.
		Over the following years eldest daughter Helen left home to be married, daughter Violet went to work in Croydon, and son Harry moved out but stayed living in the Bicester area. By then Thomas 58, and Mary Jane 52, were living in the Woodfield district of the town of Bicester with their four sons William John 19, George Francis 16, Cecil Joseph 13, and Reginald Arthur who was 12.
		49P17	Helen Ada Collett			Born in 1885 at Middleton Stoney
		49P18	Violet E Collett			Born in 1886 at Middleton Stoney
		49P19	Harry Thomas Collett			Born in 1888 at Middleton Stoney
		49P20	John William Collett			Born in 1891 at Middleton Stoney
		49P21	George Francis Collett			Born in 1894 at Kirtlington
		49P22	Cecil Joseph Collett			Born in 1897 at Bucknell, nr Bicester
		49P23	Reginald Arthur Collett			Born in 1898 at Bucknell, nr Bicester
49O13		Elizabeth Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1855. She was five years old in the census of 1861 when she was living at Kirtlington with her family. However, with no further listing of her in any later census it has been assumed that she did not survive beyond childhood.
49O14		Harry Collett was born at Kirtlington during August in 1860 and was recorded as being eight months old in the Kirtlington census of 1861. Presumably like his sister Elizabeth (above), Harry also suffered with some childhood illness, since it was on 13^th December 1864, that he was buried at Kirtlington, at the age of just four years.
49O15		Anne Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1864 and was six years old in 1871 when she was living with her family at Kirtlington. Sometime during the 1870s Anne’s parents James and Sarah moved in with her elderly grandfather Richard Lambourne. It is not clear from the census in 1881 if Anne was part of that arrangement. Instead, at that time Annie Collett, who was 16 and from Kirtlington, was a visitor at the Yarnton home of her older married sister Fanny Norridge nee Collett.
49O16		Ann Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1837 and was the first child of Charles Collett and Emma Wakefield. In June 1841 Anne was three years old and was living at Kirtlington with her parents and her sister Emma (below). Ten years later her age was given as being 14. Thereafter it is not clear what happened to Ann, since no further record of an Ann Collett has been found, which might indicate that she was married by 1861 when she would have been 24. Although not proved, it is possible she married William Simmonds of Kirtlington with whom she had two children, and in 1881 the family of four was still living at Kirtlington. Agricultural labourer William was 47, his wife Ann was 45, and their two children were Herbert Simmonds, a groom of 19, and Clara Simmonds who was eight, both born at Kirtlington.
49O17		Emma Eunice Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1839 and was named after her mother. She originally appeared in the census record of 1841 as Emma Collett who was one year old, while in the later census returns and other records, she used the name Eunice. In the census of 1851 Eunice was 11 years old when she was living with her family in Kirtlington, but after a further ten years she was living and working as a servant at the Fulham home of Charles Sell in London where, as E Collett from Kirtlington, she was 21. It was also as Eunice Collett that she married William Varney Elliott, the wedding recorded at St George Hanover Square (Ref. 1a 491) during the first the months of 1867. It is interesting to note that William Varney Elliott was named as one of the two witnesses at the marriage of Eunice’s younger brother George Collett (below) in London during 1866. By the time of the census in 1871 Eunice Elliott had presented her husband with a son William Elliott who was one month old.
		The census return that year placed the family of three living at St George Hanover Square where William was 28 and Eunice was 31. According to the next census in 1881 William V Elliott from Wendlebury near Bicester in Oxfordshire was 38 and a glazier living at 61 Hanover Street in the St George Hanover Square district of London. Living there with him was his wife Eunice Elliott who was 41 and from Kirtlington, together with their two children. They were Henry Charles Elliott aged five years and Frederick George Elliott who was one year old, both boys being born at Pimlico. Their absent son William Elliott would have been ten years old, so it seems likely that he may have suffered an infant death not long after he was born.
		It was less than four years later that the death of William Varney Elliott, a house decorator, was recorded at Fulham (Ref. 1a 209) during the first quarter of 1885. The record indicates that he was 42 and that he died at the Western Hospital in London. His widow survived him by twenty-three years when the death of Eunice Elliott was recorded at St George Hanover Square in London (Ref. 1a 334) during the first quarter of 1908 when she was 67. Emma Eunice Elliott nee Collett, the wife of the late William Varney Elliott, died on 16^th January 1908 at their home at 37 Glamorgan Street in Pimlico. At that time her son Henry Charles Varney was residing nearby at 30 Sutherland Street in Pimlico, while seven years early Eunice, aged 61, and her son Henry, named as Harry C Elliott, were living together in St George Hanover Square.
49O18		Urbane James Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1841, with his birth as Urban James Collett recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 35) during the last three months of that year, when his parents were confirmed as Charles Collett and Emma Wakefield. He was just seven years of age when he died, his death recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 29) as simply Urbane Collett during the second quarter of 1849, following which he was buried at Kirtlington on 12^th April that year.
49O19		Julia Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1842 and was eight years old in the census for that village in 1851. By 1861 Julia had left Oxfordshire to seek work in London. The census that year placed Julia Collett of Kirtlington at 19 years of age living and working in the St George Hanover district of London, although another source states the place as St Giles St George Bloomsbury.
49O20		Clara Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1844 and was six years old in 1851 when she was with her family at Kirtlington. After leaving school Clara sought work in Oxford where she was recorded in 1861 at the age of 16. Six years later Clara married James Edgington in Oxford where the event was recorded (Ref. 3a 733) during the first three months of 1867. By 1871 she was still living in Oxford, within the St Mary Magdalen district, where Clara Edgington was 26 and her husband James was 29. By the time of the next census in 1881 Clara Edgington from Kirtlington was 36 years old and her husband James Edgington, who was a painter from Stow-on-the-Wold, was 39. At that time in their lives the childless couple was staying next door to the Druid’s Head Inn at 20 George Street in Oxford, on the corner of New Inn Hall Street, the home of grocer Robert Twyning and his wife Mary Ann.
49O21		William Wakefield Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1846, his birth simply as William Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 16 38) during the last three months of that year. He was a son of Charles Collett and his first wife Emma Wakefield. Only on two occasions have records been found which refer to him as William W Collett and they were in 1871 and 1901. It is almost certain that the W was added after the premature death of his mother, it being her maiden name – see below. As William Collett, he was living at Kirtlington with his family in 1851 when he was four. Two years later his other died during childbirth, and seven years his father was remarried. By 1861, William Collett was 14 with no stated occupation, when he was one of only two children living at Kirtlington with his father and stepmother. He was twenty-one years of age, when the marriage of William Collett and Sarah Pearman was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 908) during the second quarter of 1868. By the time of the Kirtlington census in 1871, the marriage had resulted in the birth of the couple’s first child. The census that year listed the family of three as William W Collett who was 24 and an agricultural labourer, his wife Sarah Collett who was 23, and their daughter Emma W Collett who was just one year old. All three of them had been born at Kirtlington. Once again, the W in their daughter’s name, has been confirmed as a tribute to William’s later mother.
		Five more children were added to the family during the next ten years, and all of them born while William and Sarah continued to live in Kirtlington. That was confirmed by the census in 1881 when, agricultural labourer William was 34, Sarah was 33, and their six children were Emma Collett who was 11, George Collett who was nine, Clara Collett who was seven, Ann Collett who was five, William Collett who was two, and baby Fanny Collett who was only five months old.
		During the next decade, the number of children born into the family, still living at Kirtlington, increased from six to ten although, by the time of the census in 1891, only the six youngest children, together with the couple’s eldest son George, were still living with William and Sarah in the family home. The Kirtlington census in 1891 listed the family as William 44 and an agricultural labourer, Sarah 43, sons George 19 and William 12, daughters Fanny 10, Margaret who was eight and, Jessie who was five, and Frederick who was three and Eva who was one year old. It is not clear where the three eldest daughters were on that occasion, but all three have certainly been located in 1901.
		According to the census in March 1901 the family comprised William W Collett, born at Kirtlington, aged 54 and a general agricultural labourer, his wife Sarah who was 53, their sons George aged 29 and Frederick who was 13, and youngest child Eva F Collett who was eleven. Living just four doors away in Kirtlington was 61 years old widow Emily Collett with her daughter Edith and her son Charles. She was William’s stepmother and his half-sister and half-brother from his father’s second marriage. By April 1911, only daughter Eva was still living with her parents in Kirtlington, so that family was simply recorded as William Collett who was 64 and an agricultural labourer, Sarah Collett who was 63, and Eva Collett who was 21.
		49P24	Emma Wakefield Collett			Born in 1869 at Kirtlington
		49P25	George Collett			Born in 1871 at Kirtlington
		49P26	Clara Collett			Born in 1873 at Kirtlington
		49P27	Ann Pearman Collett			Born in 1875 at Kirtlington
		49P28	William Collett			Born in 1878 at Kirtlington
		49P29	Fanny Collett			Born in 1880 at Kirtlington
		49P30	Margaret Mary Collett			Born in 1883 at Kirtlington
		49P31	Jessie Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1885 at Kirtlington
		49P32	Frederick Collett			Born in 1887 at Kirtlington
		49P33	Eva Florence Collett			Born in 1890 at Kirtlington
49O22		GEORGE COLLETT was born at Kirtlington around 1848, the son of Charles Collett and Emma Wakefield. At the time of the census in 1851 George was three years old and was living with his family at Kirtlington. It should be noted that during his married life it would appear that he let his wife believe that he was one year old than her so, when she composed his obituary, the age she gave indicated he was born in 1845 or early 1846. While George was still a young boy, he suffered the loss of his mother who tragically died around the time that his sister Ruth was born in 1852. That sad event left his father with seven children between the ages of one and 13 to look after. Unable to cope with his lost and to continue caring for his children it would appear that they were looked after by other members of the Collett family in Kirtlington.
		However, some little time after the death of his mother, George’s father married again, on that occasion to a young lady who was half his age. From the census in 1861 only George’s brother William and sister Ruth were living with their father Charles and his new wife. George on the other hand, who was 13 by then, was living with the family of farmer William Goodenough in Kirtlington, next door to his uncle Emmanuel Collett (above), his father’s younger brother. The Goodenough family was sufficiently affluent to employ six servants, of which George Collett was the youngest.
		No baptism records have so far been found for any members of this line of the Collett family but, sometime after the census of 1861, George started to refer to himself as Henry George Collett. The first actual recording of the name was at the time of his marriage just five years later. While still living in Kirtlington it is likely that George began working with his cousin Fanny Collett (Ref. 49O10), who was roughly the same age as George, since both of them were recorded as being grocers. It was also during his later teenage years George left Oxfordshire and made his way to London to seek a new life, and it was there that he worked in a grocer’s shop. The shop was in a good area of London and very likely served a high-class clientele, through which he may have met his future wife.
		In order to create the right impression George Collett, now Henry George Collett, gilded the lily a little by saying that he was the son of builder Charles Collett. Another falsehood was that he stated was three years older than his actual age, a fact that he apparently never revealed to his future wife. It would have been either in 1865 or 1866, when he was actually around 18 years old, that he met Selina Sarah Shoubridge. She was the daughter of artist William Shoubridge and Selina Mott who were married at St Paul’s Covent Garden on 9^th April 1844. In 1861 William Shoubridge and his family were recorded as living in Hounslow within the Brentford & Isleworth registration district of London, when his eldest daughter was listed as Selina Sarah Shoubridge aged 13 years.
		The full Shoubridge family at that time comprised William 49, his wife Selina 36, and their children William 15, Selina 13, Sydney Garrett nine, Lucy Ann five, Walter George three, and Beatrice Emily who was under one year old. Sadly, just one year later, William’s wife died on 29^th April 1862 when the family was living at Staines Road in Heston. The informant for the death of Selina Shoubridge was an Ann Chapman who may have been related to William Shoubridge, since his mother Sarah’s maiden name was Chapman. Curiously, the cause of death was given as ‘suffering from the brain for five months’. Selina’s daughter, Selina Sarah Shoubridge was 14 when her mother died in 1862, following which she was looked after by her grandmother, Sarah Shoubridge who died two years later in 1864 at the age of 86.
		It is understood that upon the death of his wife, William Shoubridge returned to Italy and that was the reason why his daughter Selina Sarah was left in the care of her grandmother. Therefore, Selina Sarah Shoubridge was once again left on her own following the death of her grandmother at only 16 years of age. So, it is perhaps not surprising that, she agreed to marry Henry Collett in 1866.
		Her father William Shoubridge was baptised on 30^th October 1811 at St George’s Church in Hanover Square, and was the son of James Shoubridge Esquire. He was educated at Cheam School and later went to Caius College in Cambridge where he studied architecture under the prolific British architect Decimus Burton who designed some of the buildings at London Zoo, and the Palm House at Kew Gardens which was the first large structural use of wrought iron. William Shoubridge received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1841, but then pursued a career as an artist in oil painting. And it was his interest in art that took him and his wife Selina to Florence where their daughter Selina Sarah Shoubridge was born in 1847.
		By the time of the census in 1871 widower William Shoubridge had returned to England from Italy and was living in London with his son Walter. Ten years later in 1881 he was living at 1 Colne Villa in Teddington in Middlesex. Living there with him were his three youngest children, all of whom had been born at Hounslow. William Shoubridge was 69 years old and was described as a widower and an ‘artist with a BA in oil painting’. The three children with him were Walter George aged 23, who was a civil engineering draughtsman, and Lucy Anne 24, and Beatrice Emily 20, who were both described as housekeepers.
		Just over ten years after that William Shoubridge died on 12^th November 1891 when he was living at ‘Piercefield’ on the Emmerdale Road in Richmond. The informant was his unmarried daughter Lucy Anne Shoubridge who had been looking after him, and the cause of death was angina pectoris syncope. Because of his superior education and standing in the community, it seems highly likely that William Shoubridge may have been opposed to the marriage between his daughter Selina and young Henry George Collett.
		It may have been for that reason that Henry George Collett and Selina Sarah Shoubridge were married quite quickly and without any of the bride’s family being present, and it is this combination of the facts that give rise to the idea that they did not receive the approval of the Shoubridge family. The wedding took place on 12^th October 1866 at St Michael’s Church within the parish of St Peter Pimlico in London. The record of the event confirmed that Henry George Collett aged 21 (when he was actually 18), a bachelor and a grocer of 13 Upper Ebury Street, and the son of builder Charles Collett, married 19-year-old Sarah Shoubridge also of 13 Upper Ebury Street, whose father was artist William Shoubridge.
		It is highly significant that the two witnesses to the wedding ceremony were William Varney Elliott and Anne Sinclair. Had the young couple married with the consent of Selina’s father, one might have expected to see a member of the Shoubridge family as a witness. What is known is that William Varney Elliott was the husband of Eunice Collett, who was Henry George’s older sister and, it is also possible, that Anne Sinclair was his eldest married sister. The address at 13 Upper Ebury Street may have been where the young couple were lodging, or may have even been the shop where Henry worked as a grocer.
		It is interesting to note that the parish of St Peter Pimlico is situated on the north side of the River Thames and adjacent to the Westminster area of the city. Not far away is Ebury Street which runs parallel to Buckingham Palace Road. From old maps, Upper Ebury Street refers to the section of the road to the south-west, near to Pimlico Road and Chelsea Barracks. Another discrepancy on the marriage certificate is related to the bride’s name. The name is given as Sarah, even though she was originally named Selina Sarah Shoubridge after her mother Selina Shoubridge nee Mott. It should be noted that in all later records she used another name, that of Salina Collett.
		Henry and Sarah were blessed with the birth of their first child in London just under eighteen months after they were married, the child being named after the town in Italy where Sarah had been born. The registration of the child’s birth confirmed the father was Harry Collett, a proprietor of houses, and his wife as Selina Sarah Collett, both of 43 Sewardstone Road West in Bethnal Green.
		Shortly after the arrival of baby Florence Emily Collett, the couple were making plans to emigrate to a new life in New Zealand. And so it was, that on 14^th November 1868, the family of three sailed out of Gravesend on the clipper ship ‘Percy’, skippered by Captain James Cooper. The ship’s passage list recorded the family as Henry George Collett aged 22, his wife Selina Sarah aged 21, and their daughter Florence who was described as one to two years old. The voyage lasted three and half months, and they finally docked at Auckland on the 3^rd of March 1869.
		Shortly after their arrival in New Zealand, Salina gave birth to the couple’s second child Helen Wakefield Collett. The child’s second name was a tribute to Henry’s mother Emma Wakefield. Tragically though, the child was killed in a freakish accident when she was just fifteen months old. It would appear that the motivation for their move to a new life on the other side of the world was driven by the New Zealand gold rush of the 1860s. Certainly, it has been established that Henry brought sufficient money with him from England to purchase five hundred shares of a mining company stock, that considerable sum of money was very likely acquired from Salina’s side of the family.
		Henry and Selina lived in New Zealand for nearly two years, during which time their third daughter, Salina, was born. It was in the latter half of 1872 that they sailed from New Zealand to the west coast of America, arriving at San Francisco in early 1873. The family then settled in San Francisco and it was there that eight more children were born into the family. That was in part confirmed by the 1880 Census for San Francisco which also included the name of the couple’s oldest son who was named after Henry’s own father, Charles Collett.
		Henry G Collett of England was 33 and a ‘col in a cigar factory’. His wife was Salina S Collett aged 32 and from Italy, who was described as ‘keeping house’. Of the six children born into the family by that time, only five were listed with their parents, following the death of baby Helen ten years earlier. They were Florence E Collett from England who was 12 and attending school, Salina E Collett from New Zealand who was nine, Charles W Collett six, Harry G Collett two, and Clara L Collett who was just two months old. All of the three youngest children had been born in California. Also living with the family on that occasion was James P McSweeney aged 35 and from Ireland, and a widower who was working as a lithographer. Over the next seven years two further children were added to the family, and they were also born while Henry and Salina were still living in San Francisco.
		Tragically when the couple’s youngest child Richard was only three years old, Henry George Collett died in a wagon accident on 5^th April 1891 and the age of 46. The obituary notice in a local San Francisco newspaper stated that he had been born in Oxfordshire in 1845. His wife Salina would have been 44 at that time, and unbeknown to her, her husband was actually 43 when he died. Selina was living in San Francisco with her daughter Selina Edith and Selina Edith’s husband Frank Gumpel at the time of her death in 1907, having survived the Great Earthquake of 1906. A single combined family burial site has been located in a cemetery in Colma, a town just south of San Francisco, which contains the final resting place for George Collett, his wife Selina, and their children Florence Emily Collett, Selina Edith Gumper nee Collett (and her husband Frank Gumper), and Henry George Collett.
		49P34	Florence Emily Collett			Born in 1868 at Bethnal Green, London
		49P35	Helen Wakefield Collett			Born in 1869 in New Zealand
		49P36	Selina Edith Collett			Born in 1871 in New Zealand
		49P37	Charles William Collett			Born in 1874 in San Francisco
		49P38	Henry George Collett			Born in 1877 in San Francisco
		49P39	Clara Lucy Collett			Born in 1880 in San Francisco
		49P40	Walter Sydney Collett			Born in 1881 in San Francisco
		49P41	Edgar H Collett			Born in 1882 in San Francisco
		49P42	Alfred E Collett			Born in 1884 in San Francisco
		49P43	Richard Claude Collett			Born in 1885 in San Francisco
		49P44	Albert Victor Collett			Born in 1887 in San Francisco
49O23		Eli Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1851 and was buried there on 17^th April 1853 when he was just fifteen months old.
49O24		Ruth Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1853, the last daughter from the marriage of Emma Wakefield and Charles Collett. That was because her mother died either during the birth or shortly after, and was buried at Kirtlington on 21^st May 1853 aged 35. Following that tragic event Ruth’s father re-married and by the time of the census in 1861, when Ruth was eight years old, she was living with her father and her stepmother Emily Collett at Kirtlington. Ten years later Ruth was living and working in the Kensington area of London. She gave her age as being 20 and she gave her county of birth as Oxfordshire. Over the following years she is likely to have married since no further records of Ruth Collett have been found.
49O25		Thirza Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1862 and was the first child from the second marriage of widower Charles Collett to his new wife Emily, following the death of his first wife during the 1850s. Thirza was eight years old in 1871 when she was living with her parents at Kirtlington. Upon leaving school she sought work in the city of Oxford. By 1881 she was working as a live-in general servant at the home of Frederick Lovegrove MA, a private tutor from Over Norton in Oxfordshire, at 15 St John’s Street in the St Mary Magdalen district of the city. At 18 years of age, Thirza Collett from Kirtlington was the only servant employed by the Lovegrove family. No further record of Thirza Collett has been found after that time which probably means that she was eventually married.
49O26		Edith Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1866 and by 1871 she was four years old and living with her parents in Kirtlington where she continued to live into her middle-age. Edith was 13 in 1881 and 24 in 1891 and, on both occasions, she was still living with her parents at Kirtlington. Following the death of her father Charles Collett in the 1890s, Edith and her brother Charles (below) were the only members of the family still living with her widowed mother Emily Collett in 1901. Edith was unmarried and 34 years old at that time. During the first decade of the new century Edith Collett married Walter William Boddington, and by April 1911 the couple were living in Bicester where Edith Boddington from Kirtlington was 44 and her husband Walter was 49.
49O27		Charles Collett was born at Kirtlington during the month of February in 1871, and was just two months old on the second of April 1871, the census day. Charles was ten years old in the next census in 1881 when he was living at Kirtlington with his family. When he was 20, he was still living with his parents Charles and Emily at the family home in Kirtlington. However, during the next few years his father died and by March 1901 it was only Charles and his older sister Edith (above) who were still living there with their widowed mother. Charles was described as working as an ordinary agricultural labourer at the age of 30. Sometime after that Charles’ sister Edith left the family home to be married, at which point in his life Charles also became a married man.
		According to the April census in 1911, Charles Collett of Kirtlington was 40, while his wife Ethel was only 30. At that time in their lives the couple had living with them Charles’ 71-year-old widowed mother, Emily Collett, but no children of their own. It is therefore possible, in view of Ethel’s age, that she and Charles may have had children that were born after that time. By the time Charles was nearly twice his age in 1911, he died at Kirtlington, where he was buried on 2^nd December 1950, at the age of 79, thus confirming his year of birth as having been 1871.
49O28		Albert Edwin Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1874, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 635) during the third quarter of that year. He was living there with his family in 1881 when he was six years old and again in 1891 when he was 16 and employed as an agricultural labourer. Not long after that, his father Charles Collett died at Kirtlington and, a few years later, towards the end of the century Albert Edwin Collett married Ann Freeman who was around five or six years older than Albert. The wedding was recorded at Southam register office (Ref. 6d 139) during the second quarter of 1899, and took place at Burton Dassett on 24^th June 1899, when the groom’s father was confirmed as Charles Collett, deceased, and the bride’s father was named as David Freeman.
		The couple’s first child was born prior to the census in 1901, since that recorded the family of three living at Kirtlington as domestic gardener Albert Collett who was 26, his wife Ann who was 32 and from Northend near Burton Dassett in Warwickshire, and their daughter Ethel who was not yet one year old and had been born at Kirtlington, where all the couple’s subsequent children were born.
		Three further children were added to the family during the next decade, so by April 1911 the family still living at Kirtlington comprised Albert Collett who was 36 and still working as a domestic gardener, Ann Collett who was 42 and from Burton Dassett, and their four Kirtlington born children, Ethel Collett who was 10, Linda Collett who was nine, Albert Collett who was seven, and Constance Collett who was two years old. On that census day, Ann was anticipating the arrival of the couple’s last child – see below for details.
		Albert Edwin Collett, who was born around 1875, was buried at Kirtlington on 18^th March 1936, aged 61. It was nearly five years after the death of Albert that his widow Ann Collett was buried there on 3^rd February 1941. Her age at the time of her death, being 72, corresponds exactly with the ages that she gave in both of the census returns of 1901 and 1911.
		The birth of Ethel May Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 973) during the third quarter of 1900, the birth of Linda Collett was recorded there (Ref. 3a 97) during the first three months of 1902, the birth of Constance Collett was recorded there (Ref. 3a 1166) during the second quarter of 1908, and Ann Collett’s birth was also recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 2186) during the third quarter of 1911, when her mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Freeman.
		49P45	Ethel May Collett			Born in 1900 at Kirtlington
		49P46	Linda Collett			Born in 1902 at Kirtlington
		49P47	Albert Edwin M Collett			Born in 1904 at Kirtlington
		49P48	Constance Annie Collett			Born in 1908 at Kirtlington
		49P49	Ann Collett			Born in 1911 at Kirtlington
49O29		Evelyn E Collett was born at Kirtlington during December in 1880 and was the last child born to Charles Collett and his second wife Emily. The census on the second of April the following year listed Evelyn E E Collett as being just three months old. Ten years later, at the age of ten years, Evelyn was still living in Kirtlington with her family. Two things appear slightly odd in the next two census returns. The first in 1901 placed Evelyn E E Collett of Kidlington, rather than Kirtlington, working as a parlour maid in the Headington district of Oxford at the age of 23.
		The second, ten years later in 1911, identified an Evelyn Townsend from Kirtlington, aged 31, living in the Islington area of London with her children. However, with no husband listed Evelyn was described as being a male, when perhaps she was a widow. One other possibility in the census of 1911 is an Evelyn Tyler of Kirtlington who was married to Harry Tyler of Little Haseley near Oxford who, together with their two sons, was living in Oxford. Harry was 42 and a labourer, Evelyn was 33, Lionel Tyler was 13, and Clarence Tyler was ten years old.
49O30		Thomas Emmanuel Collett was born at Kirtlington during November in 1860, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 506) during the last two months of that year. As Thomas Collett, he was five months old at the time of the Kirtlington census in April 1861 when, on that occasion, he was living there with his parents Emmanuel Collett and Emily Allen. Sadly, it was three years later, when the death of Thomas Emmanuel Collett was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 405) during the fourth quarter of 1864. He died at Kirtlington where his burial took place on 8^th November 1864, at four years of age.
49O31		William Isaac Collett was born at Kirtlington towards the end of 1863, when his birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 565) during the last three months of the year. He was the only surviving son of Emmanuel Collett and his first wife Emily Allen. In 1871 he was seven years old and, ten years later, at 17 years of age, he was working as an agricultural labourer, while he was living at Kirtlington with his father, mother and sister Mary (below). By 1891, sister Mary had moved out of the family home in Kirtlington, leaving just William as the only child still living with his widowed father, who had remarried by then. William Collett was recorded as being 25, rather than 27, when he was still employed as an agricultural labourer.
49O32		Mary Ann Collett was born at Kirtlington in late 1866, her birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 601) during the fourth quarter of that year. She was four years old at the time of the Kirtlington census in 1871. In 1881 she was still living there with her family at the age of 14, but thereafter, no record of her has been found, which may suggest that she became a married lady.
49O33		Dora Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1849, and was the base-born daughter of unmarried Eliza Collett of Kirtlington. By the time Dora was one year old, the Kirtlington census of 1851 placed her living with her mother at the home of her grandmother Sarah Collett nee Wakefield. It is likely that Dora’s mother was married during the following years, but did not take her daughter into the marriage. Instead, in 1861, Dora Collett, listed in that year’s Kirtlington census, was 12 years old and was living with her uncle, Emmanuel Collett and his family. Ten years later Dora was no longer living with her uncle and, being over 20 years of age, may have been married by the time of the 1871 Census.
49P1		Richard William Collett was born at Kirtlington in May 1870 and was recorded as being 11 months old in the Kirtlington census of 1871. He was the eldest child of Andrew Collett of Kirtlington and his wife Sarah from Burton Dassett in Warwickshire. When Richard was just a couple years old his parents moved to Warwickshire and settled in the village of Knightcote within the parish of Burton Dassett. And it was there that all of Richard’s seven siblings were born over the following years. By 1881 he was ten years old and after a further ten years Richard was working as an agricultural labourer at the age of 20.
		Nine years later Richard Collett was in the Aston area of Birmingham when he married the younger Frances Elizabeth Keightley or Knightley, the event recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 411) during the first three months of 1900. The census the following year identified the couple living in a terrace property within the Aston parish of Christ Church, where Richard Collett from Oxfordshire was 30 and a platelayer and his wife Frances E Collett from Birmingham was 23. On that day Frances was already expecting the birth of the couple’s first child. Staying with them that day was Frances’ sister Mary Keightley who was 19, and two of Richard’s younger brothers. They were Andrew Collett who was 23 and Henry Collett who was 16, both of whom had been born at Knightcote in Oxfordshire and both of them were also working for the London North Western Railway like Richard.
		Over the following years Frances presented Richard with five children, the first three while they were residing in Birmingham, the next two after the family had settled in Fillongley, midway between Coventry and Nuneaton. By the time of the census in April 1911, the young family was living at Tippers hill, Wood End in Fillongley. Richard Collett from Kirtlington said he was 44 instead of 40, and was no longer working for the railway, instead his occupation on that day was that of a coal miner and a hewer. Frances E Collett was 33, and their five children were listed as Phyllis L Collett who was nine, Gladys E Collett who was seven, Elizabeth Collett who was six, Doris Laura Collett who was three and Florence Collett who was two months old. It is not known whether Richard ever used his second forename, since it was as Richard Collett aged 82, that his death was recorded at Coventry register office (Ref. 9c 742) during the final three months of 1952.
		49Q1	Phyllis L Collett			Born in 1901 at Birmingham
		49Q2	Gladys E Collett			Born in 1903 at Birmingham
		49Q3	Elizabeth Collett			Born in 1905 at Birmingham
		49Q4	Doris Laura Collett			Born in 1907 at Fillongley, nr Coventry
		49Q5	Florence Collett			Born in 1911 at Fillongley, nr Coventry
49P2		Emily Collett was born at Knightcote in 1874 after her parents moved there from Kirtlington. By the time of the census in 1881 Emily was six years old and was living with her family at Knightcote. Upon leaving school she entered into domestic service and at the time of the census in 1891 when Emily Collett was 15, she was working within the Aston district of Birmingham, having arrived there before her brothers Andrew and John Henry settled there. By 1899 she is working in the service of Thomas H MacCartney of Leamington Spa, who was a school master. She was presented with a marble clock on leaving his service in April 1899, presumably to get married, the same clock is now in the possession of the parents of Tina Walker – see Ref. 49P6 below.
		Shortly after April 1899 Emily Collett married William George Spracklen, and by the time of the next census at the end of March in 1901 she had presented her husband with the first of their ten children. The census on that occasion listed the family of three as William Spracklen, aged 20 (sic), who was a carpenter, Emily Spracklen from Knightcote, who was 26, and their son William Spracklen who was one year old. Twenty-eight years later in 1929 her son William George Spracklen married his cousin Catherine Winifred Mary Collett, the eldest daughter of Emily’s brother John Henry Collett (below).
		Emily’s husband, William George Spracklen senior, was born at 10 Portland Row in Leamington Priors (now Leamington Spa) in 1879, the second child and eldest son of shoemaker Joseph Spracklen and his wife Emily, both of whom were born at Dorchester in Dorset. It was at Leamington where William Geo Spracklen was 12 years old in 1891, and just over eight years later he married Emily Collett.
		Five more children were added to the family during the first ten years of the new century, so by 1911 the family comprised William George Spracklen, aged 32, Emily Spracklen, aged 36, William George, who was 11, Andrew Joseph (Joe), who was eight, Sarah Edith Emily (Ede), who was six, Elizabeth Rosa Annie, who was five, Frederick Harry (Fred), who was three, and Sidney Walter (Sid) who was one year old.
		After the census that year Emily gave birth to Nancy in 1912, Winifred in 1914, Florence Mary in 1915, and Clara in 1916/17. Apart from fathering the last three children, William George Spracklen ‘disappeared’ when he was called for duty in the First World War. His wife Emily was summoned to appear in court to provide information on the whereabouts of her husband, but on the day of the hearing she could not be sworn in because she was carrying in her arms her youngest daughter Clara.
		Unlike his father, who was a bounder and a wife beater, who after the war returned to his home county of Dorset where he is reputed to have committed bigamy, his namesake and eldest son William George Spracklen [junior] joined the army, even though her was too young, and fought at The Battle of the Somme. He was also a kind and patient man who had a wicked sense of humour.
49P3		Andrew Collett was born at Knightcote in 1877 where he was living with his family in 1881 at the age of three years, and again in 1891 when he was 13 and was working as an agricultural labourer with his two brothers Richard (above) and Eli (below), and their father. Eventually Andrew left Knightcote and move to Birmingham where in 1901 he was recorded as living within the Aston area of the city at the home of his older married brother Richard Collett (above) and his wife Frances. Also living there with him on that occasion was his younger brother Henry (below) and both of them were employed by the London North Western Railway. Andrew was 23 and his occupation was that of a plate layer, while his place of birth was confirmed as Knightcote.
		Towards the end of the next decade Andrew married Ada and that union produced two children for the couple prior to April 1911. The census that year confirmed that Andrew was 32 and that he was once again living in the Aston district of Birmingham. His wife Ada was 25 and their two children were Alfred Sidney Mos Collett who was two and Samuel Mos Collett who was only four months old. Tragically nine years later Andrew Collett was only 42 years of age when his death was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 401) during the second quarter of 1920.
		49Q6	Alfred Sidney Mos Collett			Born in 1908 at Birmingham
		49Q7	Samuel Mos Collett			Born in 1910 at Birmingham
49P4		Eli Collett was born at Knightcote in 1878 and was two years old in 1881. Within ten years he had left school and in 1891 he was already working with his father and two older brothers as an agricultural labourer at the age of 12. Eli was still living in the family home at Knightcote in March 1901, and by that time he was 22 and his occupation was that of a stone-breaker, possible working with his father who was a roads man. By 1911 Eli Collett was 31 years old when he was a boarder at 185 Bolton Road in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, the home of widow Elizabeth Jones and her family. At that time in his life bachelor Eli was working as a plate layer for the Great Western Railway, while his place of birth, like that of his brother William below, was given as Burton Dassett and not Knightcote.
49P5		Thomas Collett was born at Knightcote in early March in 1881 since he was only one month old for the census that year on third April. He was still living with his family at Knightcote in 1891 and 1901. For the first of them Thomas was ten years old and was still attending the village school. On leaving school a few years later he began his working life as an agricultural labourer like his father and his older brothers. Just after the turn of the century Thomas who was born at Knightcote was still living there with his parents at the age of 20, when he was confirmed as an agricultural labourer.
		It was over four years after the 1901 Census when Thomas Collett, a labourer of Knightcote living at Burton Dassett, married Edith Annie Curtis on 2^nd November 1905. Edith was the daughter of Frederick Curtis, a coachman, and at the time of her marriage Edith was living at 35 Godolphin Road. Thomas’ was confirmed as Andrew Collett, a labourer, while the witnesses were Annie Crane and Emma Schmid. By April 1911 the childless couple were living at Knightcote not far from Thomas’ parents. He was confirmed in the census return as being 30 years old, although his place of birth was stated as being Burton Dassett rather than Knightcote. His wife Edith Collett was 29.
		It would appear that Thomas lived the whole of his life in Warwickshire, since it was at Warwick where his death was recorded (Ref. 6d 1187) during the first quarter of 1937 when he was 56.
49P6		John Henry Collett was born at Knightcote in 1884, the son of Andrew and Sarah Collett. It would appear from the records that he was more commonly known as Henry, when he was recorded as living with his parents in the Knightcote census of 1891 at the age of six years. Upon leaving school around six years later it would appear that Henry went to live at Aston in Birmingham with his older brother Andrew (above). Already living there, and married there in earlier 1900, was their eldest brother Richard (above), and it was with Richard and his wife that Henry Collett aged 16 and from Knightcote and brother Andrew were staying on the day of the census in 1901. All three brothers were employed by the London North Western Railway, with which Henry was a porter lad.
		Rather curiously in the census of 1911, the only male Collett born at Knightcote around 1884 was serving with the Royal Navy at Devonport in Devon, and was described as A W Collett aged 26. So, the only query is over the use of the initials, which may have been an error in transcription. In addition to that, it is known from the First World War military records that John Henry Collett of Knightcote served with the Royal Navy. The records also show he was born in 1884 and that he was the son of Andrew and Sarah Collett of Knightcote.
		Private John Henry Collett was Private PLY/14601 serving with the Royal Marine Light Infantry on board HMS Indefatigable when he was killed on 31^st May 1916 at the age of 32 during The Battle of Jutland, off the coast of Denmark. His next-of-kin was named as his wife Katherine T Collett of 6 Bishop’s Buildings in Exeter. The name of John Henry Collett appears on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.
		Thanks to new information received in November 2011, from his great granddaughter Tina Walker nee Spracklen, we now know more about the life of John Henry Collett prior to his untimely death while fighting for his King and Country. Firstly, it is now established that he married Catherine Teresa Law, the event recorded at St German register office in Cornwall (Ref. 5c 84) during the last three months of 1909, using his full name of John Henry Collett. Catherine was the youngest daughter of Alfred Law, a former soldier with the 11^th Regiment, who had served in India, where his first child was born to him and his wife Mary Ellen Law.
		It was after 1872, that Alfred, Mary and their daughter Elizabeth returned to England from India and initially settled in Devonport, before moving to Exeter. It was at 19 Roseland Terrace, in the Heavitree district of Exeter, that the family was living in 1881, when Alfred was an army pensioner at the age of 41, while his wife Maria was only 28 and a laundress. Living there with them were their first five children. Not long after that the family moved again to Wolborough near Newton Abbot, where Catherine Teresa Law was born in 1888, she being two years old in the Newton Abbot census of 1891.
		By 1901 the family was living in the Highweek area of Newton Abbot when Catherine was incorrectly recorded as Kathleen Law. She was 12 years old and was still attending school at that time, while her father Alfred Law was 63 and a letter carrier working for the General Post Office. Following her marriage to John Henry Collett, Catherine continued to live close to her parents in Newton Abbot, presumably while her husband was based at Devonport, where he was recorded in April 1911.
		At that same time Catherine Teresa Collett, aged 22 and from Wolborough was living there with just her first two children, her twin daughters Catherine Winifred Mary and Elizabeth Rose May, both being one year old. Living nearby was the remnants of her family, being her father Alfred Law, aged 71, her mother Mary Ellen Law, aged 58, and two of her siblings Wilfred who was 23 and Francis who was 17. Tragically it was during the next two months that her daughter Elizabeth died before reaching her first birthday, the death of Elizabeth R M Collett recorded at Newton Abbot register office (Ref. 5b 75) during the second quarter of 1911.
		Two further daughters were added to the family before their father was killed on active duty in the Great War, and it is known that his three surviving daughters were educated at a Convent School in Exeter. Once their education was completed the family moved to Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, and that move may have coincided with the timing of the second marriage of Catherine Teresa Collett nee Law, when she married Fredrick Mottashed, the event recorded at Melton Mowbray register office (Ref. 7a 874a) during the third quarter of 1926.
		The earlier birth of Josephine V Collett was recorded at Southam register office in Warwickshire (Ref. 6d 1469) during the third quarter of 1912, while the birth of Augusta E Collett was again recorded at Newton Abbot register office (Ref. 5b 203) during the second quarter of 1914 when, again, on both occasions, the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Law.
		49Q8	Catherine Winifred Mary Collett			Born on 03.06.1910 at Newton Abbot
		49Q9	Elizabeth Rose May Collett			Born on 03.06.1910 at Newton Abbot
		49Q10	Josephine V Collett			Born in 1912 at Southam
		49Q11	Augusta E Collett			Born in 1914 at Newton Abbot
49P7		Elizabeth Prudence Victoria Collett was born at Knightcote in 1887, her birth recorded at Southam (Ref. 6d 646) during the third quarter of that year. It was as Elizabeth P V Collett aged three years that she was recorded in the Knightcote census of 1891 when she was living there with her large family. Ten years later she completed her education, but went back to the village school in Knightcote to train as a school teacher. In the census return for March 1901 she was described as 13 years old Victoria Collett of Knightcote whose occupation was that of a school teacher.
		Elizabeth was still living with her parents and at the same village school was her younger brother William (below). Elizabeth Collett was still unmarried ten years later when she was living and working in London. The census in 1911 listed her as being 24 and from Warwickshire. At the time of her death, at the age of 47, Elizabeth was still a spinster, her passing recorded at Southam (Ref. 6d 773) during the third quarter of 1934.
49P8		William Collett was born at Knightcote in 1892 and was the last child born to Andrew Collett of Kirtlington and his wife Sarah from Tackley in Oxfordshire. In March 1901 he was eight years old and was attending the village school in Knightcote where his sister Elizabeth (above) was working as a teacher. William was the only child still living with his parents in April 1911 when he was 18 years old and employed as a farm labourer. Although the earlier records showed he was born at Knightcote, on that occasion his place of birth was given as Burton Dassett.
		Additional information: There were two other Colletts living in Knightcote in April 1911. The first of them is featured in Part 46 – The Charlton-on-Otmoor Line and that was Eliza Collett nee Howkins from Harbury who was 55 and living alone, the widow and second wife of Henry Collett (Ref. 46O11) of Murcott.
		The second unfortunately has not yet been placed in any of the other Collett families featured on the Collett website. He was bachelor William Collett who was 25 and his little-known details have therefore been included here, in the hope that his full family background can be identified at some time in the future.
		William Collett living at Knightcote in April 1911 was an agricultural labourer who was born at Bishop’s Itchington in Warwickshire in 1885. His father was William Collett of Shutford near Banbury, who was also an agricultural labourer, and his mother was Elizabeth Collett of Bishop’s Itchington.
		Four years before he was born William’s parents were 33 and 31 respectively and were living at Bishop’s Itchington with their daughter Jane A Collett. William’s sister Jane was four years old in 1881 and the census return stated that she had been born at Thornhill Lees near Dewsbury in Yorkshire. Living with the family on that occasion were general labourers Edward Gardner 37 of Burton Dassett and Edward Randall 27 of Bishop’s Itchington.
		By the time of the next census in 1891 the family comprised William Collett 44, Elizabeth 41, and their two children William J Collett who was five, and Ruth A Collett who was three. It would appear from the census that their daughter Jane Collett was already living and working in Leamington Spa by then at the age of 15, when her place of birth was confirmed as Bishop’s Itchington.
		Ten years later in March 1901 the family had moved to nearby Burton Dassett. William Collett from Shutford was 55, his wife Elizabeth from Bishop’s Itchington was 51, and their two children were William who was 15 and Ruth Ann who was 13, both of them born at Bishop’s Itchington, and both father and son working as agricultural labourers.
		Ruth Ann Collett, the daughter of William Collett of Shutford, was married in 1908 to Frederick William Glenn at Christchurch in Coventry. The church record also confirmed that Ruth was 21 and a spinster, and that Frederick was 22 and a grocer.
		In 1911 a Ruth Ann Glenn from Warwickshire was 23 and was living in Coventry with her husband Frederick William who was 26, together with their two sons Frederick William John Glenn who was two, and Ernest George Glenn who was one.
		William’s father, William Collett who was born at Shutford in 1847, was the son of Ann Collett nee Mander of Stretton-on-Fosse. In 1851 Ann was 29 and was married, but was a pauper working as an agricultural labourer, which might suggest that her husband was away at that time. She was living with her son William, who was three, at the Radway home of her widowed father Charles Mander from Avon Dassett. In the following two censuses she was listed as Ann Collett 38, and Annie Collett 47, while living within the Swalcliffe & Banbury area with her son William who was 13 and 23 respectively.
49P9		William Collett was born at Fulham on 22^nd July 1894, the eldest son of Eli Collett of Kirtlington and his wife Emily Elizabeth Collett from Surrey. In both the census of 1901 and 1911 William was living at Fulham with his parents and younger brother Harry (below). On 14^th July 1902, just prior to his eighth birthday, William commenced his education at St Dunstan’s Road School (later renamed Captain Marryat’s School) in Fulham. The school records confirm that he was the son of policeman Eli Collett whose home address was 57 Petley Road in Fulham near the River Thames. It is understood that at the outbreak of the First World War William joined 61^st Company Machine Gun Corps of the Infantry as Private 65691. Tragically, it was towards the end of the war that he was killed in frontline action in Belgium on 15^th April 1918. Panel 11 of the Ploegsteert Memorial bears his name. By that time in his life, it would appear that he had moved out of London and was living in Leagrave near Luton. With no next-of-kin listed within his army records, it may be assumed that he was not married.
49P10		Harry Albert Collett was born at Fulham in 1895, the youngest son of Eli and Emily Collett. It was also at Fulham that he was living with his family in both 1901, when he was five years old, and again in 1911, when he was 15. At the onset of war in 1914, Harry joined the British Army and very likely suffered from the ill-effects of the gas warfare during the Great War.
		After the war Harry was employed as a railwayman, although he did not enjoy good health and suffered from a pulmonary illness said to been caused by his exposure to the gas used in the First World War. It was during the second quarter of 1915, at Fulham register office (Ref. 1a 483) that the marriage of Harry A Collett and Gladys Ruth Bradley was recorded. She was known as Ruth, by whom he had three children; two sons and a daughter. Ruth was born in 1892, the daughter of butcher Ernest Edwin Bradley and his wife Martha, both of them from Gloucestershire, although Ruth and her three siblings were born at Shipton-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire. While the rest of her family was living in the Chipping Norton area in 1911, Gladys Ruth Bradley, aged 18, was living and working in domestic service at Battle in Sussex with three of her Bradley cousins from Enstone, the children of butcher Henry William Bradley, her father’s older brother.
		49Q12	Harry A Collett			Born in 1915 at Fulham
		49Q13	Gladys Joan Collett			Born in 1920
		49Q14	Ernest William Collett			Born in 1921 at Chipping Norton
49P11		Daisy Dora Collett was born at Dorchester in Dorset in 1885, the eldest children of John Collett and Emily Cattell (Cattle), her birth recorded at Dorchester (Ref. 5a 335) during the third quarter of the year. As Daisy D Collett she was five years old in 1891 when she was still living in Dorchester with her family. Her parents appear to have separated during the 1890s, with her father living and working in North Devon in 1901, when Daisy was 18 and supporting her mother and four younger siblings in Dorchester. Just over four years after that census day, the marriage of Daisy Dora Collett and George Berry Turner was recorded at Christchurch register office in Bournemouth (Ref. 2b 1515) during the last three months of 1905. Six years later, the childless couple was recorded at Finchley in London, where George Turner from Stepney was 28 and a police constable with the metropolitan police, while his wife Daisy Turner from Dorchester was 25.
49P12		Elsie Victoria Collett was born at Dorchester in Dorset on 13^th June 1887 and was four years old in the Dorchester census of 1891 when she was listed as Elsie V Collett. In the following two census returns she was named simply as Elsie Collett when she was 13 and still living at Dorchester with her mother, but without her father. Her mother took the family to Pokesdown near Bournemouth where they were living in 1911 at 42 Stourvale Road where Elsie was 23 and a laundry worker. It was three years after that when Elsie Victoria Collett married Percy James Starks during 1914. Nothing is currently known about their life together, except that the death of Elsie Victoria Starks at the age of 84 was recorded at Poole register office (Ref. 7c 157) during December 1971.
49P13		Reginald Arthur Collett was born at Dorchester in 1889, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 331) during the second quarter of the year. It was at St Peter’s Church in Dorchester where Reginald Arthur Collett was baptised on 26^th May 1889, the third child and eldest son of John and Emily Collett. He was two years old in the Dorchester census of 1891, when living there with his full family, but by 1901 he was 12 years of age when it was just his mother and four siblings that he was again living in 1901. On leaving school, Reginald followed in his father’s footsteps by working on the railway. According to the next census in 1911, Reginald Collett from Dorchester was unmarried, was 20 years old, and was employed as a traction engineer steersman, when he was a boarder with the Elton family in Poole, Dorset. His military record confirmed his full name, and the year and county of his birth. Curiously though, the end of service date was 1915, which may suggest that he was seriously injured during the first year of the First World War. Coupled with that thought, it was in 1924 when the premature death of Reginald A Collett was recorded at Greenwich in London (Ref. 1d 881) during the last three months of that year, when he was only 35.
49P14		Leonard Augustus Collett was born at Dorchester during the first week of March in 1891, the son of John and Emily Collett, whose baptism took place at St Peter’s Church in Dorchester on 16^th August 1891. Four months earlier, on the day of the census in 1891, the one-month-old baby boy was named as Augustus Collett, suggesting that the name Leonard was added later. During the next decade Leonard’s father may have deserted his family or been forced away from his home to secure work, since in the Dorchester census of 1901 Leonard A Collett aged 10 years and his sibling were still living with just their mother. On the day Leonard’s father was in Devon. It was a similar situation in 1911 except that Leonard Collett was 20 and a baker when he was still living with his mother, but at the 42 Stourvale Road in Pokesdown, when his father was then recorded at Uppingham in Rutland.
		With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 Leonard Collett tried to join the Army Service Corps. His military record gave his age on entry as 23 years, his occupation of that of a baker and his father as John Collett. However, he was not successful for some reason because the same military record reports that he was discharged on 13^th July 1915, as not likely to become an efficient soldier. There was obviously an issue with his health, since Leonard Augustus Collett died just three weeks later on 6^th August 1915.
49P15		Linda Phoebe Collett was born at Dorchester in 1894, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 5a 317) during the first quarter of the year, the daughter of John and Emily Collett. For some reason her parents appear to have separated before the end of the century, since in 1901 Linda P Collett was living with her mother and her siblings in Dorchester, while her father was living and working in Devon. Over the following years Linda and her family left Dorchester when they moved to Pokesdown near Bournemouth. In 1911 they were living in a dwelling with the name Burton at 42 Stourvale Road in Pokesdown where Linda Collett was 17.
49P16		Doris R Collett was born at Bournemouth in 1903, the youngest member of the family of Emily Collett nee Cattell (Cattle), whose husband was John Collett and from whom she was possibly separated some years earlier. Alternatively, Emily may have been Doris’ grandmother, covering the embarrassment of the child being born out of wedlock by one of her older daughters. So far, no registration of the birth of Doris Collett has been positively identified. In 1911 Doris Collett was seven years of age when she was attending school in Bournemouth, where she was living with Emily Collett and three of her much older children. The marriage of Doris R Collett and Robert T Loveless was recorded at Bournemouth register office (Ref. 6b 361) during the third quarter of 1947. Doris was already carrying Robert’s child on their wedding day, with the birth of Patricia A Loveless also recorded at Bournemouth during that same quarter of 1947 (Ref. 6b 248), when the mother’s maiden name was confirmed as Collett.
49P17		Helen Ada Collett was born in 1885 at Middleton Stoney which is just three miles north of Kirtlington. She was the eldest daughter and first child of Thomas and Mary Jane Collett. In 1891 Helen A Collett was five years old and was living at Middleton Stoney with her parents and siblings Violet and Harry (below). Shortly after the census day in 1891 Helen and her family left Middleton Stoney when they moved to Bucknell to the north of Bicester. And it was there that Helen was living in March 1901 at the age of 15.
49P18		Violet E Collett was born at Middleton Stoney in 1886, where she was living with her family at the time of the census in 1891 at the age of four years. During the following year Violet and her family moved to Bucknell near Bicester, but by 1901 she had started work and was living in the Evenley area of south Northamptonshire where she was recorded as Violet E Collett aged 15 and from Middleton Stoney. One of the major establishments in the Evenley area was the children’s home of Evenley Hall, and that may have been where she first worked before moving south to London. According to the April census of 1911, Violet Collett from Middleton Stoney was 24 and was living and working in the Croydon district of Surrey.
49P19		Harry Thomas Collett was born at Middleton Stoney either later in 1888 or early in 1889, with his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 830) during the first quarter of 1889. As Harry Collett he was two years old at the time of the Middleton Stoney census of 1891. Ten years later, after the family had moved to Bucknell, Harry Collett was listed with his family living there at the age of 12. After another ten years Harry Collett from Middleton Stoney was an unmarried man of 22, who was still living and working within the Bicester registration district.
49P20		John William Collett was born at Middleton Stoney in 1891, but after the fifth of April that year. Not long after he was born, he and his family left Middleton when they moved to Bucknell near Bicester. At the time of the Bucknell census in March 1901 he was simply listed as John Collett aged nine years. Ten years after that, in April 1911, he and his family were still living in the Bicester area but, on that occasion, he was recorded as William John Collett of Middleton Stoney who was 19.
49P21		George Francis Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1894, although before that his parents had been living at Middleton Stoney, and after his birth they were living at Bucknell. The Bucknell census in 1901 included the Collett family of George Collett who was six years old. The next census in April 1911 listed George, again with his family, under his full name of George Francis Collett of Kirtlington who was 16.
49P22		Cecil Joseph Collett was born at Bucknell near Bicester in 1897 and, as Cecil Collett aged three years, he was living there with his family in 1901. It was as Cecil Joseph Collett aged 13 that he was recorded in the next census of 1911.
49P23		Reginald Arthur Collett was born at Bucknell in 1898, the youngest child of Thomas and Mary Jane Collett. He was living with his family at Bucknell in 1901, when the census that year listed him as two years old Reginald Collett of Bucknell. Ten years later in the Bicester area census on 1911 he was Reginald Arthur Collett of Bucknell who was 12 years old.
49P24		Emma Wakefield Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1869, the eldest child of William Wakefield Collett and his wife Sarah, whose birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 628) during the last three months of that year. Emma was one year old in the Kirtlington census of 1871 and, by 1881, she was 11 years old and was still living at Kirtlington with her family. The whereabouts of Emma has not been discovered in 1891, but a few years after that when she married William Rogers of Kirtlington and the couple settled in the village of Lower Heyford just three miles north of Kirtlington. And it was at Lower Heyford where their children were born and where the family was living in 1901.
		William Rogers aged 34 was a plate-layer on the railway, his wife Emma Rogers was 31, and their two children at that time were Elsie Rogers who was four, and William Rogers who was two. It would also appear from the census that Emma’s young sister Jessie Collett (below) was also living with the Rogers family at that time. However, no trace of the family has been found in 1911.
49P25		George Collett, whose birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 623) during the last three months of 1871, was born at Kirtlington and was the eldest son of William and Sarah Collett. He was nine years old in 1881 and 19 years old in 1891 when, on both occasions, he was living with his family at Kirtlington. According to the census in March 1901, George Collett from Kirtlington was still living there with his parents, at the age of 29, from where he was working as a domestic gardener. It was towards the end of that same year, when the marriage of George Collett and Maud Matilda Rainbow was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1763) during the last quarter of 1901. After they were married, George and Maud settled in Bletchington and before the end of the decade, Maud had presented George with two children who was born there. The census return for Bletchington in 1911 included the four members of the family as George Collett who was 39 and a domestic gardener, Maud Matilda Collett who was 37 and from Hinxsworth near Biggleswade in Hertfordshire, George Collett who was eight and William Charles Collett who was seven.
		The birth of George Collett junior was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1048) during the third quarter of 1902, where the birth of William Charles Collett was also recorded (Ref. 3a 1083) during the first three months of 1904. The death of George Collett senior, was recorded at Oxford (Ref. 6a 811) during the fourth quarter of 1851, when he was said to be 79 years of age. His widow survived for a further ten years, when the death of Maud M Collett was recorded at the Bicester Ploughley register office (Ref. 6b 874) during the third quarter of 1961, at the age of 86.
		49Q15	George Collett			Born in 1902 at Bletchington
		49Q16	William Charles Collett			Born in 1904 at Bletchington
49P26		Clara Collett was born at Kirtlington, possible at the end of 1873 or early in the following year. Her birth, like those of her siblings, was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 668) during the first three months of 1874. She was seven years of age in the census of 1881 and, by the age of 17, Clara had already left the family home in Kirtlington and in March 1901, when she was 27, she was employed as a lady’s maid in the Chelsea home of Blanche Lyster. Her place of birth was confirmed as Kirtlington, and living and working in the house with her was her younger sister Margaret M Collett (below), also of Kirtlington. Clara was not married ten years later in 1911, when she was recorded in the census that year as Clara Collett from Kirtlington in Oxfordshire who was 37 and still living and working in the Chelsea registration district of London.
49P27		Ann Pearman Collett was born at Kirtlington around the end of 1875 or during the early weeks of 1876. She was a daughter of William Collett and Sarah Pearman, who birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 728) during the first quarter of the latter year. She was five years old at the time of the census in 1881 when she was still living at Kirtlington with her family although, ten years later in 1891, Annie Collett was 15 when she was a general domestic servant at the Cowley home of the McGreal family. It was previously stated here, in error, that she had married a member of the Wakefield family of Kirtlington. In fact, the marriage of Ann Pearman Collett and Alfred Ernest Pusey was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1759) during the third quarter of 1900, when she was 24.
49P28		William Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1878, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 703) during the third quarter of the year. He was two years old by the time of the Kirtlington census of 1881. He was still there with his parents ten years later at the age of 12, when he was already working as an agricultural labourer. Curiously, no further record of William has been found in either 1901 or 1911.
49P29		Fanny Amelia Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1880, her birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 705) during the last three months of the year. She was five months old in the Kirtlington census of 1881 and was 10 years old in 1891. On leaving school, it would appear that she went to live with two elderly members of her grandmother’s family, namely William and Harriet Wakefield, at their home within the St Giles district of Oxford. She was still there, with them in 1901, when Fanny Collett from Kirtlington was unmarried, was 20 years of age and was referred to as the niece of William and Harriet. Curiously, for a single lady, she was not credited with having an occupation, even though she may have been acting as housekeeper for the Wakefields. Eight years later, the marriage of Fanny Amelia Collett was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 2287) during the quarter of 1909. However, it is not clear whether the groom was Simeon Stanton Raybould or Sydney Roads (Rhodes).
49P30		Margaret Mary Collett was born at Kirtlington, either at the end of 1882 or early in 1883, since her birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 822) during the first three months of the latter. She was eight years old by the time of the Kirtlington census of 1891 when she was living there with her family. By the time of the next census in March 1901, Margaret M Collett was 18 and was working as a parlour maid at the home of Blanche Lyster in the Chelsea area of London. Working at the same address, was her older sister Clara Collett (above), who was employed as. Both girls were recorded as having been born at Kirtlington in Oxfordshire. Tragically, just before the next census in 1911, the death of Margaret M Collett was recorded at Headington register office (Ref. 3a 600) during the first quarter of 1911.
49P31		Jessie Elizabeth Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1885, her birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 781) during the third quarter of the year. By 1891 she was seven years old and was living with her family at Kirtlington, although by 1901 she had left the family home and was living with her married sister Emma Rogers nee Collett (above) and her family at nearby Lower Heyford. The census return listed her as Jessie Collett from Kirtlington who was 15 and employed as a housemaid.
		It would seem likely that the lure of work in London, where her two sisters Clara and Margaret (above) were working in 1901, was sufficient enough to persuade Jessie to try to seek her fortune there since it was there also that she was recorded in the census of 1911. At that time her sister Clara was still living and working in the Chelsea area, while Jessie was living and working within the Paddington census registration district. The census return for Paddington confirmed that she was Jessie Elizabeth Collett from Kirtlington, who was 26 years old, unmarried and employed as a domestic servant by elderly couple James and Margaret Johnstone.
49P32		Frederick Collett was born at Kirtlington near the end of 1887, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 840) during the first quarter of 1888. It was at Kirtlington that Frederick he was listed as being three years old in 1891. He was still living there with his parents, William and Sarah in 1901 when he was 13 years of age. On completing his education, Frederick took up the occupation of a tailor and, in 1911, he was unmarried at the age of 23, when he was living in the St Giles area of Oxford City, when he was a tailor living at the home of Jessie Fletcher and his wife Elizabeth.
49P33		Eva Florence Collett was born at Kirtlington in 1890 and was the youngest child of William Collett and Sarah Pearman whose birth was recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 813) during the second quarter of that year. Eva was one year old in 1891 and was 11 years old in March 1901. On both occasions she was living with her parents at Kirtlington and was the only one of the couple’s ten children still living with them in April 1911 when she was 21. It was later that same year when Eva F Collett was married. The wedding was recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 2095) during the last three months of 1911. Her husband was either Albert J Clark or Ambrose F Jarvis.
49P34		Florence Emily Collett was born at Bethnal Green in London on 15^th March 1868. At that time her father was referred to as Harry Collett and her mother was recorded as Selina Sarah Collett, and they were living at 43 Sewardstone Road West in Bethnal Green. Her father’s occupation was stated as being that of a proprietor of houses, and that could well be a link back to the building business of his father. By the time Florence was eight months old, she and her parents were sailing to New Zealand, eventually arriving at Auckland in March 1869. The family only stayed in New Zealand for a short few years before moving onto America. Sadly, Florence died in San Francisco in 1897 at the age of 29. Florence Emily Collett was buried in the family grave at the cemetery in Colma, to the south of San Francisco, where her parents and two of her siblings were also buried.
49P35		Helen Wakefield Collett was born in New Zealand in 1869 and the birth appears to have taken place within a few months of her parents’ arrival in New Zealand. Three years after she was born her family left New Zealand and sailed to America. However, Helen did not make the journey with them as she had died when she was just fifteen months old. Tragically, Helen died in a freak accident involving a horse drawn wagon carrying quarried material from a nearby mine.
49P36		Selina Edith Collett was born in New Zealand during 1871, and so made the long journey with her parents and sister to San Francisco. Later, going by her middle name Edith, she married Frank Gumper in 1905 and then had one child Norma R Gumper born in 1908. Sadly, both Edith and Frank met a tragic end as they were killed in single car accident, in which the car that Frank was driving plunged off a winding mountain road south of San Francisco and disappeared into the steep canyon below. A search party led by Edith’s brother Albert eventually found the wreckage. Selina Edith Gumper, and her husband Frank were buried in the Collett family grave at Colma, to the south of San Francisco, where her parents and two of her siblings were also buried.
49P37		Charles William Collett was born at San Francisco in 1874 shortly after his parents arrived there from New Zealand. As the oldest son, it can be assumed that Charles was pressed to find employment, as his father died suddenly when Charles was only 16. Eventually he successfully established a tailoring business, partnering with his brother Albert Victor Collett (below) and R. McDonald. Charles was ultimately the proprietor of three tailor shops – two in San Francisco and one in Seattle. He later married Henrietta Driscoll and the marriage produced two children for Charles and Henrietta, both born while the couple were living in San Francisco.
		49Q17	Charles Elmer Collett			Born in 1903 at San Francisco
		49Q18	Edith Marie Collett			Born in 1908 at San Francisco
49P38		Henry George Collett was born in San Francisco in 1877. He was listed in the 1900 census as an actor and shortly after he married May Collett but did not survive to the next decade, his death occurring in 1904. Henry George Collett was buried in the family grave at Colma Cemetery, to the south of San Francisco, where his parents and two of his sisters were also buried.
49P39		Clara Lucy Collett was born in San Francisco in 1880. She married Charles E Barry in 1900 and had two children, Florence Barry born 1903 and Edward Barry born 1904. Clara outlived her husband by many years dying in 1980 at the age of 100.
49P40		Walter Sydney Collett was born in San Francisco in 1881. He married Ida Schmaling in 1908, had one daughter Clara Dolores Collett in 1909 but, working as a utility lineman, met a tragic death in 1909.
49P43		Richard Claude Collett was born at San Francisco on 7^th July 1885. Although born and raised in San Francisco, Richard lived much of his life in nearby Marin County with his wife Josephine. He died in January 1971 at the age of 86.
49P44		Albert Victor Collett was born at San Francisco on 21^st June 1887. He later married Marie McCafferty with whom he had a son Albert V Collett junior. Albert worked with his brother Charles William Collett (above) at one of their tailor shops. Albert lived the majority of his life in San Francisco and died in February 1975 while living at Daly City in San Mateo County in California.
		49Q19	Albert Victor Collett		Born circa 1915 - 1925
49P47		Albert Edwin M Collett was born at Kirtlington on 31^st January 1904, his birth recorded at Bicester register office (Ref. 3a 1085) during the first three months of the year, the only son amongst four daughters of Albert Edwin Collett and Ann Freeman. On being baptised at the parish church of St Mary the Virgin in Kirtlington on 27^th March 1904, his name was simply recorded as Edwin Collett. It was during the fourth quarter of 1932 when the marriage of Albert E M Collett and Phyllis M David was recorded at the Bicester Ploughley register office (Ref. 3a 2819). Although nothing further is known about the pair of them, it is established from the burial records at Kirtlington that Albert Edwin M Collett died in 1986 and was buried there on 9^th October 1986 at the age of 82. His passing was recorded at the West Oxfordshire register office (Vol. 20 2728).
49Q4		Doris Laura Collett was born at Fillongley, near Coventry in 1907, the fourth of five daughters born to Richard William Collett and Frances Elizabeth Keightley (or Knightley) and was three years old in the Fillongley census of 1911. Doris was the great grandmother of Steve Timms of Coventry who, apparently, could neither read or write. As a result, it was Steve’s grandmother Joyce Timms, who looked after her affairs following the death of her husband Hugh Jones. Doris Laura Jones was 89 when she died in 1996.
49Q6		Alfred Sidney Collett was born in Birmingham on 8^th June 1908, the eldest of the two known children of Andrew and Ada Collett. His birth, under the name of Alfred Sidney Collett, was recorded at Aston register office (Ref. 6d 424) during the third quarter of 1980, although it was as Alfred Sidney Mos Collett aged two years that he was listed in the Aston census of 1911. Alfred was 28 when he married Florence Ada Chambers Tonks at Holy Trinity Church in Bordesley on 26^th September 1936. Florence was 23 and the daughter of Herbert Alfred Tonks, while Alfred’s father was confirmed as Andrew Collett. The marriage was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 343) during the third quarter of 1936. Alfred was still residing in the Birmingham area when he died at the age of 78, his death being recorded there (Ref. 32 577) during the month of March in 1987.
49Q7		Samuel Collett was born in Birmingham on 29^th November 1910, the second of the two known children of Andrew and Ada Collett. It was under the name Samuel Mos Collett that he was recorded with his family in Aston in April 1911 when he was four months old, whereas upon his death he was simply referred to as Samuel Collett. His passing was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 32 0558) during the month of March in 1978 when he was 67.
49Q8		Catherine Winifred Mary Collett was born at Newton Abbot on 3^rd June 1910, the eldest of the four daughters of John Henry Collett and his wife Catherine Teresa Law. She had a twin sister Elizabeth Rose May Collett who sadly died before she was one year old, although both girls were living with their mother at Newton Abbot in the April census of 1911, when they were listed as being one year old. She was around 19 years of age when she married William George Spracklen of Leamington Spa in 1929, with whom she had four children. They were John Henry Spracklen, Elizabeth Spracklen, Catherine Spracklen who suffered a cot death, and Colin George Spracklen who was the father of Tina Walker nee Spracklen who kindly provided the details of the families of her grandmother and her great grandfather John Henry Collett.
		What is of particular interest is that William George Spracklen [1899-1979] was the eldest of the ten children of William George Spracklen and his wife Emily Collett (Ref. 49P2), the older sister of John Henry Collett. Therefore, Catherine Winifred Mary Collett and William George Spracklen [junior] were first cousins.
49Q12		Harry A Collett, whose birth was recorded at Fulham register office (Ref. 1a 483) during the second quarter of 1915, was the eldest child of Harry Albert Collett and Gladys Ruth Bradley. At the age of twenty-one, the marriage of Harry A Collett and Ruby V Day was recorded at the London Finsbury register office (Ref. 1b 1195) during the last three months of 1936. The marriage is understood to have produced three children, with the births of two of them recorded at the London Edmonton register office, all three of them still living in 2013. The birth of Beryl Collett was recorded during the third quarter of 1938 (Ref. 3a 1175), with the birth of Anthony Collett recorded during the second quarter of 1946 (Ref. 3a 1563). On both occasions the mother’s maiden day was confirmed as Day. Harry served with the British Army in India during the Second World War, after which he was posted to Germany. Upon his retirement from military service, he managed Grange Farm Centre at Chigwell in Essex before finally retiring to Suffolk, where he was a stalwart of the Bowls Club in Freckenham near Mildenhall. It was at Freckenham that he died during 1997, when his death was recorded at Sudbury in Suffolk.
		49R1	Beryl Collett		Born in 1938 at Edmonton, London
		49R2	a Collett child		Date of birth unknown
		49R3	Anthony Collett		Born in 1946 at Edmonton, London
49Q13		Gladys Joan Collett was born on 10^th April 1920, the only daughter of Harry Albert Collett and Ruth Gladys Bradley. It was during the last quarter of 1943 that the marriage of Mary J Collett (sic) and Maurice W Whitehouse was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 955), with whom she only had one child, Peter W Whitehouse, who tragically died in infancy at Birmingham nine months after the couple was married. The death of Gladys Joan Whitehouse nee Collett was recorded at the Staffordshire Sandwell register office (Ref. 33 1219) towards the end of 1986. It may be of interest that the birth of Mary J Collett was recorded at Birmingham register office (Ref. 6d 871) during the last three months of 1924, when her mother’s maiden name was Bradley.
49Q14		Ernest William Collett was born on 13^th January 1921, the son of railwayman Harry Albert Collett and Ruth Gladys Bradley, his birth recorded at Chipping Norton register office (Ref. 3a 1996) during the first quarter of that year. All that is known about Ernest at this time is that he was married and had a son Raymond. And it was Ray, from Worcester, who kindly provided details of his great grandfather Eli Collett during 2011. Ernest William Collett died on 13^th December 2003 when he was in Bolton, Lancashire.
		49R4	Raymond Collett		Date of birth unknown
49Q17		Charles Elmer Collett was born at San Francisco in 1903. Charles was married at San Francisco in 1939 when in his mid-to-late thirties and just prior to America’s involvement in the Second World War. In the event Charles married Marjory Coutts, and their marriage produced four children for the couple. Marjory Coutts was born in 1916 and was the daughter of Adam Mitchell Coutts (1881–1978) and his wife Elizabeth Reddie. The couple had emigrated to Canada at an earlier time and then inexplicably returned to Scotland around 1915 and 1916, during which time their daughter was born.
		The birth of Charles’ and Marjory’s four children took place while the couple was still living in San Francisco, but shortly after the arrival of their last child the family left San Francisco and moved to Mill Valley at Marin County in California where they spent the rest of their lives together. However, despite the family living at San Francisco, the birth of the couple’s second child Charles Elmer junior took place at Oakland in California. That was very likely a matter of convenience for Marjory and a result of the navy’s benefit programme during the war years which allowed the families of enlisted personnel to choose the hospital where their child could be born.
		During his life Charles Elmer Collett was a captain of the Stanford water-polo team, and later the goalkeeper for the United States of America’s 1924 Olympic water-polo team that won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympic Games. As a result of his achievements in the world of water-polo, he was later honoured for his contribution to the sport by being selected for the USA Hall of Fame.
		Charles also saw active service during the Second World War when he was a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy. He was involved in the Pacific Campaign for which he received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He was eventually promoted to the rank of captain, and on leaving the navy he became a United States District Attorney, which he did for about thirty years prior to his retirement. In addition to his interest in sport, he was also an actor in amateur dramatics and an accomplished piano player. Charles Elmer Collett lived to be 64 and died at Mill Valley in California in 1968 and was followed by Marjory seventeen years later, when she died there in 1985 at the age of 69.
		49R5	Joan Adele Collett			Born in 1942 at San Francisco
		49R6	Charles Elmer Collett			Born in 1944 at San Francisco
		49R7	Cedric William Collett			Born in 1946 at San Francisco
		49R8	Brian Richard Collett			Born in 1948 at San Francisco
49Q18		Edith Marie Collett was born at San Francisco in 1908 and lived there her entire life. In her later years she did extensive travelling, visiting Central America, South America, China, Russia, and Egypt in her many travels. She survived her brother Charles Elmer Collett (above) by eighteen years when she died at Moss Beach in California in 1986.
49Q19		Albert Victor Collett was the only son of Albert Victor Collett and his wife Marie McCafferty, and it was whilst his parents were living in San Francisco that he was born. His exact date of birth is not known, except that it very likely took place during the second or third decade of the 1900s. Albert married Anne and they adopted two children, Michael J (born in 1959) and Mary (born around 1962).
		49R9	Michael J Collett			Born in 1959
		49R10	Mary Collett			Born in 1962
49R5		Joan Adele Collett was born at San Francisco in 1942. Her education had a parallel with that of her father, in that she too was a Stanford graduate. Following her graduation Joan entered the world of education and was a teacher for around twenty-five years. At some time in her life Joan married Fred Brown. Since the turn of the century, Joan has been an artist and has served with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation In Europe (OCSE) as an observer for elections in Serbia, Bosnia, Albania and East Timor.
49R6		Charles Elmer Collett was born at Oakland in California in 1944. Like his father before him, Charles also seems to have married fairly late in his life judging from the dates of birth of his two children. It was in his late thirties that Charles married Lisa Blackburn with whom he had the two children listed below. During his younger days, Charles Elmer junior followed in his father’s footstep with his interest in sporting activities. He was in the National Football League with both the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Colts, with a career that lasted around eleven years. More recently in his working life, Charles was and still is a fireman in California with his brother Cedric (below).
		49S1	Ramsey Collett			Born in October 1985
		49S2	Casey Collett			Born in July 1987
49R7		Cedric William Collett was born at San Francisco in 1946. He later married Maggie Lorenz with whom he had two daughters. Prior to following the footsteps of his older brother Charles Elmer junior (above) by choosing the career of a California fireman, Cedric served for three years in the American Peace Corps doing various community service work in El Salvador. Now retired, Cedric had been a fireman in California for the past few decades.
		49S3	Jennifer Collett			Born in November 1984
		49S4	Lenka Collett			Born in October 1991
49R8		Brian Richard Collett was born at San Francisco in 1948. He later married Caru Bowns and their marriage produced one son for the couple. Today, Brian is a landscape architect with a practice in California. And it was Brian that kindly provided the details of the American end of the family that has enabled this family line to be compiled.
		49S5	Michael Charles Collett			Born in November 1985
		APPENDIX
		Included here are a number of ‘unrelated’ entries found by Ray Collett amongst the burial records at the Church of St Mary The Virgin in Kirtlington, during his visit on 1^st May 2011
App1		Phyllis Mary Collett was buried on 13^th December 1989, aged 89, implying that she was born around the start of the century, in 1900. Her death was recorded at Oxford register office (Vol. 20 2739), when her date of birth was confirmed as 12^th December 1899, meaning that she died the day before she would have celebrated her ninetieth birthday. Therefore, she was very likely the wife of one of the male members of this family line who was also born around that time.
App2		Colin G Collett was 61 when he died and was buried at Kirtlington on 27^th January 1997, marking his year of birth around 1935. His birth was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 3a 32) during the first three months of 1935, when his mother’s maiden name was confirmed as David. He may have been the Colin who was born on 6^th February 1935, whose death was recorded at Northampton register office at the start of 1997.
		Also found by Ray, within the Kirtlington Parish Graveyard Survey, on page 10, were eight Collett orphans.
App3		In addition to all of these, there was a William Arthur Collett who was born at Kirtlington during 1884 who was 26 and employed as a domestic groom, who was still living in the village in April 1911. No other Collett was listed as living with him at that time. The mystery is, into which of the Kirtlington families was he born, his birth recorded at Bicester (Ref. 3a 327) during the last quarter of 1884. There was also a William Arthur Collett who was born on 9^th December 1887, whose death was recorded at Oxford register office (Ref. 20 61) during the spring of 1980.