PART FIFTY

The London to New Zealand Line

1600 to 2000

Updated July 2024

This is the family line of Pauline MacKenzie nee Collett (Ref. 50S1) of Queensland

in Australia and her brother Bryan Collett (Ref. 50S3) in New Zealand

Some of the details now included in this family line have been extracted from the appendix in Part 65 – The London Shoreditch Line to Canada. The remainder of the Colletts from that, now obsolete appendix, are contained in a revamped Appendix Two for other unrelated Colletts with a Shoreditch connection, which can now be found at the end of this file

The earliest record of the Collett family, found at Stepney in London, was the birth and burial of an unnamed female infant, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Collett, who was born in 1655 and who was buried at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney on 4^th November 1655. With the name John being used many times during the next seventy-five years in this family line, there is every chance that it was this John Collett who was also the father of Edmund Collett.

50G1

NICHOLAS COLLETT, about whom nothing is known, apart from the facts that he was married to Elizabeth, with whom he had a son John. Another Nicholas Collett, around the same time in London, was married to Jane, and their children were all baptised at the Church of St Mary Woolnoth in the Shoreditch area of London, to the west of the Tower of London. It highly likely that John was not the only child of Nicholas and Elizabeth, with Richard Collett of Stepney being a younger son of the couple, even though no baptism record for him has yet been found.

50H1

JOHN COLLETT

Born in 1632 at Stepney

50H2

Richard Collett – not proved

Born in 1635 at Stepney

50H1

JOHN COLLETT was born in 1632 and therefore could have been the John Collett who was baptised at the Church of St Clement Danes in the Westminster area of London on 19^th September 1632, the son of Nicholas and Elizabeth Collett. After John had married Elizabeth, she presented him with a daughter in 1655 who was buried that same year at St Dunston’s Church in Stepney on 4^th November. She was followed by the birth of at least two sons for John and Elizabeth.

50I1

a Collett daughter

Born in 1655 at Stepney

50I2

John Collett

Born in 1658 at Stepney

50I3

EDMUND COLLETT

Born in 1660 at Stepney

50H2

Richard Collett was born at Stepney in 1635, although he has not been proved as a son of Nicholas and Elizabeth Collett. He married Margaret and their son John was born at Stepney, where he was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 30^th September 1656. Sadly, he had survived for around one year only, when he died at Stepney on 10^th July 1657.

50I4

John Collett

Born in 1656 at Stepney; death in 1657

50I2

John Collett was born at Stepney in 1658, the eldest surviving child of John and Elizabeth Collett. No record of the marriage of John Collett junior and been unearthed to date but, it was with his wife Margery that he had a son of the same name. The baptism of John Collett was conducted at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney on 11^th June 1680, the son of John and Margery Collett.

50J1

John Collett

Born in 1680 at Stepney

50J2

Robert Collett

Born in 1685 at Stepney

50I3

EDMUND COLLETT was born at Stepney and that may have happened around 1660 or just after. It is also likely that he was married twice, on the first occasion to (1) Abigail Mold, to whom he was wed on 1^st August 1683 at All Hallows Church, near the Tower of London. That married produced at least six children, the baptism of which took place at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney. Tragically, possibly during the birth of the sixth children, Abigail died, after which Edmund married (2) Anne Durrant at St Dunstan’s Church on 21^st May 1696 with whom he had a son who was baptised at the same church during the following year. The record of their marriage confirmed that Edmund Collett had been born in Stepney. Although not proved, Anne Durrant may have been the daughter of William and Mary Durrant and was baptised at Rickmansworth on 22^nd 1664.

50J3

Edmund Collett

Born in 1685 at Stepney

50J4

John Collett

Born in 1686 at Stepney

50J5

Edmund Collett

Born in 1688 at Stepney

50J6

John Collett

Born in 1689 at Stepney

50J7

Joseph Collett

Born in 1690 at Stepney

50J8

Anne Collett

Born in 1691 at Stepney

50J9

a Collett son

Born in 1693 at Stepney

The following at the children of Edmund Collett by his second wife Anne Durrant:

50J10

JOHN COLLETT

Born in 1697 at Stepney

50J11

Mary Collett

Born in 1698 at Stepney

50J12

Lewis Collett

Born circa 1699 at Stepney

50J13

William Collett

Born circa 1701 at Stepney

50J1

John Collett was born at Stepney in 1680 and was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 11^th June 1680, the son of John and Margery Collett. Nothing further is known about him, except that he died in 1722 and was buried at Stepney when John Collett was confirmed as his father.

50J2

Robert Collett was born at Stepney around 1685 and he married Elizabeth Dunkin at St Botolph Aldgate on 7^th July 1707, just west of Stepney. Although no baptism record for Robert has been discovered, all of his and Elizabeth’s children were baptised at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney. Their last child was just one year old when Robert Collett died and was buried at Stepney on 4^th May 1721.

50K1

William Collett

Baptised on 24.10.1708 at Stepney

50K2

Robert Collett

Baptised on 05.07.1713 at Stepney

50K3

Edward Collett

Baptised on 31.07.1716 at Stepney

50K4

John Collett

Baptised on 27.04.1718 at Stepney

50K5

Anne Collett

Baptised on 03.04.1720 at Stepney

50J3

Edmund Collett was born at Stepney in 1685 and was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney on 19^th June 1685, when his parents were confirmed as Edmund Collett and Abigail Mold. He was around two years old when he died, the next son of the couple also given the name Edmund.

50J4

John Collett was born at Stepney in 1686, the second child of Edmund Collett and Abigail Mold, who was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 26^th October 1686.

50J5

Edmund Collett was the third son of Edmund Collet and Abigail Mold and was named after his father and in honour of his deceased older brother (above). He was baptised at the Stepney Church of St Dunstan on 27^th November 1688. As with his two older brothers, Edmund also suffered an infant death, and three weeks after being baptised, he was buried at Stepney on 17^th December 1688. The child’s father was confirmed as Edmund Collett.

50J6

John Collett was born at Stepney at the end of 1689, another son of Edmund Collett and Abigail Mold, who was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 6^th February 1890.

50J7

Joseph Collett was born at Stepney near the end of 1690 and was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 14^th February 1691, the fifth child of Edmund Collett and his first wife Abigail Mold. Joseph was two years old when he died at Stepney, where he was buried on 17^th February 1693, when his father was confirmed as Edmund Collett.

50J8

Anne Collett was born at Stepney in 1691, where she was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 4^th September 1691, the only daughter of Edmund Collett and Abigail Mold. She was seven years old when she died at Stepney on 25^th December 1698, when once again her father was confirmed at Edmund Collett, Anne’s mother having died around five years earlier.

50J9

An unnamed son of Edmund Collett and Abigail Mold was born at Stepney in the summer of 1693 and died there, where he was buried on 15^th August 1693. The burial record confirmed that he was the unnamed son of Edmund Collett. It also seems likely that mother and child both died during or just after the birth.

50J10

JOHN COLLETT was born at Stepney, like his father, and was baptised there at St Dunstan’s Church on 20^th May 1697, where his parents had been married during the previous May. They were confirmed as being Edmund Collett and Anne Durrant, the surname recorded as Collitt, a common error in translation of the spoken word. John was 21 years of age when he married Elizabeth Ward on 6^th January 1719, also at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney, with whom he had a son. The child’s baptism took place at St Mary’s Church in Whitechapel (also within the Stepney area of London) and confirmed that the parents of John Collett junior were John and Elizabeth Collett.

50K6

JOHN COLLETT

Born in 1724 at Whitechapel

50J11

Mary Collett was born at Stepney in 1698 and was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 19^th December 1698, the daughter of Edmund and Anne Collett.

50J12

Lewis Collett was born at Stepney around 1699 and he married Elizabeth, with whom he had a daughter who was baptised at St Dunstan’ Church on 3^rd March 1723. Perhaps it was after the child was born, that the couple decided to be married, since the marriage of Lewis Collett and Elizabeth le Corq took place at St Dunstan’s Church on 1^st June 1723.

50K7

Margaretta Julia Collett

Born in 1723 at Stepney

50J13

William Collett was born at Stepney around 1701 and was married to another Elizabeth. The couple have been credited with two children, although born some years apart. Their son William was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney on 6^th October 1724. Nearly fifteen years later their son John was baptised on 8^th August 1739 at Stepney, but at the Church of St George-in-the-East.

50K8

William Collett

Born in 1724 at Stepney

50K9

John Collett

Born in 1739 at Stepney

50K6

JOHN COLLETT was born in 1724, the son of John Collett and Elizabeth Ward. He was baptised on 5^th July 1724 at St Marys Church in Whitechapel, when his parents were named as John and Elizabeth Collett. He later married Mary and together they were named as the parents of William Collett who was born in late 1749. The St Giles Cripplegate baptism register for their son recorded their surname as Collott, another error in translation of the spoken word. John Collett was a renowned painter and engraver and his paintings of London and life in the city were very much in vogue, both during his life time and afterwards. From 1766 to 1773 John and his family lived at Cheyne House in Upper Cheyne Row in Chelsea, which was built for the Duchess of Hamilton in 1715, and from whom it was tenanted. Upper Cheyne Row is still there today, close to the River Thames, near Albert Bridge.

In 1773 John and Mary left Cheyne House, when they moved back to just north of where John was born. The last seven years of his life were spent at Paradise Row in Bethnal Green, one mile north of Whitechapel. And it was at Paradise Row, that John Collett died in 1780 at the age of 55. Paradise Row runs parallel to the A107 Cambridge Heath Road, not far from Bethnal Green Station. It is also interesting to note that, after John’s departure from Cheyne House, the property became a school from the end of the 18th century through to the first half of the 19^th century, and is marked on the 1836 map of Chelsea published by Frederick Philip Thompson as "Cheyne House Academy”.

50L1

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born circa 1749

50L1

WILLIAM COLLETT was born around the end of 1749 and was baptised on 3^rd January 1750 at St Giles Church in Cripplegate, the baptism record confirming his parents as John and Mary Collett. William later married Martha Caulet on 16^th July 1768 at St Stephen Walbrook. Rather interestingly a Martha Collet (with one t) was born on 5^th January 1748 and baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 29^th January 1748 and she was the daughter of Jonathan and Mary Collet, although no earlier record of Jonathan or this family has been found at this time.

It is also interesting to note that St Giles Cripplegate lies just to the north of both St Stephen Walbrook and St Martin Vintry, referred to below, and all of them not far from St Leonards Shoreditch. Of further interest was an article published in Country Life Magazine on 18^th February 2015 concerning the chandeliers in the Bath Assembly Rooms. They were commissioned in 1771 and eight of them are credited to William Parker of Fleet Street, while the ninth and by far the largest, with 48 branches, was designed and built by Jonathan Collett. Could this be the same Jonathan Collett, the father of Martha Collett (above).

A brief comment, regarding the opening of Bath’s New Assembly Rooms, was including in the book entitled 'Gainsborough: A Portrait' by James Hamilton. It said: In 1771 the New Assembly Rooms were opened in Bath and, on the opening night, dancing had been allowed far too soon, with the result that vibrations brought the chandeliers crashing down, one after another, onto the dancers. The manufacturer appears to have been a Mr Collett. The committee wrote "So long as a chandelier of Mr Collett's remained, the general apprehension of danger would never be removed". The renowned artist, Thomas Gainsborough [1727-1788] had attended the opening event with his friend John Palmer who wrote to David Garrick that 'We narrowly escaped having our crowns cracked".

Another possible child of William and Martha is Henry Collett born in London in 1775, who has been included here for completeness, although so far unvalidated, while within Appendix Two at the end of this file are a number of other unrelated Colletts from Shoreditch.

50M1

Martha Collett

Born in 1769 in the City of London

50M2

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1770 in the City of London

50M3

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1772 in the City of London

50M4

George Collett

Born in 1774 in the City of London

50M5

Henry Collett

Born in 1775 in the City of London

50M1

Martha Collett was born on 13^th July 1769, in the City of London, and was baptised at St Stephen’s Church in Walbrook on 3^rd August 1769. She was the first-born child of William Collett and Martha Caulet or Collett, who were married at the same church in July 1768.

50M2

Elizabeth Collett was born on 28^th December 1770, within the City of London, and was the second child of William Collett and Martha Caulet or Collett. Three years earlier, her parents were married at the Church of St Stephen in Walbrook, where Elizabeth, was baptised on 18^th January 1771.

50M3

WILLIAM COLLETT, who was born on 25^th June 1772, was baptised at the Church of St Stephen in Walbrook on 23^rd July 1772, the third child and eldest son of William and Martha Collett. St Stephen Walbrook is just a short distance east of St Martin Vintry (see below). William later married Sarah Wittle (Whittle) at St Bride’s Church in Fleet on 31^st March 1795 and, during the following year, the couple was recorded as the parents of William Collett who was baptised at St Leonard’s Shoreditch in the June of that year. He was the first of their twelve known children, although not all of them survived to reach adulthood.

50N1

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1796 at Shoreditch

50N2

James Collett

Born in 1797 at Shoreditch

50N3

James Collett

Born in 1798 at Shoreditch

50N4

Walter Collett

Born in 1800 at Shoreditch

50N5

Sarah Collett

Born in 1802 at Shoreditch

50N6

Henry Lawrence Collett

Born in 1803 at Shoreditch

50N7

Sarah Collett

Born in 1805 at Shoreditch

50N8

William Collett

Born in 1807 at Shoreditch

50N9

Mary Collett

Born in 1809 at Shoreditch

50N10

Rachel Collett

Born in 1811 at Shoreditch

50N11

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1813 at Shoreditch

50N12

Jemima Collett

Born in 1815 at Shoreditch

50M4

George Collett was born on 24^th March 1774 in the City of London and was baptised at St Stephen’s Church in Walbrook on 21^st April 1774, another son of William and Martha Collett.

50M5

Henry Collett was born in London around 1775 and may have been the fifth child of William and Martha Collett. According to the census in 1841 Henry Collett was residing at Cavendish Street in Shoreditch St Leonards with his slightly older wife Sarah Collett. Cavendish Street is near Shoreditch Park in Hoxton and, living nearby that same day, at Allerton Street, was the younger Henry Collett who was very likely their son. He had a rounded age of 25 and was staying with Alexander Adam and his wife Sarah Adam. Henry Collett senior was still living at Cavendish Street when he died in 1845, following which he was buried at the Church of St John the Baptist in Hoxton on 10^th December 1845. His age was recorded as being 70 years.

50N13

Henry Collett

Born in 1816 at Shoreditch

50N1

WILLIAM COLLETT was born on 14^th March 1796, almost exactly one year after his parents William Collett and Sarah Whittle were married, thus making him the oldest child of the family. Exactly three months later he was baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch on 14^th June 1796. When he was twenty-five years old, William married Elizabeth Loader, the wedding taking place within the London parish of St Martin Vintry on 8^th October 1821. The actual church of St Martin Vintry, on the north bank of the River Thames, was destroyed in the Fire of London in 1666 and was never rebuilt. The parish of St Martin Vintry lies just south of the Shoreditch area of London, where William was born.

William was recorded as being forty years of age in the first national census in the United Kingdom held on sixth June 1841. Living with him was his wife Elizabeth Collett who was also forty. It should be noted that in that particular census, the age for adults was rounded to the nearest five years, so William and his wife were very likely older than stated. The couple was listed as living in Acton within the Brentford & Kensington census registration district. Only four other Colletts were living in Acton at that time and one of them was Sarah Collett (below) who was 30 and William’s younger sister, who was residing on Acton High Street. Another was unmarried Elizabeth Collett aged 40, who was 52 in 1851 and a proprietor of houses, who had been born at Acton. The other two were husband and wife, William and Sarah Collett who were 40 and 30 years old respectively. By 1851, Sarah – wife of William, was described as having been born at Acton, was a widow aged 42, living on the High Street in Acton, where she was a grocer (improver), employing two servants.

50O1

HENRY COLLETT

Born in 1823 at Acton

50N2

James Collett was born at Shoreditch on 1^st July 1797 and was baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch on 30^th July 1797. He was the second son of William Collett and Sarah Wittle, and was just over six months old when he died at Shoreditch on 16^th January 1798.

50N3

James Collett was born at Shoreditch on 15^th November 1798, ten months after his parents suffered the loss of their son, also named James. It was also at St Leonards Church where he too was baptised on 30^th December 1798. See Appendix One for a possible extension of this branch of the family which still needs to be validated.

50N4

Walter Collett was born at Shoreditch on 2^nd September 1800, where he was baptised on 28^th September that same year, another son of William and Sarah Collett. He was 32 years old when he married Ann Hedges of Spitalfields at Christ Church in Spitalfields on 23^rd January 1833. Over the next eight years Ann presented Walter with a number of children some of which did not survive. By June 1841 the family was recorded in the census as living at Old Kent Road within the St George the Martyr Southwark in Surrey. Walter Collett was 40 and his wife Ann was 30, neither of them born within the county of Surrey. The only children living with them at that time were Ann Collett who was two and Frederick Collett who was one-year old, in addition to which there were four other adults recorded at the same address, George Cann, Elizabeth Butt, Thomas Foen and Ann Clegg. Already missing from the family group was the couple’s first two children, both of which presumably suffered an infant death. They were Walter Collett who was baptised at St George the Martyr on 7^th September 1834, and Charles Collett who was baptised there on 15^th November 1835.

More children were added to the family during the next decade so, according to the next census in 1851, Walter from Middlesex was 50 and was working as a cheesemonger while living with his family at 4 Windsor Place in St George the Martyr Southwark on the south bank of the River Thames in London. His wife Ann was aged 40 years who was also born in Middlesex, while their seven children were Ann who was 12, Walter who was 11, Eleanor who was nine, Eliza who was seven, Jane who was five, William who was three and Caroline who was only three months old. Living in with the family were two male servants, one of which, Henry Dall, was 29 and a shop man who may have been assisting Walter in the cheese shop.

Only a few weeks later Walter and Ann suffered the loss of their youngest child and, within the following two years, a final child was added to the family which, sadly, was also the subject of another infant death when she was one-year-old. Also, during the intervening years between that latter death and the next census in 1861, the family left Windsor Place, when they moved to nearby Borough Road in Southwark. On the day the census was conducted that year Walter Collett was no longer a cheesemonger, instead he was described as a messenger from Shoreditch who was 60. Ann Collett was 53 and from Spitalfields and their children were listed as Ann who was 22, Jane who was 16 and William H Collett who was 13 and already working as a lasier’s shop assistant.

Ten years later it was just their unmarried daughter Ann who was the only child still living with Walter and Ann. Walter was 70 and still a messenger, Ann was 64, both of them from Shoreditch, with daughter Ann Collett aged 32 and from Southwark, where the three of them was still living in 1871. Walter Collett died during the next decade, leaving his widow Ann Collett, from Spitalfields and aged 73, earning a living by being an office cleaner in 1881 when she was living at Southwark Bridge Road with just her eldest daughter, the still unmarried Ann Collett who was 43 and a dressmaker. The census of 1891 recorded the two of them residing at Lancaster Street in Southwark where Ann senior was 83 and daughter Ann was 53.

50O2

Walter Collett

Born in 1834 at St George Southwark

50O3

Charles Collett

Born in 1835 at St George Southwark

50O4

Ann Collett

Born in 1838 at St George Southwark

50O5

Frederick Walter Collett

Born in 1840 at St George Southwark

50O6

Eleanor Collett

Born in 1841 at St George Southwark

50O7

Elizabeth Sarah Collett

Born in 1843 at St George Southwark

50O8

Jane Eliza Collett

Born in 1845 at St George Southwark

50O9

William Henry Collett

Born in 1847 at St George Southwark

50O10

Caroline Maria Collett

Born in 1850 at St George Southwark

50O11

Emily Collett

Born in 1853 at St George Southwark

50N5

Sarah Collett was born at Shoreditch on 11^th May 1802, the eldest daughter of William and Sarah Collett. She was baptised at St Leonards Church on 6^th June 1802 and died nine months later on 2^nd March 1803.

50N6

Henry Lawrence Collett was born on 21^st December 1803 and he was baptised a month later on 29^th January 1804 at St Leonards Church in Shoreditch. The baptism record confirmed that he was the son of William and Sarah Collett.

Early in 1822, when Henry was 18 years old, he had a dalliance with certain Maria Paine, a single woman, who was later cross-examined by one of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace, John Milward Esquire, at a court hearing held by The Voluntary Information and Examination Board on 6^th July 1822 within the Parish of St Leonards Shoreditch. The court proceedings recorded that Maria Paine “saith that she is with-child or children and that the child or children with which she now goeth and is pregnant, is or are likely to be born a bastard or bastards and to become chargeable to the said parish and that Henry Collett late a shop man to Oliver of Kingsland Road at the corner of Union Street, in the said parish, grocer, hath frequently had carnal knowledge of her body and is the true and only father of the child or children of which she is pregnant as aforesaid, and further saith that she knows not where the said Henry Collett now resides or is to be found”

Less than seven years after that court hearing, and two years before another Henry Collett (Ref. 65N1) had married Harriet Ford in 1831, Henry Lawrence Collett married Harriet Withers at Whitechapel on 11^th January 1829. Over the next fourteen years the couple had a total of seven known children, with the birth and baptism of six of them recorded at Shoreditch and conducted at St Leonards Church Shoreditch, respectively. Despite their son William living with the family at Hoxton High Street in 1841, no record of his birth or baptism has been revealed. At that time in his life Henry Collett, who was born in that same registration district, like all of the members of his family, was 37 and a clerk, his wife Harriet Collett was 36, and their five children were recorded as Harriet Collett who was ten, Walter Collett who was nine, Henry Collett who was seven, Ann Collett who was five and William Collett who was two years old. Apart from being a clerk in 1841, Henry was also a grocer, the same as his son and namesake Henry Lawrence Collett junior. Just under two years later Harriet gave birth to the couple’s last two children, with a tragic outcome.

It has recently been discovered that Harriet presented Henry with a set of twin daughters who were born in very early days of 1843. However, both of them suffered an infant death, their birth also resulting in the death of their mother. The death of Harriet Collett was recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. ii 301) during the first quarter of 1843, and appears to have happens just after the deaths of her twin daughters were recorded there. Just three years later the death of Henry Lawrence Collett, at the age of 42, was recorded in the City of London (Ref. ii 107) during the first two weeks of 1846, following which he was buried on 18^th January 1846 at the Church of All Hallows the Great on what is now Upper Thames Street. His address at that time in his life was stated as being Old Swan Lane.

All-Hallows-the-Great was a church in the City of London first mentioned in 1235. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666 and was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. That particular building was then demolished in 1894, when many of bodies were disinterred from the churchyard and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery in Brookwood, Surrey. It is also known as the London Necropolis and is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed as a Grade I site in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

As a result of the tragic family events encountered during the 1840s, the only members of the family identified within the census of 1851 were: Harriet Collett aged 20 in domestic service at Park Terrace in Islington; Walter Collett from Shoreditch who was 19 and employed as a servant at the Lambeth home of John Cooper; and Ann Collett who was 15 and also from Shoreditch, who was a servant at the Bermondsey home of the large Bulmer family. Ann was still unmarried ten years later at the age of 25, when she was still employed as a servant, but at the home of the Powell family in Kensington, London.

Just to confuse matters, another Henry Collett, born in London during 1807, was the son of Henry and Sarah Collett and he later married Harriet Ford on 1^st April 1831 at the Church of St Michael Bassishaw, just immediately south of Shoreditch, before emigrating to Canada in 1849. The original church was destroyed by the Fire of London and rebuilt by the office of Christopher Wren. In 1900 the church on Basinghall Street was demolished and the land on which it stood is now the site of the Barbican Centre. On the census day in 1841, that Henry and Harriet Collett were living at Dorchester Street in St Leonards Shoreditch with their only surviving child, their son Henry Collett (Ref. 65O1) who was eight. Eight years later, they sailed to Canada. The details of the family of this second Henry Collett (Ref. 65N1) can be found in Part 65 – The London Shoreditch Line to Canada.

50O12

Harriet Collett

Born in 1830 at Shoreditch, London

50O13

Walter Richard Collett

Born in 1832 at Shoreditch, London

50O14

Henry Lawrence Collett

Born in 1833 at Shoreditch, London

50O15

Ann Collett

Born in 1835 at Shoreditch, London

50O16

William Collett

Born in 1839 at Shoreditch, London

50O17

Jane Collett

Born in 1843 at Shoreditch, London

50O18

Sarah Collett

Born in 1843 at Shoreditch, London

50N7

Sarah Collett was born at Shoreditch on 31^st August 1805 and was baptised one month after at St Leonards Church on 29^th September. She was named after her mother and her older sister (above) who had suffered an infant death. On the day of the census in 1841 Sarah Collett, with a rounded age of 30, was living at the High Street in Acton close to where her brother William (above) and his wife were living. She later secured work in Cambridgeshire, as confirmed by the census return completed in 1851. Unmarried Sarah Collett from Shoreditch was 45 and an employee of Edward and Grace Hicks at their home in Great Wilbraham, where she was a nurse maid and a domestic servant. The death of Sarah Collett aged 71 was recorded at Poplar (Ref. 1c 383) during the last quarter of 1876.

Interesting note: In the census of 1851, not far from where Sarah was living at that time in her life, a certain unmarried Elizabeth Collett was also residing in a dwelling on the High Street in Acton. She had been born there and was 52 years old, a proprietor of houses. She had also been living at Acton in 1841, when she had a rounded age of 40.

50N8

William Collett was born at Shoreditch on 19^th May 1807 where he was baptised on 14^th June that year. His wife was Ann, whom he is assumed to have married during the early 1830s, was living with him at Shoreditch in 1841, when he had a rounded age of 30 and she had a rounded age of 35. By that time they had two children, although they were not listed with them at the home of the Fulbrook family. The next census in 1851 raises a few issues. On that census day, the family was residing at Chapel Street in Islington and comprised William Collett from Shoreditch, who was 43 and an omnibus driver, his wife Ann Collett from St Luke who was 46, and their six children. They were Sarah Collett who was 13 and born at Shoreditch, William Collett who was 12 and born at Lambeth, Elizabeth Collett who was nine, George Collett who was seven, Jane Collett who was five and Susan Collett who was two years of age, all four of them said to have been born after the family moved to Islington. Missing daughter Mary Ann, aged 15, was working nearby in Islington.

Where there is confusion, is with their son William who may have been their fourth child since, William Collett, the son of William and Ann Collett was born at Shoreditch at the end of 1834 and baptised at Shoreditch during the second week of January 1835. Had he still been alive in 1851, he would have been 16 years of age and therefore three years older than his sister Sarah. What is interesting is the birth and baptism of a second William Collett, but at Lambeth, who was born there in 1838 and baptised there at St Mary’s Church on 9^th August 1840, whose parents were also named as William and Ann Collett. That happened only a few months after the death of William Collett at Shoreditch, whose age, unfortunately, was not confirmed as being only five years.

On the day of the next census in 1861, it was at Bath Place in Islington where Shoreditch born William Collett was 53 and a cheesemonger, the occupation that his older brother Walter Collett (above) also had in 1851, but at Southwark. William’s wife Ann Collett was 56 and born at St Luke, while the four children living with them that year were William Collett from Lambeth who was 22 and a printer compositor, Sarah Collett who was 23 and from Shoreditch, George Collett from Lambeth who was 17 and a hatter’s porter, and Susan Collett who was 12 and born at Islington. Staying with the family was William’s nephew, Alexander G Collett (Ref. 50O27) from Lambeth who was 13 years of age. With only younger sisters, it seems highly unlikely that he was the son of one of William’s older brothers. Therefore, there is the possibility that he was base-born son of one of William’s four younger sisters.

Just over three and a half years after the census was conducted at Islington in 1861, head of the household William, died there at the age of 57. The death of William Collett was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 249) during the last three months of 1864.

According to the next census in 1871, Ann Collett from St Lukes London, was a widow at the age of 67, who had living with her at Islington, her three unmarried daughters Sarah Collett, aged 33, Jane Collett, aged 25, and Susan Collett who was 22. Ann was referred to as a pew opener, an occupation usually undertaken by elderly widows in the nineteenth century, as someone who would open the doors to private church pews. After a further ten years, it was only daughter Jane who was still living at Benwell Road in Islington with her mother. Ann Collett was 77 years old by then and was described as an annuitant, when her unmarried daughter was 35.

Jane very likely, felt obliged to stay with her elderly mother, to look after during her twilight years since, it was just over two years after she passed away, that Jane was eventually married. The death of Mary Ann Collett was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 211) during the second quarter of 1886.

50O19

William Collett

Born in 1834 at Shoreditch, London

50O20

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1836 at Shoreditch, London

50O21

Sarah Collett

Born in 1837 at Shoreditch, London

50O22

William Collett

Born in 1838 at Shoreditch, London

50O23

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1841 at Shoreditch, London

50O24

George Collett

Born in 1843 at Lambeth, London

50O25

Jane Collett

Born in 1845 at Islington, London

50O26

Susan Collett

Born in 1848 at Islington, London

50N9

Mary Collett was born at Shoreditch on 20^th March 1809 and baptised on 16^th April 1809, another daughter of William and Sarah Collett.

50N10

Rachel Collett was born at Shoreditch on 10^th February 1811, where she was baptised on 17^th March that same year.

50N11

Elizabeth Collett was born at Shoreditch on 2^nd April 1813 and was baptised there eight weeks later on 30^th May.

50N12

Jemima Collett was born at Shoreditch on 11^th April 1815, the last child of William Collett and Sarah Wittle, her baptism recorded at the Church of St Leonard in Shoreditch on 21^st May 1815.

50N13

Henry Collett was born at Shoreditch around 1816, the only known child of Henry and Sarah Collett. In 1841 his parents were living at Cavendish Street in Hoxton, while Henry Collett was single and 24 years old in the census return that year when he was staying at the Shoreditch, Allerton Street, home of Alexander and Sarah Adams. No later record of Henry has been found, so it seems very likely that he died at Shoreditch in one of the following three death records; during the third quarter of 1841 (Ref. ii 269) or during the first quarter of 1843 (Ref. ii 313) or during the fourth quarter of 1845 (Ref. ii 303).

50O1

HENRY COLLETT was born at Acton in 1823, the only known child of William Collett and Elizabeth Loader. Acton is adjacent to Kensington and Hammersmith in London, where Henry was living later in his life with his wife Sophia who was born in Somerset around 1823. The marriage of Henry Collett and Sophia Clark was recorded at Kensington (Ref. iii 305) during the third quarter of 1847. During their life together, it has been established that Sophia presented Henry with nine known children, eight of whom had their births recorded at Kensington, although there are indications that they may have been born at Paddington. By the end of March in 1851, the family living at Chepstow Mews in the Kensington area of London was made up of Henry, aged 28 and from Acton, who was a carman, his wife Sophia Collett from Somerset who was 27, and their two Kensington born children, Susan Collett who was three, and Henry Collett who was ten months old. One other person was staying with the family and she was Jane Collett who was 13 and born at Paddington, who was described as the niece of Henry and Sophia Collett. See Appendix One at the end of this file for some brief details regarding Jane Collett which, so far, have not provided any clues as to how she was related to Henry Collett.

During the next ten years a further four children were added to the family which was recorded at Salem Gardens in Paddington in 1861. Henry Collett from Acton was 39 and a builder’s labourer, Sophia E Collett from Somerset was 38, Henry Collett junior was 11, Matilda Collett was eight, Mary A Collett was five, Joseph E Collett was three and born at Paddington, and the latest addition to the family was Harriet Collett who was one-year old and born at Kensington, like older siblings Henry, Matilda and Mary. The missing child, eldest daughter Susan Collett, was attending at boarding school in Southwark. Over the next six years three more children were added to the family, while they were living in the Paddington-Kensington area of London.

However, sometime around 1866/1867, Henry and Sophia moved west from the Kensington and Paddington, when they settled in Hammersmith, where the family was living in 1871. On the census day that year, the family was made up of labourer Henry Collett from Acton and his wife Sophia, a laundress, both aged 47, who had with them seven of their nine children, although curiously all of them, excluding their last child, were recorded on the census return as having been born in Kensington. They were Henry Collett who was 21 who had no stated occupation, Mary A Collett who was 17, Joseph Collett who was 15, Harriet Collett who was 13, Elizabeth Collett who was nine, Louisa Collett who was seven and Sophia Collett who was three-years old and born after the family had moved there.

Sophia Collett nee Clark, died during the next decade, her death recorded in London (Ref. 1c 26) during the last three months of 1878, with Henry being described in the census of 1881 as a widower aged 58, with no stated occupation, who had been born at Acton. One that occasion he was a lodger at 19 Rendle Street in Kensington, the home of bricklayer George Kidd and his family. No record of Rendle Street exists today. By that time, all of his children had gone their separate ways, although four of them were living in Herries Street in Chelsea in 1881. The death of Henry Collett, aged 59, was recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 72) during the last quarter of 1883.

50P1

Susan Margaret Collett

Born in 1848 at Kensington, London

50P2

Henry Collett

Born in 1849 at Kensington, London

50P3

Matilda Collett

Born in 1852 at Kensington, London

50P4

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1854 at Paddington, London

50P5

JOSEPH ERNEST COLLETT

Born in 1857 at Paddington, London

50P6

Harriet Collett

Born in 1859 at Paddington, London

50P7

Sarah Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1862 at Kensington, London

50P8

Louisa Collett

Born in 1865 at Kensington, London

50P9

Sophia Collett

Born in 1868 at Hammersmith, London

50O2

Walter Collett was born at Southwark on 14^th August 1834, the first-born child of Walter Collett and Ann Hedges, and was baptised at St George the Martyr in Southwark on 7^th September 1834, when the family was confirmed as residing in Southwark.

50O3

Charles Collett was born at Southwark on 16^th October 1835 and was baptised at St George the Martyr in Southwark on 15^th November 1835, the second child of Walter and Ann Collett.

50O4

Ann Collett was born at Southwark in 1838, her birth recorded at St George Southwark (Ref. iv 130) during the second quarter of that year, the eldest surviving child of Walter Collett and Ann Hedges. She was two years old in the Southwark census of 1841 and was 12 years of age in the census of 1851 when living with her family at 4 Windsor Place in Southwark. Over the following decades Ann remained living with her parents, working as a dressmaker, and never married. It was at Southwark Bridge Road where she was still living with her widowed mother in 1881, when her occupation was again that of a dressmaker at the age of 43, and at Lancaster Street in 1891 when she was 53. Mother and daughter both died within the same decade, with the death of Ann Collett, a spinster of 57, recorded at Southwark (Ref. 1d 35) during the last three months of 1895.

50O5

Frederick Walter Collett was born at Southwark in 1840 but, unlike his sister Ann (above), no birth or baptism record for him has been found either as Frederick – the name used in the 1841 Census when he was one-year old, or Walter, the name used in the 1851 Census when he was 11 years of age and living at 4 Windsor Place in Southwark. By the time of the census in 1861 he had left the family home at Borough Road in Southwark, while six years later and following the reading of banns, bachelor Frederick Walter Collett married spinster Hester Tiptaft, “both of this parish”, on 5^th May 1867 at the Parish Church in Newington, Surrey. Hester was born at Great Yarmouth in 1847, the daughter of Hester Tipstaff (Tiptaft) and her husband, both of whom were born at Mitcham in Surrey.

Over the following thirteen years, Hester presented Frederick with five children, the first of them born at Bermondsey before the family initially settled in Southwark, where two more were born. The next child was born at Peckham to the south, but still within the London Borough of Southwark, while it was at Thornton Heath, near Croydon, where the last child was born. Sadly, only four of them reached adult age, with their second child suffering an infant death. On the day of the census in 1871, the family was already residing in the St George Southwark area of south London. Frederick W Collett from Southwark was 31 and was working as a clerk. His wife Hester was 24 and from Yarmouth, while their two daughters were described as Alice Maude Collett who was two years of age and born at Bermondsey and Kate Emily Collett who was three months old, having been born after her parents had moved to Southwark. Living with the family on that day, was Hester’s widowed mother Hester Tiptaft (1821-1890) who was 50 and a seamstress.

The whereabouts of Frederick and Hester, and their four surviving children, has not yet been discovered within the census of 1881, when it is possible that they were still living Southwark, since it was there the Frederick died five years later. The death of Frederick Walter Collett was recorded at St Saviour Southwark (Ref. 1d 67) during the third quarter of 1886, when he was said to be 38. Having lost her husband, Hester moved away from Southwark before the end of the decade and was forced to take a work as a domestic nurse. That situation was confirmed in the next census in 1891, by which time widow Hester Collett from Norfolk was 44 and employed at the Streatham home of civil engineer William Riddley and his large family. Where her four children were that day remains a mystery.

However, Hester was reunited with her daughter Beatrice some years later, when the two of them were residing together at 10 Angles Road in Streatham in 1901. Hester Collett from Great Yarmouth was 55, a widow and a needlewoman, who may have been working with her daughter who was a dressmaker. Hester was confirmed as living at 10 Angles Road over the following years, and in fact was still living in the sub-district of Streatham in 1911, but at Wandsworth. Angles Road is still a residential road and runs south off the A23, the main route through Streatham. According to the 1911 census, widow Hester Collett was 64 and working as a charwoman. Living with her that day was her youngest child Etheldred who was preparing to be married before the end of that year. Fortunately, Hester survived long enough to see her daughter married, and died two months after the wedding, when the death of Hester Collett was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 699) during December 1912. She was 66 years of age and was buried at Streatham on 14^th December 1912.

50P10

Alice Maude Collett

Born in 1868 at Bermondsey

50P11

Kate Emily Collett

Born in 1871 at Southwark

50P12

Frederick Arthur Collett

Born in 1873 at Southwark

50P13

Beatrice Maud Collett

Born in 1879 at Peckham

50P14

Etheldreda Hester Collett

Born in 1880 at Thornton Heath

50O6

Eleanor Collett was born at Southwark in 1841, her birth recorded at St George Southwark (Ref. iv 386) during the last quarter of 1841, another daughter of Walter and Ann Collett. She was nine years old in 1851 when living at 4 Windsor Place in Southwark with her family. On leaving school Eleanor entered into domestic service and in 1861, at the age of 19, she was a servant at a property in Upper Hyde Park Gardens, Paddington. It was nine years later when Eleanor Collett married William Thomas at the Church of St Jude in Southwark on 20^th November 1870. No record of the family has been identified in 1871 but, according to the census in 1881, William Thomas and his wife Eleanor were residing at Collison Street in Southwark. William from Herefordshire was 40 and a messenger employed at Vestry Hall on Borough Road in Southwark, Eleanor was 39 and their son Walter Thomas, named after her father, was nine years of age. He may have been the only child, since it was the same situation in 1891 when the three of them were living at Union Road in Southwark, by which time William Thomas, aged 50, was an assistant sanitary inspector. Eleanor Thomas was 49 and Walter Thomas was 19. Their son had left home by 1901 when the couple was still living on Union Road, where William was continuing to work as an assistant sanitary inspector.

50O7

Elizabeth Sarah Collett was born at Southwark on 6^th September 1843 and was baptised at St George Southwark on 4^th October that same year, yet another daughter of Walter and Ann Collett.

50O8

Jane Eliza Collett was born at Southwark towards the end of 1845, her birth recorded there (Ref. iv 498) during the first quarter of 1846. She was five years of age in 1851 at 4 Windsor Place in Southwark, and was 16 in 1861, by which time she was employed as a net maker while still living at the family home which was by then at Borough Road in Southwark. The marriage of Jane Eliza Collett took place at Southwark (Ref. 1d 149) during the third quarter of 1867 when the groom was Henry Hall. They were only marriage for six years, when the death of Jane Eliza Hall was recorded at Southwark-Camberwell (Ref. 1d 471) during the first three months of 1873, at the age of 27.

50O9

William Henry Collett was born during 1847 at 4 Windsor Place in St George Southwark, Surrey, where he was living with his family in 1851 at the age of three years. Simply as William Collett, he was the sixth of the seven children of Walter and Ann Collett that census day. In 1861, as William H Collett he was 13 and working as a shop assistant, by which time he and his family were living at Borough Road in Southwark. On reaching adult age he married Jane from Middlesex with whom he was living in 1871. The childless couple was residing at St Andrew in Holborn where William and Jane were both incorrectly recorded as being 21. That year, William was working as a book binder but, just two years later Jane gave birth to a son and during the same quarter of 1873 she lost her husband, who may never have lived to see his son. The death of William Collett was recorded at St Pancras (Ref. 1b 117) during the third quarter of 1873 when he was only 24, the birth of his son recorded at Holborn (Ref. 1b 624) during that same three-months of the year

Following the death of her husband, and with a very young baby to look after, widow Jane Collett married another book binder, Samuel Pingree, who may well have been a work colleague of her late husband, with whom she had two further children. The census return completed in 1881 recorded the couple and their two children living together at 1 Baynes Court in Clerkenwell. S Pingree was 31 and a book binder, his wife J Pingree was 29 and the children were W S Pingree (William Samuel) who was two years of age and R Pingree (Rosetta) who was just four months old, both of them born at Clerkenwell. Also living at that address, and described as the stepson of Samuel Pingree, was J Collett (Joseph) who was seven years old and from Holborn like his mother and her second husband. What is interesting from this early chapter in his life is that when Joseph Henry Collett was later married he named his daughter Rosetta and his son was Joseph Samuel, both apparently a throw-back to his time with the Pingree family.

The birth of Samuel Pingree was recorded at Holborn (Ref. ii 137) during the last three months of 1849, while the births of his two children by Jane Collett were also recorded at Holborn (1b 732) for his son during the last quarter of 1878 and (Ref. 1b 749) for his daughter during the first quarter of 1881. Ten years later the same family group was still living in Clerkenwell at Eyre Street Hill, within the parish of St Andrews Holborn, when Samuel Pingree was 41, Jane Pingree was 39, William Pingree was 12, Rosetta Pingree was 10 and stepson Joseph Collett was 17. However, Joseph’s surname was incorrectly record as Cattell, although it was his occupation as a glass beveller which confirmed him as Joseph Collett, the same occupation he had over the next two decades.

Only the couple’s eldest son William, aged 22 and a glass beveller like his stepbrother, was still living with them at Clerkenwell within the Holborn registration district in 1901. Book binder Samuel Pingree was 51, Jane Pingree was 49, and by then her son Joseph Collett was a married man with children of his own. Her daughter Rosetta was in Eastbourne that March census day where she was described as a patient and a book folder who was 20 and from London. It was also at Clerkenwell in April 1911 that Samuel from Holborn was 61 and Jane from Snowhill was 60, although at the time of her death just a few months later, her age was more accurately recorded as 58 at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 244) during the last quarter of 1911. Less than six years after losing his wife, the death of Samuel Pingree was recorded at Marylebone register office (Ref. 1a 652) during the second quarter of 1917

50P15

Joseph Henry Collett

Born in 1873 at Holborn, London

50P16

William Samuel Pingree

Born in 1878 at Holborn, London

50P17

Rosetta Jane Pingree

Born in 1880 at Holborn, London

50O10

Caroline Maria Collett was born at Southwark on 1^st November 1850, was baptised there on 18^th December 1850 and was inaccurately described as being three months old in the census of 1851 when living with her family at 4 Windsor Place in Southwark, where she was very likely born. Tragically, within the next quarter of 1851 the death of Caroline Maria Collett was recorded at Southwark (Ref. iv 317).

50O11

Emily Collett was born at Southwark on 22^nd April 1853, the youngest child of Walter Collett and Ann Hedges. She was baptised at St George Southwark on 18^th May that same year. It was just one year later that the death of Emily Collett was recorded at Southwark (Ref. 1d 95) during the second quarter of 1854.

50O12

Harriet Collett was born at Shoreditch on 8^th July 1830 and was baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 8^th August 1830, the first-born child of Henry Lawrence Collett and Harriet Withers. She was 10 years old in the Shoreditch census of 1841, when living at Hoxton High Street, with her family. Sadly, she was orphaned following the deaths of her mother and father within three years of each in 1843 and 1846. By 1851, Harriet Collett was 20 years of age and was a domestic servant at the Islington home of Frenchman Antoine Claudet and his family at Park Terrace. Six months later Harriet Collett, the daughter of the late Henry Lawrence Collett, married Samuel Trutch Sherman, the son of Francis Henry Sherman, at St Philip’s Church in Clerkenwell on 22^nd September 1851.

50O13

Walter Richard Collett was born at Shoreditch on 18^th February 1832 and was baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 19^th March 1832, the eldest son of Henry and Harriet Collett. He was nine years old in the census of 1841, when he and his family was living at Hoxton High Street. On leaving school Walter entered into domestic service and in 1851 he was a servant at the age of 19 in the Lambeth home of John Cooper. Apart from his sister Ann (below) no other member of his family has been identified within the census returns for that year, following the death of his parents during the present decade. It was six years later that Walter Richard Collett, a pork butcher, married Sarah Sanders at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth on 12^th August 1857. The marriage register confirmed that Walter’s father was Henry Lawrence Collett deceased, a grocer, and that Sarah’s father was William Sanders.

During the next three and a half years Sarah presented Walter with two sons, Walter and James, when the family was residing at Westmorland in Newington, where Walter was a baker. According to the Newington St Peter Walworth census in 1861, Walter Richard Collett was absent from the family home, leaving just Sarah Collett aged 23 with her two boys, Walter Collett who was two years old and James Collett who was two months old. However, Walter and Sarah had only been married for just four years when, in September 1861 at the age of 29, Walter Richard Collett died in London and was buried at Victoria Park Cemetery in Hackney on 30^th September that year.

Following the death of her husband Sarah married widower George Wood, a corn chandler, and by the time of the census in 1871 Sarah Wood from Honiton in Devon was 43, her husband George was 46. Living with the couple at 79 Paul Street in Shoreditch was Sarah’s eldest son Walter Collett who was 22 and a grocer’s assistant, together with George Wood’s daughter Alice Wood who was 11, and Anne Wood who was only four years old who was most likely his daughter by his second wife Sarah. Sarah’s younger son James Collett was recorded at a property at 210 High Street in Deptford where he was also a grocer’s assistant.

50P18

Walter Collett

Born in 1858 at Walworth

50P19

James Collett

Born in 1861 at Walworth

50O14

Henry Lawrence Collett was born at Hoxton on 26^th January 1833 and was baptised at St Leonards Church in Shoreditch on 16^th June 1835, the son of Henry and Harriet Collett. Henry was seven years old in the census of 1841 when he was living with his family at the High Street in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch. By 1851, Henry Collett from Hoxton was 17 and a servant at the home of the Fisher family at High Street in Poplar. That was following the death of his mother and his father in 1843 and 1846 respectively. After a further decade, Henry Collett was managing a grocery in the Greenwich registration district of Kent, when he was still single at the age of 27 and when he gave his place of birth as Shoreditch. As head of the household, Henry was recorded as having a female housekeeper from Suffolk who was 34, and four male assistant grocers, Thomas Graham, Douglas Fountain, Mark Booker and William Neech.

It was seven years later, on 8^th September 1868, that Henry Lawrence Collett married Maria Frances Dovenor at St Pauls Church in Deptford, Kent, the marriage register confirming that his father was Henry Collett, deceased. Maria’s sister Sanetta Sanctia Dovenor was married to James La Feuillade and he was named as one of the witnesses at the later wedding of Henry’s son Henry James Collett, the second witness being the groom’s sister Florence Collett.

Just over two years later, the census in 1871 recorded the childless couple residing at Canterbury in Kent, when Henry Collett from Hoxton was 37 and Maria Frances Collett from Lambeth was 27. On that day, Henry employed a house servant, Eliza Smart from Hoxton who was 20, while assisting him in his work as a grocer were four male assistants, Henry Maulden, Alfred Goodwin, William White and Henry Cundell.

Within the next few weeks, after that census day, Henry and Maria Collett moved to Deptford, where their two known children were born. By the time of the census in 1881 the family of four was living at Florence Villa on Queens Road in Deptford, when Henry Collett from Hoxton was 47 and simply described as a gentleman. His wife Maria was 37 and from Lambeth, while their two children were Henry J Collett who was nine and Florence M Collett who was eight years of age. Boarding with the family that day was Sarah Davison who was 32 and from Deptford, and employed by Henry and Maria was Maria Willis aged 18, their general domestic servant.

It was only just over three years later that Henry Lawrence Collett died in the family home at 210 High Street in Deptford on 13^th October 1884, when his death was recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d 583) during the last quarter of 1884, at the age of 50. Administration of his personal effects of £18 was granted to his widow Maria Frances Collett on 25^th November 1884, when Henry was described as a tea dealer and a grocer. Curiously, no completed census return for Maria has been found in 1891 when it is known that she was living at 24 Donatts Road in Deptford with her daughter. It was also at that same address that the two of them were recorded in the next census of 1901, within the Parish of St Paul Deptford. Maria F Collett from Lambeth had no stated occupation and was 57, daughter Florence M Collett was 28, and completing the household was Charlotte Machin who was 83 and from Ludgate Hill, in London.

From 1891 up to the day she passed away, the widow of Henry Lawrence Collett junior continued to live at 24 St Donatts Road, where her unmarried son also had a furnished room on the second floor, up until he became a married man in 1898. The details of his occupancy of that single room also confirmed that Mrs Collett was the owner of the property and that her son paid an annual rent of £33. The later death of Maria Frances Collett, at 24 St Donatts Road, was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 653) during the first three months of 1904, when she was 60, her unmarried daughter then taking over the property.

50P20

Henry James Collett

Born in 1871 at Deptford

50P21

Florence Minnie Collett

Born in 1872 at Deptford

50O15

Ann Collett was born at Shoreditch on 24^th November 1835 and was baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 13^th January 1836, the daughter of Henry and Harriet Collett who was five years old in the census of 1841. At the age of 15, Ann Collett from Shoreditch was a servant employed by the Bulmer family in Bermondsey, while ten years later when she was 25, unmarried Ann Collett from Shoreditch was a servant with the Powell family in the Kensington area of London.

50O17

Jane Collett was born at Shoreditch on 16^th January 1843, her birth recorded there (Ref. ii 418/28), older twin sister of Sarah (below). The sisters were baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch on 29^th January 1843, when their parents were confirmed as Henry and Harriet Collett. Both sisters died shortly after being baptised, as did their mother, during the first quarter of 1843, the death of Jane Collett recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. ii 269/62), after which the sisters and their mother were buried at St Leonard’s Church on 9^th March 1843

50O18

Sarah Collett was born at Shoreditch on 16^th January 1843, her birth, like that of her slightly older twin sister (above), was recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. ii 418/36). She was baptised in a joint ceremony with her sister on 29^th January 1843, the daughters of Henry and Harriet Collett. The death of baby Sarah Collett was recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. ii 270/68), just after that of her twin sister and just before the death of their mother.

50O19

William Collett was born at Shoreditch on 14^th December 1834, where he was baptised on 11^th January 1835, the eldest child of William and Ann Collett. He was not living with his parents at Shoreditch in 1841, while William and Ann’s son living with them in 1851 was only twelve years of age and born at Lambeth, a later son of the couple. The death of a William Collett was recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. ii 225) during the second quarter of 1840.

50O20

Mary Ann Collett was born at Shoreditch on 15^th January 1836 and was baptised there on 24^th February that year, the eldest daughter of William and Ann Collett. Her family was living at Chapel Street in Islington on the day of the census in 1851, when Mary A Collett from Shoreditch was 15 years of age and working as house servant at Vincent Terrace in Islington, the home of James and Emily Podmore. The marriage of Mary A Collett and Lewis Smith was recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. 1c 430) during the last quarter of 1866.

50O21

Sarah Collett was born at Shoreditch on 3^rd May 1837 where she was baptised on 24^th May 1837, another daughter of William and Ann Collett. She was living with her family at Chapel Street in Islington in 1851 and, during the next few years, the family moved to Bath Place in Islington. Sarah Collett was 23 and a parasol and shawl fringer, when she was still living there with her family in 1861. After her father died in 1864, Sarah continued to live with her mother and two youngest sisters at Islington, where Sarah Collett from Hoxton was 33 in 1871, and working as a dressmaker.

50O22

William Collett was born at Lambeth, where his birth was recorded (Ref. iv 262) during the third quarter of 1838. Two years later, he was baptised at the Church of St Mary in Lambeth on 9^th August 1840, the son of William and Ann Collett and very likely their fourth child. His parents were living at Shoreditch in 1841, while it was at Chapel Street in Islington that William Collett from Lambeth was 12 years old and living with his family in 1851. He was still living with his family in Islington in 1861, but at Bath Place, from where he was employed as a printer’s compositor. No obvious record of him has been found in the census of 1871, but just two years later, the death of William Collett, aged 34, was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 224) during the first quarter of 1873.

50O25

Jane Collett was born at Islington in 1845, where her birth was recorded (Ref. iii 239) during the fourth quarter of that year. It was also at Chapel Street, in Islington, that she was living with her family in 1851, at the age of five years. It was at Bath Place in Islington that the family was residing in 1861, when Jane Collett from Islington was 15 and living and working nearby in Islington, at the home of Charles and Charlotte Cheffins and their baby daughter, as a house servant. Following the death of her father in 1864, Jane and two sisters were still living with their widowed mother, in Islington, on the day of the census in 1871. By that time in her life Jane Collett was unmarried at the age of 25 and was employed as a (gas) mantle maker. According to the next census in 1881, it was just Jane and her elderly mother Ann who were recorded living at Benwell Road in Islington, When Jane Collett aged 35 was a dressmaker.

It was only after the death of her mother in 1886, that Jane became involved in her own life when she met much older Charles Cole Wright, perhaps initially as his housekeeper, whom she married in 1888. The marriage of Jane Collett and Charles Cole Wright was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 657) during the final quarter of that year. Tragically, after less than two years of being a married woman, the death of Charles Cole Wright was recorded at Islington (Ref. 1b 249) during the third quarter of 1890, at the age of 71, when Jane would have been nearly 45. Although no census record for widow Jane Wright has been found in 1891, in 1892 she was residing at 124 Calabria Road in Islington, where she was described as Jane Collett-Wright.

50O26

Susan Collett was born at Islington in 1848, the last child of William and Ann Collett. Her birth was recorded at Islington (Ref. iii 272) during the first three months of 1849 and she was two years old in the Islington census of 1851, when she was living with her family at Chapel Street. After Chapel Street, the family was again living in Islington in 1861, but at Bath Place, where Susan Collett from Islington was 12 years of age. She was fifteen years old when her father died in 1864 and in 1871, Jane was the youngest of three sisters still living with their mother. On that census day, Jane Collett was 22 and a dressmaker who was working alongside her older sister Sarah. By 1881, she was no longer living with her mother, so may have been married by then.

50P1

Susan Margaret Collett may have been born at Paddington, with her birth recorded at Kensington (Ref. iii 315) during the third quarter of 1848. However, on the occasion of her baptism, at Holy Trinity Church in Paddington on 6^th August 1848, her named was recorded as Margaret Susan Collett, the first-born child of Henry Collett and Sophia Clark. In the census of 1851, at the age of three years, Susan Collett from Kensington, was residing at Chepstow Mews in Kensington with her parents and baby brother Henry, and older cousin Jane Collett. After a further ten years, as the eldest child in a crowded house, Susan was attending school in the Southwark district of London, south of the River Thames, where she was described as Margaret Collett from London who was 14.

Towards the end of that decade, she met Reuben Tennant Simmons who was born at Camden Town, but in 1839, who was baptised at Old Church in St Pancras on 8^th December 1839, the son of Reuben and Margaret Simmons. The marriage of Susan Margaret Collett and Reuben Simmons was recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 123) during the second quarter of 1870. On the day they were married, Susan was already expecting the couple’s first child. Henry William Simmons, was born shortly thereafter at Paddington on 22^nd June 1870, his birth recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 32). He was then baptised at Old Church, St Pancras, on 18^th July, when he was confirmed at the son of Reuben and Susan Margaret Simmons. Rather curiously, their son was not listed with them on the day of the census in 1871. Instead, Reuben Simmons from Camden Town who was 31, was a prison warden, and his wife Susan M Simmons was 23, when they were living in Clerkenwell St James. On that occasion, Susan’s place of birth was recorded as Bayswater, just a stones-throw from Paddington, within the London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.

However, their first-born child was with the family ten years later, by which time the marriage had produced a further five children for Reuben and Susan, as confirmed within the census return for 1881. So, by the time of the census of 1881, the family was as listed below. Unlike in 1871, when Reuben and Susan were recorded as born in Camden Town and Bayswater respectively, in 1881 their place of birth was Kensington. Reuben was 40 and working as a cellarman, Susan was 31 and a laundress, and on that day, they were living at Ferndale House on Herries Road in Chelsea with their six children. Their surname was incorrectly recorded as Sommins, rather than Simmons, which may have been an error in transcription.

Their six children were listed as Harry W Simmons who was ten (said to have been born at Clerkenwell), Adela L Simmons who was eight, Edward R Simmons who was six years – both of them born at Kensington, Nellie M Simmons who was four years, Edith H Simmons who was three years – both of them born at Hammersmith, and Reuben F Simmons who was six months old. In addition to the family, two of Susan’s siblings were also living with them. They were her brother Joseph Collett, aged 23 and her sister Sophia Collett, aged 13 (both below), who were described as brother-in-law and sister-in-law to head of the household Reuben Sommins (sic). Ferndale House must have been a sizeable property because, in addition to the aforementioned ten people, the family also had a female lodger M Sharp who was twenty-four and from Hammersmith.

Just over eight years later the death of Susan Margaret Simmons was recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 81) during the third quarter of 1889, when she was only 41 years old. After that tragic event, the census in 1891 only revealed the whereabouts of just two of her children, and they were son Henry William who was 22 and a drummer with the Coldstream Guards at Chelsea Barracks, and daughter Nellie who was 14 and living at Birley Street in Battersea with Susan’s married younger sister Harriet Ellis nee Collett (below) and her family. Although not discovered anyway in Britain in 1891, the death of Reuben Simmons was recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 58) during the third quarter of 1898 when he was 59.

Three years later his eldest son Henry William Simmons was still a drummer in the census of 1901, by which time he was 31 and serving with the Leicestershire Regiment based at Glen Parva, to the south of the city of Leicester. Where he was in 1911 has not been determined, but two years later, the marriage of Henry W Simmons and Emma M Barnes was recorded at St Marylebone in London (Ref. 1a 1369) during the last three months of 1913. At the time of the death of Henry W Simmons in 1946 he was residing in Staines, where his passing was recorded (Ref. 5f 227) during the third quarter of that year, when he was 75.

The birth of Susan’s third child, Edward Reuben Simmons, was recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 157) during the third quarter of 1874, while the birth of her youngest child, Reuben Frank Simmons was also recorded there (Ref. 1a 87) during the fourth quarter of 1880. He later married Edna D Paynter, the event recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 629) during the final three months of 1939, when he would have been 59, so perhaps it was a second marriage.

50P2

Henry Collett was born within the Kensington area of London towards the end of 1849 or early in 1850, although no record of his birth has so far been found. It is therefore the baptism record for Henry Collett that confirms his parents were Henry and Sophia Collett, the baptism taking place at Holy Trinity Church in Paddington on 2^nd June 1850, where his old sister was also baptised in 1848. In March 1851 he was one year old, while, according to the census of 1861, Henry Collett was 11 when he and his family were residing at Salem Gardens in Paddington. Ten years later, when he was 21, with no stated occupation, he and his family were recorded in the Hammersmith area of London and, in all three census returns, his place of birth was recorded as Kensington. There was earlier speculation that Henry may have died during 1885, following which he was buried at Kensington and Chelsea on 7^th March 1885. However, he had been born ten years before this Henry Collett.

Earlier information suggested Henry was Henry Richard Collett, but that was incorrect since he was born on 28^th June 1849 and was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Battersea, the son of Robert Collett and his wife Mary Hannah, his birth recorded at Wandsworth (Ref. iv 523), just after he was baptised, during the third quarter of 1849. The census conducted at Battersea in 1851 revealed that his father Robert was 33 and a British Subject who had been born on the Rock of Gibraltar, whose occupation was that of an assistant licenced victualler. His wife Mary Hannah Collett was 39, and their three children were listed as John Robert Collett who was nine, Mary Hannah Elizabeth Collett who was six, and Henry Richard Collett was one year old. Four years later the death of Robert Collett was recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. 1c 128) during the third quarter of 1855. So, by the time of the Battersea census in 1861, Mary Hannah Collett from Pimlico, a fund holder of houses and land, was confirmed as a widow aged 47 living at Europa Place with her three children. They were John R Collett who was 19 and an architect, Mary H E Collett who was 17 and Henry R Collett who was 11. The two older children had been born in Chelsea, with Henry’s place of birth confirmed as Battersea.

It would appear that Mary was not a widow for too long since, her marriage to Augustus Brothers Walsh was recorded at Chelsea (Ref. 1a 284) during the first three months of 1864. Furthermore, upon the births of Emily Mary Elizabeth Walsh on 6^th June 1866 and Augustus Henry Walsh on 9^th May 1868, and their subsequent baptisms at St Mary’s Church in Battersea on 17^th August 1866 and 18^th September 1868 respectively, their parents were named as Augustus Brothers Walsh and Mary Hannah Elizabeth Walsh. However, the next census in 1871 is confusing, in that Mary Hannah Collett (?) from Pimlico, and 58 years of age, was staying at the Ramsgate, Kent, home of her architect and surveyor son John R Collett who 29 and a bachelor from Chelsea. Accompanying Mary were her husband Augustus Walsh, aged 29, and their two children Emily Walsh aged four years and Henry Walsh who was two. Completing the Ramsgate household was servant Sarah Kemble of Ramsgate who was 18.

The children of Robert Collett from Gibraltar and his Pimlico born wife Mary Hannah Elizabeth were:

50Qa1 - John Robert Collett, born Chelsea (Ref. iii 61) 4Qtr 1841, baptised 08.05.1842 at Chelsea

50Qa2 - Mary Hannah Elizabeth Collett, born Chelsea where she was baptised 09.03.1845

50Qa3 - Henry Richard Collett, born Battersea on 28.06.1849 and baptised there on 29.07.1849

50P3

Matilda Collett was very likely born at Paddington in 1852 although a later census return gave her place of birth as Teddington, which is thought to be an error in transcription or translation. In the census of 1861, she was eight years old and still living with her family, but with no record of her found in 1871. However, following the death of her mother in the latter part of the 1878, Matilda and all of her siblings, and the children’s widowed father, left the family home and went their separate ways. Matilda linked up with her sister Harriet (below) and went into domestic service.

By April 1881 Matilda and Harriet were working for wine maker Frederick Campbell of Scotland and his family who lived at 17 Dorset Square in the St Marylebone area of London. Matilda was still a single lady of twenty-seven and was employed by the Campbell family as their cook, her place of birth confirmed as Paddington. The marriage of Matilda Collett was recorded at St Pancras (Ref. 1b 192) during the third quarter of 1882, the groom being either James Coston or Richard Moriarty.

50P4

Mary Ann Collett was born at Paddington in 1854 and the birth was registered at Kensington during the second quarter of 1854. She was listed as being five years of age and 17 years old in the following two census returns for 1861 and 1871, while no record of Mary has been found in 1881, by which time she was very likely married.

50P5

JOSEPH ERNEST COLLETT was born at Paddington in 1856, with the birth registered at Kensington (Ref. 1a 20) during the second quarter of the year. He was the fifth child of Henry Collett and Sophia Clark. Curiously Joseph E Collett was listed as being two years old in the census of 1861, although he was more accurately listed as being fifteen years of age a decade later, when he was a ‘crew boy’ living with his family in Hammersmith. Joseph’s mother died prior to 1881, by which time Joseph was working as a painter while living with his eldest sister Susan and her husband Reuben Simmons at Ferndale House on Herries Road in Chelsea, London. Joseph was described as Reuben’s brother-in-law and was 23 and born at Paddington. Almost living at the house was Joseph’s and Susan’s youngest sister Sophia Collett of Hammersmith.

Within two years of the 1881 Census Joseph married Amelia Rogers, the eldest daughter of George Henry Rogers and his wife Ellen, who was born at Paddington but with her birth recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 37) during the first quarter of 1862. Judging by the date of birth of the couple’s first child it seems very likely that the marriage took place in 1883. By the time of the census in 1891, which took place on fifth April, the family was living at Swinbrook Road in Kensington where Joseph was a 34-year-old painter, Amelia was 29 and from Paddington, and their three children were William who was six, James who was four and Ellen who was two years of age. On the day of the census Amelia was with-child and it was just over four months later that she presented her husband with their fourth child and third son George.

The child’s birth certificate confirmed once again that Joseph’s occupation was that of a painter, as it had been just over ten years earlier in the April census of 1881. The certificate also confirmed that the family was living at 25 Swinbrook Road in Kensington, where baby George was very likely born. It is unclear exactly what happened to the family immediately after the birth of the couple’s fourth child, which may not have been the last. What is known, is that Amelia Collett died just less than six years later, perhaps during childbirth. Her death was recorded at Kensington register office (Ref. 1a 78) during the first three months of 1897, when she was 37 years old.

Following the death of his wife, with Joseph’s health starting to deteriorate, he was recorded in Kensington census of 1901 as Ernest J Collett from Kensington who was a widower and incorrectly recorded as being 52 years of age (instead of 44), when he was continuing to work as a house painter. Living with him at Tottenham Street was his youngest son George Collett of Kensington, who was also given the wrong age of 12 years (instead on 10). The only other child of Joseph and Amelia recorded in that year’s census was his daughter, who had been taken into the family of Amelia’s married brother Henry James Rogers at his home on Marne Street in Paddington.

Three years later Joseph Collett, widower, was a patient at a London Infirmary, as confirmed by the school record of his youngest son George. The Kensington & Chelsea School District paperwork stated that George, from Kensington, had entered Marlesford Lodge Children’s Home on 30^th November 1904, and that his date of birth was 25^th August 1891 (an error in the recording process). Just over four years later, at Kensington register office, the death of Joseph Collett was recorded during the month of April in 1909, where he was then buried. The cause of death was cancer of the stomach, probably caused by his work as a painter. Scheele’s Green, a bright green paint, was a very popular colour and was made by blending copper and oxygen with arsenic, a very toxic material which caused the death of a great many. It may also have been the cause of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, although back in the day, it was thought to be a stomach ulcer.

More recently, in 2013, it has been revealed, through conversations between Joseph’s youngest son George and his own son Dene, that the reason the family has not been located in England after 1904, or in New Zealand, where George is known to have settled in 1911, is because the brothers had initially emigrated to Canada. This was later confirmed to be true in 2022, when a married William Henry Collett made a return journey from Southampton to Montreal in 1950.

50Q1

William Henry Collett

Born in 1884 at Kensington

50Q2

James Frederick Collett

Born in 1886 at Kensington

50Q3

Ellen Harriet Collett

Born in 1888 at Kensington

50Q4

GEORGE ALBERT COLLETT

Born in 1891 at Kensington

50P6

Harriet Collett was born at Paddington in 1859 and the birth was registered at Kensington (Ref. 1a 86) during the last three months of 1859. She was listed as being one-year old in the census of 1861 when she and her family were recorded at Salem Gardens in Paddington. During the following years, her parents took the family to Hammersmith, where Harriet was 13 in the census of 1871. With the death of her mother in 1878, Harriet joined forces with her older sister Matilda (above) and entered into domestic service. The census of 1881 recorded both girls working for wine maker Frederick Campbell at his home in Dorset Square in the St Marylebone area of London. The census return described Harriet Collett as being aged 22 and born at Paddington, her occupation that of a parlour-maid while living and working at 17 Dorset Square. Frederick Campbell and his wife Emilie, from Java, had seven children between the ages of one and eleven. In addition to them, and the two Collett girls, the household was supported by four other female servants including an elder nurse, an elder ‘monthly nurse’, a young ‘under nurse’, and a housemaid.

Following the marriage of her sister Matilda during the summer of 1882, the marriage of Harriet Collett and James Frederick Ellis was recorded at Kensington (Ref. 1a 36) during the third quarter of 1883. James Frederick Ellis was born in Bury St Edmunds, the son of George and Hannah Ellis, whose birth was recorded at Bury St Edmunds (Ref. 4a 448) during the second quarter of 1852. Once married the couple moved into a property on Birley Street in Battersea, where some of their children were born, and where the family was living in 1891 and 1901. On the day of the census in 1891 James was recorded under his second forename, so Frederick Ellis from Suffolk was 38 and an upholsterer, Harriet Ellis was 31, and their three children were Frederick who was six, Harriet who was five, and Alfred who was three. Visiting the family were two nieces, the first of them being Lottie Ellis from Suffolk who was 20 and a dressmaker – who was still with the family ten years later. The other was Nellie Simmons from London who was 14 and the daughter of Harriet’s eldest married sister Susan Margaret Simmons nee Collett (above) who had died three years earlier.

In the following census of 1901, the family was still residing at Birley Street in Battersea when, on that occasion, James F Ellis from Bury St Edmunds was 49 and working as an upholsterer, his wife Harriet Ellis from Paddington was 42, and living there with them were four children. They were Frederick G H Ellis who was 17 and a piano fitter, born at Battersea, Harriet M Ellis who was 15 and born at Wandsworth Road in Clapham, Alfred E Ellis who was 13, and Arthur E Ellis who was six years of age – both of them born at Battersea. Staying with the family that census day was James’ niece Charlotte M Ellis from Bury St Edmunds who was 27 and employed as a barmaid.

Seven years after that day, the death of Harriet Ellis, nee Collett, was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 304) during the first three months of 1908, when she was only 48. James’ status as a widower was confirmed in the census of 1911, when he and his family were once again living at Birley Street in Battersea. James Frederick Ellis from Bury St Edmunds was 58 and a coach trimmer with a railway company, who was presumably using his upholstery skills fitting seats, etc, in railway carriages. Still living with him was his daughter Harriet Matilda Ellis who was 25 and a dressmaker for a company in Fulham, and his son Alfred Ernest Ellis who was 16 and a butcher at Tyneham Road in Battersea. The family’s housekeeper was James’ niece Minnie Hannah King from Bury St Edmunds who was 41 and a widow.

50P7

Sarah Elizabeth Collett was born at Kensington where the birth was registered as taking place during the second quarter of 1862. By the time of the census of 1871, she and her family were living in Hammersmith where she was recorded as being Elizabeth Collett aged nine.

50P8

Louisa Collett was born at Kensington during the first three months of 1865. Not long after she was born the family left Kensington and moved the short distance west to Hammersmith, where they were living in 1871 and where Louisa was curiously recorded as being seven years old. Ten years later in April 1881 Louisa had left the family home following the death of her mother. At that time, she was working as a domestic servant at the home of builder William H Rudkin at 34 Herries Street. Today there is a Herries Street in West Kilburn. Louisa was listed in the census return as being aged sixteen and born at Kensington. It should be noted that also living in Herries Street, at that same time, were three of Louisa’s siblings. They were her eldest sister Susan Sommins nee Collett (above), her brother Joseph Collett (above), and her younger sister Sophia Collett (below).

50P9

Sophia Collett was born at Hammersmith in 1868 and was named after her mother, the birth being registered at Kensington during the first three months of that year. She was confirmed as being three years old in the census of 1871 when she was living with her parents in the Kensington St Paul & Hammersmith registration area. Following the death of her mother during 1878 the family appears to have ‘broken up’, with Sophia going to live with her older married sister Susan. This was confirmed by the census of 1881 when she was thirteen and living at Ferndale House in Herries Street, the home of Reuben and Susan Sommins. No record of Sophia or Sophie has been found in 1891 when she would have been twenty-three and possibly married.

50P10

Alice Maude Collett was the first child of Frederick Walter Collett and Hester Tiptaft and was born at Bermondsey at the end of 1868, before the family moved to Southwark. It was also at Bermondsey that the birth of Alice Maude Collett was recorded (Ref. 1d 90) during the first three months of 1869. On the day of the census in 1871, Alice Maude Collett was two years old, when she was living with her family at St George Southwark and when her place of birth was confirmed as Bermondsey. No record of Alice or any member of her family has been found in 1881 and, in fact, rather surprisingly, the only later record of her was that when she died. That confirmed that she had never married, with the death of Alice M Collett recorded at Camberwell register office (Ref. 1d 743) during the last quarter of 1936 when she was 66.

50P11

Kate Emily Collett was born at Southwark, either late in 1870 or early in 1871, and was baptised at St Paul’s Church on Westminster Bridge Road on 18^th January 1871. She was living with her family in 1871, when she was three months old but, tragically, less than twelve months later, the death of Kate E Collett was recorded at Southwark (Ref. 1d 53) during that first quarter of 1872.

50P12

Frederick Arthur Collett was born at Southwark on 22^nd June 1873, and was baptised a month later at St Paul’s Church on Westminster Bridge Road on 20^th July 1873, the only son of Frederick Walter Collett by his wife Hester Tiptaft. The birth of Frederick Arthur Collett was recorded at Southwark (Ref. 1d 80). It was also at Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 72), where the later marriage of Frederick Arthur Collett and Bertha Bell was recorded during the first three months of 1903. Six years later, the childless couple was living at 24 Wilmot Street in Bethnal Green, overlooking Weavers Green where, in 1911, Frederick Arthur Collett was 38 and a packer working for a toilet specialities company. His wife Bertha was 37 but with no occupation and was born at Manchester. On that occasion, Frederick gave his place of birth as Blackfriars, which lies just across Westminster Bridge, on the north side of the River Thames.

Sometime later that same year, Frederick and Bertha, moved out of 24 Wilmot Street and into 64 Wilmot Street, where they were living in 1912. Although not yet proved as the son of Frederick and Hester Collett, a certain Frederick A Collett died in 1916 and his death was recorded at Whitechapel register office (Ref. 1c 269) during the second quarter of 1916, when he was 42.

50P13

Beatrice Maud Collett was born at Peckham, to the south of Southwark, her birth recorded at Greenwich, to the east of Peckham, during the second quarter of 1879 (Ref. 1d 894). Beatrice would have been two years old in 1881, although no record of the family has been found anywhere in the census conducted that year. After a further ten years, with her father having died in 1886, Beatrice M Collett from Peckham was not living with her mother, instead she was perhaps attending school in Lambeth, when she was 11 years of age. At that time, her mother was living and working in Streatham, where she was joined by Beatrice in 1901. On that census day, Beatrice M Collett from Peckham was 21 and a dressmaker, most likely working with her mother, who was a needlewoman. The death of Beatrice M Collett was recorded at Islington register office (Ref. 1b 193) during the last three months of 1933, at the age of 54.

50P14

Etheldreda Hester Collett was born at Thornton Heath, north of Croydon, at the end of 1880 or during the first few weeks of 1881, the fifth child and late addition to the family of Frederick Walter Collett and Hester Tiptaft. Her birth, as Etheldreda E Collett, was recorded at Croydon (Ref. 2a 353) during the first three months of 1881. Her father died at Southwark in the summer of 1886, while Etheldreda Hester Collett was apparently not baptised until 7^th November 1886, unless there was an error in the stated year. Just as with her sister Beatrice (above), Etheldreda was also not living with her widowed mother at Streatham in 1891. The census return that year placed Etheldreda Hester Collett from Thornton Heath attending school in Isleworth, when she was 10 years old.

No record of her has been found within the census of 1901 but, eventually, she was reunited with her mother, with whom she was living at Wandsworth in 1911, when Etheldreda Hester Collett from Thornton Heath was still a spinster at the age of 31, when she was employed as a domestic servant. On that day, she may have already started preparations for her forthcoming wedding, the marriage of Etheldreda H Collett and Walter J Smith was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 1d 1237) during the fourth quarter of 1911. They were together for thirty-five years, when the death of Etheldreda Smith was recorded at Wandsworth register office (Ref. 5d 937) during the first month of 1947, at the age of 66. She was then buried with her mother at Streatham on 21^st January 1947.

50P15

Joseph Henry Collett was born at Holborn in 1873, the only known child of William Collett and his wife Jane, whose birth was recorded at Holborn (Ref. 1b 624) during the third quarter of that year. Joseph would never have known his father, since he died during the same three-month period that Joseph was born. His mother then married a possible workmate of his late father and by 1881 Joseph was seven years old and living at 1 Baynes Court in Clerkenwell with his stepfather Samuel Pingree, his mother Jane, and two half-siblings William and Rosetta Pingree. The family home in Clerkenwell in 1891 was at Eyre Street Hill (which is still there in 2016, off the Clerkenwell Road A5201) when Joseph Cattell (sic) was 17 and a glass beveller.

Just over three years later Joseph Collett married Alice Emily Fulgoni, the event recorded at Holborn register office (Ref. 1b 1013) during the second quarter of 1894. No record of Alice Fulgoni or any member of her Italian family has been found in England prior to the date of her marriage to Joseph. Their marriage provided the couple with at least eight children, but tragically only four survived. According to the next census in 1901 the family was residing in Curtain Road in Shoreditch where Joseph H Collett was 27 and a glass beveller from London, his wife Alice E Collett from Clerkenwell was 25, their son Joseph S Collett from St Lukes in London was six and their daughter Rosetta J Collett from Hoxton was one-year old.

It was the next census return, completed in April 1911, which revealed that Joseph and Alice had been married for seventeen years, during which time they had given birth to eight children, with just four still alive and living at 83 Pritchards Road (off Hackney Road A1208) in Bethnal Green. That year the head of the household was Joseph Henry Collett, a glass beveller from Clerkenwell who was 37 and an employee at a local company of glass bevellers and silverers. His wife Alice Emily Collett was 35 and also from Clerkenwell, and their four surviving children were Joseph Samuel Collett who was 16 and employed as a bag maker, Rosetta Jane Collett who was 12, William Alfred Collett who was eight and Albert John Collett who was six years of age.

With the outbreak of the First World War three years later Joseph Henry Collett aged 40 and from Old Ford in Middlesex (just east of Bethnal Green) enlisted at Finsbury to the west of Shoreditch in 1914. It was within his military enrolment papers that Old Ford was mentioned as the place of his birth. He was assigned to the 2^nd Battalion of the Duke of Cambridge's Own Middlesex Regiment as Private Joseph Collett service number SR/584. He saw frontline action in France and sadly was one of the many fatalities on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, where he was killed on 1^st July 1916, with his name being included on the Thievpal Memorial. What happened to the family after the tragic loss of their father is not known at this time

50Q5

Joseph Samuel Collett

Born in 1895 at St Lukes (Shoreditch)

50Q6

Rosetta Jane Collett

Born in 1899 at Hoxton (Shoreditch)

50Q7

William Alfred Collett

Born in 1903 at Shoreditch, London

50Q8

Albert John Collett

Born in 1904 at Bethnal Green, London

50P17

Rosetta Jane Pingree was born at 1 Baynes Court in Clerkenwell, London in late December 1880 or early in January 1881, her birth recorded at Holborn (Ref. 1b 749) during the first three months of 1881. She was the only daughter of Samuel Pingree and Jane Collett and was four months old on 3^rd April 1881, the day of the census that year, when living with her family at 1 Baynes Court. The family later moved to Eyre Street Hill in Clerkenwell where Rosetta was 10 years old in 1891. Ten years later Rosetta was a patient in Eastbourne where she was described as being 20 and from London, with the occupation of a book folder. Just over five years later the marriage of Rosetta Jane Pingree and Alfred Valens was recorded at Southwark register office (Ref. 1d 150) during the second quarter of 1906. Alfred was born in London in mid-1879, the son of Alfred Valens and Elizabeth Daniels. By 1911 Rosetta had presented Alfred with two children, the first born at Bermondsey, the second at West Ham, where the family of four was living on the day of the census. Alfred Valens was 31, Rosetta Jane Valens was 30, Rosetta Jane Elizabeth Valens was three and Alfred Samuel Valens was under one-year old. The death of Rosetta Jane Valens was recorded at the Essex South Western register office (Ref. 4a 263) during the third quarter of 1944 when she was 64

50P18

Walter Collett was born at Walworth in either 1858 or 1859, the eldest of the two sons of Walter Richard Collett and Sarah Sanders. In the census of 1861 Walter was two years old when he and his brother James (below) were living in the Newington St Peter parish of south London with their mother, their father possibly away on business. Sadly, it was within the next five months that Walter’s father died, sometime after which his mother remarried, so what happened to the family of in the next twenty years is not clear. By 1881, Walter was living with his mother and stepfather George Wood at 79 Paul Street in Shoreditch. Walter Collett from Camberwell was 22 and working a grocer’s assistant, the same occupation as his younger brother James, who had already left the family home and was living and working in Deptford.

Five years later, the marriage of Walter Collett and Harriet Goodman was recorded at Holborn (Ref. 1b 1086) during the second quarter of 1886 and, by 1891, their marriage had produced two children. The census that year placed the family of four living at Luke Street in Shoreditch, where Walter Collett was 32 and a cab proprietor, Harriet Collett was 31, Ernest Collett was two and Ada A Collett was not one year old. Living nearby within the same registration district was Walter’s recently married brother James with his young family. One more child is known to have been added to Walter’s family over the next ten years, who may have been born after the family moved the short distance to Singer Street. It was there, at Singer Street in Shoreditch that the family was residing in 1901, and comprised Walter Collett who was 42 and born at Walworth who was a stable cab proprietor, Harriet Collett from Shoreditch who was 41, Ernest Collett who was 12 and born at Hoxton, Ada A Collett who was 11 and born at Shoreditch, and Albert Collett who was three years of age and also born at Shoreditch.

On both occasions of the census in 1891 and again in 1901 elderly bachelor Job Goodyear from the hamlet of Weston Hills in Lincolnshire was lodging with the Collett family and living on his own means. Two and a half years after that census day in 1901, the death of Walter Collett was recorded at Edmonton register office (Ref. 3a 256) during the last three months of 1903, when he was 44. Therefore, by the time of the census in 1911, it was just Harriet Collett, aged 51, who was still living in Shoreditch, when she was described as a widow who had been born at Bethnal Green, who was a domestic, undertaking house work. The only one of her three children still living there with her, was her youngest her son Albert Collett who was 13.

50Q9

Ernest Collett

Born in 1888 at Hoxton

50Q10

Ada Annie Collett

Born in 1890 at Shoreditch

50Q11

Albert Collett

Born in 1897 at Shoreditch

50P19

James Collett was born at Walworth but was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth on 24^th February 1861 where his parents had been married during the summer of 1857. At the time of his birth the family was living at Westmorland in Newington, where his father was a baker. James was under one-year old on the day of the census in 1861 for the Newington St Peter registration district and would have hardly known his father who died later that year before James was one-year old. His widowed mother later married corn chandler George Wood and in 1881 when James’ brother Walter was still living with his mother and her new husband at 79 Paul Street in Shoreditch, James Collett aged 22 and from Camberwell was a grocer’s assistant residing at 210 High Street in Deptford.

Just over six years after that census day, the marriage of James Collett and Catherine Ellen Sterce was recorded at Holborn (Ref. 1b 1130) during the last three months of 1887. That was confirmed by the next census in 1891 for Shoreditch, by which time the couple had given birth to two sons. James Collett from Surrey was 30 and a cab proprietor, as his brother Walter was (above), his wife Catherine E Collett was 27 and from London, and their two children were James H Collett who was one-year old and Arthur L Collett who was under one-year old. It was the same situation ten years later when the same family of four was still residing in Shoreditch. James Collett from Walworth was 40 and a corn dealer’s shop-keeper, perhaps an arrangement through his mother’s second husband George Wood. Catherine E Collett from the City of London was 38 and their two sons were James H Collett who was 11 and Arthur L Collett who was 10.

The family continued to live in Shoreditch and, on the day the next census was conducted in 1911, it was just son Arthur who was still living with his parents, James junior becoming a married man in 1908. James Collett from Walworth was 50 years of age and a corn dealer, his wife Catherine was 40 and was assisting James in the family business, and son Arthur Collett of Shoreditch was 20 and a clerk employed by a general merchant.

50Q12

James Herbert Collett

Born in 1889 at Finsbury, London

50Q13

Arthur Lawrence Collett

Born in 1890 at Finsbury, London

50P20

Henry James Collett was born at Deptford in 1871, the son of Henry Lawrence Collett (junior) and Maria Frances Dovenor. His birth, using his full name, was recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d 702) during the third quarter of the year, following which he was baptised at the Church of St Paul in Deptford on 20^th August 1871. As Henry J Collett, he was nine years old in the census of 1881 when he and his family were residing at Florence Villa, Queens Road in Deptford. Three years later, the family home was at 210 High Street, Deptford, when Henry’s father passed away, after which, the three remaining members of the family moved to 24 St Donatts Road in Deptford, a property later confirmed as owned by Henry’s widowed mother. Although not identified within the Deptford census of 1891, Henry, his mother and sister Florence (below), certainly were living at that address from 1893 until Henry became a married man in 1898. During those six years, the records confirm that Henry James Collett rented a single second floor furnished room in the home of Mrs Collett, for an annual rent of £33.00. The same record also stated that he had access to, and use of, the rest of the house at 24 St Donatts Road.

In preparing to be married, Henry James Collett left the home of his mother in the first few weeks of 1898, when he moved the short distance to 10 Shardeloes Road in Deptford, his registered address from then until 1910. That move enabled his bride-to-be to use his rented room at his mother’s house in the run-up to their wedding day. The marriage of bachelor Henry James Collett and spinster Ada Victoria Terry took place at St James’ Church, Hatcham, in the London Borough of Lewisham, on 1^st January 1898. Henry was 27 years of age and a silk salesman, the son of Henry Lawrence Collett deceased, residing at 10 Shardeloes Road. Ada, who was also 27 and had no stated occupation, was the daughter of upholster Thomas Terry, and was residing at 24 St. Donnats Road in Deptford. The two witnesses were Henry’s sister Florence Collett and his mother’s brother-in-law James La Feuillade. The marriage was recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1103). Today, Shardeloes Road and St Donatts Road both run west off the A20 Lewisham Way and eventually form a crossroads with each other, in the New Cross area of Deptford.

One year later, the first of the couple’s two children was born at 24 St Donnats Road in New Cross, where mother and baby were cared for by Henry’s mother Maria. According to the census conducted in 1901, the Collett family was still living at 10 Shardeloes Road in Deptford St Paul, from where Henry J Collett, aged 29 and from Deptford, was still working as a silk salesman. His wife Ada V Collett from Kennington was 31 and their daughter Ethel M Collett was two years old. Supporting the family was general servant Mary Foster who was 17 and from Chelsea. The couple’s second daughter was born at St Donatts Road two years later, where the family continued to live up until 1910.

By the time of the census in April 1911 the completed family had left Deptford and was settled within the Lewisham area of London at 151 Woolstone Road in Forest Hill. Henry James Collett from Deptford was 39 and a silk warehouseman, Ada Victoria Collett was 41, Ethel Maude Collett was 12 and Doris Gertrude Collett was seven years of age. On that occasion both daughters were recorded as having been born at Deptford, while the family’s servant was Emily Mary Lewis from Dover who was 18. It was twenty-seven years after that census day, when the death of Henry J Collett was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 1146) during the first three months of 1938, when he was 67 years of age.

50Q14

Ethel Maude Collett

Born in 1899 at Deptford, London

50Q15

Doris Gertrude Collett

Born in 1903 at Deptford, London

50P21

Florence Minnie Collett was born at Deptford on 15^th November 1872, her birth recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d 816) during the last three months of that year. She was the younger of the two children of Henry Lawrence Collett and Maria Frances Dovenor. It was at St Paul’s Church in Deptford where she was baptised on 15^th December 1872. Florence M Collett was eight years old in the census of 1881, when she and her family were living on Queens Road in Deptford. After the death of her father, Florence was the only child living at 24 St Donatts Road in Deptford with her widowed mother, when she was an unmarried milliner aged 28 in 1901. She was still living at that address in 1904 when her mother died in 1904 and was still living there in 1909. Florence never married and was still living in that part of the country when her death was recorded at the Surrey North-Eastern register office (Ref. 2a 140) during the last quarter of 1944, when she was 72.

50Q1

William Henry Collett was born at Kensington in 1884, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 1a 27) during the last quarter of that year, the eldest of the four children of Joseph Collett, a painter, and Amelia Rogers. At the age of six years, as simply William Collett, he was living at 25 Swinbrook Road in Kensington, with his family. Following the death of his mother in 1897, only three members of his family have been identified in the census of 1901, they being his widowed father and youngest brother George, who were living on Tottenham Street in Kensington, and William’s only sister Ellen who was living with her mother’s married brother and his family at Marne Road in Paddington. It is therefore believed that William and his brother James (below), emigrated to Canada, although no record has been found for William’s voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Very little is known about William, except that on 5^th August 1950, as a married man aged 64, William Henry Collett sailed from Southampton in England back to Montreal in Canada onboard the S S Canberra of the Greek Line Steam Navigation Company Limited. This probably means that William made Canada his permanent home, while his brothers James and George who, having initially thought to have joined him in Canada, subsequently made their homes in New Zealand.

A recent search through the records in Canada has revealed that William Henry Collett from England, aged 28, married Ethel May Floyd, aged 26, on 11^th September 1912 at Niagara Falls City, Welland County in Ontario. Ethel was the daughter of Marten and Margaret Floyd, while the groom’s father was named as Joseph E Collett, with his wife recorded as Emelia. The couple’s declaration of their intention to marry included the following details. William Henry Collett, a bachelor born in London, of English nationality, was a resident of Niagara Falls, whose late father’s occupation was that of a painter. Ethel May Floyd was a spinster of Canadian nationally who was born at Prince Edward County in Ontario. Both William and Ethel were described as Methodists.

In accordance with the Marriage Act, William signed a sworn statement that “The reason for procuring the marriage to be solemnised in Niagara Falls is not in order to evade due publicity or for any other improper purpose” also signed on 11the September 1912. Not long after they were married, William travelled back to England, apparently alone because, during April 1913, William Henry Collett aged 27 (sic) and born in England, sailed back into Halifax, in Nova Scotia, onboard the S S Virginian of the Allan Line, his forward destination being Toronto, when he was confirmed as a married man whose occupation was that of a baker. On completing the immigration form, where all of the above details were recorded, William stated that before he was a baker, he worked in Canada as a farm labourer for twelve years. This roughly places the year that he first entered the country as preceding the start of the century.

Seven years later, in September 1929, baker William Collett aged 37, was a widower sailing onboard the S S Metagama of the Canadian Pacific Line from England to Quebec, when his forward destination was once again Toronto. No record of the death of Ethel May Collett has been found between 1912 and 1920.

50Q2

James Frederick Collett was born at Kensington in 1886, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 1a 141) during the last three months of the year, the second son of Joseph and Amelia Collett. As just James Collett he was four years of age in the Kensington census of 1891, when living at 25 Swinbrook Road with his family. After his mother died in 1897 and, with his father in poor health, no record of James and his father has been found in 1901. At the age of 16, James Collett, a labourer from England, travelled from London to Quebec during June 1902 onboard the S S Tunisian, with his ultimate destination being Stratford, Ontario in Canada. It may have been at Stratford that he was intending to be reunited with his older brother William (above), who had possibly crossed the Atlantic Ocean a couple of years early. In the end, upon the arrival from England of his younger brother George (below), they eventually settled in Auckland, New Zealand, with George arriving there towards the end of 1911.

The Steam Ship Tunisian, of the Allan Line and built in Glasgow, made her maiden voyage on 5^th April 1900 from Liverpool to Maine in the USA and, a month later made her first from London to Quebec and Montreal.

50Q3

Ellen Harriet Collett was born at 25 Swinbrook Road in Kensington during 1888, the third child of Joseph Ernest Collett and his wife Amelia Rogers. Her birth was recorded at Kensington register office (Ref. 1a 117) during the fourth quarter of 1888. By the time of the census in 1891, when Ellen Collett from Kensington was two years old, when she and her two older brothers (above) were still living at 25 Swinbrook Road with their parents. Her brother George (below) was also born there later that same year and it may have been there where her mother died in 1897. After that sad event, and with her father unable to look after his four children, they were split up, with her two eldest brothers eventually travelling to Canada or being sent there, prior to the death of their father in 1909.

That was the situation in 1901, when Ellen H Collett from Kensington was 12 years and living at the home of her mother’s Rogers family at Marne Street in Paddington. Ellen was described as niece, as was seven-year-old Ethel E Doran, also from Kensington, the head of the household being railway porter Henry James Rogers of Paddington and his wife Annie Rogers from Morayshire, Scotland. Their six children were listed as Henry, Ellen, Eva, May, George, and Richard. Employed by the Rogers family was laundry maid Annie Perkins who was nineteen years old and from Paddington, who was described as step-sister. It is possible that Ellen was married before 1911.

50Q4

GEORGE ALBERT COLLETT was born in London on 14^th August 1891, with his birth recorded at Kensington register office (Ref. 1a 147) during the third quarter of that year. At the time of his birth his parents, Joseph and Amelia, were living at 25 Swinbrook Road in Kensington, midway between Kensal Town and Notting Hill. Following the premature death of his mother in 1897, coupled with his father’s failing health, George and his three siblings appear to have been split up, with George the only one living at Tottenham Street in Kensington with his father in 1901. On that day George’s sister Ellen (above) was living in Paddington with members of her mother’s Rogers family. Three years later George Collett from Kensington, aged 13, the son of widower Joseph Collett, was sent to Marlesford Lodge Children’s Home at King Street in Hammersmith on 30^th November 1904.

Background information: Kensington and Chelsea School District was founded in 1876, comprising the Poor Law Unions of Kensington and Chelsea. The School District decided not to construct a large district school, instead establishing a cottage homes development at Banstead in Surrey. That took the form of small houses reminiscent of a family home, with separate school buildings, workshops and recreation facilities. A branch school, Marlesford Lodge Children’s Home, was constructed on King Street in Hammersmith and opened in 1883, providing accommodation for 130 children. That acted as a 'filter school', preventing unsuitable children from being transferred to the Banstead Homes, such as those with parents in custody, those with infectious ailments, together with children under four years of age, later raised to seven years of age. It therefore became a reception centre for girls and boys who found themselves in the care of the Guardians.

At the time George was admitted into the children’s home, his widowed father Joseph was a patient at a London Infirmary, with his later death recorded at Kensington in 1909. Before then though, and only three months later, the name of George Collett of Marlesford Lodge was added to the Register of Paupers in the Parish of St Mary Abbots in Kensington under the authority of Clerk to the Guardians, J H Rutherglen. The admission date was 1^st March 1905, with the year of his birth recorded as 1891, while it was two years later that he was discharged on 26^th March 1907, but from the S S Orunia. As a deck boy, George was paid One Pound each month. For the duration of those two years his placement with the Royal Navy Training Ship Exmouth, moored on the River Thames, was secured by the Metropolitan Asylums Board and was chargeable to the Register of Paupers.

During his two years with the training ship, George was groomed to become a member of the Royal Navy, along with about 300 other orphaned children, one of whom was Charlie Chaplin’s brother Sid Chaplin. However, on being discharged, his training record stated that he had failed entry to the Royal Navy because he had ‘knock-knees’. The majority of the above information was kindly supplied by Pauline McKenzie nee Collett, the granddaughter of George Collett.

Shortly after leaving the training ship, George is understood to have travelled to Canada, to be reunited with his two older brothers William and James (above) who had separately sailed there sometime before 1900 for William, and in 1902 for James. However, no record of George’s journey to Canada has been found but, if he did go, then his time there was short-lived, because he must have returned to England between 1905 and 1911 when, once again, no record of such a journey has been found. It is therefore possible that George and James mutually agreed to meet up in New Zealand. As a result, it was during the second half of 1911 that George Collett from England was an able seaman and a member of the crew onboard the S S Athenic, of the White Star Line, which sailed out of the Port of London bound for New Zealand, arriving at Auckland on 1^st November 1911. The previous name on the list of crew members was F Rogers, who may have been a member of George’s mother’s family.

The Steam Ship Athenic was the first of three identical ships launched at Howland & Wolff in Belfast on 17^th August 1901, the two sister ships being the S S Corinthic (1902), and S S Iconic (1903). They were specifically designed for the profitable freight and passenger service between London and New Zealand. So, after being rejected by the Royal Navy, it seems George did spend some time in his life as a merchant seaman.

Within the first three years of his new life in New Zealand, George started work as a fireman while still living in Auckland, and it was also in Auckland that he later married Edna Tamar Finey on 21^st December 1922. Edna was the daughter of Solomon Finey from England, although Edna had been born in Auckland. Their marriage eventually produced three sons for the couple, but prior to that in 1926, George and Edna adopted a three-year-old girl by the name of Lesly Iris Tozer, who took on the Collett name to become Lesly Iris Collett.

The photograph of George Albert Collett (above) was taken on the occasion of the wedding of his eldest child, his daughter Lesly Iris Collett. It was in 1934, twelve years after they had been married, that Edna presented George with the first of their three children, the second child being born three years later, and the third child born three years after that. During his life George worked as a fireman and tragically was thrown off the back of a fire engine when on an emergency call and lost his left eye as a result of the accident. That did not deter George, who enrolled with the New Zealand Air Force on 13^th December 1940 to add his support to the war effort. He entered the service as a leading aircraftsman and he had been promoted to Mess Sergeant by the time he was discharged from his duties on 26^th October 1947. George Albert Collett died while he was living in Auckland and was buried there at the Waikumete Cemetery.

Footnote: In correspondence received from Pauline MacKenzie in 2019 she says, that according to her father Dene Collett, his father George never spoke of his childhood and the hardship he had to endure in, what would have been, a harsh and a loveless existence. In the end though, he turned out to be a wonderful father to his own sons and they have many fond memories of his kindness towards them. In fact, he gave his children all the things he never had a child himself, including lots of food and sweets, pets galore, rough and tumble play, and great adventures. Sadly, George Albert Collett died of a heart attack, when the boys were still relatively young.

50R1

Lesly Iris Collett (formerly Tozer)

Born on 26.07.1923

50R2

George Bernard Collett

Born in 1934

50R3

DENE COLLETT

Born in 1937

50R4

Glenn Albert Collett

Born in 1940

50Q5

Joseph Samuel Collett was born at St Lukes Shoreditch in 1895, his birth as the first child of Joseph Henry Collett and Alice Emily Fulgoni, was recorded at Holborn register office (Ref. 1b 742) during the second quarter of 1895. At the age of six years Joseph S Collett and his family were residing in a property on Curtain Road in Shoreditch, while ten years later the family was recorded at 83 Pritchards Road in Bethnal Green when Joseph Samuel Collett was 16 and working as a bag maker.

50Q6

Rosetta Jane Collett was born at Hoxton Shoreditch in 1899, the second surviving child of Joseph and Alice Collett. Her birth was recorded at Shoreditch register office (Ref. 1c 40) during the third quarter of 1899. She was one-year old in the Shoreditch census of 1901 when she was living in the family home on Curtain Road. After a further ten years, 12-year-old Rosetta Jane and the family were recorded at 83 Pritchards Road in Bethnal Green. The later marriage of Rosetta Jane Collett and George Bates was recorded at Bethnal Green register office (Ref. 1c 303) during the third quarter of 1919.

50Q7

William Alfred Collett was born at Shoreditch in 1903, another surviving child of Joseph and Alice Collett, whose birth was recorded at Hackney register office (Ref. 1b 552) during the last three months of that year under the name of Alfred William Collett. Within a year of his birth the family settled in Bethnal Green and in 1911 their address there was 83 Pritchards Road, where William Alfred Collett was eight years old.

50Q8

Albert John Collett was born at Bethnal Green in 1905 and it was at Bethnal Green register office (Ref. 1c 196) that his birth was recorded during the first quarter of 1905. It is possible that the family moved to Bethnal Green, and 83 Pritchards Road, just before he was born, since it was there at that address where the family was living in 1911, when Albert John Collett was six years old. He was 22 when he married Annie Hilliard, the daughter of Harry and Annie Hilliard, who had been born at Bethnal Green in the summer of 1906. Her birth was recorded there (Ref. 1c 161) during the third quarter of that year, while their marriage was also recorded there (Ref. 1c 280) during the second quarter of 1927. The only other known fact about Albert is that he was 59 when he died at Bethnal Green, where his death was recorded (Ref. 5c 214) during the first three months of 1964.

50R5

Albert W Collett

Born in 1931 at Bethnal Green, London

50Q9

Ernest Collett was born at Hoxton, just north-west of Shoreditch in 1888 and was the eldest child of Walter Collett and Harriet Goodman. His birth was registered at Shoreditch (Ref. 1c 69) during the second quarter of that year. He was two years of age in the Shoreditch census of 1891 when he and his family were living at Luke Street. When Ernest was 12 years old, he and his family were living at Singer Street in Shoreditch, when his place of birth was recorded as Hoxton. It was during the second quarter of 1909 that the marriage of Ernest Collett and Ethel Emily Smith was recorded at Shoreditch register office (Ref. 1c 213). He was therefore around 20 years of age, with Ethel being nearly two years older. It was approximately just over nine months later when Ethel presented Ernest with their first and possibly only children.

According to the Shoreditch census in 1911, Ernest Collett from Middlesex was 22 and a carman employed by a corn dealer, Ethel Collett was 24 and also born in Middlesex, and their daughter Doris Collett was one-year-old. The census return that year confirmed that Ernest and Ethel had been married for twenty-five months. The birth of their daughter was recorded at Shoreditch register office during the first quarter of 1910. It is possible that other children were added to their family after that day but, the couple’s time together was cut short by the First World War, in which Ernest was involved right from the start. His absence from the family home placed a limit on any other children being born between 1911 and 1914, with no records found for any children born during that period to Collett-Smith parents.

Ernest Collett, service number 7948, was a Lance Corporal with the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. Just four months into the war in Europe, Ernest Collett, aged 28, was killed in action on 11^th November 1914, with his name included on Panel 57 of the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial. His military record confirmed that he was the husband of Ethel Emily Collett of 75 Pownall Road within the Walthamstow and Dalston area of London, just a very short distance from Hoxton, where he was born. Fifteen years after losing her husband, Ethel had to deal with the premature death of her daughter in 1930. Many years later, it has been established that Ethel Emily Collett was still living in Middlesex when she died at the age of 76, her death recorded there (Ref. 5f 449) during 1962.

50R6

Doris Ethel Collett

Born in 1910 at Shoreditch, London

50Q10

Ada Annie Collett was born at Luke Street in Shoreditch, where her birth was recorded (Ref. 1c 36) during the first quarter of 1890. She was just under one-year old in the Shoreditch census of 1891, and was once again listed as Ada A Collett in the Shoreditch census of 1901 when she was 11 years old. However, it was presumably her work which meant she was living away from her family in 1911, when Ada Collett from Shoreditch was 21 and living and working in the Hackney area of London. Three years later, the marriage of Ada A Collett and Sidney H Ching was recorded at Shoreditch register office (Ref. 1c 169) during the third quarter of 1914.

50Q11

Albert Collett was born at Singer Street in Shoreditch, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 1c 29) during the third quarter of 1897, the youngest of the three known children of Walter and Harriet Collett. He was three years old in 1901 when he was living with his family at Shoreditch. Following the death of his father in 1903, it was just Albert Collett, aged 13, who was the only child living with his mother Harriet at Shoreditch in 1911. On that day, Albert was still attending school, while he was also working part-time as an assistant on a market stall. It was eleven years after that day, when the marriage of Albert Collett and Florence E Winyard was recorded at Shoreditch register office (Ref. 1c 167) during the second quarter of 1922.

50Q12

James Herbert Collett was born at Finsbury in London, with his birth recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. 1c 44) during the second quarter of 1889. By 1891 he and his family were recorded as living in Shoreditch where James H Collett was one-year old. In the next census for Shoreditch James H Collett was 11, while only seven years later he became a married man at the age of only nineteen. The marriage of James Herbert Collett and Kate Tableporter was recorded at Whitechapel register office (Ref. 1c 431) during the third quarter of 1908. In 1911 James and his wife were still living in Shoreditch when James Collett from Finsbury was 23 and described as a job-master’s son working in the yard and his wife Kate Collett was 24 and from Spitalfields. It was most likely after that day that Kate presented James with issue. The death of James H Collett was recorded at Hackney during the last three months of 1964, when he was 75.

Not long after that census day, Kate presented James with their only known child, the birth of Elsie C Collett recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. 1c 71) during the third quarter of 1911, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Tableporter. Tragically, just two years later, the death of Elsie C Collett was recorded at Hackney register office (Ref. 1b 575) during the final three months of 1913.

50R7

Elsie C Collett

Born in 1911 at Shoreditch

50Q13

Arthur Lawrence Collett was born at Finsbury, although his birth was recorded at Shoreditch register office (Ref. 1c 41) during the third quarter of 1890. He was the younger of the two sons of James Collett and Catherine Tableporter, with whom he was living at Shoreditch in 1891 and 1901, and again in 1911, by which time he was 20 and working as a clerk for a general merchant. It is not clear, whether he was married or not, while the death of Arthur L Collett was recorded at Barnet register office (Ref. 3a 1391) during the first quarter of 1946, when he was 56.

50Q14

Ethel Maude Collett was born at 24 St Donatts Road in Deptford, London, the home of her maternal grandmother Maria Frances Collett, during the last three months of 1898, with her birth recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d 1075). Shortly thereafter, she baptised at St James’ Church, Hatcham, in the London Borough of Lewisham, on 19^th January 1899, just over one year after her parents Henry James Collett and Ada Victoria Terry were married there. She was two years old in 1901, when Ethel and her parents were residing at 10 Shardeloes Road in Deptford, where her sister Doris (below) was born. By the time of the next census in 1911 the four members of the family were recorded at 151 Woolstone Road in Forest Hill, Lewisham, where Ethel Maude Collett was 12.

Thirteen years later, the marriage of Ethel M Collett and Harry Webber was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 2462) during the third quarter of 1924. Ten years after their wedding day, Ethel presented Harry with a daughter, when the birth of Audrey Webber was recorded at Bromley register office (Ref. 2a 923) during the last three months of 1934, with her mother’s maiden-name confirmed as Collett.

50Q15

Doris Gertrude Collett was born at the family home at 10 Shardeloes Road in Deptford during 1903, her birth recorded at Greenwich register office (Ref.1d 1097) in the second quarter of that year. In 1910 Doris’ family left Deptford when they moved to 151 Woolstone Road, Forest Hill in Lewisham, where they were living in 1911 when Doris was seven years of age. After a further seventeen years, the marriage of Doris G Collett and Graham R K White was recorded at Lewisham register office (Ref. 1d 2199) during the second quarter of 1928. Only one child appears to have been born to the couple, with the birth of Patricia White recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 1d 132) during the fourth quarter of 1942, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett.

50R2

George Bernard Collett was born in New Zealand on 11^th August 1934, the eldest of the three son of George Albert Collett and Edna Tamar Finey. He never married and died at Auckland on 9^th March 1994 and was buried with his father George Albert Collett at Waikumete Cemetery in Auckland.

50R3

DENE COLLETT was the son of George Albert Collett and Edna Tamar Finey and was born in New Zealand on 9^th July 1937. He married Grace (Gracy) Takurangi Campbell on 29^th November 1957. Gracy was a New Zealand Maori and it was through their marriage that Maori names were introduced to the Collett family. The photograph on the right shows Dene and Gracy on their wedding day, flanked by Dene’s mother Edna to the left, and Gracy’s mother Leah on the far right. Over the following years Gracy presented Dene with two sons and five daughters. Gracy Takurangi Collett nee Campbell passed away on 23^rd April 2011.

50S1

PAULINE MARINO COLLETT

Born in 1958

50S2

Graham Dene Collett

Born on 21.12.1959

50S3

Bryan Wayne Collett

Born on 24.01.1961

50S4

Jennifer Grace Collett

Born in 1962

50S5

Patricia Gayle Collett

Born in 1967

50S6

Lesly Anne Collett

Born in 1969

50S7

Robyn Kirioho Collett

Born in 1971

50R4

Glenn Arthur Collett was born in New Zealand on 18^th April 1940, the youngest child of George Albert Collett and Edna Tamar Finey. Like his older brother George (above), Glen also never married and lived in Auckland for much of his life. His life was a hard one, having been born with disabilities at a time when they were poorly understood and stigmatised. His niece affectionally describes him as being like an innocent forever-twelve-year-old-boy who had impeccable manners, a positive attitude, and a resilient spirit. He was 84 years old when he died on 13^th May 2024 and this photograph of Glenn, taken fairly recently, was kindly provided by Pauline MacKenzie, nee Collett, niece.

50R5

Albert W Collett was born at Bethnal Green in London, where his birth was recorded (Ref. 1c 121) during the first three months of 1931, when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Hilliard. He was the only known child of Albert John Collett and Hilliard. It was also at Bethnal Green register office (Ref. 5c 270) that the marriage of Albert W Collett and Pauline I Graham was recorded during the first quarter of 1955. Two years later, Pauline gave birth to a daughter, whose birth was recorded at Hackney register office (Ref. 5c 565) during the second quarter of 1957, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Graham.

50S8

Elaine L Collett

Born in 1957 at Hackney, London

50R6

Doris Ethel Collett was born at Shoreditch in London, either at the end of 1909 or early in 1910, with her birth recorded at Shoreditch register office (Ref. 1c 75) during the first quarter of 1910. She was one-year-old in the Shoreditch census in 1911, the only child living with her parents Ernest and Ethel Collett who had been married for twenty-five months. Tragically, at the age of twenty, the death of Doris E Collett was recorded in London (Ref. 1c 108) in 1930.

50S1

PAULINE MARINO COLLETT is the daughter of Dene Collett and Gracy Campbell and was born in New Zealand on 29^th April 1958. She is married to Allan MacKenzie and the couple were initially living at MacKay in Queensland in 2009. This is a photograph of the happy couple taken on their wedding day in 2004. By 2012 Pauline and Allan were settled in Cairns in North Queensland. It is thanks to information gratefully received from Pauline at an earlier time and relating to her great grandfather George Albert Collett, that enabled this family line to be developed.

50S4

Jennifer Grace Collett was born in New Zealand on 15^th March 1962 who later became Jennifer Grace Beachen when she was married.

50S5

Patricia Gayle Collett was born in New Zealand on 22^nd June 1967 and she married to become Patricia Gayle Hutchinson.

50S6

Lesly Anne Collett was born in New Zealand on 28^th March 1969 who became Lesly Ann Tito on being married.

50S7

Robyn Kirioho Collett was born in New Zealand on 8^th July 1971 and, upon being married, she became Robyn Kirioho Tereappii.

APPENDIX ONE

By the end of March in 1851, the family of Henry Collett (Ref. 50O1) was living at Chepstow Mews in the Kensington area of London. Henry from Acton was 28 and a carman, his wife Sophia was 27, and their two children were Susan who was three, and Henry who was ten months old. One other person was staying with the family and she was Jane Collett who was 13 and described as the niece of Henry and Sophia Collett. As far as the research reveals, Henry Collett from Acton was the only known child of William Collett and Elizabeth Loader, therefore there is no obvious relationship for Jane to be his niece. However, William Collett did have a younger brother, James Collett (Ref. 50N3), about whom very little is known. This may be significant, as can be seen below.

The baptism record of Jane Collett at St James’ Church in Paddington on 1^st October 1837 confirmed that her parents were James and Elizabeth Collett, following her birth on 8^th July 1837. In total, James and Elizabeth appear to have had three children, Jane’s older sister being Elizabeth, and a younger brother George, although other siblings cannot be discounted. So, here is that family’s mini family tree.

50nA1

James Collett, whose origins have yet to be established, but may have been born at Shoreditch on 15^th November 1798 (Ref. 50N3), was married to Elizabeth and died after the couple had given birth to three known children. Sadly, no record of any member of the family has been identified anywhere in the census of 1841, but when James’ daughter Jane was living with the Collett family at Chepstow Mews in 1851, her two siblings were living with their widowed mother Elizabeth Collett, aged 54 and from Tottenham, who was residing at Chapel Side in Paddington, from she was working as a nurse. Jane’s sister Elizabeth Collett from Acton was 21 with no stated occupation, and her brother George Collett from Paddington was 11. Described as a lodger aged 25 and a painter from Rickmansworth, was William Bunker who may have already been engaged to be married to James’ daughter Elizabeth, whom he married not long after that census day.

With no record found of widow Elizabeth Collett from Tottenham after that day in 1851, it is likely she died during that decade. According to the next census in 1861, unmarried Jane and her bachelor brother George were living with their married sister Elizabeth Bunker nee Collett at Victoria Place in Paddington. Elizabeth’s marriage to William Bunker, had produced four children born at Paddington since 1851, although on the day of the census in 1861 her husband was absent from the family home in Paddington. Eliza Bunker from Acton was 30, and her two younger siblings were confirmed as Jane Collett, aged 24, and George J Collett, aged 22 and a milkman, both of them born at Paddington. Jane had no stated occupation, so was most likely helping her older sister look after her four children. They were Mary Bunker who was nine, Eliza Bunker who was eight, Emily Bunker who was three and William Bunker who had only just been born. Lodging with the Bunker family was William Rice from London who curious was still living with them in 1871 and 1881, on each occasion he was described as brother.

In 1871 William and Elizabeth Bunker were still residing in Paddington, most likely at Victoria Place, where they were certainly living in both 1861 and 1881. William from Bucks Hill in Hertfordshire was 45 and a bricklayer, Elizabeth from Acton was 40, and their children, minus the three eldest daughters, were William who was eleven, Alfred who was nine, Walter who was five, Charles who was four, and Albert who was not yet one year old. The aforementioned lodger William Rice, brother, was 45 and a coachmaker. Ten years later the family recorded at Victoria Place in Paddington comprised William Bunker 55, Elizabeth 50, Alfred 25 (sic), Walter 17, Charles 15, and Albert who was nine. Still living with them was lodger William Rice who was 58 and a road mender.

Elizabeth’s sister Jane must have married sometime during the 1860s, as there is no record of Jane Collett in 1871 or beyond. Easier to trace is their brother George whose birth was recorded at Kensington (Ref. iii 258) during the last three months of 1839, his baptism taking place St James’ Church in Paddington on 5^th January 1840. Having been a milkman in 1861, by 1871 bachelor George Collett was a bricklayer’s labourer when, at the age of 33 (sic), he was a lodger at the Kensington home of the large Griffin family. Ten years after that, labourer George was a married man living at St Ervans Road in Kensington with his wife Sarah Collett, from Sevenoaks in Kent, who was one year older than her husband at 43. The pair of them were still living at 23 St Ervans Road in 1891, also as confirmed in the electoral roll of 1890. Their ages were incorrectly recorded in the 1891 census, with labourer George being 46 and Sarah being 60.

During the next decade George was taken on by the Great Western Railway, causing the couple to move to Paddington, where they were recorded in March 1901 at Barnsdale Road when George was a railway nightwatchman. Interestingly, the census return stated that his place of birth was Moscow Road in Paddington and that he was 58, rather than 61, while his wife Sarah was 61. It was three years later that the death of George John Collett was recorded at Paddington register office (Ref. 1a 11) during the second quarter of 1904, when his age was once again recorded in error as 59 instead of 64.

50oA1

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1829 at Acton

50oA2

Jane Collett

Born on 08.07.1837 at Paddington

50oA3

George John Collett

Born on 05.12.1839 at Paddington

APPENDIX TWO

OTHER COLLETTS WITH A SHOREDITCH CONNECTION

This appendix was originally located within Part 65 – The London Shoreditch to Canada Line. As a result of a transfer of many of the entries into the main body of Part 50 – The London to New Zealand Line in August 2016, only a small number of apparently unrelated Colletts remained. This revamped appendix therefore has retained the brief details of those other members of the wider Collett family, in the hope that one day they will be attached to an already established family line.

Church of St Leonard, Shoreditch

50m1

Richard Collett may have been born in London around 1768 and he married Elizabeth, with their children born and baptised at Shoreditch. The baptism of two Richard Colletts took place in London in 1768, the first being Richard Thomas Collett who was baptised on 14^th May 1768 at St Martin-in-the-Field, the son of Thomas Collett. The second was Richard Collett who was baptised at the Church of St Sepulchre on 27^th November 1768, the son of Richard and Ann Collett.

50n1

Richard Collett

Born in 1794 at Shoreditch, London

50n2

Sarah Collett

Born on 08.01.1797, bap on 05.02.1797 at Shoreditch

50m2

Walter Collett may have been born in London around 1770, although no obvious birth or baptism record has been found there. He later married Jane and their only known child was born and baptised at Shoreditch.

50n3

James Collett

Born on 04.03.1796, bap on 10.04.1796 at Shoreditch

50m3

James John Collett may have been born in London in 1772 and was baptised at St Giles Church in Cripplegate on 17^th January 1772, the son of James and Mary Collett. He married Mary and their children were baptised at Shoreditch, when the parents were recorded as John and Mary Collett. Mary may have been Mary Ann Shields, who married a James Collett in the spring of 1798, in Middlesex. There were also three baptisms at St Leonards Church in Shoreditch with the parents named as John and Elizabeth Collett, with a fourth being the child of James and Elizabeth Collett. She may have been Elizabeth Charlescraft who married James Collett in Middlesex on 17^th March 1806.

50n4

Mary Elizabeth Collett

Born on 12.09.1798, bap on 04.11.1798 at Shoreditch

50n5

Jane Elizabeth Collett

Born on 28.10.1800, bap on 24.05.1801 at Shoreditch

50n6

Eliza Collett

Born on 19.10.1805, bap on 14.11.1805 at Shoreditch

The children of John and Elizabeth Collett were:

50n7

Sarah Ann Collett

Born on 07.08.1803, bap on 22.06.1806 at Shoreditch

50n8

Jane Bailey Collett

Born in 1806 at Shoreditch, London

50n9

George Parker Collett

Born in 1812 at Shoreditch, London

50n10

James Collett

Born in 1813 at Shoreditch, London

50m4

Charles Collett may have been born in London around 1775 and he married Elizabeth. Their children were all baptised at Shoreditch, with their last child possibly being given the forename Hearn after his mother.

50n11

Louisa Collett

Born on 28.09.1800, bap on 25.11.1805 at Shoreditch

50n12

Ralph Collett

Born in 1803 at Shoreditch, London

50n13

Ralph Collett

Born on 06.06.1805, bap on 22.10.1805 at Shoreditch

50n14

Ann Collett

Born in 1807 at Shoreditch, London

50n15

James Collett

Born in 1812 at Shoreditch, London

50n16

Thomas Collett

Born in 1814 at Shoreditch, London

50n17

Charles William Collett

Born on 11.04.1817, bap on 23.07.1817 at Shoreditch

50n18

Jane Elizabeth Collett

Born on 03.01.1818, bap on 01.03.1818 at Shoreditch

50n19

Frances Hearn Collett

Born on 10.12.1819, bap on 17.09.1820 at Shoreditch

50m5

James Collett may have been born in London in 1777 and was baptised at St Giles Church in Cripplegate on 21^st September 1777, the son of Henry Collett and his wife Elizabeth. It was on 16^th February 1800 in Middlesex that James Collett, a bachelor, was married by banns to (1) Clementina Collett, a widow, when both of them were described as being ‘of this parish’. Clementina or Clementina was the mother of Thomas Collett who was born at Stepney and baptised at St Dunstan’s Church, Ann Collett who was born at Shoreditch and baptised at St Leonard’s Church, as was Caroline.

50n20

Thomas Collett

Born on 15.06.1803, bap on 27.11.1806 at Stepney

50n21

Ann Collett

Born on 23.01.1806, bap on 20.04.1806 at Shoreditch

50n22

Caroline Collett

Born in 1808; baptised on 02.10.1808 at Shoreditch

50n1

Richard Collett was born at Shoreditch in London on 5^th June 1794 and was baptised there on 29^th June 1794, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett. However, he should not be confused with Richard William Dalby Collett, the son of Stephen Collett and Mary Taylor, who was born at nearby Bishopsgate in 1790. His family are featured in the Appendix at the end of Part 19 – The Oxfordshire International Line.

50n6

Eliza Collett was born at Shoreditch on 19^th October 1805 and was baptised there on 14^th November 1805, another daughter of John Collett and his wife Mary, who may have been Mary Ann Shields. The later marriage of Eliza Collett and Benjamin Hall took place at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch on 27^th December 1830. In 1861, when Eliza Hall from Middlesex was 56, she was living at Smith Street in St Pancras, where she was described as a married lady, whose husband was absent that day. Instead, living there with her was her stepdaughter, spinster Ann Morley from Shoreditch who was 36 and a dressmaker.

50n7

Sarah Ann Collett was baptised at Shoreditch on 22^nd June 1806, in a joint ceremony with her twin sister Jane (below), the daughters of John and Elizabeth Collett, when her date of birth was questionably recorded in the parish register as 7^th August 1803. It seems highly likely that she built a career in domestic service and was never married. If that proves to be the case, then in 1851, at the age of 45, unmarried Sarah Collett from Shoreditch was a nurse maid at Great Wilbraham in Cambridgeshire. That was the home of Edward H S Hicks from Birmingham, a Justice of the Peace and a student at law, his wife Gladys Hicks, and their three young children. That day, Sarah was one of eight servants employed by the family.

50n8

Jane Bailey Collett was born at Shoreditch in London on 10^th April 1806 and it was there, at St Leonard’s Church, where she was baptised on 22^nd June 1806 with her sister Sarah Ann (above), the daughters of John Collett by his second wife Elizabeth, whose surname may have been Bailey or Parker, the second forename of Jane’s brother George (below). On completing her education Jane moved to the Worcestershire village of Ombersley, where her occupation was that of a schoolteacher. After living and working there for a while, she met and married (1) John Whitney at Ombersley on 27^th August 1833, when one of the witnesses was Thomas Parker. Thomas was a solicitor who tragically died in a boating accident in 1838. His presences at the wedding, could well indicate that he was a member of Jane’s extended family. Their marriage produced two daughters Eleanor Elizabeth Whitney, and Jane Whitney. Just prior to the census in 1841, Jane was made a widow when John Whitney died and, in the census that year, Jane B Whitney was living at the School House in Ombersley with her daughters, Eleanor aged six, and Jane who was four, plus Sarah Parker who was 65 and possibly related to the aforementioned Thomas Parker.

Three years later, during the summer of 1844, the marriage of Jane Bailey Whitney and John Insoll was registered at Droitwich in Worcestershire (Ref. xviii 289). John was the son of Thomas and Mary Insoll, and was baptised at Ombersley on 25^th January 1807. Not long after they were married, Jane gave birth to a son at Ombersley early in 1846. That situation was confirmed in the Ombersley census of 1851 when John Insoll, who was born at Ombersley, was 42 and a stonemason, Jane Bailey Insoll was 45 and a school mistress from London, and their son John Insoll junior was five years of age and born at Ombersley. During the 1850s, Jane had retired and in 1861 she and her husband, together with their son, were residing at Claines, midway between Ombersley and the City of Worcester. That year’s census recorded the at Chesnut Street in Claines, where John was 52 and a bricklayer, Jane from London was 55, and their son was 15 and was working with his father as a bricklayer’s assistant.

No record of the family has been found in 1871, while it was seven years later, during the first three months of 1878, that the death of Jane Insoll was recorded at Worcester (Ref. 6c 214) at the age of 72. The birth of John Insoll junior was registered at Droitwich (Ref. xviii 235) during the first three months of 1846, following which he was baptised at Ombersley on 15^th March 1846. Her eldest daughter Eleanor was baptised at Ombersley on 5^th February 1835, with younger daughter Jane baptised there on 4^th September 1836. By 1851, Eleanor had already left school and was working in domestic service, when Jane was living in Ombersley with her widowed grandfather John Whitney who was a carpenter employing five men. Eleanor Elizabeth Whitney was the great great grandmother of Anne Lewis who, at the end of 2021, kindly provided more details about the family of Jane Bailey Collett.

50n9

George Parker Collett was born at Shoreditch in London on 7^th November 1812 and was baptised at St Leonards Church in Shoreditch on 2^nd June 1816, the son of John and Elizabeth Collett. It was on 15^th April 1838 at the parish church of St John in Hackney (Page 97 Entry 193) that bachelor George Parker Collett, a greengrocer of Church Street in Hackney, married the widow Sarah Woodman from Clerkenwell. George’s father was confirmed as John Collett, a grocer, while Sarah’s father was named as Thomas Varney, a farrier. Whilst George signed the register in his own hand, Sarah made the mark of a cross, with the two witnesses being Sarah’s father, who also made the made of a cross, and John Ruff. Once married the couple appear to have settled in Clerkenwell and nine months after they were married their first child was born. The child’s baptism record at the Church of St James in Clerkenwell (Page 6 Entry 44) confirmed that George Parker Collett was a greengrocer residing at 24 Ray Street in Clerkenwell in January 1839.

50o3

Maria Mary Collett

Baptised on 27.01.1839 at St James, Clerkenwell

50n10

James Collett was born in London on 27^th December 1813 and was baptised at Shoreditch on 23^rd January 1814 at Shoreditch. He was another son of James Collett and Elizabeth Charlescraft.

50n12

Ralph Collett was born in London on 22^nd January 1803 and was baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 22^nd August 1803, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Collett. It was just over a month later that Ralph Collett died on 28^th September 1803.

50n14

Ann Collett was born in London on 21^st September 1807 and was baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 7^th October 1807, the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Collett. It was thirteen months later that Ann Collett died on 6^th November 1808.

50n15

James Collett was born in London on 25^th October 1812 and was baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 6^th December 1812, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Collett. He was three and a half years old when he died on 28^th April 1816.

50n16

Thomas Collett was born in London on 3^rd August 1814 and was baptised at St Leonards Shoreditch on 3^rd January 1815, the son of Charles and Elizabeth Collett. It was just two years later that he died on 19^th January 1817.