PART FIFTY-FOUR

The Buckinghamshire, Russia and Canada Line

Updated May 2017

During 2010 two pieces of information came to light regarding a Collett family that lived in the British Colony on the banks of the River Neva in St Petersburg in Russia. The first of these details was received from Dave Burnett (Ref. 54S1) of Alberta in Canada who kindly provided the brief details of the life of his great grandfather John Home Collett (Ref. 54O4). The second source was a book published in 1989 under the title “Collett’s Farthing Newspapers” loaned to me by John Collett of Boston in Lincolnshire (Part 3 – The Chedworth Line). The book covered the life of the Reverend Edward Collett of Bowerchalke near Salisbury in Wiltshire, who was the son of the aforementioned John Home Collett, and the producer of the farthing newspaper for forty-six years from 1878 to 1924. Although the Reverend Edward Collett never married or had any children of his own, it was his brother Augustus and his family who were responsible for taking this line of the Collett family to Canada and hence the connection to Dave Burnett. Delving further back in time, it was in 1992 that Margaret Chadd contacted the author of the “Collett’s Farthing Newspapers” in the hope of meeting Harry Collett of Orford in Suffolk, the only apparent living Collett relative of Edward who had helped with some of the information in the book. Tragically when contact was attempted it was revealed that Harry had passed away. His widow did however suggest contacting their daughter Mary Sheriden in Ireland who in turn put forward the name of Maurice Harvey in Canada. He was a grandson of the aforementioned Augustus Collett. The following is therefore a brief history of this Collett family using all of the available information above, together with new information received from Jayne Hyslop in Canada in 2013, Jayne being the cousin of the aforementioned Dave Burnett. This new information conclusively proves that the previous version of this family line, as extracted from the first supplement to ‘The Collett Saga’ produced by Margaret Chadd in 1996, was incorrect where it related to the father of John Home Collett. Therefore, in order not to completely lose this earlier information from the Collett website, it has now been placed in an appendix at the end of this family line.

It is acknowledged that some of the illustrations used in this family line have been extracted from Rex Sawyer’s book ‘Collett’s Farthing Newspaper’, while others have been generously given by Jayne Hyslop, who also supplied much of the earlier fine detail associated with the Etheridge Colletts, from whom she is descended.

Please note - the first three generations of this family line in the County of Buckinghamshire, added in March 2014, have still to be validated as being correct. They are 54I, 54J and 54K. Despite this, and with the knowledge that generation 54L is correct, it has been decided to rename this family line as The Buckinghamshire, Russia and Canada Line.

54I1

Francis Collett was possibly born around 1620. It is not known who his wife was, since at the baptism of his three eldest known children it was just the father’s name which was provided in the records at the village of Hardwick, just north of Aylesbury. The spelling of the surname on those three occasions was Kollet, Collett and Colot.

54J1

Annie Collett

Born circa 1645 at Hardwick, Aylesbury

54J2

Richard Collett

Born circa 1647 at Hardwick, Aylesbury

54J3

Mary Collett

Born circa 1655 at Hardwick, Aylesbury

54J4

FRANCIS COLLETT

Born circa 1660 at Hardwick, Aylesbury

54J1

Annie Collett was born around 1645 and was baptised at Hardwick near Aylesbury on 13^th July 1645, the daughter of Francis Collett.

54J2

Richard Collett was born around 1647 and was baptised at Hardwick on 6^th September 1647, the son of Francis Collett.

54J3

Mary Collett was born around 1655 and was baptised at Hardwick on 22^nd June 1655, the daughter of Francis Collett.

54J4

FRANCIS COLLETT may have been born at Hardwick around 1660 and may have been the son of Francis, although no baptism record for him has so far been found, even though the records at Hardwick credit Francis the elder with three other older children as listed above.

54K1

FRANCIS COLLETT

Born in 1683 at Hardwick, nr Aylesbury

54K2

Richard Collett

Born in 1684 at Hardwick, nr Aylesbury

54K1

FRANCIS COLLETT was born around 1683 and was baptised at Hardwick on 27^th May 1683 when his father was named as Francis Collect (sic). He later settled in Monks Risborough, south of Aylesbury, where he and his wife Jane had six known children. The first four children were baptised at Monks Risborough, when just their father Francis was named, while for the later two children the parents were confirmed at Francis and Jane Collet (sic).

54L1

Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1716 at Monks Risborough

54L2

FRANCIS COLLETT

Born in 1718 at Monks Risborough

54L3

John Collett

Born in 1720 at Monks Risborough

54L4

Sarah Collett

Born in 1722 at Monks Risborough

54L5

Sarah Collett

Born in 1724 at Monks Risborough

54L6

Thomas Collett

Born in 1727 at Monks Risborough

54K2

Richard Collett was born in 1684 and was baptised at Hardwick on 1^st February 1684, the son of Francis Collett.

54L1

Elizabeth Collett was born at Monks Risborough in 1716 and was baptised there on 26^th September 1716, the eldest child of Francis Collett.

54L2

FRANCIS COLLETT was born at Monks Risborough in 1718 where he was baptised on 23^rd November 1718, the eldest son of Francis and Jane Collett. He later took up the trade of a shoemaker and was 28 when he was married to (1) Mary Davis at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth on 6^th December 1746. It is known that they had at least six children, two born at Greenwich and three of them born at Wooburn in Buckinghamshire, which is midway between Marlow and Beaconsfield, before returning to Greenwich for the birth of their last child. It is also now established that Mary Collett nee Davis died at Greenwich on 26^th December 1756, which may mean that she died giving birth to a further child of Francis Collett who also did not survive. Mary would have only been around thirty-five years of age at the time of her death, following which she was buried in the churchyard of St Alfege (now St Alphage) that same day.

After seven years as a widower Francis married spinster (2) Sarah Baxter by banns at St Alfege Church in Greenwich on 16^th October 1763. The couple had only been married for thirteen years when Sarah Collett nee Baxter, a shoemaker’s wife, died in Greenwich where she was buried at the Church of St Alfege on 27^th January 1887. It was also at Greenwich on 5^th August 1793 that Francis Collett died when it was indicated in the St Alfege burial record that same day that he was a pauper.

It may be of interest that one hundred year earlier there were generations of the Collett family at Greenwich who had connections with the Church of St Alphage including John Collett (Ref. 52A/G1) who married Anne Higgins on 22^nd May 1628, with whom he had a number of children all baptised there, plus the following who were buried there. Henry Collett on 20^th June 1616, William Collett on 1^st September 1618 and his daughter Sara Collett who was buried there on 13^th July 1616 having been baptised there on 15^th May 1616. Even more interestingly is the fact that in 1624 another Valentine Collett was born into the family of John Collett (Ref. 52A/F1) and his wife Anne, this unusual christian name possibly linking the two family lines together – see Appendix One in Part 52 – The England to Baltimore Line.

54M1

Valentine Collett

Born in 1745 at Greenwich

54M2

Francis Collett

Born in 1746 at Greenwich

54M3

WILLIAM COLLETT

Born in 1749 at Wooburn

54M4

Joseph Collett

Born in 1751 at Wooburn

54M5

Richard Collett

Born in 1753 at Wooburn

54M6

George Collett

Born in 1755 at Greenwich

54L3

John Collett was born at Monks Risborough in 1720 and it was there also that he was baptised on 27^th November 1720, the son of Francis Collett.

54L4

Sarah Collett was born at Monks Risborough in 1722 where she was baptised on 17^th March 1722, the daughter of Francis Collett. It seems likely that she suffered an infant death since the next daughter born into the family was also named Sarah.

54L5

Sarah Collett was born at Monks Risborough in 1724 shortly after the death of her sister after whom she was baptised on 17^th January 1724, when she was confirmed as the child of Francis and Jane Collet (sic).

54L6

Thomas Collett was born at Monks Risborough in 1727 and was baptised there on 11^th June 1727, the last known child of Francis Collett and his wife Jane, as detailed on the baptism record.

54M1

Valentine Collett was born during the first two months of 1745 at Greenwich where he was baptised at St Alfege (Alphage) Church on 10^th March 1745, the eldest of the six known sons of Francis and Mary Collett. In 1771 Valentine was the witness at the marriage of his brother William (below) at St Dunstan & All Saints Church in Stepney. On 14^th December 1781 Valentine Collett was indicted for stealing two gilt and gold watch cases but was acquitted in court at London on 9^th January 1782.

However, it was at St Alphage Church in Greenwich twenty-three years later that Valentine, at the age of 49, married Susanna Denton on 22^nd May 1794 by licence. Susanna was born in 1756 and may well have been the daughter of Samuel Denton who was one of executors of the Will of William Collett (below). Susanna Collett nee Denton died in 1823 while she and Valentine were residing at the almshouse attached to St Elizabeth College in Greenwich, following which she was buried at Greenwich on 2^nd June 1823. Her widowed husband survived her by almost two and a half years. They are known to have had a son who was born in 1795 whose baptism record confirmed that Valentine Collett was a shoemaker at Greenwich.

Valentine Collett of Greenwich was 81 years old when he died at the Almshouse in Queen Elizabeth’s College, Greenwich on 1^st November 1825, following which he was buried at Greenwich two days later. Valentine Collett, brother-in-law, was one of the two beneficiaries under the terms of the 1818 Will of Hester Collett nee Bristow, the widow of his younger brother William (below). See Appendix Four for another Valentine Collett.

54N1

Francis Valentine Collett

Born in 1795 at Greenwich

54M2

Francis Collett was born at Greenwich in 1746 and was baptised there at the Church of St Alfege (Alphage) on 15^th February 1746, the son of shoemaker Francis Collett and his wife Mary.

54M3

WILLIAM COLLETT was born at Wooburn in Buckinghamshire on 1^st January 1749 where he was baptised at St Paul’s Church on 1^st February 1749, the son of Francis Collett and Mary Davis. When he was five years old his parents left Wooburn in Buckinghamshire and returned to Greenwich with their young family. Living at Greenwich appears to have influenced him, and his two brother Joseph and Richard (below), about a life on the sea since from 11^th June 1768 to 1771 he was an able seaman and a member of the crew of HMS Endeavour, the ship in which Captain James Cook sailed out of Plymouth harbour on 26^th August 1768 bound for the South Pacific island of Tahiti. The details of the expedition, together with a list of the names of all those on board (including William Collett A B) was published on the front of the London Gazette that same day. One of William’s duties on board ship was to act as barber for the crew.

On HMS Endeavour during that first voyage (1768-1771) William served as the cook's servant and later became the ship's purser looking after paperwork and finance. Records show that the ship docked off the Kent coast on 13^th July 1771. It was four months later when William Collett married (1) Mary Ash at the Church of St Dunstan and All Saints in Stepney on 18^th November 1771, after whom his first son was named. Sadly the child did not survive. The witness at the wedding was Valentine Collett, William’s eldest brother. At least two further children were born to William and Mary, they being born at Greenwich and, it is speculated, their surviving son was named after able seaman Isaac Smith who was also member of the crew of HMS Endeavour. Sometime after that particular birth it would appear that Mary Collett nee Ash died, perhaps giving birth to a further child. Prior to the birth of his daughter, William requested payment for service from the Navy Board in March 1780 for his time on board HMS Leviathan, and again in August 1780 for his time on HMS Zephyr, both at Spithead in Dartmouth, Devon.

William’s second sea voyage commenced on 17^th December 1771 just a month after he was married, which was the reason his first child was not born until he had been married for five years. That second voyage was another with Captain Cook, on that occasion, on board HMS Resolution bound for the Pacific Ocean. It was just prior to his third voyage that his first known child was born, who died shortly thereafter. On 10^th February 1776 he set sail again with Capt Cook and HMS Resolution for the North West Passage. He remained with that ship until the death of Cook, when on 15^th February 1779 William Collett was transferred to HMS Discovery, but rejoined HMS Resolution on 24^th August 1779.

It was during March 1780 he was at Spithead with HMS Leviathan, possibly at the end of another voyage, after which he was reunited with his wife at Greenwich, following which his two surviving children were born.

Following the death of his first wife William later married (2) Hester Bristow who presented him with his last daughter Susanna, who also married a member of the Bristow family. That second marriage took place at St Nicholas Church at Boley Hill in Rochester, Kent, on 9^th July 1791. The record of the marriage read as follows. William Collett of this parish, widower, and Hester Bristow of this parish, spinster, married in this church [St Nicholas] by licence. They both signed the register in their own hand, while the witnesses were Robert Bristow, possibly Hester’s father, and Ann Patten.

His naval record indicates that he was a serving seaman with the Royal Navy from 13^th March 1781 until he retired on 31^st December 1804, finishing just ten months before the Battle of Trafalgar in which his son Isaac took part. However, William Collett from Chatham did serve as a gunner under Lord Horatio Nelson on board HMS Agamemnon from January 1793 until Nelson took command of HMS Captain in 1796. His new role with Nelson prompted William to make a Will which was dated on 14^th February 1793. That document referred to him as William Collett, gunner of His Majesty’s Ship Agamemnon, in which all his worldly goods were bequeathed to his wife Hester Collett, while the executors of his estate were named as Hester and Isaac Clementson and Samuel Denton of Clements Inn, London (Westminster), navy agents – see Ref. 54M1 when William’s brother Valentine Collett married Susanna Denton in 1794. A ‘gunner’ was a Warrant Officer and would have needed to pass examinations to secure a certificate to be appointed to that post.

It was during the following year that William took on board HMS Agamemnon as a volunteer his only son Isaac, who was just 11 years of age in 1794. It is speculated that William did this to take his son away from his stepmother, William’s second wife, and that may well be true since Isaac was not mentioned in her Will of 1818, following her death on 11^th January 1818 at Ratcliff in Stepney and her burial at St Dunstan’s Church that same day. When Lord Nelson left the Agamemnon for the 64-gun HMS Captain so too did William Collett and his son Isaac, and it was on 11^th June 1796 that the pair of them joined the crew of the new ship. Gunner William Collett was involved in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in the Leeward Island on 14^th February 1797, when the records show that William Collett and Ralph W Miller submitted a gunner’s expenditure of stores.

Two years after that, in 1799, William Collett was assigned to the crew of the 90-gun warship HMS Prince George, although that was only a temporary measure since during February 1800 he returned to duty with HMS Captain. On 15^th October that same year William received a letter from the navy concerning his son Isaac and prize money from working on HMS Captain. It was four years later that he retired from the navy.

William Collett was a witness at the wedding on his youngest daughter at Stepney, London in April 1815, but sadly it was just eight months later that he died on 1^st December 1815 at Ratcliff within the parish of Stepney. At the time of writing his Will in 1793 his wife Hester was living within the Chatham area of London, when she was named as one of the three executors. Surprisingly the Will of William Collett was proved in London on 14^th December 1815, just four days after he had passed away – see Will in Legal Documents. Following the death of her husband his widow submitted papers to the Charity for the Relief of Officer’s Widows, presumably because she was 60 with no income. The Will of Hester Collett nee Bristow of Green Dragon Gardens in Stepney was proved at Stepney on 16^th January 1818, five days after her death, named as sole beneficiaries her son-in-law George Bristow (Hester’s daughter having died two years earlier), and her brother-in-law Valentine Collett (above).

The following has been extracted from the muster of HMS Resolution for Capt James Cook's Third Voyage to the Pacific in 1776. William Collett, who was born at High Wycombe circa1749, joined on 10^th February 1776 as an able seaman – the same day his brother Joseph joined the same ship and their brother Richard joined HMS Discovery. William became Master-at-Arms from 13^th July 1776 and later transferred to HMS Discovery on 17^th February 1779 as Master-at-Arms from HMS Resolution, to where he returned on 23^rd August 1779. Another entry also confirmed that William Collett has sailed on the first voyage on the HMS Endeavour as an able seaman and has sailed on the second voyage on board HMS Resolution, also as an able seaman.

Footnote

An interesting item was published in the Bucks Herald on 23^rd March 2005 saying “that the unknown destiny of one of Captain Cook's crew members has left The Captain Cook Society eager to trace his bloodline in Wooburn and so solve the mystery. William Collett sailed on all three voyages made to the Pacific by Captain Cook in the 18th century and was believed to have been held in high acclaim by the famous exploring legend. But his exact whereabouts during the first voyage have left researchers in a muddle because at the same time another William Collett was getting married in St Paul's Church in Wooburn Town.” The Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies archive has a record of the marriage of William Collett to Mary Simmonds on 5^th May 1771 ten weeks before Endeavour arrived back in England. Therefore it is possible that he was a different William Collett, or if not, then Mary Ash, whom William married at Stepney six months later in November 1771, would have been his second wife.

54N2

William Ash Collett

Born in 1776 at Stepney

54N3

Mary Ann Collett

Born in 1781 at Greenwich

54N4

ISAAC CHARLES SMITH COLLETT

Born in 1783 at Greenwich

The following is the daughter of William Collett by his second wife Hester Bristow:

54N5

Susannah Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1793 at Rochester, Kent

54M4

Joseph Collett was possibly born before 1750 and was baptised at St Paul’s Church in Wooburn near Burnham Beeches on 23^rd January 1751, the son of Francis and Mary Collet (sic). Like his brother, William (above) Joseph also joined the Royal Navy and served from 12^th March 1782 until 13^th September 1801. On the 17^th April 1802 a certificate of service indicated that during those years he was a member of the crew on board the HMS Pelican, HMS Inconstant, HMS Sybille and HMS Prince Edward. Two days later the service record of Joseph Collett stated that he had served for eighteen years and was eligible for superannuation. It was just over nine years later that Joseph Collett died on 12^th September 1811.

Although not included with the ships listed above, it is believed that Joseph Collett, a gun-room servant, and his brother Richard Collett (below) served on board HMS Resolution under Captain James Cook for a journey across the Pacific Ocean during 1772. The name of Joseph Collett was also included on the muster list for HMS Resolution for Cook's Third Voyage. The entry stated that Joseph Collett, who was born at High Wycombe circa 1748, joined on 10^th February 1776 as an able seaman and gunroom servant. That was also the same day that his brother William joined the crew of HMS Resolution, while their brother Richard was assigned to HMS Discovery.

54M5

Richard Collett was born at Wooburn in 1753 and it was as Rich Collett that his baptism was recorded at St Paul’s Church in Wooburn on 4^th February 1753, when his father was named as Francis Collett, shoemaker, whose wife was Mary. In 1772 Richard was a member of the crew of HMS Resolution which set out from England for the Pacific Ocean under the captaincy of James Cook. Following his return, it was four years later as Richard Collet (sic), age 23, that he married Agnes Dave at St Dunstan in Stepney on 10^th March 1776, having first posted a Marriage Bond in Surrey on 6^th February 1776, four day before he joined the crew of HMS Discovery. The witnesses at the wedding were Valentine Collett and William Collett, Richard’s two older brothers. Agnes Dave was born in 1751 and she died at Greenwich on 11^th December 1801.

Once married Richard continued to be a member of the crew of Captain James Cook and served with him on board HMS Discovery from 1776 until 1780 for the North-West Passage expedition. On 2^nd September 1780 Richard sailed out of Port Royal Harbour in Jamaica on board HMS Magnificent bound for England. It was during the following year that Agnes presented him with the first of their two known children, the baptism record for which confirmed his occupation as a mariner. That was also confirmed in the burial record for Agnes Collett nee Dave when she was buried in the grounds of St Alfege (Alphage) Church in Greenwich. Following the earlier death of her husband on 3^rd October 1800, Agnes applied to the Charity for the Relief of Officer’s Widows, when she was named as the widow of Richard Collett, gunner with the Royal Navy.

The following has been extracted from the muster of HMS Discovery for Capt James Cook's Third Voyage to the Pacific. Richard Collett joined on 10^th February 1776 as an able seaman – the same day his brother William joined HMS Resolution. He was Master-at-Arms from 30^th November 1776 and was subsequently transferred to HMS Resolution on 16^th February 1779 as Master-at-Arms where he had previously been an able seaman on its second voyage. He rejoined HMS Discovery on 24^th August 1779 from Resolution where he continued as Master-at-Arms.

54N6

Richard Collett

Born in 1781 at Greenwich

54N7

Francis John Collett

Born in 1785 at Greenwich

54M6

George Collett was the sixth son and last child of Francis and Mary Collett and was born at Greenwich during the first five months of 1755. He was baptised at St Alfege (Alphage) Church in Greenwich on 1^st June 1755, although nothing more is known about him at this time.

54N1

Francis Valentine Collett was born at Greenwich in 1795 where he was baptised at St Alfege (Alphage) Church on 23^rd August 1795, the only know child of shoemaker Valentine Collett and his wife Susanna Denton. Francis also became a shoemaker and it was at the age of thirty-six that he married Charlotte Robbins on 18^th September 1831 at St Giles Church in Camberwell. The marriage produced at least two children while the couple was living at Greenwich, before the premature death of Charlotte Collett nee Robbins at Greenwich during the third quarter of 1849. However, eight years earlier, on the occasion of the census in June 1841, the family of four was recorded as Francis Collett age 45, Charlotte Collett age 35, and their two children William and Charlotte both of whom had a rounded age of five years.

Ten years later shoemaker Francis Collett was a widower at the age of 56, while still living with him at Greenwich was his son William, who was 18, and his daughter Charlotte who was 15, both of them confirmed as having been born at Greenwich, as was their father. No record of any member of the family has been found after that time, perhaps because they emigrated to Australia where certainly Francis’ two children were both subsequently married.

54O1

William Francis Collett

Born in 1833 at Greenwich

54O2

Charlotte Elizabeth Collett

Born in 1835 at Greenwich

54N2

William Ash Collett was born at Stepney on 1^st June 1776, the eldest child of mariner William Collett and Mary Ash, who was baptised at St Dunstan’s Church on 9^th June 1776. Tragically it is believed that he did not survive beyond infancy.

54N3

Mary Ann Collett was born at Greenwich in 1781 where she was baptised on 25^th October 1781 at the Church of St Alfege (Alphage) the eldest child of William and Mary Collett.

54N4

ISAAC CHARLES SMITH COLLETT was born at Greenwich during the first six months of 1783, possibly on 2^nd May, and was baptised at St Alphage Church in Greenwich on 20^th June 1783, the son of mariner William Collett and his wife Mary Ash. With his father at sea, and following the death of his mother, Isaac was cared for by his grandfather up until his death in 1793. It was the following year, when he was just 11 years old, that he joined his father and the crew of the 64-gun warship HMS Agamemnon during November 1794 when Lord Nelson was its captain [1793-1796]. By the time he was 17 he was a midshipman assigned to the 74-gun battleship HMS Captain, when he was described as the youngest of the aspiring gentlemen of the Agamemnon and the son of Nelson’s gunner. HMS Captain saw action during the French Revolution and also took part in the Battle of Trafalgar.

On 9^th September 1801, four years before the Battle of Trafalgar, Isaac was promoted to lieutenant, for which he had to sit an examination and have served six years at sea. A letter written by Lord Nelson at that time made reference to Isaac Collett and his father gunner William Collett, as detailed in the book ‘The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson’ Volume 4, page 487. The naval records show that the year after the Battle of Trafalgar Isaac Collett, age 23, was the lieutenant in charge of HMS Quail for duties in the North Sea. That same year he was made commander of the newly commission HMS Woodcock, a cuckoo class schooner with 4 guns and 20 crew.

On 13^th February 1804 Isaac was the First Lieutenant on board HMS Aramanthe which was in dock at Deptford in Kent. On that day two sheriffs and a tailor from Deptford named Cumberland boarded the vessel armed with a writ against one of the crewmen for a debt, but Lt Collett refused to let the man go with the officers until he had sought advice from the captain. Upon their later return, after written instructions had been received from the captain, Lt Collett informed Mr Cumberland that he was to be pressed into service with the navy. It was only upon production of a writ of Habeas Corpus that the tailor escaped a life at sea.

Later that same year the HMS Firm, a 12-gun Archer-class gun-brig built at Frindsbury in Kent, was launched on 2^nd July 1804. The ship was first commissioned by Lieutenant Isaac Collett in 1805 and was stationed at The Downs, a stretch of water in the southern North Sea near to the English Channel. On 23^rd to 25^th April 1805 she formed part of a large British squadron off Boulogne that captured eight Dutch armed schuyts together with an unarmed vessel, for which HMS Firm received her share of the prize money. HMS Woodcock was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20, built by Crane & Holmes, and launched at Great Yarmouth in 1806, which was commissioned that same year under Lieutenant Isaac Charles Smith Collett.

At 5.00 pm on 13^th February 1807 HMS Woodcock was at Vila Franca do Campo, São Miguel in the Azores, when it ran ashore after losing its anchor, wrecking the vessel on the rocky coastline. Lines were passed ashore and the all members of the crew safely landed under the guidance of Lieutenant Isaac Collett. Just over one month later, on 30^th April 1807, Isaac wrote a letter to the Admiralty in England requesting that further instructions be sent to the Consulate in Ponta Delgada for himself and his 20-man crew who were still stranded on São Miguel Island. That letter must have been effective because three weeks later he was back in Devon for the day of his wedding.

Isaac Charles Smith Collett was married by licence to Sophia Bozon at Stoke Damerel on 19^th May 1807. Sophia was born at Stoke Damerel in Devon during 1793, the daughter of Mark Anthony Bozon and Jane Worthonbury. She was only 14 years old on their wedding day and therefore needed her father’s consent. The witnesses at the ceremony were Jane Bozon (Sophia’s mother) and Grace Hawkins. Both Isaac and Sophia signed the register in their own hand.

Sophia Collett was certainly living in Plymouth Dock at the end of 1808 when she witnessed the articles of clerkship for her fifteen-year-old brother on 21^st December that year. However, by the time of the birth of her second child she and Isaac were living in Gosport, and it was there also that the family was still living when the couple’s third child was born. During the next few years the family returned to Stoke Damerel where the couple’s last two children were born. By January 1815 Isaac Charles Smith Collett was confirmed in naval records as being part of the Transport Service.

On 5^th January 1820 The Times newspaper in London published the following announcement. “Bound for Kingston, Port Morant, and ports adjacent to Jamaica, positively to sail on the 10^th instant, the remarkably fine fast sailing ship Mariner, A L coppered, Isaac Collett, Commander, burden 250 tons, laying at Blackwall, has excellent accommodation for passengers. For freight or passage apply to Mt Edmund Matthews, 22 College Hill, or to John and Thomas Marshall, brokers, 3 East India Chambers, Leadenhall”. That voyage was the last one made by Isaac Charles Smith Collett, as it is believed that the ship never reached its destination and was reported as lost at sea.

The Will of Isaac Charles Smith Collett, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and employed as an agent in the transport service, was made on 23^rd February 1810 and was proved in London on 27^th February 1821 and named his wife Sophia as the sole executor. Curiously though, his four known children were not named within the Will. It was a standard Royal Navy document and referred to the dangers and perils of the seas. His wife Sophia would have been around 28 years of age when she was made a widow, while her eldest child would have been 10 years old and her youngest only three years of age.

Sophia Collett was in court in London during 1850 to testify as a witness in a case of slander concerning her widowed daughter-in-law Harriet Elizabeth Collett, when her testimony was recorded in the newspapers (see below). Mr Husband, the attorney who brought the case against Harriet, was in fact her mother-in-law’s relative, the husband of Sophia’s niece Frances Bozon Home. He seems to have acted for the entire extended family in legal matters, although his career may have been compromised by the negative view of this case by his peers in the legal profession, as he and his family emigrated to Australia within the followings two years.

The London Morning Post printed on 15^th January 1850 included details of the case of Husband and Another versus Collett as follows: Mr Sergeant Allen and Mr Ball conducted the case for the plaintiffs; Mr Montague Chambers and Mr Phipson appeared for the defendant. This was an action to recover compensation in damages for the alleged use of certain slanderous and defamatory words affecting the plaintiffs’ character, and arising out of certain mortgage transactions. The defendant pleaded not guilty. The plaintiffs in this action were Messrs Husband and Wyatt, solicitors of Gray’s Inn, and the defendant was the widow of a naval officer residing at Hampstead. During the year 1847 the plaintiffs were employed to invest, by way of mortgage, £300 for the defendant, with the interest at the rate of 5 per cent.

The security, which consisted of a second mortgage upon several houses at the Paragon, Walworth, was obtained and the money duly advanced. It was for the use of certain slanderous words arising out of that transaction, which will be detailed below, that the plaintiffs now sought to recover compensation. Mrs Sophia Collett deposed that she was the widow of the late Lieutenant Collett, and resided at 24 York Buildings, Regent’s Park. The defendant was her daughter-in-law. Her son, the defendant’s husband, died during the year 1846. She knew that the defendant had some money invested at that time in Ireland, and she was consulted upon the matter. It was then decided that the money should be withdrawn, and invested in some security of a desirable nature, and that five per cent interest should be obtained, and the matter was forthwith placed in the hands of the plaintiffs at her suggestion, in order that that object might be carried into effect.

The mortgage was accordingly effected on 26^th February 1848 upon the foregoing terms. Some time subsequently the defendant seemed very unhappy; she seemed to think that the security was not bona fide. During 24^th May 1849, the witness called upon the defendant at North End, Hampstead. Having entered into conversation, the defendant said, “I have very bad news to tell you today. I find the mortgage is all a swindle, fraud, and robbery, and that the deeds are a forgery and not worth a penny; and my lawyer, Mr Rutter, tells me that those could have been no friends of mine who would have put me into such hands as Husband and Wyatt. They are well known”. Obviously Sophia Collett was displeased to hear her relative Mr Husband being talked about in that way, and it was therefore she who reported her daughter-in-law’s comments to the company of solicitors. However, it was drawn to the attention of the court that Husband and Wyatt had not bothered to write a letter to Harriet Collett to seek an apology until 9^th November 1849.

The letter was addressed to Mrs H E Collett at 31 Spencer Square in Ramsgate and it was the lack of a response that resulted in the court action being taken. Summing up for the defendant, Mr Chambers addressed the jury saying that he thought this was one of the most useless and most foolish actions ever brought into a court of justice. He went on to say that he was sorry that that which had been spoken of between two related people should be brought forth into the world. After the summing up, by Mr Baron Rolfe, the jury returned a verdict in favour of the defendant.

Just over one year later, in the census of 1851, Sophia Collett from Devon was 58 when she was described as the widow of an officer living at St Marylebone in London. Living there with her were her two grandsons from Newlyn in Cornwall, John H Hosken and Richard F Hosken, they being the children of her daughter Jane who, on that day, was staying with her husband’s uncle at Davenham in Cheshire. By the time of the next census in 1861 Sophia was recorded as Sophia Collet (sic) age 68 and a lodger who was still living in St Marylebone. It was just over two years later that Sophia Collett nee Bozon died at Leamington in Warwickshire on 7^th July 1863. The announcement of her death read “on 7^th Inst. Sophia Collett widow of Commander Collett of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy”. Four days later she was buried at All Saints Church in Leamington Prior, today known as Leamington Spa.

54O3

Charles Frederick Collett

Born in 1809 at Plymouth

54O4

Mark Anthony Collett

Born in 1810 at Gosport

54O5

JOHN HOME COLLETT

Born in 1812 at Gosport

54O6

Jane Collett

Born in 1817 at Stoke Damerel, Devon

54O7

Augustus Bozon Collett

Born in 1818 at Stoke Damerel, Devon

54N5

Susannah Elizabeth Collett was born at Rochester in Kent on 11^th April 1793, the daughter of William Collett by his second wife Hester Bristow. The close family ties with the Bristow family resulted in Susannah eventually marrying the slightly old George Bristow who was born at Gillingham on 18^th January 1785. Their wedding took place at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney on 11^th April 1815 when one of the witnesses was her father William, who died eight months later. Susannah was in her early twenties when she gave birth to a daughter Eliza Bristow who was born at Queensborough on the Isle of Sheppey where she was baptised on 18^th January 1816. It seems likely that the cause of death of Susannah E Bristow nee Collett of Radcliffe, on 7^th July 1817 at Stepney, may have been through the birth of the couple’s second child, who also presumably did not survive the ordeal. It was two days later that she was buried at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney on 9^th July. Upon the death of her mother in 1818 George Bristow was named as one of the two beneficiaries in her Will which was proved on 16^th January 1818. In that document George of Salt Pan Reach was described as a mariner with HMS Canada, which was a Prison Hulk moored at Chatham.

54N6

Richard Collett was born at Greenwich in 1781 and was baptised there at St Alfege (Alphage) Church on 25^th October 1781, the son of mariner Richard Collett and his wife Agnes Dave.

54N6

Francis John Collett was born at Greenwich in 1785 where he was baptised on 7^th March 1785, the son of Richard and Agnes Collett.

54O1

William Francis Collett was born south of the River Thames in London during 1833 and was baptised at St Alphage Church in Greenwich on 5^th April 1833 when he was confirmed as the son of Francis and Charlotte Collett. As William Collett he had a rounded age of five years in the Greenwich census of 1841 but sometime after that his mother died leaving him and his sister Charlotte (below) living at Greenwich in 1851 with just their father, when the birth place of William Collett, age 18, was confirmed as Greenwich. No record of William, or his father and his sister has been found in Great Britain after that time, and that may have been because all three of them may have sailed to Australia together. Certainly we now know that definitely William and his sister Catherine did just that.

It is established that William Francis Collett married Dorothy Anne Shaw at St John's Anglican Church, Bishopthorpe Estate in the Glebe district of Sydney in New South Wales on 24^th February 1866 when he was 33. Now, in addition to this and thanks to Graeme Keeley in Hazelbrook, NSW, we know that the marriage produced a daughter for William and Dorothy. The announcement of their wedding was published in Sydney Empire on Saturday 10^th March 1866, as follows: “COLLETT-SHAW. On 24^th February, at Rosecliff, by the Rev. John Graham, William Francis Collett, late of Greenwich, Kent, England, to Dorothy Annie, third daughter of Israel Shaw, Esq., New Zealand, late of Twofold Day, New South Wales.” The newspaper reference to Rosecliff was an error, as that was where Francis was living prior to the wedding, as detailed on the wedding certificate “Residence: Rosecliff, Bishopthorpe Estate, Glebe, NSW”.

Dorothy Anne Shaw was born at Launceston in Van Diemen’s Land on 20^th October 1843 to Israel Shaw and Hannah Pearson, Israel Shaw being the owner of a Launceston Hotel - The Golden Fleece Inn. Tragically, their daughter Frances was only nineteen, when William Francis Collett, an ironmonger, died at the family’s home at 13 Trafalgar Street in Petersham, Sydney on 29^th May 1887, following which he was buried at Rookwood Independent Cemetery on 31^st May 1887. Dorothy Anne Collet nee Shaw had been a widow for forty-eight years when she passed away on 16^th July 1935, by which time she was residing at the Petersham Home for the Elderly, after which she was buried with her husband during the following day.

54P1

Frances Charlotte Elizabeth Forster Collett

Born in 1867 in Sydney

54O2

Charlotte Elizabeth Collett was born at Greenwich in 1835 and was baptised there at St Alphage Church on 18^th November 1835, the daughter of Francis Valentine Collett and his wife Charlotte. It was simply as Elizabeth Collett that she was recorded in the Green census of 1841 when she was five years old, but sadly her mother died during the following years. By 1851 it was just Charlotte, who was 15, and her brother William (above), who were still living at Greenwich with their widowed father. Thanks to Graeme Keeley in Australia it is now established that Catherine eventually sailed to New South Wales, either on the same ship as her brother, or a little while later. Since it was there at Bourke in NSW (Ref. 2796/1880) that Charlotte Elizabeth Collett married George Steele during 1880.

54O3

Charles Frederick Collett was born at Plymouth on 23^rd January 1809, the eldest of the five known children of Isaac Charles Collett and his wife Sophia Bozon. It was over one year later that he was baptised at Plymouth on 24^th May 1810, after which his family moved to Gosport where his two brothers were born before the family returned to Plymouth shortly thereafter. He entered the Royal Navy on 13^th August 1824 and passed his midshipman’s examination at Navy College on 14^th August 1830. During the years from 1835 to 1837 Charles was sailing around the West Indies mapping and surveying the islands, for which he was mentioned in the Royal Geographical Society Journal in 1837. A paper written by Lieut. C F Collett, R N, identifying the Caribbean Islands was published in 1846 and included observations and notes he made between 1835 and 1837.

Ten years later he was appointed to the Coast Guard on 4^th January 1841 and obtained his commission as a Chief Officer on 23^rd November 1841. It was two years earlier when Charles married Harriet Elizabeth Cantrell by licence at Monkstown Church, Dublin in Ireland on 10^th October 1839. Harriet was born at Nenagh in Tipperary during 1816, the daughter of John Cantrell, and her only child was born in the year after she was married.

On 23^rd September 1844 Charles was promoted to the rank of lieutenant with the Coast Guard service when he was transferred from Ferriters Cove in County Kerry to Court MacSherry in County Cork. Just over one year after that he joined the Royal Navy on 22^nd December 1845 and moved from court MacSherry to Portmack Station. After a further year, on 21^st November, he was admitted into Bodmin Gaol as a debtor when he was dying, and it was there that he died three days later. His death on 24^th November was recorded in the Sheriff’s Ward, when he was described as Lieut. Collett, R N. An article in the Royal Cornwall Gazette on 22^nd October 1847 included the following words under the headline ‘Surgeon’s Annual Report’:

“Mr Hamley reported that the prisoners had been generally healthy until within the last two months, since which time, many cases of diarrhoea and dysentery had occurred, attended with low fever; but the cases had not been of an infection character, and no case had proved fatal. There were now eight cases in the Infirmary, but they were all of a convalescence state. There had been one death, that of Mr Collett, a debtor, who was brought in in a dying state, and died soon after.”

Four years earlier Charles Frederick Collett was again mentioned in print, when an article was published in the West Kent Guardian Newspaper on 7^th January 1843. It reported that Captain Adey of the vessel Delia had written a message in a bottle which had been thrown from the ship on 12^th August 1842 during a voyage from Plymouth to Quebec. The message with the August date simply said “All well onboard” and asked the finder send the note to Captain Adey in Poole. In the event, the bottle was discovered on the beach at Ferriter’s Cove after severe gales by Lieut. C F Collett, R N, Dingle District in County Kerry on 28^th December 1842. The bottle had been at sea for 138 days, during which time it had travelled around 972 miles.

Harriet Elizabeth Collett was in court in January 1850 facing a charge of slander against Husband & Wyatt, solicitors, to whom she had gone to secure a mortgage. The choice of the company may well have been influence by Harriet’s mother-in-law Sophia Collett whose niece was the wife of Mr Husband. After securing the loan in 1848 Harriet referred to the company of solicitors a few months later with words like swindle, fraud, robbery, and that the mortgage deed was a forgery and not worth a penny. Unfortunately those words were spoken to Sophia Collett who then reported the incident to her niece’s husband, and it was her actions that resulted in the slander case, with Sophia being the only witness. During the court proceedings the address of Harriet Collett in late 1847 and early 1848 was confirmed as North End in Hampstead while, by September 1849, she was stated to be residing at 31 Spencer Square in Ramsgate. In the end the jury found in favour of Harriet and the case was dismissed.

At the time of the census in 1851 his widow Harriet E Collett, age 32, and her son Charles F, age 10 and from Scotland, were visitors at the Ramsgate home of Caroline Devenish. It was a similar situation in 1861 and again in 1871 when first, Harriet Collet (sic) was 48 and son Charles, who was 20 and from Aberdeen, were boarders at the residence of Ann Gowens in the Islington district of London, while ten years after Harriet E Collett was 55, Charles F Collett born at Campbelltown in Scotland was 30, when they were lodging at the Richmond dwelling of Sarah Tronbridge. However, by 1881 it was Charles F Collett from Scotland who was 40 and an accountant who was the head of the household at 103 De Beauvior Road in Hackney. Living there with him was his widowed mother Harriett E Collett from Ireland who was 65 and described as an assistant to her son.

By the time of the next census in 1891 her son was no longer living in Hackney with Harriet, who was described as Harriet Collett from Ireland who was 78 and a boarder at the home of Myles and Sarah Bush. It was one year later that Harriet Elizabeth Collett nee Cantrell passed away at Hackney, where she was buried on 16^th April 1892.

54P2

Charles Frederick Collett

Born in 1840 in Scotland

54O4

Mark Anthony Collett was born at Gosport on 7^th September 1810 and was baptised there at Holy Trinity Church on 5^th October 1810, the child of Isaac and Sophia Collett. Sadly he was only two years old when he died at Gosport on 30^th January 1813.

54O5

JOHN HOME COLLETT was born at Gosport where he was baptised on 29^th May 1812, the son of Isaac Charles Smith Collett and Sophia Bozon. It is possible, with the lack of any other more positive information, that John Home Collett was educated in London, following which he became a merchant trader and that it was his work that eventually took him to Russia, where he lived out the rest of his life. The Decembrist Revolt took place in Imperial Russia at the end of 1825 and was centred in and around the city of St Petersburg, where John settled after the uprising. In order to get the country back on its feet, the Russians encouraged more merchants and traders to join the British Colony established on the banks of the River Neva.

John Home Collett was believed to be involved in the cotton trade, and it was very likely through his work that he made his home in St Petersburg, where he eventually met and married Sophia Eleanor Wilson. Sophia (Eleanora) was the eldest child of William Wilson and a Russian girl, Anne Catherine Issit, whom he had married in Russia during 1814, with Sophia being born at St Petersburg on 12^th August 1815. The Wilson family was involved in the cotton business and had settled in St Petersburg as part of the British Colony of Traders established there at an earlier time.

The wedding of John Home Collett and Sophia Eleanor Wilson took place at the British Chaplaincy in St Petersburg on 19^th February 1842 when John would have been in his early twenties. One of the witnesses at the ceremony was John Etheridge who was born in 1811 and who may well have been the father of Susannah Harriet Etheridge, who was born in Russia in 1851, who later married John’s eldest son Augustus.

The marriage of John and Sophia produced an unknown number of children, but certainly included three known sons, the eldest of which also became a cotton trader like his father. Whilst it is confirmed that the eldest and youngest sons were both born in St Petersburg, there is a question over the place of birth of the couple’s middle son. Whilst it is established that he was baptised in London at St Luke’s Church, Old Street in Finsbury, that event may have taken place during a brief visit to England, since all of the later records for the child indicate that he was also born in London and not in Russia like his brothers.

Just three years after the birth of his third son, John died in St Petersburg on 12^th May 1850, following which he was buried at Lonolesko Cemetery. The St Petersburg death entry described him as John Home Collett aged 38 years, which coincides with his year of birth. The photo shown here was very likely taken just prior to the death of John Homes Collett, and shows Sophia with her three sons. It is not known what happened immediately to his widow Sophia after this sad and unexpected event, but it is seems highly likely that she remained in Russia where her own family had lived for many decades.

Staying with her would have been her children, who probably completed their education in St Petersburg. By 1865, Sophia and her children had left Russia and had travelled across Europe to England and were living in the Brixton district of London. Their absence from the Great Britain census in 1861 probably indicates that they were still living in St Petersburg at that time.

It was on 14^th October 1866 that Sophia Eleanor Collett nee Wilson died at Stafford Road in Brixton at the age of fifty-one, following which she was buried at Norwood Cemetery on 17^th October. It was also around that time when her son Edward was attending St Bees Theological College in Cumberland.

It may be interesting to note that during the research into this family line a John Holmes Collett was discovered who married Jane Leonard at Aberystwyth on 7^th April 1828, possibly placing his year of birth around 1807 or earlier – see Appendix at the end of this file.

54P3

AUGUSTUS COLLETT

Born on 29.11.1843 at St Petersburg

54P4

John William Collett

Born on 01.05.1845 in London

54P5

Edward Collett

Born on 13.04.1847 at St Petersburg

54O6

Jane Collett was born on 1^st April 1817 at Stoke Damerel in Plymouth, the third child of Isaac Charles Smith Collett and Sophia Bozon. It was there also that she was baptised on 7^th October 1818 when her father was named as Isaac Charles Smith Collett, lieutenant in the navy living at the dock. She was 18 years of age on 8^th October 1835 when she married Richard Hosken who was born on 31^st May 1811 at Cubert, the eldest son of Cornish couple Richard Hosken of Cubert and his wife Ann Furnis nee Moyle of St Tudy. Four months before they were married the name of Richard Hosken was added to the list of Members of the Royal College of Surgeons on 30^th May 1835, with the accompanying note that he was then in practice at Cubert in Cornwall.

The wedding of Jane and Richard took place within the St Pancras Chapel of London following the reading of banns, when one of the witnesses was Eleanor Borgen. It may be interesting to note that in 1904 John Etheridge Collett (Ref. 54Q1) married Alexandra Marie Borgen at Chelsea in London. The other witnesses were surgeon William Coward and his daughter Georgiana, and Richard’s uncle Henry P Andrew. The announcement of their wedding was published in the Hampshire Telegraph, the Sussex Chronicle and the Royal Cornwall Gazette, and read as follows “married at St Pancras, Richard Hosken esq of Carevick in Cornwall, to Jane only daughter of the late Captain Collett R N”.

Their marriage produced two sons, and they were John Henry Hosken, who was born at East Newlyn in 1836 and christened at Cubert, and Richard Frederick Hosken who was also born at East Newlyn in 1837. The Bombay Calendar Records show that Dr Richard Hosken, a surgeon and medical Officer with the East India Company, arrived in India on 2^nd May 1840 with his family and following his arrival in the country he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the 6^th native infantry of the East India Company on 22^nd December 1840. The records also indicate that he was living in Bombay during 1842 when he still had his family living there with him. However, on 1^st December 1843 Mrs Hosken and her two children left India bound for Suez on their way back to England.

With their father was still in India it would appear that John and Richard lived with their widowed grandmother Sophia Collett at her home in St Marylebone, London. From information supplied by Jayne Hyslop and Sarah Bachelor in 2013 we now know that the two boys were staying with Sophia Collett at the time of the Marylebone census in 1851. On that same day their mother was visiting her husband’s uncle John Hosken Harper at Davenham Manor in Cheshire, when she was described as Jane Hosken, niece, age 33 and from Stoke in Devon, that being a reference to Stoke Damerel in Plymouth where Jane’s naval father was based when she was born.

At that same time in 1851 their father was still living and working in Bombay, and two years later in 1853 Richard Hosken was the surgeon on board the Bombay Marine Ship Zenobia when the vessel was towing the troop transports from Bombay to the Burmese coast and then up the river to Rangoon.

It was three years after that when Richard Hosken of 2^nd Light Cavalry died or was killed on 30^th November 1856 at Nusseerabad in Bombay. Two years after the death of her husband Jane was residing at 8 Woburn Place, Russell Square near Hyde Park when she was presented with a letter of administration on 12^th June 1858 relating to her late husband’s personal effects, Richard having left no Will. Jane Hosken nee Collett survived her husband by thirty-one years, when she passed away at the age of 70 on 31^st May 1887 while residing within the Kensington area of London. Upon the earlier death of her son John Henry Hosken, probate was granted on 4^th June 1870 to his only next-of-kin his mother Jane Hosken of Ellenglaze House at Cubert in Cornwall, that being the home of Ann Hosken, Jane’s mother-on-law. By the time of the census in 1871 Jane Hosken was staying with her son Richard at Ardfert in County Kerry, Ireland, where he was the curate up until 1874. No record of Jane has been found within the census of 1881 which may indicate that she was still living in Ireland at that time.

Ellenglaze House belonged to her husband's nephew, but as the Vicar of Cubert he preferred to live in the vicarage. Presumably he lent Ellenglaze House to his widowed Aunt Jane since she had nowhere else to live. Even though the Hosken family was well connected in Cornwall, Richard's father was a third son and had to provide for ten children. In his Will his younger children each received £500, but only after their mother had died. Richard, as the eldest child, only received £5 since he had already had his share. It is perhaps for that reason why the Hosken family appear to have done very little for Jane and her two boys.

As regards the younger of Jane’s sons, a letter written by the Reverend Richard Frederick Hosken of The Merchant Taylor’s School in London on 21^st October 1898 to his son Arthur Hosken provides the clue that links the family to that of the Colletts. It reads: “Can’t find room for E in the house and she is going to stay with Miss Pickering. E wisely desires to be considered as one of us. I shall consult her as to a wedding present which I am afraid will not be as substantial as I should have wished, owing to the drains on me by the Collett family in addition to my own. I am sorry to say that Harry and Auntie Collett have got everyone into a sad muddle and I have been called to take part in very sad scenes. Your Uncle Gus is broken down so far as family control is concerned and, although still capable of doing business instructed to him, is incapable of initiating. He is practically penniless and some hundreds in debt, were it not for the heroic efforts of Eddie and Eustace the whole thing would collapse.”

Uncle Gus was a reference to Augustus Collett (Ref. 54P1) whose wife had died during the previous year, while Eddie and Eustace were his two sons Edward Frederick Etheridge Collett and Eustace Etheridge Collett. It is also thought that Harry was Henry Etheridge Collett, whilst it is unclear who Auntie Collett may have been. By 1898 none of the sons of Augustus were married, so she was very likely his eldest daughter Sophie Anne Collett who would have been twenty-five, her two sisters being still in their teenage years.

54O7

Augustus Bozon Collett was born at Stoke Damerel on 13^th July 1818 where he was baptised on 18^th August 1818, the son of Lieutenant Isaac Collett of the navy based at the docks in Plymouth and his wife Sophia. He followed in his father’s footsteps and in 1845 at the age of 27 he obtained his merchant seaman ticket in London. Five years later on 27^th November 1850 he received his master and mate certificate when he became a master mariner. Less than four years after that at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney Augustus Bozon Collett married Elizabeth Richardson Coles on 16^th September 1854. She was born in 1829 and was baptised at All Saints Church in Poplar on 10^th January 1830 when she was one year old. She was the daughter of Charles Coles of the West India Docks at Limehouse in Lindon, and the announcement of their wedding was published in The Standard newspaper on 20^th September.

Tragically they were only married for less than five years when Augustus Bozon Collett died at his home in York Square, Stepney on 3^rd February 1859 at the age of 40, when he was described as the Commander of the ship Albermarle. He was buried at Stepney on 9^th February and his Will was proved in London on 11^th March 1859. His son, who was born five months earlier, did not survive beyond the end of 1858, and within three years Augustus’ wife also passed away. At that time in 1861 Elizabeth Richardson Collett nee Coles was living at Poplar in 1861 when she died, perhaps indicating that she had returned to live with her widowed mother after losing her son and then her husband in the space of a few months. Her father mariner Charles Coles had previously died during November 1856.

54P6

Lewis Bozon Collett

Born on 06.09.1858 at Stepney

54P1

Frances Charlotte Elizabeth Forster Collett was born in Sydney on 16^th December 1867, the only child of William Francis Collett and Dorothy Annis Shaw. Her father died when she was only nineteen years old and it may have been because of the need to look after her mother that she never married. Frances Collett died on 21^st June 1944, almost exactly nine years after the death of her mother, when she was referred to as being of Stanmore in Sydney NSW. Two days later she was buried alongside her parents at the Rookwood Independent Cemetery.

54P2

Charles Frederick Collett was born in Scotland on 30^th July 1840 and was baptised at Campbelltown in Argyllshire on 25^th August 1840, the only known child of Charles Frederick Collett and Harriet Elizabeth Cantrell. His early years were spent in Ireland and with the death of his father in Bodmin Gaol in 1847 he and his mother settled in England. By the time of the census in 1851 they were visitors at a house in Ramsgate when Charles from Scotland was 10. In 1861 he was 20 and his place of birth was given as Aberdeen when he was a boarder at a house in Islington with his mother. It was during the following year that he entered the Royal Naval School at New Cross in Camberwell, a charitable school for the sons of naval officers.

Perhaps a life on the sea was not for him, as he later became an accountant. In 1871 he was still living with his mother at Richmond in Surrey when he was 30 and when the census confirmed he had been born at Campbelltown in Argyll. During the next decade the pair of them moved to Hackney and 103 de Beauvoir Road, where they were residing in 1881 when unmarried accountant Charles F Collett from Scotland was 40. No record of him has been found in 1891, while his mother passed away in 1892. The death of Charles Frederick Collett was recorded at Poplar during 1900 when he was 60.

54P3

AUGUSTUS COLLETT was born at St Petersburg on 29^th November 1843, and was baptised at the British Chaplaincy there on 23^rd December 1843. The baptism record confirmed that he was the son of John Homes Collett and Sophia Eleanor Wilson. Probably following the death of his father in Russia in 1850, and then the death of his mother at Brixton in 1866, Augustus Collett had settled in Brixton where he became a successful cotton trader, both with the continent of Europe and Russia. Three years later at Christchurch in Brixton on 23^rd December 1869 Augustus married the much younger Susannah Harriet Etheridge who was also born at St Petersburg in Russia on 20^th June 1851.

The British National Census on the second of April in 1871 recorded twenty-seven years old Augustus Collett from Russia and his nineteen years old wife Susannah H Collett living at 25 Burton Road in Brixton, where Augustus was working as a Russian Merchant. Living with the couple was Augustus’ younger brother John William Collett (below). Over the next ten years Susannah presented her husband with six children, and all eight of the family members with listed in the 1881 Census as living at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton. Augustus and Susannah were both confirmed as having been born at St Petersburg, while all six of their children had been born at Brixton.

At the age of 37, Augustus was described as a Russian merchant, his wife Susannah was 29, and their children were John Collett, who was nine, Sophia Collett, who was eight, Edward Collett, who was five, Augustus Collett, who was four, Henry Collett, who was two, and baby Eustace Collett who was only eleven months old. Living with the family was Susannah’s younger sister Catherine A S Etheridge who was a school governess aged twenty-six from Birkenhead, just across the River Mersey from Liverpool. The wealth and status of the Collett family could perhaps be measured by the fact that they were supported by three servants. They were Matilda Wilson who was 29 and a nurse from Holywell in Huntingdonshire, Sarah J Quinton who was 28 and a cook from Cardiff, and sixteen-year old Bertha Webb who was the under-nurse from Bermondsey.

Two further children were added to the family during the next four years, so by May in 1885 Augustus and Susannah had reached their full complement of eight children. This photograph of Augustus Collett and Susannah Etheridge with their eight children was taken around three years later in 1888. From 1884 to 1888 Augustus was an Executive Committee Member of the Waifs & Strays Society.

By April 1891 the enlarged family was living at a house in Madeira Road in Streatham named ‘Ramenskoye’ after a Russian town twenty-nine south-east of Moscow. In 1831 a textile factory was founded in Ramenskoye and by the second half of the 19th century, the textile (cotton) factory had grown to be one of the largest enterprises in the Russian Empire. On the fifteenth of March 1926, Ramenskoye was given city status.

Only the couple’s eldest son John was absent from the family home on that occasion and, although not located it is possible that at the age of twenty he had moved to Liverpool. The remainder of the family were listed as Augustus Collett, age 47, his wife Susannah, who was 39, and their seven children, and they were Sophia, who was 18, Edward, who was 15, Augustus, who was 14, Henry, who was 12, Eustace, who was 10, Amelia, who was eight, and Susannah who was five years old

It was shortly after 1891 that Augustus entered into a business partnership with other merchant traders based at the Cotton Exchange in Liverpool and sometime during that decade Augustus and part of his family left London and moved north to settle in Liverpool. That may have happened after the death of his wife, since Susannah H Collett nee Etheridge died at Madeira Road in Streatham in 1897, although an alternative source states she died in 1898 at Sanford in Surrey, a location that is not known to be of that county. There was also another complication for the family around that same time, when their youngest son was involved in a paternity suit regarding a servant girl who had given birth to the child of Eustace Etheridge Collett.

Those members of the family staying in London were Augustus’ three sons Edward, Henry, and Eustace who were all living at 12 Pathfield Road in Streatham during 1898. The rest of the family’s move north was confirmed by the next census in March 1901 when widower Augustus Collett, age 57, who was recorded as a British subject born in Russia, was living in the Toxteth Park district of Liverpool to the south of the city centre, near to Sefton Park. It was also around that time when Augustus’ partnership with the Cotton Exchange began to flounder, and he was eventually declared bankrupt, although he did continue to be a respected citizen in Liverpool society. His financial fall may well have been reflected in his occupation in 1901. This indicated that he was then employed as a Russian Merchant’s clerk, rather than a Russian Merchant.

Living at 16 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park with him in 1901 was four of his eight children. Only his son Augustus Collett, who would have been twenty-four, has not been accounted for at that time and that is because he was serving with the British Army in the Boer War in South Africa. The four children with him were John who was 29, Sophia who was 28, Amelia who was 18, and Susannah who was fifteen and still attending school. The census return in 1901 indicated that Amelia and Susannah had both been born while their parents had been living at Streatham in London.

By April 1911 he was still living in the Toxteth Park area of Liverpool but on that occasion his address was 105 Hartington Road, from where he was still employed as a clerk working for a Russian Merchant. The census return also stated he was born in St Petersburg, and that he was a Russian resident, although the word ‘resident’ was written in a different style and may have been added later.

By that time only his three unmarried daughters were still living there with him. Augustus Collett was 67, and looking after him in his old age and failing health was Sophia Annie Collett 38, Amelia Katherine Collett 28, and Susannah Mary Collett who was 25. Even with their financial problems, the family still managed to employ a general servant in the form of 28 years old Eleanor Hutchinson from Gawthrop in Yorkshire.

Just five months later Augustus Collett died at Toxteth Park in Liverpool on 30^th September 1911, following which he was buried at Toxteth Park Cemetery. It is understood that following his death, his daughter Susannah sailed to Canada to seek out her brother Augustus Etheridge Collett. He had been an officer in the British Army and, on leaving the army, had emigrated to Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. The continuation of this story can be found under the separate entry for Susannah Mary Collett.

In March 2013 an email was received from Heidi Nunwick nee Keightley in Yorkshire who relayed that her late father from Gloucestershire had given her a book with the inscription “From A Collet to his daughter Sophia Collett for her 9^th Birthday in 1882”. The book entitled “A Peep Behind the Scenes” by O F Walton has been offered to any living member of this family, and in April 2013 was safely delivered to Dave Burnett at Sherwood Park in Alberta. The book, a classic still available today, tells the story of Rosalie, a delicate, pretty child of 12, who acts in a travelling theatre within a fair and is worked hard by her father, who also ill-treats her mother, whom he accuses of malingering, though she is in fact dying of consumption.

54Q1

John Etheridge Collett

Born on 11.05.1871 at Brixton

54Q2

Sophia Annie Collett

Born on 17.03.1873 at Brixton

54Q3

Edward Frederick Etheridge Collett

Born on 21.04.1875 at Brixton

54Q4

Augustus Etheridge Collett

Born on 17.09.1876 at Brixton

54Q5

Henry Etheridge Collett

Born on 04.12.1878 at Brixton

54Q6

Eustace Etheridge Collett

Born on 24.04.1880 at Brixton

54Q7

Amelia Katherine Collett

Born on 17.08.1882 at Streatham

54Q8

Susannah Mary Collett

Born on 28.05.1885 at Streatham

54P4

John William Collett was originally thought to have been born at St Petersburg on 1^st September 1845, where his older and younger brothers were both born. However, he was baptised at St Luke’s Church in Old Street, Finsbury in London on 24^th September 1845, when he was confirmed as the son of John Homes Collett and his wife Sophia Eleanor. It was in the subsequent census returns (in England) that he gave the place of his birth as London St Lukes. It therefore seems likely that his parents may have been on a business trip to London when he was born.

After he was born he continued to live with his family in St Petersburg, and was still living there with his mother and other sibling after the death of his father, when he was only five years old. It would appear that he and his family returned to England just a short while later. Although the family has not been identified in the census of 1861 it is understood that they were living somewhere in the Brixton area of London, and it was there that John’s mother died in 1866. By 1871 John W Collett was 25 and was a student of theology while he was living in Lambeth at the home of his married brother Augustus (above) and his new bride.

At the end of that decade he was appointed to the position of Curate of Spernall, a village near Alcester in Warwickshire. According to the census in 1881, John William Collett from London St Lukes was the Curator of St Leonard’s Church in the village of Spernall four miles north of near Alcester. St Leonard’s Church is pictured here. In 1881 he was thirty-five and was living at The Rectory in Spernall with his 18 years old companion William Edward Stone from Cornwall.

In addition to his duties at the church in Spernall, John was also appointed to the role of the chaplain at the chapel adjacent to the Alcester Union Workhouse. The chapel is shown in the photograph on the right, against the backdrop of the union workhouse. His time spent in Warwickshire was limited, and from 1891 onwards he was living within the Guildford area of Surrey where he was described as a clergyman of the Church of England. As a man of the cloth, like his brother Edward (below), he too never married and in 1891 he was recorded as being 45, and was 55 in March 1901, when his place of residence was listed as Stoke-next-Guildford which indicated that he was the Vicar at the Church of St John’s the Evangelist.

John William Collett was still there ten years later in April 1911 when he was 65 and living at Coity Villas in Worplesdon Road. On every occasion he gave his place of birth as being London St Luke, which lies midway between Finsbury and Shoreditch. Old Street, where he was baptised at St Lukes, is still a main thoroughfare today. The final known facts about John William Collett are, that as the Reverend John Collett, he was one of the two chief mourners at the 1924 funeral of his younger brother Edward Collett the Vicar of Bowerchalke (below); following which he moved to Bowerchalke and was living at Glen Cairn in the village when he died in 1932.

54P5

Edward Collett was born at St Petersburg on 13^th April 1847, and it was there also, at the British Chaplaincy, that he was baptised on 15^th May 1847, the son of John Homes Collett and Sophia Eleanor Wilson. Some few years after his father died at St Petersburg in 1850, Edward and his mother and two brothers crossed Europe to end up in England. Once they arrived in London the family of four set up home in Brixton where it is believed they were living in 1861 although no record has yet been found. And it was during the mid-1860s that Edward began to attend St Bees Theological College in Cumberland.

In 1816 the first Church of England college for the training of clergy outside Oxbridge was established at St Bees by William Law, the Bishop of Chester. Edward’s studies there were interrupted in 1866 when he received the sad news that his mother had died at the family home in Brixton. After completing the course at St Bees, Edward was ordained Deacon at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford in 1870 by the Lord Bishop of Oxford. It was in the following year that he was recorded at West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire when he was living at The Vicarage where he was the Curate of St Lawrence’s Church. The census in 1871 described him as Edward Collett from Russia who was 23.

After that he was offered appointments on the Isle of Man, where he spent the next five years in a number of different parishes, and then at Silverstone in Northamptonshire, where he worked for two years. On leaving Silverstone, he travelled south and arrived in the Wiltshire village of Bowerchalke on 30^th September 1878, by which time he was thirty-one years old. Once settled at Bowerchalke, he remained there for the rest of his life.

Shortly after he took up his post as the Vicar of Bowerchalke, he became very interested in the village newspaper which he eventually took over and managed; writing the articles, using his own press to print the newssheet, and distributing the copies. That he did for the next forty-two years, until his failing health brought it to a close. An almost complete set of the ‘Parish Papers’ produced by Edward during those years is retained at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Prior to that he had long held an interest in writing and in 1874 he published a book entitled ‘A Book of Meditations’, and this was followed two years by the publication of his second work ‘A Simple Plan of Preparation for Confirmation’. Both documents were reviewed favourable in The Guardian in 1876.

Accompanying Edward to Bowerchalke from Silverstone were two young people. The first of them was his housekeeper, Sarah Stone was eighteen and who retained that position until she later married into the Foyle family of Bowerchalke. The second was John Linnell who was twelve years old and who wished to study for the ministry. Both of these were still living with Edward in the spring of 1881. The census that year listed the people at the vicarage as the Rev. Edward Collett who was 33 and a British subject from Russia, servant Sarah Stone who was 22 and from Combeinteighhead in Devon, and John Linnell from Silverstone who was 16.

Two other people were visiting at that time, and they were 22-year old theology student Henry Head from Winchester, and 28-year old Thomas Salmon from Blackford in Somerset. Over the following decade Edward Collett was recorded living at Bowerchalke in all of the subsequent census returns when he was 43 in 1891, 53 in 1901 when he was described as a clergyman of the Church of England, and again in 1911 when he was 63. On the 12^th April 1922 the final copy of the ‘Parish Paper’, edition number 1703, was produced by Edward, and two years later on 7^th May 1924 Edward Collett died at Bowerchalke at the age of 77.

An article in the Salisbury Journal read as follows: “We regret to announce the death of the Rev Edward Collett, Vicar of Bowerchalke, which occurred on Wednesday night. Mr Collett, who had been 54 years in Holy Orders and Vicar of Bowerchalke for 44 years, was greatly beloved by his parishioners for whom he lived a self-sacrificing life”. At his funeral, which took place in torrential rain, every house in the village was represented, and the chief mourners were his life-long companion the aforementioned John Linnell, and his brother the Reverend John Collett (above). The grave of Edward Collett is marked by a plain tombstone and can be found on the left of the church porch. Inside Holy Trinity Church is a stained-glass window at the west end of the nave which is dedicated to his forty-six years of faithful service. This is shown on the right.

54P6

Lewis Bozon Collett was born at Stepney on 6^th September 1858, and was baptised there at St Dunstan’s Church on 7^th October 1858 when his parents were named as Augustus Bozon Collett and his wife Elizabeth Richardson. His mother was Elizabeth Richardson Coles, and it was she who suffered first the death of her son within two weeks of his baptism, and then the death of her husband four months later. Lewis Bozon Collett was buried on 20^th October 1858.

54Q1

John Etheridge Collett was born at 25 Burton Road in Brixton, London on 11^th May 1871, as reported in The Morning Post newspaper on 13^th May. He was baptised at St Michaels Church in Stockwell on 7^th June 1871, the eldest child of Augustus Collett and Susannah Harriet Etheridge. It was as John E Collett aged nine years and from Brixton that he was recorded in the census of 1881 when living with his family at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton. Within the next year or two his parents left Brixton, and it was around the same time that John attended The Taylor’s Merchant School at Northwood in Middlesex. He had previously received the Stuart Exhibition Scholarship which allowed him to attend the merchant school for five years up to completion in 1888.

Upon finishing that course of education he entered into a short apprenticeship agreement with John Whateley Simmonds after which went to Oxford to study law. The census in 1891 recorded John, age 20, staying with his family at Madeira Road in Streatham, when it was confirmed that he was a student of law at St John’s College. It was two years later that John was awarded a 4^th Class Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law in 1893, as reported on page ten of The Times newspaper published on 10^th July that year.

His mother died at Madeira Road in 1897 and that may have prompted his return to the family. After the death of his mother, his father moved north to live in Liverpool with some of his children, including John. Around three years later in March 1901, John E Collett from Brixton was 29 and was living with his father and his three sisters Sophia, Amelia, and Susannah at 16 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park, Liverpool. His occupation on that occasion was that of a journalist and author. Just over twelve months earlier John had written an article for the January edition of Cassells Magazine entitled ‘Actors who are Artists’ which received a favourable review in the Birmingham Daily Post on 6^th January 1900.

Four years after that, on 23^rd April 1904, John Etheridge Collett married Alexandra Marie Borgen by licence at St Lukes in Chelsea, London, and nine months later their daughter was born when the couple was living at 69 Oakley Street in Chelsea. Alexandra was born at Hanover Square in London on 31^st December 1873, the eldest daughter of Adolph Emile Borgen from Denmark and his wife Hannah Rachel Norton from Gravesend in Kent. According to the census in 1881, 38 years old Adolph Borgen was a manager of business living with his family at 12 Queens Road in London. His wife Hannah was 36, and their two daughters were Alexandra who was seven and born at St Georges Westminster, and Margaret who was four and born at Kensington. Working for the family was servant Jane Geale, spinster of 31 from St Pancras.

By the time of the census in April 1911, John Etheridge Collett was confirmed as being a married man, but was strangely living alone at 35 Coram Street in the South St Pancras district of London. He was 39 and from Brixton, and was continuing with his work as a journalist. Perhaps because of the recent death of her father, Alexandra Marie Collett was staying with her widowed mother Hannah Rachel Borgen, at her home at 33 Burlington Avenue in Kew Gardens. Hannah was head of the house and was 66, and on this occasion her place of birth was given as Milton in Kent.

Alexandra was 37 and the census return also confirmed she was from London and that she had been married for seven years. Accompanying Alexandra was her daughter Rachel Meliron J Collett who was six years old. Hannah Borgen also employed a general servant, Ethel Florence Wright who was 22 and from Hammersmith.

The Electoral Roll for 1913 recorded the family living at 112 Kennington Road in Lambeth, and by 1920 John was working at the Daily Sketch Newspaper. The following year, according to the Derby Daily Telegraph of 6^th May, he was the Honourable Secretary of St Dunstan’s Lawn Tennis Club in London, and in 1929 his place of residence was 29 Edith Road in Fulham. From 1932 to 1935, John was a journalist and sports correspondent, specialising in lawn tennis, working for The Field magazine. The only other piece of information so far known about John Etheridge Collett is that he died on 25^th September 1951 when he was living at East Budleigh in Devon. His wife Alexandra had died nearly five months earlier, when she passed away on 3^rd May 1951 in Devon.

54R1

Rachel Milora Irene Collett

Born on 21.01.1905

54Q2

Sophia Annie Collett was born at Brixton on 17^th March 1873 and was baptised one month later at St James’ Church in Camberwell on 13^th April 1873. She was eight years old in the census of 1881 when she was living with her parents at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton. It was very likely at this address that her parents were living when she was born. Not long after that, the family moved from Brixton the short distance south to Streatham where they were recorded as living in 1891, when Sophia A Collett was eighteen. Six years later the family suffered the loss of their mother, when she died at Streatham in 1897.

That sad event appears to have seen the break-up of the family, with Sophia and her two sisters Amelia and Susannah (below), and her brother John (above), together with their father, moving to live in Liverpool, leaving three of her brothers still living in London. All of this was confirmed by the census in March 1901 which placed Sophia A Collett from Brixton as living at Toxteth Park in Liverpool with her widowed father Augustus, brother John, and Amelia and Susannah. Sophia was twenty-eight with no stated occupation, so was very likely the housekeeper for the rest of the family.

Ten years later in April 1911, Sophia Annie was 38 and unmarried, and was still looking after her elderly father, supported by her two younger sisters and a general servant, while living at 105 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park. Whether as a result of his age or failing health, Sophia’s father died in September that same year. The only other known fact about Sophia Annie Collett was that she died in Surrey on 30^th September 1942.

54Q3

Edward Frederick Etheridge Collett was born at Brixton on 21^st April 1875 and was baptised at the Church of St John the Evangelist on 25^th May 1875. In 1881 he was five years old and at that time he and his family were living at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton, and it is possible that it was at that address where he was born. Around the latter half of 1881, or at the beginning of 1882, Edward’s parents moved the relatively short distance from Brixton to Madeira Road in Streatham to the south. And it was there at the family home ‘Ramenskoye’ in Madeira Road that he was living at the age of fifteen in 1891.

Upon the tragedy of losing his mother in 1897, Edward decided to stay in London with his brother Henry and Eustace when his widowed father took the rest of the family north to live in Liverpool and in 1898 the three of them were living at 12 Pathfield Road in Streatham. A few years later in March 1901, the three brothers were still living together in the Hammersmith area of London. Edward Collett from Brixton was 25 and was working as a clerk for a jute merchant.

According to the census in April 1911, Edward was living 8 Girdlers Road in Hammersmith, which is still there today and only a few yards from Colet Gardens. Living at 6 Girdlers Road at that time was Edward’s brother John Etheridge Collett (above). The house at 8 Girdlers Road was a boarding house run by Edward’s aunt, and at that time in his life his occupation was that of a mercantile clerk. By 1926 he was recorded in the Electoral Register as residing at 32 Melrose Road in Wandsworth. Edward Frederick Etheridge Collett never married and eventually moved to Devon, like his brother John (above), where he died on 29^th October 1942 at Newton Abbot.

54Q4

Augustus Etheridge Collett was born at Brixton on 17^th September 1876 and most probably at 41 Somerleyton Road where the family was living in 1881. He was baptised at the Church of St John the Evangelist in Brixton on 16^th October 1876, the ceremony being conducted by his uncle the Reverend Edward Collett (Ref. 54P3), Curate of Silverstone. It should be noted that, for whatever reason, Augustus often referred to himself as Austin Collett, although in all of the British records and census returns he was always Augustus.

According to the census in 1881, Augustus E Collett was four years old and born at Brixton, while living with his parents at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton. During the next two years his family left Lambeth and settled in Madeira Road in Streatham where he was recorded with his family in 1891 at the age of 14. Six years later his mother Susannah died at Streatham and shortly after that his father and some of his siblings moved north to Toxteth Park in Liverpool. By the time of the census in 1901, Augustus would have been 24, and it was at this stage in his life that he was serving with the British Army in the Boer War in Africa.

Augustus was involved in the battles at Transvaal, Orange Free State, and Natal, for which he was awarded the South Africa Campaign Medal. The medal is currently in the possession of Dave Burnett in Canada and on which are the bars for the battle honours above, together with the South Africa 1901 and South Africa 1902 bars. His rank by the end of the campaign was that of sergeant.

Sometime after the end of the war, Augustus left the army and emigrated to Victoria in British Columbia, Canada where he hoped to establish himself as a successful architect. According to the 1911 Census for Victoria, Austin Collett had arrived in Canada in 1909. However, his plan to become a successful architect was not realised and around 1911 he had given up the challenge and had moved on to seek better fortune in Sydney, Australia.

Once in Australia he again tried to become a successful architect, but this time his ambition was halted by the impending war in Europe. So on 24^th December 1914 Augustus left Australia on board SS Makura which sailed to Vancouver, arriving there on 8^th January 1915. From Vancouver he sailed on the SS Grampian to Liverpool, arriving in England on 8^th February 1915. At this time in his life he gave his home address as 6 Girdlers Road in London, the home of his brother John Etheridge Collett.

During the Great War of 1914-1918 Augustus Etheridge Collett was with the Royal Army Service Corps, during which time he rose through the ranks from 2^nd Lieutenant, to Captain and then Major. Once the war was over he was immediately sent to Russia where he was an officer commanding a contingent of the British Army. It is understood that he was a major in charge of logistics with the 1919 secret expeditionary force to Murmansk, and certainly a Land Transfer document which appeared in the London Gazette in 1923 confirmed that he was a major in the king’s army, but by which time he was once again living in England. Following his later retirement from military service Augustus, then only known as Austin Collett, returned to Australia to live within the King district of East Sydney, where he was credited as being an architect in the voting list of 1943. It was also in East Sydney that he was living when he later died.

54Q5

Henry Etheridge Collett, who was known as Harry, was born at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton on 4^th December 1878, and was baptised at the Church of St John the Divine in Camberwell near Brixton on 5^th January 1879. It was at that same address that the family was living in 1881 when Henry E Collett was two years of age. During the following year Henry’s family moved the few miles south to Streatham where they were living in 1891 when Henry was twelve years old. In 1897 his mother passed away and, while his father moved to Liverpool shortly after that sad event for the family, Henry and his brothers Edward (above) and Eustace (below) continued to work and live in London at 12 Pathfield Road in Streatham.

It was also around 1897 and 1898 that Henry took up with a servant girl by the name of Rose Weeks, who later had his baby. A court order was put in place for the maintenance of the child, but there was a default in payment which resulted in Henry being summons to court. The following report of the court case was printed in Reynolds Newspaper (London) on 23^rd October 1898 under the headline ‘Rather Rough on the Family’. This refers to the three brothers Edward – the elder brother, Eustace – the younger brother, and Henry. “Henry Etheridge Collett, a rather well-dressed young man, described as an artist of 12 Pathfield Road, Streatham Common, was brought up at Westminster on Wednesday on remand from Holloway, for non-payment of a sum of £9 6 shillings maintenance arrears and costs to Rose Weeks, a servant, who obtained a paternity order at this court on 9^th of last month.

The solicitor who appeared for the girl, said that nothing had been paid under the order and it was a very bad case. In fact the circumstances were peculiarly discreditable, for a younger brother of the defendant was originally called by the defence to depose to intimacy with the complainant. The defendant was earning money as an artist for weekly papers and periodicals. An elder brother of the defendant argued from the witness box that there was no evidence of means.

Mr Marsham said it was quite unnecessary. It was not a civil debt. If a defendant did not pay he went to prison. The brother proceeded to traverse some of the statements made, but Mr Proud, the Clerk, informed the Magistrate that the younger brother was sworn to give evidence on the lines which had been stated. Mr Marsham made an order for payment of all the costs and arrears or one month’s imprisonment. At which the elder brother said: I will pay, but it’s rather tough on the family.”

Less than three years after the court case Henry Etheridge Collett was simply listed as Harry Collett, age 22, in the census of 1901, and by that time he was living in the Hammersmith area of London with his two brothers, the aforementioned Edward and Eustace. At that time in his life Harry was already established as an artist and sculptor.

In 1907 Henry married Bertha Cecilia Mary Burke who was born at Stoke Newington in London in 1878. The couple initially settled in Richmond in Surrey, on the south side of the River Thames in London where their son was born, before moving to Kensington where they were living in April 1911. The census that year confirmed the family of three was living at Flat 10, 28 Colville Square in the Notting Hill area of Kensington. Henry Etheridge Collett from Brixton was 32 and a painter and artist. His wife Bertha Cecilia Mary Collett was also 32, and their son Henry Burke Collett was two years old. Living with the family at that time was Bertha’s younger sister, the unmarried Elizabeth Mary Burke who was 26 and from Shepherd’s Bush. Henry Etheridge Collett is known to have died at Wexford in Ireland.

54R2

Henry Burke Collett

Born on 02.07.1908

54Q6

Eustace Etheridge Collett was born on 24^th April 1880 at 41 Somerleyton Road in Brixton where he and his family were also living at the time of the census in 1881 when Eustace was eleven months. He was baptised on 23^rd May 1880 at the Church of St John the Divine in Camberwell, and was ten years old in 1891 by which time he and his family were living at Madeira Road in Streatham to where they had moved when he was just a year old.

The death of his mother at Streatham in 1897 appears to have caused a parting of the ways for some members of the family, with his father taking four of his siblings to live with him in Liverpool, leaving Eustace and his brothers Edward and Henry residing at 12 Pathfield Road in Streatham, after which they later moved to Hammersmith. By the time of the census in 1901 Eustace and his brothers were recorded within the Hammersmith registration district of the city, when Eustace Collett from Brixton was 20 and was working as a wharf manager. Tragically Eustace Etheridge Collett died at Barrow-upon-Soar in Leicestershire in 1905 when he was only 25.

54Q7

Amelia Katherine Collett was born at Madeira Road in Streatham on 17^th August 1882 and was baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Streatham. And it was at ‘Ramenskoye’ in Madeira Road that she was living with her family in 1891 at the age of eight years. It was also at that address that she was living in 1897 when her mother died. That loss changed the structure of the family, when her father gave up living in London to settle in Liverpool, taking with him Amelia, her sisters Sophia and Susannah. They were also joined by their brother John, while three of Amelia’s remaining four brothers stayed on in London.

According to the census returns for 1901 and 1911 Amelia was living at 105 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park south of Liverpool city centre on both occasions, being 18 and 28 respectively, but with no stated occupation in 1901, although by 1911 she was a governess like her sister Susannah (below). All that is known of Amelia Katherine Collett is that she never married and lived most of her life in London with her faithful maid Rose Mulligan, and it was she who inherited many of the Collett family’s Russian trinkets when Amelia died at Lambeth in 1966.

54Q8

Susannah Mary Collett was born at Madeira Road in Streatham on 27^th May 1885. She was just one month old when she was baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Streatham on 28^th June 1885, the youngest child of Augusta Collett and Susannah Etheridge from Russia. The Streatham census in 1891 recorded her living with her family at ‘Ramenskoye’ in Madeira Road the age of five years. She was only around twelve years of age when her mother died at Madeira Road in 1897, following which she accompanied her father and three other siblings in a move that took the depleted family to Liverpool.

The next census in March 1901 placed Susannah M Collett from Streatham as being 15 and living at 16 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park, Liverpool with her father Augustus, and sibling John, Sophia, and Amelia. Ten years later she was still there at 105 Hartington Road in Toxteth Park at the age of twenty-five, when she was named as Susannah Mary Collett. At this time in her life she had living with her, her father and sister Sophia and Amelia, the family also being supported by a general servant. Susannah’s occupation, like that of her sister Amelia (above) was that of a governess.

Just five months later her father died during September 1911. One year later Susannah sailed to Canada, with her aunt Sarah Etheridge as her travelling companion, in the hope of finding her older brother Augustus Etheridge Collett. She sailed from Liverpool on 1^st September 1912 on board the SS Adriatic and arrived in New York on 26^th September. The ship’s passenger listed included the next-of-kin of Susannah Collett as being John E Collett of 6 Girdlers Road in London.

From New York she made the overland trek to Victoria in British Columbia. However, upon arrival she was disappointed to discover that her bachelor brother had failed in his attempts to become a successful architect and, as a consequence, he had left Canada to seek success in Sydney, Australia. Despite the disappointment, Susannah decided she would make the move to Canada a permanent one, while her aunt Sarah returned to England. It was during the next two years in Victoria that she met her future husband, and in mid-1914 she returned to England to put together her trousseau.

The passenger list for the return sailing back to Canada stated that the ultimate destination for Susannah Collett was Fishburn in Alberta. At that time Fishburn was a postal address used by ranchers south of Pincher Creek in Alberta, which is no longer used today. It was upon her return to Canada that she married farmer Samuel Joseph Harvey, the son of Joseph Harvey and Mary Varley, at Regina in Saskatchewan on 29^th September 1914. Samuel was thirteen years older than Susannah, having been born at Barrie in Ontario on 29^th July 1872.

The marriage resulted in the birth of four children, the first three of which were born while the couple was living in Alberta, with the fourth born after the family had moved to live in New Westminster, British Columbia. Samuel Joseph Harvey died on 25^th May 1942 at South Westminster in Surrey, British Columbia, and it was nearly twenty-five years after that Susannah Mary Harvey nee Collett died on 15^th January 1967 at Coquitlam in British Columbia, Canada.

54R3

Phyllis Mary Harvey

Born on 20.07.1915

54R4

Kenneth Etheridge Harvey

Born on 22.09.1916

54R5

Roger Harvey

Born in 1918

54R6

Maurice Henry Harvey

Born on 01.06.1921

54R1

Rachel Milora Irene Collett was a honeymoon baby who was born at Chelsea on 21^st January 1905, following the marriage of her parents on 24^th April in the previous year. She was around six weeks old when she was baptised at St Luke’s Church in Chelsea on 3^rd March 1905, the daughter of John Etheridge Collett and Alexandra Marie Borgen. In 1911 Rachel and her mother were staying with her widowed grandmother at 33 Burlington Avenue in Kew Gardens, while her father was at their home at 35 Coram Street in St Pancras. Nearly thirty years later Rachel married Philip Derwent Radcliffe at Hatfield in Hertfordshire during 1940, and at some time during their life together, the couple moved to Devon where Rachel Radcliffe nee Collett died during 1977 in Exeter. Her husband, Philip Derwent Radcliffe who was born on 9^th November 1900 at Saltford in Somerset, had died four years earlier in 1973.

54R2

Henry Burke Collett, who was also known as Harry Collett like his father, was born at Richmond, Surrey on 2^nd July 1908 and by 1911, at the age of two years, he and his parents were living at Flat 10, 28 Colville Square in Notting Hill. His second forename was the maiden name of his mother Bertha Burke. In 1936 the name of Henry Burke Collett was included in the voting list for Woolhara in Wentworth, New South Wales, which suggests that he lived in Australia during the middle part of his life. Henry was forty-two when he married the widow Cicely O’Flagon at Manchester in 1950. Cicely already had children from her first marriage, and it seems most unlikely that the couple had any children of their own in view of their advancing years. Henry Burke Collett died during April 1993 while at Waveney in Suffolk.

54R3

Phyllis Mary Harvey was born at Pincher Creek in Alberta on 20^th July 1915. She married Wilson David Burnett at New Westminster in British Columbia on 8^th May 1939. He was the son of Wilson Burnett and Helen Neilson and was born at New Westminster on 10^th June 1913. And it was at New Westminster that the couple was living when Phyllis presented her husband with three children. Wilson Burnett died at Langley, British Columbia on 7^th December 1990, and today Phyllis is now living in Penticton, British Columbia.

54S1

David Christopher Burnett

Born on 13.02.1940

54S2

Ann Burnett

Born in 1943

54S3

Neal Burnett

Born in 1944

54R4

Kenneth Etheridge Harvey was born at Fishburn in Alberta on 22^nd September 1916. He married (1) Mary Peebles, and later married (2) Geraldine Anna McGillivray whom he married at Burnaby in British Columbia. Geraldine was born in Vancouver on 18^th August 1917 and died at Hope in British Columbia during November 2004, while Kenneth had passed away nearly twenty years earlier at Hope on 25^th November 1985. The marriage of Kenneth and Geraldine produced just one child for the couple, that being Steven Harvey who was born at Chilliwack in British Columbia in 1952.

54R5

Roger Harvey was born at Pincher Creek in Alberta in 1918. He married Marion Palmer during 1945 at Bridlington in Yorkshire, England, Marion having been born at Bromley in Kent. Once marriage Roger returned to Canada with his bride and it was at Kamloops in British Columbia that their three children were born. They are Calista Harvey born around 1947, Susan Harvey born around 1949, and Lynette Harvey who was born around 1951. Today Roger and Marion are still living in Kamloops.

54R6

Maurice Henry Harvey was born at New Westminster in British Columbia on 1^st June 1921. He married Marion Edmondson at Rosedale in British Columbia in 1952. Marion was born at Chilliwack, British Columbia, and their first two children were born at Burnaby with the third born at New Westminster. Donald Harvey was born around 1955, Lois Harvey was born around 1957, and Joan Harvey was born around 1963. It was also at Chilliwack where Maurice died on 5^th March 2006.

54S1

David Christopher Burnett, who is known as Dave, was born at New Westminster on 13^th February 1940, and it was there also that he married Linda Margaret Tytler in 1962. Linda was born at Medicine Hat in Alberta around 1943. Dave and Linda have two sons, Bill born in 1963 and Eric born in 1965. Today Dave and Linda live in Alberta, and a big vote of thanks must go to Dave, since it was he who first contacted the Collett Family History website in January 2010, and who six months later helped, with others, to put this family line together.

54S2

Ann Burnett was born at New Westminster in 1943, and today Ann lives with her husband at Maple Ridge in British Columbia, and they have children and grandchildren.

54S3

Neal Burnett was born at New Westminster in 1944. He never married and today is retired and living at Penticton.

APPENDIX ONE

The following details relate to an earlier version of this family line which used information extracted from the first supplement of ‘The Collett Saga’ produced by Margaret Chadd in 1996. By including it here, rather than just deleting it from the file, it is hoped to eventually determine exactly where, within the numerous Collett families, that actually it belongs.

54l1

Anthony Collett would have been born prior to 1725, since it was in 1745 that he married Jane Mary Holmes at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate, London. In 1722 two possible Janes were baptised in London but at that time and it has not been verified which one was the Jane who married Anthony Collett. The first of them was Jane Holmes who was baptised at St Giles Church in Cripplegate on 10^th February 1722, the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Holmes. The second was Jane Homes who was baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 14^th October 1722, and she was the daughter of John and Margaret Homes.

The marriage is believed to have produced at least five children for the couple, and all of them were born in London where they were baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate. However, there may have been other children born between the time that Anthony and Jane were married and the birth of their first known child over ten years later.

54m1

Judith Collett

Baptised on 13.02.1756 in London

54m2

Thomas Collett

Baptised on 22.02.1757 in London

54m3

George Frederick Collett

Baptised on 03.07.1760 in London

54m4

Judith Collett

Baptised on 28.06.1761 in London

54m5

Richard Collett

Born circa 1765 in London

54m1

Judith Collett was born in London and was baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 13^th February 1756. She was the eldest known daughter of Anthony Collett and Jane Mary Holmes, and tragically she only survived for just over one year, when she died at Bishopsgate on 25^th March 1757.

54m2

Thomas Collett was born in London and was baptised at St Botolph’s Church, Bishopsgate on 22^nd February 1757, the eldest known son of Anthony Collett and Jane Mary Holmes.

54m3

George Frederick Collett was born in London where he was baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 3^rd July 1760, the son of Anthony Collett and Jane Mary Holmes. Just like his older sister (above), he too passed away when he was only just over one year old, when he died at Bishopsgate on 8^th February 1761.

54m4

Judith Collett was the second known daughter of Anthony Collett and Jane Mary Holmes to be named Judith, following the death of her namesake four years earlier. Judith was baptised at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 28^th June 1761.

54m5

Richard Collett was possibly born between 1762 and 1770, although no birth or baptism record has yet been found to confirm this. What is known is that he married Elizabeth Heepy at St Botolph’s Church in Bishopsgate on 21^st February 1792. For Elizabeth Heepy, there are again two options, and both of them were born in Derbyshire. Elizabeth Heapy who was baptised at Crich on 26^th March 1769 was the daughter of Daniel Heapy, while the other was baptised at Wirksworth on 10^th September 1769, and she was the daughter of John Heapy. The marriage of Richard and Elizabeth is known to have produced a daughter and son, although no birth or baptism record has been unearthed for the son at this time.

54n1

Hannah Collett

Born in 1792 in London

54n2

John Collett

Born circa 1794-1796

54n1

Hannah Collett was born in London during the last couple of months of 1792, and was baptised at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch on 20^th January 1793, when she was confirmed as the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Collett of Worship Street in the Borough of Hackney. Hannah was around twenty-six years of age when she was married by banns to Richard William Hare Chapman at St Luke’s Church in Finsbury on 6^th December 1818.

54n2

John Collett was the son of Richard Collett and Elizabeth Heepy and is seems highly likely that he was born within a few years of his sister Hannah (above) who was the couple’s first child. This would place his date of birth around 1794 to 1796. With John’s sister being married at St Luke’s in Finsbury it is reasonable to assume that just over one year earlier that it was her brother John Collett who married Mary Ann Daines at the same church in Old Street, Finsbury on 2^nd April 1816. See footnote below.

Mary Ann Daines was the daughter of Robert Daines and Mary Catchpole, and she was born at Pakefield in Suffolk on 13^th May 1796, making her just passed her twentieth birthday when she married John Collett. Initially the only known child of John and Mary was a son John Holmes Collett who was named in memory of John’s grandmother Jane Mary Holmes. It is possible that other children were born to the couple, although no other records have so far been unearthed. It was originally thought that John and Mary had a daughter Jane who was born around 1817 who, previously, had been included with their son John below. However, it has since been discovered that she was the youngest daughter of Timothy Collett and Susannah Pearson – see below.

Timothy Collett (Ref. 54n3) was buried at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth on 15^th October 1846 when he was 69 years of age. This would place his year of birth around 1777. All of his known children with his wife Susannah were baptised at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth and they were Susannah Collett (Ref. 54o2) who was baptised on 19^th April 1801, Sarah Collett (Ref. 54o3) who was baptised on 11^th June 1809 following her birth on 8^th January 1809, Ann Hosier Collett (Ref. 54o4) who was baptised on 3^rd September 1815 and Jane Collett (Ref. 54o5) who was baptised on 30^th March 1817.

54o1

John Holmes Collett

Born in 1819 in London

54o1

John Holmes Collett was born in London during 1819 and was the son of John and Mary and should not be confused with John Home Collett (Ref. 54O4) who was born at Gosport in 1812, the son of Isaac Charles Smith Collett and Sophia Bozon.

Footnote

Three other weddings involving gentlemen with the name John Collett took place around the same time as that of John Collett and Mary Ann Daines. They were (a) John and Barbara Turtle at St Giles Church in Camberwell on 21^st August 1814, (b) John and Sarah Grainger which took place on 27^th December 1814 at St Helen’s Church in Bishopsgate, and (c) John and Ann Warren at St John’s Church in Hackney on 30^th August 1818.

APPENDIX TWO

This appendix highlights the existence of another earlier John Holmes Collett

54A2

John Collett of Llandeilo Graban in Radnorshire was married by licence at the Church of St John the Baptist at Nash in South Shropshire to Jane Holmes on 5^th July 1792, when the witnesses were John Holmes, Elizabeth Holmes and Walter Tolley.

54A21

John Holmes Collett

Born circa 1805

54A21

John Holmes Collett, who was very likely born before 1808, the son of John Collett and Jane Holmes, married Jane Leonard at Aberystwyth in Monmouthshire, Wales on 7^th April 1828.

APPENDIX THREE

This appendix highlights what might be a completely different John Holmes Collett family

54A3

John Collett may have been born during the middle of the last decade of the 1700s. It was at St Mary’s Church in Hanwell within the London Borough of Ealing that he married Charlotte Montague on 16^th June 1817, the source of the information being the Bishop’s transcript. Many years later, at the same Church of St Mary in Hanwell, there was the baptism of Robert Holmes Collett (Ref. 54A32) on 30^th October 1870, the son of parents John Collett (Ref. 54A31) and his wife Martha. It would therefore seem logical that John [born circa 1795] and Charlotte Montague were quite likely the parents or perhaps grandparents of John [born circa 1845] who married Martha the mother of Robert [born in 1870], with a generation missing between the two Johns.

APPENDIX FOUR

This appendix includes the details of another, so far unconnected, Collet family of Shoreditch, London

54A4

Valentine Collett married Sarah Hellett at St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch on 9^th April 1781. That marriage produced at least three confirmed children, and possibly a four. The first three children listed below were definitely confirmed as the children of Valentine and Sarah Collett when they were baptised. However, no such confirmation has so far been found for the fourth named child. The burial of Valentine Collett took place at Christ Church in Spitalfields, London, on 13^th February 1799.

54A41

James Collett

Baptised in 1783 at St Mary’s Whitechapel

54A42

Valentine Collett

Baptised in 1785 at St Mary’s Whitechapel

54A43

Sarah Collett – born 14.09.1787

Baptised on 13.02.1788 at Shoreditch

54A44

Joseph Collett

Born circa 1790 at Shoreditch

54A44

Joseph Collett married Harriet Hatt at Christ Church in Greyfriars Newgate on 4^th March 1817. In total, the marriage produced six known children who were all born in Shoreditch. By June 1841 the family recorded at Union Walk in Shoreditch St Leonards comprised Joseph Collett from Middlesex who had a rounded age of 50, as did his wife Harriet, sons George and Joseph were 20 and 15, daughter Elizabeth was 14, while the three younger sons Henry, Charles and James were 13, eight and four years old. Head of the household Joseph Collett died during the 1840s, leaving his widow Harriet, aged 60, residing in Brunswick Street in Shoreditch in 1851.

The Shoreditch St Leonards census that year confirmed that Harriet had been born at Shoreditch, as had the three sons living there with her. They were George Collett who was 35 and a stationer, Charles Collett who was 20 and also working as a stationer, and James Collett who was 15 and an errand boy. Ten years later Harriet Collett was 71 when she was a live-in housekeeper/servant at the home of Nancy Adams at Hart Street in Battersea, Surrey. Harriet survived for another seven years, when she died and was buried at Hackney Cemetery on 31^st July 1868.

54A45

George Collett

Born on 09.09.1817 at Shoreditch

54A46

Joseph Collett

Born on 14.08.1822 at Shoreditch

54A47

Elizabeth Collett

Born on 26.11.1824 at Shoreditch

54A48

Henry Collett

Born on 13.07.1826 at Shoreditch

54A49

Charles Collett

Born in 1832 at Shoreditch

54A410

James Collett

Born in 1836 at Shoreditch

54A45

George Collett was born at Shoreditch on 9^th September 1817, six months after his parents Joseph Collett and Harriet Hatt were married, after which it was at St Leonards Church in Shoreditch that he was baptised on 12^th October 1817. George was still a bachelor in 1841 when he was living with his family at Union Walk in Shoreditch, where he was described as being 20-24. In 1851 George Collett from Shoreditch was 35 and a stationer who was still living with his widowed mother at Brunswick Street in Shoreditch. A move to nearby Bethnal Green took place during the following decade, and it was there he was recorded in 1861. George Collett from Shoreditch was unmarried at the age of 43, but was living at a dwelling in York Place where he was described as the partner of the head of the household. Curiously his occupation was recorded simply as ‘dairy’, which may have been a misspelling of the work diary, something with which a stationer would be associated.

Although not yet identified, that partner may have been Emma, his future wife. Because, according to the census in 1871, George from Shoreditch was 53 and was again recorded as a stationer living in Bethnal Green with his wife Emma who was 41 and from Wickham in Suffolk. Where the pair of them were ten years later has yet to be revealed while, by the time of the following census in 1891, they were listed as residing at Essex Street in Shoreditch where George was 73 and Emma was 62. Whilst not consistent with his past occupations, on that day George said he was a waterside labourer. During the next ten years, the couple appear to have fallen on hard times, since within the Shoreditch census of 1901 they were referred to as paupers. In addition to which George Collett, aged 83, still gave his occupation as that of a stationer, together with his wife Emma Collett from Wickham who was 72. Just after that census day the death of George Collett, then aged 84, was recorded at Shoreditch (Ref. 1c 75) during the second quarter of 1901.

54A46

Joseph Collett was born at Shoreditch on 14^th August 1822, but was not baptised at St Leonards Church until 29^th October 1859, when he was confirmed as the son of Joseph and Harriet Collett. By that time he had been married for over nine years since in 1851 Joseph Collett from Shoreditch was 28 and a painter living at Nelson Street in Bethnal Green with his wife Emma Collett who was 29 and also born in Shoreditch. Ten years earlier the census of 1841 included Joseph (aged 15-19) living at his family’s home in Union Walk in Shoreditch. No record of Joseph and or Emma has been located after 1851.

54A47

Elizabeth Collett was born at Shoreditch on 26^th November 1824, the only known daughter of Joseph and Harriet Collett. She was recorded as being 14 years of age in the Shoreditch census of 1841 when Elizabeth and her family were residing in Union Walk. Elizabeth Collett, daughter of Joseph and Harriet was twenty-five years old when she was baptised at Shoreditch on 31^st August 1850. Six months later her age was again incorrectly recorded in the St Martins-in-the-Field census of 1851 when she was described as the unmarried 23-year old domestic servant at the Trafalgar Square home of physician Robert Lancaster Rawes and his wife Sophia.

After a further thirty years, unmarried Elizabeth Collett from Shoreditch, was still stating that she was younger than her actual age, when she was listed in the census of 1881 as being 52 and employed as a cook/domestic servant at Caterham in Surrey. On that occasion, she was working at the home of civil engineer Thomas Bradbury Winter. It was only twenty years later that Elizabeth confirmed her correct age when, by the time of the census in 1901, she had returned Shoreditch where still was living with the Beaumont family on Ipswich Road where she was 76.

54A48

Henry Collett was born at Shoreditch on 13^th July 1826 but, unlike his sister (above), Henry was just three years of age when he was baptised at St Leonards Church in Shoreditch on 18^th October 1829, another son of Joseph and Harriet Collett. He was 13 years old in the June census of 1841 when he was one og six children living with his parent at Union Walk in Shoreditch. Tragically, it was less than two years later, when he was 17, that he died and was buried in the grounds of the Church of St John the Baptist in Hoxton on 29^th January 1843.

54A49

Charles Collett was born at Shoreditch in 1832 and was baptised with his younger brother James (below) on 21^st August 1836. He was eight years of age in the Shoreditch census of 1841 when living at Union Walk and was 20 (sic) in 1851, by which time he and his family were residing at Brunswick Street in Shoreditch. Over the next few years Charles married Jane from Calne in Wiltshire, after which the couple settled in Bethnal Green. That was confirmed in the next census of 1861, when Charles was 30 and a stationer’s picker living with Jane, aged 28, at Gloucester Street. Ten years later the childless couple was still living at the same address where stationer’s assistant Charles was 39 and Jane from Calne was a dressmaker aged 37. Living with the couple was Jane’s niece Ellen Louisa J Richards who was six years of age.

Ellen Louisa Richards from born at Holloway in London, her birth recorded at St Pancras (Ref. 1b 157) during the third quarter of 1864. It was at Gloster (sic) Street that the three of them were still living in 1881, by which time Charles and Jane had adopted their niece. Charles Collett from Shoreditch was 49 and a schoolboard officer, Jane Collett from Colne [Calne] was 47, and their adopted daughter Ellen L Richens (sic) Collett from Holloway was 16. Curiously, ten years later, Ellen was once again described simply as niece. Charles was 59, Jane was 57 and Ellen Louisa J Richens was 25, the three of them residing at Morpeth Road in Bethnal Green. After a further ten years, the census of 1901 identified just Charles and Jane living together at Spelhurst Road in Hackney. Schoolboard visitor Charles was 69 and Jane was 67.

54A410

James Collett was born at Shoreditch on 1^st August 1836 and was baptised there in a joint ceremony with his older brother Charles (above) on 21^st August 1836, both the sons of Joseph Collett and Harriet Hatt. Whether an oversight by his parents, but the birth of James Collett was not registered at Shoreditch until the first quarter of 1838 (Ref. 2 321). In 1841 he was four years of age and living with his family at Union Walk in Shoreditch, while in 1851 he was described as 15 years old and an errand boy who was still living with his family but at Brunswick Street in Shoreditch. Ten years later unmarried James Collett from Shoreditch was 23 and a lodger staying at Ipswich Street in West Stow just north of Bury St Edmunds, when his occupation was that of soldier.