PART FIFTY-SEVEN
The
Collett Family of Bakers from Abbots Morton in Worcestershire
(incorporating
the Colletts of Badsey)
Updated July 2022
The early generations of this family had
their name recorded as Collet and the earliest record at Badsey was the
marriage of Joan Collet and Thomas Pegyn on 1st February 1561. An appendix in this file, includes the details
of other Colletts who made their home at Badsey.
Unplaced Colletts recorded on the Badsey
History website include, Edward Collett
who was a witness at a wedding on 31st August 1788, and William Collett, born 1758, who was
buried there on 13th June 1823 at the age of 65. Another was the family of William Collett
(Ref. 76N4) who was born at Willersey, who moved to Badsey after leaving school
prior to 1861, where he married a Badsey lass with whom he created a whole new
branch of family from 1864 onwards.
That new line is Part 76 –
Bidford-on-Avon to North America and Australia
57k1 |
John Collett was born around 1700 and he married
Elizabeth Wyatt at Badsey, east of Evesham, on 5th October 1741,
and it is their eldest child who starts this introductory section of this family
line. Further research is required to
determine who John Collett was, and the location where he was born. One option is that he was the John Collett
baptised at Ashchurch near Tewkesbury on 22nd December 1700, the
son of William and Ann Collett. If that
proves to be correct then William Collett (Ref. 5J9) and his wife, the
parents of John Collett, can be found in Part 5 – The Tewkesbury Line. What is known for sure is that William
Collett, the son of John Collett and Elizabeth Wyatt, was baptised at Badsey
on Tuesday 18th January 1742, and that he was followed by the
birth of two sisters. John Collett
died at the age of 62 on 16th January 1763, and was buried at
Badsey on Sunday 18th January 1763, leaving his widow with their
three children. However, it was just a
few months later, on 15th October 1763, that Mrs Elizabeth
Collett, widow, married Henry Smith. The
second marriage for Elizabeth appears not to have produced any children, and
her husband Henry Smith died during December 1789, with Elizabeth following
ten years later, when she was buried at Badsey on 16th August
1799. |
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57l1 |
William Collett |
Born in 1741
at Badsey |
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57l2 |
Ann Collett |
Born in 1747
at Badsey |
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57l3 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1757
at Badsey |
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57l1 |
William Collett was baptised at Badsey on 18th
January 1742, the son of farmer John Collett and his wife Elizabeth Wyatt. Following the death of his father in 1763
it would appear that William took on farming the land that had been
previously worked by his late father. It
was six years later that he married (1) Nancy Bird at Badsey on 5th
October 1769, the witness to the marriage being William’s sister Ann (below). Nancy Bird was a minor, since she was baptised
at Badsey on 7th April 1751, and needed the consent of her parents
Henry and Elizabeth Bird to wed the much older William Collett. In addition to being the witness at the
wedding of his sister Ann three weeks after he became a married man, William
was also named as a witness at two marriages in 1767. The first of them took place on 9th
February 1767, and the second on 9th June 1767. Later records suggest that William may be
been attached to the Badsey Church in some way, as a further seven entries in
the parish records indicate that he was a witness in 1770, 1772, 1781, 1785,
1786, and 1795. |
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Nine
months after they were married, nineteen-year-old Nancy Collett presented her
husband William with a son William, who was born at Badsey and baptised there
on 8th July 1770. However,
young Nancy did not survive the ordeal, and the parish records at Badsey show
that Nancy Collett, the mother of William Collett junior, and the wife of
William Collett senior, died on 8th August 1770 and was buried in
the churchyard of St James’ Church on Friday 10th August 1770. |
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Almost
two years after the death of his wife William married (2) Mary White on
Saturday 6th June 1772 at Wickhamford parish church. Mary was the daughter of William and
Elisabeth White of Wickhamford, who was baptised there on 10th
February 1731. Although Mary was
nearly ten years older than William, she presented him with a son, John
Collett, who was born and baptised at Badsey in 1775. It is established that father and son were
referred to in the Badsey Society’s ‘Badsey
& Adlington Enclosure Map Project’ where it specifically relates to
the land at Badsey known as The Stockey comprising Great Stockey and Little Stockey, both
adjacent to the Vicarage in Badsey.
The land was owned by the Williams family long before 1747, and in
1787 it belonged to the Reverend Thomas Williams of Bere Regis in
Dorset. He was christened at
Chasleton, near Morton in Marsh, on 1st May 1748, the son of the
Reverend Edward Williams, Rector of Chastleton and wife Margaret Walker of
Evesham. |
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It
was also in 1787 that William Collett [the elder] paid rent to the Rev.
Williams, as verified in the 1787 Land Tax which stated that the Reverend
Thomas Williams was the owner of Stockey, and that it was rented out to
tenant farmer William Collett. Since
that is the earliest Land Tax document unearthed, it is assumed that William
Collett farmed the Stockey land prior to 1787, that it was possibly farmed by
his father John Collett prior to his death in 1763. It is very interesting to note that the
annual tax for Stockey paid by William Collett in 1787 was Nine Pounds Six
Shillings Ten Pence, exactly the same sum that was charged to his son William
in 1818, and again thirteen years later in 1831. |
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Also,
at that same time in 1787, William Collett was farming other land under a
tenancy agreement with [a] the Reverend Drummond and [b] Christopher Whiting,
as well as another plot owned by John Millard and John Benton, which William
farmed in partnership with his brother-in-law James Bird. There was also a plot of land that William
farmed which was jointly owned by him and a Mary Roberts. William Collett, farmer of Badsey, died
there and was buried there on Friday 29th July 1814, at the age of
72. His eldest son William was then
solely responsible for the farm, and his widow Mary was to remain living in
the old farmhouse. Mary Collett nee
White died when she was 95, following which she was buried at Badsey on
Tuesday 20th May 1825. |
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The Will of William Collett of Badsey
was made on 16th February 1814, and proved on 18th
November 1814 at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and read as follows: I, William Collett the elder of Badsey,
gentleman, give to my second son, John Collett, my messuage, garden, orchard,
land outbuildings and appurtenances now in my occupation at Badsey, paying to
my eldest son William the sum of £450 but without interest at the end of 12
months after my decease and permitting my dear wife to have the exclusive use
of one of the bedrooms in the same in which there is a fireplace and also the
accommodation of board with him and his family for so long as she shall
choose and he allowing out of the ? I have hereafter bequeathed to her such
reasonable recompense for the same as my Executors shall think right from
time to time I give and bequeath to my Executors the sum of
£1100 to invest for me in the public funds upon trust that they my said
executors shall and shall pay the interest and the dividends of the said
stock for the benefit of my dear wife Mary and on the decease of my wife then
I bequeath the money equally between my said two sons And I give to my said two sons all my monies
securities for money, debts, furniture and other personal estate subject to
the payment of my debts legacies equally to be divide between them. It is my will that my dear wife shall have
the use of my own furniture for her life for which purpose I direct that an
inventory of the same be taken immediately after my decease and given to my
son William to prevent disputes on the division of the same on my wife’s
death |
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I direct my executors to pay out of my personal
estate the following legacies within six months after my decease, namely. To Mrs Jane Kelsall, my wife’s daughter by
her first husband, the sum of £40. To
my wife’s son William White now or late of Oxford £10 and the sum of £30
which he owes to my wife’s grandson David White of Bretforton £10. To Mary the wife of William Caldicott of
Honeybourne, one of my wife’s granddaughters, the sum of £10. To such old widows and old men belonging to
Badsey exclusive of Aldington as my executors shall choose the sum of £5 to
be paid within two years after my decease in different proportions and at
several times at the discretion of my Executors. And all my other chattels and estate I give
to my eldest son William Executors:
My two sons William and John Collett Signed: William Collett |
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57m1 |
William Collett |
Born in 1770
at Badsey |
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The
following is the only known child of William Collett by his second wife Mary
White: |
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57m2 |
John Collett |
Born in 1775
at Badsey |
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57l2 |
Ann Collett was baptised at St James’ Church in Badsey
on 17th April 1747, the eldest of the two daughters of John
Collett and his wife Elizabeth Wyatt.
Ann was the witness at the wedding of her brother William (above) during
the first week of October in 1769, and three weeks later he was witness at
her wedding, when she married Benjamin Gould at Badsey on 25th
October 1769. |
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57l3 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at Badsey, where she was
baptised on 25th June 1757.
Her father John Collett died in 1763 when she was only six years old,
and ten years later Elizabeth died on 5th November 1773 and was
buried in the family grave at Badsey with her father on 7th
November 1773. The headstone that
marks the grave also includes the name of her brother’s wife Nancy Collett
(above) who had died three years earlier in 1770. |
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57m1 |
William Collett was born at Badsey and was baptised
there on 8th July 1770, the son of farmer William Collett and his
wife Nancy Bird. Following the death
of his mother within days of his birth, his father married for a second time
in 1772 and William continued to live with his father and his stepmother in
the first decade of the new century, while working on his father’s farm
holding in Badsey. It was not until he
was nearly thirty-five that he married Mary Yardington at Badsey on Wednesday
1st May 1805, although sadly the marriage apparently did not
produce any children for the couple.
Mary Yardington was baptised at Bishampton on 3rd November
1776, the daughter of John Yardington and his wife Elisabeth Fletcher. William and Mary continued to live with
William’s father after they were married, and it seems very likely that the
younger man eventually took over his father’s farming operations, allowing
the older man to retire. |
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During
1811, the last year before the act of enclosing the lands in Badsey was due,
the two William Colletts held leases under the Reverend Thomas Williams, and
upon the death of his father three years later in 1814, William continued to
farm the land leased from the agents for the Reverend Thomas Williams, as
confirmed by the 1818 Land Tax Records, when he was paying Nine Pounds Six
Shillings Ten Pence in tax. Also, at
that time, and in addition to the land he farmed at Badsey, William Collett
had land at Aldington, just north of Badsey, which he leased from Thomas
Williams, and he still owned the house near the church, the tenant for which
was Thomas Smith. The 1820 Edition of the
Worcestershire General & Commercial Directory included an entry for
William Collett, a farmer at Badsey.
Six years later the 1826 Tax Return once again showed that William
Collett was still farming the land at Badsey belonging to Thomas Williams,
and that Thomas Smith was still the occupant of the house belonging to
William Collett. |
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Five
years after that, the 1831 Badsey Land Tax returns show that the land
referred to as Stockey was owned by the estate of the late Reverend Thomas
Williams, and that the occupier of the land at that time was William Collett,
who paid Nine Pounds Six Shillings Ten Pence, the usual amount, to the
exchequer on that property, and strangely the same amount paid by his father
in 1787. In January 1837 the widow of
William’s half-brother John Collett (below) passed away, having four years
earlier purchased a seven-acre-field to the west of Badsey Brook known as
Jarrett’s Ground. Upon her death that
land was transferred into the ownership of William Collett, all in accordance of the Will
of her husband John Collett, gentleman and farmer of Badsey, whose Will was
proved in 1832 – reproduced below.
Four years later the Badsey census of 1841 recorded William and Mary
still living there at
The Firs, 27 High Street, where William Collett was 70 and a farmer, while his
wife Mary Collett was 63. By that time
in their lives, The Firs
was a large detached house near the church, where the couple employed a
domestic servant Ann Mayo who was 19.
The Firs was owned by William Collett, who had taken up living there
after tenant Thomas Smith (above) had vacated the property. |
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It
was nearly nine years later that William Collett, aged 80, died on 5th
April 1850, following which he was buried at Badsey on 9th April 1850, although
no Will has ever been found. After his death the land to the west of Badsey Brook
passed, at his bequest, to Edward Appelbee.
In 1877, Edward’s widow, Elizabeth Appelbee and her son Thomas, sold
the land to John Pickup Lord when it became part of what was known as the
Wickhamford Estate. During the year
following the death of her husband, the widow Mary Collett nee Yardington was again living at The Firs,
27 High Street in Badsey, when she was described as Mary Collett from
Bishampton, a landed proprietor aged 73, employing two domestic servants,
Matilda Watson aged 43, and Anne Ewins who was 37. According to the next census in 1861,
Matilda Pyne Watson was by then the companion of Mary Collett, when both of
them were still living at The Firs in Badsey.
Mary Collett of Bishampton, aged 83, was again described as a land
proprietor, while Matilda Pyne Watson, who was 53, was described as companion
and housekeeper. Helping Matilda
manage the house was sixteen-year-old domestic servant Harriet Warner. |
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Two
years later, elderly Mary Collett decided it was time to draw up a Will and,
on 9th October 1863 in the presence of Evesham solicitor Henry New,
she signed the document. The two
witnesses were two clerks employed by Henry New. Just over fifteen months later, at the age
of 87, Mary Collett died on 24th January 1865 [see FOONOTE below] and
was buried in the churchyard at Badsey, with her husband, on Tuesday 31st
January 1865, where a cross and a foot stone were erected to their memory. The death of Mary
Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 24).
Within her Will, proved at Worcester on 6th March 1865, was
a bequest of £100 for her companion Matilda Payne Watson, together with money
to provide blankets for the poor people of Badsey. The bulk of her estate was passed onto the
Tovey family, her nephews Thomas Yardington Tovey and William Tovey
inheriting Bowers Hill Farm. Her
house, of The Firs, the garden and orchard, was divided equally between the
same two nephews. Another dwelling and
garden occupied by Joseph Jones was also bequeathed to the two Tovey
brothers, as well as several parcels
of land referred to as Badsey grounds, comprising 22 acres being worked by
Mrs Ingles – another connection to the Collett family, with the wedding of
James Collett (Ref. 76M1) and Mary Ingles taking place at Willersey
in 1837 in Part 76 –
Bidford-on-Avon to North America & Australia. Also,
under the terms of the same Will, another member of the Tovey family, Joseph
Tovey, received four acres of land known as Abraham's Well. |
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Bowers
Hill Farm was still the home of the Tovey family in 1881, when the census
that year recorded the aforementioned William Tovey’s widow Elizabeth still
living there. Elizabeth, aged 60 and
from South Littleton, was a farmer of 99 acres employing three men and two
boys. Her eldest son William Collett
Tovey, who was 31, was the farm manager, his brother Edgar Tovey, aged 19,
was also working on the farm, while Elizabeth’s youngest son Albert Tovey was
18 and an apprentice chemist.
Elizabeth’s two daughters were Ellen Tovey aged 31, and Mary Tovey who
was 13. Serving the family was Catherine
Archer aged 42 and the housekeeper.
Apart from Elizabeth, all of the other members of the householder were
born at Church Lench. Elizabeth
Tovey’s brother-in-law Thomas Yardington Tovey was still living and working
his own farm at Church Lench, which he had owned prior to inheriting his
share of his aunt’s estate in 1865.
What is of interest is that in 1871, and six years after the death of
his aunt Mary Collett, her companion Matilda Paine Watson was a visitor at
his farm in Church Lench. |
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FOOTNOTE: In 1812, at the time of the Badsey Enclosure Act, a plot of land
referred to as Church End, was part of the garden of an old enclosure which
belonged to William Collett. It
comprised a house (The Firs, High Street) and land amounting to just over an
acre. It passed out of the Colletts’
hands in 1865, following the death of Mary Collett, when it was sold at
public auction at the Cross Keys Inn at Evesham, when it was purchased by the
aforementioned Captain John Pickup Lord. The Firs was later bought by Victor Cockerton
in 1920, whose grandson was still living there in 2008. The eastern-most section of the plot was
sold in the 1990s for the building of three bungalows, when the close in
which they were built, off Chapel Street, Badsey, was named Church End. |
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57m2 |
John Collett was baptised at Badsey on 4th
February 1775, the only child of William Collett by his second wife Mary
White. With his father being an
established farmer in Badsey, it was logical that John was also farming by
the time he was thirty-three. The Badsey
Land Tax Records for 1808 show that John Collett paid Five Pounds for land
that was owned by his father William. In
addition to that, John was also paying land tax on property that he farmed and
which he rented from Charles Whiting and the Reverend Philott. Six years earlier John Collett married Ann
Wheeler at Badsey on 13th May 1802, at a time when his older
stepbrother William Collett (above) was still a bachelor. Less than six months after they were
married Ann presented John with a daughter who was baptised on 12th
November 1802. Sadly, the child was
only three years old when she died and was buried at Badsey on 19th
November 1805. |
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Over
twenty years later the 1826 Badsey Land Tax Records confirm that John Collett
was still living at Badsey in the house that he owned, and that he was still
farming land that was also in his ownership.
It was five years after that when John Collett died at Badsey, where
he was buried on 30th September 1831 at the age of 56. It seems highly likely that John was in
some way attached to the church, since the name John Collett is a witness at
two wedding ceremonies in Badsey, the first on 29th September 1813,
and the second on 8th November 1814. |
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The Will of John Collett of Badsey
was proved at the Prerogative Court in Canterbury on 8th March
1832, and reads as follows: I, John Collett of Badsey, gentleman, give all
that my messuage, tenement and the barns thereto belonging situate at Badsey
now in my own possession and also the orchard thereto belonging in the
occupation of James Harris and Joseph Knight and all other the messuages
lands and hereditaments parts or shares of messuages, lands and hereditaments
with the appurtenances unto the use of my dear wife Ann Collett for and
during the term of her natural life and after her decease, I give the same
unto the use of William Collett of Badsey, farmer. I give all my personal estate and effects and household
furniture unto my wife Ann Collett and unto William Collett and the survivor
of them save the sum of £300 to Jane Kelsall of Evesham, widow |
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Two
years after the death of her husband, Ann Collett nee Wheeler purchased a
field to the west of Badsey Brook in 1833 from her uncle John Jones. John was the brother of Ann’s mother and
had originally bought the seven acres of land known as Jarrett’s Ground in
1803 for £1,128. Ann Collett nee
Wheeler survived her husband by less than six years when she died during the
first month of 1837 at Badsey where she was buried on 24th January
1837, at the age of 64. Following her death, the land known as
Jarrett’s Ground, also known as Gerrard’s Piece, was passed to her husband’s
half-brother William Collett (above). The Will of Ann Collett of
Badsey was proved at Worcester on 21st June 1837 |
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Many
years later, the following notice was published in the local press. “At the Northwick Arms Hotel, Evesham, on Monday 26th March
1866 at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, by order of the Trustees for sale acting
under the Will of the late Mrs Ann collett, deceased, subject to conditions
and in one lot: All those three closes
of arable land called Gerrard’s Piece, situate in the hamlet of Aldington in
the parish of Badsey in the county of Worcester, containing by a recent
admeasurement 26a or 36p, and now in the occupation of Richard Ashwin, Esq. This land is near to the borough of Evesham
and is bounded on the north by the Evesham and Bretforton Turnpike Road, on
the east by Badsey Brook and land of E Wilson, Esq, on the south by land of
Captain Lord and on the west by land of Francis Darwin, Esq, in Bengeworth in
the borough of Evesham. On the day of the sale, the land was
purchased by the aforementioned Captain John Pickup Lord who, during the
previous year on 10th July 1865, at the Cross Keys Inn auction in
Evesham, had purchased the land forming the estate of the late Mrs Mary
Collett, the widow of William Collett (above). |
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57n1 |
Ann Collett |
Born in 1802
at Badsey; infant death |
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APPENDIX |
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However,
in addition to what is written above about the Badsey Land Tax Records, they
also included details of another Collett, unconnected to the family
above. He was William Collett (Ref.
57L7) who farmed land within the parish, and who is believed to be from nearby
Broadway. This therefore, is the story
of his family line. |
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57K1 |
Richard Collett was born at Stow-on-the-Wold around
1717 and it was there also that he married Elizabeth Keen on 3rd
October 1741. Elizabeth was the
daughter of Samuel Keen and Elizabeth Beal and was baptised at Stow on 31st
January 1721. Their marriage produced
seven children born at Broadway, although the first of them was born ten
years after they were married, which perhaps indicates that Richard was
absent from the family home in the early days of their relationship, or that
any earlier children did not survive. |
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57L1 |
Ann Collett |
Born in 1750
at Broadway |
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57L2 |
William Collett |
Born in 1751
at Broadway |
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57L3 |
Richard Collett |
Born in 1753
at Broadway |
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57L4 |
John Collett |
Born in 1754
at Broadway |
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57L5 |
Richard Collett |
Born in 1754
at Broadway |
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57L6 |
John Collett |
Born in 1755
at Broadway |
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57L7 |
William Collett |
Born in 1757
at Broadway |
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57L1 |
Ann Collett was born at Broadway in 1750, where
she was baptised on 20th May 1750, the eldest known child of
Richard and Elizabeth Collett of Stow-on-the-Wold. |
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57L2 |
William Collett was born at Broadway in 1751, the
eldest son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett, and was baptised there on 17th
July 1751, but sadly he died there while still very young. |
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57L3 |
Richard Collett was born at Broadway during the first
half of 1753 and it was there also that he was baptised on 7th
October 1753, but like his brother William (above), he too did not survive. |
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57L4 |
John Collett was born at Broadway most likely
during last month of 1753 or the first month of 1754. He was baptised there in May that year but
as with his two brothers before him, he did not survive beyond infancy. |
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57L5 |
Richard Collett was born at Broadway around September
1754, and was baptised there on 7th October 1754, the son of
Richard and Elizabeth Collett. |
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57L6 |
John Collett was born at Broadway in the second
quarter of 1755, and it was there that he was baptised on 18th May
1755, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Collett. |
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57L7 |
William Collett was born at Broadway in 1757 where he
was baptised on 21st December 1757, the youngest child of Richard
Collett from Stow-on-the-Wold and his wife Elizabeth Keen from Worcestershire. It was when William was 32 that he married
Mary Salter at Badsey on 19th July 1790, with whom he had three
children, all of them baptised at Badsey.
William was a tenant farmer in Badsey, as confirmed by the Badsey Land
Tax records. Sometime during the 1830s
William Collett died, following which his wife left the village of
Badsey. The census in June 1841
identified his widow Mary Collett living at Abbots Morton with the family of
her married son William Collett, where she was recorded with a rounded age of
75 and living on independent means. |
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57M1 |
John Collett |
Born in 1791
at Badsey |
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57M2 |
Maria Collett |
Born in 1794
at Badsey |
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57M3 |
William Collett |
Born in 1804
at Badsey |
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57M1 |
John Collett was born at Badsey where he was
baptised on 20th August 1791, the first child of William Collett
and his wife Mary Salter. Towards the end of 1814, John
Collett was one of the witnesses at the Badsey wedding of his sister Maria
(below). It was also at Badsey
that John Collet married Jane Hitch on 25th December 1817. As far as can be determined John and Jane
certainly had a daughter Mary, who was born around 1832, likely to be their
last child, leaving the previous thirteen years for earlier children. The three of them were listed in the Church
Lench census of 1841, when they were residing in the village of Atch Lench,
just south-east of Church Lench. John
and Jane Collett were both 45, a rounded age, while their daughter Mary
Collett was nine years old. Two other
family were also recorded at the property, and they were mother and daughter
Mary and Elizabeth Hitchings, and Charles and Phoebe Hacker, with their
daughter Maria. Ten years later it was
just John and Jane who were living alone Evesham Road in Church Lench, where
John of Badsey was 59 and an agricultural labourer and Jane from Atch Lench
was 55. Nine years later, the death of
John Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 1) during the second quarter of
1860. By that time, John was already widowed,
the death of Jane Collett was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 36) during the
third quarter of 1857. |
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|
|
||||||||
|
57N1 |
Mary Collett |
Born in 1832
at Atch Lench |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57M2 |
Maria Collett was born at Badsey during 1794, where
she was baptised at Maria Collett on 30th November 1794, the
daughter of William and Mary Collett.
Within the Badsey baptism records is the name of John Collet, the son
of Maria Collet, who was baptised on 29th November 1812. There is a possibility that he was the
base-born child of Maria Collett. Two
years later Maria Collet of Badsey was married, following the reading of banns, to Charles
Hartwell, also of Badsey, at Badsey on 8th November 1814, when the witnesses were John
Collett (Maria’s brother) and Mary Hartwell, and both the bride and groom
signed the parish register with the mark of a cross. Their children were baptised at Badsey, the
first being William Hartwell baptised on 29th October 1815,
followed by Mary Harwell, baptised on 25th January 1818,
and Charles Hartwell on 26th December 1825. They were followed by George Hartwell
and Joseph Hartwell, who were baptised on 23rd December
1827 and 23rd January 1833, respectively. In 1841 the family living at Badsey comprised
Charles who was 50, Maria who was 48, Charles junior who was 19, Elizabeth
Hartwell who was 16, George who was 13, and David Hartwell who was
10 years of age. Only one of their
seven known children was still living with the couple in 1851, when Charles
Hartwell was 62, a pauper and a farm labourer, Maria Hartwell was 57, and
George Hartwell was 22 and a labourer working on a farm. All three on them was recorded as having
been born at Badsey. Six years later,
the death of Maria Hartwell, nee Collett, was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 32)
during the second quarter of 1857. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57N2 |
John Collett |
Baptised on
29.11.1812 at Badsey |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57M3 |
William Collett was born at Badsey in 1804 according
to the census in 1851, and was baptised there on 6th January 1805,
the third child of tenant farmer William Collett and his wife Mary Salter. William was in his early twenties when he
married Ann Hulbert at Abberton in Worcestershire on 3rd April
1826. Over the following year the
couple settled in nearby Abbots Morton, to the west of Alcester, and it was
there that all of their children were born.
At the time of the census in 1841 William and Ann were still living in
the village of Abbots Morton, where they were also still living three years
later for the birth of their last known child. The census return recorded William Collett
with a rounded age of 35, when he was working as an agricultural labourer and
when his wife Ann had a rounded age of 40.
Living with them on that occasion were just four of their five known
children and they were William who was 12, Thomas who was seven, Richard who
was four and Mary who was two years old.
The couple’s missing child was their son John Collett who was 10 years
old and appears to have been the youngest of five male pupils at a boys’
school in Abbots Morton managed by William and Mary Ann Cowley. Living with the family at Abbots Morton was
William’s widowed mother Mary Collett who had a rounded age of 75. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Ten
years later in 1851 William Collett, aged 47 and from Badsey, was an
agricultural labourer still living in Abbots Morton with his family. His wife Ann, who was 48, had been born at
Flyford Flavel, just one mile from Abberton, where the couple were
married. The only children still
living with them at that time were their daughter Mary Maria Collett who was
12 and still at school, and their son Anthony Collett who was six years old
and also attending the local school.
All of the couple’s five other children were living in West Bromwich
that day, with four of them together in lodgings at Spon Lane in West
Bromwich, with just son Thomas on his own in the town. Those four children were William Collett
who was 22, John Collett who was 20, Richard Collett who was 14, all of them
working as labourers, plus their youngest sister Elizabeth Collett who was
eight years of age and attending school.
During the following decade, three members of the family died. The first of them was daughter Elizabeth
Collett, whose death was recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 28) during the third
quarter of 1855, while five years after the death of William Collett was
recorded at Evesham (Ref. 6c 18) during the fourth quarter of 1860. By that time, his wife had already passed
away, when the death of Ann Collett was recorded as Evesham (Ref. 6c 23)
during the first three months of 1857. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57N3 |
William Collett |
Born in 1828
at Abbots Morton |
||||||
|
57N4 |
|
Born in 1830
at Abbots Morton |
||||||
|
57N5 |
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1832
at Abbots Morton |
||||||
|
57N6 |
Richard Collett |
Born in 1836
at Abbots Morton |
||||||
|
57N7 |
Mary Maria Collett |
Born in 1838
at Abbots Morton |
||||||
|
57N8 |
Elizabeth
Collett |
Born in 1842;
died 1855 |
||||||
|
57N9 |
Anthony Collett |
Born in 1844
at Abbots Morton |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57N3 |
William Collett was born at Abbots Morton in
Worcestershire in 1828, where he was baptised on 6th May 1828, the
eldest child of William and Ann Collett.
He was 12 years old in the census of 1841 when he was still living
with his family in Abbots Morton but, upon leaving the village school, he
left the family home to seek his own way in the world when he travelled to
West Bromwich. According to the census
in 1851 William Collett from Abbots Morton was 22 and working as a labourer
when he and three of his younger siblings were lodgers at Spon Lane in West
Bromwich. Possibly working with him
were his brothers John and Richard, while the fourth member of the group was
their sister Elizabeth who was still attending school. Why there were there, when their parents
were still residing in Abbots Morton, is not known. It was in the middle of the following
decade when the marriage of William Collett and Mary Downing was recorded at
Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 19) during the third quarter of 1856. Once married, they settled in Smethwick
with the first of their six children born there in the next year. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
By
1861 they had two daughters when William Collett from Abbots Morton was 32
and, was living at Smethwick in the Kings Norton & Harborne registration
district with his wife Mary, who was also 32, and their two daughters Ann
Collett who was three and Alice Collett who was one year old. Both girls had been born at Smethwick, where
their mother had also been born and, living not far away at Handsworth at
that time was William’s younger sister Mary Collett (below) and his brother
John Collett (below). Further children
were added to the family over the next decade and all of them were born while
the family was still living at |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
According
to the census of 1881 William Collett and his family were living at The
Baker’s Shop at 178 Oldbury Road in Harborne, where William worked as the
baker at the age of 52. Only his
eldest daughter Ann had left the family home by then and, it must be assumed
that at the age of 23, she was married by that time in her life. The remaining family members were William’s
wife Mary, who was also 52, their daughter Alice who was 21 with no stated
occupation and their sons Thomas H Collett who was 17, |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Three
years later his widow had taken over her husband role as a baker, when
the 1891 census recorded her living at Oldbury Road, but where the road was
in Smethwick rather than Harborne. At
the age of 62, Mary Collett only had her youngest child Frank living there
with her, whose occupation was also that of a baker. After a further ten years, and on the day of
the census in 1901, widow Mary was living with her married daughter Alice
Field at 121 St Pauls Road in Smethwick.
Mary Collett from Smethwick was 72 and described as the mother-in-law
of head of the household Thomas Henry Field.
Just over six years after that day, Mary passed away, perhaps was
still was still living with her daughter, when the death of Mary Collett was
recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 143) during the third
quarter of 1907 at the age of 78. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57O1 |
Ann
Collett |
Born in 1857
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57O2 |
Alice Collett |
Born in 1859
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57O3 |
Thomas Henry Collett |
Born in 1864
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57O4 |
|
Born in 1866
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57O5 |
Arthur Collett |
Born in 1868
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57O6 |
Frank Collett |
Born in 1871
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57N4 |
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Ten
years later it was a similar situation, when the family of three was still
recorded as residing at George Street in Harborne. John Collett from Abbots Morton was 40 and a
labourer in a local glass works, Sarah Collett from Smethwick was 43 and
their daughter Mary Ann Collett from West Bromwich was 21 and was due to be
married later that same year. Living
with the family that day was Henry Bull who was seven years old and from
Brierley Hill near Dudley who was described as son (adopted). He was again living with John and Sarah ten
years later in 1881. By that time John
and Sarah were living at Lottie Road in Northfield, just south of Selly Oak, when
John Collett from Abbots Morton was 50 and was working as a bricklayer’s
labourer. Lodging with him and his
wife Sarah, who was 53 and from West Bromwich, was their adopted son Henry
Bull from Brierley Hill who was 17 and a chocolate maker. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
General
labourer John, and Sarah, were both listed in the Northfield census return for
1891 as being 60 when they were still living on Lottie Road. Again living
with them was Henry Bull aged 27 who was continuing his employment as a
chocolate maker. In addition to their
adopted son, John and Sarah had living with them their grandson William
Geddes who was 18 and the eldest child of the couple’s daughter. He was still with them in 1901 when they
were living at 246 High Street in Northfield.
At the age of 70, John Collett from Abbots Morton was back to working
as a bricklayer’s labourer, Sarah Collett from Smethwick was 73 and their
Smethwick born grandson William Geddes was 29 who, by then, was employed as a
letter carrier by the General Post Office.
Less than six years after that census day, the death of John Collett
was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 140) during the first quarter of 1907,
at the age of 76. It is interesting
that, on the occasion of marriage of his only known child, the father of the
bride was named as John Roberts Collett, his daughter said to be Mary Ann
Roberts Collett. A year after being
made a widow, the death of Sarah Collett was also recorded at Kings Norton
register office (Ref. 6c 180) during the first three months of 1908, at the
age of 78. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57O7 |
Mary Ann Collett |
Born in 1850
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57N5 |
Thomas Collett was born at Abbots Morton in 1832, and
was baptised there on 3rd February 1832, the son of William and
Ann Collett. The census in 1841
recorded him as Thomas Collett who was seven years of age and living with his
family at Abbots Morton. By the time
he was 19, he was living in the West Bromwich area, where four of his
siblings were together in lodgings at a house in Spon Lane. Thomas was 24 when he married Sarah Ann
Simcox who was born at West Bromwich in 1832, their marriage recorded at West
Bromwich (Ref. 6b 794) during the second quarter of 1856. Sarah Ann was the sister of Emma Simcox
(below) who married Thomas’ brother Richard, they being the daughters of Edwin and Rebecca Simcox, Sarah Ann having
been baptised at All Saints Church in West Bromwich on 15th July
1832. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
It
was also at West Bromwich that Thomas and Sarah Ann seem to have spent their
whole life together, and it was there that all of their children were born. During the first fifteen years of their
marriage Sarah Ann presented Thomas with seven children, the first two of
them recorded with the couple at 77 Spon Lane in west Bromwich in the census
of 1861. Thomas Collett from Abbots
Morton was 28 and a baker employing one man, who was his brother
Anthony Collett from Abbots Morton who was 16 and an apprentice. Thomas’ wife was Sarah Ann Collett who was
25, and their two children were William Collett who was two and Elizabeth
Collett who was five months old. Also
staying with the family was Sarah’s sister Jane Simcox who was 12 and
employed by the family as a domestic servant. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Ten
years later in 1871 the family was made up of Thomas and Sarah Ann both aged
38, and their children Elizabeth Collett who was 10, Frederick Thomas Collett
who was seven, Sarah Ann Collett who was five, Thomas Collett who was four,
Mary Collett who was two, and baby Arthur Collett who was not yet one year
old. Their son William would have been
12, who presumably did not survive beyond childhood. No further children were born to the couple
after that time and by 1881 Thomas Collett of Abbots Morton was 48 and his
occupation was that of a master baker, like his eldest brother William
(above). At that time, he and his wife
Sarah, who was also 48, were living at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich with
their six children. Elizabeth Collett
was 20, Frederick T Collett was 17, Sarah A Collett was 15, Thomas Collett
was 14, Mary Collett was 12, and Arthur Collett who was 10. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Only
the three youngest children were still at school, while curiously the older
children were not credited with having any occupation. In fact, Thomas and his family were
supported by a servant, Henry Sutton, aged 22 from Worcester, who was also
employed as a baker. Most of
the family were still together ten years later. Only the couple’s eldest daughter Elizabeth
was missing from the family home in 1891, since she was already married by
that time, when every member of the household, excluding Thomas’ wife and
eldest daughter, were employed by him as baker’s assistants. According to the census in 1891, baker
Thomas Collett was 58, Sarah Ann Collett was 57, Frederick T Collett was 27,
Sarah Ann Collett was 25, Thomas Collett was 24, Mary Collett was 22, and
Arthur Collett who was 20. Staying
with the family, was Thomas’ nephew Arthur Collett, aged 23 and from
Smethwick, who was working with him as a baker’s assistant. At that time in his life, Thomas was
affluent enough to employ two male baker’s assistants James Griffin and Henry
Price. In addition to the Collett
family of Thomas and Sarah Ann, there was also living in that same area at
that same time, Emma Collett (Ref. 15N28) who was 16 and whose family
feature in Part 15 – The Kenilworth & Coventry Line. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Thomas
Collett, aged 68, and a retired baker from Abbots Morton was still
living in the Smethwick area of Handsworth in March 1901. Living there with him at 168 Saint Pauls
Road was his wife Sarah A Collett, aged 65 and from West Bromwich, together
with three of their unmarried children.
The eldest of them was their son Thomas Collett, aged 34 and a baker,
who had taken over the family business from his father and who was employing
his younger brother Arthur Collett, aged 30, as a journeyman baker,
who presumably was the delivery man.
It would also appear that the family was supported by daughters Sarah
Collett who was 35 and Mary Collett who was 32 who, with no stated
occupation, were very likely keeping house for their elderly parents and
their two brothers. Also living with
the family at that time, was Marion Stevens who was 11 and born in Walsall,
who was the granddaughter of Thomas and Sarah Collett, the first child from
the marriage of their eldest daughter Elizabeth Stevens nee Collett. By that time Elizabeth had three younger
children living with her and her husband nearby in Smethwick. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Both
Thomas and Sarah enjoyed a long life together and, by the time of the census
in 1911, both of them were 78 years of age and recorded as living at 168 St
Pauls Road a seven-roomed accommodation in Smethwick. Still living there with them, were their
two unmarried daughters, and their youngest son Arthur, who was also
unmarried. Sarah Ann Collett was 46,
Mary Collett was 42, and Arthur Collett was 40, all three of them born at
West Bromwich like their mother. The
census return also confirmed that Sarah had given birth to a total of eight
children, six of whom were still alive, they being the only ones listed
below. Apart from Arthur, all of the
other members of the household were described as having no occupation. It was exactly two years later that Sarah
Ann Collett nee Simcox passed away at the age of 80, her death recorded at
Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6d 100) during the second quarter of
1913. Thomas Collett outlived his wife
by eight years and was residing at Glencoe in St Pauls Road in West Smethwick
when he died on 21st August 1921.
His estate was valued at £9,366 4 Shillings 11d and probate was
granted at Lichfield on 27th October jointly to three of his
children. They were named as Frederick
Thomas Collett, a baker, Thomas Collett, a baker, and Mary
Collett, a spinster. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57O8 |
William
Collett |
Born in 1858
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O9 |
Elizabeth Collett |
Born in 1860
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O10 |
Frederick Thomas Collett |
Born in 1863
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O11 |
Sarah Ann Collett |
Born in 1865
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O12 |
Thomas Collett |
Born in 1867
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O13 |
Mary Collett |
Born in 1868
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O14 |
Arthur Collett |
Born in 1870
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57N6 |
Richard Collett was born at Abbots Morton in 1836,
where he was also baptised on 16th October 1836, the son of
William and Ann Collett. Richard was
four years old in the Abbots Morton census of 1841, but ten years after that
he had finished his education, when Richard Collett from Abbots Morton was 14
and had already started working as a labourer when he was in lodgings on Spon
Lane in West Bromwich with three of his siblings, his two older brothers both
being labourers. No record of Richard
has been found within the census of 1861 when he would have still been at
bachelor at 25. However, it was two
years later when Richard Collett married Emma Simcox from West Bromwich,
where their wedding was recorded (Ref. 6b 13) during the third quarter of
1863. It was there also that their four
known children were born and where the family was living in 1871 at Trinity
Road, just one dwelling from the Cricketer’s Arms. The
inn was still there in 2015, although Trinity Road and Lower Trinity Street
(see below) has been replaced by a new road named Trinity Way. Emma
Simcox was born on 16th February 1841, the daughter of Edwin and
Rebecca Simcox, and the sister of Sarah Ann Simcox (above) who married
Richard’s brother Thomas Collett. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
The
couple’s first two children were living with them in 1871 when Richard
Collett from Abbots Morton was 34 years old and a labourer at an iron
foundry. His wife Emma Collett was 29
and their two daughters were Ann Collett who was four and Sarah Collett who
was one year old. Two further children
were born into the family during the next four years, but then tragedy struck
the family when the death of Richard Collett was recorded at West Bromwich
(Ref. 6b 178) during the first three months of 1877, at the age of 42. That fact was confirmed in the 1881 Census
when Emma Collett from West Bromwich was listed as a widow at the age of
39. At that time she was living with
her four children at |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Just
least than two years later widow Emma Collett married John Jones, a widower
from Bedfordshire, the event recorded at Birmingham (Ref. 6d 108) during the
first quarter of 1883. The marriage
took place at the Church of St Martin in Birmingham on 23rd
February 1883, when Emma was 41 and John was 49. John was recorded at the son of Samuel
Jones, while Emma’s father was curiously named as Edwin Hopkiss. By census in 1891 Emma Jones from West
Bromwich was 49 when she and her husband John, aged 57 and a storekeeper at
an iron works, were living at 83 George Street in Harborne near Smethwick within
the Kings Norton area of Birmingham.
Living there with the couple, but described as boarders, were three of
Emma’s four children and they were Sarah Collett who was 21, Mary Jane
Collett who was 18 and John Collett who was 15. All three of them were confirmed as having
been born at West Bromwich and were working as bedstead painters. Also living at Harborne at that same time
was Richard Greenland Collett (Ref. 9O7) and his family from the West
Bromwich. See Part 9 – The Aldsworth Line. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
John
Jones from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire was 68 and a labourer at an iron
works in Smethwick on the day of the census in March 1901. His wife Emma Jones from West Bromwich was
59 and still living with the couple was Emma’s daughter Sarah Collett aged 32
and a warehouse worker. Also living
with the three of them was Emma’s son John together with his wife
Elizabeth. Over the next decade John
Jones passed away, following which Emma Jones from West Bromwich was 70 when
she was recorded within the Hitchin area of Hertfordshire on the day of the
census in 1911. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57O15 |
William Edwin Collett |
Born in 1864 at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O16 |
Ann
Collett |
Born in 1866
at |
||||||
|
57O17
|
Sarah Collett |
Born in 1869
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O18 |
Mary Jane Collett |
Born in 1872
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O19
|
|
Born in 1875
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
The following four
paragraphs were inserted here in error, when it was originally believed they
related to Richard Collett of Abbots Morton.
Further research conducted in 2015, actually revealed that it relates
to a completely different Richard Collett who was born at Hook Norton in
Oxfordshire. It is now hoped that the
family can be eventually relocated in its rightful place. But firstly, we now know that Richard was
the fourth child of Samuel and Elizabeth Collett, the family living within
the Shottery area to the west of the centre of Stratford-on-Avon in 1841. The census that year listed the family as Samuel
Collett aged 35, his wife Elizabeth aged 30, Thomas Collett aged
13, Ann Collett aged 11, Henry Collett who was nine, Richard
Collett who was six, and Mary Collett who was four years old. Mary was the only member of the household
who was born in Warwickshire, her birth recorded at Stratford-on-Avon (Ref.
xvi 8) during the first quarter of 1838. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
The census in 1851 confirmed that Samuel was a labourer
from Hook Norton, where his first four children were also born, the last two
children born when the family was residing in Stratford-on-Avon, after which
the family moved to Pope Street in Birmingham, where they were living in 1851.
By that time, the couple’s eldest
child had left the family home, leaving labourer Samuel who was 46, Elizabeth
from Barton in Oxfordshire was 44, Ann was 21, Henry was 19, Richard was 15,
Mary was 13, and George Collett was three years of age. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
It would have been around
1856 that Richard was first married and during the following year their only
child was born. Tragically, his first
wife did not survive, while no record of Richard or his daughter Amy have
been found within the census of 1861. Five
years later, Richard Collett, a widower of 31, residing at Aston Manor and
the son of Samuel Collett, married Mary Ann Sophia Bowler, a spinster of 23
from Duddeston and the daughter of Thomas Bowler, at Aston, Birmingham, on 9th
December 1866. In 1871 they were
living within the St George area of Birmingham at No 1 House, 13 Court Tower
Street. Richard Collett was 35 and a
glass cutter from Hook Norton in Oxfordshire.
His wife Mary Ann Collett was 32 and from the Aston district of
Birmingham, while Richard’s daughter Amy Collett was 13 and a steel toy
worker who had been born in Birmingham.
Living with the family was Bridget Mae who was 22 and another steel
toy worker from Birmingham who was described as the cousin of Richard
Collett. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
By the time of the next
census in 1881 Richard Collett from Hook Norton in Oxfordshire was working as
a glass cutter at the age of 45. His
place of residence was 18 New John Street in Birmingham and living there with
him was his wife Mary Ann Sophia Collett, aged 40 and from Birmingham, and
their daughter Amy Collett, aged 22, who was the unmarried mother of baby
Lilian Collett who was four months old, although the child was recorded as
the daughter-in-law of head of the household Richard Collett. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Also living at the same
address was schoolgirl Kate Mernaugh from Ireland who was 14, who was
described as Richard’s niece, most likely through his wife. With only having the one child, Richard and
Mary had, by 1881, adopted Arthur Johnson who had been born in Birmingham
during the previous year. The family
also had a lodger staying with them on that occasion and he was George Bliss
who was 22 and from Birmingham who was a pearl piece maker. Ten years later the couple was still living
in Birmingham St George, at Great King Street, from where Richard Collett,
aged 55, was employed as a glass flint cutter, when his wife Mary S Collett
was 54. Two others were living at the
property with them, and they were adopted son Arthur Johnson who was 11, and
granddaughter Minnie Collett who was two years old. Richard died during the next decade leaving
Mary A Collett from Birmingham was still living there aged 65, when she was
described as a wood farmery shopkeeper. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57O20 |
Amy
Collett |
Born in 1858 at Birmingham |
||||||
|
57O20a |
Arthur Johnson - adopted |
Born in 1879 at Birmingham |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57N7 |
Mary Maria Collett was born at Abbots Morton in 1838,
although unlike her brothers, no baptism record for her has been found to
date. Over the following years it
would appear that she and her siblings moved north to the Midlands. By 1861 she was recorded as living and working
within the West Bromwich & Handsworth registration district of the West
Midlands at the age of 22. Her married
brothers William and John were also living in that same area on the occasion. No trace of her as Mary Collett has been
found thereafter, so it can probably be assumed that she was married sometime
during the 1860s. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57N9 |
Anthony Collett was born at Abbots Morton in
1844. So far no obvious records for
him have been found in 1841 and 1851.
However, by 1861, Anthony Collett from Abbots Morton was 16 and an
apprentice baker when he was living with and employed by his older brother
Thomas Collett at 77 Spon Lane in West Bromwich. By 1871 he was still living in West
Bromwich when he was 26, while just a few years later he married Eliza who
was born at nearby Oldbury in 1849 with whom he had four children before
1881. According to that year’s census
Anthony and Eliza were living at 127 Bilston Road in Wolverhampton and just
like his older brothers, Anthony was also a master baker who employed
one man to assist him. Eliza was 31
and their four children were Anthony who was five, Adelaide who was three,
Emily who was two, and one-year-old Lizzie.
The family was supported by 15 years old Prudence Westwood of
Sedgley. The first three children had
been born while the family was living at West Bromwich, while Lizzie had been
born after the move to Wolverhampton. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
A
further four more children were born into the family over the next ten years which
by 1891 was living at 267 Bilston Road in Wolverhampton. The family listed in the census was Anthony
Collett from Abbots Morton who was 46 and a baker, his Eliza Collett
from Oldbury was 42, and with them were their sons Anthony Albert who was 15
and a baker, and Enoch who was four, plus their daughters Gertrude who
was 13, Emily who was 12, Lizzie who was 11, Annie who was nine, Mary who was
eight, and Fanny aged six years. Both
Anthony Collett senior and junior were listed in error as Aubrey. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
By
the turn of the century most members of the family were still living in |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57O21 |
Anthony Albert Collett |
Born in 1875
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O22 |
|
Born in 1877
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O23 |
Emily Collett |
Born in 1878
at West Bromwich |
||||||
|
57O24 |
Elizabeth
(Lizzie) Collett |
Born in 1879
at Wolverhampton |
||||||
|
57O25 |
Anne (Annie)
Collett |
Born in 1881
at Wolverhampton |
||||||
|
57O26 |
Mary Collett |
Born in 1882
at Wolverhampton |
||||||
|
57O27 |
Fanny Collett |
Born in 1884
at Wolverhampton |
||||||
|
57O28 |
Enoch Ernest
Collett |
Born in 1886
at Wolverhampton |
||||||
|
57O29 |
Alice Collett |
Born in 1887
at Wolverhampton |
||||||
|
57O30 |
Edna Collett |
Born in 1889
at Wolverhampton |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O1 |
Ann Collett
was born at Spon Lane in Smethwick in 1857, the first of the six children of
William Collett and Mary Downing, her birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c
28) during the second quarter of the year.
Ann was three and 13 years old in 1861 and 1871 when still living with
her family in Smethwick. Eight years
later the marriage of Ann Collett and John Robert Worthing was recorded at
Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 20) during the second quarter of 1879, the wedding
conducted at Smethwick. John was born
at Oldbury where he was baptised on 16th July 1854, the son of
John and Charlotte Worthing. It was at
Wollaston that the couple initially settled and by 1881 they and their first
child were living at Cobden Street where J Robert Working from Oldbury was 26
and a general clerk working in a solicitor’s office, Ann Worthing from West
Smethwick was 24, and their daughter Lilian M Worthing was no yet one
year old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Their
time at Cobden Street was very short-lived and, by the time of the birth of
the couple’s second child, they living at Sycamore Road in Smethwick, where
they were still living in 1891. John
was still a solicitor’s clerk, although he appears to have been known by his
second forename, since the census that year, as ten years previously, was
recorded as Robert Working aged 36. On
that occasion his wife was described as Ann Worthing from Spon Lane in
Smethwick who was 33, when their three children were listed as Lilian M
Worthing who was ten, Robert C Worthing who was nine, and son Leslie
Worthing who was three years old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
One
more child was added to the family, which was again residing in Smethwick at
the time of the birth and later in 1901, when John Robert Worthing from
Oldbury was 45 and a law clerk, and Ann Worthing was 43. All four of their children were still
living with them, and were Lilian who was 20, Robert who was 19, Leslie who
was 13 and Claude Worthing who was five years old. After a further ten years, it was only the
youngest child Claude Arthur Worthing, aged 15, who was living at
Smethwick with law clerk Robert, aged 55, and Ann who was 53, who was said to
have no occupation. The couple
continued to live in Smethwick where, just over thirty-three years later, the
death of John R Worthing was recorded at Smethwick register office (Ref. 6b
110) during the last quarter of 1944, at the age of 90. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O2 |
Alice Collett was born at Smethwick in 1859, the
second child of William and Mary Collett.
In the next two Smethwick censuses Alice was one year and 11 years of
age, but by 1881 the family had left Smethwick and was running The Baker’s
Shop at 178 Oldbury Road in Harborne, when Alice Collett was 21. Just over four years later Alice Collett married
Thomas Henry Field of Smethwick at Harborne in Staffordshire on 13th
September 1885. He was 27 and was a
fitter and gas engineer and their first child was born at Smethwick in 1887, with
a second born two years later. The
Smethwick census of 1891 recorded the family of four as Thomas Field who was
32, Alice Field who was 31, Horace Field who was three and Elsie M
Field who was one year old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
It
would appear that daughter Elsie did not survive, while a second son was
added to the family in 1893 and it was at 121 St Pauls Road in Smethwick that
the family was residing in 1901.
Thomas H Field was 42, Alice Field was 41, Horace Field was 13 and Laurence
Field was seven. Staying with the
family at that time was Alice’s widowed elderly mother Mary Collett who was
described as the mother-in-law of Alice’s husband. On the day of the census in 1901 Alice may
well have been close to presenting Thomas with their last child, who was born
shortly thereafter. By April 1911
Thomas Henry Field was 52, Alice Field was 51, Laurence Field was 17 and Beatrice
Alice Field was nine years old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
The
census return completed at the start of that month, revealed that Alice and
Thomas had been married for twenty-five years and that during those years
Alice had given birth to five children, although only three were still
alive. Both Thomas and his son
Laurence were working together as railway wagon builders, when the family was
still living at 121 St Pauls Road in Smethwick, a seven-roomed accommodation. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O3 |
Thomas Henry Collett was born at Smethwick, perhaps at the
end of 1863 or early in 1864, since his birth was recorded there during the
first three months of the latter. He
and his family were still living in Smethwick in 1871, aged seven years,
after which, around 1880, the family moved to Harborne where they were living
at 178 Oldbury Road in 1881. As the
eldest son of baker William Collett, he did not follow in his father’s
footsteps like his younger brothers, but instead Thomas Collett became a schoolteacher. The 1881 Census listed his occupation as
that of a pupil teacher at the relatively young age of just 17. It was therefore very likely that his work
eventually took him away from the West Midlands, since it was at Reading
(Ref. 2c 312), during the first three months of 1890, that Thomas Henry
Collett married Beatrice Maria Trask, from Woolwich in London. Later that same year their first child was
born at Reading. By the time of the
census in the following year, Thomas H Collett, aged 27 and from Smethwick,
was an assistant teacher at an elementary school, living at Erleigh Road in
Reading, near to the Royal Berkshire Hospital. His wife Beatrice M Collett was also 27,
when the first of their four known children was listed with them, with son
Thomas A Collett being only a few months old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Before
the end of that decade Beatrice presented Thomas with three more children,
the first of which was also born at Reading like their first child, but
around the middle of the 1890s the family moved to Lewisham, where their last
two children were born. However, just
one year later the family was recorded in the census of 1901 as living within
the City of London, in the parish of St Paul Deptford, within the London
Borough of Lewisham. Thomas H Collett
from Smethwick was 37, as was his wife Beatrice M Collett who was born at
Woolwich in London, and by that time Thomas was an Assistant Elementary
Teacher at the London School of Business.
Living with the couple were their sons Thomas A Collett who was ten
and Frank A Collett who was eight, both of whom had been born at Reading,
their daughter Dorothy M Collett who was two and baby Robert C Collett who
was one year old and had been born at Lewisham las had his sister Dorothy. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Within
the next ten years Thomas’ eldest son left the family home, so by 1911 the
family comprised Thomas Henry Collett who was 47 and an assistant teacher
with the London County Council, his wife Beatrice Maria Collett was also 47,
and their three youngest children Frank Ambrose Collett who was 18, Dorothy
Mary Collett who was 12, and Robert Cecil Collett who was 11 years old. At that time the family was living in Brockley
with the parish of St Paul Deptford in the South London Borough of Lewisham. Thomas’ place of birth was again confirmed
as Smethwick, while the three children were confirmed as having been born at
Reading and Lewisham. The death of
Thomas H Collett was recorded at Lambeth register office (Ref. 5c 67) during
the first quarter of 1958, when he was 94 years old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57P1 |
Thomas Arthur Collett |
Born in 1890
at Reading |
||||||
|
57P2 |
Frank Ambrose Collett |
Born in 1893
at Reading |
||||||
|
57P3 |
Dorothy
Mary Collett |
Born in 1898
at Lewisham |
||||||
|
57P4 |
Robert Cecil Collett |
Born in 1899
at Lewisham |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O4 |
John Collett was born at Smethwick either very near
the end of 1865 or early in 1886, since his birth was recorded at Smethwick
(Ref. 6c 119) during the first three months of 1866. He was five years old in 1871 and was 15 in
1881, by which time the family had moved from Smethwick to Harborne where
they were living at the Baker’s Shop at 178 Oldbury Road. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Over
the next ten years three more children were added to the family, so in the
census for 1901 the Smethwick family comprised John Collett, aged 35, who was
working as a general labourer, his wife Nellie who was 32, Minnie Collett who
was 10, Mabel E Collett who was seven, Ida N Collett who was two, and Florrie
M Collett who was not yet one year old.
Every member of the household was confirmed as having been born at
Smethwick. Just two further children
were born into the family during the following years and, by 1911 the family
still living in Smethwick was recorded as John Collett who was 45 and a
baker, Nellie Collett who was 42, Minnie Collett aged 20, Mabel Collett
aged 17, Nellie Collett aged 12, Florrie Collett who was 10, Harry Collett
who was four, and Barbara Collett who was one year old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
The
birth of all of the couple’s six children was recorded at Kings Norton,
Minnie’s during the third quarter of 1890 (Ref. 6c 332, and Mabel’s during
the second quarter of 1893 Ref. 6c 273), whose marriage to John H Gandy was
also recorded there during the second quarter of 1920 (Ref. 6d 82). The birth of Ida was recorded there (Ref.
6c 185) during the first three months of 1899, as was the birth of Florence (Ref.
6c 276) during the third quarter of 1900, and the birth of Barbara Kathleen G
Collett during the first three months of 1910 (Ref. 6c 25). |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57P5 |
Minnie
Collett |
Born in 1890
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57P6 |
Mabel Eileen
Collett |
Born in 1893
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57P7 |
Ida Nellie
Collett |
Born in 1899
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57P8 |
Florence Mary
Collett |
Born in 1900
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57P9 |
Harry Eric Collett |
Born in 1906
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57P10 |
Barbara Kathleen
G Collett |
Born in 1910
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O5 |
Arthur Collett was born at Smethwick in 1868, his
birth recorded there (Ref. 6c 259) during the second quarter of that
year. He was three years old and 13
years of age in the two census returns for 1871 and 1881. For the latter, he was living with his
family at 178 Oldbury Road in Harborne, which was also the village’s Baker
Shop. On leaving school Arthur
commenced a career in baking and by 1891 he was a baker’s assistant aged 23,
who was living and working at the Spon Lane, West Bromwich, home of his uncle
Thomas Collett (Ref. 57N5), a baker. Five years after that census day, the
marriage of Arthur Collett and Sarah Young was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref.
6c 324) during the final three months of 1896. Sarah from Handsworth gave birth to three
children who were born at Smethwick, two of whom were recorded with the
couple in 1901, when Arthur Collett was 33 and described as a baker
and a corn and flour dealer. His wife
Sarah Collett was 32, while their daughters were Alice G Collett who was two
and Edith M Collett who was only a few weeks old. In addition to the family’s general domestic
servant, 17-year-old Elizabeth Cull, also recorded at the dwelling was
Arthur’s younger brother Frank Collett (below), a baker ‘working with
his brother’. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
It
was during the summer months in the following year that Sarah gave birth to
the last child, who was only nine years of age when the death of Sarah
Collett was recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 48). Sarah died at Smethwick when she was 42
years old just days before the census in 1901. On that day Arthur Collett was a widower
aged 43 and a baker and flour dealer, his daughters were Alice Gwendoline who
was 12 and Edith Mary who was 10, and his son Arthur Frederick who was
eight. Undertaking domestic duties was
Dorothy Long who was only 15. Every
member of the household had been born at Smethwick. Thirty-two years later, when Arthur was 75,
he died at Smethwick, with his death recorded at West Bromwich register
office (Ref. 6b 38) during the third quarter of 1943. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57P11 |
Alice Gwendoline
Collett |
Born in 1898
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57P12 |
Edith Mary
Collett |
Born in 1901
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
57P13 |
Arthur
Frederick Collett |
Born in 1902
at Smethwick |
||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O6 |
Frank Collett was born at Smethwick in 1871, his
birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 204) during the fourth quarter of the
year. Sometime between 1871 and 1881
Frank and his family left Smethwick and moved the short distance to 178
Oldbury Road in Harborne. According to
the Harborne census in 1881, Frank was nine years old and from Smethwick. By 1891 Frank Collett aged 19 years was the
only member of his family still living with his widowed mother Mary at
Oldbury Road, but in Smethwick, where both mother and son were working as
bakers. Ten years later he was a
baker working for his older brother Arthur (above), following the death
of their father, the baker William Collett.
That was confirmed in the census of 1901 which listed Frank Collett from
Smethwick as being aged 29 and staying at the Smethwick home of Arthur and
Sarah Collett and their young family.
Although not positively identified within the next census of 1911, it
was six years after that when the marriage of Frank Collett and Jane H
Hayward was recorded at Wolverhampton register office (Ref. 6b 113) during
the last quarter of 1917. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O7 |
Mary Ann Collett was born at West Bromwich, her birth
recorded at Dudley (Ref. 6c 29) during the third quarter of 1852, although
she may have been born over a year earlier when her parents John Collett from
Abbots Morton and Sarah Smith from Smethwick were not married on the census
day in 1851, in fact they married during the last three months of that year. The conflict was highlighted in the
subsequent census returns when Mary Ann was 11 years old in 1861 and 21 in
1871, on both occasions she and her parents were recorded at George Street in
Harborne. It was within six months of
the latter, when the marriage of Mary Ann R Collett and Thomas Geddes was
recorded at Bromsgrove (Ref. 6c 125) during the third quarter of 1871. The wedding ceremony was conducted at
Redditch on 21st August 1871, when the bride was recorded in the
parish register as Mary Ann Roberts Collett, the daughter of John Roberts
Collett, and the groom Thomas Geddes being the son of William Geddes. Six children were born to the couple during
the first ten years of their life together. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
The
couple’s first two children were born while they were still living in West
Bromwich, but were living at Northfield near Selly Oak for the birth of their
remaining children. In 1881 the family
was recorded as living at the High street in Northfield when Thomas Geddes
was 30 and a metal worker, Mary Ann Geddes was 31, William Geddes was
nine, Mary Ann Geddes was seven, Elizabeth Geddes was five, Sarah
Geddes was three, John Thomas Geddes was two and Ada Geddes
was under one year old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Four
more children were added to the family during the following decade and by
1891, the family at Northfield comprised Thomas Geddes 40, Mary Ann 41,
Elizabeth 15, Sarah 13, John Thomas 12, Ada 10, Isabella Geddes who
was eight, Harriet Geddes who was five, Bertie Geddes who was three
and Lilian Geddes who was two.
Their eldest child William had already left home by then, possibly
because of the shortage of space at home, and was living nearby with his
Collett grandparents at Northfield, where he was 18 in 1891 and 29 in 1901,
by which time he was working for the General Post Office as a letter carrier. According to the next census in 1911, the
family was still living at Northfield, where Thomas was 60 and an out-of-work
brass carter, Mary Ann was 61, Ada was 32, John Thomas was 30 and a tube
drawer at a local steel tube works, and Lily was 22. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O9 |
Elizabeth Collett was born at West Bromwich towards the
end of 1860, the eldest daughter of Thomas Collett and Sarah Ann Simcox and
the eldest of their children to survive, after her older brother suffered a
premature death. She was very much a
new-born baby when she was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in West Bromwich
on 14th December 1860, with her birth not recorded until early in
1861 (Ref. 6b 137). She was five
months old in the census of 1861 when she was living with her family at 77
Spon Lane in West Bromwich. In the
next census of 1871 Elizabeth was 10 years old, by which time her older
brother William was no longer alive, and she was 20 when she was still living
with her family at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich in 1881. It was on 18th November 1888
that Elizabeth Collett, aged 28, and John Stevens, aged 29, were married at
St John’s Church in West Bromwich. The
bride was confirmed as the daughter of Thomas Collett of 213 Spon Lane, with
John’s father named as Thomas Stevens.
They initially lived at Walsall, where their first child was born,
although the family was living Ladywood district of Birmingham by the time of
the next census in 1891. Elizabeth
Stevens from West Bromwich was 30, her husband John Stevens was 31, and their
daughter Marion Stevens was one year old. It is very likely Elizabeth was pregnant with
the couple’s second child on the day of the census since he was born later
that same year at Ladywood. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Three
further children were born to Elizabeth and John over the following years,
and in March 1901 the family was living in the Smethwick area of
Handsworth. According to that month’s
census John Stevens was 41 and an iron puddler from Bilston, his wife
Elizabeth from West Bromwich was 40, and living with them were just three of
their four children, while Elizabeth was already expecting the couple’s fifth
and final child. Perhaps because of
the impending arrival of their last baby, Elizabeth’s eldest child, her
daughter Marion Stevens aged 11 years, was staying nearby with the child’s
grandparents Thomas and Sarah Collett at 168 Saint Pauls Road in Smethwick. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
The
three children living with Elizabeth and John were recorded as Thomas
Stevens who was 10 and born at Ladywood, Gertrude Stevens who was
eight and born at Smethwick, and John Stevens who was six years old
and also born after the family had settled in Smethwick. Living just a few dwellings along Saint
Pauls Road in Smethwick from where the couple’s eldest daughter was staying,
at number 174, were the parents of John Stevens. They were William Stevens, aged 75 from
Norwich who was a retired licenced victualler, and his wife Mary A Stevens
who was 74 and from Oldbury, near Smethwick. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Sadly,
for Elizabeth and her family, it would appear that John Stevens died while
only in his forties. According to the
Smethwick census in April 1911, Elizabeth Stevens from West Bromwich was a
widow at 51, and living with her by then were just her four youngest
children. Marion Stevens would have
been around 21 and was very probably married by then. The other four children were listed as
Thomas Stevens who was 19, Gertrude Stevens who was 18, John Stevens who was
16, and Ruth Stevens who was nine years old. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
57O10 |
Frederick Thomas Collett
was born at West
Bromwich in 1863, his birth recorded there (Ref. 6b 142) during the second
quarter of the year. He was a few weeks
old when Frederick Thomas Collett, the eldest surviving son of Thomas Collett
and Sarah Ann Simcox was baptised at Holy Trinity Church in West Bromwich on
26th July 1863. He was
seven years old in the census of 1871 and was 17 in 1881, while living at 213
Spon Lane in West Bromwich with his family.
On leaving school, Frederick followed his father into the family
bakery business. By 1891 Frederick was
27 and a baker’s assistant, still living with and working with his father at
Spon Lane. Nearly four years later, the
marriage of Frederick Thomas Collett and Ada Wickes was recorded at Solihull
(Ref. 6d 343) during the first three months of 1895. The marriage produced the eight children listed
below and, although in subsequent census returns they were all said to have
been born in West Bromwich, the majority of them were baptised at Harborne
where they may have also been born. Ada
was born at Birmingham in 1873 and was the daughter of master pork butcher
Joseph Wickes of Lutterworth and his wife Ann from Leicester. At the time of the 1881 Census, the Wickes
family was living at 13 Digbeth in Birmingham, where it is possible that Ada
was born. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
By
1901 Frederick had progressed in his profession to become a master baker,
as his father had been twenty years earlier.
He was still living within the parish of West Bromwich at that time in
his life and, on that occasion, he had living there with him his wife and two
of their first three children. The
census that year confirmed Frederick T Collett was 37 and that he had been
born in West Bromwich, where his two children Bernard, who was four years
old, and Sydney, who was not yet one year old, had also been born. His wife Ada Collett was 27 and the census
return also confirmed that she had been born in Birmingham. It would appear that their eldest son
Ronald, who was five, was staying with Ada’s parents in Kings Norton, just
south of Birmingham at that time, perhaps to allow Ada to spend more time
with the latest addition to her family.
During the next decade a further five children were added to the
family, although one of them died just after being born, and the last child
was born within the six months following completion of the census return in 1911. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
By
that time Frederick Thomas Collett from West Bromwich was 47 and was simply
described as a baker. His wife
Ada Collett from Birmingham was 37, and the census return that year recorded
that she and Frederick had been married for sixteen years. Their six children were listed as, Ronald
Frederick Collett aged 15, Bernard Collett aged 14, Sydney Thomas Collett aged
10, Phyllis Collett who was eight, Kathleen Collett who was seven, and Norman
Wickes Collett who was two years old, and all of them born at West
Bromwich. It is not known if any
further children were born into the family during the following years. It is interesting that Frederick and his
family were still living at 213 Spon Lane in West Bromwich in April 1911,
where Frederick had been living with his parents thirty years earlier. It is therefore possible that, upon his
father’s retirement from being a baker, Frederick took over the responsibility
of continuing to manage the family bakery business which was obviously based
at Spon Lane. Six years later
Frederick and Ada Collett were living at 177 Heathfield Road in the
Handsworth area of West Bromwich, when they received the tragic news of the death
of their eldest son Ronald who was killed at Ypres during September 1917. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Four
years earlier Frederick’s mother passed away at the age of 80, while his
father was 88 when he died at St Pauls Road in West Smethwick in 1921. The probate process was finalised at
Lichfield on 27th October when Frederick Thomas Collett, a
baker, was named as one of the three executors of his father’s estate of
over £9,000, together with his brother Thomas Collett and sister Mary Collett
(both below). Eleven years later,
Frederick Thomas Collett was the main beneficiary under the terms of his
youngest brother Arthur Collett’s (below) Will which was proved in 1932. By the time Queen Elizabeth II ascended to
the throne Frederick Thomas Collett had died, while that year his widow was
living at 65 College Road in New Oscott to the south of Sutton
Coldfield. And it was there that Ada
Collett nee Wickes died on 10th June 1952, following which her
Will was proved five months later at Birmingham on 11th November
1952. The executors to her Will were
her sons Bernard Collett and Norman Wickes Collett, when her estate was
valued at £7,318 12 Shillings 4d. |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
57P14 |
Ronald Frederick Collett |
Born in 1895
at Harborne |
||||||
|
57P15 |
Bernard Collett |
Born in 1897
at Harborne |
||||||
|
57P16 |
Sydney Thomas
Collett |
Born in 1900
at Harborne |
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|
57P17 |
Phyllis
Collett |
Born in 1902
at Harborne |
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|
57P18 |
Kathleen
Collett |
Born in 1904
at Harborne |
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|
57P19 |
Wilfred Collett |
Born in 1906
at West Bromwich |
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|
57P20 |
Norman Wickes Collett |
Born in 1908
at West Bromwich |
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|
57P21 |
Dorothy M Collett |
Born in 1911
at West Bromwich |
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57O11 |
Sarah Ann Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1865 and
it would appear that she never married during her life. When she was 25, she was still living with
her family at Spon Lane in West Bromwich, from where she was working as a
domestic housemaid. Certainly, by
April 1901, Sarah Ann was 35 when she was still living with her widowed
mother Sarah Ann Collett at Smethwick, together with other of her unmarried
siblings. Ten years later, and
following the death of her mother, spinster Sarah Ann Collett of West Bromwich,
at the age of 46, was living with her sister Mary (below) and brother Arthur
(below) at Kings Norton. |
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57O12 |
Thomas Collett was born in 1867 at West Bromwich,
where his birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 207) during the first three months of
that year. He was another son of
Thomas and Sarah Ann Collett and was four years old in 1871, and was 14 and
still attending school in 1881, when he was living at the family home at 213
Spon Lane in West Bromwich. Ten years
later he was 24 and again still living at Spon Lane with his family, when he
was another son who was a baker’s assistant working in the family business. By March 1901 he was still a bachelor at the
age of 34, while still living with his parents at 168 Saint Pauls Road in the
Smethwick area of Handsworth. His
place of birth was again confirmed as West Bromwich, and his occupation at
that time was that of a baker, like his older brother Frederick Thomas
Collett (above) and his father who had retired from the business. Just over four years later, Thomas Collett
married Emma Wilkins at Bridgnorth in Shropshire on 26th July
1905, when Thomas was 38 and the son of Thomas Collett, while Emma was 40 and
the daughter of Frederick Wilkins.
Their special day was also recorded at Bridgnorth register office
(Ref. 6a 149). |
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|
That
situation was confirmed by the census in 1911, which indicated that the
couple had been married for five years.
At that, time the childless couple was living on the outskirts of
Redditch, following Thomas’ retirement from the bakery business. Thomas Collett from West Bromwich was 45
and a retired baker living at Rose Cottage in Mappleborough Green, to the
north of Studley, with his wife Emma Collett from Birmingham who was 46. Ten years later Thomas Collett, a baker,
was named as one of the three executors of his father estate at Lichfield in
October 1921. Twenty-two years later,
the death of Thomas Collett was recorded at West Bromwich register office
(Ref. 6b 105) during the last quarter of 1943, when he was said to be 75
years old. |
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57O13 |
Mary Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1868 and
was two years of age in 1871 and 12 years old in 1881 when living at 213 Spon
Lane in West Bromwich with her family.
By 1891 she was 22 and working in the family business with her father,
three of her brothers and a cousin, as a baker’s assistant. By 1901 she was 32 and was living with her
widowed mother and other unmarried siblings.
Following the death of her mother, Mary continued to live with her
sister Sarah Ann (above) and brother Arthur (below) and by 1911 the three of
them were living in Kings Norton where Mary was recorded as being 42 and from
West Bromwich. Mary never married and
was described as the spinster Mary Collett when she was named as one of the
three executors of her father estate following his death in 1921. |
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57O14 |
Arthur Collett was born at West Bromwich, where his
birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 42) during the third quarter of 1870, the last
child of Thomas Collett and Sarah Ann Simcox. He was around six months old in 1871 and was
ten years of age in 1881. At that time,
he was living with his master baker father and his family and later took up
the same occupation, he and two brothers, a sister and a cousin, all working
with her father at Spon Lan in West Bromwich in 1891. According to the census of 1901 Arthur was
aged 30 and of West Bromwich and was living in Smethwick where he was
described as a journeyman baker.
By April 1911, he was still a bachelor at the age of 40, when he was
living at 168 St Paul Road in Smethwick, the home of his parents where his
two older unmarried sisters Sarah Ann Collett and Mary Collett (above) were
also living. The place of birth for
all three was confirmed as West Bromwich, while Arthur’s occupation was that
of a baker. Twenty-one years
later, Arthur Collett died in Birmingham on 9th July 1932, where
his Will was proved on 26th August 1932, the main beneficiary
being his older brother Frederick Thomas Collett (above), most likely
confirming that he never married or had any children of his own. |
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|
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57O15 |
William Edwin
Collett was born in 1864 at West Bromwich, around a
year after his parents Richard Collett and Emma Simcox. His birth was registered at West Bromwich
(Ref. 6b 645) during the third quarter of the year. William Edwin Collett was then baptised at
Holy Trinity Church in West Bromwich on 25th September 1864 and
confirmed as the son of Richard and Emma Collett. He would have been six years old in the
census if 1871, but was not listed with his family. It is possible, but not proved, that
William was just over one year old when he died and was buried at Holy
Trinity Church on 3rd December 1865. What is curious, is that the child’s name
was recorded as William Edward Collett, as was his death recorded at West
Bromwich (Ref. 6b 427). |
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57O16 |
Ann Collett
was born in 1866 at West Bromwich, where her birth was registered (Ref. 6b 649) during third quarter of
the year, the eldest daughter of Richard Collett and Emma Simcox. She was four years of age in 1871 when
living with her family in West Bromwich where, as 14-year-old Annie Collett,
she was again living in 1881, but at 13 Lower Trinity Street. |
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57O17
|
Sarah Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1869, the
third child of Richard Collett from Abbots Morton and his wife Emma of West
Bromwich. Her birth was registered at West Bromwich (Ref.
6b 684) during the third quarter of that year. She was just one year old in the census of
1871 when living at Trinity Road in West Bromwich and was eleven years of age
by April 1881 when she was living with her widowed mother Emma at 13 Lower
Trinity Street in West Bromwich. When
her mother married John Jones, the family moved to Harborne where Sarah and
her two younger siblings were living in 1891.
That year Sarah Collett from West Bromwich was 21 and a bedstead
painter, as were her two siblings, when they were described as boarders at 83
George Street. Ten years later Sarah
Collett was 32 and working as warehouse worker in nearby Smethwick, but her
absence from the census in 1911 may indicate that she was married by then. |
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|
In 1891, Sarah Collett from West
Bromwich was 21 and employed as a bedstead painter when she was a boarder
staying at George Street in Smethwick.
That was the home of John Jones aged 57 and from Leyton Bromyard in
Buckinghamshire who was a stock-taker at a local ironworks. His wife was Emma Jones from West Bromwich
who was 49, and their daughter Rosanna Jones who was 20 and another bedstead
painter. Also boarding with the Jones
family that census day were two of Sarah’s younger siblings, Mary Jane
Collett aged 18 and John Collett who was 15, both of them also bedstead
painters. After a further ten years,
Sarah Collett from West Bromwich was 32 and working as a warehouse woman,
when she was still residing with John and Emma Jones at George Street in
Smethwick. John Jones aged 68 and from
Leyton Bromyard in Buckinghamshire was a labourer at a local ironworks and
the stepfather of Sarah Collett. His
wife was Emma Jones from West Bromwich who was 59, while completing the
household was John Collett who was 25 and a steam train maker from West
Bromwich, who was described as the couple’s stepson. |
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57O18 |
Mary Jane Collett was born at Trinity Road in West
Bromwich possibly at the end of 1872, or early in the following year, her birth registered at West
Bromwich (Ref. 6b 804) during the first two months of 1873. It was at Holy Trinity Church that she was
baptised on 23rd February 1872, another daughter of Richard
and Emma Collett. She was eight years
old in the West Bromwich census of 1881 when she was living at 13 Lower
Trinity Street. By that time, her
father had already died so she was listed with her mother, the widow Emma
Collett, and her three siblings. In
the following years her mother married John Jones who took the family to live
in Harborne where, in 1891, they were living at 83 George Street when Mary
Jane Collett was 18 and a bedstead painter.
It was back in
West Bromwich that the marriage of Mary Jane Collett and Edward Jackson was
recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 1113) during the third
quarter of 1892. |
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|
By the time of the census in 1901,
Edward and Mary had given birth to a son and two daughters. On that day the family was residing at
Florence Road in West Bromwich, where Edward was 29 and a journey man
butcher, Mary Jane was 28, Percy Jackson was eight years old, Florence
May Jackson was six, and Elsie Dorothy Jackson was two years
old. Every member of the household had
been born at West Bromwich. The next
child added to the family was also born at West Bromwich, before Edward’s
work resulted in the family moving south to Hitchin in Hertfordshire, where
the couple’s last child was born. |
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|
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|
It was in Hitchin that the enlarged family
was living in 1911, when Edward Jackson was 39 and again working as a
journeyman butcher. His wife Mary Jane
Jackson was 38, and staying with the family was Mary’s widowed mother Emma
Jones who was 70 years old. The
couple’s five children were Percy Jackson a printer aged 18, Florence Jackson
who was 16 and a book folder, Elsie Jackson was 12 and still attending
school, as was Frank Edward Jackson who was nine, and Robert
Jackson who was three years old and born at Hitchin. |
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57O19
|
John Richard Collett was born at West Bromwich either at
the end of 1875 or very early in 1876, the youngest of the five known
children of Richard Collett and Emma Simcox, his birth recorded there (Ref.
6b 862) during the first three months of the latter. Shortly after he was born his father died
so by April 1881 at the age of five years John Collett was living with his
widowed mother and his three older sisters at 13 Lower Trinity Street in West
Bromwich. Over the following years
John’s mother re-married and her new husband John Jones took the family to
live in Harborne. By the time John
Collett from West Bromwich was 15 when he was a boarder at 83 George Street
in Harborne, the home of John and Emma Jones, from where he was employed as a
bedstead painter working with his two older sisters Sarah and Mary Jane. |
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|
In
the March census of 1901, unmarried John Collett was 25, a steam engine
maker, and the stepson of John Jones, and the son of Emma Jones, formerly
Collett nee Simcox, when he and his older sister Sarah (above) were living at
Smethwick. Just under six years later,
the marriage of John Richard Collett and Elizabeth Gill was recorded at Kings
Norton register office (Ref. 6c 114) during the first three months of
1907. Once married, the couple settled
in West Bromwich where they were living in 1911, when John R Collett from
West Bromwich was 35 and
his occupation was that of a whitesmith and steam gauge maker. His wife Elizabeth Collett was 34 and from
Netherton near Evesham, and their two sons were Joseph R Collett who was
three, and Norman J Collett who was three months old, both of them born when
the family was living in West Bromwich.
The death of John R Collett was recorded at West Bromwich register
office (Ref. 6b 49) during the third quarter of 1936 at 60 years of age. |
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57P22
|
Joseph
Richard Collett |
Born in 1908
at West Bromwich |
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|
57P23 |
Norman
John T Collett |
Born in 1911
at West Bromwich |
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57O20 |
Amy Collett was born at Birmingham in 1858, the
only child of Richard and Mary Ann Sophia Collett. Although no record of her or her parents
has been positively identified within the census of 1861, in the Birmingham
St George census of 1871 Amy Collett was 13.
She was still living with her parents ten years later at 18 New John
Street in Birmingham, from where 22-year-old Amy was employed as a fancy nail
maker. Also listed as living with the
family, was four-month-old Lillian Collett of Birmingham, who was described
in error as ‘daughter-in-law’ to head of household Richard Collett, even
though the child was more than likely the base-born daughter of unmarried Amy
Collett. It is possible that Amy was
married sometime during the following years, and that may have resulted in
her daughter also taking up the surname of her husband, since neither Amy or
Lillian have been discovered in any subsequent census with the Collett name. |
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|
57O19/1 |
Lillian
Collett |
Born
during December 1880 |
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57O21 |
Anthony Albert Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1876, the
eldest child of baker Anthony and his wife Eliza. His birth was recorded at West Bromwich
(Ref. 6b 215) during the first three months of the year and he was baptised
there over a year later on 17th June 1877 at the Church of Holy
Trinity. When he was around three years of age his family left West Bromwich
and moved to Wolverhampton, where they were living in 1881 at 127 Bilston
Road, when Anthony was five years old.
Ten years later Anthony had left school and at the age of 15 was a
baker working with his father when the family was residing at 267 Bilston
Road in Wolverhampton. On that
occasion both Anthony and his father were incorrectly recorded in the census
return as Aubrey Collett. It was nine years after that when he married Amy Louisa
Harriman from Wolverhampton at Wolverhampton (Ref. 6b 977) during the third
quarter of 1900. Amy Collett was 27 in
1901 when she was living with baker Anthony Collett, who was 25, at 29
Placwell Road in Wolverhampton. |
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|
Amy
presented Anthony with two children during the first decade of the new
century and by April 1911 the family of four was recorded at 14 Holloway
Street in Wolverhampton. Anthony
Albert Collett from West Bromwich was 35 and a baker who had been
married to Amy Louisa Collett from Wolverhampton for ten years, during which
time they had given birth to just the two children living with them. They were Elsie Collett who was eight and
Albert Collett who was six years old. Anthony
Albert Collett was 57 when he died in 1933, his death recorded at
Wolverhampton register office (Ref. 6b 515) during the last three months of
that year. The birth of both of their
children was recorded at Wolverhampton register office, Elsie (Ref. 6b 84)
during the second quarter of 1902 and Albert (Ref. 6b 302) during the first
quarter of 1905. |
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|
57P24 |
Elsie Collett |
Born in 1902
at Wolverhampton |
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|
57P25 |
Albert
Collett |
Born in 1904
at Wolverhampton |
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57P1 |
Thomas Arthur Collett was born at Erleigh Road in Reading,
where his birth was recorded (Ref. 2c 337) during the third quarter of 1890,
the first of the four known children of Thomas Henry Collett and his wife
Beatrice Maria Trask. The census conducted
during the following year listed the family of three residing at Erleigh Road
when Thomas A Collett was still under one year old. Around the middle of the 1890s the family
moved to Lewisham, where Thomas’ two youngest sibling were born and where the
family was living in 1901 when Thomas was ten years old. It was also at St Paul Deptford, in the
London Borough of Lewisham, that his family was recorded in 1911. On completing his education during that
same decade, Thomas entered the world of electrical engineering which
eventually took him to working in the Rugby area of Warwickshire where, Thomas
Arthur Collett from Reading was 20, unmarried, an electrical machine tester
and a boarder at the Rugby home of Frederick and Louie Hopkins. He later returned to Reading where the
marriage of Thomas A Collett and Eleanor F Wright was recorded (Ref. 2c 53)
during the third quarter of 1920. Eleanor
was born at Henham in Essex, the daughter of Robert and Margaret Wright. It was back in London where Eleanor Frances
Collett died on 1st March 1930 and, following a period of four
months, her Will was proved on 7th July 1930, with the sole
beneficiary being Mary Collett. It was
eight years after being widowed that Thomas Arthur Collett died at Reading on
9th February 1938, his Will proved there on 22nd March
1938, which named the two main beneficiaries as John Roy Hunt and Rosina
Elizabeth Wells. |
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|
While three children from a Collett/Wright marriage have
been located at Bishops Stortford between 1921 and 1925, it is rather odd
that those three Collett offspring were not beneficiaries under the terms of
the above Wills of Thomas and Eleanor.
Just for interest, the three children were: (a) Edna M Collett born
1921, Qrt 4, Ref. 3a 61; (b) Eleanor J Collett, born 1923, Qrt 4, Ref. 3a 73;
Gordon A Collett, born 1925, Qrt 4, Ref. 3a 44. |
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57P2 |
Frank Ambrose Collett was born at Reading on 18th
March 1893, the second son of Thomas and Beatrice Collett, where his birth
was later recorded (Ref. 2c 262) during the second quarter of that year. His father’s work as a school teacher
eventually took the family to St Paul Deptford in London where they were
living within the London Borough of Lewisham in 1901, when Frank A Collett
from Reading was eight years old and attending school. Ten years later, when Frank Ambrose Collett
was 18, he and his family were still residing within the Lewisham St Paul
Deptford area of South London. At that
time in his life, Frank was an engraver’s apprentice and general
engraver. The only fact currently
known about Frank Ambrose Collett is that he was 79 when died when his death
was recorded at Croydon register office (Ref. 5a 171) during the third
quarter of 1972. |
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57P3 |
Dorothy Mary Collett was born in 1898, the third of the four children of
Thomas and Beatrice Collett, her birth recorded at Lewisham register office
(Ref. 1d 220) during the second quarter of the year. She was two years of age in 1901, when the
family was recorded in the City of London parish of St Paul Deptford. Dorothy Mary Collett from Lewisham was 12
and attending school in Brockley where she and her family were living in
1911, within the London Borough of Lewisham, in the parish of St Paul
Deptford. That area of South London,
is not far from Greenwich, and it was at Greenwich register office (Ref. 1d
89) that the marriage of Dorothy M Collett and Arthur W Rush was recorded
during the first three months of 1924.
Their daughter Gillian M Rush was born two years later, her
birth also recorded at Greenwich (Ref. 1d 114) during the second quarter of
1926, when the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. |
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|
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57P4 |
Robert Cecil Collett was born at Lewisham near to the end
of 1899, his birth recorded there (Ref. 1d 28) during the last three months
of the year. His father was school
teacher Thomas Henry Collett from Smethwick and his mother was Beatrice Maria
Trask from Woolwich. In 1901 Robert C
Collett was one year old when he was living with his family living in the St
Paul Deptford parish in the London Borough of Lewisham, where the family was
still living in 1911, when Robert Cecil Collett was 11 years of age. It was previously thought that he may
have been Robert William Cecil Collett who later became a doctor and was
sometime based at Loddon Hall Road in Twyford near Reading, where his two
older siblings were born. However,
this was disproved in 2020 when the following details were discovered. Two Roberts have been found, the first of
them being Robert W C Collett whose birth was recorded at the Gloucestershire
Stroud register office (Ref. 6a 120) during the second quarter of 1931, whose
mother’s maiden-name was Swinford and whose older sister was Doreen L Collett
born Q4 in 1928. The later marriage of
Robert W C Collett and Margaret A Gardner was also recorded at Stroud (Ref.
7b 106) during the second quarter of 1949.
The birth of the second Robert W C Collett was recorded at Bath
register office (Ref. 5c 143) during the last three months of 1940, when his
mother’s maiden-name was Jones. Thereafter,
two marriages were recorded in quick succession, the first for Robert W C
Collett and Jennifer A Plummer at Bexley in Kent (Ref. 5a 185) during the
second quarter of 1965, the second for Robert W C Collett and Freda M Pearson
at the London Camberwell register office (Ref. 5a 1) during the second
quarter of 1966. Only one other
related record has been unearthed and that was the marriage of Robert W C
Collett and Janet C Condliffe which was recorded at Weston-Super-Mare
register office during the summer of 1993. |
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|
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|
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57P9 |
Harry Eric Collett was born at Smethwick on 28th
June 1906 who, as Harry Collett, was four years old in the Smethwick census
of 1911. His birth, like those of his
siblings, was recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 286). It was as Harry Eric Collett that he was
baptised at Smethwick on 19th July 1906 the son of John and Nellie
Collett. He later married Rose E
Denton, their wedding recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 136)
during the last three months of 1928. Harry
Eric Collett was 85 when he died, his death recorded at Sandwell in the west
Midlands (Ref. 33 1067) during February 1992. |
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|
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|
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57P11 |
Alice Gwendoline Collett was born at Smethwick in 1898 with
her birth recorded at Kings Norton (Ref. 6c 304) during the third quarter of
the year, the eldest of the three children of Arthur Collett and Sarah Young. |
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|
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|
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57P12 |
Edith Mary Collett was born at Smethwick in 1901, the second daughter of
Arthur and Sarah Collett whose birth was recorded at Kings Norton register
office (Ref. 6c 128) during the first three months of that year. |
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|
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|
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57P13 |
Arthur Frederick Collett was born at Smethwick in 1902 and was
the last child born to Arthur Collett and Sarah Young, his birth also
recorded at Kings Norton register office (Ref. 6c 350) during the third
quarter of the year. He was around
thirty-one years old when the marriage of Arthur F Collett and Nellie C Povey
was recorded at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 96) during the third
quarter of 1933. Thirty months into
their marriage, Nellie present Arthur with a son, their only known child,
when the birth of John Collett was also recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b
45) during the first three months of 1936, the mother’s maiden-name confirmed
as Povey. |
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|
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|
57Q1 |
John Collett |
Born in 1936
at West Bromwich |
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|
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|
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57P14 |
Ronald Frederick Collett
was born either
towards the of 1895, his parents having married near the start of that year,
or early in 1896. Furthermore, he may
have been born at West Bromwich, where his birth was recorded, or at Harborne
where he was baptised. He was the
eldest child of Frederick Thomas Collett and Ada Wickes, with his birth
recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 195) during the first two months of 1896
and his baptism at Harborne conducted on 1st March 1896. At the time of the West Bromwich census of
1901, Ronald’s mother had just given birth to her third child, and that may
have been the reason why, five-year-old Ronald was staying with his
grandparents at Harborne. Ten years
later the whole family, comprising Ronald’s parents and his five siblings
were recorded as still living within the West Bromwich registration district
when Ronald was 15 and a baker’s son working at home. With the outbreak of war three years later,
eighteen years old Ronald joined the 2nd/6th Battalion
South Staffordshire Regiment as Private Collett 24228 and during 1917 he was
fighting on the frontline in the Battle of Polygon Wood which formed part of
the Third Battle of Ypres. |
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|
|
||||||||
|
Sadly,
he was killed in action on 29th September 1917 and was buried at
Bridge House Cemetery near Ieper in Belgium.
The cemetery contains just forty-five graves of which four are
unidentified and was named after a farmhouse and was established by 59th
North Midland Division at the end of September 1917. At the time of his death, at the age of 22,
he was still a bachelor, and by which time his parents as his next-of-kin
were living in the Handsworth area between West Bromwich and Birmingham. |
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|
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|
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||||||||
57P15 |
Bernard Collett was born in 1897 and possibly at Harborne
or West Bromwich where his birth recorded (Ref. 6b 181) during the first
quarter of that year, the eldest surviving son of Frederick Thomas and Ada
Collett. His siblings were baptised at
Harborne, to the south of West Bromwich, but no such baptism record has been
found for Bernard. He was four years
old and 14 years of age in the two West Bromwich census returns in 1901 and
1911, when he was living at 213 Spon Lane with his family and recorded as
having been born at West Bromwich.
Around the time of the First World War his parents left West Bromwich,
and during the war they were recorded as residing at 177 Heathfield Road in
Handsworth. His father died prior to
1950 and around that time his mother was recorded at 65 College Street in New
Oscott, just south of Sutton Coldfield.
Upon the death of his mother in June 1952, Bernard was named as one of
the two executors in her Will, with his brother Norman Wickes Collett
(below), which was proved at Birmingham in November that same year, the value
of her estate being just over £7,318. |
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|
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||||||||
|
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||||||||
57P16 |
Sydney Thomas Collett was born in 1900 either at Harborne or at West Bromwich
where his birth recorded (Ref. 6b 289) during the third quarter of the year,
although it was at Harborne that he was baptised on 25th November
1900, another son of Frederick and Ada Collett. He was only a few months old in the West
Bromwich census of 1901 and was 10 years of age in 1911, when he was still
attending school in West Bromwich while living there with his family. |
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|
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|
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||||||||
57P17 |
Phyllis Collett
was born in 1902 and, as with all of her siblings, her birth was recorded at
West Bromwich register office (Ref.6b 102) during the second quarter of that
year and where she was living with her family in 1911 at the age of eight
years. Also like her siblings, Phyllis
Collett, the daughter of Frederick and Ada Collett was baptised at Harborne,
on 21st September 1902. |
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57P18 |
Kathleen Collett
was born early in 1904, another daughter of Frederick and Ada Collett. Like the majority of her siblings, her
birth was recorded at West Bromwich (Ref. 6b 166), as also stated in the 1911
census return when she was seven years of age, while it was at Harborne that
she was baptised on 1st May 1904. |
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57P19 |
Wilfred Collett was born in 1906 and died shortly
after his birth, both events recorded at West Bromwich register office, and
both during the third quarter of the year (Ref. 6b 301 & Ref. 6b 228). |
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57P20 |
Norman Wickes Collett was born at West Bromwich either near
the end of 1908 or soon after the start of 1909, with his birth recorded at
West Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 283) during the first quarter of 1909,
the youngest son of Frederick and Ada Collett, and was two years old at the
time of the census in 1911 when he and his family were living at 213 Spon
Lane in West Bromwich. Just a few
years later he and his parents moved to 177 Heathfield Road in
Handsworth. Sometime after the First
World War and perhaps up to around the time of the Second World War, Norman’s
father passed away and in 1952 his widowed mother was living at 65 College
Street in New Oscott, Sutton Coldfield where she died on 10th June
1952. Norman Wickes Collett, a
draughtsman, was named as one of the two executors in his mother’s Will,
which was proved at Birmingham on 11th November 1952, his eldest
brother Bernard (above) being the other. |
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57P21 |
Dorothy M Collett was born in 1911 at West Bromwich,
where her parents were living on the day of the census that year, and where
her birth was recorded (Ref. 6b 103) during the third quarter of the year,
when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Wickes. She was the last child born to Frederick
Thomas Collett and Ada Wickes. It is
possible, but not proved, that she may have married Thomas W Palmer at West
Bromwich (Ref. 6b 41) during the first three months of 1930. |
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57P22 |
Joseph Richard Collett was born at West Bromwich on 16th December 1907, the older of
the two sons of John Richard Collett and Elizabeth Gill. It was also at West Bromwich register office where his birth was
recorded (Ref. 6b 909) during the first quarter of 1908, and where he
was three years old in the census of 1911. During the summer of 1933, Joseph R Collett
and Ethel Victoria W Culwick were married, the wedding recorded at West
Bromwich register office (Ref. 6b 1893) in the third quarter of that
year. Ethel was the youngest child of
Thomas and Mary Jane Culwick and was also born at West Bromwich, which was
where the births of the couple’s two children were registered. Joseph Richard Collett was sixty-nine when he died on 23rd
June 1977, his death recorded in Staffordshire, with his body laid to rest at
Heath Lane Cemetery in Sandwell. |
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57Q2 |
Geoffrey S
Collett |
Born in 1935
at West Bromwich |
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57Q3 |
Michael W
Collett |
Born in 1937
at West Bromwich |
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57P23 |
Norman John T Collett born at West Bromwich in 1911 where he was living with
his family on the day of the census, being only a few months old. It was there also that his birth recorded
(Ref. 6b 854) during the first three months of 1911. He was 29 years old when the marriage of
Norman J T Collett and Vera G Hackett was recorded at West Bromwich register
office (Ref. 6c 2123) during the first quarter of 1940. Seven years later the couple’s only known
child was born at West Bromwich. |
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57Q4 |
Judith A
Collett |
Born in 1947
at West Bromwich |
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57Q2 |
Geoffrey S Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1935, the eldest son of
Joseph Richard Collett and Ethel Victoria Culwick. His birth was recorded at West Bromwich in
the third quarter of 1935 (Ref. 6b 1057) when his mother’s maiden-name was confirmed
as Culwick. He was twenty years of age
when the marriage of Geoffrey S Collett and Jeanette E Pearson was recorded
at West Bromwich register office (Ref. 9b 127) during the last quarter of
1955. As far as can be determined, no
record of any children has been found. |
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57Q3 |
Michael W Collett was born at West Bromwich in 1937, where his birth was
recorded during the first quarter of that year (Ref. 6b 946), his mother’s maiden-name
confirmed as Culwick. Seven years
after attending his older brother’s wedding, the marriage of Michael W
Collett and Pamela M Seedhouse was recorded at Lichfield register office
(Ref. 9b 37) during the second quarter of 1963. It was also at Lichfield where the births
of the couple’s two children were recorded, their daughter (Ref. 9b 87)
during the second quarter of 1966 and their son (Ref. 9b 1) during the third
quarter of 1967, with Seedhouse confirmed as their mother’s maiden-name. |
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57R1 |
Wendy
Alexandra Collett |
Born in 1966
at Lichfield |
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57R2 |
Neil Anthony
Collett |
Born in 1967
at Lichfield |
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57Q4 |
Judith A Collett
was born at West Bromwich in 1947 and was the only known child of Norman John
Collett and Vera G Hackett. It was
also at West Bromwich where her birth was recorded (Ref. 9b 1520) during the
second quarter of the year, when her mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as
Hackett. The later marriage of Judith
A Collett and Peter R Taylor was recorded at nearby Wolverhampton register
office (Ref. 9b 72) during the second quarter of 1972, with whom she had two
sons at Wolverhampton. The birth of Mark
David Taylor was recorded there (Ref. 9b 20) towards the end of 1973, and
followed by Simon Paul Taylor in 1976 whose birth was registered there
(Ref. 34 72) in the spring of that year.
In both cases, the mother’s maiden-name was confirmed as Collett. |
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